Chapter 48: Lore

Authors note: READ THIS FIRST.

So, as mentioned before, I missed a chapter. This is the one I missed. I know the Fanfic is not going to be ordered from now on, that being said, I do not want to lose the comments you guys made in the previous chapter. As mentioned before a big reason I write is to see theories everyone comes up with so I don't like to delete chapters.

THAT BEING SAID, if majority of you want me to delete and re-order the chapters, I don't mind.

Let me know in the comments. (LOL, makes me sound like a youtuber)

Anyways, this chapter is regarding weapon style a bit more. Let me know your theories!

Chapter 48: Lore

I'd seen these two before during our previous mission—Ryuko Nakamura and Mio Suzuk. 

Two of the other players, like me, were assigned to Sora's squad. At first glance, they didn't stand out. But in this world, I know better than to judge a book by its cover.

And after what happened with Gepo… yeah, I wasn't about to take any chances. That loud-mouthed fat idiot has clearly thrown out our mission once again.

I needed to know if Ryuko and Mio were that type.

I wasn't recruiting liabilities into my guild. 

So for now, I kept my distance and observed.

I was able to eventually find their training ground from the directions Ayumi was able to provide, and saw them standing in front of their sensei with extreme concentration.

Gepo was nowhere to be seen, probably getting punished right now by the heads of the village. Maybe even dead...hopefully.

Now that I had unlocked my Uzumaki bloodline, I could sense one's battle-strength...well, I could approximate those lower than mine for sure.

And I could feel it clearly.

Both of them were already miles ahead of what Gepo could ever be.

Still, power wasn't the only thing I was looking for.

Loyalty. Discretion. Instinct.

I'd seen too many players treat this world like a game. Like nothing mattered. But if I was going to build a guild that could shape this world—my world—I needed people who understood that this was more than just pixels.

Who could be rationale....treat this like a semi-real world of sorts...where killing innocent is stupid, but if needed for the larger goal and something needed. We might have to...

I just had to see if they were those people.

Didn't mean I was about to toss out an invite to the guild right away though. No—if I was going to recruit them, I needed to see them first. See how they moved, how they acted when no one was watching. What kind of players they were. What kind of people.

Word had it they were training with Sora, so I made my way to the south training field. It was a bit more secluded—less used by academy brats, more for serious shinobi work. By the time I arrived, I kept my chakra suppressed and stayed to the edge of the clearing, behind a cluster of trees.

And what I saw surprised me.

Sora wasn't just running them through basic drills.

At least what he was teaching them… was something I had never seen inside of the anime before.

"You guys have reached the basic threshold to start your own journey in the path of weapons." Sora-sensei said, in a slightly nostalgic tone.

Seemingly reminiscing about when he was first in that spot.

I wasn't sure if he was able to sense me or not, but I would rather not find out…but what I was watching was certainly interesting.

"Weapon-style, is something the Land of Samurai had originally stumbled upon. That entire land can be considered the founder of weapon style." Sora-Sensei explained to his genin.

Weapon-style…seems like the Ai might have added something into this world that I did not know about.

But if that was the case, and this world is real, it is definitely not the Naruto world I specifically know of.

Which made sense…but it seems like the overarching plot was flowing in the same direction of the novel.

After all, I saw that Zetsu exists.

"My sensei had defected from the Land of Samurais and made his way to the Village Hidden in the Leaves. After gaining permission from the Hokage at the time, and gaining the village's trust, he was accepted into the ranks of the village." Sora-sensei elaborated his lore to his genin.

"From there, he had taken only 3 Genin under his wing, assisting each of us in learning the weapon we were most talented in."

He then unsheathed his irregular sword from his back.

"Eventually, I will tell you where you can find a blacksmith who can craft you a weapon to your specific likings. But for now, I assume both of you have decided which weapon you intend to use?"

As he said that, Ryuko took a step forward and spoke first.

"Sensei, I intend to use a Long Sword." He said briefly to which Sora-Sensei nodded, not really caring.

"I want to use dual daggers sensei."Mio mentioned, to which Sensei nodded.

"Alright then, let me show you what your competition is."

Sora-sensei turned away from the two and faced the sprawling forest ahead of him.

Ryuko and Mio paused, their grips on their training weapons tightening ever so slightly. They had no idea what he was about to do.

Neither did I.

[Sword Style – Why Do I Cut?]

His voice was calm. Not loud. But the weight behind those words... it silenced everything.

Sora gently rested the flat of his sword in front of his body and leaned his forehead onto the blade.

And then—it began.

An intense, deep red chakra surged from his chest like a heartbeat unleashed. It wasn't wild or explosive—it was controlled.

It flowed through his torso, down his shoulder, spiraling through his arm like blood turned to energy. When it reached his palm, the sword responded. It shivered, almost like it was alive.

Ryuko took a step back. Mio didn't even breathe.

And then he moved.

A single swing. 

And in the next second—

The forest disappeared.

There was no explosion. No tremor. No dramatic gust of wind.

It was just... gone.

Dozens—hundreds—of trees, cleanly sliced, erased from existence in a perfect arc. A canyon of silence stretched out in front of us where life had once been.

Even the air felt cut.

Sora slowly lowered his sword, the red chakra fading from his body like a flame being put out. He looked back at them, his expression unreadable.

"You asked why you train so hard," he said, quietly. "That's why."

Neither of them responded. Honestly, what was there to say?

Even I, still watching from the treeline, was frozen in place.

That sword style... wasn't just a technique.

It was a question.

And the answer was destruction.

What the hell?

Why were there so many unique Jutsu in this world?!

"My Sword style has 5 different styles. It was kind of modeled around another Jutsu, a Taijutsu specialist I know uses." He mentioned, to which I thought of Guy-sensei.

???

What the hell?

…

I had time.

No missions, no war front for now, and I wasn't about to waste this calm. Not with everything going on lately. With Jiraiya here, the Akatsuki showing up, and Naruto starting to look more and more like a main character, it was only a matter of time before things blew up again.

So I decided to visit a place I hadn't touched since I was a Genin:

The Shinobi Archives.

Every major village had one. For Konoha, it was built underneath the Hokage Tower—rows upon rows of scrolls, tomes, and forbidden pages that only got dusted off when someone like Shikaku needed to prepare for war.

But I had special clearance now, even though I was officially not promoted.

I walked past the clerk, flashed my credentials, and descended the winding steps. The air was cooler down here—still, dry, ancient. It felt like knowledge lived in the walls.

There were thousands of scrolls—some sealed and some crumbling.

I was looking for history.

 Sora-Sensei's strange sword style—the elegance, the sheer destructive power of 'Why Do I Cut?' 

And something about it didn't feel like it came from the Land of Fire.

So I searched.

I dug through the Cultural Exchange Logs, the Old Treaty Scrolls, and eventually found an old, eathered volume labeled:

"The Blades Beyond the Mountains – On the Samurai of Iron."

The Land of Iron. The only major neutral land in the world ruled not by shinobi, but by samurai.

And what I read... was insane.

They infused their entire philosophy into their blades—a fusion of chakra flow and spiritual discipline. They didn't shout their attacks.

Now it made sense why for this NPC...well, I should say original character, his fighting style was not known in the village.

Sora's blade style wasn't born in Konoha.

It was inspired by the Samurai of the Land of Iron.

"The sword is not a weapon. It is a path."

Their most elite sword users didn't rely on power or speed alone, but on clarity of intent. Each form answered a question—sometimes literally.

What do I cut?

Why do I cut?

When do I cut?

Who do I cut?

Where do I cut?

Each blade form was a philosophical answer sharpened into steel.

And they had one final, unspoken technique—

[Sword Style – Do I Cut?]

…A stance not even recorded in this scroll. Only referenced.

As if the answer could only be discovered, not taught.

It seems like Sora-sensei did not mind people finding out about things like this...well, even I had to search for a fairly long time and look specifically to get this scroll.

I rolled the scroll back up slowly, and for the first time in a long while, felt something stir inside me.

This wasn't something inside of the anime...

...

Authors note:

You can read some chapters ahead if you want to on my p#treon.com/Fat_Cultivator