However, his words piqued Uchiha Makito's curiosity.
"You mean that if you're given a bunch of shinobi with kekkei genkai, you can turn them into puppets?"
"Can you even control that many?"
"If I remember correctly, a puppeteer has a limited upper bound—no matter what, it's basically ten fingers at most."
"So how many puppets can you actually control?"
Puppeteers were an extremely niche type of shinobi. After all, they themselves had virtually no direct offensive power and relied entirely on the puppets in their hands.
It could be said that all of their output came from puppets—the stronger the puppets, the stronger the puppeteer. Of course, their puppet control techniques also had to keep up, otherwise it would all be meaningless.
Kabuto's presence gave Uchiha Makito a new perspective. A puppeteer with such talent—being able to personally craft puppets in such a short amount of time, and human puppets that retained their original abilities no less—had to be considered extremely gifted.
Naturally, this was also related to the fact that his teacher was the genius puppeteer Sasori of the Red Sand.
But even so, there was no denying that Kabuto himself was exceptionally talented. Otherwise, even if his teacher had been Uchiha Madara, it wouldn't have mattered.
"The pinnacle of puppeteers is not something you can estimate."
"My teacher transformed his own body into a puppet body, replacing himself with an energy form—this completely unlocked the upper limit of puppeteers."
"With that, there is no longer any limit to the number of puppets that can be controlled."
"As long as the quality of the puppets is high enough, I'm confident I can become the strongest!"
Uchiha Makito was stunned. Puppeteers could play it like this?
Not modifying puppets anymore—just modifying themselves instead? Ruthless. Both master and disciple were ruthless.
"Hehehe, not a bad idea."
"If you can really reach that stage, we can hunt kekkei genkai shinobi to expand your puppet legion."
"But there's one problem. When controlling puppets, you can't stray too far from them, can you?"
"In that case, there are still drawbacks."
Another voice rang out. Nagato and Black Zetsu had appeared behind them at some point.
Black Zetsu analyzed the situation and pointed out the inherent flaw of puppets.
But Kabuto ignored him, his eyes instead gleaming with sharp light.
"No, that is not the upper limit of puppeteers..."
"I already have a different line of thought. Puppets will never be limited to puppeteers!"
"A true puppet can still function even when far away from the puppeteer!"
Kabuto's demeanor made the three exchange glances.
Still, they let him go on with his own work.
"What, something came up?"
"Yeah. Nagato and I discussed it—we want to seal the Three-Tails into the Fourth Mizukage."
"Huh? Is that really necessary?"
Uchiha Makito was a bit confused. What was going on? Why suddenly mess with the Three-Tails?
Wasn't that giant turtle doing just fine staying in the sea?
"We just received news. A coup happened in the Rain Village—Hanzō the Salamander is dead. Now Takigakure has already allied with the Rain Village."
"At the same time, Konoha has also formed an alliance with those two villages."
When Nagato said this, his expression was extremely ugly.
It was obvious that Takigakure, the Rain Village, and Konoha forming an alliance had to be the result of an agreement between Yahiko, Konan, and Gekko Chizan.
Just thinking that his enemies had allied with his friends made Nagato want nothing more than to immediately destroy Konoha.
"This is not good news."
"Hmph. Gekko Chizan has a very good relationship with Takigakure."
"Kakuzu also said back then that when he tried to assassinate him, Takigakure's attitude toward him was unbelievably friendly."
"A Konoha shinobi secretly pulling together such a massive alliance..."
For some reason, Uchiha Makito always felt that Gekko Chizan's actions seemed to be aimed at something specific.
But if the other party was doing all this just to deal with them, wasn't that a bit too coincidental?
"The Land of Water is our base."
"We're still in the endurance phase—we can't afford to be too high-profile."
"If something really happens, relying solely on the Mist Village's combat power may not be enough to handle threats in the open."
"For example, right now—no one knows what's gotten into Kumogakure. They've actually sent quite a few people to linger around the outskirts of the Land of Water. Many Mist Village shinobi on missions have already been killed."
There was a hint of confusion in Black Zetsu's voice. After all, Kumogakure had never actively attacked the Mist Village before.
So what exactly was going on this time?
"Those brutes from Kumogakure? Are they out of their minds?"
"The war just ended, and they still dare to stir up trouble?"
Uchiha Makito's eyes were filled with surprise as well. After all, Kumogakure had suffered the heaviest losses in the Third Shinobi World War—yet now they still wanted to cause trouble?
"Not sure, but we have to be cautious. Kumogakure's overall strength is far greater than the Mist Village's."
"Especially since that village is full of battle maniacs. If a war really breaks out, the power of the Fourth Mizukage and a tailed beast will be indispensable."
In the end, after some discussion, the three decided to make the Fourth Mizukage a Jinchūriki. Although the Three-Tails wasn't particularly strong, it still had considerable power when aided by terrain.
Moreover, on the Mist Village's home ground, having the Mizukage and one tailed beast would be enough.
...
Several days later, at the Hokage Rock of Konoha.
Though carved from stone, the four Hokage heads seemed to gain a different kind of presence as sunlight fell upon them.
And right on the high platform of the Hokage Building below the rock face—
Gekko Chizan, Jiraiya, and Minato Namikaze were arguing over an issue.
"Sensei, Chizan, both of you—stop."
"I won't agree to this. If it were any other country, I could accept it."
"But you both know the situation in the Mist Village."
"It's a completely closed-off nation. If something really happens, I wouldn't even be able to rescue you in time."
Just moments ago, Jiraiya had been the first to seek out his student, stating his intention to go to the Mist Village.
His reason was to investigate the whereabouts of the Akatsuki organization.
Before Minato Namikaze could even refuse, Gekko Chizan once again pulled off a dramatic break-in through the window.
Then, completely disregarding whether Jiraiya was present or not, he opened his mouth and said: Minato, I'm going to the Mist Village.
That instantly gave Minato Namikaze a splitting headache. Forget staying in the office—he directly took the two of them up to the rooftop.
After getting Minato Namikaze's response, Gekko Chizan immediately turned his spear toward Jiraiya.
"I say, Jiraiya-senpai, what's your problem, stealing this from me?"
"If you hadn't rushed ahead and said you were going to the Mist Village, would Minato have refused to let me go?"
"Seriously. Wouldn't it be better to just honestly gather material and focus on your writing?"
Jiraiya's eyes widened like saucers. He didn't get it. He truly didn't understand.
What kind of nonsense was this? How did it end up being his fault?