Hattori , Puppet Tyrant in Sand

To upgrade his Sharingan, Hattori had drained his previously abundant MP completely. 

Once his MP was depleted, his Yin Seal automatically deactivated and switched to an energy-gathering phase. 

In other words, Hattori had now entered a weakened state again.

"This isn't the time to push my luck. I'd better head back and lay low for a while!"

With this thought, he quickly summoned his giant-winged dragonfly and began his return to the northern Wind Country outpost.

As he headed back, he started calculating.

"My Yin Seal currently needs 259,000 MP to fully charge, and my 'Super Physique' restores 10 MP per minute, which adds up to 14,400 MP in a day…"

His eyebrows raised with a hint of excitement as he did the math.

"That means if I save up all my MP each day, it'll take only 18 days to fully recharge? That's not too bad!"

Hattori remembered that his initial Yin Seal had taken a full 100 days to charge completely. Reducing this to 18 days was undoubtedly great news.

"If it's just 18 days, I don't even need to hide in the ninja village. If I'm short on chakra, I can always borrow a bit from the Four-Tails, right? That's the advantage of being a jinchuriki, after all!"

Thinking of this, he immediately reached out to the Four-Tails sealed within him.

"Hey, Monkey King, you there? Give me a sign if you are!"

"Huh?"

The Four-Tails was startled to realize that Hattori could communicate with him, a look of surprise crossing his fierce monkey face.

"You… can actually talk to me?"

"Uh… is that so unusual?" Hattori asked, a bit confused. "If a jinchuriki can't talk to their tailed beast, what's the point of being one?"

"…"

The Four-Tails fell silent at this, only speaking again after a long pause.

"Among all my previous jinchuriki, only a handful have ever managed to speak with me. Most of them went their whole lives without even realizing I existed. Roshi was better than most."

"Ah…"

Sensing the Four-Tails' emotions, Hattori scratched his head awkwardly.

"Sorry, Monkey King, I'm from the Sand Village, and Roshi was with the Stone Village. Even if he was your friend, I had no choice but to kill him."

"Friend? Hah…"

Hearing Hattori's words, a hint of sarcasm flashed across the Four-Tails' face.

"Do you think a tailed beast could really be friends with a human? All Roshi ever wanted was my power. You're no different."

"No, I'm different!"

Before the Four-Tails could finish, Hattori firmly rebutted.

"More than your power, I value you for who you are. To be honest, your name brings back a lot of good memories for me!"

"My name? Brings you good memories?"

The Four-Tails found this claim absurd.

From its perspective, humans only ever treated it with fear and hatred, seeing it solely as a source of power. Yet here was Hattori claiming his name stirred fond memories? The idea was laughable.

However, as a tailed beast sealed within Hattori, it could feel his emotions clearly. The nostalgia and joy in his heart were unmistakable.

Curious, the Four-Tails fell silent once again, unable to bring itself to ask out of pride.

Despite this, its curiosity was clear to Hattori.

In that moment, Hattori seemed to understand why Killer Bee and the Eight-Tails were so close in the original story—they could communicate without boundaries.

"Maybe I could become the next 'perfect jinchuriki!'"

Thinking this, he smiled and began speaking to the Four-Tails again.

"In my memories, there's also a Sun Wukong. He was born from a sacred stone, a magical creature with amazing abilities. He could transform, understand the heavens, predict the land's fortunes, and even shift stars…"

As Hattori described the legendary Monkey King, a powerful and undefeated warrior, the image began to take root in the Four-Tails' heart.

Half an hour later, Hattori's giant-winged dragonfly reached the northern Wind Country outpost, and his story was momentarily put on hold.

Yet the Four-Tails, intrigued, couldn't help but ask.

"After he was imprisoned under the Five Elements Mountain, did this 'Sun Wukong' die?"

"Nope!"

Hattori jumped down from the dragonfly, answering as he did so.

"He was trapped there for 500 years, but eventually, someone freed him."

"Who freed him?"

"A monk."

"And who's this monk?"

"I'll tell you later."

"…"

Hearing this, the Four-Tails finally fell silent.

At that moment, as Hattori landed, the Sand Village ninjas erupted into cheers.

"Lord Hattori is back!"

"Fantastic, Lord Hattori has finally returned!"

"We won! We repelled the Stone Ninjas! It's a total victory!"

Amid the cheers, Pakura approached him quickly and threw her arms around him.

"Hattori, I was so worried. I'm so glad you're okay!"

"Uh…"

Hattori was taken aback by her warmth, pausing in surprise.

But he quickly recovered and hugged her back, gently patting her back.

"Sorry for worrying you. I'm back, and I'm safe."

"Yes," Pakura nodded, though she didn't let go of him.

Feeling her genuine concern, Hattori was touched, and his hands moved gently across her smooth back.

So soft! So smooth! So… satisfying!

Just as he was enjoying the moment, Pakura amused voice reached his ear.

"How does it feel?"

"Pretty great!"

Hattori gave her a bright smile, giving her a thumbs up with a look of deep appreciation.

"I've never felt anything so pure and refreshing before. Pakura back feels like silk, so smooth it's intoxicating. 

"It's a feeling like a first love, poetic, like a scene from a poem: 'A rare encounter under golden ray and morning dews is worth more than countless meetings in the world.' A great poem… really a great poem!"

Pakura: "╭(°A°`)╮"

Can he really make so much out of taking advantage?

Listening to his rambling, Pakura, who had been ready to teach him a lesson, couldn't even find an excuse to hit him.

In the end, she only managed to glare at him before joining the others in clearing the battlefield.

Seeing this, Hattori grinned and followed her.

In this battle, Hattori had used Water Style jutsu to kill over a thousand Stone Ninjas, including more than a hundred elite ones. The rest were low-ranked ninjas.

But for Hattori now, low-rank ninja beads weren't very useful.

However, since he had promised Pakura to help upgrade the Sand Village's puppet army, he wasn't about to go back on his word.

So he began collecting the ninja beads scattered across the battlefield, singing a tune he had made up as he went.

"Little Hattori collecting ninja beads, with two ninja bags on his back, wandering deserts and corpses, killing, not burying... la-la-la-la-la... la-la-la…"

*(Chapter End)*