The color of the Gelel ore vein was almost identical to that of the Gelel Stone—a deep, luminous blue-green that glowed faintly beneath the earth. However, unlike the refined and translucent Gelel Stones Akira had encountered, this raw vein was opaque, marred with rough impurities and jagged imperfections. From the way the mineral lines traced along its edges, it bore an uncanny resemblance to the outer layers of a coal seam.
Akira furrowed his brows, his gaze heavy with thought. His earlier hypothesis was starting to take shape. The similarities were too strong to ignore. This ore vein had likely been formed much like a coal mine—ancient flora buried deep beneath the crust, subjected to millions of years of pressure and heat, only to absorb a unique form of natural energy that transformed it into the Gelel ore. Yet, this process was evidently far more rare and complex than that of ordinary fossil fuels.
Back in his previous life, Akira remembered learning that coal deposits were scattered across the globe, abundant and easily accessible. If the Gelel ore had formed with similar frequency, it would have been mined and exploited long ago. Its rarity, and the sheer coincidence of its discovery here, suggested that this was no ordinary resource.
A new theory sparked in his mind. Perhaps in this world, ancient vegetation didn't become coal. Instead, they formed something much more potent, much more mysterious—Gelel. And perhaps because these formations occurred too deep underground, or were too sparse, they had simply never been found. Until now.
Akira's heart pounded with anticipation as he considered the implications. The Gelel ore wasn't volatile. It wasn't spilling energy wildly into the world. Its energy was calm, contained. Stable. That meant with the right technique, it could be drawn upon without destroying its structure. He couldn't just ignite it like coal; he needed a method grounded in chakra manipulation—a true ninja's approach.
The Gelel Empire must have used something similar. Perhaps their lost techniques could guide him. But Akira had something just as valuable: the chakra absorption method inscribed on the Rebirth Core, derived from Sasori's own formidable research.
He turned sharply, as if struck by a sudden thought. His gaze fell upon the puppet Scorpion, temporarily forgotten amidst his reverie. Its body shimmered strangely, a green glow pulsating from within.
Akira rushed forward, pulling open the puppet's outer shell. His instincts had been correct—the Rebirth Core was glowing with a fierce, blue-green light. The intricate technique engraved on its surface was shimmering wildly, as if frantically drawing something in.
He examined it carefully. Because he couldn't control the Wood Clone's chakra directly, Akira had altered the Rebirth Core's technique from passive output to active absorption. This allowed him to manage it using the faint chakra thread that connected him to the clone.
Additionally, the Core had another vital function: to suppress unwanted growth. The tree heart inside the Wood Clone still contained living chakra; if left unchecked, it could grow uncontrollably and damage the shell. The Rebirth Core absorbed this excess energy to prevent such incidents.
Now, that mechanism had clearly kicked in. But what stunned Akira was what the Rebirth Core was pulling from the tree heart—raw Gelel energy.
That wasn't supposed to happen.
The Wood Clone, being an unrefined, chakra-less entity, shouldn't have been able to absorb Gelel energy. And yet, here it was, glowing with power.
Then, a memory clicked. In the original tales, Hido of the Gelel Empire had once claimed that the Empire had used the Gelel Stone to cultivate a crop that matured in a single day. Plants. Gelel was naturally attuned to plant life.
The Wood Clone, formed from ancient trees, had an inherent affinity with the natural world. It had unknowingly absorbed the ambient energy released from the ore vein.
That realization sent a thrill down Akira's spine.
It was a miracle.
The Wood Clone had essentially shortcut the entire chakra cultivation process, devouring life force directly from the mineral veins. If this process could be controlled, Akira could massively increase the chakra of his clones—and by extension, his puppets.
But it wasn't all good news. The influx of energy was causing cellular division within the tree heart. It wanted to grow. Rapidly.
Akira grimaced. Left unchecked, it could rupture the Rebirth Core's shell—and worse, damage the puppet made from the Third Kazekage's corpse. That was a resource he couldn't afford to lose.
In haste, Akira detached the Core from the puppet, cradling it carefully in his palm. He enhanced the Core's technique with his chakra, accelerating the absorption and stabilizing the volatile growth. The green glow dulled, the rampant cell division slowed, and soon the energy calmed.
He exhaled a long breath. Crisis averted.
And then came the next surprise.
He sensed the Rebirth Core. The chakra within it had swelled beyond anything he had anticipated. Two full cards of chakra—the equivalent of an elite Jōnin.
And this was just a fragment of the original Wood Clone.
That meant the full tree might contain twenty or more cards worth of chakra.
Akira's hands trembled, not with fear, but with excitement. This wasn't just chakra—it was potential. It meant he could finally power his puppet army without relying on his own reserves.
Up until now, the greatest constraint on his puppet clone army project had been the lack of viable chakra sources. But with the Gelel ore vein, that problem was resolved. Permanently.
Only one issue remained: volume. The Wood Clone simply wasn't large enough to produce enough tree hearts.
And that's when Akira remembered the enormous mass of Gelel energy still sealed within his Mangekyō Sharingan.
Of course.
He would inject that energy into the Wood Clone directly. With its natural compatibility, the clone would grow rapidly, cells dividing under the surge of vitality. The chakra inside would multiply. The body would expand.
And Akira would harvest tree hearts rich with chakra, ready to be embedded into his puppets.
The perfect soldier.
With one stroke, Akira had solved both of the core issues with his puppet army initiative: sourcing chakra and producing core components.
Standing at the edge of the ore vein, holding the faintly glowing Core in his hand, Akira felt the enormity of what lay ahead. This wasn't just power.
This was revolution.
He whispered to the quiet cavern, the mineral walls faintly echoing his words:
"With this... I can build an army not even the gods could stop."
His Mangekyō spun slowly, a seal forming in his mind.
The future had just changed course.
Akira returned to the dense Death Forest, standing quietly before the towering figure of his tree clone. The wind rustled through its broad leaves, a sound that once blended into the background of the forest but now struck Akira as something more—a sign of life and potential.
He had made a decision. The clone could no longer remain here.
When Akira first created the tree clone and imbued it with his will, it had shown no external changes, appearing no different from any of the countless trees dotting the forest. But now, with the infusion of Grell ore vein energy, things were about to change. Rapid growth was inevitable. The clone would soon outpace every other tree in both size and aura, a beacon for unwanted attention.
That could not be allowed.
He needed to move it—somewhere remote, somewhere forgotten.
After deliberation, Akira chose the site of the Grell ore vein itself. It was rarely visited, steeped in mystery, and had the one resource that would fuel the tree clone's evolution even further. Not only would it keep the clone hidden, but it would allow continuous absorption of the ore's unique chakra, sustaining its growth.
But first came the difficult task of relocation.
Using Earth Release, Akira began the delicate process of disentangling the clone's massive root system from the earth. It was a slow, meticulous effort. This tree was like no other. Its roots were not only immense in number, but deeply embedded in the soil, some stretching nearly 100 meters below the surface. They twisted through the forest floor, intertwined with the roots of surrounding trees as if the clone had reached out to embrace its kin.
He couldn't afford to damage even a fraction of it. Every root was a lifeline.
Once separated, Akira wrapped the roots in a protective matrix of soil, still using Earth Release to form a structure that could be transported. The mass of the roots alone outweighed the visible tree, making the process strenuous. Only thanks to the chakra amplification he had gained from recent experiments could Akira manage such a feat.
Reaching the Land of Rivers, Akira scoped the rocky terrain near the Grell mineral vein. He needed a place for the clone to take root—somewhere with access to the ore's energy and yet hidden enough to avoid prying eyes. He spotted a squat mountain, its sides craggy but not unbreakable. His intuition told him the rock layer was shallow.
Perfect.
Summoning his immense black Susanoo, a titan cloaked in dark armor and eyes glowing with restrained fury, Akira drew Moon Eclipse—a broadsword that now shimmered with the chakra of the Grell vein.
The Susanoo swung down. Rock and earth cleaved like water before the blade, carving a yawning pit that reached the soil beneath. Akira molded the pit to match the root structure of the tree clone, creating a cradle for its new life.
He marked the bottom of the pit with a Flying Thunder God seal, then teleported back to the forest and returned with the clone, carefully lowering it into place.
Next came the most critical step: empowering the clone with the full chakra of the Grell ore.
Akira peeled back the bark where the tree heart had once been removed, revealing a hollow now serving as a water reservoir. He drained the liquid and squeezed his upper body into the cramped chamber, the scent of wood and earth thick in the air.
Using his own blood, Akira etched sealing formulas onto the chamber walls—ancient symbols adapted from Scorpion's memories, derived from the same Sand Village technique that once imprisoned the One-Tailed Shukaku.
On the discarded bark, he wrote a matching formula. Once replaced, it would serve as the lid of this living container, sealing in the potent chakra he was about to unleash.
With the seals ready, Akira commanded his black Susanoo to reappear. Moon Eclipse shimmered once more, a blade poised between dimensions. He whispered a single word:
"Release."
Blue-green chakra burst forth from the blade like a living flame, funneled into the heart of the tree clone. Simultaneously, the sealing formulas activated, forming a containment field that pulled in the chakra and prevented its escape.
Some of it was intentionally allowed to leak—designed that way—to nourish the clone. Akira watched in awe as his creation began to change.
The clone's dormant chakra signature erupted into life, surging beyond one unit, then two, then five. Within moments, it reached twenty units. The tree itself groaned as it grew, stretching to twenty meters in height, its bark thickening and darkening, leaves gleaming with vitality.
He wasn't done.
Next was the chakra stored in the Brave Seal.
This chakra was denser, more volatile. As Akira began channeling it into the tree, he kept one hand on the seal formula, ready to shut it down at the first sign of failure.
But the seal held.
Akira marveled as the Grell chakra inside began to condense. First a mist, then a liquid, then at last a shimmering gem-like solid. A Grell Stone.
So this is how they form, he realized. Not through craftsmanship, but through pure compression of high-density Yang Release energy.
The transformation was beautiful and terrifying.
His thoughts turned to the puppet Scorpion.
He had infused that clone with Grell energy too. Curious, he commanded the puppet to release its Yin Seal.
What he saw astounded him.
A blue-green gem, bearing a mysterious sigil, emerged from the Rebirth Core of the puppet—part embedded, part exposed. It pulsed, feeding on the nutrient solution and creating a special kind of chakra.
He could feel it. This was his chakra now.
He flooded the puppet body with it. In response, the puppet shuddered. Every modified weapon deployed, gears whirred, limbs locked into new positions.
Then the final metamorphosis began.
Chakra surrounded the puppet like a chrysalis. The form shifted, hardened, changed.
In the space of seconds, the puppet Scorpion was no longer a wooden imitation.
It was a creature.
A massive, winged scorpion of black and green crystal, its aura as alive as any summoned beast.
Akira stepped back, heart pounding, his breath caught between fear and exhilaration.
He had not just built a puppet army.
He had given birth to something greater.
A new lifeform. A synthesis of nature, chakra, and will.
And this was only the beginning.