From the moment he approached the lonely Gaara that was sent to fight the demons because of his position as Jinchuriki, Bakorio has already planned but that point how to earn Shukaku's trust, which is why he only told him about his resemblance to Bunpuku just to make him act recklessly so that he feels indebted to him later when he saves him and return to him as he just did…

And after shaking hands with him and agreeing to teach him how to control his new body, the sweet sound of the notification he was waiting for finally echoed in his ears!

[Quest friend of a tailed beast 3: befriend three tailed beasts from this world: Reward 2000 points + the Skill: Sand Army]

'Hmm? Hopefully, these aren't useless summons since I already have plenty of strong ones…' Thought Bakorio silently while staring at the skeleton body he gave to Shukaku before he read the description of the skill curiously

[Sand Army Level 1: Grants the user the ability to summon soldiers made out of sand that have a certain level of autonomy and can be given complex instructions. Can summon one soldier per level. Cost 500 Chakra]

'Hmm?' Bakorio's eyes widened slightly as he was truly surprised, This was the first time he received a skill from this chain of quests, the first two being the abilities; Kurama's inheritance and Exoskeleton... this skill however didn't appear that bad considering the number of true clones he had, which means at level 100, he's going to have a terrifying army at his command that would only cost him chakra!

So, without hesitation, he cast the skill, and instantly, sand started to gather in the air in front of him and formed into the shape of a typical solder made out of sand, and it was covered in seals similar to the ones on Shukaku's body, but Bakorio was disappointed since he could tell that the soldier appeared to merely have the most basic quality of weapons and armor…

Gaara stared at the sand soldier curiously and asked "Oh… Teacher, what's this Jutsu?"

Bakorio narrowed his eyes slightly and replied "I'm just testing it out, give me a second…" Before he immediately used his appraisal ability on it.

[Sand soldier Level 1]

[Attributes]

[STR AGI PHY SPI]

[100 100 100 100]

[Abilities]

[Spear thrust] [Sand Spikes] [Sand Armor]

'It seems like it has 20% of my current attributes, this isn't that bad of a skill considering I can summon 100 of them soon and they might even get stronger and gain far better skills and items as well…' The moment Bakorio finished his thoughts, he turned to Gaara and said "Go ahead, test your strength against it"

"I will beat it easily!" Proclaimed Gaara before he started manipulating sand into a spear and shot it at the soldier but the latter simply defended against it with his spear and appeared to have locked at Gaara as a potential enemy so it rushed at him.

'Hm, the reaction speed isn't that bad, did it inherit my own as well? That would be broken... and it also can act without orders huh' wondered Bakorio as he watched the sand soldier giving Gaara a good fight despite it being weaker than him physically, but Gaara soon got used to its attacks and was able to defeat it by trapping it in his sand and destroying it with his sand coffin Jutsu.

"See, I told you I can beat it!" spoke Gaara with a delighted look on his face, but Bakorio simply grinned and said "You did yes… this will be a good way to train you from now on" spoke Bakorio calmly as another sand soldier appeared in front of him similar to the last one carrying a simple looking spear and directly rushed at Gaara with deadly thrust!

That become the new training routine for Gaara while Shukaku started training in refining his control over his massive chakra reserves and Bakorio was skilled in teaching this considering that he did a similar thing with Kurama so everything went pretty smoothly.

Meanwhile, Gaara wasn't the only person to benefit from Bakorio's sand army being their sparing partners, in fact. Sasuke, Naruto, and every single kid of the various academies started to use them as sparing partners through his numerous true clones causing the skill to level up at a frightening speed!

Bakorio discovered that the quality of the sand army's weapons and armor, as well as skills, kept increasing and they started wielding both a shield and a spear like spartans until the skill level reached 30. That's where he gained a new type of solder, an archer and their quality kept increasing with each level as well.

At level 60 he gained a new type of solder which he referred to as a sand assassin, their attributes and abilities were as such that they were swift and good at sneak attacks and they surprisingly looked like bandits from their clothes and the bayonets they wielded, but they lacked the durability of the sand soldiers...

At level 90, he gained the ability to summon a sand rider, it had human-like intelligence and actually inherited 40% of his attributes! But its fearsomeness didn't end there as it also had incredible skills in controlling sand and had great mastery over the weapons it wielded which could be a sword or a spear. It also had great mobility as it was riding a sand horse making it a fearsome force, but Bakorio can only summon 10 of them while the rest needed to be normal soldiers.

However, he was immensely satisfied with this skill, especially considering that he had more than a 100 true clones so he easily gained an army of 10000 soldiers that he could use as much as he wanted without worrying about casualties!

….

In the hidden village of the dead, a meeting was held attended by the previously strongest legends of the ninja world, but the most terrifying person among them was a hunched man sitting at the end of the table and he was garnering many looks of fear from the great characters!

This was Mara, Izumo's right-hand man, and these legends understood after many of them had their souls tortured by him from showing the slightest signs of disrespect that he wasn't someone they could mess with!

"What brought you here?" Spoke Izuna coldly while staring at Mara and the letter calmly observed them and said "I'm here because the bunch of you were incapable of capturing a tailed beast that came to your doors, how disappointing… especially considering that many of you didn't use your full strength to finish that easy task"

Right as he finished his words, Mara suddenly raised his hand but it was only a while later that the people in the room felt the sound of a sonic boom echoing from where Izuna was sitting and they noticed that he disappeared from the room which had a new hole added to its wall.

Then, a blood-curdling scream echoed from the distance that made the people in the room feel a chill, and they all understood that it was the effect of Mara's attack, because it can even harm the soul directly!

"This is the price for not using your Susanoo and hiding your full power, now then, let's continue with these meetings, any plans to deal with the dead hunters and their new sand soldiers?"

…

As this meeting in the land of the dead was undergoing, Madara who was training with one of Bakorio's true clones suddenly felt a chill coursing through his body and his heart suddenly started aching causing him to snap out of his meditative state and lose control over the natural energy running through his body making him almost turn into stone if not for Bakorio's quick reaction in expelling it out of his body.

"Did something happen?" Asked Bakorio with a serious look on his face and Madara simply stared at the air silently before he responded "I'm not sure, my heart is aching and Izuna's face flashed across my mind for some reason… When are we going to save him?"

Bakorio stared silently at Madara before he let out a sigh and thought 'It seems like he truly values his brother a lot, but the pain the world is going to suffer is only starting unfortunately…'