Training Pod

Kakashi, completely unaware that a whole swarm of Nanobots had already been implanted inside his body, ultimately left the Snow Country in good spirits.

Although he had spent some time as an experiment subject and Vegapunk had stolen a large number of ninjutsu from his mind, at least he had not lost any arms or legs. His strength had improved considerably, and he had completed an S-rank mission. There were gains and losses, after all.

He had no choice but to think that way. After witnessing the strength of Vegapunk's group, Kakashi felt that he had no hope of revenge in this lifetime. Even if he brought the intelligence back to Konoha, Konoha could not possibly make any major moves against the Snow Country so close to the polar regions. Minor skirmishes would be even less capable of dealing with those three. He was destined to swallow this bitter loss.

Watching Kakashi Hatake leave, Vegapunk's lips curled into a faint smile. "All right, that eyesore we didn't know how to deal with is gone. The plan can finally be put into action!"

From the very beginning, the Lightning Release Body Training Technique had never been created for Vegapunk and the others. The reason was simple: a Lightning Release Body Refinement Technique that worked on people of the Ninja World was simply far too weak for people from the Pirate World like them.

Even Nico Robin, the weakest of the three in terms of physical constitution, would not gain much from this body training method. Vegapunk had to make targeted modifications before it could truly produce results.

Given Vegapunk's personality, rather than going through such troublesome cultivation, he preferred to directly build a machine for body refinement. Just like the Training Pod he had made before, that was his true specialty. This also bypassed the requirement for Lightning Release Chakra.

Kakashi Hatake had merely been an experiment subject used to gather data and build the Training Pods. The Training Pods he intended to make were not for himself and the others, but for the ninjas under his command.

The Ninja Village of the Snow Country had only ever been considered second-rate. Once they left the climate advantage of the Snow Country, their strength became too pitiful to look at. Forget the Five Great Shinobi Villages—even relatively capable mid-tier Ninja Villages like the Rain Ninja and Grass Ninja could easily wipe out the Snow Country's ninjas.

Trying to conquer the Ninja World with such a force would still be fraught with difficulties, even with Vegapunk's group leading them. Thus, Vegapunk's first priority was to find a way to strengthen his rank-and-file subordinates, at least enough for them to maintain public order.

It would be utterly embarrassing if they could not even defeat a few Wandering Ninjas.

The new Training Pods were quickly manufactured. With Vegapunk's abilities, once he had gathered sufficient data, producing over a hundred Training Pods took only a single day.

The Snow Country only had four to five hundred ninjas to begin with. After Kazahana Dōtō's upheaval, just over three hundred remained. Every person had a different physique and a different limit of endurance, so the time they could use the Training Pods was also limited.

The stronger ones could endure five or six hours a day, while many weaker ones reached their limit after just three or four hours. One hundred Training Pods were more than sufficient for the Snow Country.

Very quickly, after three months, the Snow Country's ninjas had completely mastered the Lightning Release Body Training Technique. These ordinary Snow Ninjas saw tremendous improvements in both physical fitness and Chakra reserves. At the very least, they possessed combat power comparable to elite Chunin from major Ninja Villages. Around one-third of the luckier ninjas had even awakened a Lightning Release Chakra affinity.

Once they awakened a Lightning Release Chakra affinity and cultivated the Cell Activation Secret Technique, they would reliably possess Special Jonin-level combat power. And that was merely the lower limit, measured by Konohagakure's standards.

In reality, only a few major Ninja Villages had a rank like Special Jonin. In second-tier Ninja Villages, let alone Special Jonin, some people whose strength would only count as elite Chunin in major Ninja Villages could be evaluated as Jonin.

Well, of course, one particular major Ninja Village renowned for its number of ninjas and stubbornness also used evaluation standards similar to those of some second-tier Ninja Villages.

Setting aside that major Ninja Village that dragged down the Jonin benchmark, even normal major Ninja Villages—including the strongest, Konohagakure—had fewer than a hundred Jonin at their peak. Even including Special Jonin, they normally only had a little over two hundred, reaching three hundred at their peak at most.

From this, one could imagine just how much the Snow Ninjas' strength had increased. After being enhanced by the Training Pods, the Snow Ninjas had leaped from an obscure little Ninja Village that barely counted for anything into a top-tier second-rate force capable of competing with the Grass Country and Rain Country.

If not for their small numbers, lack of plentiful cannon fodder, relatively one-dimensional combat composition, and lack of a foundation in advanced Secret Techniques, these ninjas alone would have been enough to threaten the bottom two of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

"But this is enough... At least these people are qualified as cannon fodder. Next comes expanding the ninja force, but the Snow Country's population is still a major problem..."

Watching the Snow Ninjas excitedly sparring on the Training Ground, Vegapunk silently pondered. Not everyone could become a ninja, and even fewer were willing to become one.

The entire Ninja World had a population of roughly five or six hundred million, yet the total number of people who truly possessed Chakra was probably no more than two hundred thousand. That included Wandering Ninjas, Samurai with Chakra, and everyone else of that sort.

The ratio between the two exceeded two thousand to one. The overwhelming majority of the rest either lacked the aptitude or had no interest in becoming ninjas. Ninjas might wield great power, but their death rate was far higher than that of ordinary people. They also lived amid bloodshed and danger every day. In the eyes of ordinary people, it was not a particularly good profession.

The Snow Country in particular was remote and sparsely populated, and it had not suffered the ravages of war for many years. In such a peaceful environment, even fewer people yearned for the profession of ninja.

Vegapunk did not intend to draw manpower from the Snow Country either. The Snow Country's population was already limited, it had no bloodline-limit clans, and its people's aptitudes were quite ordinary. The Snow Ninjas before him were already among the most talented people in the Snow Country when it came to becoming ninjas.

Besides, ordinary people sought peace and safety. Those who enjoyed thrilling lives were a minority, after all. Those ordinary people had no desire to go to war.

"Should we use Clones, boss?"

Nico Robin, standing nearby, heard Vegapunk's words and asked. Vegapunk shook his head. "The cost would be far too high. This isn't Future Island or Dream Star. Both the hardware and software facilities are far behind. The resources needed to manufacture Clones would increase by several times at minimum, and the Snow Country's supplies are not abundant either."