"So you bought all these steel ingots because you want to make your own ninja tools?"
At Gu Qi's Ninja Tool Shop, Kakashi Hatake covered his forehead and sighed.
Gu Qi planted his hands on his hips and said smugly, "Of course! If I want ninja tools, I should make them myself!"
"What's there to be so smug about?" Kakashi said, at a loss for words. "I mean, do you even know how to make ninja tools?"
"I'm so smart, I'll learn in no time!" Gu Qi said confidently.
"...Fine, do whatever you want." Kakashi couldn't be bothered to argue anymore. As long as Gu Qi was happy, he could do as he pleased.
"Here, this is a list of the equipment I need for my experiments, along with the bellows, furnace, and other things needed to make ninja tools. Get it all for me, quick." Gu Qi handed Kakashi a list.
Looking at the long list of equipment, Kakashi sighed once again. "I understand. Wait for my word."
"Oh, right. The lease on the shop next door has expired. The owner isn't planning to rent it out again because his daughter married and moved far away. So I've decided to open up the wall between the shops and turn the place into my laboratory," Gu Qi said.
Kakashi waved a hand helplessly. "Do whatever you want. It doesn't matter to me."
The Hatake Clan had plenty of shops, after all. Losing one wouldn't make a difference.
"Great! Well, I don't need you for anything else, so hurry up and get the equipment!" Gu Qi shoved Kakashi out the door, then slammed it shut.
Kakashi scratched his head helplessly and sighed. Still, he said nothing and simply left.
Once Gu Qi had confirmed from the window that Kakashi was gone, he immediately spread out a scroll, picked up a pen, and began designing his first ninja tool.
Gu Qi wanted a weapon that could be used both up close and at a distance, so he decided to make a long sword—one capable of firing kunai, senbon, or other special projectiles.
In Gu Qi's design, the sword would normally be an ordinary long sword that could be used to kill enemies.
But once its mechanism was activated, the blade would split down the middle, turning into a weapon resembling a two-pronged fork.
Combined with Gu Qi's Lightning Release Chakra, the transformed sword would become a special weapon: an electromagnetic rail launcher.
Gu Qi would only need to use himself as the battery and the transformed sword as the launcher's rails.
To use it, he would place ammunition between the halves of the blade, then channel chakra into it to imitate the magnetic field of a railgun and launch the ammunition.
Now that Gu Qi had a concept, all that remained was to work out the design.
With the furnace at his disposal, he could make even the most complicated things, so he could design whatever he wanted without worrying.
"To split the blade, I'll need to use latches and gears. Damn it, I studied mechanics before. Why can't I remember any of it?"
Gu Qi irritably scratched his head. He had a clear idea, but no clue how to put it into practice.
"Forget it. I'll take it one step at a time. I should design the blade first." He steadied himself and decided to proceed step by step.
The blade had to be able to split apart to meet Gu Qi's needs.
And because chakra needed to flow through it, the blade itself would have to contain Chakra Metal.
If he used ordinary steel ingots, the chakra loss would be far too great.
Fortunately, Gu Qi had a Mithril Ingot given to him by the system. He had tested it before and discovered that mithril conducted and amplified chakra exceptionally well.
Since the railgun only needed powerful electric currents to flow through two rails, Gu Qi didn't need to make the entire blade out of mithril.
Working from his design, he soon finished the blueprint for the blade.
Gu Qi based its design on the ancient Longquan sword.
Taking his current height into account, he set the blade's length at 50 centimeters and its width at 7 centimeters, with a pointed tip.
The center of the blade—the spine—would be made of mithril.
The spine was the core of the blade and helped strengthen it. Ordinary steel simply wouldn't be enough for the demands of a transforming spine.
Since Gu Qi's blade had to split apart, its spine couldn't be one solid piece.
Only a legendary metal like mithril could meet his needs.
Once the blade design was finished, he moved on to the hilt and the guard.
After careful consideration, Gu Qi decided to make the hilt 20 centimeters long.
He had designed the key to the blade's transformation into the hilt and guard.
The lower half of the hilt would be able to rotate.
Inside the hilt was a drive shaft. Working together with a small gear inside the guard, it would turn the internal gears when rotated, splitting or joining the blade.
Gu Qi also designed a button in the center of the upper half of the hilt.
The moment the button was pressed, the internal mechanism would push a small piece of mithril into position.
This would connect the mithril piece to the blade's spine, which served as the rails, forming a complete electromagnetic rail launcher.
When firing, Gu Qi would first gather a large amount of Lightning Release Chakra in the hilt.
The chakra would then flow along two specially designed mithril lines to the blade's spine, which served as the rails.
Once Gu Qi had aimed at his target, he would only have to press the button to connect the mithril piece to the two rails and fire the ammunition placed in advance between the guards.
"Whew. It's finally done."
After spending the whole afternoon working on the design, Gu Qi finished his rail sword just in time for dinner.
All that remained was to build it according to his design.
After a hurried dinner, Gu Qi took a steel ingot and the Mithril Ingot and entered the laboratory through its door.
He went to the furnace in the corner and, just to be safe, carefully read the user manual once again.
After committing the instructions to memory, Gu Qi set about making his ninja tool.
As instructed, he first channeled chakra into the furnace.
Before long, the furnace, which had been cold and lifeless, began to grow hot.
Once it had stabilized, Gu Qi tossed the steel ingot and the Mithril Ingot inside.
Then he closed his eyes and continued channeling chakra, while picturing the long sword he had designed in his mind.
Soon, something incredible happened.
The steel and mithril inside the furnace seemed to be kneaded by a pair of invisible hands, slowly taking shape.
First came the blade: its left half, followed by its right.
Next came the guard: first the small gears inside, then the mithril lines, the mithril piece, and the transmission mechanism.
By the time it was the hilt's turn, Gu Qi had run out of chakra and had to stop.
Looking at the unfinished sword and the leftover steel and mithril in the furnace, Gu Qi ate a piece of dried meat. Once his chakra had mostly recovered, he began forging again.
When the furnace's heat finally faded, Gu Qi opened his eyes.
A long sword lay quietly before him.
Most of it was made of steel and was grayish-white. Only the spine had a silver-white line, formed by the mithril used in its construction.
Gu Qi gripped the hilt and weighed it in his hand. The sword weighed about five jin.
He twisted the hilt hard, and with a clang, the blade split down the middle.
The guard was 10 centimeters long. Once the blade split, the two edges lined up perfectly with either side of the guard.
That left a gap of two centimeters between the halves of the blade.
"Looks like I'll have to make some special ammunition too," Gu Qi murmured, stroking his chin.
Because of the mithril piece in the center of the guard, Gu Qi couldn't use a magnet to hold the ammunition in place. He had only left a groove to place it in.
That meant neither kunai nor senbon could be used as projectiles.
He would have to make his own ammunition to meet the rail sword's needs.
But that was no problem at all for Gu Qi, with his ridiculously powerful furnace.
Setting the rail sword aside, Gu Qi began thinking about its scabbard.
After all, the sword had a sharp edge. He couldn't just sling it over his back carelessly.
What if he accidentally damaged flowers and plants? That would be a terrible crime.
Since it was still early, Gu Qi took out paper and pen again and began considering the scabbard's design.
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