Chapter 70: Mifune Reports, Naraku's Orders, Sea King Meat, and Rain Ambush
Having awakened Observation Haki, Mifune noticed it almost the instant the bell rang. After giving quick instructions to those around him, Mifune hurried to the hidden room.
Naraku watched Mifune enter, close the window, then remove his mask and say: "Pretty fast, Mifune!"
Mifune immediately dropped to his knees, bowed deeply to Naraku, and said: "My lord, after I left Konoha, I was pursued by Konoha ninjas. In that battle, I awakened Observation Haki."
Hearing this, Naraku's eyes lit up—this meant another chance to exploit the situation.
He encouraged: "Mifune, I have very high expectations for you. You are my first true subordinate. From now on, you must train Observation Haki and Armament Haki diligently! Combined with your swordsmanship, you will definitely become the strongest swordsman in the entire ninja world!"
With that, Naraku helped Mifune up. Mifune then reported what he had been doing since returning to the Land of Iron.
In summary: using force to subdue some samurai, and starting to unite various samurai forces to prepare together against Hanzo.
When Mifune said he already had 3,000 samurai under his command, Naraku nodded in satisfaction.
Although to some people these 3,000 were just cannon fodder right now, the future was uncertain.
After listening to his subordinate's work report, Naraku felt extremely refreshed. No wonder his idiot bosses in the past loved demanding frequent work reports—this feeling of effortless gain was simply too good.
Naraku cleared his throat and said seriously to Mifune: "Next, I have a few tasks for you! Can you do them?"
Mifune declared loyally: "I will obey even unto death!"
Naraku's serious expression turned into a smile: "These tasks aren't that dangerous, but they are very important for the future of the Land of Iron!
First, select 100 elites from your 3,000 subordinates. These people will have great use later—they will be your true right-hand men!
Second, I need you to collect broken blades from battlefields!
Third, I will give you 10 Sea Kings. The flesh of these monsters has certain benefits for body training. Two of them are yours; the rest are for those 100 people.
After that, you all train like your lives depend on it. You also need to select true talents with both will and ability. Later I will find a way to grant them weakened versions of Haki Seeds.
Can you accomplish these tasks?"
Mifune naturally could handle these with ease. Moreover, as Naraku's first official task assignment, Mifune wanted to perform well.
Afterward, Naraku put his mask back on and went with Mifune to a warehouse. Naraku directly released 10 20-meter-long Sea Kings into the warehouse. Because the capital of the Land of Iron was covered in ice and snow year-round, during the snow-melting season they could rely on stored ice to keep things frozen—no need for a cold storage facility!
After giving a few more instructions, Naraku prepared to return to Konoha.
While hurrying along the road, his mind calculated solutions for Haki Seeds. In the future when the number of people grew large, he couldn't rely solely on lottery-drawn Haki Cells.
He pondered the Haki Seed production method and had a guess. Once Mifune's Haki grew a bit stronger, he should be able to directly extract some Haki Cells from Mifune's body to manufacture Haki Seeds. This might affect the upper limit, but for samurai it would still be a huge boost. Later he could re-grant true Haki Seeds to the truly outstanding talents among them.
As for the Sea Kings—Naraku could only say: too much to eat, simply too much!
On Earth, whale sharks average about 20 meters long and weigh up to 45 tons. These Sea Kings have even denser muscle, weighing around 100 tons. Normal Earth humans are suited to eat less than 300g of meat per day.
Even if these people ate 1 kg of Sea King meat per day, splitting 10 of them would take 27 years to finish.
And Naraku had them in the thousands. If not for the slight strategic value of Sea Kings, Naraku would already be thinking of opening a barbecue shop in Konoha.
However, just as Naraku reached the border of the Land of Iron on his journey, he suddenly sensed a faint presence.
He turned warily and saw several weak ninja quietly approaching him. These small-fry ninjas clearly intended to ambush Naraku, but they hadn't realized he had already detected them.
Naraku's lips curled slightly into a disdainful smile. He easily dodged the few kunai they threw, then muttered: "Nine mountains and eight seas form one world. Gather a thousand worlds to form a small thousand world. This world multiplied by three, endless without self— One Great Three Thousand Great Thousand Worlds!"
At first the small-fry paid no attention to Naraku's chanting, even finding it laughable.
But when they saw that while reciting the technique name, Naraku effortlessly evaded all their ranged attacks, they began to feel fear.
Because they clearly knew only swordsmanship masters could dodge their attacks so easily.
Just as the small-fry wanted to flee, Naraku's voice rang out again.
This time his tone became far more solemn and dignified.
As his words fell, a powerful sword wave erupted from his blade. This sword wave carried incomparable chakra and Armament Haki.
The three Amegakure ninjas couldn't resist such an attack at all. They stared wide-eyed in terror as the sword wave rushed toward them. But it was already too late. The sword wave instantly struck them, cutting all three into six pieces.
Naraku stood in place, his sword trembling lightly. He coldly looked at the corpses on the ground, his heart as cold as if he had been killing fish for ten years at RT-Mart.
After standing there a while, Naraku had his fill of playing swordsman. Unfortunately, no new small-fry came to die.
Some might wonder when Naraku learned "Great Thousand Worlds." In truth, he simply used his own chakra and Armament Haki to perform Mifune's Sword Technique: Rending Sky Slash.
To this Naraku could only say: Mifune, work hard. Once your swordsmanship reaches mastery one day, maybe he could really use some of Zoro's moves.
Now Naraku faced a choice. The arrival of an Amegakure scouting team indicated that Amegakure was very likely preparing to directly invade the Land of Iron. Hanzo the Salamander might already be on the way.
He could return to Konoha now, let Mifune face Hanzo alone, and later hope for Hanzo's mercy to spare Mifune's life.
The other option was to stay in the shadows as backup. If Hanzo acted dishonorably and refused to spare Mifune, Naraku would directly bring out "Incursio" and silence him.
In the end, Naraku turned back toward the capital of the Land of Iron. No choice—he had invested so much! He absolutely would not allow Mifune to die so easily. This was still only the early stage of his entrepreneurship.
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