It was morning and I was happily napping as I continued my slow journey to the Land of Iron.
The carriage I recruited to carry my little butt from one side of the world to another had no issue in getting through all the checkpoints between the various nations we were visiting, and I sure felt at ease when we finally bypassed the last one in Iwa. Yes, to reach the Land of Iron, I had to get through a good extent of Iwa's territory and pass unnoticed in the process.
After all, a different name and other clothes would do little to someone as renowned as I, hence why I had to style my hair differently from the occasion, finally pulling some of my medium-length mane in a ponytail. A temporary weakness, I told myself, while also applying a thin layered genjutsu to turn my eye-color from pure black to a soft green.
Sasaki Kojiro, by the role I assigned it to have, was a young man from the Land of Iron that had gone through a listless trip through the elemental nations for a year and was now making his way back home to resume his daily life in his hometown. Lazy, but somewhat good-hearted, the character seemed to strike nicely with the Patrol Guard if I behaved politely.
None seemed to notice the genjutsu or the fact it was in truth me, Shimura Danzou, behind that form of disguise. I was wearing a blue wide-sleeved jacket over my cyan kimono shirt, a magenta-colored belt which held my dark-blue hakama skirt up and a pair of black sandals which neatly contained the white short socks. I was ready for some battling, but my mobility was slightly hampered by the notion I had yet to learn how to fight proficiently with this outfit.
Oh well, I had time to waste and lots of fun opponent to test out. Finally we were getting into my destination as the renown Sanrou Mountain was within sight.
"Oi, Kojiro-kun," The old man driving the carriage called out for me. "I'll leave ye to Oudishi. In there, ye should be able to get all the stuff ye need. Maps, food, women-"
"Harumi-san," I groaned at that last bit. "But women are so troublesome for warriors like me."
He snorted half-a-chuckle. "Ye youths really are getting wiser than us old fools. Aye, women may be meddlesome, but they can also be feisty depending on how they like ye."
I huffed in visible annoyance, and the man chuckled once more at my reaction while we continued through our path to reach this Oudishi. Despite the maps I found in Konoha, I never heard of such a settlement and… I blamed it on the fact that the Land of Iron had gone quiet for several years now, right as new settlements were planned to be created and expand the country's population.
The Land of Iron, like it had been for the original timeline, was a mystery for any ninja that never visited it. I had info through what could be defined as 'detailed reports' from the Warring States Era and… there's not much to say about those. I knew who the previous leader was, I knew that Samurai ruled as the primary middle-to-rich class with no nobles sustaining the current Taisho (or General) of the Land of Iron.
They remained quite neutral during the First Shinobi War, with no clear excuse on why they skipped the chance to expand when they could have. Entering these lands I could remember that Chakra was practiced there too, however the methodology was different due to the 'unusual' pattern my Sharingan picked up by the trees.
The chakra wasn't used to fasten their growth, but to make it more robust. I thought about it some more before remembering that the Samurai were known to use chakra to bolster their weapons and not their bodies. Thus, it wasn't that difficult to connect dots and see how that kind of agricultural process was driven by chakra-bolstered tools.
This was a nice discovery and a pleasant distraction for my mind as we finally reached our destination. Oudishi was what one would imagine as a simple Japanese village of the Sengoku Period. While some of the architecture reminded me of Konoha, the place was underdeveloped and lacked the 'modern-esque' approach taken in the construction of some buildings.
This felt more attuned to pre-Meiji Restoration Japan compared to any other settlements I visited in the past. The clothing style adopted by the locals further expanded on it as it was clear the local fashion had yet to pick up a more standardized process like those countries outside the Land of Iron had done.
"Ye should check that Inn," Old man Harumi commented while pointing a finger at the place he was talking about. "The prices should be affordable here and… I guess that's it for now, brat."
"Yes. Thank you for the ride."
"Heh, ye paid well and ye didn't make a fuss. I feel tempted to say that I should thank ye for that politeness, brat."
My lips twitched and, as I nodded him a 'goodbye', I jumped off the carriage and took to the village's streets while zig-zagging to the inn itself. It was getting quite late, so I doubted any of the available shops was going to be prepared to handle customers at this hour.
I was soon walking inside the inn, glancing briefly on the side where numerous men and a few women were sharing drinks with one another while enjoying the lively dinner together. My attention was still focused on the host of the inn, a rough-looking bald man with an eye-patch covering his left eye. He spared me a nod as I approached and I smiled in return.
"I wish to rent a room for the night."
"The price is 1500 Ryo. 2100 if you are also planning to get some of today's soup."
"I will just stay for the night."
The host of the inn nodded as I landed the proper amount of Ryo in a bag on the counter. There was no questioning and definitely no inquiry about my chances of eating dinner. I didn't need to as I had sealed up a few bento boxes to eat from for a few weeks into this journey, as then I would start to cook for myself to avoid any unpleasant surprises with potential assassins. Right now my cover was holding quite well, but one can never be too sure if it will hold for the whole time I was going to be there when it comes to fellow ninjas hunting me for my bounty.
I followed the old man's instructions by going upstairs and using the key I was given to enter the room that was right in the middle of the first floor's hallway. I was introduced to a single but fairly big room with some basic elements in it such as a small futon bed and a window. No Bathroom, that was a luxury meant to be 'enjoyed' by the rest of the customers at the end of the hallway. It wasn't too shabby, but it was shabby. Oh well, there was no reason to complain considering that the place was expected to be so backwater compared to other major villages. And I gained nothing from being a spoiled little shit.
Sighing at this situation, I just set myself down by the futon and unsealed some paper and ink. I had letters to write back home as I had already visited those I had promised to check on through some reverse summoning. By the time I was done writing the documents and had them sent through by Kiara, I found myself yawning and slowly set down to enjoy my first night in the Land of Iron.
Before going to sleep, I spared a quick look at the sword I brought with me and wondered if I had to apply a new seal or not. Did I even have anything left to add to this piece? Right now the katana I had was reforged a few times with some layers of metal that would allow me to engrave seals in it.
I added as many as I could, from seals which allowed me to easily channel my chakra through it, elemental and not, to actually contain potential threats if I needed to use it as a container. I literally engraved numerous seals to handle medium-tier containment, chakra purification and then alteration to use said purified chakra if necessary. I was ready for everything, and I felt at ease knowing that I wasn't going through this journey without some degree of preparation.
With my eyes closed and my mind slowly zoning out as I fell asleep, I thought that would have been a simple and uneventful night. But then, the ground started to shake and, as I woke up, I realized that the room had gotten darker than it was before. It wasn't tied to the sky but to something quite big obstructing the moon from illuminating that section of the village. Which was odd. I decided to go and check, slowly putting on the few layers of clothes I ditched before resting, but as I was busy with that task, I froze when I heard the shake come back with greater intensity, this time I could hear more than just that. I heard screams, I heard explosions and… I heard people fighting.
An attack. On my first day in the Land of Iron.
Shimura Danzou would have felt miffed at this circumstance but… for now, I embraced my Sasaki Kojiro's mindset and grinned while readying my sword. I wanted to fight and I knew that the idiots that were attacking this village were up to some rude counter-assault. I looked outside the window as I was done preparing my outfit, and I finally got a clear view of the situation. I saw masked ninjas descend from the sky in flying contraptions and holding some primitive kunai-shooters. My brain dug into my lore-folder and retrieved the right info. The Land of the Sky- So I was dealing with a movie-related situation. And one that I didn't have much background about since I don't recall the Land of the Sky attacking the Land of Iron before starting causing issues for the Five Major Villages.
Oh well, I guess today's a good day to 'learn some new lore'.
Readying my sword, I jumped out of the window and swerved the blade to stab the back of the foe I used to land on the ground. The impact plus the impalement killed the man instantly, but alerted his buddy as he paused from shooting down a man trying to protect his kids. The masked grunt turned his kunai-shooter on me, but he proved to be slow on the trigger-work as I easily got close to him, swatted the device out of his hand and cut his throat open. He collapsed due to the deadly injury and I turned my attention to the frightened father and his children.
"I suggest you find a safe place where to lay low."
The man nodded and took his kids away before more of the airborne troops got down to the ground.
"You should just surrender," I muttered calmly, smiling at the newcomers. "For my blade shall not be as merciful as I am tonight."
Their response was aiming their shooters at me, my smile widening as I pumped chakra on my legs and zeroed the distance I had on them with ease. The closest of the Sky ninjas got disarmed quite brutally, his yell silenced by a swift stab into his abdomen before I moved to cleave at his buddies. Once again, it was a clean and 'cutting' introduction.
I stared at the new fallen corpses for just a few seconds to confirm they were all dead before shifting away from this part of town to try and see if I could help some more. More grunts, more blood to spill and… I finally got my eyes on the big bad boss. Big burly man that was currently wrecking at the samurai that had rallied in an effort to fight him off. He was beating them with ease and… that guy was the same guy from the movie. The same villain. Or someone that looked the same as him. What was his name… Shinno? Yes, Shinno.
"Is this all you people can offer to me? You are all so weak!"
Aren't you a piece of work?
I decided to cut the chase and directly end the bastard here and now before he could become a problem in the near future. He was still gloating when I jumped over him and prepared to attack him from the sky
"That was an interesting approach from a Samurai. To attack one so unceremoniously."
I shrugged. "Bah, I'm not much of a Samurai. Especially not when I am fighting sick bastards with a deep desire to kill people."
He looked a bit surprised by that lazy response, and then hummed. "My name is Shinno, and I am the leader of the Land of the Sky!"
"Sasaki Kojiro," I replied mirthfully. "Or the guy you will be soon begging to spare your life from."
His grin mellowed out of anger. "Big words from a young man."
"Fancy tones from a man relying on a different being to be this strong," I lamented back, and his annoyance grew to twice its previous size.
He didn't say much more as he rushed forward in an effort to 'prove his point'. But as many would know at this point through my original identity, I am a master at negotiating and talking, and this, in my eyes, was just a standard session of aggressive diplomacy. And I had the advantage of remembering that the guy's strength wasn't as absolute as he wanted it to be. Still, he was a tough nut to crack.
After all, I was putting a genuine effort to not use any shinobi-related skills I had to keep up with my cover. And the fight got embarrassingly longer than it should have. I gave him the hope he was going to beat me to the ground, but the truth was that my basic kenjutsu training gave me the means to safely wind him down and then kill him off once his pace and reaction time had dropped to acceptable levels.
Sweating profusely and looking ready to have a heart attack, the buffed dumbass tried to land another punch on me, expecting me to dodge the attack or land some cuts on his muscled limb. What he didn't see coming was his limb flying away and leaving him down to three. He tried to retaliate out of pain and anger, but the punch coming from his other arm was soon stopped when I coated my blade in Lightning chakra and allowed it to seamlessly cut it vertically, splitting it open in half and destroying another of his limbs in the process.
This time his chakra tried to work to fix the damage but doing it slowly and wrongly because the Lightning chakra had burned some of the skin and cauterized it, but it still left him open enough for me to deal the last deadly hit. Shinno looked surprised when my katana decapitated him, his head rolling on the side as his big body fell on its knee and then collapsed in front of me, blood squirting out of the large wound and… concluding the fight.
"Wowie, that was an intense warm-up, wasn't it?" I commented jovially, turning to the side and remembering that the other Samurai were there too. And they just stared at me as if I had grown a second head.
Maybe I could have been a bit less clueless about the matter but… oh well, since I was trying to play it coy, I guess I could be a joker too with my special kind of humor. Still, I failed to realize during that fight that something had changed during the invasion. The big floating temple that the Sky ninjas used as a mobile base of operations, it was no longer there as it had quickly retreated when they noticed their leader had started to struggle against me. Someone had to have told them he would have lost since I doubted they would have ditched someone like Shinno without a deadly serious reason.
Also, as the attack was over, and everyone looked ready to celebrate the successful defense and those that defended the civilians, they all noticed that one 'Sasaki Kojiro' was no longer around. This little display of power was not going to be positive if I addressed it directly and I didn't need that sort of publicity.
Plus, I had a floating base to track down and capture as I had eyes on the devices they were using during the siege. The way those bastards used to employ steam in such an efficient way gave me ideas on how to further industrialize home without relying on smog-inducing elements to produce steam and energy to power-up engines. This was the kind of technology that was too important for me to just ignore and I had to get to them before they got away from my reach. That and the fact the Zero-Tails was still inside that thing and could potentially become a threat of continent-level if left untouched for too long.
But by wandering away from the celebrations and becoming an elusive figure, I also unconsciously laid the foundation of a legend that would persist and heighten itself during my stay in the Land of Iron as the people would soon learn of a young man of playful and yet good-mannered fashion and with unknown origins.
Through my usual brand of chaos, I ended up creating the Legend of Sasaki Kojiro. One that would become the center point for a new samurai generation that would take on the challenge bestowed to them by my unusual methods of fighting.
And that, as I would soon learn, was going to put me through more trouble than I really wanted to be subjected to…