After Haseo completed the mass production of Samehada—or more accurately, after he successfully achieved mass production with Orochimaru's assistance—he donated most of these weapons to the village.
See? He still had that sense of turning things over to the state.
The portion of Samehada retained by Haseo initially drew considerable interest. Many Uzumaki ninja tried using them at first because they were "novel," but nowadays, unless absolutely necessary, no one uses those tools anymore—simply put, once the excitement wore off, all that was left were the downsides. Besides, the Uzumaki clan weren't ninja prone to chakra shortages, so naturally they lacked compatibility with Samehada.
On the other hand, although Samehada's characteristics could be considered very convenient in certain respects, for ninja—a specialized combat profession—the threshold for effective usage remained relatively high.
Within Kagenami, probably only Sakumo Hatake could skillfully wield such a massive and heavy weapon. Even Sakumo, however, after losing one Samehada on the battlefield, never bothered replacing it… likely because he felt somewhat ashamed.
So what exactly was the point of going through all the trouble to mass-produce these weapons? Well, actually, not much effort was involved—it was essentially a biological experiment conducted incidentally which surprisingly achieved great success, akin to a smooth delivery following an unplanned pregnancy.
Yet unlike those Samehadas buried away in Kagenami collecting dust, the weapons Haseo donated to the village quickly gained attention. After all, Samehada itself could definitely be considered a powerful ninja tool, and with such large quantities available, Konoha, as a military power, had every reason to make use of them.
Therefore, over the past couple of years, Konoha began cultivating specialized users for Samehada, eventually producing a small group of ninja who emphasized physical strength and mastery of heavy weaponry.
In other words, Konoha had trained a batch of especially strong, bulky "Berserker"-type ninja.
Kisame-style Samehada wielders were rare treasures indeed. To reach such a level of proficiency required tremendous natural talent and extensive training. Yet conversely, thanks precisely to this advantage of "mass production," this unit could afford to adopt a brute-force, overpowering approach. When they charged into battle together, their combined force far surpassed what any single unit could deliver.
"The Seven Swordsmen of the Cloud" seemed to be more than just talk now—they truly had become a real force on the battlefield.
Thus, when Haseo and his companions arrived at the battlefield, they witnessed precisely this totally over-the-top spectacle.
A bunch of beefy bros dragging massive blades back and forth across the field—any way you looked at it, this exuded vibes unmistakably reminiscent of Kumo.
Nonetheless, regardless of origins, the scene before them certainly qualified as a pleasing sight to behold—large-framed ninja naturally evoked greater feelings of security. At least they didn't seem so "squishy"; high HP clearly provided better survivability compared to being frail.
The battle should have been moving at an extremely fast pace. In theory, this squad had just left the Konoha front-line camp not long before Haseo and his group departed, yet when they arrived at the battlefield, they barely caught the tail end of the fight.
In fact, there was no real need for them to take action at all.
A large number of Samehada users, supported by a small number of standard ninja, had formed a force of about a hundred fighters strong, and together they had managed to defeat a similar number of enemies relatively easily.
Although such a result was largely due to the "debut effect" and the initial shock factor—since Sunagakure probably had no intelligence or preparation for this style of combat in advance—it was still undeniable that, based solely on the outcome of this battle, the Samehada Large Squad could be considered excellent.
You could call it the classic case of "my style beats your style."
"Do you see?" he said. "This is exactly the kind of combat effectiveness I was hoping for. That's why I asked you to start cloning the Samehada in the first place. Although I didn't know beforehand that Konoha had completed their training and deployed them into actual combat for the first time, I can confidently say the result of this battle was already within my expectations.
Orochimaru, don't doubt it—this victory belongs to both you and me."
Granted, Haseo had no idea what was going on just moments ago—not to mention he'd practically forgotten all about the Samehada—yet none of that stopped him from taking credit for it the very next second.
It was clearly more of a happy accident than any calculated plan, yet Haseo still managed to carry himself afterward as if he had possessed extraordinary foresight… one could only say, truly worthy of him.
"Enough talk already—go help out, will you!"
Obviously, that wasn't Orochimaru talking.
Technically speaking, even if they went to "help," there wasn't much for warriors like Haseo and Orochimaru to actually do—the only real work left would fall to Tsunade. Whenever a conflict reached a certain scale, even if the victory was overwhelming, there were always casualties and deaths on their side to deal with.
What? The Flying Thunder God technique could instantly wipe out large enemy groups in one go?
But now they were engaged in a balanced battle, plus… no one on-site could even use the Flying Thunder God anyway (?).
While Tsunade was busy treating the wounded, Haseo approached the team leader who had led this unit into the attack—the leader was a man who always seemed to end up on the losing side.
"Jiraiya, how does it feel?"
Indeed, Jiraiya was also playing around with the Samehada now, and he genuinely could handle such heavy weaponry—given his body size, in theory, he might even be able to wield it quite well.
"Haseo, are you officially allowed to leave Konoha now?"
The way he put it made it sound as if Haseo had previously been chained down in Konoha, fully expressing Jiraiya's surprise at seeing Haseo show up unexpectedly on the battlefield.
Yet this emotion disappeared quickly; Jiraiya knew why Haseo had appeared on the battlefield, and he'd actually been thinking about the same question himself just moments ago, so he continued, "It's bold, but maybe too reckless. However, there's no denying that in the right situations, this squad can truly make a difference."
The Samehada Large Squad is now being deployed for the first time, and figuring out how to maximize its potential will take real combat experience moving forward—it's more than just a close-combat weapon. By absorbing chakra and then feeding it back to its user, this unit can even launch large-scale area-coverage ninja attacks.
"Hmm, that attack performed rather well," Haseo remarked.
"Yeah, being able to win quickly means we can withdraw from the battlefield quickly too, eliminating other unexpected variables."
Saying this, Jiraiya had already begun organizing the team's withdrawal.
Haseo was somewhat puzzled—after all, Konoha had won, so why the rush?
As if reading Haseo's expression, Jiraiya explained, "Haseo, the fighting tempo here in the Land of Rain is extremely tight, and the enemy reacts unusually fast. Although we won, Sunagakure will definitely retaliate immediately—and on a larger scale. Iwagakure and Amegakure will also respond accordingly…I don't want this prototype unit running into any major trouble.
"The chaotic warfare situation here in the Land of Rain is different from those step-by-step battles we saw previously along the Eastern Front.
"Or maybe you've been cooped up in Konoha too long for your mind to stay sharp for war?"
Whether real or imagined, Haseo thought he detected a hint of resentment and even a trace of jealousy in Jiraiya's tone.
"Come on! I, Haseo Yu, have always worked hard in Konoha as well, laboring myself to exhaustion. In the midst of The Great Ninja World War, do you really think anyone could afford to lose themselves in a life of ease and indulgence?"
That's impossible!
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