— — — — — — —
Kaito shook his head and said, "No! It requires the infusion of supernatural energies such as mental power, chakra, or Haki."
"Both ninjas and awakened Haki users in the pirate world can use it."
"However, it's not impossible for me to design and create spatial equipment that ordinary people can use!"
"I'll take some time to craft a batch in the future."
He realized that there was indeed a large market for ordinary people as well.
"Alright!"
Uchiha Naori nodded in satisfaction. "That's good! Are you planning to sell this, or...?"
"Of course, I'm selling it!" Kaito nodded firmly. "My contractors don't have much use for it, so Konoha won't need it much either."
"But this thing is extremely valuable. If we don't sell it to gain funds and resources, it would be a waste."
"However, we can't sell ones with too large a storage capacity, and we must control the quantity—especially for the ninja craftsmen!"
"Otherwise, it could cause trouble when we unify the ninja world in the future."
This kind of equipment would be a game-changer in warfare, so they had to be cautious.
If too many were made and with large capacities, logistics would become incredibly easy, eliminating concerns about supply chains.
At the same time, it would be highly useful for elite squads executing special missions.
They had to be careful.
"Got it!" Uchiha Naori nodded in understanding. "But it's only for the next few years. Once we make a major breakthrough in strength, these details won't matter anymore!"
"By then, mere spatial equipment won't determine the outcome of war!"
"Exactly! By then, we can distribute them freely!" Kaito agreed with a nod.
After that, Kaito and Uchiha Naori discussed the specifics of space teleportation before teleporting to Drum Island.
As soon as he arrived, he spread out his Observation Haki, quickly covering the entire island with his perception.
The next moment, Kaito teleported again, appearing near the royal treasury.
Then, he expanded his mental perception, scanning everything inside the treasury.
"As expected, the Munch-Munch Fruit has been in the Kingdom's treasury all along! I should have come earlier to check!"
"But it's not too late now!"
With this thought, Kaito didn't even step inside the treasury. With just a thought, he used his mental power to extract the Munch-Munch Fruit and another Devil Fruit, storing them in his inventory.
The next instant, he teleported into the Space Gate's Main dimension.
With a wave of his hand, he summoned the two Devil Fruits and began analyzing them.
In an instant, he grasped their essence.
One was undoubtedly the Paramecia-type Munch-Munch Fruit.
The other was the Zoan-type Ox-Ox Fruit, Bison Model.
With another wave of his hand, Kaito extracted the sea's curse and the Devil's will from both fruits, sending them back into an unknown part of the pirate world's sea, returning them to the collective consciousness of the world.
Then, Kaito summoned a massive metal ingot.
He directly extracted the Munch-Munch Fruit's power and embedded it into the metal.
Buzz!
In an instant, the metal ingot seemed to come alive, forming a giant mouth.
Through his control over spatial authority, Kaito immediately understood its function—by feeding various metals into this mouth, he could produce and manufacture special alloys.
Simple and efficient.
Without hesitation, Kaito retrieved many of the metals he had stored earlier and began testing different combinations.
He even tried adding non-metallic materials at times.
After several hours of experimentation, he tested hundreds of different alloy properties.
Among them, more than a dozen were useful.
However, he hadn't yet managed to create a space-attributed alloy—it seemed some key materials were still missing.
On the other hand, he successfully created a Shape-memory alloy and a high-toughness, high-strength, energy-conducting special alloy. He carefully recorded the ratios.
"With this metal, crafting energy-conducting weapons in the future will be much easier."
"There's no longer a need to use large amounts of highly pure, expensive, and rare chakra-conducting metal."
"With just a small amount of chakra-conducting metal or this pirate-world conductive metal, we can mass-produce it!"
"This is great news."
"I should produce more of these two metals in the future and provide them to the clan and the village to craft weapons for equipping my loyal contract ninjas, enhancing their strength."
Kaito smiled as he thought about it.
For ninjas, a powerful chakra-conducting weapon could significantly boost their combat power.
But in the past, these metals were both rare and expensive. Unless someone was a direct descendant of a major clan, it was nearly impossible to obtain one.
Even within major clans, only a select few had access to such weapons.
For example, Sarutobi Asuma's Flying Swallow blades.
Oh! But now, the Sarutobi Clan had fallen into disgrace.
Most of them were forced to complete mandatory tasks every day to pay off their debts and atone for their crimes.
Asuma wouldn't be getting any chakra weapons in the future.
"Just now, I sensed other Devil Fruit fluctuations on Drum Island. If my guess is correct, I should find another one!"
After testing the Munch-Munch Fruit's abilities, Kaito suddenly remembered his earlier observations when his Observation Haki and mental perception covered the entire island.
Without hesitation, he teleported back to Drum Island, this time arriving in a forest to the east.
Once there, he activated his mental perception and carefully scanned the area.
A moment later, he vanished again, reappearing atop a large tree hundreds of meters away. He reached out, plucked a Devil Fruit hanging from a branch, and stored it in his Space Gate.
He extracted the sea curse and devil will from the fruit and sent them into the distant ocean, ensuring they wouldn't interfere.
Next, Kaito analyzed the fruit to determine its type.
"As expected... The Zoan-type, Human-Human Fruit (Hito Hito no Mi)."
A slight smirk appeared on his face as he couldn't help but mock the situation in his mind.
That's right—this was the same Devil Fruit that Chopper would one day eat, the one called the Human-Human Fruit. A seemingly useless fruit that simply turned the eater into an ordinary human.
"I have a feeling this fruit isn't as simple as it seems! Let's take a closer look."
With this thought, Kaito conducted a deeper analysis of the fruit. The results confirmed his suspicions.
"Indeed! The radiance of its spiritual essence proves that this fruit is anything but ordinary!"
"In my past life, some people speculated that the reason Chopper became such a genius doctor, invented Rumble Balls, and developed multiple transformation forms for combat—all stemmed from this seemingly useless Human-Human Fruit."
"Some even theorized that this fruit, despite its unimpressive appearance, was actually an overpowered Devil Fruit because it represented the very concept of humanity itself."
"Whoever eats it can unlock human potential to an extraordinary degree, mastering anything quickly, possessing incredible learning abilities, and adapting to all kinds of knowledge."
"I used to doubt that theory, but now I'm convinced—this fruit is completely broken!"
Thinking this over, Kaito found himself in a dilemma. "If that's the case, I can't just dispose of this fruit carelessly... But who should I give it to?"
"And then there's Chopper... That blue-nosed reindeer, no doubt about it."
"If I don't let him eat this fruit, he'll probably remain an ordinary reindeer forever and end up in a miserable situation."
"Starving to death might be the best fate awaiting him."
"But giving it to him feels like such a waste!"
"Maybe I should find a different Human-Human Fruit for him? Or better yet, contract him first and teach him Primal Chakra Refinement and Meditation to awaken his intelligence?"
For now, a contract was out of the question.
Since Chopper hadn't eaten the Human-Human Fruit yet, his intelligence was limited and didn't meet the standard for a contract.
"For now, I'll just transmit some chakra to him, turn him into a ninja beast, and boost his intelligence a bit before making a contract and passing on cultivation techniques."
"As for this Human-Human Fruit? I'll hold onto it for now and discuss it with Mom and the others."
With that decision, Kaito teleported a short distance away to where the blue-nosed reindeer he sensed earlier, lay injured.
This reindeer—Chopper—was startled and tried to flee.
But with an injured leg, he stumbled and collapsed.
"Relax, I won't hurt you, Chopper. Come with me!"
Using his mental transmission, Kaito conveyed his goodwill.
Only then did Chopper calm down, though his eyes were still filled with fear as he stared at Kaito.
Kaito reached out and placed his hand on Chopper, immediately casting Healing Jutsu. In no time, Chopper's injuries were completely healed.
Before the little reindeer could run away, Kaito put him under a genjutsu-induced sleep and stored him in a time-stopped chamber within the Space Gate.
With that done, he teleported away from the Pirate world.
— — —
That evening, during dinner—
Kaito decided to inform Mikoto and the others about his newly mastered space teleportation technique.
"What?! Kaito, you actually managed to create an advanced version of Flying Thunder God? That's insane! I've only just finished learning the technique!" Minato exclaimed, utterly shocked.
Kaito's progress was so ridiculously fast that Minato felt like he'd never catch up.
"Yeah, kid, you're learning way too fast! It's frustrating!" Tsunade grumbled.
Mikoto and Kushina both nodded in agreement.
"Haha, can't help it! Just the way I am!" Kaito laughed, shrugging casually.
"Tch!"
Everyone gave him a look of disdain.
"Spatial teleportation is definitely powerful, but the entry requirements are insanely high. We won't be able to use it anytime soon," Minato said with a helpless shake of his head.
Even though his talent in space-time ninjutsu was exceptional, and his daily interdimensional travel was further honing this talent, mastering Flying Thunder God to perfection would still take years—possibly over a decade.
This new space teleportation technique? For now, it was just a dream.
"Oh, by the way, today I also found the Munch-Munch Fruit, the Ox-Ox Fruit, and the Human-Human Fruit on Drum Island."
"And I even found Chopper before he ate the Human-Human Fruit..."
Kaito then proceeded to share his experiments with the Munch-Munch Fruit and his analysis of the Human-Human Fruit's true potential with everyone.
.
.
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