The Land of Iron.
A country comprised of samurai.
The samurai in this land are quite the anomaly in the ninja world.
They reject ninjas, yet use chakra and ninjutsu themselves. They remain neutral, staying away from ninja conflicts.
But isn't that just another way of declaring themselves as ninjas?
Unlike other countries, the daimyo of the Land of Iron holds significant power. The samurai are a group of individuals who exist solely to serve the daimyo. To rebel against the daimyo is to be branded a traitor.
"So why are we taking this route?"
Trailing behind White Fang, Uchiha Jin couldn't understand.
Passing through the Land of Iron to get to the Land of Lightning was clearly out of the way.
"Don't you want to see the samurai here?"
White Fang countered.
"Not interested at all."
Jin looked entirely disinterested, fiddling with something in his hands as he walked.
Dividing his attention was a basic skill for him.
He was interested in many secret arts from different villages, but over time, when his basic internal technique became widespread, those secret arts would eventually belong to him.
But the Land of Iron? He had no interest in it.
"A group of outdated relics swept under the rug. Nothing worth expecting," Jin said bluntly, his attention focused on the object in his hand, his voice carrying more volume than he intended.
His words drew hostile glares from passersby.
White Fang awkwardly scratched his head and quickly dragged Jin away from the crowd.
Once they were out of sight, he let out a sigh of relief.
"You could try speaking a bit quieter next time," he said, lowering his voice.
Especially since that kind of talk would definitely offend people in the Land of Iron.
"The Land of Iron is actually pretty strong," White Fang said.
Jin, however, looked unconvinced. To him, the samurai were just ninjas in disguise, playing with chakra and ninjutsu but without the diversity of techniques even a small village had. They relied solely on swordsmanship.
Their so-called strength was simply due to a larger pool of candidates. Other ninja villages selected their ninjas from their local population, giving no chance to outsiders. The Land of Iron, on the other hand, recruited samurai from across the entire country, naturally giving them more power.
Even with that advantage, they were still a second-rate power, a testament to how mediocre they truly were.
Moreover, their swordsmanship, based on chakra, wasn't even as strong as some of the sword techniques from major ninja villages. Take, for example, the Hatake clan's swordsmanship, which could easily crush that of the Land of Iron.
Ninja swordsmanship was purely designed for killing, making it inherently lethal. Samurai, on the other hand, had more complex motivations and traditions.
They were like a stubborn pocket of samurai who refused to accept the realities of the ninja world—not a promising place for someone like Jin, who thrived on research and development.
Naturally, he wasn't interested.
"Given your talent for creating sword techniques, I thought you'd be intrigued by the Land of Iron," White Fang remarked.
He had only intended to give Jin a glimpse of the samurai culture.
"So is this just a sightseeing tour at public expense?" Jin asked, surprised at White Fang. He hadn't expected such behavior from someone as upright as White Fang.
"Kind of, yeah. The main issue is with the Hidden Cloud Village, but there's no rush," White Fang said, scratching his face.
The problem with the Hidden Cloud Village stemmed from the First Shinobi World War; they had exhausted themselves, leaving few able-bodied fighters. Their potential involvement in the Second Shinobi World War seemed unlikely.
Although their mission was reconnaissance, in reality, the outposts would collect the necessary information. White Fang only needed to pass through the Hidden Cloud Village once. If the village were planning a major operation, they wouldn't be able to hide it easily anyway. His role was more about staying close to Konoha's bases and acting as a potential frontline commander.
The task wasn't to conduct in-depth investigations.
He was merely a precaution.
Though Sarutobi Hiruzen had called him back from the River Country front, which didn't sit well with some. For instance, the Sand Village had resumed its offensives, though they were held off by Tsunade.
At the moment, no one knew where White Fang was, making his presence even more impactful—a White Fang whose movements couldn't be tracked by the other ninja villages. Naturally, that made them wary.
He had no plans to stir up trouble.
"By the way, I've been curious for a while," White Fang said, rubbing his chin as he looked at the device Jin was working on, a shape similar to a thumb and forefinger pinched together.
"What exactly are you making?"
"Oh, this?" Jin gave the object in his hand a shake—a pistol-shaped device with an uncovered body, revealing its inner components, and a notably bulky grip.
Jin aimed the makeshift gun at White Fang and pulled the trigger.
"Whoosh!"
White Fang tilted his head as a shuriken shot past, glinting in his peripheral vision, wrapped in chakra.
"A shuriken gun, basically a toy," Jin explained.
The device was powerful against low-level ninjas, but it would struggle against anyone more advanced.
It fired shurikens, with chakra boosting both quantity and power, but its effectiveness was limited due to the materials available.
Jin had created many new jutsu already, and each one required rigorous practice. He couldn't keep up with inventing new jutsu indefinitely, so he had turned his attention to developing mechanical devices.
After all, something functional and easy to use could dramatically boost one's capabilities.
In fact, what Jin really wanted to develop were forging and alchemy techniques.
In the ninja world, the foundation for these things already existed. Many ninja tools could be seen as magical artifacts, and there were also items like soldier pills and secret clan medicines—solid starting points for further development.
Unfortunately, at the moment, only Tsunade and Orochimaru were genuinely interested in research. Others only valued sheer power.
Few were interested in crafting ninja tools, and even fewer in making secret medicines. As for the famous ninja tools, their methods of creation were lost to time—even Madara Uchiha had no clue about them.
Thus, Jin was left to develop them on his own.
"This is hardly a toy," White Fang said, frowning deeply as he looked at the shuriken gun. It might be just average for a typical ninja, but in the hands of an ordinary person… maybe not that impressive either.
He could tell the device still required chakra to operate. However, if enough of these were produced, it could significantly boost the power of low-level ninjas.
And he had watched Jin create it the entire way—using entirely ordinary materials.
Just as White Fang was about to ask for more details, he felt his ninja pouch vibrate.
He frowned, biting his thumb and pressing it to the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!"
With a puff of smoke, a grey wolf appeared, a scroll in its mouth.
The wolf dropped the scroll, and with another puff of smoke, disappeared.
White Fang quickly picked up the scroll and read it.
"What's going on?" Jin asked, curious.
Hopefully, it wasn't some dangerous mission.
He'd rather avoid that.
White Fang's brow furrowed as he read, not relaxing even after finishing.
"The Mist Village has declared war."