Naruto: Start By Punching Trees And Shocking Kurama!

The crowd erupted into cheers, leaving Naruto momentarily speechless.

To be fair...

What they were saying did make a weird kind of sense.

After all, in the past, Puppet Masters used to hide in the backlines, relying on sneak attacks and poison, with their real bodies being frail and weak.

But now, all Puppet Masters are very strong men.

They can just pick up their puppets and rush forward to fight the enemy.

In other words, they'd gone from glass cannons to tanky warriors.

If not for all the questionable behavior, perhaps Sunagakure's future would really be full of hope as Kankuro claimed.

But the problem was…

This new 'style' of Puppet Technique was basically erasing the traditional Puppet Technique form from history.

No wonder Chiyo and the others were so desperate.

At this point, they might as well drop the 'puppet master' title altogether...

Just call themselves 'weapon masters' and be done with it.

Naruto couldn't even imagine what would happen when Obito started the Fourth Shinobi World War...

'With a cruel smile, Madara rushed into the Allied Shinobi Forces and slaughter everyone in his path. However, he found that his kicks can't one-shot Sunagakure's muscular men.'

'I wonder if Madara-sama will be confused when encountering this situation…'

Shaking off the ridiculous mental image, Naruto took a deep breath and spoke again, "Okay, but... hypothetically..."

"Wouldn't it work the same if you just… used a different weapon instead of puppets?"

The moment he said this, the crowd instantly exploded.

"Impossible! We're Puppet Masters!"

"How are we supposed to defend our village without puppets?"

"Yeah! This is Sunagakure's heritage we're talking about."

Temari: "..."

Temari, who was standing on the sidelines and watching, had already covered her ears with her hands.

'These people actually have the nerve to say that!?'

'The Sunagakure's heritage has long been distorted by you people!!'

Naruto was also speechless. He now knew that it was impossible to get these people to put down their puppets, so he decided to try redirecting their obsession instead.

"Hold on, hold on…"

"What I meant was..."

"You don't have to hold the puppets. What if you turned them into armor? Or weapons?"

"That way, you wouldn't have to waste so much time grinding muscle..."

SMACK!

Kankuro slapped his own forehead so hard the sound echoed.

"NARUTO!!"

"I get it now!"

"You're saying we should fuse with our puppets, right?"

"That way, we can use our unstoppable physiques to smash enemies together with our puppets!!!"

Naruto: "???"

Naruto's jaw nearly hit the floor at Kankuro's train of thought.

'No!!!'

'I just want you to concentrate on improving your puppets instead of continuing to build your muscles!!'

However, Kankuro looked so excited that he paid no attention to Naruto.

Then he called a muscular man to the stage, and in front of Naruto and Temari's shocked gaze, he grabbed the guy's ankle and started swinging him around like a club.

The sound of breaking air made everyone present gasp.

"So that's how it is!!"

"Now I understand!"

"Mentor, what you want us to do is to use Puppet Technique to train our bodies into weapons!!"

"Genius! Absolutely genius!"

As if on cue, the rest of the crowd started copying Kankuro, pairing up and using each other as literal weapons.

So, in the square, a big guy grabbed two brothers with straight bodies and used them as weapons, waving them vigorously.

Some even started sparring in this ridiculous way.

When Naruto on the stage saw everyone's style further collapsed, he clutched his head in agony.

"DAMN IT!!"

"WHAT THE HELL DO I DO NOW?!"

Naruto felt like things were... getting worse.

"U! Zu! Ma! Ki! Naruto!"

Temari had a dark face and walked towards Naruto step by step. It was obvious that she was determined to fight to with this yellow-haired guy the death.

"Wait!!"

"I know you're mad, but hear me out first!!"

"I've got one last idea!!"

Naruto, who had done something wrong, felt guilty subconsciously, and was also worried that a fight would leave Shikamaru without a wife. So, Naruto decided to guide these terrifying Puppet Masters onto the right path.

Naruto's words were firm and decisive, and his smile was very reliable.

Temari was silent for a moment when she saw him like that, but she still decided to trust him one last time with a sour face...

Naruto, who was trusted again, immediately took Kankuro away.

He felt that if he wanted to change the current situation in Sunagakure, he had to deal with this muscular Pikachu first...

…

The Land of Rice Fields.

The figures of Itachi and Kisame appeared on the outskirts of Otogakure.

This time, the two came here to eliminate the traitor of Akatsuki: Orochimaru.

Of course, Itachi also had another motive, which is to gather information about his younger brother.

Ever since their last meeting, Itachi realized that he knew too little about Sasuke.

During this time, he had been collecting every information he could find about him.

And during this process, he finally understood the meaning of the strange words that Kisame kept saying.

'Walking on thin ice, huh?'

'It really suits you, my foolish little brother.'

However, Itachi couldn't help but feel a headache coming on when he thought about the trouble Sasuke had been causing Konoha lately.

'As the only remaining member of the Uchiha Clan, how could he cause trouble to the village?'

'Or… has he already begun to consider defecting?'

After much deliberation, Itachi decided something was off and personally requested this mission from the Akatsuki's leader.

"Itachi-san, I heard your little brother went to look for that guy Orochimaru."

"It seems like he's still chasing after you."

"I see…"

"As his older brother, you must be the other side of Thin Ice Bro, right?"

"You two brothers have a really good relationship, Desne~"

Itachi's expression soured and he didn't want to pay attention to this guy.

"It doesn't matter."

"My foolish brother will never reach the other side."

"Let's go, the mission comes first."

Itachi's tone was very indifferent, but he inwardly, he was considering whether he should use Kotoamatsukami to correct Sasuke before his rebellious thoughts fully took root.

He didn't want everything he did to end up causing Sasuke to endanger the village.

"Itachi-san..."

"Why have you been wearing goggles lately?"

After walking for a while, Kisame finally asked the questions that had been bothering him for a while.

Ever since their last mission, Itachi had started wearing goggles, and Kisame couldn't figure out why.

When Itachi heard this, he paused for a moment, and then continued walking forward.

"It's just vision correction."

His tone was flat and no emotion could be heard, as if he really meant it.

Kisame scratched his head, and his first reaction was that Itachi was overusing his eyes, so he chased after him and expressed his concern.

"Is that so?"

"Has your condition deteriorated again?"

At this moment, in a corner behind the two of them, the space suddenly became distorted.

"Damn it!!"

"What the hell is Uchiha Itachi trying to pull?!"

Obito stood in the back, gritting his teeth, looking thoroughly agitated.

The main issue is that the goggles worn by Itachi are very similar to the ones he wore back then.

Every time he saw them, he was reminded of his own weak, pathetic past.

'Damn you, Uchiha Itachi!'

'Are you wearing those just to mock me!?'

'Could it be…'

'Has Uchiha Itachi figured out my identity?'

Amid his anger, Obito's mind raced with suspicion.

He looked at the two people in the distance, a hint of killing intent flashed in his eye.

Then, he muttered to himself, "Looks like I should find an opportunity to test this guy..."