Hatake Sakumo had risen to fame during the Second Shinobi World War. His fearsome reputation as "Konoha's White Fang" had been forged in the blood and terror of Sunagakure's ninja.
That inevitably raised a question: how had a ninja specializing in close-range swordsmanship carved out such a formidable reputation against Sunagakure's enemies, who were renowned for their strange, long-range, wide-area attacks using poison, puppets, and sand, even making them tremble at the mere mention of his name?
There was only one answer.
Hatake Sakumo's swordsmanship had reached a realm of transcendent mastery, approaching the very essence of the Way.
His blade was not merely a weapon for killing. It was an extension of his body and will, his "answer" to every enemy.
Faced with an army of puppets controlled by puppet masters, their joints intricate, their bodies packed with mechanisms and coated in deadly poison, an ordinary ninja might struggle to cope, become trapped in a battle of attrition, or die of poisoning.
But to Sakumo, the structures, weaknesses, and points through which energy flowed in those intricate puppets seemed perfectly clear.
Like the master described in the ancient tale Cook Ding Butchers an Ox, he did not hack with brute force. Instead, his blade slipped with unerring precision into the gaps in the puppets' most vulnerable and crucial joints.
No matter how tough a puppet's shell was or how much deadly poison coated it, once its joints were destroyed and its structure dismantled, even the most sophisticated mechanisms instantly became a heap of scrap wood and metal.
Beyond that, when he coated his blade with his own pure chakra, its razor-sharp edge could even sever the chakra threads a puppet master used to control their puppets.
Once those threads were cut, even the strongest puppet became a kite with