Rasa knew more about the Grell Stones—now called Devil Fruits—than most, but still not enough. In the original timeline a merchant group had tried to study and weaponize them, only to get crushed by a bunch of young shinobi. Sunagakure's research was already miles ahead of that amateur operation.
"How much stronger than a normal Devil Fruit?"
"How far can it push someone?"
Daya finished the surgery and stepped up to Rasa and Ebizo.
"Daya, how do you feel?"
"Lord Kazekage, I can feel a massive surge of power inside me. It's strong."
"Then show me."
"Yes, Lord Kazekage!"
Daya took a deep breath.
In the next instant an overwhelming aura exploded from his body. His form began to swell at a visible rate. Human features faded rapidly until he stood as a colossal beast—three razor-sharp horns sprouting from his head, skin hardened into dense plating that radiated crushing pressure.
"Lord Kazekage, right now I feel unstoppable!" Daya roared with excitement.
Rasa nodded. "Then test it. Attack me."
Daya froze. "Lord Kazekage, but—"
"No buts. You really think you can threaten me? No one else in the village can measure your new strength this fast."
"Alright… Lord Kazekage, here I come!"
"Come on."
"Lord Kazekage—watch yourself!"
Daya charged like a living battering ram. The ground shook with every thunderous step.
Rasa didn't dodge. He simply raised a hand. A thick wall of gold dust formed in front of him.
Boom!
Daya slammed into the shield. The impact shattered the gold dust barrier, but the force was stopped cold.
"Not bad impact," Rasa said, eyes narrowing with interest. "Magnet Release—Gold Dust Thousand Needles!"
Hundreds of razor-sharp gold needles materialized and streaked toward Daya. They flew faster and hit harder than ordinary senbon. They should have shredded flesh.
Instead they barely scratched the hardened hide. Only repeated strikes on the exact same spot finally drew blood.
"Defense is solid too," Rasa called out. "Again!"
The spar continued. Rasa switched between offense and defense, probing every aspect of Daya's new form for dozens of exchanges. Finally Daya's breathing turned ragged. He couldn't hold the transformation any longer. His massive body shrank rapidly until he stood in human form again, panting.
Rasa turned to Ebizo. "Did you record everything?"
Ebizo nodded. "Yes, Lord Kazekage. In transformed state his strength increased dramatically and his defense even more so, but agility dropped. He also can't use ninjutsu while transformed. Overall the boost is massive. Before, Daya was average among jonin. Now he's solidly elite jonin level—roughly the power of a high-end summoning beast."
Rasa replayed the fight in his head. Exactly like a powerful summoning beast… except this one had a shinobi's brain and could switch forms at will. That flexibility made the whole package far deadlier.
Ebizo looked at Rasa with open respect. "Lord Kazekage… your strength keeps growing at an absurd rate."
Back when the Fourth Kazekage seat was decided, many village elders had been split—some backed Rasa, others supported Pakura. Most thought her power was at least equal to his. At that time Rasa was considered weaker than the Third Kazekage.
Then Rasa started showing what he could really do. He crushed an entire clan alone. Wiped out four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen single-handedly. Went head-to-head with Minato and came out on top. Now he'd crippled Jiraiya. He kept pulling out techniques the Third Kazekage had never even dreamed of.
People could write that off as "he just got lucky with new jutsu." But today Rasa had casually dismantled an elite-jonin-level fighter using nothing but basic Magnet Release and ordinary gold-dust applications—no big chakra techniques at all. Effortless. That wasn't normal Kage-level power anymore.
Daya walked over, shoulders slumped. Getting a high-tier Devil Fruit had already given him a huge leap, yet he'd still been completely overwhelmed. He hadn't expected to lose that badly.
"Daya, don't look so down," Ebizo said. "That Devil Fruit pushed you straight into elite jonin territory. That's huge."
Daya's eyes lifted slightly. "You really think I'm elite jonin level now?"
"Absolutely."
Rasa glanced at Ebizo. "How many more stones like this one do we have?"
"So far we've only found two. We've finished processing just this one. Out of the eight hundred-plus we screened, only these two showed the special traits. If the ratio holds, we're probably looking at ten or twelve total."
Rasa's eyebrows rose. One high-tier Devil Fruit could turn a regular jonin into an elite jonin. Ten or twelve of them would be an enormous boost for Sunagakure—roughly the same combat power as Mist's entire Seven Ninja Swordsmen, and those blades were considered village treasures.
"Ebizo, locate and process every one of these special stones as fast as possible. War is coming again. I want you to build Sunagakure an elite strike team around them."