Samurai

Samurai are the third branch of chakra wielders alongside Ninja and Ninsou.

They emerged from the more militant factions of humanity who worshiped the Sage of Six Paths for his god-like power and the gift of chakra. But his ideals of peace were meaningless to them and from the beginning they honed their chakra purely for the sake of combat, devoting themselves only to martial might.

Their belief the body and the sword were the only tools a warrior needed and that mastering both was the path to true strength. They even held the tradition of naming their best swords which has persisted to the modern day. Because of this they disregarded the idea of using ninjutsu altogether, only using chakra to enhance the abilities of their body and empower their weapons for superhuman sword styles.

The samurai created a code of honour known as Bushido – Way of the Warrior – which were a universal set of rules all samurai are meant to follow. They took on what they considered a higher purpose as they became the protectors of the people and served the nobility of each nation.

In that earlier age, it was far more common for an individual to become a samurai than a ninja. Ninjutsu was a new and foreign concept with unknown potential and limitations. But the samurai’s form of combat was just an extension of the way humanity had fought for centuries already.

So where ninjas were mercenaries with specialist skills and samurai were the warriors who fought in great armies as the largest and strongest fighting force in the lands. This was the status quo of the world for many generations.

But where ninjutsu constantly advanced and evolved, the skills of the samurai underwent little change. They were complacent and their techniques stagnated while the ninja pushed the boundaries of chakra. Eventually a power shift occurred as the combination of power, versatility and adaptability of shinobi became more desirable. More and more lords would use ninja to fight their battles whilst the samurai were little more than their bodyguards.

The creation of the hidden villages finally rendered the samurai obsolete as ninjas became the military of each country. The sharing of their knowledge, skills and techniques caused the shinobi world to undergo a rapid evolution. Many samurai gave up their profession to become ninja and samurai schools became ninja schools instead; most ninja swordsmen in the present day even have styles and techniques that originated from the samurai.

As the Great Shinobi Wars changed the scale of war altogether, it became clear that the samurai were a dying breed. But instead of allowing themselves to become nothing more than a footnote in history, they chose to carve their own niche.

Samurai without lords or a cause joined together to build a country of their own. They travelled to the land that extended into the continent’s northern peninsula, with harsh climate and harsher creatures that had stopped it from being claimed by any rulers. In that land are the Sanro Mountains, a remote region covered in endless snow and protected by its hazardous environment, and it was at their peak that the Land of Iron was first created.

It became a military nation of samurai. They flocked to this settlement from every nation to create one of the most racially diverse countries for all its small size. Instead of being ruled by a feudal lord and protected by a hidden village, it is ruled and protected by samurai alone who removed themselves from the affairs of shinobi. And its leader, the General, stands equal with the Kage.

The birth of the Land of Iron was also beginning of their advancement in the art of warfare. They combined dozens of sword styles from across the land and refine the skill with chakra to turn themselves into a formidable army capable of fending off anyone who dared to invade their new homeland.

They may not have used ninjutsu themselves but they learned to recognize and understand and developed tactics to counter them so that they could never be caught off guard. Samurai are just as capable of running up walls or over water and aren’t easily caught by any trick a shinobi might try to pull on them. And with their single-minded focus on kenjutsu and taijutsu, the average samurai is physically superior to the average shinobi.

The samurai that remained were barely recognised as such by most. They possess some skill with the sword but no knowledge of wielding chakra, making them only marginally more skilled than an armed civilian. Some stand above the rest as they are drop-outs or traitors from the Land of Iron who fled their home and use their skills to earn them a living. Rather than any kind of respectable lifestyle, the only place these samurai are likely to be found are in criminal syndicates as they act as enforcers and bodyguards or live as bandits.

The samurai’s choice in location revealed itself to be a great boon to their people as those mountains and the lands around them were rich in natural resources. Blacksmithing, mining and technology development became big businesses in the Land of Iron. They developed highly advanced body armour with a number of different technologies included and steel forged in the Land of Iron is the best in the continent.

They once used the same armour and weapons as shinobi but now the two fighting class went in significantly different directions. Their metal armour that covers them from head to toe with heavy protection, specially forged to have resistance against ninjutsu and genjutsu. Their helmets contained gas masks, light-sensitive lenses and a sound dampener to circumvent ninja tricks such as poisons, flash bangs and explosives. It even carries built-in radio to communicate and coordinate with one another and telescopes to see through tough conditions.

Standard katana became outdated and were instead used as training tools for a recruit to familiarise themselves with before their real training began. Now the samurai armed themselves with four short swords. Shorter swords were more convenient, practical and versatile as these samurai fought by extending chakra from their swords and shaping them into different weapons. They drew together the sword styles of all the clans and schools that had gathered to create a superior, unified style.

This nation became the greatest example of brute force military might on the continent while their strictly neutral status and strong morality earned them the right to host the Kage Summit. The Samurai Legions of the Land of Iron are respected by all and crossed by none.