Deep in the mountains of the Land of Rice Fields.
Shinichi climbed to a mountaintop alone.
To find iron ore for the village to forge ninja tools, he had headed straight into the mountains.
He stopped.
Pale blue light shone in his eyes.
He activated his Tenseigan.
His vision instantly pierced the layers of mountain rock before him.
Everything within fifteen to twenty kilometers was perfectly clear to him.
He turned and looked at the mountain ranges surrounding him.
Through the Tenseigan, the mountains before him were as transparent as glass.
The rocks inside lay stacked layer upon layer.
He could see exactly how deep the roots of the great trees reached.
He could also see every place where water flowed underground.
Shinichi stood where he was.
He swept his gaze across one mountain after another.
His vision pierced the mountain nearest him.
There was nothing but ordinary rock inside.
He looked toward the mountain beside it.
He examined several nearby mountains in succession like this.
There was nothing inside them but earth and stone.
These mountains contained no iron ore at all.
Shinichi withdrew his gaze.
He moved, heading to another mountaintop to keep searching.
The Land of Rice Fields was full of continuous mountain ranges.
He spent several days searching like this.
That day, Shinichi stopped.
He stood before a towering mountain peak.
His Tenseigan lit up again.
His vision passed through the thick mountain wall, reaching deep into the mountain's belly.
In the deep rock strata, he saw a vast stretch of something different.
It was completely unlike ordinary stone.
It was dense and heavy.
Through the Tenseigan, he could distinguish it at a glance among the ordinary rocks.
This was iron ore.
Shinichi followed the stretch of iron ore, looking farther down.
His vision traveled forward along the underground rock strata.
The iron ore was not confined to this one spot, nor to the belly of this one mountain.
Vast stretches of iron ore extended outward underground.
They ran through several nearby mountains.
The iron ore beneath these mountains was all connected.
It formed one long, massive vein.
Shinichi withdrew his gaze, and his figure flashed away.
He found a section of mountain wall closest to the iron ore.
He walked up to it and stopped.
Through his Tenseigan, he could see the iron ore hidden just behind the layer of ordinary rock before him.
He raised his right hand, chakra gathering in his palm.
Shinichi slammed his palm hard against the mountain wall.
A dull thud rang out.
The entire wall shuddered violently, and a large section of hard rock shattered.
Loose stones tumbled down with a clatter.
When the rubble had finished falling, a large crater had been smashed into the wall.
The ordinary outer rock lay shattered across the ground.
The split section directly exposed what had been hidden inside.
It was a large expanse of dark brown ore.
Shinichi stepped forward and bent down.
He picked up a dark brown stone from the rubble.
The moment it settled in his hand, he felt its considerable weight.
He hefted it in his hand.
This stone was much heavier than an ordinary stone of the same size.
Shinichi squeezed it hard between his fingers.
No matter how he squeezed, it would not give; it was much harder than ordinary stone.
Dark brown, heavy, and hard.
It was definitely iron ore.
Shinichi held the iron ore in his hand.
He took another look into the deep mineral vein with his Tenseigan.
He noticed that amid the vast stretches of iron ore,
there was also something different mixed in.
It ran in thin strands through the iron ore.
Neither the naked eye nor an ordinary Byakugan could distinguish it at all.
But through the Tenseigan, it was perfectly clear.
Chakra flowed within those thin strands.
Shinichi pinpointed the location.
He raised his hand and dug into that part of the mountain wall.
He stripped away the loose stones and outer rock layers.
He dug out a piece of metal.
Its color was completely different from the iron ore.
Shinichi held the piece of metal in his hand.
He drew on a little of the chakra in his body and sent it into the metal.
As soon as the chakra entered, it traveled along the metal.
It flowed smoothly, without the slightest resistance.
Immediately afterward, the metal's surface lit up.
A layer of pale blue light appeared over it.
This was precisely the color of Shinichi's chakra.
Looking at the glowing metal in his hand, Shinichi recognized it.
This was chakra metal.
Shinichi looked at the glowing metal in his hand.
He thought of Tobirama Senju's Sword of the Thunder God.
That sword's blade was a bolt of lightning.
As long as Lightning Release chakra was fed into the sword, a blade formed from lightning would extend from it.
The Sword of the Thunder God was forged from chakra metal.
It was precisely because chakra metal had been used
that it could channel Lightning Release chakra outward and form it into a solid blade.
So this kind of metal existed in the mountains of the Land of Rice Fields.
Shinichi withdrew the chakra from his hand.
The light on the metal's surface faded with it.
He activated his Tenseigan again.
His vision followed the underground mineral vein, examining it once more.
The chakra metal was mixed into the iron ore in thin strands.
Compared with the vast stretches of surrounding iron ore,
there was far less of this metal.
Shinichi shifted his gaze again.
His Tenseigan swept along the side of the mineral vein.
His vision pierced the thick rock strata.
Across a valley,
he saw underground on the opposite side.
Deep within the rock strata, layer after layer was filled with something black.
Several thick layers spread across half the mountain.
Shinichi withdrew his gaze.
He leaped across the valley.
He arrived on the opposite mountainside.
After pinpointing the spot, he raised his hand, broke through the outer rock layers, and dug straight in.
Before digging very deep, he extracted a lump of something black.
Shinichi held it in his hand.
He squeezed it with a little pressure from his fingers.
A coating of black dust immediately stained his hand.
Shinichi stared at the black lump in his hand.
The people of the Shinobi World did not recognize this stuff at all.
Even if someone did dig it up, they would only treat it as a useless black rock.
In the Shinobi World, smiths burned only firewood and charcoal.
But he had memories of his previous life.
He recognized it at a glance: this was coal.
When coal burned, its fire was much stronger than firewood.
The heat it gave off was also far greater.
To forge good things, the furnace had to burn hot enough.
Only when the temperature rose could the iron ore inside melt, leaving fewer impurities.
Ninja tools forged this way would naturally be better.
Shinichi held the black lump of coal.
He leaped up onto the highest cliff nearby.
Facing the mountain wind, he looked out over these mountains.
Inside the mountains on this side ran a long, massive vein of iron ore.
Beneath the valley on that side lay inexhaustible seams of coal.
His gaze followed the mountain slopes all the way down.
Right at the foot of the mountains was a broad river.
The river flowed out of the mountains along the lay of the land.
Forging required water.
Iron heated red-hot in the furnace had to be quenched in water.
The iron ore was here.
The coal was here.
The water was here too.
Everything needed for forging was right here.
There was no need at all to spend a fortune and go to great lengths to transport it here from elsewhere.
Shinichi's gaze settled beside the river at the foot of the mountains.
Right next to the water was a large, open stretch of flat ground.
Shinichi chose that spot.
He made up his mind to build a base dedicated to producing ninja tools on that flat ground.
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