"Pull them out."
"Only those who receive their recognition are qualified to wield them."
The air within the tent solidified little by little after Jiraiya uttered those words.
"You mean..." someone said, their voice dry, "the weapons choose us, not us choosing the weapons?"
"Yes, they have souls. In a sense, they are alive."
"Right now, every word we speak, every action we take, might be under their gaze."
Jiraiya nodded, then couldn't help but sigh with emotion, "It's truly unimaginable how powerful the forging techniques of the person who crafted these seven swords must be..."
Upon hearing this, seemingly sensing the scrutiny of those seven gazes more acutely, many people present felt their bodies stiffen slightly. The ability to grant inanimate weapons their own life—this level of sword-forging artistry was beyond comprehension. No master smith in the shinobi world could even hope to rival it.
The Kusanagi Sword once represented the pinnacle of ninja tool forging techniques. How much power could living weapons with "souls" possess?
At this thought, those seven faint "heartbeats," like drumbeats, gradually pounded against everyone's mental defenses, accelerating their heart rates.
[Ding! Your lie has been judged as [Deceiving the World and Stealing Fame][Fishing for Compliments]. Jiraiya, Kakashi Hatake, Hyuga Kawa, and others have experienced emotional fluctuations, reaching the level of [Yearning in their Hearts]. You have gained 3000 Actualization Points.]
[Remaining Actualization Points: 10235]
Hyuga Kawa quietly watched this scene, not surprised by the appearance of his name. This was precisely the effect he desired. In fact, what were initially just seven chakra weapons with built-in ninjutsu were later enhanced by him with additional points. Making such a choice was not easy for him, but he needed to use the owners of this set of Seven Deadly Sins to make a name for the so-called "Otsutsuki Yunshi."
Now that his lies were increasing, his daily inflow of points was considerable, and he naturally understood the importance of continuous development. Therefore, he couldn't let these seven swords be mediocre, unlike the Seven Ninja Swordsmen's blades, which almost became mere background props in the later stages where powerful individuals were flying everywhere.
So, Hyuga Kawa conducted an experiment.
Growth potential.
He wanted to bestow growth potential upon these seven swords, allowing them to grow stronger due to certain factors. Hyuga Kawa selected seven of the most special "souls" from his collection and sealed them within the seven swords. They would choose the most suitable master based on their individual characteristics.
Similar to Hidan's "Scythe of the Four-Bladed Scythe," they could also absorb the souls of the deceased through killing. Most of these souls would still belong to Hyuga Kawa. However, the only difference between the Seven Deadly Sins and "Scythe of the Four-Bladed Scythe" was that the portion of souls absorbed through killing would not feedback to the master, but would instead be used to enhance the souls within the swords.
At the same time, the master must also offer their own mental energy to feed and nurture the souls within the swords, thereby allowing their swords to possess unique abilities. Each sword's ability would be perfectly suited to its master, and the potential and future of each sword were unknown.
So at this moment, even Hyuga Kawa himself didn't know the specific abilities of these seven swords, or even if he could pull them out. He was simply looking forward to it, delighted by this unknown, anticipating it from the bottom of his heart.
Hidan alone brought him a full 3000 points. Now, the dozen or so people present brought him another 3000 points. Including the more than nine thousand he had before, he should have had over fifteen thousand. Now he only had a little over ten thousand, meaning he had bet five thousand points on the future.
"Who wants to go first?"
Jiraiya broke the brief silence. Everyone looked at each other, seeing the eagerness in each other's eyes.
"Let me go first."
The Akimichi clan's jōnin was the first to give in to his curiosity and desire. He took a deep breath, stepped forward, his gaze fixed heatedly on the sword named "Gluttony."
Jiraiya nodded from the side, approving the Akimichi jōnin's choice. Without a doubt, the Akimichi clan was the most fitting for the meaning of "Gluttony." Everyone else thought so too, expecting him to set a good precedent.
The Akimichi jōnin reached out and gripped the hilt of the eight-sided sword. His thick arm muscles tensed and bulged as he tried to pull the sword from its scabbard.
Click, click!
The physical strength of an Akimichi jōnin was enough to pull an adult's head clean off, but at this moment, the sword didn't budge at all.
"Ugh!!"
The Akimichi jōnin's face was flushed from exertion, yet the sword remained absolutely still in its scabbard.
"How is that possible?"
Everyone looked on in disbelief. The Yamanaka clan's jōnin couldn't help but exclaim, "Hey, Shito, are you playing a joke on us?" This guy, even within the Akimichi clan, was one of the strongest, second to none. Besides the Akimichi clan's secret techniques, his specialty was staff fighting.
"Bullshit!"
Akimichi Shito couldn't help but curse, raising his hand to form a hand seal and directly using the Partial Expansion Jutsu, but the sword still showed no movement. The strength enough to pull the entire sword box seemed to mysteriously disappear, like a mud ox entering the sea.
"Pfft!"
Hearing someone laugh from behind, Akimichi Shito immediately deflated, his face red as he turned to the others and said indignantly, "Don't laugh! You guys try!"
"I'll go."
The Nara clan's jōnin volunteered, but he didn't choose "Gluttony" that was in front of Akimichi Shito. Instead, he chose the blade named "Sloth." Compared to "Gluttony," which was an eight-sided sword, "Sloth," a broad-bladed greatsword, was clearly heavier. Yet, when the Nara jōnin gripped it and exerted only a slight force, the broad-bladed greatsword made a sound.
Click, click...
Everyone's eyes immediately widened, but soon, the Nara jōnin released his grip.
"Why aren't you continuing?" Akimichi Shito asked the question everyone wanted to ask.
The Nara jōnin stepped back, deeply eyeing the sword "Sloth," then shook his head and stated directly, "It rejected me."
Having said that, he turned to Jiraiya, who understood his meaning and nodded, "I tried to pull 'Lust,' and I failed too."
"And, I did even worse than you. Like Shito, I couldn't budge it at all."
"Is that so?" The Nara jōnin frowned thoughtfully. "Their names don't seem to be simple literal meanings."
"Otherwise, with Jiraiya-sensei's habit of secretly visiting FUNFUN Street every week, he should be the most suitable candidate for the name 'Lust'..."
Slap!
Before he could finish his sentence, Jiraiya gave him an exasperated pat on the head, interrupting him grumpily, "You talk too much. Are you pulling it or not? If not, get out."
"Pulling, of course pulling. I'll try the others."
The Nara jōnin chuckled, rubbing his head. Like the persistent Akimichi Shito, he went to try the other six swords. The results were all the same. He didn't even fare as well as with the "Sloth" from earlier.
The only noteworthy thing was that when Akimichi Shito made his final attempt to pull "Wrath," it also produced a slight tremor, similar to what the Nara jōnin had experienced earlier. But after that, no matter how hard he pulled, "Wrath" no longer responded.
"At least it proves that they do need to match the names of these seven swords, not the opposite," the Nara clan's jōnin concluded.
The two failures did not extinguish the fire in everyone's hearts. Instead, a hint of belligerence arose within them. So, people successively stepped forward to try, but the best result obtained was merely a low hum, similar to mockery, before the swords once again fell silent.
The jōnin looked at "Pride" before him, his body trembling from sheer frustration. The others were the same. They gave up dejectedly, their cheeks twitching, their faces ashen. Even Kakashi secretly tried "Sloth" and "Lust," and when he pulled "Lust," it emitted a noticeable low hum. Although he ultimately failed, the strange looks Jiraiya and the others cast at him still made Kakashi's face darken.
"..."
Successive failures, like cold tides, washed away the initially high spirits within the tent. An atmosphere of frustration and deeper reverence pervaded the air. The seven swords stood silently in their scabbards, their blades shimmering with cold light, exuding an inviolable, pristine aura, as if mocking their overestimation of themselves. They seemed to silently declare to everyone present:
You? You're not worthy.
For a time, everyone present fell silent.
Seeing this, Jiraiya's brow gradually furrowed, a gloomy feeling in his heart. His original intention was to boost everyone's confidence before the mission. One must know that everyone present was at least a Special Jōnin, among the top ranks of Konoha, and even the shinobi world. Yet, he hadn't expected even they wouldn't receive recognition. The requirements of these seven swords were perhaps too strict?
"Jiraiya-sama."
Just then, Hyuga Kawa suddenly spoke, breaking the deathly silence.
"Would you like to try the other six swords?" he asked.
Hearing this, Jiraiya didn't answer. He knew that if he failed again, it would likely be an even greater blow to the others, which was why he hadn't continued trying. But looking at Hyuga Kawa's calm eyes, Jiraiya couldn't help but narrow his own slightly, asking seriously, "Which one do you think I should try to pull out?"
"Sloth," Hyuga Kawa softly replied.
Sloth? Why Sloth? Many of those present frowned, looking at Hyuga Kawa in confusion. In their view, Jiraiya, a shinobi who had risen step by step from a commoner to one of the Sannin, had absolutely nothing to do with "Sloth." Although they had just been teasing Jiraiya about being lecherous, everyone present understood that even when he was visiting the pleasure district, he would be collecting intelligence and developing spies. How could such a person be "slothful"?
"..."
Jiraiya said nothing, merely gripped "Sloth" under everyone's gaze.
Hum!
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