In Sunagakure, Pakura succeeded to the position of Wind Shadow. Hatake Sakumo led a delegation there, with Matsudaira among them.
Fugaku remained in the Land of Rivers, spending most of his time in the Underground Cavern. Every day or two, he scraped a little powder from the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path and placed it in a Nutrient Tank.
The Ten-Tails powder in the tank had begun to gather. Strands of something resembling flesh were slowly growing inside it.
A faint smile appeared on Fugaku's face. He turned and walked toward the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path.
A Kunai appeared in his hand again, and he began scraping the Ten-Tails' surface. This time, Fugaku was not content with just a few cells.
He circled the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, scraping until a washbasin was nearly full of cells taken from its body.
Fugaku knew better than to keep shearing the same patch. He scraped nearly every part of the statue's enormous body, though to something of its size, it was no more than a scratch.
He poured the entire basin into the Cultivation Tank. The Ten-Tails cells began to move slowly, and the strands of flesh absorbed them and gradually grew larger.
A month passed in the blink of an eye. Nearly every day, Fugaku poured a basin of cells into the Cultivation Tank.
Fugaku had replaced the original Nutrient Tank with a much larger one. Through its glass, he could see that all the Ten-Tails cells had gathered together and were slowly evolving.
Every few days, he dripped some of his blood into the tank. Then he pulled out the flesh and poured a large amount of his own Chakra into it.
His purpose was simple: to forge a connection between himself and the creature.