Journey of Desires

The Snow Country of Iron is located next to the country of rice fields, the most unusual place in this country is a very unusual mountain, outwardly it is very similar to three heads of an animal, and even has the name "Three Wolves".

A few kilometers from this mountain there are a couple of cities on different sides, and one of them is the capital of the country of metal, also this country is very unusual in that there are no Ninjas or Daimyo, the military here are samurai, and the ruler of the country is the General, or Shogun.

Kilia and Naruko were now sitting in the teahouse of the capital of the country of Metal; oddly enough, they had been in this country for quite a long time; two months had passed since they left Orochimaru, during which time they had walked around a third of the entire country of Metal, and they had been living in the capital for the third week.

Ban and Hikari are to blame for everything, it is clear why Ban wants to visit as many places in this country as possible, samurai rule here, and Ban is a fan of these warriors, and he loves cold weapons, and during this time he arranged a dozen battles where he compared his skills with the samurai.

The results of these fights were 9 wins and 1 loss, in order for the fights to be fair, Ban did not use Kusanagi and his old swords, and his weapon was the first Katana that he came across, which he bought upon arrival in the Land of Iron.

Ban is not used to such weapons, and for him, a katana is frankly a bad weapon, too small a blade for his height, with his habits when he fought using a Nodachi more than 2 meters long, a katana half as small is extremely inconvenient.

- Brrr, well, it's cold ... And why does Hikari like this weather so much??? Why am I the only one who suffers from the local climate?

The brother and sister do not pay attention to the weather in this country, thanks to their resistances they are not afraid of either heat or cold, after five seconds of climate change they get used to it and do not pay any attention to the cold.

Naruko does not have such a feature, and feels the icy wind of the country of iron with all its might, a huge part of the territory borders the ocean, and therefore the country has constant icy air that penetrates to the very bones, Naruko, who is not accustomed to cold weather, felt such temperatures very vividly.

And considering Naruko's reaction, Hikari's reaction to the same situation became a huge necessity... She liked it, for some reason low temperatures, cold air and wind that makes ears and nose turn red were very pleasant to her, and during these two months, at every opportunity, she left the houses and rooms where they stayed to walk outside.

- You should have asked Orochimaru to put warming fuin on you, I saw that such exist, but... And finally learn to warm up with chakra!

- I can't do it! I don't want to spend points from leveling up on control, and without it it doesn't work, when I learn to walk on water, then control should be enough.

- Remind me, why did you even decide that ignoring control without developing it and without spending points is a good idea?

This question was accompanied by an extremely condemning look, which literally screamed that Naruko chose the wrong path, if she had stayed in the village, she would have graduated from the academy in seven months, and until now her control is only enough to walk on walls, but Naruto is not an ordinary Shinobi, she remembers her past life and has a system. No, having more than five hundred points in strength and more than six in speed is certainly useful, but Kilia still thinks that spending money on control would be much more useful.

In response to the question, she saw only an embarrassed look from the blonde, after which Naruko fell silent and began to drink warm tea.

Meanwhile, while Naruko and Kilia were in the city, the remaining Ban and Hikari were in a clearing near the city.

***

Hikari stood near a tree at the edge of a clearing, and next to her stood several samurai of the land of iron, and all of them were busy carefully watching the scene that unfolded before their eyes.

Namely, in the clearing a hundred meters ahead stood two people, one of them was Ban, a man with whom Hikari had been traveling for quite a long time, and the second person was an old man with a head wrapped in bandages, who was dressed in armor and always and everywhere carried a katana with him.

- Are you sure? Why did you ask me to fight at full strength, I have no desire to kill you...

The day before yesterday, Ban carried out one assignment during which he saved a child, and the child was not an ordinary one but a half-orphan, whose father was a deceased samurai who gave his life saving his comrades, and thanks to him, instead of potential thirty deaths, only his name was added to the list of the dead.

Mifune, as a sign of respect, gave the samurai's child and wife a great house and a monthly allowance, but recently the samurai's son took offense at one of his friends, which is why he ran away from the city and then got lost. Ban found him and as a form of gratitude for saving the hero's son, the General of the Land of Iron told him that he could ask for whatever he wanted, within reasonable limits of course, and Ban's wish was to fight Mifune, and for this old samurai to fight at full strength. Mifune was surprised by such a request, but still agreed, and now they were in a clearing, the weather was calm and one could even say warm for this region, the wind was very weak, and there were almost no clouds.

- Of course! Mifune-dono, I understand why you are worried, but I think I should show you something first.

Taking out the katana he bought at the beginning of his stay in the Land of Iron, Ban pointed the blade at his left hand, and cut off his hand in one motion.

Mifune and the samurai who were watching this were not surprised, they were in real shock, after all, for samurai, the sight of a person cutting off his own limb, and then having it grow back in a matter of seconds, is very unusual.

The demonstration did not take long, and when the hand grew back, Ban twirled the hand, demonstrating that everything was fine with him, after which he picked up the hand that was lying in the snow and covered it with distortions, it disappeared.

- See? Even if you kill me, I will not die, so show me the power of the samurai of the Land of Iron!

Ban holding the katana in his right hand made a dash towards Mifune, the samurai was able to recover from the shock quite quickly and at the beginning of the dash Ban took a stance where his hand was on the hilt of the katana, and a second later when Ban approached, Mifune made a single dash in the Iaido style.

- Damn! But I like it!

Ban said this phrase standing with one hand, Mifune cut off Ban's hand with one blow and deprived him of a weapon, after which he turned to see how he takes the katana in his restored hand, and again took the severed limb with distortions.

Making another dash, he saw how the old samurai repeated his previous action, but this time Ban did not continue to move, but tried to block the blow, thanks to his enormous indicators he was still able to reflect this blow.

- Not bad.

Few can reflect Iaido techniques performed by Mifune, and seeing that the blue-haired man in front of him was able to do it, the old man decided to praise him.

The next moment the battle continued: Dash, strike, block, dash, strike, block. This scene was repeated four times, and after the last one Ban began to reflect Mifune's strikes with full confidence in his actions.

But.

Here a problem arose, after the last strike Mifune stopped and pointed at the katana in Ban's hands, and looking at his sword he saw that the purchased katana was covered in cracks, one or two more blocks and it would break.

The reaction to the breakage of his weapon was not the emotion that Mifune expected to see, Ban began to smile and put the katana away in distortion, after which the Kusanagi blade received from Orochimaru appeared next to him.

At first glance Mifune realized that this sword was very unusual and became more serious, seeing that Ban took a stance he made a dash.

This time the dance of the two swordsmen lasted a little longer, Mifune never got hurt, and was not even close to being attacked by Ban.

Ban managed to lose his arm six times, was cut in half once, and once lost his head.

This kind of difficulty of the battle was very pleasant for Ban, the Land of Iron became a continuous source of joy for him, and it was not for nothing that he wanted to visit it in the first place. But Mifune was in a completely different mood, having broken the distance, he still decided to splash out his thoughts.

- This weapon does not suit you, when fighting you, it feels like you do not have enough length, you should buy a blade that suits you better.

- Oh, did you notice?! Don't worry, I have a suitable weapon, I just wanted to see what I can do with this sword.

Deciding that it was enough to break the comedy, Ban put away Kusanagi and extended his hand to the right, and then from the distortions appeared a huge sword, Nodachi, more than two meters long, which was just a little short of Ban's height.

At first glance, Mifune could see how his opponent had gained a huge amount of confidence by picking up Nodachi, considering that even with an unsuitable weapon, Ban could hold his own against Mifune for several seconds without getting hurt... Mifune became completely serious, and the samurai, seeing the mood of their ruler, admired and began to watch intently.

This time, Bar did not make a dash, he began to calmly approach, and when he was at a distance of three meters, he struck, the length of his arms as well as the length of the katana itself allows him to strike from a huge distance, Mifune, whose range of defeat is half that, had to retreat from Ban's attacks, constantly blocking the blows of the nodachi.

A similar scene continued longer than their previous exchange of blows, but this time Ban was already pressing the enemy, and although he did not manage to wound Mifune, he himself did not receive any wounds or even counterattacks.

Tired of this, Mifune increased the distance with a large bounce, and then his sword glowed with chakra, after which slashes of chakra flew at Ban.

But Ban's reaction made the old samurai only sigh in annoyance.

Ban's Nodachi was unusual, just like Meliodas' sword that allowed him to duplicate himself, or Rita Escanor's axe that accumulates energy and restrains Escanor's power, all three of Ban's weapons have unique features.

Nodachi has the property of an anti-magic barrier, usually magic cannot be used in such barriers, but in this situation, such magic was applied to the blade of the sword, and when this blade touches energy attacks or barriers, it has the property of reducing the power of these energy attacks and barriers to zero, destroying them. As a result, Mifune's slashes were simply destroyed by Ban's Nodachi's counters.

Realizing that such attacks were useless, Mifune began to close the distance and began exchanging blows, this time they were exchanging blows at the same level of skill, and this exchange lasted much longer than the entire previous battle put together, it was clear that both opponents were simply enjoying the opportunity for an equal fight.

But everything comes to an end, and at one point deciding that it was time to finish, Mifune took the Iaido stance, and Ban prepared for a blow, a moment later the sound of grinding metal was heard and then the scene appeared to the observers.

The huge blade of the Nodachi was located slightly to the left of Mifune's neck, and if Ban wanted, he could decapitate him with just one small impact on the Nodachi.

- Ha! I won!

In response, he saw Mifune nod his head, as if to say look down, where Ban noticed how Mifune's katana was centimeters from Ban's neck, but Ban's mood did not spoil at all and he continued.

- I won't die from such wounds, but you will, heh-heh.

This time Mifune accepted defeat and bowed and expressed respect for Ban's swordsmanship, after which they both turned towards the audience and walked towards them. The samurai discussed what they saw and admired their skill level.

When Ban approached the entire company that was watching them, he heard a request from Hikari.

- Ban...

- Mmm?

- Teach me swordsmanship... please!