The three Snake Princesses returned to the great port city of the Land of Water, and Natsuki went back to Konoha.
He crossed to his desk, sat down, and a line of text drifted up before his eyes.
[Congratulations, Host. You have unlocked Unohana Retsu template ability seven: Kaidō.]
Natsuki gave a small nod. He'd finally unlocked the last ability of the Unohana Retsu template.
Kaidō was one of the three great Kidō, devoted to healing and requiring no incantation. Rendered into Naruto's terms, it was a medical ninjutsu that needed no hand seals—Natsuki could now heal himself in the middle of a fight. Just thinking about it made him pity his future enemies.
[Congratulations, Host. You have unlocked Senji Muramasa template ability three: Flame.]
A fresh line surfaced.
This was the ability that unlocked once he'd gathered the Longsword: Nuibari, the Blast Sword: Shibuki, the Lightning Swords: Kiba, and the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei. Flame was a forging fire for crafting ninja tools—but Natsuki found the knowledge that came with it ran far deeper than that. It carried Senji Muramasa's full smithing techniques. In other words, he could now forge even the legendary Demonic Sword Muramasa.
That said, the Demonic Sword Muramasa was, in the end, only a legend. The real historical blade had been nothing more than an exceptionally fine sword, with no special power to it at all.
Natsuki let out a slow breath. Playing the Cloud's Toroi had cost him nearly two weeks—but for the payoff, it had been well worth it.
With Flame in hand, Natsuki could now go after the Senji Muramasa template's second ability, Tameshigiri. Frankly, Tameshigiri wasn't all that useful to him—he already had Broken Phantasm. But the condition for unlocking it—forging seven ninja tools with special effects—might turn up something worthwhile. He intended to pick seven people and craft a custom tool for each.
He struck Uzumaki Kushina, Yakushi Nonou, and Konan off the list first; all three already carried the Sorcery Clima-Tact. Orochimaru and Nawaki were out too—they had the Kusanagi Sword and Samehada. That left Tsunade, Yahiko, Nagato, Namikaze Minato, Uchiha Mikoto, Pakura, and a few others.
Natsuki stroked his chin. Forging tools with special effects meant he needed special materials. What he had on hand were the seven blades of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen—but not all of them could be reforged.
Setting Samehada aside, only three of the swords carried effects worth preserving: the Kubikiribocho, the Lightning Swords: Kiba, and the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei. The Longsword: Nuibari, the Kabutowari, and the Blast Sword: Shibuki didn't make the cut, and the reason was simple. Nuibari's gimmick was its needle-thin blade; the Kabutowari's was its hammer-and-axe pairing; Shibuki's was the explosive tags. None of that was intrinsic to the steel itself.
The other three were another matter entirely. The Kubikiribocho drank its target's blood to mend its own edge. The Lightning Swords: Kiba could draw down lightning. And the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei—beyond firing off spheres of condensed chakra—could siphon a slain enemy's chakra as well.
An idea took shape fast.
The Kubikiribocho could be reforged into a blade for Yahiko; a blood-drinking sword suited his Blood Demon Art perfectly. The Twin Swords: Hiramekarei could become special Flying Thunder God kunai for Namikaze Minato—Flying Thunder God plus chakra-sphere release plus enemy-chakra absorption would triple their utility. As for the Lightning Swords: Kiba, that belonged with a Lightning Release user. Konoha didn't have many; the one who came to mind was Hatake Kakashi. And since Hatake Sakumo was still alive, Kakashi hadn't inherited the White Light Chakra Sabre yet—so the blade could go to him cleanly.
The rest of the tools would be trickier to forge. Then inspiration struck: the Ninja Tools of the Six Paths. The Golden Canopy Rope, the Seven Star Sword, the Bashosen, and the others all carried unusual effects. He could take them and reforge them outright.
The more he turned it over, the more workable it looked.
In the source material, Kinkaku and Ginkaku of the Hidden Cloud had held four of the Ninja Tools of the Six Paths, able to wield them by virtue of their Sage of Six Paths bloodline. During the First Great Ninja War, the pair mounted a rebellion and cut down both the Second Raikage and the Second Hokage—before being killed themselves. The four tools they'd carried vanished after that, their whereabouts unknown, until the Fourth Great Ninja War, when Yakushi Kabuto used the Impure World Reincarnation to summon the brothers back. Their four Ninja Tools of the Six Paths reappeared alongside them.
Which meant Natsuki could borrow a page from Kabuto and claim those four tools by reincarnating Kinkaku and Ginkaku himself. The only catch: he'd need a fragment of their flesh and blood to perform the technique. But if Kabuto had been able to reincarnate them, their corpses still existed somewhere—almost certainly within the Hidden Cloud.
By the time he'd thought it through, his next steps were already laid out. He'd set the serpents of the Ryuchi Cave to hunting for Kinkaku and Ginkaku's remains. In the meantime, he'd reforge the three swords first.
Natsuki mulled it a moment longer, then rose and headed for the Hokage Secretary's office next door.
He stopped in the doorway and beckoned to Uchiha Mikoto. Namikaze Minato and the others glanced up, then bent back to their work. Mikoto got to her feet at once and came over.
"Come to my office," Natsuki said, and turned to go. Mikoto hurried after him.
"Mikoto." Natsuki settled onto the sofa. "I've got something for you to handle."
"What is it?" she asked softly, nodding.
"Set up a ninja tool shop and buy everything needed for forging tools." He paused. "And keep it quiet—no one is to know."
That left Mikoto puzzled. Was Natsuki planning to forge tools himself? And why would he waste his time on it? It was a fair enough question—outside the legendary Ninja Tools of the Six Paths, no ordinary ninja tool in the world carried any special property. Still, however little she understood the point of it, she said nothing and agreed.
Natsuki stood and stepped toward her.
Mikoto's heart gave a lurch. She looked away, holding still, shy and expectant all at once.
A moment later she felt only a sharp little sting at her chest.
Her eyes flew wide. The kiss she'd braced for never came—something a good deal bolder did instead.
"Mikoto, you really are thoughtful," Natsuki said, with weight behind the words.
"I—it's only what I should do." She dropped her head, her face burning red.
"Let me know when it's all ready." Natsuki drew his hand back.
"Mm," she managed. She turned and walked out.
The door shut behind her, and she finally let out her breath. Glancing down, she found faint marks against the pale skin at her collar. Mikoto tugged her neckline straight and hurried off.
Natsuki sat back down at his desk. His little "massage" finished, he returned to work.
The next day brought intelligence from both the Hidden Cloud and the Hidden Mist. Both reports concerned Toroi—but they didn't line up.
Because Toroi had killed two of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, the Hidden Cloud had branded him a hero of the village and heaped honors on him. The Hidden Mist's account, meanwhile, held that Yuzuru had successfully avenged Munashi Jinpachi, only to perish alongside Toroi in the exchange. As for the two swords, Shibuki was ruled a self-destruction, while the Mist assumed the Hidden Cloud had made off with Hiramekarei. The Cloud, of course, had done no such thing—they'd searched for Hiramekarei themselves and turned up nothing, finally concluding the Mist had summoned it back.
In short, a chain of misunderstandings had ratcheted the tension between the two villages tighter still.
The Third Mizukage issued an order of his own: he would select the finest ninja to emerge from this war to form the second generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen. The decree lit a fire under the Mist's ninja. The prestige of the Seven Swordsmen was common knowledge—joining their ranks meant a meteoric rise. The only awkwardness was that all seven blades were now lost, which made the name "Seven Ninja Swordsmen" ring a little hollow. But the Third Mizukage kept it regardless. He wanted the name to remind the new generation of the humiliation they had to avenge.
Once he'd read the reports, Natsuki set them aside. What interested him more were his own locked character templates.
He opened an Air Door and stepped into the leader's office in the Hidden Rain Village.
"Natsuki-sensei!" Yahiko shot to his feet in greeting.
"Bring me up to speed on the Hidden Rain," Natsuki said, getting straight to it.
"Nagato took a team through and cleared out the rogue ninja, bandits, and every other loose thread in the Land of Rain." Yahiko was all smiles. "These days the people can't say enough good about our Hidden Rain Village."
"Set up a standing patrol to keep them from creeping back in," Natsuki reminded him.
"Mm." Yahiko nodded. "I've already had Nagato start building the Hidden Rain Anbu—they'll handle exactly that."
"You can fold CP9 into the Anbu," Natsuki suggested. He'd founded CP9 to trigger the matching character template in the first place; now that the goal was met, it could merge cleanly with the Anbu. Their functions were the same anyway.
"I'd been thinking the same," Yahiko agreed. "After the merger, Hyo-onna will still be running it."
"And the Akatsuki's secret base?" Natsuki asked, catching the name.
"Finished—though it's buried deep underground, right beneath the village." Yahiko laid out his reasoning. "I figure the base can double as a shelter." Plainly, he'd planned for the worst case: the Akatsuki backed into a corner, fighting for its life.
"That works," Natsuki said.
"Kakuzu's putting up schools across the Land of Rain, and we've renovated the village's Ninja Academy too." Yahiko brightened. "Classes are already in session."
"You've all done well." Natsuki paused, a touch caught out. "I'd let that one slip my mind, honestly."
"Natsuki-sensei, you carry too much. No one would blame you for forgetting a thing here and there." Yahiko shook his head.
"And how are things on Kakuzu's end?"
Yahiko launched into a rundown of the Land of Rain's recent progress. On the whole, everything was tracking the plan Natsuki had drawn up—building roads, raising schools, breeding crops suited to the Rain's climate. And mining, on top of that: a gold vein had turned up in the Land of Rain, and the Dawn Company had opened a dedicated branch to work it.
"Good." Natsuki thought for a beat. "I'll add one more task. Put your Earth Release ninja to building and repairing houses."
"For whom?" Yahiko asked, puzzled.
"Start from the Hidden Rain and spread outward across the whole Land of Rain," Natsuki replied. "Every resident, every ninja—see that they all have a decent roof over their heads."
Yahiko was caught flat. Then he steadied himself, grasping the weight of it. True peace wasn't merely the absence of war; more than that, it was warm clothes and a full belly. Natsuki's plan was reaching for exactly that kind of peace.
"Yes, Natsuki-sensei!" Yahiko's face lit with excitement—the look of a man watching his dream draw within arm's reach.
Natsuki smiled, didn't linger, and turned back to Konoha.
A week later, Uchiha Mikoto had the shop ready. She led him inside; the place sat in a remote quarter with no neighbors nearby.
"Mikoto, you can head back now," Natsuki said, well satisfied as he looked around.
"I could stay and help," she offered, hesitating.
"Be good." Natsuki lifted a hand, pinched her cheek, and spoke in a tone gentle but not to be argued with.
A tingle ran through her, and her heart gave a small shiver. She nodded, turned, and left.
Natsuki considered for a while, then drew out the Twin Swords: Hiramekarei.
Flame.
A fearsome fire roared up from his palm. Hiramekarei's hardness needed no explanation—yet under that scorching heat, it began, slowly, to melt.
Natsuki ran the numbers. Reforging all three swords should take him two months. Which was, frankly, blistering fast. He remembered that Granny Cat had spent over three months forging the Sorcery Clima-Tact.
Time slid quickly toward March.
The Ninja Academy came around to another graduation season. This year's crop fell well short of last year's. Natsuki gave it a passing glance and spotted no familiar names.
At the same time, his three tools were finished.
"Minato." Natsuki flagged Namikaze Minato down at the entrance to the Hokage building.
Minato stopped and turned.
"Over here." Natsuki walked toward a tree a little way off.
"Natsuki." Minato stepped up, curious. "Did you need something?"
"No." Natsuki produced seven kunai. "A gift."
His first plan had been a single sword, but there was so much material from Hiramekarei that he'd forged seven kunai instead. The seven of them, oddly, hadn't unlocked the Senji Muramasa template's Tameshigiri—the system had most likely counted them as a single set.
"Why kunai, out of nowhere?" Minato took them, puzzled.
"Because they suit you." Natsuki blinked at him.
"Is there something special about them?" It clicked, and Minato asked.
Natsuki took one kunai and fed chakra into it. The blade shuddered hard, and a beam of chakra light burst from its tip. Where it struck the tree ahead, a bored-through hole appeared instantly.
Minato's pupils shrank. Land that on a ninja, and it would kill or cripple.
"There's a second function too—it can drain the target's chakra." Natsuki handed the kunai back.
"No—this is far too valuable, I can't accept it," Minato said at once.
"It's not that valuable." Natsuki drew out a sword. "This one's for Kakashi. It's got Lightning Release chakra crystals worked into it."
Minato's mouth opened, and no words came. Lightning Release chakra crystals were, without any exaggeration, priceless. And Natsuki meant to just hand a blade like that to Hatake Kakashi?
"Come on, just take them," Natsuki said lightly.
"...Thank you." Minato hesitated, then relented.
"Neither of them has a name." Natsuki paused, thinking of Minato's particular flair for naming. "How about the Sword of Shinobi Love, and the Blade of the Lightning Fang?"
"How do you know my Flying Thunder God kunai is called the Sword of Shinobi Love?" Minato asked, startled.
"I heard it somewhere," Natsuki said, not a flicker on his face.
The Blade of the Lightning Fang, for its part, was a nod to the White Light Chakra Sabre. The name did call the Lightning Swords: Kiba to mind—the two ran close—but that hardly mattered. If Natsuki said it was the Blade of the Lightning Fang, then that was what it was. If the Hidden Mist wanted to insist it was the Lightning Swords: Kiba, they were welcome to break out the sword-summoning scroll and see whether it answered.
"See you around." Natsuki said his goodbyes and returned to his office.
He opened an Air Door, stepped into the leader's office in the Hidden Rain Village, and passed the reforged Kubikiribocho to Yahiko. This one Natsuki named Blood Drinker.
Just then, he felt one of his Eyeball Clones wink out. A thought, a word of farewell to Yahiko, and he was standing in the Hidden Sand Village.
"The Third Kazekage leaves for the great city of the Land of Wind in a week," Pakura said the moment she saw him, cutting to the chase.
"An opening at last." Natsuki nodded. "You're ready?"
"Don't worry—I've been laying the groundwork all this while." Pakura's confidence was plain. "Once the Third Kazekage is dead, I can step up as the Fourth."
"Mm." Natsuki nodded. "I'll be back in a week."
He returned to Konoha once more.
"Lord Natsuki." The instant he reached his office, an Anbu appeared before him. "The Lord Hokage requests you."
Curious, Natsuki made his way to the Hokage's office.
"The friction between the Hidden Cloud and the Hidden Mist is sharpening, and the Hidden Stone and the Hidden Sand are gearing up as well. War isn't far off." Orochimaru spoke up. "I want to hold a Chunin Exam before it arrives."
"I'll go arrange it," Natsuki answered at once.
In the source material, a Chunin Exam had been held around this same time—Sarutobi Asuma, Yuhi Kurenai, Might Guy, and the rest had all taken part.
"Mm." Orochimaru nodded. "Just give me the word when everything's set."
"Teacher—how are your Wood Release experiments coming?" Natsuki asked, the thought striking him suddenly.
"Barring surprises, they'll succeed this year." Orochimaru smiled faintly. "Perhaps then our Konoha will have a Wood Release unit of its own."
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