Deep in the mountains of the Land of Rice Fields, at the riverside base.
After listening to Gengorō, Shinichi swept his gaze over the hundreds of civilians.
"These people don't need to learn smithing."
Gengorō froze, his calloused hands stopping in front of him.
He looked at the civilians, then back at Shinichi.
"How can they make ninja tools without learning smithing?"
Gengorō could not understand.
"I plan to break the making of a kunai down into several separate tasks."
Shinichi looked at Gengorō, whose eyes were full of confusion.
"Crushing ore, firing the furnace, casting blanks, sharpening, and polishing."
"Each of these hundreds of civilians will do just one of those tasks."
An apprentice behind Gengorō could not help taking a step forward.
Shinichi continued without pausing.
"Those crushing ore will do nothing but crush ore here every day."
"Those working the bellows will do nothing but pump air with the bellows every day."
"They won't have to worry about any of the other steps, or understand them."
Shinichi looked at the civilians standing in the clearing nearby.
"Doing just one task is simple."
"After watching you for a few days, these civilians will learn to do it themselves."
As Gengorō listened to Shinichi's plan, his brow furrowed deeper and deeper.
Several of the craftsmen from the Land of Iron were also muttering among themselves.
In the Land of Iron, craftsmen had always followed the same rules when smithing.
From heating the iron at the very beginning to sharpening and polishing at the end.
One master did everything from start to finish.
How hot to heat it, how much force to use.
All of it depended on that one person's judgment.
Yet now Shinichi wanted to separate all these tasks.
The more Gengorō and the craftsmen listened, the more confused they became.
Gengorō moved half a step closer and softened his voice.
"Lord Shinichi, you've never handled a hammer. The intricacies are rather complicated."
He gestured with his hands, both covered in scorch marks.
"What color the iron should be when it comes out of the furnace-whether it's glowing red or already turning white."
"The master has to watch it closely with his own eyes."
"Once it's out, which parts of the blank need a few more hammer blows, and which need a lighter touch."
"The master has to judge all that himself, too."
Gengorō lowered his hands and continued looking at Shinichi as he spoke.
"If we follow your plan and divide all the work among several people."
"The person doing the earlier task won't know what sort of base the next task requires."
"If the steps don't connect, the whole thing will be ruined."
Listening behind Gengorō, one apprentice could not help interjecting.
"Lord Shinichi, take sharpening, for example."
"If the person sharpening doesn't know how the blank was made."
"Then he won't even be able to judge how hard or soft the steel is."
"If he can't judge the steel's hardness, he definitely won't be able to sharpen the edge properly."
Gengorō nodded, looking at Shinichi before him.
"Lord Shinichi, you paid a great deal to hire us, so we ought to do as you say."
"But I have to advise you against this."
"If we really do it this way, the ninja tools we make won't be usable at all."
Shinichi did not argue with Gengorō over who was right.
"I won't short you a single coin of your monthly wages."
"All the work in this workshop will be done exactly as I say."
Shinichi glanced at the troubled-looking craftsmen.
"If anything goes wrong along the way, even if the ninja tools turn out unusable."
"I'll take responsibility for all of it."
"None of it will have anything to do with you."
Hearing this, the craftsmen standing nearby exchanged glances.
None of them spoke. They all turned to look at their master, Gengorō.
Gengorō stood where he was without a word.
He thought it over.
The Hyuga Clan was paying both their settling-in allowance and their monthly wages.
They were paying a great deal, so however they said to do it, that was how it had to be done.
Gengorō sighed and gave Shinichi a firm nod.
"All right, Lord Shinichi. We'll do as you say."
He agreed aloud.
But in his heart, Gengorō still did not believe this method could work at all.
Early the next morning, Shinichi stood on the flat ground by the river.
Several Hyuga jonin held work assignment lists and divided the hundreds of civilians into several groups.
One group went into the mountains to mine iron ore, another went into the valley to dig coal, and another stayed on the flat ground to crush the ore.
Shinichi had the remaining group follow Gengorō and the other craftsmen to learn how to make molds and bellows.
At first, the civilians had been afraid they would not be capable of making ninja tools.
Once they heard that each person only needed to do one task every day, with stone crushers only crushing stones and bellows workers only pumping bellows, they all breathed sighs of relief.
They could learn this work at a glance. Anyone could do it.
Elsewhere, several Hyuga ninja walked up to the rock face.
They took their stances, chakra glowing in their palms, and struck the rock with Gentle Fist.
Cracks spread through the entire mass of rock before it broke into chunks of various sizes.
The Hyuga ninja carried the stones to the middle of the flat ground and stacked them layer by layer, following the design Shinichi had drawn on paper.
More than ten days passed.
A great stone furnace over ten meters tall stood firmly beside the river.
Several brand-new large bellows had also been installed next to it.
On the day the furnace was lit, Shinichi stood on the flat ground.
He watched dozens of civilians climb up the wooden scaffolding and pour crushed ore and coal into the furnace, layer by layer.
A fire was lit beneath the furnace.
The black coal soon began to burn.
The flames burned far more fiercely than the charcoal they normally used, and scorching heat poured out of the wide furnace opening.
Dozens of civilians threw themselves into the work, pulling hard on the large bellows to force air into the furnace.
The furnace grew hotter and hotter, sending waves of heat rolling outward.
Those nearby could not bear the searing heat and stepped back several paces.
Shinichi stood a short distance away, watching the fierce fire burn for well over half a day.
At last, a stream of glowing red molten iron flowed out of the opening at the bottom of the furnace.
The molten iron flowed down the channels in the ground.
The craftsmen nearby all stopped in their tracks.
They had worked with iron all their lives, but their old furnaces could only heat iron until it was red and soft.
This was the first time they had ever seen iron melt into liquid with their own eyes.
One craftsman could not resist moving a couple of steps closer for a better look.
But the moment he approached, the scorching waves of heat drove him stumbling back.
The craftsman wiped the sweat from his face, muttering over and over.
"It really melted into liquid..."
Gengorō stood at the very front.
He clenched his fists.
Gengorō kept his eyes fixed on the flowing molten iron without saying a word.
Using long iron rods, the civilians guided the molten iron along the channels in the ground toward the flat area.
Rows upon rows of molds were packed closely together there.
The craftsmen had led the civilians in making these molds over the past few days, and all of them contained the shapes of kunai and shuriken.
The scorching molten iron flowed along the channels and filled the molds one after another, sending up clouds of hot white smoke.
Shinichi stood nearby and watched.
After a long time, the molten iron in the molds cooled completely.
The civilians approached with tools and forcefully broke open the molds on the ground one by one.
Kunai and shuriken blanks tumbled out of them.
In barely half a day, the blanks already covered a large stretch of ground.
These freshly cast blanks were all grayish black.
Because they had not yet been polished or sharpened, their edges still had rough burrs.
An apprentice behind Gengorō could not help walking forward and crouching down to make a rough count.
He abruptly stood up, crying out in astonishment.
"Hundreds! A single batch made hundreds of kunai!"
He turned to look at the craftsmen behind him, his eyes full of disbelief.
"Master, back in the Land of Iron, even a highly skilled master working from morning till night..."
"Could only make a few kunai in a whole day!"
The craftsmen from the Land of Iron gathered around the vast spread of blanks on the ground. Some crouched to touch them, while others counted them several times.
Gengorō paid no attention to his apprentice's cries.
He slowly walked forward and crouched in front of the vast spread of blanks.
Gengorō reached out and picked up the first kunai blank from the ground.
Holding the grayish-black kunai close, he turned it over and over in his hands, examining it.
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