Konoha Year 47. It had been nearly a decade since the Second Great Ninja War officially "ended," but in the ninja world, "peace" is just a term for the period when everyone is busy reloading.
While the Five Great Nations spent the last few years licking their wounds, the power vacuum was being filled by local friction and proxy wars. Minor countries were being bullied, resources were being hoarded, and the resentment was building up like static electricity on a carpet. Eventually, the air just couldn't hold the charge anymore.
The Third Great Ninja War finally ignited.
What started as border skirmishes turned into full-scale declarations of war. The conflict spread like a virus, dragging every village back into the meat grinder. Suna, which was still just barely starting to recover, found itself shrouded in that familiar, grim shadow. The mission boards were overflowing with patrol and recon assignments, and the air in the village tasted like copper and desperation.
But for me, the last two years had been a golden age.
Under Granny Chiyo's "all-out" guidance, my progress had been meteoric. I wasn't just building puppets anymore; I was designing compound structures and high-level energy-circuit inlays. My medical knowledge was rock-solid even if I couldn't perform high-level surgery, I understood the human architecture well enough to optimize my own furnace. My sealing skills had hit a point where I could actually look at a high-level barrier and see the "code" behind it, thanks to Bunpuku's lessons and Shukaku's constant nagging.
The biggest change, however, was the hardware.
The Body Tempering Furnace had done its job. Nightly baptisms of life-energy had officially deleted every trace of my "frail" origin story. I'd shot up in height, I was finally well-proportioned, with lean, flowing muscle and healthy, light-brown skin. The "roundness" of my childhood was gone, replaced by the sharp, clear-cut lines of an adolescent. My dark eyes were deeper, calmer, and possessed a "refresh rate" that made people think twice before challenging me.
But the real breakthrough, the "Version 1.0" release I'd been working on for years happened in the backyard of my cottage.
I stood in the morning sun, palm up, holding my breath. I circulated my chakra, fusing Wind and Earth in the exact resonance frequency I'd spent months calculating. It wasn't just a "jutsu" anymore; it was a synthesis.
A faint, silvery-black mist, composed of billions of ultra-fine metallic grains began to spiral above my palm. It hummed with a unique magnetic fluctuation, a frequency that vibrated right through my bones.
Magnet Release: Initialized.
I narrowed my eyes. I focused the magnetic flux on a pile of training shuriken sitting in the sand a few yards away.
Swish! Swish! Swish!
The steel stars were yanked off the ground as if seized by invisible magnets, flying through the air and sticking perfectly to the swirling cloud of iron sand above my hand. The "lever" was real. I wasn't using my muscles to lift them; I was using the laws of physics.
The field collapsed after a few seconds, and the shuriken clattered back to the dirt. I stood there, slowly clenching my fist, my heart hammering with a sense of pride I hadn't felt since I built my first PC in my old life.
The "Impossible Bloodline." I'd pushed through the doorway. I had the fuel, I had the control, and now I had the Magnet Release.
But the victory lap was cut short.
A hurried, rhythmic bell pealed from the center of the village, shattering the morning quiet. It was the Emergency Assembly signal the sound that meant the "R&D" phase was officially over and "Production" was going live.
I looked toward the Kazekage Rock, my brow knitting. The storm was finally hitting the front door. The peaceful days of training were over, and the meat grinder was calling for its next batch.
I looked at the iron sand still clinging to my palm.
"Well," I whispered to the empty yard. "Let's see if this code actually holds up under fire."