“Kado has sent people to take control of all nearby shipping lanes!”
“Not only can we not run our ferry business, but we also have to pay him a toll just to use our own boats.”
“This is outrageous!”
“Sigh, if I sell fish at the original price, I won’t make any money after paying the toll, and if I raise the price, nobody will buy my fish.”
After the death ship incident, Kado’s shipping company resumed operations and was well-prepared. Swiftly, it took over all the shipping routes in the Land of Waves. It was draining the lifeblood of over 50,000 people in the country, just like a powerful pump.
The Land of Waves is rich in fishing resources. Most of the fish caught is sold to towns and villages in the neighboring Land of Fire, and the money earned is used to purchase other goods that are hard to produce on the island.
Kado’s monopoly on shipping and the heavy taxes he imposed on fishermen and traders meant that their goods were no longer competitively priced, drastically reducing their income. The entire Land of Waves was filled with resentment as Kado’s actions bled the country dry.
Despite Kado’s numerous thugs, this country never lacked brave souls who defied tyranny.
Led by Kaiza, a hero who had once stood up to repair the dam, the people were following him in strong protest against Kado’s monopoly.
Every evening, you could see a group of people, tired from a day’s work, holding torches and chanting in protest outside Kado’s company’s gates during dinner time.
“Kado showed up, Neji!” Hanabi excitedly ran back to the courtyard, shouting.
Neji was practicing his sword techniques. The weakness of his Byakugan had given him a new perspective on the world around him.
Previously, Neji could see anything he wanted with his Byakugan, leaving no secrets in the world.
But now, with his Byakugan temporarily out of commission, the omniscient view was replaced by darkness, becoming extremely narrow. Yet, in this narrow perspective, Neji felt the world become remarkably clear.
Drawing an analogy was like switching from a cheat that revealed the entire map to viewing the world through a sniper scope.
While his field of view was reduced, it allowed Neji to gain a more precise understanding of the details he previously overlooked.
“Residual chakra from a previous sword technique can affect the actual effectiveness of a subsequent technique with a different chakra nature,” Neji murmured.
His sword sliced through the air with a hum.
Using different chakra natures in sword techniques gave Neji a significant advantage against other ninjas. While elemental affinities became less relevant with the escalating power levels and transformations in the latter stages of the original Naruto series, they still played a crucial role when facing opponents of similar skill levels.
Fire sword techniques against wind ninjutsu, water sword techniques against fire ninjutsu… Just like the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was proficient in all five basic chakra natures, Neji’s versatility meant He could usually gain the upper hand against opponents specialized in a single element. This was Neji’s initial intention when building his swordsmanship system using his analytical abilities.
However, during his Byakugan’s period of weakness, Neji realized that elemental sword techniques differed from elemental ninjutsu.
Since chakra sword techniques require a medium (the sword) for execution, using different chakra natures on the same sword consecutively would not only damage the sword but also reduce its power by 10% to 30%.
In contrast, ninjutsu, being cast directly from the body, didn’t suffer such losses.
Neji recalled his sword clone’s battle against the masked man.
During the fight, the sword clone’s weapon shattered when it was about to unleash the Decay Sword Technique. This was partly because Neji hadn’t fully analyzed the Decay Sword Technique and thus couldn’t execute it correctly, but also because using multiple elemental sword techniques had weakened the sword.
“I need a better sword.”
A sword that can withstand five different chakra natures.
“Or, I need to prepare more swords in advance.”
This way, I wouldn’t have to worry about a sword breaking. If it breaks, just switch to a new one.
The replication ability from the third stage of his Byakugan’s evolution might come in handy here.
Neji pondered his strategies.
“Neji, Kado really showed up!” Hanabi repeated, seeing that Neji wasn’t paying attention.
“Is that so?” Neji came back to his senses and nodded.
“Aren’t we going to kill him?” Hanabi asked, tilting her head. “The villagers all say he’s terrible, making everything unaffordable.”
“When did I say I was going to kill him?” Neji asked with a smile.
“But you pinned his photo to the plan wall with a kunai,” Hanabi said, puzzled.
“That doesn’t mean I intend to kill him,” Neji replied, patting Hanabi’s head. “This guy is more useful to me alive than dead.”
“Oh—” Hanabi drew out the sound, thinking that if they were going to kill Kado, she could try to complete the mission herself.
Unfortunately, Kado couldn’t be killed yet.
“Two very powerful ninja arrived on the island recently. Could they be here to kill Kado?” Hanabi asked worriedly.
Using her Byakugan, she could easily distinguish between ordinary people and ninjas. With Neji temporarily unable to use his Byakugan, Hanabi had taken on the task of observing the ninja distribution on the island.
She had spent so much time outside that she had tanned a bit.
“They’re probably here on Kado’s invitation,” Neji said calmly.
From Hanabi’s descriptions, Neji knew those two ninjas were Zabuza Momochi and Haku, a rogue ninja from Kirigakure and the main antagonists in Team 7’s first mission in the original series.
Neji wasn’t particularly concerned about them aligning with Kado. If they left before his Byakugan recovered, he could ignore them. But if they stayed after his Byakugan recovered, a confrontation would be inevitable.
As his Byakugan evolved to its final stage and the period of weakness passed, Neji began to understand what his final ability would be.
Indeed, he still needed the essence of the Byakugan.
And he needed a lot of it.
Once his period of weakness ended, he would immediately begin his plan. No one could stop him, not Zabuza and Haku, not the 50,000 lives of the Land of Waves, not even his remaining sense of morality.
“Neji, is this a shell? It’s so pretty!” Hanabi admired something in a nearby aquarium.
It was the only decoration in the house.
Hanabi had never known Neji liked shells so much.
Neji said slowly, “This is a pearl oyster shell, a type of shell that can produce pearls when sand is placed inside.”
Hanabi looked at the shell with even more admiration.
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