Remnants

Mifune's old face flushed. Though he had abundant combat experience, this was his first time facing a tailed beast.

The former "demigod," Hanzo, had possessed combat power greater than that of an ordinary tailed beast, but in terms of absolute strength, he had still fallen far short of one.

What made Hanzo so feared was his near-perfect lack of weaknesses and his virulent poison, like a walking plague.

Mifune was not merely eager to test the power of a Tailed Beast Ball after encountering such prey. It was also the instinct born of his many years of samurai training.

Orthodox samurai of the Land of Iron were fundamentally different from sword-wielding shinobi like Yanliu and Hatake Sakumo.

Though sword-wielding shinobi also practiced the way of the sword, and often at a highly advanced level, their ultimate goal was still to achieve victory through force.

Samurai, however, regarded the way of the sword as a faith. At times, for the sake of their convictions, they would abandon their desire for victory and even willingly give up their lives.

Shinobi found it difficult to understand such stubborn blockheads.

There was a reason why inflexible samurai lost to shinobi in competition.

Yet that very quality was also something they could not abandon.

Just as a shinobi who did not use chakra would no longer be a shinobi, a samurai who abandoned his devotion to his own path would no longer be a pure samurai.

The Land of Iron, the Shinobi World's sole homeland of samurai, had always upheld samurai traditions so rigid they bordered on harshness.

Though sword-wielding shinobi also used swords, there was not much difference between that and their use of kunai, shuriken, or other ninja tools. While they also honed themselves through spiritual training, the foundation supporting their strength was