Tessai shoved the new sword, along with a plain black wooden scabbard, into Roy's hands.
"Take it and get lost." The old man waved his hand with a look of impatience. "Don't embarrass me."
Roy held the sword, which felt slightly cool to the touch.
He could sense a faint, sharp aura seeping through the scabbard.
He gave Tessai a solemn bow.
"Thank you, Master."
"Thank me for nothing." Tessai picked up his hammer again and began striking an ordinary piece of iron with ringing blows. "I was just itching to see what the best materials could produce. This thing isn't dishonored in your hands either."
Without looking back, he said, "Inside this blade, there's a wild, disobedient force, like lightning. Its fang is this cutting edge. From now on, call it Raiga."
"Raiga…" Roy murmured the name softly.
It was fitting.
Without another word, he turned and left the forge, filled with the smell of coal smoke and iron filings, the place that had given him a new lease on life.
When Roy returned to the inn with his new sword, Tokuma and Yakumo were both stunned.
"You… you haven't been around for days, just to get a sword?" Tokuma circled Roy, his eyes practically glued to the blade.
"So cool… so handsome…" Yakumo's focus was a bit different.
Though Raiga's scabbard and hilt were plain, the minimalist design exuded a unique aesthetic.
Roy just smiled and didn't explain.
Minato Namikaze walked out of his room and saw Raiga at Roy's waist; a look of understanding flashed in his eyes. He didn't ask anything, just clapped his hands.
"Alright, Mr. Furukawa's business is all concluded. Pack up, we're preparing to return to the village."
The atmosphere on the return trip was somewhat lighter than the journey there.
With Tokuma's Byakugan and Roy's uncanny sensory abilities, they could always avoid unnecessary trouble ahead of time.
Under Teacher Minato's guidance, Yakumo's stamina had also improved considerably, no longer requiring frequent breaks.
The team's progress was smooth, and in just two days, they were nearing the edge of the Land of Iron's mountainous region.
The incident occurred in a dense forest just as they were about to enter the Land of Fire.
"Halt!" Minato's voice turned serious for the first time.
Almost the moment he spoke, three black shadows burst from three directions in the forest, forming a wedge formation.
"Enemy attack!" Tokuma shouted, instantly activating his Byakugan and guarding Furukawa and Yakumo. "Three of them! Their chakra levels are all at least chūnin or above!"
Two of the shadows charged directly at Minato at the front of the formation.
The other shadow arced around in a strange curve, its target clearly the weakest link in the group: their client, Furukawa.
Minato's eyes went cold.
His figure flickered and vanished instantly.
The next second, two short screams came from deep within the forest.
Eliminating two had taken only a second.
But the enemy charging at Furukawa was already within arm's reach.
He was a man with a scar on his face, his eyes vicious, the kunai in his hand glistening with a poisonous green light.
Tokuma roared and stepped forward to meet him. "You won't succeed! Gentle Fist!"
"Out of the way, brat!" The scar-faced man sneered, contorting his body at an odd angle to evade Tokuma's palm strike, his poisoned kunai still aimed at Furukawa.
His target had been the client from the very beginning.
Tokuma wanted to turn back in defense, but it was too late.
Just then, a figure moved faster than the scar-faced man, positioning itself in front of Furukawa.
It was Roy.
"Another one looking to die!" A glint of cruelty flashed in the scar-faced man's eyes.
Roy wasn't looking at him, nor at the kunai in his hand.
All his focus was on Raiga at his waist.
Draw the blade.
He had rehearsed this movement in his mind countless times.
The chakra within him surged instantly along the small circulatory route he had forged through countless repetitions.
A sliver of Armament Haki was ruthlessly "torn" away and violently collided with the chakra.
The entire process was fluid.
The 1.5-second preparation time was perfectly concealed within the act of drawing.
The moment Raiga's blade was fully unsheathed, that annihilating force had just adhered to the pitch-black sword body.
The blade didn't sparkle with lightning like Chidori, nor was it wrapped in the air currents of Wind Release.
It simply became darker, black as if it could absorb the surrounding light.
The scar-faced man's poisoned kunai was already thrust in front of Roy.
Roy simply raised Raiga in a straightforward upward slash to block.
The two weapons were about to meet.
A ferocious smile already appeared on the scar-faced man's face.
He could already envision his poisoned kunai knocking aside the opponent's sword, allowing him to finish off the brat and the client behind him in one smooth motion.
But the expected clang of metal never came.
Raiga's blade silently sliced into the fine steel body of the poisoned kunai.
Like a hot knife through butter, it met no resistance.
The poisoned kunai snapped in two.
The scar-faced man's smile froze on his face.
Raiga continued its arc, leaving a shallow black trail across the astonished face.
Roy brushed past him, sheathing the sword.
The scar-faced man remained in his forward-lunge posture, standing there dazed, looking down at his broken kunai, then touching his face.
Then, a straight black line appeared from between his eyebrows down to his chin.
No blood flowed.
His body slid apart along that black line and collapsed to the ground.
The cut surface was smooth and flat, as if instantly cauterized by intense heat; all the flesh and tissue had turned to charcoal.
He didn't even have time to scream.
The whole thing happened in an instant.
When Minato had dealt with the other two enemies and returned to the scene, this was what he saw.
Tokuma and Yakumo were staring at Roy as if looking at a monster.
Roy stood there, his expression calm, as if he had just done something trivial.
He slowly exhaled a murky breath; only he knew that in that instant, nearly a third of his chakra had been drained.
He looked down at Raiga in his hand.
The blade was still black as ink, unstained by blood, and showed no signs of damage.
Thunder Annihilation, effectiveness confirmed in live combat.
Power exceeded expectations, consumption still within calculable range.
Good.
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