The gale rising from the flat ground seemed intent on boring into the sky. Nearby trees buckled under its pressure and were flattened to the ground as snow swirled upward. Its tremendous power was palpable even to the eye. Although the samurai nearby stood far away, they could still feel the air around them being drawn toward it, their clothes fluttering in the wind.
"Is this the power of a ninja?" one samurai murmured. He was a captain in the Land of Iron's chakra samurai corps, an expert whose strength rivaled that of a first-rate taijutsu jonin. Even so, everything before him exceeded his imagination.
"Ninja have gradually grown stronger over the past thirty years. During the Warring States Period, very few ninja could be called Kage, but their numbers keep increasing. Still, these two have already surpassed the power of ordinary ninja," Saitō said expressionlessly.
However powerful a ninja might be, he was ultimately human, and the strength he could wield remained within human limits. Yet the power on display now resembled the might of heaven and earth, far beyond the mortal realm and into the inhuman. After Ninshu declined, nobles and samurai came to rule the shinobi world. Ninja were few and divided, and they lost most of their historical heritage. Even descendants of the Sage, such as the Senju and Uchiha, forgot their own ancestor. The consistently stable and sizable noble and samurai establishments, however, preserved some of that heritage.
In the Land of Iron's records, Saitō had heard of a method of training that allowed mortals to approach the realm of the legendary progenitor of the shinobi world, the Sage of Six Paths. It was called sage art. Detailed accounts were scarce, making it seem like nothing more than a nebulous legend, but those who mastered