"This is the Kazekage Building, now the Elder Council's headquarters. This is the Ninja Academy; Baki-sensei has been here recently. This is the Sealing Team, and this is the Puppet Team controlled by Elder Huangsha."
Temari marked the important locations in the Village one by one through their sensory connection. Shikamaru had already seen the map of Hidden Sand Village and now continuously asked questions, which Temari answered one by one.
Ino and Choji remained silent during this part.
They were analyzing the information, while the naturally slow duo, Matsuri and Yukata, crouched by the door, acting as lookouts.
In Ino's eyes, they were similar to Sakura, who was squatting with her head in her hands, but in front of those even younger girls, they were already true brave ones.
The two girls were incredibly nervous. Matsuri clutched her meteor hammer, her big eyes darting left and right. Overall, she was quite alert. Yukata, who was even more slow-witted than her, crouched by the door, muttering softly, often saying things like, "Go to Konoha Village and defeat the great demon king Ino to avenge Lord Gaara."
Sensory transmission does not block the five senses, so the four people in the meeting could all hear her muttering. Shikamaru and Choji looked at Ino with strange expressions, while Temari lowered her head, pretending she had nothing to do with it.
Ino rolled her Byakugan, saying nothing.
She was a typical opportunist. If a man had said that, she would have beaten the shit out of him. But if it was a pretty and cute girl... well, it could be forgiven. Ignorance is bliss, after all.
She focused her mental energy into a line and poked Yukata's butt.
"Ouch!" The naturally slow girl clutched her butt, looking around, unsure what had pricked her.
She suspected Matsuri, her eyes full of suspicion.
She was still investigating when Matsuri suddenly shouted, "You! Over here, over here!"
A young male Ninja was seen running for his life.
The male Ninja used all his strength, desperately rushing into the stone house. His frantic run immediately exposed the naturally slow duo to the pursuers behind him.
The pursuers had blank expressions and stiff, puppet-like limbs, but their speed was not slow. They bounced forward, soaring through the air, and with two leaps, they were at the entrance of the stone house.
They seemed to retain basic intelligence. One of them took out a Kunai and let out meaningless roars. Matsuri and Yukata quickly closed the door. The enemies, missing their target, began to violently ram the door with their bodies.
The duo pressed against the door with all their might, but their strength was too little, and the impacts from outside were too fierce.
Temari grabbed her iron fan and motioned for them to open the door. Then, with one hand, she swung her three-star fan, smashing the heads of the pursuers one after another.
Her actions were like poking a hornet's nest, and more dark figures staggered towards the stone house.
The stone house Temari chose as a gathering point was once a merchant's residence, spacious and quite sturdy, but it couldn't withstand repeated impacts.
Without hesitation, she opened her three-star fan and shouted. Two Wind Release: Sickle Weasel attacks transformed into more than ten wind blades, tearing apart the bodies of these dark figures in a crisscross pattern.
The pursuers' heads were half-severed, yet they still had signs of life. Looking at their somewhat familiar faces, Temari felt a chill run down her spine. What in the world were these things? They could still live with half their heads gone?
Among the harem group, there was a Ninja who recognized the pursuers: "Lady Temari, these seem to be those 'Madmen' from before?"
Seemingly afraid that the Konoha trio wouldn't know the inside story, Temari quickly explained the origin of the 'Madmen' to Ino and the others.
Ino's expression was blank, but she was furious inside. I'm not taking the blame for this! These half-human, half-ghost guys definitely weren't created by me!
She wanted to say this was Sasori's fault, but she didn't see any Chakra threads. These pursuers had independent tracking intelligence and a large number of mechanical parts on their bodies, so they didn't seem to be human puppets either.
If she had to pinpoint the cause, it was the result of consuming a large number of drugs while the Yin Release Chakra from her Yin Release concert had not been completely eliminated, followed by partial human puppet modification and mechanical modification. Blaming her for this was truly unfair.
This blame should go to the quack doctors of Hidden Sand Village. If they had been left alone, they would have recovered in a few days, but these guys took random medicine and ended up creating a strange species.
However, none of these words could be said. If you think they are 'Madmen,' then let them be 'Madmen.'
"So, the strange Chakra we saw in the sensory connection just now belongs to these guys. Temari, what do you plan to do?" Ino asked.
Someone messed up badly, and now the 'Madmen' possess simple intelligence, tough bodies, and a bit of a hive mind. Their blood is also infectious, and they are rapidly spreading within Hidden Sand Village. They are the source of the chaos.
Things were getting more and more troublesome.
Shikamaru gave Ino a signal through their sensory connection, and she immediately blocked Temari from their three-person sensory link.
Shikamaru began his analysis: "Actually, the internal strife in Hidden Sand Village has nothing to do with our mission."
Ino agreed with this statement. Jiraiya and Tsunade both hoped that Hidden Sand Village would continue to be in chaos. Even a rotten ship has three pounds of nails. No matter how dilapidated Hidden Sand Village was, it was once one of the Five Great Ninja Villages. Konoha could not control a complete Hidden Sand Village, but it hoped to control a divided Hidden Sand Village.
Shikamaru continued, "In terms of pure value, these Ninja, including Temari, are not as important as Kankuro. Kankuro is one of the few Puppet Masters in Hidden Sand Village who has received true instruction."
This time, Ino made no comment. She wasn't familiar with Kankuro. If it came to saving someone, she would definitely save Temari.
But if Ninja were to be given a clear price, Kankuro's value was indeed higher than Temari's.
Puppet Masters are not all the same. Some only know how to use puppets, how to control them, and how to coordinate them in battle, but they don't understand anything else. Another type of Puppet Master is one who creates puppets, and their value is completely different.
Konoha had extracted methods for controlling puppets from the minds of many Sunagakure Puppet Masters, but they had never found a method for creating puppets.
Now, Kankuro was a very good opportunity.
Before Sasori betrayed the Village, he spent every day in a small room creating puppets; he was a standard puppet creator.
Granny Chiyo, who was captured by Konoha earlier, was a typical puppet manipulator. She herself had no creation abilities. The old woman often went to the battlefield and was skilled in Ninjutsu, Puppet Technique, Sealing Technique, and Medical Ninjutsu, not a Ninja who stayed at home creating puppets every day. Her younger brother, Ebizo, was a puppet creator who stayed at home, strategizing and collecting intelligence.
And Kankuro, as the son of the Fourth Kazekage, had his life path arranged for him early on.
The Fourth Kazekage had indeed considered the idea of having Temari assist her younger brother, making Gaara a human weapon, and then having Kankuro become the Fifth Kazekage.
Kankuro had very systematic knowledge of puppet creation in his head. Currently, he could only modify them because he lacked experience and didn't dare to start easily, but he had the foundational knowledge.
Once this technology entered Konoha, its value would be immense.
Shikamaru was responsible for brainstorming and making suggestions; the final decision still had to be made by Ino.
Ino thought seriously.
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