The wisps of cooking smoke rose and drifted towards the setting sun.
The lingering sunrays, like blood, cast a seductive hue over the entire Hidden Sand Village.
"This is the third batch to retreat from the front lines this month."
Seated at the table, Hardy sighed as he watched a group of defeated soldiers pass by the window opposite him.
His name held a good meaning in a water-scarce place like the Land of Wind, given to him by the orphanage director.
The current year was the 37th year of the Hidden Sand Village.
Since the Five Great Shinobi Villages were all established in the same year, the 37th year of the Hidden Sand Village coincided with the 37th year of the Leaf Village.
At this moment, the shinobi world was in the midst of the Second Great Shinobi War, already reaching a fever pitch.
The Hidden Sand Village had two main battlefronts: one in the northeast Rain Country, led by Elder Chiyo to suppress the Hidden Rain Village, prevent Hanzo from leading the Hidden Rain Village to become the Sixth Great Shinobi Village, and plunder the village's resources.
The second front was in the east, led by the Third Kazekage, attacking the River and Fire Countries to secure fertile land for the Hidden Sand Village.
However, ever since two high-ranking members of the Hidden Sand Village were killed by Konoha's White Fang two years ago, the advantage the Hidden Sand Village had gained on the battlefield had gradually dissipated.
This didn't concern Hardy at the moment, as he had just returned from the Rain Country battlefield last week.
There was no immediate need to return to the battlefield.
It had been eleven years since he had crossed over to the world of Naruto.
When he first arrived, he was just a baby. It wasn't until he was three years old, as his brain developed to a certain extent, that he slowly began to recall memories from his previous life.
From as far back as he could remember, he had always been in the orphanage in the Hidden Sand Village.
Thus, he had shown maturity and wisdom beyond his peers at an early age, smoothly passing the entrance exam for the ninja academy and outperforming most of his classmates in the early stages of learning.
However, in terms of ninja talent, he was not considered top-notch, just average. He couldn't compare to students with higher-level ninja backgrounds and family support.
So, when he noticed others catching up to him in progress, Hardy chose to specialize in the unique ninja profession of puppeteer to maintain his competitiveness.
In the resource-deprived Hidden Sand Village, everything had to be fought for.
"It will take another month for the leg injury to heal, and even longer for the internal injuries. During this time, I can only take on some odd jobs, repairing puppets for others. I probably won't be able to take on missions to earn money in the short term, but at least I won't have to go back to the battlefield.
Before that, I need to resolve the maintenance tasks assigned by the village for the puppets."
Hardy refocused his attention on the worktable.
He had graduated from the ninja academy last year.
To be precise, he was pushed to graduate, as he saw the neighboring Leaf Village doing the same. So, the Hidden Sand Village followed suit, sending senior ninja academy students to the battlefield.
However, the higher-ups had some humanity left in them and didn't treat them as cannon fodder. Instead, they were responsible for tasks like guarding warehouses, patrolling, escorting supplies, and passing on low-level intelligence. While there was still danger, it wasn't as severe as the frontline.
Sending these senior ninja academy students to the secondary frontline freed up some forces and allowed these ninja reserves to be trained early.
But if the frontline couldn't hold up one day, they would still have to go and be cannon fodder.
Puppeteers were a specialty of the Hidden Sand Village, with a complete lineage, decent combat power, high potential, and a good status, but the only downside was...
poverty.
Especially in the already impoverished Hidden Sand Village.
The manufacturing and daily maintenance of puppets incurred huge expenses.
"This mission... seems a bit off."
Hardy took out the mission scroll, furrowing his brows.
Repairing puppets was a normal task, usually D-rank, occasionally C-rank, but generally the lowest reward for C-rank missions was ten thousand ryo.
This time, the village was unusually generous, assigning him a mission with a reward of sixty thousand ryo, and he didn't have to do it in a team with other members.
Moreover, it only required repairing one puppet, with the repair budget not exceeding ten thousand ryo, reimbursed by the puppet unit.
For such a generous mission, why was an ordinary lower-ranked puppeteer like him chosen?
"It's abnormally generous..."
While pondering the reason, Hardy's gaze shifted to a puppet placed against the wall, nearly as tall as a person, and a box popped up in his field of vision.
[Puppet Name]: Fatty
[Comprehensive Parameters]:
Height: 1.5 meters
Weight: 40.22 kilograms
Materials: Reinforced wood and lightweight metal combination
Energy Source: None
Operational Method: Chakra strings
[Puppet Rating]: C
[Comprehensive Evaluation]: Transformed from a basic D-rank instructional transport puppet, low-cost, possessing standard combat capabilities for a lower-ranked ninja, but requires a certain level of puppeteer control.
Fatty was Hardy's only puppet, created by dismantling an instructional puppet he bought from the ninja academy and adding materials.
With a light thought, the popup disappeared, replaced by Fatty's three-view and disassembly diagrams, as well as detailed parameters, including some existing flaws.
Knowing this, it was easy to devise an improved optimization plan, turning Fatty from a basic D-rank instructional transport puppet into a C-rank puppet with qualified lower-ranked ninja combat capabilities.
The panel was an ability Hardy brought with him when he crossed over, providing detailed data on items he created, with no other functions discovered for now.
At the bottom of the panel, there was a progress bar that had already reached about eighty percent.
Hardy didn't know what would happen when the progress bar reached full, but he had some guesses on how to increase it.
While the progress bar would increase over time, it did so very slowly, possibly not even reaching one-tenth of a percent in a month.
But sometimes, there were significant changes.
There had been two occurrences so far.
The first time was when Hardy received the acceptance letter from the ninja school, and the second time was when he graduated and became a Genin.
At that time, Hardy speculated that this might be related to his ninja level and personal status.
Turning his head, Hardy looked at another puppet beside him.
That was the target of this mission.
It was a small humanoid puppet, with a long mechanical claw made of wooden pieces connected on its left arm, and a hole in the palm of its right arm that could shoot explosive kunai and switch to a spiral drill.
Although a panel popped up this time, there was basically no data except for the name.
Because this thing was not created by Hardy himself.
Hardy picked up a tape measure and screws, disassembled the puppet, carefully examined it for a while, and then reassembled the puppet.
This could also be considered a product of his manual creation.