Feel the Breath of All Things

After leaving the school, Kabuto went to the river where he and Itachi usually trained together.

Because Nagasawa was most likely not at home at this time, he could not tell anyone about his problem when he went home.

When he reached the river, Kabuto saw that Itachi was training.

Itachi also heard footsteps. He turned around and saw that it was Kabuto, so he stopped his training and looked at Kabuto wonderingly.

Kabuto should have a class at the Academy now, why was he there?

Kabuto walked to Itachi. He sighed as he sat down and quietly looked at the river.

"Kabuto, what's wrong? It seems that you are a little troubled?" Seeing that Kabuto seemed to have something in mind, Itachi also sat down and asked.

"Here's the story, in Academy..." Kabuto told Itachi about Ryota, who was bullied.

"I don't understand. They are the residents of the same village and even the students of the same Academy. They also have no conflict of interest, so why did such a thing happen?"

After hearing Kabuto's words, Itachi fell silent.

Of course, the people of the same village also had conflicts. Even Clans and the village could have conflicts.

"I think that because people do not understand each other. If people can understand each other, then such a thing will not happen, and war will not happen," Itachi said after thinking for a while.

"Mutual understanding, huh?" Kabuto thought about it and felt that what Itachi said made sense.

After chatting for a while, the two trained for a while.

After class ended in the afternoon, Kabuto went home.

After returning home, Kabuto saw Nagasawa, who was writing something on the scroll.

Kabuto did not disturb Nagasawa, but Nagasawa stopped writing and looked at Kabuto.

Kabuto saw that Nagasawa had stopped writing, so he went up and told Nagasawa about what had happened in the school and also added what he thought could be the solution.

"As long as everyone understands each other, the disputes will disappear."

Nagasawa was stunned for a moment. Why did this sentence sound so familiar?

Do you want to become a god and then change the world, too?

Nagasawa smacked Kabuto's little head, then ruffled Kabuto's hair before saying,

"Why did you ponder over such a complicated problem, little brat? What you need to do now is to become stronger. Only when you're strong enough can you do what you want to do."

"Ouch, that hurts." Nagasawa's smack was so painful that he forgot about mutual understanding.

"If you still have time to think about this kind of thing, I think your training is not enough. Now, we'll move your Nature Transformation training to the second stage and triple the amount of your swing practice each day. "Nagasawa said fiercely.

He turned away for a second Kabuto almost went down the wrong path. Since Kabuto would be busy at the Academy, Nagasawa decided to reduce Kabuto's training. It seemed that he had made a wrong decision.

His goal of becoming Shinobi to make money was much better, in Nagasawa's opinion. Understanding others' was only for the protagonist.

Kabuto: ...

Well, now Nagasawa didn't have to worry about that because Kabuto wouldn't have time to think about weird things anymore.

The second stage of Nature Transformation was much more tiring than the first stage, not to mention that his Water Breathing training would increase by three times from now on.

"Do your best in training. The kids and mother are waiting for you to make money and renovate the orphanage," Nagasawa encouraged.

Kabuto suddenly realized that what Nagasawa said was right. Mother and the others were still waiting for him to become Shinobi to make money. He could put aside mutual understanding for now. His priority was to become stronger and then do missions to make money.

Although he felt bad for this, he would prioritize his Mother and Nagasawa's expectations over some people he didn't know.

...

"Musashi, if you want to become a true swordsman, you must feel the breathing of all things. Once you can do that, you can easily cut steel with your sword even if you don't use Chakra."

Nagasawa gave some advice to Musashi during their journey.

Because Musashi was the Land of Iron's samurai, Nagasawa decided to adopt the swordsman's way in One Piece to train Musashi.

Musashi improved so much during his duel with Nagasawa. His swordsmanship was certainly good, but he had a slim chance of winning if he was up against one of the best Shinobi of Five Great Shinobi Countries.

However, if he could feel the breath of all things, his attack power would greatly increase, and with Chakra, he should be able to hold off his own ground at this point.

Musashi nodded and tried to do as Nagasawa said.

Although it was nonsense to feel the breath of stones and flowers and trees, since it was his pops that said it, he decided to believe it.

Because Nagasawa didn't use Chakra when he fought him and still overpowered his Chakra slashes.

This could not help but remind him of a question that he had thought about before. In the distant past, could the swordsmen blast out compressed air blades? Back then, no one knew how to utilize Chakra, and Shinobi didn't exist, after all.

It was in a distant past, and Musashi had no way of finding out, but now Musashi knew he should be able to do that.

He also wanted to become a swordsman who could blast out a compressed air blade without using Chakra like his pops!

Nagasawa then advised Musashi, as if seeing through his thoughts,

"Chakra is also part of your power. Just because it is something that Shinobi uses, you don't have to refrain from using it. By combining Chakra and swordsmanship, you will go further."

Nagasawa understood those samurais too well. After all, they were too idealistic.

Musashi smiled embarrassedly. He thought his father seemed to have a mind-reading skill.

"Pops, it's raining." Tsugatsu suddenly felt a drop of water fall on his head.

Nagasawa looked at the sky. The sunny day suddenly got cloudy, and rain began to fall from the sky.

The real Nagasawa could've cleared the sky with one slash, but it might be too much for a Shadow Clone.

"Let's take shelter at the village ahead," Nagasawa said.

When the villagers saw Nagasawa's burly physique, they did not want Nagasawa and the other two men with him to enter the village at first. However, they didn't think they could win against Nagasawa, so they let Nagasawa and the other two in.

"It sure rains a lot in Amegakure. The sky was clear a second ago, but it suddenly rains." Musashi complained.

This was the first time he left the Land of Iron. 

That was just how Land of Iron's residents were, as samurais did not want to meddle with Shinobi's business.

After all, their position as the main military force was replaced by Shinobi. It was impossible for a warrior to like Shinobi. Not to mention that Shinobi did not believe it, even the warrior himself did not believe it.

All Samurais in the world had to band together and create the Land of Iron to survive in this world full of Shinobi.

That was also why Land of Iron was a neutral country. It did not want to wage war aganist any country, nor did it have any attention to allying with any country. It was an anomaly among all the countries in the Shinobi world.

In addition, the Land of Iron was not weak, and the climate there made the whole Land of Iron often covered by heavy snow. Shinobi Countries agreed never to lay a hand on the Land of Iron as long as it remained neutral.

Land of Iron's Samurais didn't feel like going to other countries because they could feel that their era was long gone the moment they left Land of Iron.

They preferred to stay in the Land of Iron. At least everything there hadn't changed.

Musashi probably would have stayed in the Land of Iron as well if he hadn't gotten lost by chance.

"It's called Amegakure for a reason," Tsugatsu added.

He had never been to Amegakure before because Amegakure did not welcome merchants, so he naturally could not come here to do business.

Clang!

Suddenly, the tightly closed door was kicked open.

Two Amegakure Shinobi wearing raincoats and rebreathers walked in and asked, "Have you seen any suspicious people recently?"

The villagers timidly pointed their fingers at Nagasawa and the other two before distancing themselves from Nagasawa.

The two Amegakure Shinobi then looked at Nagasawa and the other two, then took out a few portraits, and after comparing them, they found that they were not the people they were looking for.

"They don't look like they're from Amegakure in the first place, but they may be a spy. Let's capture them while we're at it." One of the Shinobi suggested.

Today, their boss looked annoyed. If they did not give any results, it might be hard to go back.

Although they did not manage to find the so-called Akatsuki, capturing another village's spy might not be so bad.

Perhaps, these three were actually members of Akatsuki. After all, what they had were only the leaders of Akatsuki. These three might just be ordinary members.

"Yes." One of the Amegakure nodded and felt that his companion made a fair point.

"This world is really full of corrupt people. I didn't expect to meet them again so soon after leaving the Land of Grass." Seeing that the two Amegakure Shinobi were about to attack, Tsugatsu assumed his offensive stance.

He had Tsuyoshi Inoue, and partly because of his social class, he had not witnessed too much corrupt things.

However, after following Nagasawa, he saw all kinds of things.

The local officials collecting absurdly high taxes, the military forces robbing people on the street...

The Land of Grass was rotten to the core.

"Pops, leave this kind of trash to me. You don't have to do anything. Tsugatsu, you stay out of this, too. It may be a bit difficult for you to deal with Shinobi after just a month of training.

After saying that, Musashi pulled out his two swords, and his eyes were full of fighting spirit.

He had never fought with Amegakure's Shinobi.

Although Tsugatsu was a little reluctant, he also knew that his strength was indeed not enough. He might be a burden in a battle, so he took a step back.