At the city gate, several soldiers in black army uniforms walked over and put up some brand new notices where the old ones used to be.
People coming and going saw this, remembering that the port unsealing was also announced with a notice here, and gathered to read.
Notice: From today, the Land of Waves is officially renamed the True Mechanical Technology Empire, with His Majesty Kisuke Takahashi as Emperor.
Notice: As the Empire is newly founded, it requires many talented individuals. Anyone who believes they have abilities can come to the Feudal Lord's mansion for an interview.
Notice: By Imperial decree, all Imperial citizens must undergo a baptism. Only after baptism will one be considered a citizen of the Empire.
...
Everyone realized that things had changed. The acting Feudal Lord had directly become the ruler. The nobles, even if they were upset, probably couldn't do much. But the former people of the Land of Waves were very happy. In this past month, they had come to understand those strange people a bit. As long as you didn't break the law, you could do whatever you wanted.
Kisuke planned for the Mechanical Race to manage personnel, and the robot soldiers' job was to fight. The "baptism" was the installation of Mechanical Chips. In Kisuke's plan, all citizens would have Mechanical Chips installed, and talented individuals would have Mechanical Nano Cores installed, becoming part of the Mechanical Race.
At this moment, in the East Army Camp, Kuroba was installing Mechanical Chips on a thousand members of the samurai squad, in groups of one hundred. The whole process was completed in two hours.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Fire's capital, at the Free Trade Company headquarters, Takayama looked at reports from all over the world, thinking about how to expand trade in various regions again.
Takayama was curious about the "higher position" Zero mentioned. After all, there were two paths in this world, and the ninja path was definitely not an option for him. That left only nobility, but as far as he knew, there were no major nobles in the Land of Fire who had dealings with the Free Trade Company.
He thought for a while, then stopped thinking. If he could do well, he would try his best. If he couldn't, he might lose his current manager position.
Just then, his assistant pushed the door open and said in a panicked voice, "Sir, it's bad! The goods the boss wanted from the Land of Iron have been hijacked!"
"What did you say? The boss's goods were hijacked? What were they doing? I remember the boss hired ninja, didn't he?"
Takayama slammed the documents on the table, demanding answers. The boss had just left, and something like this happened, it was a slap in his face.
"The ninja are still alive, but they're all injured."
"The goods are gone, what were they doing? They might as well be dead."
Takayama thought and thought, then suddenly remembered Zabuza, whom the boss had mentioned before leaving. Thinking of this, he immediately went downstairs to the backyard.
Reaching the backyard, he saw Zabuza training the six wandering ninja. Zabuza was surprised by Takayama's arrival and asked, "Takayama, aren't you trying to seize your opportunity? Why do you have time to come to the backyard to check on the guard squad?"
At this time, the six ninja Zabuza was training were designated as two guard squads for the Free Trade Company, with three people per squad.
"Something big has happened! The goods the boss wanted from the Land of Iron have been hijacked!"
"What? The goods were hijacked?"
Zabuza knew better than Takayama what kind of being was behind Zero. In this past month, Zabuza had returned to the Land of Waves a few times, and each time it shocked him, and also made him more confident in Kisuke.
Zabuza reconfirmed the information, making sure the goods were indeed hijacked. He then went to the sniper robot soldier who had been standing in the distance, waiting for the robot soldier to say, "Emergency situation."
"Received."
Takayama watched Zabuza not go to the Land of Iron, but instead come to this soldier, feeling very frustrated. He asked, confused, "Zabuza-san, we should be looking for the goods and notifying..."
Before Takayama could finish, he heard the soldier say, "Zabuza, what's the situation?"
Hearing the completely different voice from before, Takayama was instantly shocked.
Zabuza ignored Takayama and said to the robot soldier, "Master, the materials from the Land of Iron have been hijacked, and their whereabouts are unknown."
...
"Go investigate the matter thoroughly. Zero will return to you in two days, then you two will bring the materials back."
"Understood."
"Zero is also bringing something that can make you stronger when she returns. It's your choice."
After that, there was no sound. Zabuza saw Kisuke was gone and wondered what this thing that could make him stronger was. After thinking for a bit, he decided that investigating the materials was most important right now, and stopped overthinking.
Takayama cautiously asked Zabuza, "Who was that Master just now?"
"That's not for you to know. You'll know when you're supposed to."
After saying that, Zabuza ignored Takayama and took the ninja to investigate who had hijacked the materials.
Although Takayama saw Zabuza didn't say, Takayama was also filled with motivation, after all, this scene also showed that the power behind him was strong.
When Zabuza reached the hijacked location, he found it looked like a tornado had swept through, full of pits and debris.
Zabuza carefully observed the surroundings and finally found tracks about 300 meters away from the hijacked site. Following the tracks, he ran, and after some searching, Zabuza finally found the location of the materials, but all the materials that were on the horse-drawn carts were gone.
Zabuza looked at the messy footprints around him and scoffed, "No anti-tracking awareness at all. Whose ninja are so bad?"
After saying that, he followed the direction of the footprints. This led him to an incredible place, outside the Land of Iron and into the Land of Rice Fields. Finally, Zabuza stopped in front of Otogakure.
"It's a ninja village. Looks like I'll have to wait for Zero to arrive to deal with this."
"But with my strength, I should be able to scout this small ninja village."
After saying that, Zabuza went to scout Otogakure. When Zabuza entered the village, he found very few ninja. Just as Zabuza had almost finished scouting most of Otogakure, several people suddenly appeared and surrounded him.
Zabuza looked at them, realizing he had been careless. He hadn't expected a small ninja village to discover his presence.
"Who are you, and why are you here?"
Kimimaro's face was calm. For him, as long as he completed the mission given to him by his master, everything else came second.
"Kimimaro, why ask so many questions? He's not going to talk anyway, just capture him and then ask."
"Right."
"I agree."
As Kidomaru yelled, the other three agreed.
Kimimaro looked at Zabuza, who remained silent. His eyes instantly turned sharp, and bone spikes grew from his hands. He charged at Zabuza, saying, "Go, capture him alive!"
The others saw this and immediately moved. When Zabuza saw Kimimaro's bone spikes, he was instantly shocked. He remembered that the Kaguya clan had been wiped out years ago, all their members killed. He never expected to find a Kaguya clan member in this small Otogakure.
"I can't fight them, I have to retreat, or if too many people are alerted, it'll be big trouble." Zabuza thought this and used a ninjutsu to prepare his escape.
"Water Style, Hidden Mist Jutsu!"
Instantly, a thick fog rolled in. Kimimaro saw this familiar ninjutsu and immediately became alert.
"It's someone from the Hidden Mist Village! Be careful of their assassination techniques!"
With Kimimaro's warning, the other four also became alert, as they had heard how powerful the Hidden Mist's assassination techniques were.
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