"Thank you very much. These gloves have already reached a very impressive state."
Shiraishi had asked Hayato to forge a semi-finished product. The core recessed slot still required his own design and modification, but even so, the exquisite patterns on the gloves and their distinctive yin–yang split design perfectly matched Shiraishi's taste.
"I'm also looking forward to seeing these gloves completed," Jōgaki Hayato replied.
From the initial shaping to final polishing, the process had taken a full six months. The Jōgaki family had exhausted every craft technique at their disposal to create this pair of deep-sea mithril gloves.
Seeing how satisfied Shiraishi was with the workmanship, Jōgaki Hayato finally relaxed. Soon after, his concern shifted to his son.
As he listened to Shiraishi recount the battle at Kikyo Mountain, Jōgaki Hayato's eyes flickered with emotion. He was very pleased with his son's performance. Being able to destroy so many of Orochimaru's summoned creatures—though they were only the most basic ones—was still proof of growth.
Back then, Jōgaki Hayato had deliberately pulled Jōgaki Shikasa out of the Ninja Academy for several years to temper his skills in weapon forging and puppetry. Now, with teammates like Shiraishi and Maki, those missing years of academy training had finally been compensated for.
"Do you have any ideas yet about the recessed slot?" Jōgaki Hayato asked.
"I have some preliminary concepts and directions," Shiraishi replied, "but for the actual construction, I'll need to consult Granny Chiyo."
When it came to the slot's construction, Shiraishi could only turn to Sunagakure's greatest puppet master. In terms of mechanisms and internal structures, Chiyo's mastery far surpassed that of the Jōgaki family. She was one of the very few remaining grandmasters of mechanical engineering in the shinobi world.
Shiraishi's answer did not surprise Hayato. In this world, aside from Granny Chiyo, no one else could solve the many problems involved in forging deep-sea mithril into such gloves.
In the Oasis Ring District, Ebizō had barely returned home to rest when he received word that Shiraishi was on his way to visit Chiyo.
"You brat, why are you always so busy?" Ebizō scolded before even seeing Chiyo. "You just got home, and instead of resting, you're already asking about puppets and mechanisms."
"He's dabbling too widely," Ebizō continued. "Breadth is good, but if you spread yourself too thin, you'll lose focus. Even if you master a thousand techniques, the ones that can actually save your life on the battlefield might only be six or seven."
Ebizō was worried Shiraishi might stray onto the wrong path—recklessly developing countless new techniques, only to end up with nothing truly refined.
"I'll be careful to keep my balance," Shiraishi replied.
"He's probably here to ask me about deep-sea mithril," Granny Chiyo said with a chuckle as she stepped out.
While Shiraishi had been away from the village, Kurogane had visited her several times, seeking help with the gloves' construction.
In truth, Chiyo herself had many questions about the gloves. Without understanding how Shiraishi intended to position and use them, she had been unable to offer Kurogane any concrete advice. Now that Shiraishi had come to see her the moment he returned to Sunagakure, it was obvious this was about the gloves.
"I want to create a chakra absorption and conversion device," Shiraishi said.
He unrolled a scroll, revealing an extremely complex design resembling a pointer-based mechanism. Chiyo and Ebizō studied the diagram for a long time, both wearing strange expressions.
"So you plan to use the plasticity of deep-sea mithril," Chiyo said slowly, "combined with your externalized telekinetic traits, to form a transforming glove like this?"
In her view, Shiraishi was going to excessive lengths. Ninja tools could be sealed into scrolls—why bother with gloves that reshaped themselves like mercury to simulate weapons in combat?
Compared to Chiyo's confusion, Ebizō thought more deeply. He had already begun to grasp Shiraishi's true intention.
"You want to increase the casting speed of your telekinetic techniques," Ebizō said.
Shiraishi did not deny it.
"Yes. Sometimes I feel my casting speed can't keep up, and I also need stronger computational capacity."
In truth, Shiraishi had his own long-term judgment regarding the future development of telekinetic techniques. Although he had not yet obtained the Telekinesis → Psychokinesis card and therefore could not practice gravity-based techniques, his telekinesis had already reached 100% mastery. He already knew the card's approximate location and believed he would acquire it eventually.
(One branch of telekinesis progression: Telekinesis → Psychokinesis → Gravity Techniques)
As techniques advanced, their demands for precision and complexity grew ever higher. By using deep-sea mithril gloves to amplify chakra adhesion and transfer speed, Shiraishi could significantly accelerate casting speed. This was the gloves' primary purpose.
"Computational capacity?" Ebizō seized on that point, fixing Shiraishi with a serious stare.
"You're not planning to stimulate your brain cells directly, are you?"
"That method is too extreme—and outdated," Shiraishi replied calmly. "I'll find a safer way."
He had nothing but disdain for such reckless approaches. Whether over-stimulating brain cells would actually increase computational ability was questionable at best; at worst, it could lead to severe mental disorders.
What Shiraishi truly wanted was to link his brain with the kind of powerful supercomputers he had seen within fragmented memories—machines capable of performing tens of millions of calculations instantly.
Reality, however, was harsh. Although computers existed in this world, their performance was still extremely primitive. Therefore, Shiraishi's chosen direction was a massive, shared-thinking computational model.
The shinobi world already possessed a miraculous experience-sharing technique: the Shadow Clone Technique. Though exclusive to Konoha, its underlying principles had given Shiraishi significant inspiration.
Seeing the lingering concern in Ebizō's eyes, Shiraishi felt helpless.
"Why do you always assume I'd do something that foolish, Master?"
Deep down, he was touched. At the very least, Ebizō's concern for him was sincere.
As for the gloves, Chiyo would need time to think. The difficulty of manufacturing them was immense, and even she was far from confident.
"If only Sasori were still here…" Chiyo sighed.
Sasori of the Red Sand had possessed astonishing technical skill when he was still in Sunagakure. He could create puppets of varying power—and even convert corpses into human puppets.
Sasori was the only puppet master capable of creating human puppets, and he did so while preserving the deceased's chakra. As a result, the puppets retained all of the person's techniques and even their kekkei genkai. This was the greatest advantage of human puppets.
The secret of human puppet technology lay precisely in chakra-based memory storage and transfer—a key element of Shiraishi's deep-sea mithril glove concept.
Just as Shiraishi was lost in thought over the gloves, a new window suddenly appeared within his glasses' system.
This update occurred silently, completing itself in an instant without drawing his attention. When Shiraishi opened the system, the interface looked largely the same at first glance—but a closer look revealed something new.
"Huh…?"
"This is…"
A Fruit Cultivation Interface.
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