"That guy from Gato sent people to control all the nearby waterways!"
"Not only can we not do the ferry business, we have to pay him a toll even if we take our own boat out."
"It's too much!"
"Well, if I still sell fish at the original price, once I count travel expenses and Gato's tolls, I won't just fail to make money—I'll be losing money. But if I raise the price, no one will buy my fish at all…"
The Gato Shipping Company, which had been suspended for a long time after the death ship incident, had started operating again.
This time, it was clearly well prepared.
As soon as it restarted, Gato Shipping completely took over all the shipping routes in the Land of Waves, turning the whole country into a giant pump. With every trip, it sucked away the hard-earned money of more than 50,000 people living on the island.
The Land of Waves was rich in fishery resources. The fishermen's catch was usually sold across the sea to towns and villages in the neighboring Land of Fire, and the money they earned was then used to buy other supplies that were hard to produce on the island.
Now, Gato Shipping had a full monopoly on transport in and out of the Land of Waves and was levying heavy fees on fishermen and merchants. The fish and other goods they carried were no longer competitive in price, and the income of the islanders plummeted.
To starve the Land of Waves and fatten himself—this was Gato's business model.
The people of the Land of Waves were filled with resentment.
Far away from the protests, Neiki Hyuga wasn't particularly concerned that Gato had made his move so early.
If Gato and the newcomers backing him decided to leave the Land of Waves before the end of Neiki's Byakugan weakness period, then the whole matter could be written off.
But if they dared to stay after his eyes recovered…
"Then I'll just do it all over again," Neiki murmured.
"I need a good sword," he said.
"Brother Neiki, that Gato really showed up!"
The girl's voice snapped him out of his thoughts. Seeing that he wasn't reacting, Hanabi Hyuga quickly repeated herself, a little anxious.
"He should have invited them himself," Neiki replied calmly.
He was thinking about his own response, not just to Gato—but to the whole situation.
"Then why did you nail his photo to the planning wall with a kunai?" Hanabi asked, confused.
Neiki didn't answer immediately.
For now, his Byakugan was in a period of weakness after its latest evolution. The omniscient, all-encompassing perspective he had relied on for so long was gone, replaced by darkness and a narrow field of view.
It was like going from using a full map to seeing the world only through a sniper scope.
Stripped of his usual vision, every detail that fell within that narrow scope became sharper, more precise. In this state, Neiki discovered angles and nuances that he had previously ignored.
"Brother Neiki, is this a shell? It's so beautiful!"
Hanabi's delighted voice came from the side of the room, where an aquarium sat quietly.
Inside, a single pearl oyster shell lay on the sand.
"This is a pearl shell," Neiki explained slowly. "If you put a grain of sand inside, it will slowly produce a pearl."
It was the only decoration in the entire room.
For the first time, Hanabi realized that Neiki liked shells at all. In her mind, he had always been nothing but cold calculations and terrifying plans.
During the days when Neiki couldn't use his Byakugan, Hanabi had taken over his reconnaissance work.
With her own Byakugan, it was easy to distinguish ordinary villagers from shinobi. Every day she ran around under the island sun, her small body gradually tanning as she mapped out the ninja presence on the Land of Waves.
"Those two powerful ninjas came to the island recently," she reported one evening. "Are they here to kill Gato?"
"Yeah," Neiki answered absently, still absorbed in his sword practice.
With Hanabi's descriptions and his own knowledge of the "original story," Neiki had already recognized them as the two missing-nin from Kirigakure—the ones who, in that other timeline, had been the bosses of Team 7's first mission:
Zabuza Momochi and Haku.
"That Gato has appeared, Brother Neiki!"
Hanabi ran back into the yard, excited and out of breath.
Led by Kaiza, the local hero of the Land of Waves who had once stood up to repair the dam, the people were gathering at the docks.
Every night, after a day of hard labor, they still took their precious dinnertime to grab torches and march to the doors of Gato Shipping, shouting their protest against Gato's monopoly.
Although Gato had many thugs, this country had never lacked people unafraid of power.
And now, with two powerful missing-nin on the island, the tension hung heavier than ever.
"Brother Neiki, are we going to kill him?" Hanabi lifted her face, eyes serious. "The villagers say he's awful. They can't afford anything."
"When did I say I wanted to kill him?" Neiki asked with a faint smile.
Hanabi hesitated.
"But you nailed his picture to the wall…"
Neiki stepped forward and rested a hand lightly on her head.
"That doesn't mean I want to kill him," he said. "This guy is more useful to me alive than dead."
Hanabi drew out a soft "…Oh—"
In truth, what she wanted to say was that if someone needed to kill Gato, she could try to complete that mission herself.
In the courtyard, the long sword in Neiki's hand sliced through the air, making a low humming sound.
He was practicing his chakra attribute swordsmanship.
After these days of Byakugan weakness, Neiki had suddenly realized that attribute swordsmanship and attribute ninjutsu were actually very different.
Ninjutsu was released directly from the user's body, so there was no residual chakra lingering on a weapon to interfere with the next technique.
But chakra swordsmanship had to be channeled through a blade.
When the same sword was used to perform sword techniques of different chakra attributes one after another, not only would the blade suffer damage, but the power of the next technique would also be reduced by ten to thirty percent depending on the attribute clash.
"The chakra remaining on the sword from the previous technique affects the actual power of the next technique," Neiki murmured.
He thought back to his previous battle, where his sword clone had fought the masked boy.
When the clone tried to unleash Secret Sword: Withering, the long sword suddenly shattered in its hands.
The technique itself hadn't been fully analyzed yet; Neiki hadn't perfected the release method or the exact force required. But it was obvious that using too many different attribute sword techniques on the same blade had pushed it past its limits.
The blade had simply broken.
"Sure enough, I still need the essence of the Byakugan," he thought.
And luckily, he still had a lot of Byakugan essence stored.
As the Byakugan advanced to its final stage and the weakness period slowly passed, Neiki was gradually starting to understand what ability had awakened in that last evolution.
The third stage of his Byakugan came with an astonishing copying ability.
Not just copying chakra circulation patterns or simple taijutsu, but potentially mimicking complex sword techniques and even the subtleties of attribute manipulation—if he observed them clearly enough.
In situations like facing Zabuza, that ability would be invaluable.
"At least when facing enemies on a similar level, chakra attributes are still very important," Neiki reflected.
A divine sword that could withstand all five chakra natures—that was his goal.
Use Fire-style swordsmanship to counter Wind-style ninjutsu, Water-style swordsmanship to counter Fire-style ninjutsu… Just like Hiruzen Sarutobi, the "Professor" of ninjutsu, who had mastered all five basic chakra natures and could suppress most enemies specialized in only one.
That was Neiki's intent when using his Analysis ability to build an entire swordsmanship system for himself.
Being able to swap between sword techniques of different chakra attributes was a huge advantage when facing other shinobi.
(Of course, in the original Naruto world Neiki remembered, attribute advantage had more or less turned into a joke later on—once people started throwing around giant chakra mechs and blowing up landscapes. But here, for now, it still mattered.)
"The problem is the sword," he muttered. "If it keeps breaking, that's no good."
"One option is to prepare a lot of long swords in advance. Then I don't have to worry about the blade snapping. If it breaks, I just switch to a new one."
"Or…"
He pictured it clearly in his mind.
"A single divine sword that can endure all five chakra natures."
"When the weakness period is over," Neiki decided silently, "I have to move immediately."
No one would be allowed to stand in his way.
Not Zabuza and Haku.Not the 50,000 people of the Land of Waves.Not even the faint, leftover morality in Neiki's own heart.
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