The forge burned bright, its roar a low thunder that reminded me of the steady hum of chakra through earth.
Tamaha didn't look up as I stepped in. He never did when he was in the middle of work. The old Uchiha was all discipline and disdain, shaped like iron and twice as unyielding.
I simply observed, never interrupting
"It's coming along," he spoke, his consideration never wavering, "It'll be finished in a few weeks."
Later that evening, with the forge behind me and Gray still cocooned in chakra-saturated fluid, I returned to the lab, checking around the perimeter to inspect the integrity of the seals. The containment system was holding. Gray was deeper in the vat now.
Kneeling beside the vat, I placed a hand against the reinforced glass. The seal-work glowed faintly beneath his palm.
"How are you feeling, buddy?"
Gray didn't respond immediately. When he did, his voice carried a depth that reverberated in the walls. "Like I've eaten something alive."
"Least you're not bored."
Gray's great eye opened slowly, pressed up against the vat to look directly at me, slit-pupiled and golden, studying me with a strange clarity. "It burns."
"Then it's working, probably."
Several diagrams on nearby monitors showed Gray's chakra network fluctuating, the seals shifting to accommodate spikes in flow.
The monitors displayed a pretty much live telling of what was going on with Gray's chakra.
If you knew how to interpret it of course.
Only no means of recording this info was in Orochimaru's possession.
Nothing clone labor couldn't fix, though given the lack of clones present, I'd say they got fed up mindlessly recording data.
Fair.
What was already recorded was enough.
Scribbling data peaks in a notebook in a notebook, I was pleased with the amount of chakra loss, less than I anticipated.
Crossing the lab I held a vial. It glowed faintly, swirling with energy, another reservoir of my chakra. With careful precision, I inserted it into the secondary feed line, letting it slowly integrate into the system.
"This one's more concentrated," i mused.
Returning to my notes, i scribbled some adjustments and underlining key transitions in chakra flux that suggested, their were periods of accelerated chakra development going on in Gray.
flipping through pages of data transcribed by clones my mind wondered.
Time was necessary.
Here, in the sublevel of the lab beneath Leaf's radar, I worked.
Still.
Eventually my chakra stores would ran dry.
A part of me would be a bit disappointed.
Another was pleased to no longer be in a room with a vat full of more of myself.
than myself.
It was an odd experience.
Only now with the majority of my chakra gone, I was down to the last batch.
So I figured I'd drain the solution, the stuff was potent for a good while, but if this was the last of my chakra stores, I'd be using a fresh batch.
Only once the Solution was gone & my seals were dormant for the moment.
Another chakra signature could be made out.
one with an impossible familiarity
Like the same song played through a different instrument.
Wordlessly i reactived my seal, keeping chakra in, but that also apparently meant out as well, given I couldn't sense him with them on.
The lab had grown quieter, more mechanical. The hum of chakra-infused seals doing their job as the vat filled for the last time.
I didn't record my observation in any way Orochimaru could find.
…
Today, it was time.
i stood at the threshold of Tamaha's forge once again.
No words were exchanged at first. Tamaha looked older than usual, less from age and more from the toll of forging something so stubborn into something sublime.
He offered me a side glance, then simply turned and lifted a heavy cloth from the weapon stand beside him.
Steel hummed beneath the cloth before it was even unveiled.
Then it was.
And it was perfect.
Thick-backed, double-edged. The metal shimmered faintly with a blue-white hue, laced through with fine lines of fuinjutsu so precise they looked like veins.
Those were a bitch to do.
Picking it up, slowly. The sword didn't hum or crackle like some unstable mess of tags and seals.
No reason to believe this was more beyond some boys personal preference
He turned it slowly, inspecting the blade, the balance, the grip.
Before it came to life.
only.
There were no discharges of lighting release.
No concerning occasional hum.
The current of lightning release embraced the sword like a second skin, maintaining its shape wonderfully.
I had to.
The rounded shield bracer sat exactly where I'd left it on the armory rack, just above the row of prototypes that hadn't survived field trials.
Made from a reinforced Anbu forearm guard and layered with a semi-oval chakra-conductive dome, the barrier array inside responded to my signature with no delay.
With effort akin to a thought.
It formed.
A perfect hemisphere, flat edge facing my arm, convex side outward. Thick but flexible, semi-rigid on impact, soft as water until it met resistance.
I slipped it on.
It clicked into place.
Drawing the sword again, I rotated my wrist slowly, pairing the two. Weight balance shifted, not badly. Actually, better than expected
The sword wanted to swing.
The shield wanted to absorb.
For once, my gear didn't feel like separate entities I beat into shape.
They felt like limbs.