Nagi swung Raikiri again and again. Wherever the blade passed, the grass and trees withered and burst into flame as if scorched by the midday sun. He discovered that the sword provided an immense boost to his Sun Breathing techniques. The meteorite from outer space supplied a seemingly endless source of energy, while the absorptive nature of the Executioner's Blade had fused with the sun ore, allowing it to draw power from sunlight to enhance its own attributes. As long as the sun was out, the blade would absorb its light and heat, channeling it into the steel.
"This," Nagi murmured to himself, "is a true Nichirin Blade."
After performing the final form of the Sun Breathing style, Nagi sheathed his sword. The forest before him was gone. Wherever Raikiri had passed, everything was scorched and withered, as if it had been exposed to a sun a hundred times hotter than normal. He didn't know how it would fare against a person yet, but when he had tested it on some rocks and large trees, it had cut through them as easily as tofu. It was like a Jedi's lightsaber, slicing through stone with no resistance at all. The damage output was maxed out. He just wasn't sure what its effects would be at night.
What did annoy Nagi, however, was that he had specifically asked Watanabe to make the blade look plain and unremarkable, not strange and outlandish like the Seven Ninja Swords. But as it turned out, whenever he used it, the blade transformed like a Super Saiyan, erupting in a fiery aura. It was so flashy and magnificent, as if it were afraid people wouldn't know how extraordinary it was.
With a final slash, Nagi sent a crescent-shaped wave of energy flying hundreds of meters, slamming into the side of a mountain.
"Feels a bit like a Getsuga Tensho," he mused.
Stroking the treasured blade, Nagi recalled that Orochimaru's Sword of Kusanagi also had a long-range attack. In his fight with Naruto, the blade had suddenly extended for hundreds of meters, piercing Naruto and sending him flying, only to be blocked by his Tailed Beast cloak. A sturdy, treasured sword that could extend for hundreds of meters... Nagi didn't know what other abilities the Sword of Kusanagi had, but that extension ability alone was worthy of praise. A surprise long-range strike during an assassination, and then another...
Nagi looked up at the sun. It was time to make a trip back, to learn the final form of Sun Breathing, the Thirteenth Form. It sounded like the "Thirteen Deadly Swords"...
Sometime after Mifune's death, a fundamental Breathing Style began to spread throughout the Land of Iron. Many samurai were astonished to find that this technique could actually enhance their combat abilities. Many with high aptitude began to try to fuse this basic Breathing Style with their own swordsmanship, creating their own unique styles and greatly increasing their strength.
If a samurai and a ninja of equal strength were to be compared, the samurai would often win in a pure taijutsu match, but the ninja would win in terms of overall combat prowess. This was because the ninja's endless array of ninjutsu and their unscrupulous assassination tactics generally gave them the upper hand. In a large-scale battle with tens of thousands of combatants, the samurai fared even worse. When a ninja army combined their efforts to unleash a barrage of ninjutsu, the samurai would often be defeated outright.
But this fundamental Breathing Style greatly improved the overall strength of the Land of Iron's samurai. In the past, samurai who wanted to survive, like Hanzo or the White Fang of the Leaf, often had to train in both ninjutsu and swordsmanship. A pure swordsman simply couldn't survive in the cruel and unscrupulous ninja world. Now, this Breathing Style seemed to offer a glimmer of hope to those samurai with unwavering conviction—if only a glimmer.
It was said that this complete Breathing Style was passed down by Mifune, and some also said that behind this basic style were five other elemental Breathing Styles.
And so the world came to know of the Konoha rogue ninja, Uchiha Nagi. He was currently staying in the Land of Iron, and because of his superb swordsmanship and immense power, he had been hired by the Daimyo of the Land of Iron for a large sum of money to temporarily serve as a guard.
Speaking of which, Nagi was a little troubled. The first year's interest payment on his debt to Kakuzu was almost due. If he came looking to collect, Nagi couldn't just cut down his creditor, could he? It wasn't that he was afraid of Kakuzu, but of his boss, Pain.
As it happened, with Mifune dead and no Kage-level warrior to take his place, the Daimyo of the Land of Iron had been scared out of his wits by the Land of Lightning. So, he had commissioned Watanabe to act as a middleman and hire Nagi to serve as a samurai in the Land of Iron.
Nagi had originally intended to refuse, but the Daimyo of the Land of Iron... just kept adding more money.
The Daimyo offered so much that in the end, Nagi agreed. Besides, he needed funds to establish his own base, and the support of a country was more than just money. He could purchase supplies at the cheapest prices through the state, and use the country's connections to acquire rare items that weren't available on the open market. He could even openly recruit talented children in the Land of Iron as his students, to serve as reserve personnel for his future base, just like Orochimaru had done when he established his own village.
So, after careful consideration, Nagi accepted the Daimyo's request to stay in the Land of Iron. The Daimyo, in turn, agreed to let him recruit orphans and take on students. However, he had not yet mentioned building a village; the time was not yet right.
The Island Turtle and the summoning beast island in the open sea had become Nagi's secret bases. He would occasionally use the Flying Thunder God to check on them. Most of the time, Honoka was in charge of the summoning beast island. As for the Island Turtle, Kimimaro was guarding it. Yukihime, for some reason, had chosen to stay with Honoka.
Nagi had already recruited a few young orphans in the Land of Iron and had taken them to the Island Turtle for Kimimaro to train. He would go over to check on them from time to time.
"I'm going to the Village Hidden in the Sound for a while," Nagi said, giving his final instructions to Kimimaro and Honoka. "You two look after the house. If anything happens, just notify me using the method I left you. If I'm too far away for the Flying Thunder God, just ride the eagle and fly away. Remember, people are the most important thing. Everything else can be abandoned."
Who knew when the Land of Lightning would send people out to sea to look for the Island Turtle? It was possible they might find some flying summons and track it down.
"Don't worry, Sensei. If things go wrong, I will escape," Kimimaro nodded. Behind his teacher's back, he had been secretly developing his Shikotsumyaku. His strength was now on par with a jonin's. After all, the physical defense of the Shikotsumyaku was simply too monstrous.
"Go on, Nagi-nii. We'll look after the base."
"Yes, yes. Go on and come back soon," Yukihime added, her voice as small as a mosquito's. "And don't bring back any more women this time..."
Nagi didn't notice these little exchanges. He nodded at them, then used the Flying Thunder God to leave the two islands and return to the Land of Iron. He then summoned the giant eagle, climbed on its back, and set off for the Village Hidden in the Sound. This time, he was going to trade with Orochimaru again. He wanted to get his hands on Hashirama Senju's cells, not the modified White Zetsu cells.
[SKRAWW!]
The giant eagle let out a loud cry and took off. Compared to the old days of slogging along on the ground, now that he had a flying mount, a means of transport that could cover a thousand miles in a day, Nagi no longer needed to travel by horse or on his own two feet. An airplane was so much faster...
White Zetsu's marrow is slowly losing its effectiveness. If I want my body to evolve again, I'll need the purest First Hokage cells. Right now, besides Danzo, only Orochimaru has them. And Orochimaru doesn't have White Zetsu cells... Nagi looked at his left hand.
After such a long time of continuous injections of White Zetsu cells, he seemed to have reached a plateau. His chakra was no longer growing as wildly as it had in the beginning. Now, the growth was very slow, almost at a standstill. It seemed the chemical reaction between the White Zetsu cells and the Uchiha cells had reached its saturation point.
That was why Nagi craved Hashirama's cells. He wanted to see if the purest first-generation cells could make his body evolve again. Perhaps, by completing his genetic makeup, he could awaken the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan without needing another pair of a brother's Mangekyo. After all, Indra had awakened the Eternal Mangekyo directly because his genes were the purest. And Madara, after fusing with the First Hokage's cells, had awakened the Rinnegan, something Indra himself had never been able to do.
Some said the key to the Rinnegan was Indra's chakra. What a joke. Indra himself didn't have the Rinnegan. This was the result of Madara's own efforts.
According to many theories, the first and most important step was, of course, the Eternal Mangekyo. The second step was the power of all creation, the Sage Body cells of Hashirama. The final step was not Indra's chakra, but reincarnation. As the name implied, rinne, the cycle of rebirth, and gan, the eye. The Rinnegan required one to go through the cycle of rebirth, to experience the six paths of life and death, and to achieve great enlightenment. But once a person entered the cycle of rebirth, they were already dead. What could they do then? Madara, relying on the properties of the Rinnegan, had managed to pull himself back from the gates of hell after death and use the Gedo Statue to prolong his life. Could an ordinary person do that? Even if they briefly returned from the cycle of death, they would just die again, because they wouldn't have the Gedo Statue to forcibly sustain their life.
So, Nagi didn't hold out much hope for awakening the Rinnegan himself. Unless the old Sage of Six Paths personally gave him the power of the six paths, his limit was probably the Eternal Mangekyo.
After a long flight, Nagi finally arrived above the Village Hidden in the Sound. The various snakes in the forests of the Land of Rice Paddies might be Orochimaru's eyes and ears, but the sky was a blind spot. And Orochimaru's Otogakure couldn't afford to maintain a 24-hour warning barrier like Konoha's. After all, it was a small country, a small village. Where would they get the funds and the barrier-ninjutsu experts for that?
Nagi leaped down, released the summoning jutsu to send the eagle back, and shouted:
"Orochimaru! Come out and play!"