Forging a Silver-White Wooden Spear Deep in the Iron Mine

"By tomorrow?"

Asuma tapped the Dark Bracer with Flying Swallow. The narrow marks left by the blade were already closing.

"At this rate, the ore will wreck you before Haku's Ice Release even gets the chance to touch you."

Chiba continued sending his roots into the ore layer. Iron flowed through the conduits into his arm, and the wood grain along his shoulder thickened another layer.

"So you break it."

"You take me for a blacksmith?"

"Blacksmiths don't know Wind Release."

Asuma raised Flying Swallow, wind-nature chakra clinging to its edge.

"This strike will cut into the conduits. Stop if you can't evade it."

"Do it."

The wind blade swept across the bracer. The dark wood grain split down the middle, and two of the three conduits inside snapped.

Chiba closed his fingers. The fragments turned into fine roots and retreated beneath his skin, while a new spear shaft grew from his palm.

"Again."

"You already lost two conduits."

"They can grow back."

"Even a Sage Body needs to catch its breath."

"It doesn't have a mouth."

The hand holding Asuma's blade rose half an inch.

"Did Bai Ye teach you that?"

"He wouldn't say it that briefly."

The second strike came down. More than half the spearhead was sliced away, and the Bone Wood core exposed at the break had already been stained iron-colored.

Chiba drove the broken spear into the ore layer. Its roots swallowed the fragments back, and the reconstructed shaft was a full circle thinner than before.

Asuma studied the patterns on the spear.

"The strength hasn't changed, but it's gotten heavier."

"Too many impurities."

"Tazuna said this vein couldn't be refined into good blades."

"Wood Release can filter it."

Chiba pressed the spear's butt into the ground. Fine roots stripped away stone dust that could