"Dad! Come on, let me see my puppet already!"
The moment Daiki stepped through the front door, he grabbed his father's sleeve. His eyes were wide and bright.
"Relax," Kenji said with an amused smile. "I have been working on this for months. It's ready."
He turned and pulled a scroll from the cabinet behind him, then held it out. The scroll was sealed with the Yamanaka clan symbol.
"This is the summoning contract for your puppet. You will need to sign it the same way you signed mine when I taught you the Summoning Technique."
Daiki took the scroll. His hands trembled slightly as he unrolled it across the low table.
He had signed a summoning contract before, back when his father first taught him the technique. But that had been for one of his father's puppets. But this contract was for his own puppet, one designed specifically for him.
"Stop overthinking it," Kenji said, watching his son's face. "Just sign the thing."
Daiki bit his thumb, then pressed it to the contract scroll and wrote his name in blood. His handwriting was neater than usual. When signing a contract that could bind him to a combat tool for the rest of his ninja career, sloppy handwriting somehow felt disrespectful.
When he finished, the blood glowed briefly before the contract absorbed it. The seal activated with a pulse of chakra that he felt in his chest.
"Done?" Kenji asked, rolling the scroll back up. "Go ahead and try summoning it."
Daiki stood and moved to the center of the room where he had more space. He took a deep breath to steady his nerves, then formed the hand seals.
Boar → Dog → Bird → Monkey → Ram.
His hands moved through the sequence smoothly. On the final seal, he slammed his palm against the floor.
"Summoning Technique!"
POOF!
A loud puff echoed through the room as a cloud of white smoke burst outward, filling nearly half the space. He narrowed his eyes and tried to see through it, searching for the shape forming inside the summoning circle. A figure slowly appeared through the haze. It stood about his height, humanoid, and completely motionless as the smoke began to fade.
Then he finally saw it clearly.
His smile froze.
"Why... Why does it look like a kid? And more importantly, why does it look like a girl?"
The puppet standing in front of him was designed to appear female. Long black hair fell past its shoulders in smooth strands. The face was symmetric, with large eyes and fine features that gave it an almost doll-like quality. It wore a simple dark outfit that matched standard Academy student clothing, and the whole design screamed "cute girl character."
"Well?" Kenji asked, sounding completely unbothered. "Isn't it adorable?"
"She... I mean it... is cute," Daiki admitted automatically, his face flushing slightly. Then he caught himself. "But I am a boy! How am I supposed to use a puppet that looks like a girl? Do you have any idea how much my teammates will make fun of me?"
"Teammates make fun of each other no matter what," Kenji said with a dismissive wave. "At least this way you will stand out. Besides, your mother and I always wanted a daughter. Now we have one, in a sense."
Honoka, who had been watching from the doorway, walked over to examine the puppet more closely. She circled around it, studying the craftsmanship with an approving expression.
"She really is well-made. The detail work is excellent. Daiki, are you sure you don't like her?"
"If you want a daughter, just have another baby!" Daiki protested, looking between his parents in disbelief. "I wouldn't object to a sister! But I can't walk around summoning this puppet in front of other ninjas! They will never let me live it down!"
Kenji sighed dramatically. "Kids these days have no appreciation for quality craftsmanship."
He reached over and plucked the summoning scroll from where Daiki had set it down.
"Fine. I will modify it. Dismiss the summon and give me a few minutes."
Before Daiki could respond, his father vanished in a flicker of movement.
Daiki stared at the space where his father had been standing, then looked back at the puppet. After a moment of hesitation, he released the summoning. The puppet dissolved into smoke and disappeared.
"Such a shame," Honoka said wistfully. "She was adorable. I was already thinking of names."
"Mom..."
"What? A mother can dream."
Daiki dropped his face into his hands. Having unreliable parents was exhausting. He didn't have to wait long. Less than five minutes later, Kenji reappeared in the same spot he had left, looking entirely too pleased with himself.
"Alright, try it again."
Daiki formed the seals again, still half-suspicious that his father was playing some kind of elaborate prank.
"Summoning Technique!"
POOF!
The smoke cleared to reveal a black-haired boy. The puppet wore the same dark outfit, and the build was identical, but the face...
Daiki leaned closer, studying the features.
"Did you just cut corners?" he asked flatly. "This is basically the same face with shorter hair."
"More or less," Kenji admitted without shame. "I changed the hairstyle and adjusted a few minor details to make it read as male. No point rebuilding the entire head structure when a few modifications accomplish the same thing."
He paused, then added with a suspiciously innocent expression, "Though I did keep the original female version in storage. You know, in case you change your mind later. It would be a waste to destroy such quality work."
"I won't change my mind!"
"Sure." Kenji waved off the protest. "Anyway, stop worrying about aesthetics and test the thing. Use the Mind Body Switch Technique."
Daiki pushed down his lingering irritation about the puppet's appearance and focused. This was what mattered, how well the puppet performed in combat. Everything else was secondary.
He brought his hands together and aimed at the puppet.
"Mind Body Switch Technique!"
Chakra surged through his body as his consciousness separated from his physical form. For a brief moment, disorientation washed over him. Then his awareness crashed into the puppet.
His real body went limp and collapsed onto the floor. Kenji didn't bother to catch him. The house had carpeted floors, so a short fall would not cause any harm.
Meanwhile, Daiki's consciousness settled into the puppet's frame. He raised the puppet's hand, flexing the fingers. The movements were smooth and responsive, translating his mental commands into physical action without any noticeable lag.
"The puppet is equipped with Swift Release as its primary bloodline ability," Kenji said from somewhere nearby. His voice sounded slightly distant, filtered through the puppet's audio receptors. "You have been training for speed for over a year now. The integration should feel natural. You won't need to adjust your fighting style."
Daiki nodded, then froze as he processed the second half of what his father had said.
"Wait, bloodline ability? How did you..."
"I told you I have been researching bloodline integration for years," Kenji said calmly. "Swift Release is one of the easier ones to replicate in puppet form. The chakra pathway modifications were relatively straightforward."
Daiki wanted to ask more questions about the technical details, but his father kept talking.
"There is one more feature you should know about. The puppet's right eye is a three-tomoe Sharingan. Unless the situation demands it, don't activate it lightly."
That made Daiki's consciousness snap to full attention.
"A real one?"
"Yes. It's a fully functional three-tomoe Sharingan."
Kenji paused for a moment, as if reconsidering how much he should reveal, before continuing.
Minato had taken this three-tomoe Sharingan from Danzō several years earlier. Kenji had never found a suitable use for it. When he built this puppet for Daiki, he simply decided to install it.
With the power of the Sharingan, Daiki would be able to deal with many dangers. His spiritual strength was also sufficient to maintain the three-tomoe state for several minutes.
"I obtained it a few years ago and preserved it. I have been waiting for the right opportunity to use it."
He stepped forward and stopped in front of the puppet, looking directly into its eyes.
"Your spiritual energy is stronger than most kids your age, thanks to Yamanaka clan genetics and your training. But even so, maintaining an active three-tomoe Sharingan will drain the puppet's chakra reserves extremely quickly. You will have maybe six to nine minutes of use before it runs dry. So use it wisely."
Daiki processed that information. A Sharingan was an incredible advantage, but only if used correctly. Wasting it on minor threats would be stupid. He would need to save it for situations where the enhanced perception and copying ability mattered.
"How do I activate it?"
"Channel chakra to the right eye and focus your intent. The Sharingan will respond. You will understand how to use it once it activates. The eye has been calibrated to work with your spiritual energy signature."
Daiki closed the puppet's eyes and concentrated. He visualized chakra flowing from the puppet's core toward the right eye, imagining it pooling in the ocular channels the same way he had been taught to direct chakra for other techniques.
For a moment, nothing happened.
Then he felt a surge of energy, different from normal chakra. The puppet's right eye grew warm. When he opened both eyes and looked around, the world had changed.
Everything was sharper. He could see individual dust particles floating in the air. When he glanced at his father, he could read micro-expressions. And in the puppet's right eye, he could feel the three tomoe spinning slowly.
He turned and walked to the mirror hanging on the wall, needing to see it for himself.
The reflection showed a black-haired boy with mismatched eyes. The left was a normal dark brown. The right was brilliant crimson, with three black tomoe arranged in a triangular pattern around the pupil.
It looked incredible.
All his earlier complaints about the puppet's appearance evaporated instantly. Who cared if the face was a bit androgynous? Who cared if it had started as a girl design? This puppet had a Sharingan.
This thing was amazing!
"Well?" Kenji asked. "Still want me to rebuild it from scratch?"
"No," Daiki said immediately, still staring at his reflection. "This is perfect."
"Thought you might say that."