"Vast chakra? Sage Mode? Or perhaps the Six Paths Mode? Maybe supreme ocular powers like the Rinnegan or Tenseigan?"
The system did not answer. It didn't have a definitive answer to that question.
"From a general perspective, those are all powerful." Satsuki pointed to her own head. "But in my view, the strongest power is wisdom."
Physical strength, even the power of bloodlines, ultimately has limits. But the strength that wisdom can bring is boundless.
This is a truth that very few in the shinobi world understand, with only a rare few having approached its edges—Tobirama Senju and Orochimaru.
But even their thinking remained limited.
Take Orochimaru, for example. He was still confined by certain fixed patterns of thought.
His initial dream was to uncover all ninjutsu in this world, to exhaust the mysteries of all existence.
But fundamentally, his line of thought was still based on the foundation of being a shinobi (ninja).
This determined that even if he mastered every ninjutsu, he would merely reach the level of the Sage of Six Paths.
After all, wasn't the Sage of Six Paths the origin of all so-called ninjutsu in this world?
"Wisdom..." The system glitched momentarily. "Host, I don't quite understand what you mean by 'wisdom.' I think we should be more specific."
"Seems I overestimated your level of intelligence."
The puppet artist had finished coloring and moved on to refining the details of the portrait.
This step no longer required Satsuki to act as a model, so she ended the half-probing conversation with the system.
She stood up and slowly walked into the courtyard outside the small pavilion.
Besides the two maid puppets, there were also two figures dressed as wandering samurai. They wore demon masks and dark armor, each holding a katana in one hand and a shield in the other. They were fully equipped with sode, kote, kusazuri—everything a warrior in service to high nobility should have.
In the Warring States era of Naruto, the direct combat strength of these two samurai was no less than that of a standard chunin squad.
But more importantly, they represented a symbol.
In the rigid hierarchy of the Naruto world, shinobi, though the strongest in terms of combat, strangely didn't hold the highest political power or social rank.
For instance, even the future Hokage had the Daimyō of the Land of Fire above him.
And in the current Warring States period, the class distinctions were even more pronounced.
A simple example: even in chaotic times, shinobi might attack civilians without reason, but rarely would they target a noble without cause.
However, these two towering samurai were in fact puppets—resources prepared for her by the descendants of Hamura Ōtsutsuki before they sent her away. Otherwise, a little girl trying to survive in a war-torn era by herself would stand no chance.
Although Lin's consciousness had only awakened three years ago, Satsuki's physical body had been here for many years.
Longevity was probably the most straightforward benefit of being part of the Ōtsutsuki clan.
Standing in an open space in the courtyard, Satsuki turned her gaze to one of the samurai puppets.
With a light tap of her right index finger, the puppet stepped forward as if it had its own will, walking with disciplined steps to stand before Satsuki. Then came a sudden slash at lightning speed.
Zing~~
A dazzling arc of the blade flashed across Satsuki's forehead, neatly slicing off the slightly uneven tips of her front bangs.
After the slash, the samurai puppet instantly sheathed its sword and returned to its original position to continue standing guard.
The entire sequence of movements flowed seamlessly, and Satsuki's expression remained composed and graceful throughout, despite having a blade swung toward her face.
After tidying up slightly, she nodded in satisfaction and then raised her hand and snapped her fingers.
Another samurai puppet, fully clad in dark armor and wearing a demon mask, responded to the snap. It quickly moved to a hidden door set in the ornamental rockery of the courtyard, pulled out a man who was unconscious, and threw him to the ground in front of Satsuki.
This was a very ordinary man, common in these chaotic times.
He lacked the strength to be a warrior, the connections or talent to be a shinobi, and his family lineage was so insignificant that even tracing back eight generations would not reveal any noble ties.
In an age of war, such people had almost no options. And so this man, nameless and lowliest among the low, chose to become a bandit.
With some luck, men like him might live slightly better than tenant farmers who knew nothing of planting seasons. But the risks of banditry were high.
Once they failed, there was usually only one outcome. And now, his fate had arrived.
"Watch closely."
Satsuki offered this reminder to the system in her mind, but made no move herself—she merely stared at the man before her.
Under her gaze, the man on the ground began to move.
To be more precise, the man's consciousness remained unconscious, yet his body began to move on its own, performing complex motions that even the body's original owner could not have achieved.
Within minutes, accompanied by tearing muscles and snapping bones, his body could no longer endure the torment. Blood began to seep from his skin.
Soon, the man's body was utterly ruined.
With Satsuki's keen eye, she could easily tell that even with medical treatment, he would never walk again and would likely be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.
But in this era, that luxury didn't exist.
After directing two puppets to remove the discarded "specimen," Satsuki shifted her focus back to her mind.
"Did you understand?"
The system hesitated for a moment, then cautiously responded, "Isn't that just basic puppet control? It wasn't as impressive as when you trimmed your hair with a katana."
Sigh...
Satsuki let out a long sigh. "It was a mistake to expect anything from your intellect. Looks like I'll have to explain in the most basic, primitive language possible for you to understand what that scene truly meant."
"First of all, in this world, puppet control requires an energy source. That source is usually chakra threads. Most puppet masters use both hands to emit chakra and connect to the puppets to control them. This limits them to a level like Chiyo of Sunagakure—'Chikamatsu Collection of Ten Puppets.' An advanced version of this is Sasori's 'Red Secret Technique: Performance of a Hundred Puppets,' where he turns himself into a puppet body."
"But between the two, the only difference is in quantity—not in essence."
"The limitations that cap the potential of both techniques haven't been broken."
Satsuki raised one finger: "First limitation—the user's thought processing speed per unit time. This determines how finely they can manipulate chakra, and thus affects how many puppets they can control and the combat strength of each."
She then raised a second finger: "Second limitation—control range. Traditional puppet masters can only manipulate within their line of sight, which severely reduces their safety. The first real breakthrough in this regard was Kabuto Yakushi's Edo Tensei. At its core, Edo Tensei is nothing more than a puppet technique that breaks through both these limitations. The true brilliance of this forbidden jutsu lies in its ability to connect with the souls of the dead, allowing the puppets to control themselves. Only through this can puppet masters truly surpass the limits and reach a new realm."
In other words, this jutsu's signal transmission could cross the boundary between life and death.
That effect was near miraculous.
Aside from Edo Tensei, the only other jutsu Satsuki knew that could connect life and death was the Rinne Rebirth technique of the Rinnegan.
But Edo Tensei was far superior in terms of convenience. Its so-called required items were laughably easy to obtain: a physical sample of the summonee, a vessel (a living body), and raw material (a dead soul).
None of these required the caster to pay a high personal cost. And each of them was, in fact, a product of wisdom. For instance, why did having the physical remains of the dead allow you to summon exactly the person you wanted, preserving their original power?
How did decayed corpses become reactivated and usable?
That's exactly the power of intelligence.
"So, you've mastered Edo Tensei?" The system, now thoroughly confused, asked in a daze. "But when you controlled that man just now, you didn't use chakra threads—and even with those maids earlier, you didn't use them either."
"Wrong." Satsuki pointed to her Byakugan. "I prefer to call it wireless transmission and control technology."