"It's not that I'm sentimental… just that certain things stir old memories.
Now that I've come back from retirement, everyone from my era is basically dead.
I didn't expect to stumble upon something Byakuren left behind here in the Land of Water."
Garp pressed down the thoughts rising in his chest. Then he glanced at Orochimaru.
Noticing the faint heat flickering deep in those serpentine eyes, he couldn't help but show a trace of amusement.
"You want it?"
Garp lifted the shattered, battered sword, Kabutowari, in his hand.
"I want it!"
Orochimaru had originally intended to say he didn't, but the moment he remembered the existence of Observation Haki, he immediately crushed that tiny scheme and nodded honestly.
The legendary Observation Haki.
Not only was it recorded in the Uchiha clan's archives, Konoha's upper echelon had records of it as well.
As a candidate for Fourth Hokage, he knew very clearly that trying to lie in front of the Iron Fist who possessed Observation Haki was an act of extreme stupidity.
"If you want it, take it."
Hearing that, Garp's smile grew even more teasing.
"This… Lord Garp, you're really giving it to me?"
The moment Orochimaru caught the Kabutowari Garp casually tossed toward him, his expression froze.
His grandfather's surname definitely wasn't Senju, he wasn't Hashirama!
If Tsunade were the one asking for a ninja blade, Orochimaru wouldn't be surprised at all if Garp handed it over.
But this enormous pie suddenly falling on his head? His first reaction was shock, thinking he'd fallen into a genjutsu, his second reaction was, there must be a conspiracy.
After all, to Garp, the Seven Ninja Swords were indeed useless, practically children's toys.
But after witnessing the strength shown earlier by the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, forget Orochimaru, even Fugaku and Shisui, who usually treasured nothing but their Sharingan, were staring at those swords with burning eyes.
But since these seven swords were Garp's spoils of war, they had chosen to say nothing.
"If it's not enough, take that pile of toys on the ground too, however many you think you can handle."
Garp's smile was pleasant as he looked at Orochimaru.
"…"
Already full of suspicion, Orochimaru looked toward Garp again.
And instantly, those eyes stared straight back at him.
"These swords, no, not just this one, all seven cannot be taken…"
Those eyes made Orochimaru's heart pound.
He couldn't sense exactly what was wrong, but both instinct and reason screamed that something was off about these swords.
Thinking of this, he clenched his teeth, and with a decisive motion, slammed the Kabutowari back into the ground.
"Haven't researched Edo Tensei yet, but your soul's still complete enough to restrain greed, huh?"
Garp took in Orochimaru's self-control and chuckled inwardly.
If it were Orochimaru after his first rebirth, that would be another matter.
A damaged soul didn't only reduce resistance to genjutsu, it also affected the mind.
"Uncle Garp, if Orochimaru really took those seven swords, what would've happened?"
Tsunade had watched Orochimaru abandon Kabutowari without hesitation and couldn't help asking.
"Nothing much, just that the Sannin would be down to two."
As soon as Garp said this, both of them blanched.
Especially Orochimaru, who felt a wave of lingering fear.
He knew it, his grandfather's surname was definitely not Senju.
"That serious?"
Tsunade's expression stiffened slightly.
Just earlier, she'd been considering asking Uncle Garp for one of the swords to play around with once the war ended.
"Do you really think Byakuren left those seven swords behind to bless the future generations of Kirigakure?"
Garp's voice chilled.
"Isn't that the case?
He was the First Mizukage, founder of the Hidden Mist, after all…"
Tsunade muttered, while Orochimaru beside her looked thoughtful.
"Think about what Kirigakure is called. Think about how those seven brats introduced themselves just now.
And think about why I threw him into the Land of Water to be swallowed by mist in the first place."
Garp enunciated every syllable.
"The Village of the Bloody Mist!"
"We are the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist! The most ruthless, cold-blooded, and cunning shinobi in all of Kirigakure!"
"It's said the First Mizukage didn't want the Warring States Era to end, he wanted the shinobi world to remain engulfed in endless war, so you threw him to the remote Land of Water."
Tsunade and Orochimaru answered after a brief moment of thought.
"No, the most ruthless, cold-blooded, cunning Mist-nin in all of Kirigakure isn't the Seven Swordsmen, it's the First Mizukage Byakuren!"
Suddenly, Shikaku exclaimed sharply from the side.
"When it comes to inherited intelligence, the Nara clan really is rock-solid."
Garp heard Shikaku's analysis and shot him a look of approval.
Though Tsunade, Orochimaru, and the others had sensed something was wrong and even guessed parts of it, only Shikaku hit the mark with one sentence, pointing straight to the heart of the problem.
"According to Shikaku's reasoning, these seven swords weren't left by the First Mizukage for this generation of Swordsmen at all, they weren't intended to be used against Lord Garp!"
Fugaku's face darkened.
A chill ran through every Konoha shinobi.
In that moment, each of them seemed to see a terrifying mastermind, stretching a hand from the past era all the way into the current age of villages.
"The seven swords were indeed meant to deal with me, but leaving them for this generation? That's… not necessarily the case."
As Garp's meaningful words faded, Tsunade, Orochimaru, and the others glanced at the scattered swords on the ground.
Moments earlier, after witnessing the overwhelming strength of the Seven Swordsmen, every single person had gazed at those swords with burning desire.
But now, when they looked again at the seven Ninja Swords, they were staring as though beholding a pack of deadly beasts.
.........
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