The Samurai in Naruto (Part 1)

Soon, a carriage appeared around the bend. It looked rather shabby. The horse's coat was patchy, so it was clearly no fine steed.

The carriage itself, its canopy and all, looked old. The wood had clearly seen better days. A coachman who looked to be in his forties or fifties sat on the carriage. The canopy blocked the view of whoever was inside.

The moment Shan Yi saw the carriage, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He wasn't afraid of anyone coming after him, but if they really did, he'd have to flee again. Then all the wandering ninja and rogue ninja he'd worked so hard to recruit these past few days would be finished. Thinking back to his days in the Land of Earth, he realized how much more comfortable it was now, ruling the roost.

Shan Yi had even been thinking that, after a while, he might find a country and establish a ninja village of his own. Then he could become the Kage of a village.

The people in the carriage should have seen what was happening, but it didn't stop. It continued rolling along at the same leisurely pace. When it reached Shan Yi and his men, the ninja had already spread out and surrounded it.

With the road blocked, the carriage had no choice but to stop. "Uncle Ken, is something wrong? Why have we stopped?" a clear, pleasant female voice called from inside. Then a girl of about fourteen or fifteen leaned her head out of the carriage to look.

"Ah!" The girl had initially been smiling, but as soon as she saw what was outside, she cried out. Yet if you listened closely, you'd realize her cry of surprise came only from the unexpected sight—or perhaps from the gruesome scene before her. The one thing you wouldn't hear in it was fear.

"What is it, Rei?" another woman's voice came from inside the carriage. It sounded like an adult woman, though her clear voice suggested she wasn't very old.

"Mom, there's a gang of bandits outside. They've killed so many people. They're awful," the girl named Rei said from inside the carriage.

"Is that so? Another consequence of war, I suppose. I wonder when the world will finally be at peace. Don't be afraid, Rei. Let your Uncle Ken handle it. But since we've run into them, we can't just let them go. I'll leave them to you, Uncle Ken." The adult woman spoke calmly, as if she didn't consider the people outside a threat at all.

"Understood, madam. Don't worry. I'll deal with them in no time. It won't take long," the coachman replied.

After speaking, the coachman jumped down from the carriage. Only then could they see that he was carrying a katana. He slowly walked toward Shan Yi's ninja.

"So he's a samurai," Shan Yi hadn't said a word, but Tanaka spoke up. "How funny. You samurai, relics of a bygone age, are still around."

"Ninja?" The coachman named Ken stopped and asked when he heard Tanaka.

"That's right. We're ninja. You samurai can swagger around in front of ordinary people all you like, but you actually dared to cross us? You're asking to die." Tanaka laughed heartily, clearly not taking the man before him seriously.

Ken now noticed the woman and child on the other side, silently weeping. He also saw Ye Wuji lying nearby. Ye Wuji had managed to push himself into a crouch. His body still hurt badly, but he couldn't afford to care about that now.

Ye Wuji struggled to get up so he could warn the newcomer. Some samurai in Naruto were fairly capable, but they seemed to be about as strong as Genin or Chunin. As for Jonin, the only one in the Naruto World who might have measured up was Mifune, the general of the Land of Iron. He might have been as strong as an ordinary Jonin, or even stronger—close to Kage Level, perhaps. Mifune had defeated the reanimated Hanzo, but Hanzo had lost his will to fight and didn't want to keep battling. Besides, someone brought back through Impure World Reincarnation couldn't possibly be stronger than they had been in life. Otherwise, when Orochimaru resurrected the First Hokage and Second Hokage to fight the Third Hokage, they would have done more than they did. If the Third Hokage hadn't been so old and already resolved to die, he could have won without using the Reaper Death Seal.

The Third Hokage was known as the Shinobi World Professor and had incredible strength. When the Fifth Hokage took office, Danzo didn't cause any trouble at all, which was strange. Given his personality, the Third Hokage's death should have been the perfect opportunity for him to seize the Hokage position. Yet when the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, was merely unconscious—not dead—Danzo had eagerly moved to claim the Sixth Hokage position. That made it clear the Third Hokage must have arranged everything in advance, which was why Tsunade's ascension had gone so smoothly. Hadn't Danzo been absent from the story at the time? Maybe the Third Hokage had put him under house arrest.

Don't underestimate the Hokage's authority in Konoha. Danzo might have seemed almost able to stand against the Third Hokage, but that was only because the Third Hokage let him. Danzo had worked so hard to build Root, yet the Third Hokage had stripped him of it with a single order.

As for Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha and the Third Hokage's death, that was all a joke. If the Third Hokage hadn't wanted to die, Orochimaru at the time might not even have been able to touch him. And what came of Orochimaru's plan to destroy Konoha? A few low-ranking ninja died, and some buildings were damaged. What else did Konoha lose? Not a single civilian died.

The Third Hokage had simply used Orochimaru to put Konoha's forces through a training exercise. Konoha had so many Jonin, so many clans, as well as Anbu and Root, yet throughout the battle, only a few Anbu stood by and watched while Kakashi and a handful of other Jonin fought. The people who appeared later showed just how powerful Konoha really was.

Only the head of the Hyuga Clan came out, and he was the only one who fought. The Hyuga were said to be one of Konoha's great clans, on a par with the Uchiha. Could the clan really have consisted of just its head? Otherwise, what was the point of the Main Family and Branch Family? Ino-Shika-Cho barely showed their faces, while Kiba's mother and older sister appeared. Shino's father from the Aburame Clan also got involved. What about the other clans? The Uchiha—fine, Itachi had wiped them out. But what about the Senju Clan? Had they been wiped out too? And the Third Hokage's own clan, the Sarutobi Clan—wasn't it a major clan in the Shinobi World, like the Fuma and Hanzo? Was the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, really the only one left? Asuma was his son, and Konohamaru was his grandson, but who was Konohamaru's father? At any rate, in Naruto, Asuma was only ever called Konohamaru's uncle. Fine, maybe Konohamaru's father had already died. And what about Naruto's mother's clan, the Uzumaki Clan? Surely there were other Uzumaki in Konoha. Most importantly, Jiraiya, one of the Sannin and Orochimaru's rival, hadn't seemed to care at all that his teacher, the Third Hokage, might die. Given Jiraiya's character, that was impossible.

When Ye Wuji first watched Naruto, he hadn't thought much of it. But as the series went on, he realized that Orochimaru's supposed plan to invade and destroy Konoha was complete nonsense. Judging by Orochimaru's later behavior, his main reason for attacking Konoha had been Sasuke Uchiha. Whether he had other reasons as well, Ye Wuji didn't know.

Enough of that. Back to the point.

Ye Wuji had never seen any truly powerful samurai in Naruto. The Land of Iron's location showed that samurai didn't hold much status in this world of ninja. The Land of Iron had a cold climate and was covered in snow all year round. Its territory wasn't large, either. It was bigger than most countries, but nowhere near as large as the Five Great Nations. Still, it seemed the ninja had made some kind of agreement with them, making the Land of Iron permanently neutral. No one knew when the agreement was made or who had made it, but since ninja and samurai still honored it, whoever had negotiated it must have been powerful. Perhaps it had even been an agreement between the Sage of Six Paths and someone else. After all, the Sage of Six Paths was considered the progenitor of the ninja.

To be honest, though, Ye Wuji really didn't know what distinguished samurai from ninja in Naruto. Both seemed to use chakra. Samurai seemed like ninja who only knew Taijutsu, but if it were really that simple, why call them samurai? They could just as well be called ninja. In the end, Ye Wuji had given up trying to understand it.

That was why Ye Wuji was trying to warn this man, who was a samurai. After all, Shan Yi was an elite Jonin from the Hidden Rock Village. The warning might already be too late, but it was all Ye Wuji could do. If he could run, he would have been gone already.

Ye Wuji now felt that everything in Naruto was a lie. People in Naruto could take hit after hit and still be fine; maybe they could even turn things around with a burst of strength and defeat their enemies. But he'd only been hit once, and now he couldn't move. Was his body just too weak? Did everyone else have stronger bodies?

"Hey, mister, be careful. One of them is some kind of elite Jonin from the Hidden Rock Village. He seems really strong," Ye Wuji called to Ken.

"Oh, is that so? Then thank you, young man," Ken replied when he heard Ye Wuji.

"Not bad, kid. You actually managed to get back up," Shan Yi said. He had heard Ye Wuji's warning, but didn't pay much attention to it. He did seem surprised that Ye Wuji could still speak.

"But, kid, don't you think it's a little late to warn him now?" Shan Yi said. At that moment, a figure had already appeared behind Ken. The kunai in his hand glinted as he slashed at Ken's neck.

Clang! Ken's katana blocked the kunai. Seeing his attack deflected, Shan Yi immediately sprang back. As an elite Jonin, he knew to retreat at once when an attack failed. As he pulled back, he shouted, "Move!"

At once, the ninja surrounding the carriage attacked. Three of them threw a large number of shuriken and other projectiles at Ken, while another three hurled a barrage of weapons and tools at the carriage.

Tanaka was forming Hand Seals. "Fire Release: Fireball Jutsu!" A soccer-ball-sized fireball burst from Tanaka's mouth and flew toward the carriage.

Although it wasn't the first time Ye Wuji had seen a jutsu, seeing a fireball spat from someone's mouth still made his eyes light up. If nothing else, ninjutsu had incredible visual effects.

Not only did it look impressive, it seemed powerful too. When Ye Wuji had watched Naruto, he'd seen ninja use Water Release and Fire Release together. He couldn't say much about Water Release, but Fire Release had looked decent enough. Its actual power, though, hadn't seemed all that great. Even when it hit someone, it didn't seem to do much. At least, Ye Wuji couldn't remember ever seeing anyone burned to death by Fire Release.

Back then, he'd only been watching an anime. Now, in the real world of Naruto, he realized Fire Release was far more powerful than he'd imagined. This was only a fireball, and the person who used it didn't seem very strong. It wasn't even flying toward Ye Wuji; he was at least ten meters away. And yet he could still feel the temperature rising, as if he were standing under the midsummer sun.

Ye Wuji didn't know what season it was in the Naruto World, but it seemed to be either between spring and summer or between summer and autumn. The weather was mild, neither hot nor cold. A single layer of clothing was enough, and even at night it wasn't cold. If it were winter, that would be bad news for Ye Wuji. He had cultivated chakra, but he still couldn't ignore changes in the weather. He'd probably need to be at least a Jonin to regulate his body temperature with chakra—or so he guessed. He really didn't know.

If he could feel the heat from that far away, the fireball had to be powerful. If it hit someone directly, surely it could burn them to death. Most importantly, it was moving fast—not quite as fast as a hundred-meter sprint, perhaps, but about as fast as an ordinary person throwing a stone.

Ken showed no reaction when he saw the shuriken flying toward him. But when he saw them attack the carriage, he grew anxious. After knocking the shuriken aside with his katana—clang, clang, clang—he charged toward the carriage.

At that moment, Shan Yi appeared behind Ken again and sneered. "You're only trying to get there now? Isn't it a little late? And you'd better worry about yourself first."

Shan Yi wasn't holding a shuriken this time. After quickly forming a few Hand Seals, he shouted, "Earth Release: Added-Weight Rock Technique!" and struck at Ken's back.