Time slowly passed in the ninja world, and after many losses and experiencing the severity of the situation, the village hidden in the clouds eventually joined the alliance of samurai, ninjas, and sacred beasts to face the many forces…

In the middle of all of this chaos, Bakorio's academies achieved their purpose as countless new ninjas were being constantly produced by them and sent to hunt down the weaker beasts while the stronger beasts were being dealt with thanks to the leadership of strong groups like the Akatsuki and other S class mercenary.

Some unknown groups also seemed to be emerging and dealing with the beasts in their own way and they attracted Bakorio's attention, although he wasn't planning to approach them, at least not for now...

The first batch of Bakorio's students became very skilled in dealing with the beasts, and they started to lead new students to teach them how to deal with the various types of beasts, and among them, Sogetsu, Kazuki, Naruto, and Sasuke shined spectacularly!

Meanwhile, the devils from hell were being dealt with using almost the full forces of the hidden villages, which left the new hidden village of the dead completely to Bakorio to deal with while the tailed beasts were struggling to stop the advancements of the demons…

OF course, these weren't all the forces involved in this mess as the various beasts from the holly lands were assisting in dealing with the strongest beasts as well as the rising dead and ghosts which were especially handled by the monkeys of the mountain of flowers and fruits!

So, eventually the situation started to stabilize, despite the people having to barely survive day by day resulting in a tsunami of dark chakra generated every day, but at least the situation wasn't as bad as it was in the beginning.

…

In Konoha, In a secluded location that was protected by many seals that completely isolated it from the outside world, Bakorio created a new true clone and gave him a simple mission

"Go to the land of iron and find the hidden sword master living there and try to convince him to accept you as a student, it's time to evolve my stagnant sword mastery" He muttered and his true clone calmly nodded and began his journey while changing his appearance at the same time…

Meanwhile, He himself didn't waste any time and started training his death transformation and Soul control once more… He's been doing his best for more than three months and he was reaping the fruits of his labor as his mastery in the two domains was increasing rapidly to the point that he could now create a true clone every day without suffering serious damage from it, and their quality was also increasing since he learned how to cut a bigger part of his soul without causing serious damage to it!

"My first true clones peak at around the elite Jonin level in their base strength, but they can fight those that are a few levels higher than them thanks to my mastery and skills, but now, their base level has been slowly rising and they can even reach mid-Kage level…"

After pausing for a while, Bakorio's eyes flickered slightly as he thought 'Soon, I will have a terrifying army under my command:!'

….

This last true clone he just created wasn't the first one that had a unique mission, in fact, he has many clones each tasked with a certain thing, despite the majority of them having to deal with the annoying revived people.

One clone in particular was trying to gain the friendships of the rest of the tailed beasts, another was training endlessly in his true fighting mastery, while some worked as teachers in his academies!

And his hard work was paying off as he made a new friendship with the four tails Son Goku and he gained a special ability from it. A great one that will further increase the destructiveness of his blaze release!

[Heart of lava: Increase the effect of all fire and earth release Ninjutsu by 200%]

Other than this, Bakorio also raised countless Ninjutsu to level 100, he had to learn them when he became a teacher so he didn't slack at all and did his best so that he can teach his students to the best of his ability and he was surprised to find those skills disappearing and he gained new ones instead

[Congratulations host on mastering more than a hundred Ninjutsu in all of the 7 main elements being Fire, Earth, water, lightning, wind, yin, and yang]

[Host has gained the skills: Fire manipulation, Water manipulation, Earth manipulation, Wind manipulation, Lightning Manipulation, Yin manipulation, and Yang manipulation]

[Fire manipulation level 1: Allows the user to control, shape, and concentrate fire in any way they want with minimal waste in chakra and effort, including the one that's not produced by them, and the higher the level of this skill, the more the host can manipulate fire that's not generated by them]

The descriptions of the other skills were similar to this one, and Bakorio was nothing but excited by the prospect of using his enemy's own attack to fuel his own!

After all, chakra-based attacks created by an enemy are almost impossible to control since the user has complete control over his own chakra and what it creates. Unlike natural elements such as people manipulating the natural earth or water to attack or defend. However, with this new skill, Bakorio can easily surpass this impossible hurdle and become completely immune to the elements!

So, Bakorio decisively left 7 clones to work on these skills alone!

….

Meanwhile, in the land of iron, Bakorio's true clone changed his appearance and adorned a sword before he approached the guarded gates of their capital.

He was quickly allowed entry as he showed his affiliation with Konoha and them being in an alliance with each other made things easier.

"Now then, where am I going to find this master swordsman?" muttered Bakorio as he never heard of such a character in the original series. In fact, he was sure that this character didn't make an appearance even despite the world almost coming to its downfall multiple times…

"Guess I can only search slowly" Thought Bakorio as he reread his mission to evolve his sword mastery

[Advancement Quest: Find the legendary sword master hiding in the land of iron and make him accept you under his tutelage]

'Tch, he's hiding so it's definitely not easy to find him among the countless normal people… but the mission states that he was a legendary swordsman so I guess the best way is to start asking about the legends of this land as he might be one of them'

As Bakorio concluded his thought, he made his way through the tense and wary city that was in a constant struggle against the beasts and the dead like any other hidden village and stopped at a dango shop that had an old woman working at it with a warm smile that contrasted with the heavy mood in this land and Yuki's eyes couldn't help but flicker silently when he saw this…

"Ohh, welcome welcome young man"

Bakorio nodded at her calmly and ordered a few Dango and the old woman happily started preparing his order before a little girl that appeared to be her granddaughter and whose age was around 6 or 7 served them to him with a dark look that contrasted with the old lady

"Here you go mister"

Bakorio accepted the food while his mind wondered 'This place is different than the ninja world, I can feel it in the air, it feels sharp, like a sword is ready to be drawn at any moment…'

As Bakorio was contemplating and enjoying his dango, the old woman approached him with a smile and asked "Do you like them?"

Bakorio calmly nodded and replied "Indeed, they are quite delicious"

"I'm glad, I'm glad, I still have it in me to cook it seems" Replied the old woman enthusiastically while the little girl sat on a chair silently to the side so Bakorio couldn't help but ask "Why aren't you worried like the rest of the people? Even that little girl seems to be aware of the situation better than you"

The old woman's smile didn't waver at all as she replied "What's there to worry about, Our mighty lord Murakumo will defend our land if it's ever in mortal danger"

'Oh, this is interesting…' Thought Bakorio as his eyes flickered silently…