Advancement and New Beginnings

In the early spring of Konoha's forty-ninth year, the Land of Wind remained bitterly cold. Yet Sunagakure was blessed with a rare, fleeting warmth as it bid farewell to the old year and welcomed the new. Shaye spent another New Year at home, sharing a modest but cozy holiday meal with his father, Shaliu, who had gradually adapted to a leisurely life after retirement. The clouds of war still hung overhead, making the peace of home all the more precious.

After the New Year, Shaye once more threw himself wholeheartedly into his research. The underground workshop was piled high with discarded design drafts and experimental materials. The stability of the miniaturized Spirit-Draining Seal, the balance between natural energy conversion efficiency and size, the inscription of ultra-miniature energy circuits... every problem was a formidable obstacle.

He failed time and time again. The miniature barrier cores used for testing repeatedly overloaded and shattered. The carefully selected conductive materials became brittle beneath the wash of natural energy. The fluctuations in energy output stubbornly refused to stabilize within the safety threshold...

Yet Shaye's gaze never wavered. His perseverance as an engineer in his previous life when facing technical challenges merged perfectly with the unyielding conviction of a ninja in this life. He recalculated everything over and over, adjusted the rune structures, tested every possible material ratio, and even used Magnet Release for precise microscopic processing.

Finally, on a silent late night, he carefully embedded the last thumbnail-sized fragment of the God Tree, covered in countless tiny runes, into the silver-gray metal casing that had undergone countless revisions. The entire device trembled slightly. The mysterious markings on its dial suddenly lit with a faint milky-white glow, then slowly faded away, leaving it as ancient and unremarkable as an ordinary watch.

Success!

Suppressing his excitement, Shaye