Chapter 59: Mifune's Plea, Naraku's Ambition, and the Lottery Jackpot
As soon as Naraku returned to Konoha, he received a piece of news. Xin told him that a samurai from the Land of Iron was requesting to meet him and had already been squatting at the shop entrance for many days.
Naraku was very curious who was so eager to see him. After all, many ninjas came to beg him to forge weapons, but this was the first time a samurai wanted to meet him.
When Mifune saw Naraku in front of him, he hurriedly stepped forward respectfully, bowed deeply, and greeted: "Lord Naraku! Please, you must save the Land of Iron!"
Naraku was stunned by this display, then said: "This isn't the place to talk. Let's change locations!"
...
After Mifune explained everything, Naraku finally understood the whole story. In short, Mifune wanted to borrow the power of Naraku's weapons to resist the invasion of Hanzo the Salamander from the Land of Rain.
Naraku recalled the original story: back then, how did the Land of Iron resolve Hanzo's invasion? It seemed the samurai in front of him—Mifune—fought to the death without retreating and was willing to sacrifice himself for his comrades, which moved Hanzo. Hanzo then detoxified Mifune and promised not to invade the Land of Iron anymore.
Naraku suspected that even if he told Mifune this method, Mifune wouldn't believe it.
It was like a certain country one day saying it needed to "reform" a small place for the sake of freedom and democracy—and that small place just happened to have oil.
Naraku really couldn't understand what Hanzo was thinking. If it was to expand territory, he could have started with the small countries around him. The Land of Iron was separated from the Land of Rain by half the Land of Fire.
Moreover, the Land of Iron had a climate like Siberia—ice and snow, harsh natural environment, scarce resources.
This country had an advantageous coastal geography—easy to defend, hard to attack.
Finally, the samurai of the Land of Iron—there were far more samurai than ninjas in a single ninja village. Even if individual combat ability was inferior to ninjas, they could easily form human-wave tactics and win through numbers.
So for Hanzo, he probably never intended to fully invade the Land of Iron from the beginning. Of course, it was also possible that during the invasion, Hanzo discovered the Land of Iron was a tasteless, discardable chicken rib.
But if in the original story Hanzo's initial goal was to use war to seek peace for the Land of Rain, then it made much more sense.
Attacking the Land of Iron was to deter those plundering samurai. After seeing Mifune's character and strength, he felt Mifune could restrain the samurai of the Land of Iron.
Thus he gave the young Mifune enormous prestige! This laid the groundwork for Mifune to later become the general of the Land of Iron.
Fighting the three sannin but not killing them was to "leave a line for future meetings"?
As for why he only declared war on Konoha and Sunagakure despite the three great nations (Earth, Fire, Wind) fighting in his backyard—perhaps because Konoha was easier to talk to? Sunagakure was the weakest?
In the end, he left out Iwagakure—could it be because Iwa was too tough and united?
Regarding the above thoughts, Naraku could only treat them as speculation.
After all, war is complex. Sometimes even the instigator cannot fully control the situation.
...
Looking at the earnest Mifune, Naraku pulled himself out of his thoughts and said: "I can help you—even greatly help the Land of Iron resist Hanzo the Salamander's invasion. But what can you bring me in return?"
Mifune fell into deep thought. It seemed he really had nothing particularly good to offer Naraku.
The Land of Iron had no special resources that could attract Naraku.
After thinking for a long time, Mifune finally remembered the only thing he could offer: "If Lord Naraku is willing to help me! Help the Land of Iron! I am willing to offer my own life! I am willing to be at Lord Naraku's disposal in any way!"
Naraku smiled at this point: "Good! Mifune! Stay in the Uchiha clan grounds for a few days first. Later, I will give you a surprise!"
Naraku agreed to help Mifune mainly because he wanted to secure a fallback for himself—even if he might never need it. The remote environment of the Land of Iron was perfect for him to hide and scheme.
Mifune's character was still worth acknowledging—Naraku didn't have to worry about helping a white-eyed wolf. Naraku didn't have the talent to make people mindlessly obey just because he forged their weapon. One could imagine that one day Danzō might come swinging Yatsufusa to chop at Naraku.
If one day Mifune could become the general of the Land of Iron, with its military-civilian unified system, that would essentially mean controlling an entire nation.
Naraku saw very clearly: in Konoha he would forever be a wage slave. He needed his own territory—that was true entrepreneurship.
Even if he became Hokage, Naraku wouldn't particularly want it. The Hokage's power in Konoha was simply too small, with too many constraints.
The various clans in the village all spoke for their own interests. If your benefits weren't in place, plenty of people would think about killing you or paying lip service. Think about how when Sarutobi Hiruzen died, no one came to save him.
Rather than fighting wits with these people, it was better to start from zero. The Land of Iron might be a suitable new starting point for Naraku.
As for why he told Mifune to wait a few days—that was because Naraku planned to draw lottery prizes!
Previously, Nawaki's use of "Incursio" had earned Naraku a ton of reputation.
Naraku came to the forging room and called the system to open the Forger panel.
Ding...
[System Member Level: Beginner]
[Name: Uchiha Naraku]
[Forger Level: A (A+ Forging Room bonus)]
[Forging Weapon Bonuses: 1. Talent Replication; 2. Undead Legion; 3. Weapon Sovereignty]
[Forger Reputation: 15761]
[Lottery Explanation: Use Forger Reputation to draw prizes. Every 10 Reputation points allows one draw. Possible rewards include precious biological materials, rare metals, discontinued forging techniques...]
[Evaluation: With your own dedicated forging space, forging techniques receive a bonus. If conditions are met, you now have the ability to craft almost any A-grade weapon. But to forge S-grade weapons, you still need a new breakthrough!]
Naraku looked at his Forger Reputation and calculated: if he used it all for draws, he could do 1576 times (rounded).
But Naraku planned to draw 1000 times this time—after all, 1000 draws came with a guaranteed pity.
For this long-awaited lottery, Naraku made full preparations.
He first went out and found Uchiha Hiiro who was practicing swordsmanship. He went up and patted her head. Uchiha Hiiro didn't resist, just looked at Naraku with some confusion.
Mainly because Naraku recalled something he had seen somewhere before—patting a lucky girl's head could improve luck!
Naraku felt Uchiha Hiiro's luck was truly good—otherwise how could she have encountered the wise and mighty him to invest heavily in her?
After patting her head, Naraku returned to the bedroom and ordered the system: Begin lottery.
Ding...
...
[Gold · Haki Cells ×1: Raw material for creating Haki Seeds!]
[Platinum · Haki Seed Creation Secret Technique: Secret technique to create Haki Seeds. Haki Seeds can be implanted in others, giving them the potential to awaken Armament Haki / Observation Haki. Through the recipient's own thousandfold tempering, the strength can continuously grow!]
...
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