When we switch back to Kuroba's view.
Many people were waiting here, eight in total. Because the Land of Waves was so poor, becoming a samurai was a way to get enough food.
They needed to wait for the Samurai Commander, Tamaki Ran, to come out and take them back to the army camp.
Soon after, Tamaki Ran, the Samurai Commander of the Feudal Lord's mansion, came out with four guards. Seeing the people standing there, he said, "Everyone, follow me back to the army camp."
He immediately led the samurai to the camp. The camp was located about 500 meters south of the Feudal Lord's mansion.
When they reached the camp, Tamaki Ran said, "Be on the training ground at 8 AM sharp tomorrow. Now, the guards will take you to your dorms."
After saying that, he went to his own living area, a courtyard about 200 square meters.
Kuroba and the other seven followed the guards to the dorms.
They reached the dorms, where one room housed eight people. Kuroba and the other seven ended up in the same room.
After the guards left, a few of them got onto their beds. One skinny person, who looked about thirteen or fourteen, said, "Finally, we're in. Not many people join the samurai squad, huh?"
"Who would join the samurai squad if they weren't desperate?"
"Exactly, joining a gang is better than this."
"We might just die any day."
"At least joining the samurai squad now means we can eat. Outside, we couldn't even get food."
Actually, these guys weren't very old, only about sixteen or seventeen. They joined the samurai squad because they couldn't make a living otherwise.
Anyone with any real skill went to work for Gato. Everyone knew Gato was the real boss of the Land of Waves. The last Feudal Lord of the Land of Waves was killed because he fought Gato. So, joining the Land of Waves' samurai squad now was a last resort.
These guys had no skills and no money to bribe gangs, so Gato's gangs wouldn't take them. They only joined the samurai squad to eat.
The night passed quietly.
The next day, as soon as the sun hit the training ground, a sound of training began. The eight new recruits trained with the old soldiers. It wasn't really "training," it was more like physical exercise and sword practice.
And the sword fighting wasn't anything special, just basic moves like chopping, sweeping, stabbing, blocking, parrying, smashing, cutting, and slicing.
The samurai squad didn't have instructors. It was always old soldiers teaching new ones. The really advanced sword techniques were secret family skills of the nobles.
Of course, they wouldn't teach them to the samurai squad.
Eating, training, sleeping, that was a samurai's daily routine.
Five days passed.
In those five days, Commander Tamaki Ran noticed Kuroba. Every day during training, Kuroba not only trained himself but also taught others how to train. Slowly, the samurai squad's discipline got better and better.
Of course, there were plenty of fights in those five days, but Kuroba won every single one.
So, Tamaki Ran called Kuroba to his office.
"Your name is Kuroba, right?"
"Yes, Commander."
"Where are you from?"
Tamaki Ran held an investigation report. For the past three days, he had been looking into Kuroba's background. But there was no information, only what was registered at the recruitment office yesterday.
"Commander, I'm from the Land of Iron."
"The Land of Iron, then why come to the Land of Waves to join the samurai squad?"
"Because I angered a noble, I ran from the Land of Iron to the Land of Waves. Now I have nowhere to go, so I can only do what I know best."
"Then why didn't you go to Gato?"
"Gato wouldn't care about one more samurai. He'd sell my information to the noble, or even hand me over to them."
"What did you do before?"
"Trained samurai."
"Alright, then you'll be the samurai squad's instructor, in charge of training both new and old soldiers."
"Yes, Commander."
When Kuroba left, Tamaki Ran stood by the window, watching Kuroba's back as he walked away.
Tamaki Ran put Kuroba in the instructor position because Kuroba was good at teaching and training. Also, in the Naruto world, most samurai were loyal to their lord, serving the Feudal Lord.
Tamaki Ran was a retainer of the Feudal Lord, and the lord and his retainers shared honor and shame.
The next day, Kuroba found Tamaki Ran.
"Commander, I need the right to lead the samurai squad outside the city." Normally, an instructor only trained, they didn't have command over soldiers.
Tamaki Ran looked at Kuroba and said, "Why?"
"No matter how well they train, it's useless without real combat. And seeing blood will improve the army's fighting ability even more."
"Plus, there are many freeloaders here. Without training and real combat, their fighting power, you don't even need to see it, you can imagine how bad it is."
Tamaki Ran thought about it, remembering the danger Gato posed. As the Feudal Lord's retainer, he remembered the last Feudal Lord being killed. This was a knot in his heart, and even though he knew Gato was behind it, he couldn't do anything. The stronger the samurai squad, the safer the Feudal Lord would be.
Thinking this, Tamaki Ran said, "I agree, but you must return to the city every day."
"Yes, Commander."
Kuroba said, then went downstairs to the training ground.
"Everyone, gather!"
As Kuroba gave the order, the samurai quickly gathered on the training ground. When all the samurai were there, Kuroba stood in front of the group and said, "I have permission from the Commander. Now, everyone listen to my orders, we're going out of the city to train."
Immediately, the samurai started talking amongst themselves.
"Why do we have to go out of the city, Instructor? Isn't training here good enough?"
"Yeah, yeah, what are we going out for?"
"I'm the instructor, what I say goes. We're training outside the city, and the Commander approved it."
"Now, everyone listen, form a line and head out of the city."
Even though the samurai were unwilling and didn't understand, they still formed a line and walked towards the city gate.
After leaving the city, they headed in one direction, and soon arrived at a bandit camp.
Kisuke and Koga had found this place over the past three days, along with other bandit camps. There were 13 in total, but Koga had killed everyone in five of the smaller ones.
"First 100 men, step forward, kill them! If anyone disobeys, the back row can kill the person in front."
Looking at the shining swords behind them, the first 100 men grumbled and charged forward.
The bandits, seeing so many people coming to attack them, were about to surrender.
"Kill them all, leave no one alive."
As Kuroba gave the order, the bandits' killing intent was also sparked.
The bandit leader immediately yelled, "You heard their order, right? Charge out if you want to live! Kill!"
When the fight ended, 23 samurai were dead, and 77 bandits were killed.
As time passed, ten days went by.
Since they started training outside the city, the samurai squad had become quite skilled. You couldn't call them elite, but they were much better than before.
Tamaki Ran was very happy, so he quietly accepted the shrinking numbers of the samurai squad.
The sky slowly grew dark.
Kisuke, through Kuroba, looked at the samurai squad in front of him.
"Dismissed."
With this day over, the bandits were all wiped out, and the plan could officially begin.
The samurai squad was actually trained according to Kisuke's ideas. Other training was similar to before, but they added killing, and during the killing, they were brainwashed and bought over.
Most of the people they killed were bandits, and the bandits' treasures mostly went to the samurai of the squad.
In the Land of Waves, there were two armies controlled by the Feudal Lord. They were the Guard Squad and the Samurai Squad. The Guard Squad was stationed inside the Feudal Lord's mansion to protect him, about 500 people, taking turns on watch.
The samurai squad originally had about 800 people. After these ten days of training and killing, the samurai squad now had 650 people left.