Ode to Gallantry

T/N: 'Ode to Gallantry' is a wuxia novel by Jin Yong serialised in Hong Kong from June 11 of 1966 to April 19 of 1968 in the Ming Pao newspaper

Land of Rice, light rain.

Tendo Pain in a bamboo hat and black robe walks past green mountains and green waters with the Yama sword, the family heirloom sword of the Suo clan, around his waist.

Land of Rice is named after rice fields, which is naturally very suitable for agriculture.

Even though there are many traces of struggle between the fields, it is still difficult to hide the richness of this land.

However, Tendo Pain didn't pay attention to these things and just rushed on his way.

He came all the way to the Land of Rice to do two things.

Kill.

Recruit.

What was killed were the two forces that had been entrenched in Land of Rice for many years, strangled each other, and made Land of Rice restless.

The recruit was Konoha rouge-nin Orochimaru.

Since Yahiko's death, Nagato has been devoting himself to practice.

Not only for revenge, but also to fulfill their and Yahiko's dream.

Not long ago, he killed Konoha's Danzo and Ame's Hanzo with his own hands, which was considered a great revenge.

But in the battle not long ago, he lost to the Godaime Hokage.

In the fight, he has already discovered that in terms of pure strength, he is much stronger than the Godaime Hokage, but the opponent has too many ninjas...

Several ninjas blocked Nagato's six avatar, let Makoto come in front of him, challenged him one-on-one, and finally defeated Nagato successfully by virtue of the power of knowledge.

After that battle ended, Nagato kept thinking, if there was one...even if there was only one Kage-level master by his side, would the result of the battle be different?

The answer is of course.

But Kage-level masters are not cabbages, and they are not so easy to find.

Konan, who grew up together since he was a child, is indeed willing to help him, but if he wants to realize his and Yahiko's dreams, Konan cannot be the only comrade in arms.

So, Nagato began to recruit teammates.

The first one he chose was Orochimaru.

Although Orochimaru is also from Konoha, since he is a traitor, there are many things that need not be mentioned.

But whoever can stay, why is he a traitor?

If Orochimaru can join his organizationn, Akatsuki, it will definitely be much easier in the future.

But Nagato knew very well that it was not easy to do this.

Therefore, he wants to show grace and power.

It not only shows his sincerity, but also shows his strength.

Orochimaru is currently living in the Land of Rice, and he has a good understanding of Land of Rice's environment. That being the case, Nagato wiped out all the two major forces entrenched in Land of Rice overnight.

These two forces have been entangled in the Land of Rice for so many years, and directly and indirectly killed countless people. It can be said that there is more than enough time for death. Nagato cleans up without any psychological burden.

At the same time, Nagato can also obtain massive wealth from these two big foces and present it to Orochimaru to show his sincerity.

Rouge-nins are a group of very bad guys. Since they can even deviate from the village, they can't have any morals.

Generally speaking, rouge-nins only recognizes strength.

But if you rely on strength alone, it is difficult to make rouge-nins work for you.

Therefore, wealth is also a necessary means... Even if it is a little troublesome, it is also a necessary behavior.

It's all about working hard for their dreams.

Konan complained a little about this. She thought that even if they could recruit Orochimaru, there will be no need to make such a big fanfare.

It might be better to take a more discreet, stealthy approach.

Nagato didn't know the benefits of doing this, but... he couldn't do it secretly.

Because in that case, a lot of precious time is bound to be wasted.

Although Makoto was beaten into a wheelchair by him, as long as he is not dead, with his personality, he will definitely continue to make trouble for him.

Plan this slowly is definitely safe, but your enemy will definitely not give you this chance... Besides, sometimes, notoriety is also a good thing.

It takes strength to do good or evil. Obviously, it would be easier for the villains to realize his power.

With such thoughts in mind, Tendo Pain is advancing rapidly in the Land of Rice.

Just walking, he don't know when it started, the original hazy drizzle turned into a pouring rain.

Now that the weather is getting colder, he didn't expect to encounter such heavy rain.

Because the body is a corpse, Tendo Pain is not afraid of cold and heat. But the rain was too heavy, and Nagato, who loved Tendo Pain so much, decided to let him take a rest first.

After all... this is Yahiko's body.

Let's just think of it as recharging your energy for the next battle.

Soon, Tendo Pain found an abandoned pavilion.

Although the pavilion is dilapidated, it still has room for shelter and shelter from the wind and rain.

Tendo Pain sat down in the pavilion, he lit a fire, and took out an economics book from his arms – this was given to him by Makoto on purpose during the last battle with Makoto.

This book was written by Makoto himself.

It stands to reason that as long as it is the enemy's stuff, as long as it is the enemy's words, one should not believe it. But Makoto this guy...

When fighting with Makoto before, Makoto kept talking about financial terms. As for the data and formulas, he never stopped for a moment.

He has never won with strength, and he has never lost with his mouth.

Pain wanted to refute, but failed miserably when the opponent's professional data matched the actual case.

Pain only follows the emotional logic, which cannot play a role in front of Makoto.

Even Pain himself felt that he was no match for that scumbag if he just debated the scriptures – if he had told him, he would not have been confused by his broken thoughts, and eventually be poisoned by him. The meteor hammer fell down.

There's nothing can be done, Pain didn't go to school.

He can read because Jiraiya taught him ninjutsu.

But only taught him ninjutsu.

So lately, Pain has been reading these books.

It was really painful when he first read it. He knew every word above, but after combining them, he couldn't understand them at all.

If you have to say something, you can only inexplicably feel that what the other party said makes sense.

He felt like an idiot.

But Nagato is not a person who gives up easily.

If you don't understand it once, read it twice. If you can't read it twice, read it three times.

Weakness is not terrible, everyone has weak times.

But if you are already weak, but you are unwilling to imitate and learn from the strong, then it can only be said to you're walking down the path to death.

The continuous reading during this period has indeed benefited Nagato... although his ninjutsu did not make any progress.

Today, he opened the book again, and what appeared before him was a red leaf bookmark in addition to the profound content of the heavenly book.

Zhou Fangcheng stuffed a total of three red leaf bookmarks in the book, each of which was filled with words, this is the first one.

"Ask, when will the struggle for power stop; hate, it's difficult for people to walk in a rough world..."

It's a very unfamiliar style of writing, and it's not like what a guy like Makoto can write, but it somehow fits Nagato's mood.

He really likes it.

Tendo Pain put away the bookmark and continued to read it seriously.

He was fascinated very quickly, and he didn't know how long he watched it. Suddenly, he heard a child's immature calling from the rain curtain.

"Hey, is the gentleman in the front, are you a Yo-Kyūseishu?"

T/N: 'Yo-Kyūseishu', word by word translation is 'world saver', the raw translate to 'world walker', both refers to people who wander in the world; if you put the Chinese word in Japanese to English translator, it translate to 'Yakuza' (which it doesn't fit the context here)

Pain raised his head and looked in the direction of the voice.

It was a little boy sitting in a carriage, looking at him curiously.

Land of Rice's industry is not very good, let alone infrastructure. When you are in the country, even if you have a car, it is better to take a horse-drawn carriage.

Judging from the boy's clothes, he should be a child of a small clan - the clan here is not a ninja clan, but a traditional small wealthy clan in the countryside.

For some strange political reasons, Land of Rice does not have its own hidden village, and ninjas are even rarer. Even if there are, they come from other countries, and there are almost no local ones.

However, Yo-Kyūseishu... now there are still children who know this title?

Nagato thought so.

This is the old calendar of the Warring States Period.

In the Warring States Period, wars were endless, and human lives were worthless. Not to mention civilians, even those small clans are often in danger.

In the wilderness, there are countless heroes and dead waiting for the opportunity to travel among the countries.

So there was a master who gave these wanderers a night and two meals.

Traditionally, these wanderers who have traveled around the world will also try their best to repay their masters, usually beheading some powerful enemies for their masters.

Everyone called these vagrants 'Yo-Kyūseishu'.

To put it bluntly, they are a group of extreme swinging swordsmen.

It's just that this group of people and this title have already disappeared without a trace with the torrent of the times.

It's really rare for a child to know this term at this time....

Tendo Pain couldn't help but look at the other party more.

Then he nodded indifferently.

He didn't want to have too much involvement with this child.

And another elderly man who was also sitting in the carriage was also urging the child to leave quickly and not to be troublesome.

...It seems to be a servant or something.

But the child was obviously not very happy. Not only did he not leave according to the servant's wishes, but he invited Tendo Pain to spend the night at his house.

This is undoubtedly a very presumptuous thing.

Whether it is for Pain or for the old domestic servant.

But in the end, the child convinced Pain.

Because he invited Pain to watch his newly bought movie, which seems to be a movie called Zatoichi.

T/N: 'Zotoichi' is a Japanese action film released in 2003, it's officially known in the US as 'The Blind Swordsman: Zatoichi'

This is also very common, and Nagato is not ignorant of movies. But the cover of this movie is clearly Jiraiya-sensei, and the producer is... Konoha Entertainment?

Is it Makoto's new trick?

Then you have to take a look.

With such a mood, Nagato agreed, and controlled Tendo Pain to enter the carriage and came to the mansion where the child was.

The child was indeed born in a small wealthy clan.

It wasn't until this time that Payne knew that the clan's surname was Hanayama.

Very common surname.

The child happily brought Tendo Pain into the screening room and played the movie.

The protagonist of this movie is Jiraiya, and the story told is very simple. Generally speaking, it is a story of a wandering ninja called Zatoichi who fights evil everywhere.

...Seems to be still a series.

The overall logic of the movie is very simple and completed in one go, and there is nothing difficult to understand-of course, there is nothing worth writing about.

The essence of this movie is fighting.

In other movies, actors are cast as swordsmen, and when they act, they can have one or two times the power of a real swordsman, which can already be said to be very dedicated.

And this movie...is for the real swordsman to act as the fake swordsman.

To put it simply, it is to let a group of real masters really fight.

Although for the sake of the smoothness of the plot, the character of Zatoichi must be highlighted, and for the sake of viewing, the director consciously modified some movements to make the actors' movements slower and more in line with the camera, but this does not damage the overall martial arts quality of the movie .

Any expert who comes here will know that this is a group of real masters, making the audience happy.

Especially when it came to the most exciting part of killing the formation, even Nagato was attracted.

Interesting is really interesting.

Even if the writing and drama are a bit weaker, but for such a sword and halberd film... it doesn't seem to matter too much?

The two watched the movie together, and the child was still not satisfied, so he continued to take out other movies and invited Nagato to watch them together.

The child obviously loves Jiraiya, who starred in almost every movie. But Nagato noticed that compared to the first two films, the later films were more...

Compared with Saving Ninja Mizu-jun and Seven Ninjas, the following films are all sword and halberd films. Movies are not of the same genre, so it's hard to say whether they are strong or weak. But from a conceptual point of view, the former two are obviously better.

But Nagato thought about it, and he probably figured out the reason.

Because of the Sora-nin and Miso War incidents before, Konoha's prestige has plummeted, and it has been difficult to continue film output as before.

Now in many small countries, many people see Konoha's forehead protection in the movie, and they all directly scold them – after all, they were tortured too badly by Konoha before.

The effects of the miso wars have not entirely faded over time.

And Konoha obviously knew the situation, they gave up using Konoha as the core of the narrative, and turned to swords and halberds.

They are no longer specifically limited to Konoha, and usually the protagonist will be a wanderer. Considering that the film was indeed wonderful, people gradually accepted it.

... This is a flexible enemy that will adjust its strategy in time.

Nagato thought so.

The child was obviously very happy that Nagato could watch so many movies with him, and the joy of Amway's success in the conversation was almost unstoppable.

T/N: 'Amway' is an American multi-level marketing company that sells health, beauty, and home products

"Hehe...you also like watching Jiraiya-sensei's movies...it's really super interesting, right? But they all say that Konoha is full of bad people...hehe, an upright person like Jiraiya-sensei, how can he be a bad guy... When I grow up, I want to become a chivalrous man like Jiraiya-sensei who helps the weak and the strong..."

Children always worship heroes.

However, the child in front of him just said a few more words, and then gasped violently several times.

According to Nagato's experience, he should be born weak.

His family conditions are good, and he may live to be seventy or eighty, but in his whole life, he may have nothing to do with being strong.

But the child didn't know this, he looked at Nagato eagerly, waiting for his approval.

"Suo-san, do you agree? Everyone says I'm too weak, but I still feel... what do you think?"

Nagato was away from home, of course he would not use his own name, he did not hesitate to use Suo Makoto's name – anyway, Suo's surname is not a small surname. Makoto is a very common name like Tadashi, Kenshin, -rō, Yoshi, and 'Hide-'.

T/N: 'Tadashi' means loyalty, 'Kenshin' means trust, '-ō' is often used as a suffix for 'son', 'Yoshi' means justice, 'Hide-' is a prefix often used as 'execellent'

Looking at the child in front of him who wanted him to say affirmative words, Nagato just wanted to tell him the truth, but couldn't help but think of Yahiko.

Years ago, Yahiko also told them his dreams with sparkling eyes.

Although many years have passed, Nagato has not forgotten after all.

So, his tone softened.

"If you work hard...you can definitely do it!"

"Mhm!"

... ...

The child was very excited because he finally met someone who confirmed his ideas.

However, a child is a child after all, and he quickly exhausted his energy and fell into a deep sleep.

Nagato returned to the guest room, and was about to continue reading Makoto's book for a while, when the old servant approached the door.

After communicating with him for a while, Nagato realized that the old servant wanted him to leave early tomorrow morning.

It's not that he really hates Nagato, a wanderer, and he doesn't even want to let Nagato stay for a few more days, but...

"Those two lords forced our Hanayama clan to take a stand, insisting that our Hanayama clan choose one to follow. But they have fought and stopped for so many years, and the outcome has not been determined. On the contrary, there are countless casualties. If we follow them, it is nothing more than It's just cannon fodder... Land of Rice is getting more and more chaotic now, so you should leave as soon as possible."

"So that's how it is...but the other party forced it down, how should you choose?"

"Choice? It's just a matter of death. The two of them were not so powerful before. But they kept forcing the small wealthy clans under their command to fight, and then took the opportunity to annex them." Speaking of this, the old servant sighed softly, "Fortunately, the master and madam invested in the factory in the Land of Fire and made money not long ago. Now that this ancestral property cannot be kept behind, I have already decided to take the young master to the Land of Fire in these two days. –

"Although the ancestral property is good, if the heir is extinct...the ancestors should understand."

The so-called troubled times are hell for the weak.

Ironically, however, the Land of Fire, one of the sources of chaos, is willing to take in these homeless people.

Nagato didn't know what to say for a while, so he could only respond in silence.

In the early morning of the next day, the young master of the Hanayama clan was still sleeping, so Tendo Pain bid farewell to the old servant and left the Hanayama mansion.

But for some reason, Nagato was always restless, as if something extremely bad was about to happen.

The last time he had this weird premonition was the last time.

At that time, Konan was kidnapped. In order to save her and other companions, Yahiko had to sacrifice himself...

Thinking of this, he had already run a long way, but Nagato still let Tendo return to Hanayama Mansion.

At this time, Hanayama Mansion has become a sea of flames.

It is raining, and the world is on fire.

Countless masked robbers were shuttling through the mansion, burning, killing, and looting at will. Wherever they passed, the flames surged wildly, as if to devour everything.

"Save the child... –

"Save the young master..."

"He... he is in the Bodhi Temple... please..."

The old domestic servant who had a good chat with Tendo Pain yesterday has been crushed under the rubble.

Tendo Pain has already seen that he is about to die. But at this last dying moment, he didn't ask Tendo Pain to save him, but to save the child.

Tendo Pain rushed into the flames, and soon found the child trapped in the flames of the Bodhi Temple.

But in front of him, surrounded by dozens of vicious bandits.

There is no doubt that these people are not real robbers, they are here to get rid of this descendant of Hanayama.

In the panic, the child also saw Tendo Pain.

"Suo-san... Suo-san...he-...help..."

At this time, there was chaos outside. Under the manipulation of Nagato, Tendo Pain stuffed the child under the fallen bronze bell in the Bodhi Temple, and then faced the remaining evil party alone.

"Hahaha, brothers, look, he wants to solve us all by himself!"

"Young people don't know the heights of the heavens and the earth, so get out! It's not your turn to uphold justice for things here!"

"Boss, I see that this guy has thin skin and tender flesh, can I... Hehehe, Boss, you know me, so I'll just take a bite..."

Tendo Pain didn't pay attention to the ridicule and roar of the villains.

But at this moment, the sword bag that had been wrapping Yama sword suddenly untied by itself, revealing the gleaming treasured sword inside.

Clang!

With a dragon roar, the treasured sword came out of its sheath by itself, revealing a small half of the bright blade.

Tendo Pain held the handle of the sword.

An invisible chill rushed straight to the sky.

"Yama, are you angry too?"

Tendo told, pulled out Yama, and aimed at the strong people in front of him.

"Come. –

"Victory or defeat."

It was night, blood flowed into rivers in Hanayama Mansion, and the heaven and earth wailed.

Strong winds and rain urges paper umbrella, and tourists wander endlessly. How to cross the torrential world, Take off the coir raincoat and let the turbid flow.

T/N: above, it's a reference to 'Thunderbolt Fantasy 3', it's a Japanese-Waiwanese glove puppetry TV series

The head of the Hanayama clan survived because he took in a wanderer.

Then the next day...the five hundred and twelve members of the two major forces that have occupied Land of Rice for many years were killed by a mysterious person.