[Akimichi Chōza truly adored his adopted son, Shiro, providing him with food, clothing, and all the necessities just like his biological son, Chōji.]
[Although Shiro's appetite was enormous—by the age of three, he could eat as much as five grown men—Akimichi Chōza waved his hand grandly and declared, "The Akimichi Clan can afford it!"]
[However, ever since Shiro had devoured his family's house, he gradually began to find even the most delicious meals tasteless.]
[No matter how exquisite the dishes, they all felt like chewing wax in his mouth, making it difficult for him to swallow.]
[He began to crave the taste of his old home's wooden floor…]
[As his aversion to regular food grew, his appetite diminished day by day until, eventually, he went two whole days without eating a single bite.]
[His unusual behavior terrified Akimichi Chōza, who feared he was ill. He immediately summoned the best doctors in Konoha to examine him.]
[Yet doctor after doctor came and went, none able to diagnose any illness.]
[After three more days of barely surviving on water alone, the deep hunger within Shiro finally overpowered his self-restraint.]
["Eat… eat… wood…"]
[His weak, fragmented words filled Akimichi Chōza with excitement.]
["Son, say it again! What do you want to eat? I'll have it prepared for you right away!"]
["Wood… wood…"]
[Hearing him repeatedly mutter the word "wood," Akimichi Chōza assumed he meant some type of dish with "wood" in its name and rushed out to order the servants to prepare it.]
[But before he returned, Shiro's instincts had already taken over.]
[His crimson eyes fixated on the wooden furniture in his room, and the moment he took a bite of a bedside wooden carving, a gluttonous feast began…]
[When Akimichi Chōza finally returned from giving orders to the servants, he walked into the room only to witness Shiro gnawing on the leg of a wooden table as if it were the most delicious delicacy in the world.]
[Akimichi Chōza nearly had a heart attack on the spot.]
[After thorough examinations confirmed that eating wood had no adverse effects on Shiro's health, Akimichi Chōza had no choice but to accept his son's bizarre dietary habits.]
[Half a month later, the Akimichi Clan established their own lumberyard in Konoha. Strangely enough, none of the cut timber was ever sold—they were all transported directly to the clan's compound.]
[Two months later, a second lumberyard was opened.]
[Three months later, a third…]
[By the time Shiro turned five, he had single-handedly led the Akimichi Clan to an unprecedented feat—owning eight lumberyards in Konoha, none of which were profitable.]
[The daily timber shipments barely kept up with Shiro's growing appetite, but one day, he suddenly lost interest in eating wood.]
[He wanted to try something new.]
[Picking up a random stone from the ground, he took a bite.]
[Crack!]
[The stone shattered in his mouth. He savored the texture and found it surprisingly tasty.]
[From that moment on, he abandoned wood in favor of stone.]
[The Akimichi Clan's eight lumberyards finally became profitable. In a short period, the clan grew into the largest wood supplier in the Land of Fire.]
[Akimichi Chōza, delighted beyond measure, repeatedly praised his past decision to adopt Shiro.]
[Since stones were plentiful and freely available, the clan no longer needed to collect special food for him, so Chōza didn't pay much attention to Shiro's new preference.]
[By the time Shiro turned seven, he had progressed from eating softer rocks like talc to much harder stones like granite. His taste became increasingly refined, and ordinary rocks no longer satisfied him.]
[One day, while alone in his room, he caught the scent of something unique.]
[As someone who had been eating stones for years, he instantly recognized the scent—only extremely hard rocks emitted such an aroma, and only he could perceive it.]
[Following the scent, he searched the room until he discovered it was coming from a crack in the floor.]
[The fragrance intensified his hunger, and without hesitation, he bit into the ground.]
[Soon, he had chewed a large pit into the floor.]
[Jumping into the hole, he kept eating downward. After digging two meters deep, he finally uncovered a piece of crystal-clear stone that shimmered brilliantly under the sunlight.]
[It was a diamond!]
[Shiro instantly recognized the legendary hardest mineral in the world. Thrilled, he tried to pull it out, but it was firmly embedded in the earth.]
[After several failed attempts to extract it, he decided to devour it on the spot!]
[Opening his mouth wide, he bit down, and the so-called hardest stone crumbled in his mouth like tofu.]
[The taste was absolutely exquisite!]
[Determined not to let such a delicacy go to waste, he continued devouring it at a frenzied pace, biting deeper and deeper into the ground.]
[After what felt like thousands of bites, the diamond still wasn't gone—it was much larger than he had anticipated.]
[Completely absorbed in his feast, Shiro failed to notice that, without the diamond's structural support, the entire Akimichi Clan's compound was slowly sinking into the earth.]
[By the time he had eaten his way fifty meters underground and finally finished the last bite, he climbed up, ready to go back to sleep—only to find two major problems.]
[One, he couldn't climb back up.]
[Two, the Akimichi Clan's compound was collapsing into the ground.]
[The sinking accelerated until…]
[Boom!]
[Days later, Akimichi Chōza, who had been away on a mission, received an urgent message from his clan.]
[He opened the letter and nearly collapsed on the spot.]
["What?! Our clan compound is gone?!"]
[Meanwhile, Shiro was tied to a massive cross at the center of the Akimichi Clan's ruins, surrounded by furious clan members.]
[The Akimichi clan members were awaiting their leader's return, wondering what kind of punishment he would decide for Shiro.]
[As for Shiro, bound to the cross, he was deep in thought—now that he was done with stones, what should he eat next…?]
Shiro: (°ー°〃)…