Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode.

Chapter 86 New School Samurai

"Very good, that's the answer I wanted to hear. Don't worry, I will go back, but not now. I need to take a good look at this country."

Kirito nodded in satisfaction upon hearing Hanzo's reply.

"Masashige..."

Upon hearing this, Hanzo thought that Kirito was still wary of him and wanted to speak up to show his sincerity, but Kirito stopped him with his hand.

"I know what you're trying to say. Although you, Hanzo, are annoying, you're still a decent person. Don't worry, I said I'd go back and I definitely will. But I still have some things to confirm. Just give me a few days. You, Hanzo, aren't short of time, are you?"

Kirito smiled slightly.

"I understand. I will wait for you to return in Amegakure."

Seeing that Kirito's mind was made up, Hanzo nodded without saying anything more.

After saying that, he left without any hesitation, leading the other Rain Ninja away without leaving a trace.

"I never expected such an unexpected bonus; what a wonderful turn of events!"

Kirito sensed that Hanzo and the others had moved quickly and immediately, and smiled knowingly.

The next moment, he formed a hand seal, turned into white smoke, and disappeared.

Unexpected events have occurred, so the current plan needs to be changed.

Kirito needs to think carefully about how to make the most of Hattori Masashige's disguise.

. . .

A few days later, in the Land of Waves, at dawn, in the courtyard of Gojo Makoto's residence.

Kirito disguised himself as Gojo Makoto using a White Zetsu clone to carry out his daily morning training. He created the persona for Gojo Makoto as a model of a fallen nobleman's rise to power, as well as a highly skilled new-style samurai.

At this moment, Kirito is honing his swordsmanship with a long, narrow katana, each move showing impressive skill.

Kirito has only been practicing swordsmanship for a short time, and the time he allocates to it daily is pitifully small, only practicing for a short while when he is playing the role of Gojo Makoto.

Therefore, his swordsmanship was only so-so.

However, as a modern samurai, it was not important whether his swordsmanship was refined or not; what mattered was that his swordsmanship was powerful enough.

In Kirito's view, so-called sword skills are actually just ninjutsu disguised as swordsmanship.

Since the emergence of the mysterious power of chakra, ninjas came into being, and samurai began to decline.

In an effort to revive the samurai class, many insightful individuals among the samurai began to value the power of chakra and strived to apply it to the traditional swordsmanship upon which the samurai depended for their livelihood.

Thus, a new school of samurai was born, combining traditional swordsmanship with the power of chakra.

The Land of Iron is currently the stronghold of the new generation of samurai.

Mastering swordsmanship is the most distinctive characteristic of the new-style samurai.

Kirito learned some of his sword skills from Itsufune, and the rest he created later by combining his own ingenious ideas.

After Kirito finished practicing traditional swordsmanship, he sheathed his sword and then suddenly unleashed a powerful burst of chakra from his body.

The next moment, he instantly drew his sword.

Several blue sword beams formed from chakra appeared, cleaving several wooden figures a dozen meters away in two.

Sword Skill - Sword Qi!

This move is the most common sword technique used by modern samurai. It is a basic sword technique that strengthens the sword by covering it with high-density chakra and then swinging it at high speed, turning the chakra into an extremely sharp sword aura attack.

A powerful new-style samurai can use this move to behead an enemy from a distance of hundreds of meters.

Based on this fundamental sword technique, many powerful new-style samurai created their own secret sword techniques.

For example, the new sword technique that Kirito will use next.

He sheathed his sword again, quickly gathered chakra into the katana, and then drew it.

A blue bird appeared instantly, its flight speed far exceeding that of the ordinary blue sword light. A wooden figure hundreds of meters away was struck in the blink of an eye and turned into a pile of broken wood.

Sword Technique: Flying Bird Slash!

Both of these sword techniques were learned by Kirito from Itsufune. Since the principle is very simple, it only requires a high level of chakra control. Kirito learned them after watching Itsufune use them once.

This shocked Itsufune, who immediately declared that Kirito had the potential to become the strongest samurai of the world.

Kirito has no interest in becoming the strongest samurai; practicing swordsmanship is merely a tool for him to compensate for his disguise and attack methods.

After all, the strongest samurai might be a new-style samurai like Mifune who could fight Hanzo; the Kage level is pretty much the ceiling.

He should probably set his sights on becoming the strongest ninja.

Next, Kirito used two more sword techniques in succession.

These two sword techniques were his own creations, created by combining the chakra attributes of Gojo Shinji.

The five true chakra affinity attributes are fire and wind.

It took Kirito nearly a month to successfully master these two chakra natures.

Therefore, the White Zetsu clones currently possess six chakra nature transformations: fire, wind, water, earth, yang, and wood.

The sword techniques he created are called Sword Technique: Flaming Dragon and Sword Technique: Tornado.

The former combines Fire Release chakra to unleash a fire dragon with a single sword strike, its power being roughly equivalent to Fire Release: Great Fire Dragon Technique.

The latter combines Wind Release chakra to unleash a tornado with a single sword strike, which can knock enemies in its path into the air.

In an instant, huge fire dragons and powerful tornadoes appeared one after another in the courtyard. This caused some ninjas who were hiding in the shadows and looking for an opportunity to assassinate Gojo Shin to break out in a cold sweat. They wisely slipped away.

After Kirito demonstrated his two self-created sword techniques, he stopped training.

At that moment, a young and beautiful red-haired maid quickly came over with a towel and tea; it was Ryoko Uzumaki.

"Sir, please use it."

Ryoko Uzumaki presented the towel to Kirito with both hands.

"Thanks, Ryoko."

Kirito took the towel and pretended to wipe his sweat.

White Zetsu is a plant-like creature, so naturally it doesn't sweat. The sweat it's producing now is actually water with a little salt, which it secretes on its own.

While Kirito was wiping his sweat, Ryoko Uzumaki skillfully arranged things on the coffee table, brewing a pot of fragrant tea for him.

After more than two months of living as a maid, Ryoko Uzumaki has become completely familiar with life here and has initially gained Kirito's trust, becoming the head housekeeper of the mansion, taking care of Kirito's daily life and monitoring every move in the mansion.

At the same time, Kirito planted the Night Mark on Ryoko Uzumaki, officially making her a core member of the Night Organization.

Kirito wouldn't just give away the Mark of Night, a powerful item that can enhance one's strength and later grant the benefit of sensing natural energy. He would only bestow it upon those he could trust and nurture.

Fuma Ichiro and Itsufune were exceptions, representing a desperate measure taken when the makeshift team was first established.

However, the Night Organization has already gotten on track and has hundreds of members, but most of them are peripheral members who are basically unaware of the organization's internal situation. Only a small number of people are core members who, as extensions of Kirito's will, manage a large number of peripheral members.

The Mark of Night is currently a treasure bestowed by Kirito upon the core members, and it is also the symbol of the core members of the Night Organization.

As a core member of the Night Organization, Ryoko Uzumaki's strength is naturally not to be too weak. She is now a ninja, and a rare sensory ninja at that, who can determine the location of others by sensing their chakra.

The only problem is that the sensing range is a bit small, only a few tens of meters.

Since Ryoko Uzumaki was unwilling to learn the Uzumaki clan's sealing techniques and preferred to learn powerful escape techniques, Kirito taught her a modified version of the Akimichi Secret Technique, which he had learned from the soft body modification technique he obtained from Orochimaru.

The improved Akimichi Secret Technique no longer enlarges the body, but instead temporarily enhances physical strength using Yang-attribute chakra. As long as the body has sufficient capacity, the more Yang-attribute chakra consumed, the greater the enhancement.

Ryoko Uzumaki possesses the physique of the Uzumaki clan, making her body far more resilient than ordinary people. Coupled with her abundant chakra, she is perfectly suited to use this modified version of the Akimichi Secret Technique.

Because of her Yang-attribute chakra and excellent healing abilities, combined with the Uzumaki clan's innate excellent healing abilities, as long as her chakra is not exhausted or she is not instantly killed, she is a humanoid tyrannosaurus that is not afraid of injuries.

Ryoko Uzumaki doesn't like fighting people directly with her fists, so after learning the modified version of Akimichi's secret technique, she chose to use a huge spiked club.

During this period, Kirito's character, Gojo Makoto, was assassinated multiple times, but few assassins managed to get close to him. Most of them were discovered in advance by Uzumaki Ryoko, and most of them were killed by her with a single blow from her spiked club.

Kirito estimates that Ryoko Uzumaki's overall ability is currently at the level of an elite Chunin, but if a Jonin is accidentally hit by her with a single blow, he could very well be instantly killed.

"My lord, Mr. Kado just wrote to you, asking if the plans in the Land of Rain can begin?"

Ryoko Uzumaki handed Kirito a cup of hot tea and smiled.

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)