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The inauguration of the Fourth Kazekage Rasa was a moment of political necessity, but legitimacy required more than just the village's support. To secure the legal standing and, crucially, the financial lifelines of the nation, Rasa and the Council of Elders were forced to travel to the Capital of the Land of Wind.
The ceremony with the Daimyo was a hollow display of aristocratic ritual. It wasn't until the formalities concluded that the true blow was dealt. In a private side hall, the Prime Minister—a man whose lavish robes contrasted sharply with the parched reality of the desert—delivered a verdict that felt like a secondary invasion.
"The national treasury is empty," the Prime Minister stated with a formulaic smile. "Trade routes are blocked by the war, and tax revenues have plummeted. Effective immediately, the annual budget for the Hidden Sand Village will be cut by one-third."
Rasa's face darkened, his voice dropping to a dangerous chill. "Prime Minister, we are on the verge of a total world war. To cut our budget now is to dismantle the only shield protecting the heart of this nation."
The official's response was dismissive. "A clever housewife cannot cook without rice, Lord Kazekage. We trust in the legendary resilience of our ninja. Perhaps it is time for the Hidden Sand to find more... creative ways to sustain itself."
The meeting ended in a suffocating silence. The budget cut meant that every advancement—from training new recruits to compensating the families of the fallen—was now paralyzed. For Sayo, hearing the rumors of the "Financial Winter" through the village hierarchy, the urgency was clear. He could no longer rely on the village's dwindling stores for his "Mirage" project. He needed a breakthrough that didn't depend on bureaucratic approval.
He returned to the secluded temple of Monk Bunpuku. Inside the quiet hall, Sayo carefully unwrapped the fragment he had discovered in the ancient ruins. As the seal broke, the ancient, immense pressure of the energy flooded the room.
Bunpuku's eyes snapped open. From his abdomen, the sealing patterns of the One-Tails glowed with a frantic light.
"Hmm?! That feeling..." Shukaku's voice echoed with a mixture of terror and awe. "Kid, where did you get a shard of that thing?!"
"Shukaku, do you know what this is?" Sayo asked, his voice steady despite the energy vibrating in his marrow.
"Of course I know! It's a fragment of the Divine Tree (Shinju)!" Shukaku scoffed, though his tone was unusually heavy. "The tree that woman planted to devour the world's energy. It was shattered during the battle between the Six Paths Sage and his mother. I haven't sensed that pure, original life force in centuries."
Bunpuku clasped his hands in prayer. "Sayo, this power is the beginning of creation and the bringer of destruction. Direct contact would turn a human into stone in an instant."
"Is there a way to channel it safely?" Sayo pressed. "I need an energy source that far exceeds the capacity of standard chakra."
Bunpuku exchanged a silent, mental dialogue with the beast within him. Finally, he spoke. "There is an ancient technique—the 'Spirit Siphoning Seal.' We can teach you the formulas to construct a Conversion Barrier. It will act like a thin needle, slowly drawing a microscopic stream of fundamental life force, diluting it through layers of seals until it becomes a gentle, controllable current. But the slightest error in the seal's geometry would cause an energy surge that would erase this temple."
Sayo's eyes blazed with the fire of an engineer who had finally found the missing component. "Please, Master. Teach me."
With the Divine Tree fragment as a "Nuclear Core" and the Spirit Siphoning Seal as the "Reactor Housing," Sayo finally had the blueprint for a power source that could drive the Mirage into the sky and push his Body Tempering Furnace beyond the limits of human biology.
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