Gold dust surged up from the earth in a roaring tide, blotting out sky and sunlight alike.
Pakura stared, stunned out of her mind.
Feiyu flicked his hand casually.
The gold dust compressed and poured together into a towering golden pillar, heavy and solid—like some mythic iron staff slammed down to pin the ocean itself. It crashed into the sand right in front of her with a deep, shaking thoom.
Pakura reached out in a daze and brushed her fingers along the surface.
Cold. Gritty. Real.
Only Magnet Release could condense gold dust like this.
"…No way," she whispered. "You… you actually recreated the Gold Dust technique?!"
Then her eyes sharpened.
"And your control… it's on a completely different level than Rasa's."
Pakura had seen the Fourth Kazekage work before—she'd watched him "pan gold" for the village more than once. Even at his best, the amount he could pull out at a time wasn't even a third of what Feiyu was moving right now.
The gap was absurd.
But it made sense.
Rasa's chakra reserves couldn't compare to Feiyu's current body—bloodline refined again and again, soul-fed like a cheat, foundation polished to the edge of insanity.
And it wasn't just raw chakra.
Feiyu's chakra nature and shape transformations were leagues beyond Rasa's too. Same jutsu, same "bloodline technique"—but executed by Feiyu, it became several times stronger.
Feiyu glanced at her.
"As far as I know, after Rasa died, Sunagakure no longer had a 'proper' Magnet Release user. And you lost a major source of income along with him."
"Isn't that right?"
Pakura's face flushed. She coughed awkwardly.
"Th-that's… well… that's…"
Having the Kazekage himself go digging in the sand like a miner to patch the village budget wasn't exactly glorious. Even she felt embarrassed admitting it.
Feiyu rolled his eyes, half amused.
You think they didn't want to? The problem is they couldn't.
Without gold dust specifically, Magnet Release wasn't something you could just use to casually pan gold. Most people didn't have the conditions—or the finesse.
Feiyu's smile returned.
"And Magnet Release isn't the only thing I can offer."
"There's another technique—one that matters to Suna far more than Magnet Release ever will."
Pakura frowned instinctively.
More important than Magnet Release?
That sounded like nonsense.
Magnet Release was Sunagakure's strongest legacy—mature, versatile, perfectly suited to the desert, and refined by generations of Kazekage. Even gold dust alone had economic value so high it could keep the village breathing.
What could possibly beat that?
Then Feiyu answered her doubt without a word.
He clasped his hands together.
A wave of chakra pulsed outward—dense with life.
In an instant, the desert responded.
The sand seemed to come alive. A soft rustling spread across the dunes like the land itself was inhaling.
Grass sprouts pushed up.
Vines.
Branches.
Saplings.
One after another, they erupted from the ground—spreading over kilometers of desert in moments, green swallowing gold.
Pakura's face changed so violently she actually screamed.
"Th-this is…!"
Her voice cracked.
"Wood Release!!!"
In the shinobi world, "dying young" was never the real problem.
Being weak was.
Pakura's brain was blazing now, already racing past fear into pure hunger.
Feiyu's gaze slid toward her.
"So."
"Which matters more to Sunagakure—Magnet Release…"
"…or Wood Release?"
Pakura didn't even hesitate.
"Wood Release!" she blurted. "Who cares about playing with sand?! We've had enough sand our entire lives!"
She didn't even realize how badly she'd just insulted her own village's pride technique.
But after seeing Wood Release, her mind couldn't hold anything else.
Magnet Release was important. In the Land of Wind it was deadly. Gold dust could patch the budget.
But compared to Wood Release reshaping the desert, all of that instantly felt… small.
Ask every shinobi in Suna what they wanted more—Wood Release or Magnet Release—and the answer would be unanimous.
Wood Release.
Power, fame, influence—none of it mattered. The moment the words "Wood Release" appeared, Magnet Release was reduced to a footnote.
Because Wood Release didn't just kill people.
It changed the world.
It could plant forests, create water, carve oases—turn a desert country into something that could finally breathe.
No wonder Pakura looked like she'd just seen salvation.
Then she forced herself to swallow, voice trembling with urgency.
"…Can you teach our shinobi too?"
Feiyu answered instantly.
"Sorry."
"Wood Release isn't like Magnet Release."
"I can't teach it."
Pakura's expression stiffened, but she understood the logic instantly—even if it hurt.
Feiyu could force Magnet Release onto qualified shinobi because he had Rasa's soul and the method: using soul-overlay to guide those with the right Wind + Earth foundation across the last fusion step.
Wood Release was different.
This wasn't a "recipe" he learned from someone.
It was the result of his own bloodline regressing toward an ancient origin—awakening fragments of a Sage Body-type physique.
He didn't have a Wood Release soul in his hand.
So he couldn't "teach" it.
And even if he could…
He wouldn't.
Magnet Release could be used to mine. Wood Release could be used to build a nation.
As long as Feiyu remained the only one who could use it, Sunagakure would never be able to slip out of his palm.
Pakura exhaled slowly, swallowing her bitterness. She didn't like it—but in his position, she'd make the same choice.
After she calmed down, she realized something else too:
She wasn't actually losing much.
Wood Release and Magnet Release were both "free gifts" to Suna in the first place. And if Feiyu truly intended to help the village develop, then Suna could still ride Wood Release's impact—reshape the Land of Wind's environment over time.
Thinking that way made her expression easier to manage.
When Pakura and Feiyu returned to the village, they found a crowd of shinobi packed at the gate, faces bright with disbelief and joy.
Feiyu hadn't cast Wood Release far from the village. And because he'd aimed for maximum area rather than destructive power, plants had already spread right up to the entrance—some even creeping into the inner sections of Sunagakure's canyon.
Suna shinobi weren't idiots.
This wasn't nature.
It could only be ninjutsu.
And the most obvious answer was the one technique the entire shinobi world treated like a legend—
Wood Release.
Even if this Wood Release didn't look "high-intensity," did anyone in Suna care?
No.
They cared about one thing:
Plants could grow in the desert.
In the Land of Wind, green and water were treasures more valuable than gold.
Many of them looked like they were afraid to blink, terrified they'd wake up.
A gray-haired elder shinobi stepped forward, hands trembling.
"Kazekage-sama…" he asked shakily, voice thick with emotion. "What… what is this? Have you learned Wood Release?"
Pakura opened her mouth… then glanced sideways at Feiyu's masked face.
Feiyu gave the smallest nod.
Pakura forced herself to speak.
"It wasn't me."
"It was this member of my Kazekage Guard Unit."
"He has successfully synthesized the Wood Release kekkei genkai."
Wood Release—Water + Earth fusion—was common knowledge in the shinobi world. In theory, yes, any shinobi could attempt it.
But in practice?
For decades, every great village had researched it.
And besides Senju Hashirama…
no one had truly succeeded.
That alone showed how insane the difficulty was.
Sunagakure had researched it too. Of course they had.
They'd gotten nothing.
And now, when everyone had already stopped believing…
a Wood Release user had appeared inside their walls.
The elder's eyes filled with tears.
"Wonderful… wonderful…"
"Our Sunagakure is saved…!"
Pakura nearly choked.
Saved? It's not like we were about to be erased tomorrow—
…though, lately, the village had been collapsing faster and faster. Falling out of the Five Great Villages no longer felt impossible.
Several jōnin at the gate had attended yesterday's meeting. They'd been unhappy about Pakura appointing a masked stranger who wouldn't even show his face.
But the moment they heard the words "Wood Release," every complaint evaporated.
They didn't care where he came from.
If he was willing to green the desert, then even if he demanded a seat among the elders, they'd probably clap for him.
Amid cheering and open celebration, Feiyu and Pakura entered the village.
And to cement the momentum, Feiyu cast Wood Release again—this time covering the entire canyon around Sunagakure with grass and trees.
The cheers grew even louder.
By the time they returned to the Kazekage office, Pakura's forced smile had finally relaxed into something closer to real.
She even found herself thinking—
Maybe he's not as unbearable as I thought.
Then Feiyu snapped his fingers.
The shinobi who had followed Pakura into the office bowed politely and filed out like obedient puppets, closing the door behind them.
Pakura's smile froze.
Feiyu yawned, then dropped into the Kazekage's chair, kicked both legs up onto the desk, and spoke as if this was natural.
"Pour me a glass of water, Kazekage-miss."
Pakura's temple twitched. Her fist clenched—
…but she still went and poured water, then handed it over with stiff fingers.
Feiyu took a sip, stretched again, and said breezily:
"Now that I've shown you what I can do…"
"Kazekage-miss, shouldn't you show a little sincerity?"
"Sincerity?" Pakura blinked, thrown off. "What do you want?"
Feiyu chuckled.
"Even when you send your shinobi on missions, you pay them."
"I'm not even your shinobi."
"If I'm greening your village and helping you manufacture Magnet Release users… you don't seriously think I'm doing it all for free, do you?"
Pakura narrowed her eyes and tried to twist out of it.
"You said you want to control all of Sunagakure. If the village is already yours… what 'payment' do you still need?"
Feiyu's smile turned sharp.
"Don't play word games with me."
"And you don't want me to use genjutsu to 'make you cooperate' the hard way."
Pakura ground her teeth.
"…Fine."
"What kind of payment do you want?"
"Just so you know—Sunagakure doesn't have much money right now."
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