Naruto: The Age of Ninja Swords Begins in Kumogakure

Chapter 108 The Kusanagi Family

Orochimaru was unaware that he was being targeted. After seeing Kusanagi Ichiro obtain the ninja sword, he decisively left and went to a knife shop in the city to retrieve the batch of custom-made ninja tools.

After doing all this, we waited quietly until late at night before it was over.

He didn't want to make a scene; it would be best if he could abduct them quietly.

Before he could even make a move, he suddenly sensed something was wrong and instinctively used his Instantaneous Movement Technique to leap back.

Unfortunately, it was too late. Two streaks of lightning flashed and rushed in from the side and behind, accompanied by two ninja swords wrapped in blazing white lightning.

Faced with the sudden attack of the two lightning ninja swords, Orochimaru's body seemed boneless, dodging the fatal blow in a very strange and terrifying manner.

However, this slowed down the speed of the explosive retreat by a beat. The next moment, a purplish-black flame barrier rose up, enveloping the surrounding area.

"Four Purple Flame Formation!"

Looking at the purplish-black flame barrier, Orochimaru's heart sank, especially after feeling the heat emanating from the ground beneath his feet, knowing that the area below was also covered.

By this point, they had no idea that their little tricks during the day had been discovered and that someone had laid an ambush.

"The younger generation these days is getting bolder and bolder."

Orochimaru glanced at the figures that had appeared in the Four Purple Flames Formation, but his expression remained calm.

Tamura Hao and his companions were too lazy to waste words with him. Once the Whirlpool Jade Leaf and the three shadow clones had stabilized the Four Purple Flame Formation, they decisively launched an attack to surround and kill him.

They've been sparring with each other for a while now, and it's getting a bit boring, so tonight's a good time to change things up.

The group had been sparring for a long time, so they were very familiar with each other's techniques and worked together quite well.

Tamura, Yoru, Aifukai, and Uchiha Hikaru launched a close-quarters attack on Orochimaru from four directions, while Uzumaki Kushina manipulated two Adamantine Locks to withstand two Rasengans and waited for an opportunity to strike from above.

At the same time, Uchiha Hikaru's three-tomoe Sharingan slowly rotated, locking Orochimaru's chakra firmly in place, preventing the opponent from using any strange methods.

Tamura Hao also used Kaguya's Sharingan and Byakugan powers to firmly lock onto Orochimaru, and he dared not take this lightly.

Although Orochimaru hasn't reached his peak yet, he's still surpassed the Jonin level and reached the Kage level, which is very strong.

Orochimaru, who was being attacked by several people, also felt immense pressure. Among the four people who were attacking him at close range, three were elite Jonin, and all of them were skilled in ninjutsu and taijutsu combat.

The last masked dwarf's swordsmanship was extremely cunning and ruthless, and his seamless teamwork made him a truly difficult opponent.

The Vortex Girl's Adamantine Lock and the chakra ball at the top are also dangerous.

Furthermore, his opponent had the upper hand, leaving him no chance to form hand seals and unleash ninjutsu.

If he hadn't undergone some kind of transformation, he would probably have been defeated.

Seeing that a single Kusanagi sword would be insufficient to defend against the attack, Orochimaru seized an opportunity to extend a snake's head from his mouth and then spit out a straight-bladed ninja sword.

That was also a Kusanagi sword, one of the few fine pieces in his collection.

Upon seeing the straight-bladed ninja sword, Uchiha Hikaru's eyes instantly lit up.

Without the slightest hesitation, his powerful eye power erupted, amplifying his illusionary attacks on Orochimaru's mental will.

I deliberately didn't use illusion magic before, just to wait for this opportunity.

"wrong!"

Sensing the eye power that far surpassed that of the three-tomoe Sharingan, Orochimaru knew he was in trouble, but it was too late.

Genjutsu is much faster to activate than ninjutsu and taijutsu, especially Sharingan genjutsu.

Even Orochimaru, a Kage-level powerhouse, fell for it. Although it wasn't enough to completely confuse him, it was enough to keep him in a daze for a few seconds.

At the same time, Tamura and his two companions showed no mercy. With flashes of swords and lightning, Orochimaru was forcibly dismembered, his head shattered.

As planned, Kushina Uzumaki used the Adamantine Lock to bind the two Kusanagi swords, temporarily sealing the summoning techniques on them.

"continue!"

Tamura Hao did not relax at all, and continued to slash rapidly at the shattered corpses on the ground.

He still possesses the ability to perceive good and evil, and the malice stemming from Orochimaru has not yet dissipated.

Without hesitation, Yoruichi and the other two unleashed their chakra to further destroy the corpse, but Orochimaru's killing move was already complete.

Bang!

A burst of mist exploded out, and Tamura Hao felt his body being pushed aside by a huge object, almost pressed against the Four Purple Flame Array.

This anomaly also proves that Orochimaru is not dead.

"Snake is indeed not easy to kill!"

Tamura Hao was inwardly impressed by Orochimaru's incredible ability to save his life.

Orochimaru wasn't the strongest of the legendary Sannin, at least not as strong as Jiraiya when he activated Sage Mode or Tsunade when she activated the Hundred Healings Technique, but his ability to save his life was unmatched.

Once the cursed seal is developed in the future, it will become an existence that can rival Voldemort.

However, Snake will certainly not have an easy time this time; he will at least be seriously injured.

In particular, Orochimaru's relatively weak point lies in the offensive genjutsu that Uchiha Hikaru used.

Even though it hasn't split its soul for the cursed seal, its resistance is still not high.

"Damn Orochimaru, where the hell are you? You're burning me!"

Manda roared angrily. Every time Orochimaru summoned him, it was troublesome, especially the previous times when it happened on the battlefield.

"This time I need a hundred live sacrifices!"

The serpents won't do a losing business; this time, they won't be done without at least a hundred sacrifices.

"It really is Manda!"

Tamura Hiroshi, who was rushing towards Uchiha Hikaru, thought to himself, "As expected." He quickened his pace and arrived at Uchiha Hikaru's side. Without saying a word, he hugged him and rushed towards Manda's head.

While running on that enormous snake body, he whispered to Uchiha Hikaru.

"I will merge my eye power with yours through an imprint, and help me take down this giant serpent."

Although he could draw upon the eye power of Kaguya and the Ten-Tails, he himself lacked Yin-attribute chakra, making it impossible for him to utilize it, let alone use genjutsu.

We'll have to let Uchiha Hikaru handle this.

Fortunately, he was connected to it by the Eight Thousand Spears Seal, which allowed him to transfer and fuse chakra. Since eye power is also a type of chakra, he could naturally fuse and utilize it.

Uchiha Hikaru, who was initially a little awkward being held in someone's arms, did not refuse upon hearing this and accepted the immense ocular power transmitted from the seal.

Although she was furious with this shameless scoundrel and held a grudge from last time, she knew very well that it was just a personal conflict and absolutely could not interfere with important matters, especially since they were still fighting at the moment.

Just as Manda was wondering why Orochimaru hadn't responded, a figure appeared right beside him.

Before I could react, a pair of scarlet eyes came into view, and my consciousness went dark. A pair of three-tomoe projections appeared in my eyes.

Although Tamura Hao extracted Uchiha Hikaru's Mangekyou Sharingan, he retained most of its power. Mangekyou Sharingan level power can even control tailed beasts, let alone a Manda.

Orochimaru escaped using a summoning jutsu.

Just then, Uzumaki Tamayo's voice came. He could no longer sense Orochimaru's chakra, so he must have summoned another snake to escape.

After confirming that there was no chakra reaction from Orochimaru, Uzumaki Tamayori withdrew the Four Purple Flame Formation and stepped forward to cast a contract seal, temporarily sealing the contract link between Manda and Ryuchi Cave.

"Light, quickly check its memory for any cultivation methods of the Dragon Cave Immortal Technique."

Tamura Hao didn't care whether Orochimaru had run away; the most important thing now was to obtain the Sage Mode training method from Manda's memories.

Manda, being a high-ranking serpent in Ryuchi Cave second only to a few snake sages, and having a contract with Orochimaru, must know the methods Ryuchi Cave uses to allow humans to cultivate immortal techniques.

Without much preamble, Uchiha Hikaru took a breath and used his eye power to invade Manda's memories, quickly finding a Sage Technique that humans could cultivate.

"Yes, but it requires the venom of the Sage Snake of Ryuchi Cave as a medium. It is controlled by the three Snake Sages of Ryuchi Cave, and the cultivation process is extremely dangerous. Even Orochimaru did not dare to try it."

"That's good!"

Tamura Hao's face lit up with joy. He immediately formed hand seals and unleashed the chakra within the Yang Seal to activate the abdominal seal. He also drew upon the chakra of the Ten-Tails to completely seal Manda's massive body inside.

Manda is not an ordinary summoned beast, but a member of Ryuchi Cave, possessing the power of sage magic.

These little ten-tailed foxes are top-tier tonics, not to mention they're so big.

Given the characteristics of the Ten-Tails, swallowing it might grant it the ability to absorb natural energy and evolve into Sage Chakra, which would be awesome.

Of course, we can't swallow it all; we have to keep some parts for research.

Did Orochimaru leave any blood behind?

Tamura Hao inquired about Orochimaru's legacy.

Since we've already become enemies with Orochimaru, let's strike him hard enough.

"We found some."

Yotsuki Ai and Fukai arrived with some blood-stained clothes and a few pieces of meat, left behind by Orochimaru.

Tamura Hao didn't say much. After squeezing out the blood from the meat chunk, he sealed the meat chunk into the sealing space so that the little Ten-Tails and Kaguya could devour it first, and extracted Orochimaru's chakra from it.

He drew upon Orochimaru's chakra, raised his hand to form hand seals, and used the blood to perform a summoning jutsu.

"Spiritual communication!"

As a burst of mist exploded out, a large snake appeared, and Yu Ye immediately stepped forward to seal it with a contract seal.

Fukai then slashed open the giant snake's abdomen with his sword. After confirming that there was nothing there, Tamura Hao sealed it into the sealing space as a snack for the little Ten-Tails.

Then, using Orochimaru's chakra and blood, he continued to perform the Summoning Jutsu, summoning all the large snakes with whom he had made a contract.

Although Orochimaru signed a summoning contract with Ryuchi Cave, not all snakes will respond to his summons. He has to tame them one by one, and they will only respond to his summons if they agree.

This continued until Orochimaru's blood was exhausted, and a total of over a hundred snakes of different sizes were summoned. Most of them had empty bellies, but a dozen or so had something inside, mostly sealed scrolls.

"Clean this up, let's get back as soon as possible."

Tamura Hiroshi's smile almost reached his ears as he wrapped up the sealed scrolls.

What a bumper harvest!

Orochimaru is a man with many secrets, many of which are not meant to be revealed. In addition, he has no family or trusted people in Konoha, so he would definitely not leave important things in Konoha.

It's not practical to carry them around, so the only ones usable are the snakes from Ryuchi Cave.

This is also the main reason why Orochimaru always takes things out of a snake's mouth when he retrieves them in the future.

It was precisely because they recognized this that they came up with this next wave of raids.

After cleaning up the traces at the scene, the group left before some patrolling samurai who had come to investigate the commotion arrived. They then returned and gathered together to wait for their share of the loot.

Uzumaki Tamayo untied the sealing techniques on the scrolls one by one. Although Orochimaru was a genius, his talent did not lie in sealing techniques, so the sealing techniques he used were naturally no challenge for Uzumaki Tamayo.

Moreover, they never expected anyone to use such methods to steal their home, so naturally they didn't take any precautions on those scrolls.

Unrolling those sealed scrolls revealed many things, most of which were rather creepy, including human organs and even a pair of Sharingan eyes with three tomoe.

Then there were some artifacts and classical books.

"Take a look at them all, then categorize them and send them back to the village."

Tamura Hiroshi picked up a scroll, unfolded it, and discovered it was an experimental record about intercolumnar cells.

I only glanced at it briefly and put it aside, then picked up the second one to look at.

The others also picked up the scrolls and books and flipped through them, not looking at them in detail, but just roughly identifying the types and seeing if there were any that they could use.

"Huh! Orochimaru is actually a descendant of the Kusanagi clan. Those two swords really are Kusanagi swords."

Fukai suddenly exclaimed in surprise. The scroll he was looking at contained some secrets of the Kusanagi family, including the two Kusanagi swords that Orochimaru had used before.

"A descendant of the Kusanagi family, no wonder he possesses the Kusanagi Sword."

Tamura Hiroshi suddenly realized that the Kusanagi family did exist in this world, and the Kusanagi sword series was a legendary sword crafted by that family and named after them.

It's surprising that Orochimaru is a descendant of the Kusanagi clan. But that makes sense, as it explains why Orochimaru has two Kusanagi swords and why he's so obsessed with the strongest Kusanagi sword, the Totsuka Blade.

Tamura Hao took the scroll and examined it carefully. Sure enough, it contained detailed records about the Kusanagi family, including the two Kusanagi swords and the Totsuka sword, the Sake-Kari tachi.

There are also records of six other Kusanagi swords, making a total of nine, each with different effects.

For example, the double-edged Kusanagi sword can extend its blade to 100 meters in an instant, making it suitable for thrusting at opponents. That's why it was crafted into a rare straight sword shape.

The other one possesses extreme sharpness and is indestructible.

In addition, there is a sword technique called the Sky-Slaying Blade, which Orochimaru used to control and pierce Hiruzen Sarutobi in the future Konoha Crush plan.

This move was very powerful, and the sword speed was also very fast. If it weren't for Hiruzen Sarutobi grabbing both of her hands, plus the interference of the Shinigami's power, she would have been able to kill Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"There is no method for forging swords."

After flipping through the scroll, Tamura Hiroshi frowned.

This only contains some secrets and events of the Kusanagi family, which are not of much value. Then there are records of the nine Kusanagi swords that were forged and the secret technique of the Sky Sword. The method of forging the sword that he wanted most was not included.

The group continued to look through the scrolls, but found no more scrolls or books related to the Kusanagi family.

Although Tamura Hao was disappointed, he didn't dwell on it too much and picked up the Kusanagi Sword, which had also been sealed by the contract by Uzumaki Tamayo, to examine it.

"I'm sure the teacher will be very happy to see these two Kusanagi swords."

Looking at the two Kusanagi swords, Tamura Hao was very satisfied; this ambush had been extremely profitable.

"The Kusanagi Sword truly lives up to its reputation as a legendary sword!"

Fukai drew his own ninja sword, looking at the tiny chips on the blade with great pain, and was also amazed by the Kusanagi sword.

The quality of swords also varies, but this is not very noticeable among ninja tools, because ninjas focus more on the application of ninjutsu, and ninja tools are only used to assist in combat.

Among the samurai of the Land of Iron, swords are divided into four levels based on their cutting power and hardness: the highest level, the best, the best, the best, and the best. My original fine ninja sword could only be considered a best.

This sword is now considered a high-grade weapon, comparable to the ninja swords brought back from Kirigakure, but it lacks those special functions.

Ah Hao's Big Meow and Little Meow are the most supreme and powerful creations, even harder and sharper.

But above that are the legendary swords, which are beyond the limits of human crafting, the most famous of which is the Kusanagi Sword.

Unexpectedly, Orochimaru had two Kusanagi swords in his hands, and after the clash, both of his ninja swords were chipped.

This legendary sword truly lives up to its reputation!

"This knife is mine."

Uchiha Hikaru stared intently at the straight-bladed ninja sword and declared ownership; she had fallen in love with the sword the moment it appeared.

That slender, straight blade was perfect for his own skill, far superior to the thunder blade in his hand.

Moreover, this is a legendary sword that is even higher than the most powerful swords, stronger than that shameless villain's twin swords. It will definitely help me completely suppress that shameless villain and make him submit to my feet, Uchiha Hikaru.

"No problem, but my teacher needs to study it first and figure out the secrets of this famous sword. Maybe we can make it in the future."

Tamura Hao did not refuse, after all, he had contributed the most to the attack on Uchiha Hikaru. Without that final genjutsu attack, it would have been difficult for them to seriously injure Orochimaru and seize the two Kusanagi swords.

That person's survival skills are too strong; they're not so easy to kill.

He was more curious about the two Kusanagi swords and wanted to understand their secrets, especially the one that Orochimaru used first.

"By the way, Brother Ai, inform Lord Tsuchidae that Orochimaru has been severely injured by us, and ask him to make plans accordingly."

Then, thinking of Lord Danzo who was overseeing the battle on the other side, Tamura Hao felt it was necessary to let Lord Danzo know about Orochimaru's incompetence and uncontrollability.

If you're going to use ninja tools, just use them properly. Why do you have to do side jobs, and do them so poorly? This kind of person doesn't deserve to work under Lord Danzo.

After studying it for half the night, Tamura Hiroshi went to his teacher, Kusayama Ichiro, early the next morning.

"It really is the Kusanagi Sword!"

Kusayama Ichiro's eyes burned with fervor as he looked at the two swords his disciple had brought back.

His greatest wish in life was to see a legendary sword, and now it has finally come true, and he has two of them.

"Could the teacher have discerned the secret behind these two knives?"

Tamura Hao inquired, explaining that he had only recently come into contact with the essence of a knife and had limited understanding of it; previously, he only knew how to use a knife.

While examining and studying a Kusanagi sword, Kusanagi Ichiro replied, "In terms of material, the world-renowned swords are no different from the top-tier swords of the Mogami clan. The key lies in the will within them."

You can think of it this way: ordinary knives are inanimate objects, while legendary swords are alive, possessing all sorts of incredible powers that transcend the limits of their material properties.

This isn't the kind of power you ninja tools possess; it's on a much higher level.

His knowledge of legendary swords was also very limited, mostly derived from ancient books. He had only come across such swords today, and the true secrets they held still required further study and contemplation.

"Alive!"

Tamura Hiroshi was puzzled; this sounded a bit far-fetched.

However, seeing that Kusanagi Ichiro's attention was entirely focused on the Kusanagi sword, Tamura Hiroshi did not ask any further questions and quietly got up and left.

These are not things I can handle yet. What I need to do now is to study knife forging seriously and create a professional-grade knife as soon as possible.

Although the craftsmanship grade is the lowest grade, it is the foundation of a good knife. Only those who forge knives of the craftsmanship grade can be called knife makers; otherwise, they are just blacksmiths.

Forging is actually quite suitable for him; with the power of the Sharingan and Byakugan combined, there's no skill he can't learn.

Even the simplest techniques can be copied directly, just like how Sasuke Uchiha copied Rock Lee's taijutsu techniques using his Sharingan in the future. It's really not difficult.

Not to mention that he can simultaneously borrow the power of the Sharingan and Byakugan, a double cheat code indeed.

Furthermore, the Byakugan's ability to see through objects plays a crucial role in the forging of materials. By looking directly into the material and discovering various flaws in advance, the forging process becomes much more precise and efficient than using chakra sensing.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

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(End of this chapter)