Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode.

Chapter 70 The Mark of Night

Kirito's current plans for what he wants to do in the Land of Waves need to be kept secret, and he naturally can't do everything himself. However, due to a lack of trustworthy people, he has no choice but to place curse marks on these wandering ninjas and samurai whose loyalty is almost zero.

The Seal of Night is a new curse seal technique that Kirito developed based on the Seal of the Extinction of Tongue Calamity and combined with his Sage Mode physique.

Since mastering excellent sealing techniques, Kirito has secretly begun researching cursed seals, aiming to create a cursed seal technique similar to Orochimaru's cursed seal technique by utilizing his sage-like physique, which is the same as Jugo's.

Through tireless efforts and trial and error on some small animals, he has now developed a relatively mature spell seal technique.

He had already decided on a name: Kirito-style Cursed Seal Technique.

The Mark of Night is an upgraded version of Kirito's cursed seal technique.

Simply put, this is a cursed seal technique that combines the advantages of the Tongue Disaster Removal Seal and Orochimaru's cursed seal technique.

It fully retains the ability of the Tongue Curse Seal while eliminating the terrifying lethality of Orochimaru's Cursed Seal Technique. Although this greatly weakens the effect of Orochimaru's Cursed Seal Technique in rapidly increasing strength in a short period of time, it still retains the ability of Cursed Seal Transformation (costing life), and over time, it can also increase strength considerably.

In addition, Kirito learned from Orochimaru's mistake and did not add his own soul to the Night Seal. Instead, he added a trace of his soul power to locate the person who planted the Night Seal and to use it as a medium to curse the cursed person from a great distance.

In summary, the Mark of Night is Kirito's trump card for quickly establishing his own armed force.

"How's it going?"

Kirito spoke to the two of them expressionlessly.

When he last summoned the two men, he gave them each a task: to secretly recruit a group of usable wandering ninjas and new-style samurai to serve as the first core members of his secret armed force.

Several days have passed since the mission began, and there should have been some progress by now.

"Master, time is too short. According to your requirements, I have only found five ninjas who meet the criteria."

Fuma Ichiro stammered.

Kirito's task for him was to find twenty eligible wandering ninjas within a week, but half the time had passed and he had only completed less than a quarter of the task. If he continued at this rate, he would definitely not be able to complete the task.

But he's in a difficult position too.

Kirito's requirements for recruiting ninjas are quite high. Not only must they be wandering ninjas with clean backgrounds, but they must also be under the age of twelve. It will be difficult for him to find them in a short period of time.

For a moment, he felt a little uneasy.

He knew perfectly well that the new master he served was not a good person, as evidenced by the terrible curse mark he had placed on him. If he didn't behave well, he might be killed.

Fuma Ichiro didn't think he was indispensable to Kirito. He knew that Kirito had only chosen him because he was the best of a bad bunch, and if he didn't do well now, he would definitely be abandoned later.

"Only five? That's a bit slow. Don't you usually eat?"

Kirito said with some dissatisfaction upon hearing this.

"I'm sorry, please forgive me. I will definitely try harder to find it."

Fuma Ichiro immediately knelt down and admitted his mistake.

"Then do your best. As long as you complete the task on time, the reward I promised will be valid. Otherwise, you know the consequences."

Kirito ignored Fuma Ichiro's attempt to gain sympathy and said coldly.

In exchange for a fortune, he helped Fuma Ichiro pay off a large debt and gave him the Nightfall Seal, which could make him stronger. These things were not free.

He doesn't need useless people. If Fuma Ichiro doesn't do a good job, he wouldn't mind selling him to mine for the rest of his life to pay off his debts.

"Yes, thank you for your understanding."

Fuma Ichiro breathed a sigh of relief and expressed his gratitude.

At the same time, a glint of greed flashed in his eyes.

Although his new master was terrifying, he was also a generous master. The other party promised to give him a suitable C-rank ninjutsu as long as he completed this mission.

He could obtain a C-rank ninjutsu simply by recruiting 20 wandering ninjas; the reward was too generous to pass up.

Fuma Ichiro had complete faith in the reward Kirito promised. After all, Kirito was capable of using such a terrifying cursed seal technique, so rewarding him with a C-rank ninjutsu was a piece of cake.

But this small gesture was invaluable to Fuma Ichiro, who, as a wandering ninja, knew the preciousness of ninjutsu.

Born into the Fuma clan, he was abandoned by his clan due to insufficient ninja talent. He has been a ninja for almost ten years, and he still only knows the simplest Three Body Technique.

In order to become stronger, he decided to leave the family that abandoned him and become a free wandering ninja. However, he later discovered that being a wandering ninja was more difficult than being in the family, and it was also more difficult to learn ninjutsu.

Therefore, he knew very well how generous the reward Kirito offered.

But this generous reward is probably only available once. If he doesn't seize the opportunity, he won't have another chance, and he will also be punished.

With this thought in mind, he finally made up his mind to go back and immediately find those ungrateful wandering ninjas. If they still disagreed, he would use physical means to make them agree.

He is no longer the useless member of the Fuma clan he once was. He is confident that he can defeat those wandering ninjas once he uses that power.

"My lord, I have recruited more than thirty new-style samurai. Rest assured, I will definitely be able to complete the task you assigned to recruit 50 new-style samurai within the stipulated time."

After Fuma Ichiro finished speaking, Kirito looked at the young samurai, who said with great pride, "..."

As he spoke, he didn't forget to cast a contemptuous glance at Fuma Ichiro.

Those in the same industry are rivals.

Nominally, Itsufune and Fuma Ichiro are Kirito's retainers, each commanding the samurai and ninja armed forces respectively.

However, due to historical reasons, samurai and ninjas were inherently at odds.

Compared to Fuuma Ichiro, Itsufune is more likely to accept Kirito as his new master. Regardless of whether Kirito is really Gojo Makoto, as long as the title Kirito inherited is real and he has money and power, being Kirito's retainer is not an unacceptable thing.

More importantly, he gained real power to become stronger from the Mark of Night. This power helped him break through the swordsmanship bottleneck that he had been unable to overcome, allowing him to see a new world of swordsmanship and see the hope of fighting his brother Mifune.

Based on this alone, he made up his mind to cling to Kirito's coattails.

Therefore, he has been very active in carrying out missions recently, and in the Land of Waves, there are more wandering samurai than ninjas.

"Damn it, as a ninja, I absolutely cannot be outdone by this stupid samurai."

Fuma Ichiro noticed Itsufune's gaze and was secretly annoyed.

Kirito noticed that his two subordinates disliked each other, but he didn't stop them; in fact, he was somewhat pleased.

He praised Wu Chuan's work, smiling and saying, "You did a good job. Keep up the good work. As long as you complete the task on time, the reward I promised you will be valid."

"Thank you for your generosity."

Wu Chuan expressed his gratitude.

Kirito promised him a pill that could instantly boost his strength as payment; he had already tried one and found it to be very effective.

Not long ago, he successfully defeated a rogue ninja of Chunin rank using this pill.

It was because of this incident that he became famous among the samurai of the Land of Waves, making his recruitment of samurai much smoother.

"That's all. You can leave now. Remember to keep your men in check. Anyone who violates discipline must be severely punished."

After confirming the progress of the two's mission, Kirito promptly saw them off.

"Ha, what a grown-up."

Fuma Ichiro and Itsufune said in unison, then bowed and left.

Ryoko Uzumaki, who was standing guard outside the door, watched the two figures leave, a hint of longing flashing in her eyes.

"Someone come here."

Suddenly, Kirito's voice came from the room again.

Ryoko Uzumaki immediately pushed open the door and went in, saying respectfully, "Sir, please give your orders."

"Go and call Mr. Kado over."

Kirito said in a pleasant tone.

It's tough for a new author to get ahead, so I hope all my fellow readers will visit often to increase the readership. After you finish reading, I hope you'll vote for this book and invest in it. If you could give me some monthly tickets and rewards, I would be extremely grateful. It's so hard for a new author and a new book.

(End of this chapter)