With my foundation finally patched and my chakra sitting at a steady "Genin-level" broadband speed, I didn't just sit around celebrating. I knew that my survival so far was thanks to a small circle of people who had invested in me some openly, some from the shadows.
I started with a visit to Granny Chiyo.
Walking into her study, I didn't complain about the pain of the furnace or the sleepless nights. I just stood there, letting her see the change. She put down her brush and stared at me for a long minute. With her level of experience, she didn't need a medical scanner to see that my complexion wasn't just "faked" by willpower anymore. It was real blood, real vitality.
"Good," she said, giving me a rare, genuine smile. "You found your own path. Just remember, Sayo no matter how many machines you build, the root of your strength is the person standing inside them. Don't get lazy."
"I won't, Granny," I promised, giving her a deep bow. She was sharp; she knew I'd cheated the system somehow, but she respected the result enough not to pry.
Next was Sasori's workshop. I kept the "Body Tempering Furnace" a secret, but I let him sense the new chakra flow.
Sasori didn't even stop his precision work. He just glanced at me with those cold purple eyes. "Hmph. At least you don't look like you're going to shatter if someone sneezes on you anymore. I guess I can stop holding back the good reference material."
He tossed a scroll at me, notes on joint-load optimization that were way more advanced than the "garbage" he usually gave me. That was Sasori-speak for "I'm impressed."
Finally, I hit the temple. Bunpuku looked like he was going to cry with joy, chanting "Excellent, excellent" like he'd just seen a miracle. Shukaku, of course, was less sentimental.
[Tch! Finally, you don't look like a walking corpse,] the raccoon dog grumbled in my head. [Now maybe you can survive three of my insults instead of two. Don't think this makes you big time, bean sprout.]
I just laughed. Coming from a giant sand-demon, that was basically a hug.
With the "gratitude tour" out of the way, I threw myself into a training loop that would have killed the old Sayo. I used every spare second, lunch breaks at the factory, the walk home, the hours before the furnace session.
Now that I had the juice, the Headhunter Jutsu was effortless. I could sink, navigate, and pop up anywhere in the yard with zero lag. But I needed more than just a defensive move. I needed something with "cutting edge."
I went back to my dad's Wind Release scrolls and picked out the Gale Palm. It's a D-rank move that compresses chakra into the palm to create a high-pressure burst of air. It's perfect for repelling enemies or giving a punch some extra "kinetic impact."
The learning curve was a joke. Most Genin spend weeks trying to figure out the internal circulation for Wind Release. Because I had the "30-year-old soul" processing power and microscopic control, I had the meridians mapped out in half a day.
The hard part was the compression. If you mess up the timing, the air burst just explodes in your hand, very messy, very painful.
The first try was a dud, just a breeze that wouldn't have blown out a candle. The second try was better a sharp whistle of air. The third try? Buzz!
A translucent shockwave shot from my palm, hitting a stone a meter away and sending it tumbling across the yard.
Success. Total time from "first read" to "first cast": less than forty-eight hours.
I looked at my hand, feeling the tingle of the remaining chakra. I wasn't just a "paper strategist" anymore. I was a combatant.
During the day, I was the factory's star apprentice. In the evening, I was a Wind and Earth specialist in training. At night, I was a bio-hacker in the furnace, pushing my cell vitality even higher. My life was spinning like a high-speed turbine, but for the first time in this world, I wasn't afraid of the friction.
I was greedy for it. I was finally building a version of myself that was meant to last.