Samurai in Hokage (Part 1)

Soon, a carriage appeared around the bend. It looked rather dilapidated; one glance at the mangy, uneven fur on the horses was enough to tell they were far from fine steeds.

The carriage itself, specifically the hood, looked like it had seen better days, as the wood appeared quite weathered. A coachman of about forty or fifty years sat on the front, but as for who sat inside, the hood obscured them from view.

The moment Shan Yi saw the carriage, he felt a secret sense of relief. Although he did not fear being hunted, if someone were truly pursuing him, he would have to flee again. If that happened, all the rogue ninjas and missing-nin he had spent so much effort recruiting these past few days would be finished. Recalling his days in the Land of Earth, he realized there was no way he could have lived as comfortably as he did now, lording over others as a king.

Shan Yi even toyed with the idea of finding a small nation after some time to establish his own hidden village, where he could finally style himself as the Kage of a village.

At this moment, the people in the carriage must have seen what was happening, yet the carriage did not stop, continuing to roll forward at a leisurely pace. When it reached the side of Shan Yi and his men, the ninjas had already spread out to surround it.

Seeing the road ahead blocked, the carriage had no choice but to come to a halt. "Uncle Ken, is something the matter? Why have we stopped?" A crisp, pleasant female voice drifted from inside, and a girl of about fourteen or fifteen poked her head out to look.

"Ah!" The girl had started with a smile, but the moment she saw the situation outside, she let out a cry. However, while she did scream, a careful listener would note that the cry was merely a reaction to the unexpected situation or perhaps the gruesome scene, but the one thing missing from her voice was fear.

"What is it, Rei?" Another female voice sounded from within the carriage. It sounded like an adult woman, quite crisp and not too old.

"Mother, there is a gang of bandits outside. They have killed so many people; these men are truly wicked," the girl named Rei said from inside.

"Is that so? Is this another consequence of war? I wonder when this world will ever find peace. Rei, do not be afraid; let Uncle Ken handle it. Since we have encountered them, we cannot let these people go. Uncle Ken, I leave it to you," the adult woman said calmly. From her tone, it seemed she did not hold these people outside in any regard at all.

"Understood. Do not worry, Madam. I will dispose of these people quickly; it will not take much time," the coachman replied.

After the coachman finished speaking, he jumped down from the carriage. Only then was it visible that he held a katana in his hand, and he began to walk slowly toward Shan Yi and his ninjas.

"So, it's just a samurai," Shan Yi had not yet spoken, but Tanaka began to jeer. "How hilarious. You samurai, already discarded by this era, are still around?"

"Ninjas?" Hearing Tanaka, the coachman named Ken stopped and asked.

"That's right, we are indeed ninjas. You samurai are fine when you're putting on airs in front of commoners, but to dare provoke us? You are truly courting death." Tanaka laughed heartily, clearly not taking the man before him seriously.

At this moment, Ken also noticed the woman and child on the other side, who had turned to silent weeping, and he saw Ye Wuji lying to the side. Ye Wuji had managed to struggle into a crouching position; although he still felt intense pain, he could no longer afford to worry about that.

Ye Wuji struggled to stand, hoping to warn the newcomer. Although some samurai in the Naruto World were quite powerful, they seemed to be on par with genin or chunin. As for jonin-level, it seemed only Mifune, the General of the Land of Iron, could compare to or perhaps exceed an average jonin, reaching a level approaching Kage. Though Mifune defeated the reanimated Hanzo, that Hanzo lacked fighting spirit and did not want to fight. Furthermore, a reanimated person could never be stronger than their original self. Otherwise, during the Third Hokage's battle with Orochimaru, when Orochimaru revived the First and Second Hokage, they wouldn't have been so easily handled. If the Third Hokage hadn't been so old and already determined to die, he could have won without using the Reaper Death Seal.

Not to mention the Third Hokage was known as the Professor of the Shinobi World, possessing astonishing strength. When the Fifth Hokage took office, the fact that Danzo caused no trouble was abnormal. Given Danzo's personality, with the Third Hokage dead, he would never have missed such a perfect opportunity to seize the position of Hokage. Looking at how Danzo couldn't wait to grab the seat of the Sixth Hokage while Tsunade was merely in a coma, it was clear the Third Hokage had everything arranged, which was why the Fifth Hokage's ascension went so smoothly. Did you notice Danzo didn't even appear during that time? He might have even been under house arrest by the Third Hokage.

Do not underestimate the power of the Hokage of Konoha. Although it looked like Danzo could rival the Third, that was only because the Third allowed it. The "Root" organization that Danzo had worked so hard to build was stripped away by a single word from the Third Hokage.

As for Orochimaru's invasion of Konoha and the Third Hokage's death, it was actually a joke. If the Third hadn't wanted to die, with Orochimaru's level at the time, he might not have even been able to touch the Third. As for Orochimaru's plan to destroy Konoha, aside from the deaths of some low-level ninjas and the destruction of a few buildings, what loss did Konoha really suffer? Not a single civilian died.

The Third Hokage was simply using Orochimaru to conduct a military drill. With so many jonin, so many clans, and the Anbu and Root in Konoha, from beginning to end, only a few Anbu watched from the sidelines, and Kakashi and a few other jonin fought. The strength of Konoha was evident from the people who appeared later.

Only the head of the Hyuga Clan appeared, and he was the only one who took action. The Hyuga were known as a prestigious clan alongside the Uchiha; if only the head acted, then the main and branch families were a joke. Within Konoha, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio only made a brief appearance, Kiba's mother and sister showed up, and Shino's father from the Aburame Clan took action. What about the other clans? The Uchiha, well, they were wiped out by Itachi. What about the Senju? Were they wiped out too? Or the Third's own clan, the Sarutobi Clan? The Fuma, Hanzo, and Sarutobi were all great clans of the shinobi world. Was the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen the only one left? Asuma was his son, Konohamaru was his grandson, but who was Konohamaru's father? In any case, looking at the show, Asuma was only Konohamaru's uncle. Fine, let's assume Konohamaru's father was already dead. And the clan of Naruto's mother, the Uzumaki Clan—Konoha surely had other Uzumaki. Most importantly, Jiraiya, one of the Sannin and a peer of Orochimaru, didn't seem to care about the life or death of his teacher, the Third Hokage. Given Jiraiya's character, that was impossible.

At first, Ye Wuji didn't think much of it, but as the show progressed, he realized the so-called plan to destroy Konoha was nonsense. And judging by Orochimaru's later reactions, his main goal in attacking Konoha was simply for Uchiha Sasuke. Whether there were other reasons, who knew.

Enough of that, back to the main point.

Ye Wuji had never seen any powerful samurai in the Naruto World. From the geographical location of the Land of Iron, it was clear that the status of samurai in this world of ninjas was not high. The Land of Iron was cold, covered in snow year-round, and while its territory was large compared to minor nations, it paled in comparison to the Five Great Nations. Yet, there seemed to be some agreement with the ninjas, making the Land of Iron a permanently neutral country. As for when this agreement was made or between whom, no one knew. But since ninjas and samurai still honored it, the people who made it must have been powerful—perhaps an agreement between the Sage of Six Paths and someone else. After all, the Sage of Six Paths was the ancestor of all ninjas.

To be honest, Ye Wuji really didn't know the difference between samurai and ninjas in this world. Both seemed to use chakra; it was just that samurai seemed like ninjas who only knew taijutsu. But if it were that simple, they wouldn't be called samurai; they would just be called ninjas. Unable to figure it out, Ye Wuji stopped thinking about it.

That was why Ye Wuji had to warn this samurai, as Shan Yi was an elite jonin of the Iwagakure. Although the warning might be a bit late, it was all he could do. If he could have run, he would have done so long ago.

Ye Wuji now felt that everything in the Naruto World was a lie. People in the show could take so many hits and be fine, perhaps even turning the tables with a sudden burst of power. But him? He was hit once and couldn't move. Was his body just too weak, or were the others just built differently?

"Hey, Uncle, be careful! One of them is an elite jonin from Iwagakure. He looks very dangerous," Ye Wuji called out to Ken.

"Oh, is that so? Then thank you, little one," the man named Ken said to Ye Wuji after hearing his words.

"Not bad, brat. You can still crawl up," Shan Yi had also heard Ye Wuji, though he didn't pay much mind to it. He did seem slightly surprised that Ye Wuji could still speak.

"But brat, isn't your warning a bit late?" As Shan Yi said this, a figure had already appeared behind the samurai, the kunai in his hand gleaming as he slashed toward Ken's neck.

With a "clang," the kunai aimed at Ken was blocked by his katana. Seeing his attack thwarted, Shan Yi quickly flashed backward. As an elite jonin, he understood the principle of retreating immediately if a strike failed. As he retreated, Shan Yi shouted, "Attack!"

Instantly, the ninjas surrounding the carriage all moved. Three of them threw a barrage of shuriken and other hidden weapons at Ken, while the other three threw a mass of shuriken and ninja tools at the carriage.

Tanaka began weaving hand signs, "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" A fireball the size of a soccer ball erupted from his mouth, flying toward the carriage.

Although it wasn't his first time seeing ninjutsu, Ye Wuji still felt his eyes widen at the sight of a fireball being spat from a mouth. If nothing else, the visual effects of ninjutsu were top-tier.

It wasn't just the visuals; the power seemed top-tier as well. When watching the show, he'd seen ninjas use Water Style and Fire Style together. He couldn't speak for Water Style, but the Fire Style had looked decent, though its actual power seemed lackluster; he'd never seen anyone directly burned to death by it in the show.

Back then, he was just watching an animation, but now, in the reality of the Naruto World, Ye Wuji realized the power of Fire Style exceeded his imagination. This fireball was just a basic one, and the user didn't seem particularly high-level. Furthermore, it wasn't flying toward him—Ye Wuji was at least ten meters away—yet he could still feel the temperature rising, as if he were being directly baked by the sun in midsummer.

Although Ye Wuji didn't know what season it was in the Naruto World, it was likely between spring and summer, or summer and autumn, as the weather was neither cold nor hot; wearing a single layer of clothing was fine even at night. If it were winter, that would be a bad sign for him. Although he practiced chakra, he hadn't reached the level of ignoring seasonal changes. To use chakra for temperature regulation, one would at least need to be a jonin, a fact Ye Wuji was unsure of.

But if he could feel the heat from the fireball at such a distance, its power must be significant. If this fireball hit someone directly, it was impossible that it wouldn't burn them to death. Most importantly, the fireball's speed wasn't slow—not quite the speed of a hundred-meter dash, but at least as fast as a normal person throwing a rock.

Ken, on the other side, hadn't reacted to the shuriken flying at him, but seeing them attack the carriage made him anxious. After deflecting the shuriken with his katana with a series of "clangs," he charged toward the carriage.

At this moment, Shan Yi reappeared behind Ken, sneering, "Thinking of going now? Isn't that a bit too late? Besides, you should worry about yourself first."

Shan Yi held no shuriken this time. After quickly weaving a few hand signs, he shouted, "Earth Style: Super Lightweight Rock Technique!" and struck toward Ken's back.