Naruto: Puppet Master Undercover in Konoha

After finishing his meal, Obito brought the food he had prepared to Shindai's house.

However, seeing that Shindai was deeply immersed in his work, Obito chose not to disturb him and simply waited quietly.

Obito waited for several hours, and Shindai finally set his brush aside.

Brimming with frustration, Obito thought to himself—just as he'd suspected, Shindai had completely forgotten about helping him pick a gift for Rin Nohara.

Shindai frowned in confusion. "Huh? Didn't Rin's birthday already pass?"

Obito shot back with an even more resentful look: "Yeah, because of that whole incident back then, everyone got hurt. You and Minato-sensei were even hospitalized for almost two weeks. Obviously, we ended up missing Rin's birthday."

"We missed her birthday, but we can still give her the present later! I was hoping you'd help me pick out a gift while you were in the hospital. But apparently, you completely forgot!"

Shindai coughed dryly, determined to argue first regardless: "I didn't forget at all! Actually, I figured it out ages ago. I was just testing how important Rin is to you, so I waited for you to come ask me. What I did just now was just pretending!"

Obito sneered slightly, "Shindai, do you know something? When you lie, it's super obvious. Since you said you've already figured it out, then tell me—let's see what kind of idea you have."

"Heh, you underestimate me? Watch carefully—I'll show you how it's done!"

Shindai took out a piece of wood and then pulled out a kunai.

With practiced precision, Shindai's kunai danced through the wood, swiftly shaping a lifelike wooden sculpture of Rin Nohara.

Shindai tossed the wooden sculpture into Obito's hands: "How is it? Pretty good, right?"

Obito looked at the sculpture in his hands, overjoyed: "Great! Seriously great! It looks exactly like her! This present will definitely make Rin happy. Thanks, Shindai!"

Just as Obito was about to leave, Shindai suddenly grabbed his arm: "I never said you could use this as your gift for Rin!"

Obito looked confused: "Huh? Why not? Didn't you carve this for me to give to Rin?"

Shindai snickered again, "This was carved by me, so it counts as my own gift. If you want to give one, you should carve it yourself."

Obito stared blankly at Shindai: "But I don't know how!"

"I just showed you, didn't I?"

Obito widened his eyes: "You moved way too fast! Who could see clearly?"

Shindai spoke earnestly: "That's your problem now, Obito. Sometimes it doesn't matter if the gift is perfect—it's the sincerity behind it that counts!"

Obito frowned deeply: "But you said last time that we should give something Rin likes!"

"It means the same thing. Anyway, you can try copying this sculpture to make another one for Rin. I've shown you everything I could teach. What comes next depends on you. Now I need to get back to work!"

Shindai shoved Obito out of the house and shut the door. He looked at the newly completed plan document on the table, his eyes gleaming like someone gazing at a beauty.

Finally, some time to himself—but this was just a plan, nothing more. The real action hadn't even started yet!

Shindai barely touched the leftovers from the meal Obito brought, then dove straight into his research.

Obito scratched his head in confusion before heading home.

Lying in bed, Obito held the Rin Nohara figurine that Shindai had sculpted, gazing at it longingly.

Looking at it for a while, Obito slowly brought the statue closer to his face—and then...

[Kiss] Mua~

Obito's face flushed bright red. Embarrassed, he pulled the covers over his face.

Obito, what were you thinking?! No, no—you can't do stuff like that… it's way too weird!

It took quite a while for Obito to calm down enough to pull back the covers again and resume admiring Rin's statue.

He remembered what Shindai said about sincerity being the most important thing... And those kunai and protective goggles he'd given Rin before had been filled with his true feelings.

Ah, whatever! I'll just trust Shindai one more time!

Obito suddenly sat upright in bed, full of energy: "Alright then! Time to get started—I'm gonna carve a Rin statue even better than Shindai's and give it to her as a gift!"

Obito found a piece of wood and picked up a kunai knife to start carving.

In no time, Obito finished his first carving.

Unfortunately, this one was a total mess—not even close to looking like a person.

Without hesitation, Obito tossed it aside and grabbed another piece of wood to continue carving.

Day by day passed.

By the third day, Minato Namikaze had delivered the Raikō Ken and the advanced ninja tech documents Shindai had requested.

When Shindai saw the technical documents Minato handed him, he was absolutely shocked.

These weren't just advanced tech files—they were essentially core technological blueprints!

Since Minato himself didn't understand much about these technologies, he went directly to the head of Konoha's research division.

The department head noticed that Minato had come in person specifically to see him, so he assumed it must be urgent and important... and handed over part of the classified core technology files.

Thus, Minato somewhat cluelessly carried these documents straight to Shindai.

In reality, most of these technological records originally came from Orochimaru—they were old, unimportant files Orochimaru had discarded.

Still, even discarded scraps like these ranked among the most advanced ninja tech available in the shinobi world.

Now with these resources, Shindai was ready to skyrocket his tech development.

Meanwhile, during these three days, Obito kept battling away at his sculptures.

He'd carved over a hundred Rin Nohara statues—starting with twisted, unrecognizable shapes, and gradually improving to slightly more lifelike forms.

Obito had just finished carving a statue. As he looked at it in his hands, although it was quite abstract, he felt it was the best he had ever made.

Obito also sensed that no matter how hard he tried from now on, he probably wouldn't be able to make anything better than this. He really didn't have any talent for this sort of thing.

Staring at the rather abstract statue in his hand, Obito hesitated, unsure what to say: "Rin... would she actually like this?"

Feeling anxious, Obito grabbed the statue and left home to find Rin Nohara.

At this hour, Rin should be working at the ninja hospital.

So Obito went straight to the ninja hospital to look for Rin Nohara.

"What are you doing here, Obito?"

Rin Nohara, who had just finished assisting other medical ninjas in treating an injured patient, was quite surprised to see Obito show up at the hospital.

Avoiding Rin's gaze, Obito stammered slightly as he asked, "U-um, Rin, could you come with me for a second?"

Rin readily agreed, "Of course. I was just about to head home anyway. We're training together this afternoon, right? Then we can go together."

Side by side, Obito and Rin walked away from the ninja hospital.

Because Obito was so nervous, he even walked awkwardly with both arms and legs swinging stiffly. His usual clumsy appearance now seemed even more foolish.

With his heart racing, Obito kept wondering whether he should really give Rin the statue he had made.

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