Konoha: Starting with Sage Mode

At this moment, the place where Kirito was taking shelter from the rain was surrounded by a large number of Rain Ninja wearing breathing tubes.

When Kirito saw Hanzo, he calmly put on his breathing tube and looked at him with a composed expression.

"Long time no see, Zhengcheng, you've become much stronger."

Instead of taking immediate action, Hanzo greeted Kirito as if he were seeing an old friend he hadn't seen in a long time.

Kirito wasn't surprised by this. Hattori Masamoto had been Hanzo of the Salamander's childhood friend. The two had been inseparable, but later drifted apart due to differences in their beliefs, becoming like strangers.

"Hanzo, I didn't expect you to find me so quickly. I shouldn't have fought those guys from Konoha earlier. What, you came here in person to kill me?"

Kirito said expressionlessly.

"No, I'm not here to kill you. I'm here to take you back. The village is in a bad situation right now. Come back with me, Masashige. The village needs your strength. As long as you come back, the village will lift the warrant for your arrest as a rogue ninja."

Hanzo shook his head and said something that surprised Kirito.

In the memories of Hattori Masashige that Kirito absorbed, Hanzo of the Salamander and Hattori Masashige were like oil and water. Otherwise, Hanzo would not have used the greater good and hostages to force Hattori Masashige to carry out a mission that was almost certain to kill him.

If Hattori Masanari hadn't been strong enough and not so rigid, he would have died long ago.

Now Hanzo has actually come in person to invite Hattori Masashige back to Amegakure, and even promised to withdraw the arrest warrant for Hattori Masashige.

If Kirito hadn't heard Hanzo say it himself, he definitely wouldn't have believed it was true.

"Hahaha~"

Kirito paused for a moment, then burst into laughter, as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world.

Hanzo, seeing this, was not angry, but simply looked at Kirito in silence.

He knew perfectly well why Kirito was laughing; if it were him, he would probably laugh at himself for saying such a thing.

He was the one who used righteousness to force Hattori Masashige to leave back then, and now he's personally coming to invite him back using righteousness. It's truly shameful and laughable.

However, he was also helpless. The situation in Amegakure was really bad. He was the only strong person Amegakure could rely on right now. The older generation had basically all been killed in this battle, and there was a serious lack of core strength. The younger generation of Amegakure ninja had not yet grown up and were not up to the task.

As a result, the pressure on Yu Yin was almost entirely on his shoulders, making it difficult for him to breathe.

All sides were watching him closely, preventing him from easily leaving Amegakure and thus hindering him from fully unleashing his formidable personal strength.

Therefore, he urgently needs a strong partner to share some of the pressure.

At this moment, Kirito, playing Hattori Masanari, appears and immediately defeats the Konoha princess with overwhelming force, escaping unscathed from the hands of two legendary Sannin, demonstrating his formidable strength.

As long as Hattori Masanari can stay in Amegakure, he can go all out and make the world wary of Amegakure again, and not dare to underestimate the current Amegakure.

However, he was not confident that he could get Hattori Masanari to go back to Amegakure with him.

However, he remained convinced throughout that Hattori Masanari loved Amegakure and was willing to make sacrifices for it.

Now, for the sake of Amegakure, Hanzo the Salamander is also willing to make sacrifices and bow down to Hattori Masashige.

Ironically, the biggest lesson this battle taught him was to bow to reality.

However, compared to the safety of Amegakure and the Land of Rain, personal honor and disgrace are nothing.

Hanzo was not angry at Kirito's mockery, but the Amegakure ninjas behind him who were loyal to and admired Hanzo were indignant and wanted to teach Kirito a lesson for daring to mock Hanzo.

"Get out of here, this is none of your business."

Hanzo stretched out a hand to stop his subordinate, turned his head away, and shouted loudly.

Upon hearing Hanzo's order, the Rain Ninja had no choice but to suppress their tempers and obediently retreat, leaving Hanzo and Kirito alone.

"Hanzo, you really surprise me now. It seems this war has sobered you up quite a bit. I can go back, but you have to answer one question for me. As long as your answer satisfies me, I will go back with you."

Seeing Hanzo's actions, Kirito quickly suppressed his laughter, then chuckled again and said coldly.

"go ahead."

Hanzo seemed to have anticipated this, and said calmly.

Have you woken up from your dream?

Kirito stood up, staring intently into Hanzo's eyes, and said seriously.

Hanzo remained silent for a long time, finally letting out a long, defeated sigh: "Ah, I'm awake."

Chapter 85: The New School of 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.

“Masaaki…”

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 want to say. Although you, Hanzo, are annoying, you are still a decent person. Don't worry, I said I would go back and I will definitely go back. But I still have some things to confirm. Just give me a few days. You, Hanzo, are not short of time."

Kirito smiled slightly.

"I understand. I will wait for you to come back 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 didn't expect there to be 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 prominent characteristic of the new school of 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 modern 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; honing his 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 they created are called Sword Technique: Flame 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 combined Wind Release chakra to create a tornado with a single sword strike, which could 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.

"My lord, please use it."

Ryoko Uzumaki presented the towel to Kirito with both hands.

"Thanks, Ryoko."