Chapter 122: Galloping on Horseback

Few people in the Hidden Sand Village possess the technique known as Mind-Sucking Puppet Control; it remains held exclusively by a handful of high-ranking intelligence officials. In contrast, puppet mastery is far more common among the village's ninja.

Over the past few months, while grinding for Mind-Sucking Puppet Control, Kato Mifune’s "salted fish" clone—his lackluster shadow double—had already acquired numerous insights into puppetry. Mifune could not help but admire the ingenuity of the Second Kazekage, Shamon; puppetry could essentially be considered the precursor to an alternate form of robotic industry within the ninja world.

The Second Kazekage’s brilliance was certainly worthy of respect, but the other puppeteers of the Hidden Sand were no slouches either. In the mere two or three decades since the Second Kazekage pioneered the craft, the village’s puppetry had branched into many distinct schools: poison-controlled puppets, long-range kite puppets, swarm-tactics puppets, corpse-manipulation puppets, micro-precision puppets, and massive siege-warfare puppets, among others.

This could be seen from the plethora of puppetry insights Mifune had obtained. If this development were to continue, paired with the supernatural power of chakra, it was not impossible that something surpassing the mechas and Gundams of science fiction might eventually emerge.

Having spent a considerable amount of time in the Hidden Sand Village over the past few months, the salted fish clone had gained more than just soul and memory fragments. He had gathered significant intelligence, discovering that the Hidden Sand, much like the Hidden Leaf, was riddled with factions and contradictions; it was far from a monolithic entity. There were tensions between the Third Kazekage and the advisory council left over from the Second Kazekage’s era, conflicts between the pro-war hawks and the pro-peace doves, friction between commoner ninja and the great clans, and rivalries between the puppeteers and other ninjutsu schools.

Within these chaotic contradictions, Mifune saw the possibility of obtaining the rare secret technique of Mind-Sucking Puppet Control. Perhaps because the ninja who knew this technique were so rare, his clone spent months scouring the Land of Wind without success.

To improve his drop rates and boost his luck, there was a period when Mifune clung to Tsunade every day, refusing to stop until he had kissed her two or three times. It was baffling; despite his clone’s long stint in the Land of Wind, he had collected heaps of other soul and memory fragments, but never the Mind-Sucking Puppet Control he craved.

Unable to obtain his target technique, Mifune grew restless. During that time, although his main body was in the Hidden Leaf, constantly nuzzling and getting intimate with Tsunade, Mifune himself was burning with frustration. As her boyfriend, he knew exactly how alluring Tsunade was; he had personally measured the dimensions of her magnificent peaks and the narrow, winding valley with his own hands.

Seeing that mere kissing was not enough, Mifune was ready to mount his white stallion and gallop freely between the peaks and the valley. Had Tsunade not strictly guarded the final line of defense, Mifune’s long spear might have already seen blood—though not enough to leave a trail, as that would be absurd, and the winding valley was not so fragile. However, it was quite possible that his precious spear had been honed to be even sharper and harder.

With his main body in the Leaf unable to gallop freely through the valley, and his clone in the Wind unable to find the technique, Mifune nearly lost his mind. Once that period of madness passed, he gained perspective. The Goddess of Luck was like a flickering wildflower by the roadside—teasing, tempting, letting you see and smell it, but never letting you pick it.

Mifune decided to stick to picking the flower in his own garden. After all, the legendary "Big Fat Sheep" with her abundant milk was the lifelong love of this wind-like man. With a peaceful mindset, he focused on his own home-grown sheep, developing several secret Kato clan taijutsu techniques. The "Kato Hawk Hand" he had used before was merely a small test of skill.

Actually, that was not quite right. Once his mind was settled, he focused on mastering the ninjutsu he already possessed, developing and learning several techniques, including but not limited to: Puppetry, the Yamanaka clan’s Mind Body Switch Technique, the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal, Earth Style: Swamp of the Underworld, and Earth Style: Earth Wall. He stopped obsessively pursuing Mind-Sucking Puppet Control, instead pouring his energy into combining puppetry with his Spirit-Nurturing Technique. Of course, he did not give up on the Mind-Sucking Puppet Control; he kept his clone searching in the Land of Wind.

As the saying goes, "The flowers you plant with care may not bloom, while the willow you plant by chance grows to provide shade." Just as Mifune was preparing to focus solely on the fusion of puppetry and spirit-nurturing, good news finally arrived from his clone.

Not long ago, while the clone was on an intelligence-gathering mission near the Hidden Sand, he accidentally stumbled into a conflict between the Third Kazekage and a pro-peace elder. The clone seized the opportunity, waded into the chaos, and finally obtained the rare secret technique from a high-ranking intelligence official under that elder.

The effort required to obtain Mind-Sucking Puppet Control was immense, but the final result did not disappoint. By referencing the many puppetry insights, the Cursed Tongue Eradication Seal he had already mastered, and his most core Spirit-Nurturing Technique, Mifune created the "Secret Technique: Spirit-Nurturing Sorrow—Soul-Mind Control—Soul Puppet Technique."

The new technique’s formal name was too long, so Mifune preferred to call it the Soul-Mind Control Technique. Its effect: by embedding a fragment of one's soul into the target's brain, one could monitor and control them long-term. It boasted extreme stealth, no distance or time limitations, and allowed for real-time remote monitoring.

Targets of this technique were called "Soul Puppets." Aside from their souls being controlled, they remained unchanged. As for the "Sorrow" in the name, once controlled, the target’s life, soul, and spirit were entirely in the master’s hands. Unless released by the master, any attempt to escape would result in a "soul explosion," leading to a predictable end—hence the name "Sorrow."

The cost was low; aside from the initial heavy expenditure during implantation, the soul fragment embedded in the target sustained itself by absorbing the host’s spiritual energy. The only drawback was that the technique was incredibly difficult to perform, with an extremely low success rate.

Before acting on Kon, Mifune had his clone practice extensively in the Land of Wind. Only when he had gained sufficient confidence did he strike and successfully poach Kon from Shimura Danzo. In a standard cell culture room at the Spring Base, Mifune watched with a smile as Kon reported his work, satisfied by the dark pleasure of poaching Danzo's subordinate. He was even more pleased with the effects of his new technique.