"This is your reward."
Early the next morning, Dodai came to see Tamura Zairo. The moment they met, he launched into a long speech, expressing the village's gratitude and praise on its behalf.
"You exposed the spies hidden within the village and recovered one billion ryō in village assets. That money was meant for procuring supplies—if it had been lost, the damage to the village would have been enormous…"
As he spoke, Dodai handed over one million ryō as a bonus, along with the record of an S-rank mission.
He also mentioned that a powerful jōnin would be arranged to personally guide him.
Tamura Zairo was briefly stunned, but he quickly reacted.
This was clearly the Third Raikage's arrangement—turning yesterday's events and the future plans for him into something reasonable and presentable on the surface.
"Thank you for Lord Raikage's and Lord Dodai's praise and reward. These are things I should do as a member of Kumogakure. If I discover similar spies in the future, I will definitely not let them go!"
Tamura Zairo declared solemnly.
As a thoroughly upright and deeply rooted Kumogakure shinobi, Tamura Zairo was absolutely incompatible with spies!
"Your loyalty is commendable. However, such matters are extremely dangerous. You must act within your limits. Those spies are very dangerous—if you discover anything in the future, you must report it immediately and not act so recklessly again."
Dodai was very satisfied with Tamura Zairo's response and offered a reminder.
"I understand. I won't act rashly again."
Tamura Zairo accepted the advice obediently.
After offering a few more words of encouragement, Dodai finally took his leave. Tamura Zairo calmly swept his gaze over the surroundings, then closed the door.
He knew that Dodai's actions just now had been partly for show.
As someone who had once been planted by Shimura Danzō, it was very possible that he was still under surveillance.
Given his current strength and status, he wasn't qualified to contact Danzō directly—only a handler.
That handler had originally been the old man. After the old man died, contact was severed. But Danzō would definitely send someone to reestablish contact—especially now that Tamura Zairo had demonstrated his value.
"A powerful jōnin…"
Sitting on the sofa, Tamura Zairo pondered Dodai's earlier words.
His plan had gone extremely well. He had successfully secured a jōnin to personally guide him. The only uncertainty was who it would be.
"It probably won't be Yondaime A. His strength is impressive, but he isn't skilled in swordsmanship—he wouldn't be suitable to teach me. But there are too many people in the village who use blades. Almost everyone carries a ninja sword. It's hard to guess."
After thinking for a long while, Tamura Zairo still had no clear answer.
The only thing he could be sure of was that the person would be someone the Third Raikage deeply trusted. His identity was simply too sensitive—without a trusted confidant watching over him, even the Raikage wouldn't feel at ease.
Additionally, that person would definitely be skilled in swordsmanship.
Tamura Zairo valued swordsmanship highly and believed in its future potential.
Because his ultimate enemies would inevitably be the Ōtsutsuki clan.
Against beings like that, ninjutsu only served to recharge them. Genjutsu was outright useless.
Only taijutsu and blade techniques could truly injure them.
That was why training in taijutsu and swordsmanship was essential—these were the combat methods that could be relied on until the very end.
"Cultivate!"
Since he couldn't figure it out, Tamura Zairo stopped thinking about it.
He walked over to his desk and extended two chakra threads from his fingers, wrapping them around two steel pens and rapidly writing on the manuscript paper.
This was his writing method—and also a way to train chakra control, as well as practice multitasking.
Ever since mastering chakra threads, he had used this method for both training and writing.
Whenever his body was exhausted from physical training, he would write like this. Controlling chakra threads didn't require bodily movement, after all.
And in half a month, it would be time to graduate.
After that, he would begin training under his assigned jōnin. He needed to prepare several months' worth of manuscripts in advance so he could fully focus on cultivation later.
More importantly, cultivation itself took priority.
He needed to quickly gain full control over his purified chakra and maximize the advantage it gave him.
Improved chakra control brought many benefits.
Even without using ninjutsu, it enabled advanced techniques—such as the so-called monstrous strength.
Strictly speaking, monstrous strength wasn't a technique at all, but a chakra-control application—just like tree-climbing or water-walking.
And even monstrous strength had two distinct forms.
One was using extremely precise chakra control to reinforce the body, gaining explosive physical power.
This was a major reason ninja could move at high speed and leap incredible distances—it was essentially part of taijutsu.
The other was releasing chakra outward in a violent burst, causing earth-shattering destruction.
Tsunade's Heavenly Kick of Pain and Sakura's Cherry Blossom Impact were examples of this type—or rather, a combination of external chakra release and physical power stimulation.
Otherwise, pure physical strength alone would only create a hole in the ground, not shatter a wide area.
Tamura Zairo focused on the first type—enhancing bodily explosive power.
His chakra reserves were extremely limited. Using chakra purely for outward bursts would be far too wasteful.
That was precisely why he had devoted himself to swordsmanship—using the blade's sharpness to amplify destructive power and attack range.
If he could further evolve this chakra-burst technique into true monstrous strength, the boost to his combat power would be immense.
While his right hand extended chakra threads to write, Tamura Zairo's left hand held a long miao dao horizontally.
The blade aligned perfectly with his forearm. At the tip of the long blade rested another miao dao of the same design, but slightly shorter—used to train wrist and arm strength.
These were weapons he had commissioned at great expense, forged according to the miao dao style.
They were cast using chakra-conductive metal combined with several rare alloys.
The total cost was four hundred million ryō.
Of that, three hundred and fifty million was for the chakra-conductive metal alone. The remaining metals and forging fees only amounted to fifty million.
One could only say that chakra metal was absurdly expensive—criminally expensive.
In the future, even Sarutobi Asuma's small trench knives would be worth more than his own life. Tamura Zairo's massive miao dao was naturally far worse.
If not for the fortune he had earned over the years, such extravagance would have been impossible.
Thankfully, chakra metal only made up a portion of the blades. Otherwise, forging them entirely from it would have required at least ten major financial goals.
The long miao dao had a blade length of 1.2 meters, a handle of 40 centimeters, and a total length of 1.6 meters—ten centimeters taller than Tamura Zairo himself.
But he was still growing. With chakra stimulation, his height already surpassed that of his peers. He estimated that he would reach at least 1.8 meters in adulthood—perfect for wielding such a long blade.
The short miao dao was only "short" by comparison.
Its blade was 90 centimeters long, the handle 30 centimeters, for a total length of 1.2 meters. It weighed five kilograms.
The long blade weighed ten kilograms.
These were the weapons he had prepared for himself.
He named them Big Meow and Little Meow.
Their weight was heavy, but with his current physique, wielding them posed no problem.
Ninja were often mocked by people from his previous life as being "fragile."
But in reality, their physical strength and explosive power were extremely high.
They were only considered fragile relative to the destructive power of ninjutsu.
Take Rock Lee's constant training weights—those things were no joke.
Or Zabuza, who could swing the Executioner's Blade and still perform Body Flicker Techniques for silent killing. That weapon was undeniably heavy.
Same for Samehada or the Kabutowari. Even the massive blade wielded by the Root ninja who fought young Uchiha Shisui was absurdly large.
So ninja strength was no joke—especially when enhanced by chakra.
Compared to those weapons, Tamura Zairo's two miao dao were actually rather modest.
The reason he favored such long blades was simple.
In combat, greater reach meant greater distance.
Distance gave him reaction time.
Even if an opponent used some obscure ninjutsu or secret technique, that extra distance could be the difference between life and death.
His chakra reserves ensured that he would never become a long-range, spell-slinging powerhouse.
He was destined to walk the path of a warrior.
And if he was going to fight like a warrior—then he had to be wary of every trick a ninja could pull.