After returning to Konoha, Akira and his team wasted no time. They reported the critical military intelligence they had gathered directly to the Third Hokage.
Akira, filled with curiosity and concern, asked, "Third Hokage Grandpa, didn't the Land of Fire fight against the Land of Lightning before? I remember hearing the previous wars even reached the Land of Rice Fields. Why didn't we have any defenses stationed there?"
The Third Hokage sighed, a trace of helplessness in his expression. "In the last war, Konoha and Kumogakure were allies, so there was no conflict between us. The First Shinobi World War was different, though. Back then, Konoha and Kumogakure were at odds, and the main battlefield ended up being in the Land of Hot Water. At the time, the Village of Hot Water hadn't even been established. That's where most of the clashes occurred.
Because of that history, we never saw a need to establish defenses in the Land of Rice Fields. It's a sovereign nation, after all. Sending our forces there without cause would be seen as an act of aggression."
Akira absorbed this new knowledge with a frown. It answered one of his long-held questions. So, this time, it was the presence of the Village of Hot Water that forced Kumogakure to find a new route. Their previous failure must have made them realize that trying to invade through the Land of Hot Water was a dead end. That left the Land of Rice Fields as the next logical target.
"Then do we still have time to respond?" Akira asked, anxious. "Can we send a force now to intercept Kumogakure before they reach our borders?"
"It may already be too late," the Third Hokage said, his voice heavy. "If Kumogakure is serious, they've already gathered their forces and might even be waiting near the border. They're likely just waiting for the signal to begin their assault. Even if we start gathering troops now, we wouldn't be able to mobilize in time to stop their advance into the Land of Fire."
"We could rally the idle ninjas in the village to at least slow them down," Akira insisted. "If we stall them, reinforcements might arrive in time."
"Perhaps," the Third Hokage nodded, "but at best, we would only shift the battlefield into the Land of Rice Fields."
He paused, then gave Akira a curious look. "But why are you so concerned about whether the Land of Rice Fields becomes a battlefield?"
Akira sighed deeply. "I just... I feel sorry for them. They don't even have a ninja village to protect them. If a war breaks out there, who will protect the civilians?"
The Third Hokage fell silent for a moment, then said softly, "This is war, Akira. There's always someone who pays the price. We can't allow the battle to reach our own land. The daimyo would never permit it."
That was the end of Akira's involvement in the military strategy. After returning home, the anxious expression faded from his face. He had done what he could.
To Akira, whether the Land of Rice Fields was pulled into war or not was no longer something within his power. Worrying would accomplish nothing.
But in that quiet moment, a realization dawned on him: This was likely how Orochimaru had been able to establish Otogakure in the Land of Rice Fields so easily in the original timeline.
The war had ravaged the land, and in its wake, the daimyo must have realized how defenseless their nation truly was. The Land of Rice Fields had no choice but to seek strength of its own. Meanwhile, the Land of Hot Water, having learned from its painful experience, began to scale down its military and focus on economic recovery instead.
Different lessons, drawn from the same war, led to opposite decisions. But in the end, every choice was made for the sake of survival.
Akira reflected bitterly: Whether in the shinobi world or the world he came from, the law was always the same. The strong devour the weak. If you don't have power, you will be trampled.
That was the clearest truth this war had shown him. And so, his conviction deepened. He needed greater power.
He turned his thoughts once again to his puppet army plan. Individual strength could only go so far, but an army—a puppet army under his control—could be unstoppable. A force he alone could guide. That was the path forward.
He had been closely monitoring Scorpion's progress. Scorpion, under the control of a clone of Yakushi Kabuto, had been tirelessly conducting experiments on the tree clone and the Gelel ore vein.
Though Akira had yet to master the Four Symbols Sealing—a complex technique from the scroll the Third Hokage had given him—his research was progressing.
Through days of comparison between the remnants of the original seal and the techniques in the scroll, Akira had made significant breakthroughs.
He had finally learned how to manufacture Gelel Stones.
Previously, he had created crystalline bodies from the ore vein's energy, but they were only raw chakra crystals, unrefined and unstable. They lacked the safety protocols of the Gelel Empire's original designs.
Anyone could use those unrefined crystals, which made them dangerous.
Akira himself could use them through Scorpion because his main consciousness was in control, and he was adept at manipulating chakra.
But an ordinary person, with no ninja training, couldn't make use of such power. Clearly, the Gelel Empire had foreseen this issue. Their designs must have included seals to both protect the user and regulate the power.
Akira planned to draw energy from the ore vein using the same method he applied in the Regeneration Core. It was a technique that fused Scorpion's technology with water-style ninjutsu, enabling chakra absorption.
Using this, he had already harvested a significant amount of ore energy.
But he hadn't known how much was needed to create a proper Gelel Stone. Too little, and the result would be an incomplete shard. Too much, and the stone would be unstable, possibly even harmful.
After numerous trials, Akira finally discovered the ideal amount of energy. It produced a crystal roughly the same size as the standard Gelel Stone. This had likely been the Empire's own conclusion after endless experimentation.
Creating these stones took only two days, but Akira spent another full day designing a safeguard. He found inspiration again in the sealing scroll.
He discovered the technique known as "Contract Sealing," originally used to sever the bond between summoners and their beasts. By inverting the seal's structure, Akira created a mechanism that only allowed a specific chakra signature to activate the stone.
He used this technique to imprint control onto each Gelel Stone. Sealing was truly miraculous. A small amount of chakra could enforce powerful constraints.
Thanks to this, Akira produced hundreds of Gelel Stones, all bound by his chakra. Only he could wield them freely. Though there remained a risk that others might undo the seal or brute-force the energy within, Akira had done everything possible in the short term.
Even the Gelel Stones created by the ancient empire could be reverse-engineered eventually. Akira knew that. And yet, each step brought him closer to his goal.
He was no longer just a lone ninja.
With each sealed stone, with each puppet empowered by his vision, Akira became something greater: a one-man army, a force to be reckoned with in a world where only power spoke loudest.