Chapter 35: Blade Selection Begins – Muramasa & Yatsufusa Compatibility Trials
Hyūga clan grounds, clan head meeting room.
A branch family member was reporting to the main house about Naraku soon selecting masters for his treasured blades.
After listening to the subordinate's report, the Hyūga clan's great elder Hyūga Kanekotsu spoke with disdain: "Our Hyūga clan already has the Gentle Fist—why would we need some ninja blade! The Uchiha clan is clearly declining; now they're even relying on external tools!"
Clan head Hyūga Tenmei nearly burst a vein hearing the great elder's words: Does this old man even listen to himself? Such a powerful ninja blade—Gentle Fist might be strong, but you still need to hit the target, chain combos, and seal their chakra temporarily. Any slightly skilled enemy has countless chances to escape during that process. Yet Naraku's blades kill with just a scratch—what an absurd difference! And this stubborn old fossil refuses to acknowledge their strength just for the sake of so-called Hyūga pride and face!
He had long wanted to change the Hyūga clan's current state. But right now, the conservative elder faction held all the discourse power in the clan. Even as clan head, he couldn't confront them head-on. He could only go along: "Indeed. Then just send some branch family members. And since the Hokage invited us, tomorrow let the branch family manager bring some academy students along. I'll go take a look too."
Hyūga Kanekotsu glanced at Hyūga Tenmei and nodded. Seeing the great elder agree, the other elders quickly chimed in approval.
Senju clan grounds.
Nawaki was pestering his older sister: "Big sis! Master Naraku forged powerful weapons again—this time two really strong ninja blades! Take me with you tomorrow!"
Tsunade looked at Nawaki's behavior and suddenly felt a surge of irritation for some reason. She gave him a solid knuckle to the head: "Fine! We'll go together tomorrow!"
Jiraiya, peeking from an open-air hot spring with his butt in the air, also overheard the news. He decided to go check it out tomorrow—he was very curious about Naraku's forged blades.
The next day, at the Chūnin Exams arena.
Although this wasn't the Chūnin Exams, the entire venue was packed shoulder-to-shoulder with people.
Naraku stood in the center of the field. On the table in front of him lay two ninja blades.
To his left and right in the center were Root and ANBU standing guard.
In the stands, the Uchiha clan had the largest turnout—almost every clan member who had awakened Sharingan, plus academy students who hadn't yet, were present.
Uchiha Fugaku looked at Naraku with some despair. From his shallow perspective, he probably had no chance of avenging his "stolen wife." He always felt that in his father's eyes, he was less important than the boy standing there now.
The Hyūga clan sent few people—just the clan head and some branch members.
Others included the Sarutobi clan, Shimura clan, Yamanaka-Akimichi-Nara trio, Aburame clan, Inuzuka clan...
The rest were tiny families too minor to mention and civilian ninjas.
Several well-known powerhouses had also come: Tsunade, Jiraiya, Hatake Sakumo.
Naraku glanced at the time and began explaining the specific abilities of his two blades: "The ninja blade on my left is called One-Cut Killer [Muramasa], part of what I call the Teigu series. The Teigu series is my own name—mainly to distinguish them from vassal weapons I've forged before, like Kirikabe Ichimonji. The difference between Teigu and vassal weapons is that Teigu often have much higher requirements and compatibility demands for their wielder. If the ability or compatibility isn't sufficient, the weapon can even backlash against its owner. Of course, the result is that Teigu usually possess far stronger abilities."
Hearing Naraku say these weapons were even stronger than the already famous Kirikabe Ichimonji, murmurs of discussion rippled through the crowd.
Naraku paused, then continued: "One-Cut Killer [Muramasa] has an instant-kill ability. As long as this blade cuts you, curse poison instantly spreads throughout the enemy's body, causing immediate death! And the ninja blade on my right—March of the Dead [Yatsufusa]—has the primary ability to control people killed by this blade through curse manipulation, up to eight corpse puppets at once. Puppets retain their living appearance and can be controlled naturally. When the ability is released, they revert to ordinary corpses. At the same time, both blades have the common traits of my forged ninja blades: Durability and Sharpness. I won't go into more specific functions or drawbacks!"
In truth, One-Cut Killer [Muramasa] was a very strong first-glance kill weapon. Hiding its abilities would be more advantageous for actual combat performance, but Naraku had to sacrifice some of that for reputation points.
After hearing Naraku's explanation of the blades' powers, the arena erupted into complete chaos. Both ninja blades possessed terrifying strength—any elite jōnin who obtained and used one properly could realistically fight at Kage level.
Naraku raised his palm, and the crowd instantly quieted down. After all, the blades were his creation—everyone still gave him face.
"Later I will select suitable masters for these two blades. If you can hold the Teigu for 3 seconds without it resisting, you pass the initial test. One more rule! No using chakra!"
"Then let's begin!" As the Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi gave the word, and everyone started testing in the pre-arranged order.
First in line was Danzō's Root. Naraku watched masked figure after masked figure pass before him.
Without question, none of them were compatible. In truth, in the ninja world, strong enough chakra could force suppression of a Teigu and allow usage—but in Naraku's eyes, that kind of forced utilization was completely unnecessary. It was like Kakashi's Sharingan—useful, but not recommended.
Danzō watched person after person fail and began suspecting Naraku was pulling some trick.
Finally it was Danzō's turn. His face was dark—he was almost certain Naraku had rigged it. But when he gripped March of the Dead [Yatsufusa], he discovered the Teigu did not resist him at all. Could he really be the legendary chosen one?
Danzō's mood flipped instantly from anger to joy.
And Naraku's slightly surprised raised eyebrow only confirmed it for him.
Naraku was genuinely surprised. After all, the original owner of this blade was the short-haired, expressionless, arrogant-yet-tsundere beautiful girl Kuromi—gentle toward comrades, ruthless toward enemies, deeply valuing those around her. So much so that when a teammate was about to die, she would cut them down herself to keep them "with her" forever.
Naraku looked at Danzō: Expressionless, arrogant, used to be a handsome young man, ruthless to enemies, values people around him as long as they're useful and will never forget to exploit them!
Well damn—he's a perfect match.
Of course, in reality Naraku didn't fully understand the exact reason. Teigu choosing owners wasn't solely based on personality, preferences, or appearance—perhaps Danzō just got lucky.
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