Hiruzen looked out at the field before him looking at the amazing and unheard of creatures before him. The Hokage turned to Jiraiya and said, "I know last month that I said I would like proof of your claims about Minato and Kushina being avatars of a distant kami. However, this is not what I had in mind." Grazing in the field was a small band of unicorns and a small band of pegasi that had appeared in the formerly empty field this morning.
It had been a shock for the genin team assigned to mow the field today when the Yondaime and his wife suddenly appeared in the field with a dozen foals. Minato had provided the unicorns and a manual for caring for them while Kushina did the same for the pegasi. The commanding jonin had her team tend the foals with strict orders to her genin to keep their mouths shut about the Yondaime and his wife's appearance. She then had made a beeline to the Hokage's tower and informed Hiruzen about the visitation.
Jiraiya had just been lucky to be meeting with Hiruzen to give him an update how the minor lords of Fire Country were reacting to the attempted insurrection when the jonin arrived. Neither ninja had ever expected to see something like this when they arrived at the field. The sanin got to work while Hiruzen tried to wrap his mind around the fact that Jiraiya's 'saki and grief induced delusions' were real. Jiraiya took out a complex seal and lad it on the ground.
The seal glowed for a few seconds and then two sets of characters appeared in special sections of the seal array. Jiraiya turned to the Hokage and said, "Both faint biju like chakra traces in the field are exact matches for the faint chakra detected in the Uzumaki shrine last month. Minato and Kushina were here."
Hiruzen had enough time to reset his mind and he quickly set it to work. The Hokage turned to the genins and ordered, "Did the Yondaime or his wife tell you what was special about these horses?"
One of the young shinobis stepped forward and he said, "Sir we were told that the unicorns' horns have extreme healing properties and that the horns regrow very rapidly. We were also told that the pegasi, the winged horses, can fly once they get bigger. All the details we'd need to care about both breeds and how to use them are in the manuals that Hikari is currently holding onto." As he said this he pointed at the young kunoichi.
The possibilities these foals opened up in the future were amazing to Hiruzen. He would have to read those manuals quickly to see if his thoughts were fully accurate. He resolved to visit the Uzumaki shrine once everything was properly handled and offer a sacrifice to the kami who Minato and Kushina had been avatars for in life. This could very well be Konoha's future ace in the hole against the samurai.
On average, the average samurai in a strait combat situation was between a chunin and a special jonin in ability. There were far more S rank shinobi compared to S rank samurai, but that was the only situation in when the shinobi forces outmatched samurai forces. In most nations the samurai outnumbered the shinobi between 10-15 samurai per ninja. They also had a legal ironclad monopoly on good charka enhanced warhorses. Those two facts gave the samurai armies a quantitative advantage to shinobi with a roughly similar mobility to shinobi without being tired from using their own chakra like a shinobi would have to do.
Hiruzen could already see the plan forming in his mind. Have these foals grow up and start breeding them while keeping their existence hidden. These foals were a gift to Konoha after all which would be a very important fact to keep in mind once they revealed the new horses' existence. All he had to do was get a big enough band of both breeds so that the samurai couldn't justify the cost of paying another village to wipe the unicorns and pegasi out. At that point the regular shinobi would have battle mounts of their own to potentially equal the samurai. That would break one of the pillars of the samurais' power.
Jiraiya glanced over to his sensei and saw the gears turning in the old Hokage's mind. The sanin could also follow a similar line of thought as his master. He spoke up and said, "Will this be classified as an A or an S rank secret sir?"
The genin quickly stood at attention when they heard Jiraiya speak. They turned as one to face the Hokage and waited for his answer. Hiruzen put his pipe in his mouth and said, "Both classifications Jiraiya. The existence of the unicorns and pegasi will be an A rank secret for the time being. However, the benefactor who provided these foals will be an S rank secret. Is that clear genin?"
All three genin nodded their heads and said, "We understand sir."
Hiruzen nodded his head and said, "I'm glad to hear that. I know that all three of you are mature enough to handle these secrets. The Yondaime must also think so or I doubt he would have appeared to you with the foals."
The young kunoichi Hikari nervously spoke up. "Lord Hokage, what is the Yondaime now? I've never heard of ancestral spirits doing something like this before."
Now that was tricky question to answer because of the repercussions the answer would bring. Lying about Minato and Kushina being avatars of a kami might offend said kami. Annoying any kami was always a dumb idea. Annoying a kami that was actively helping you qualified as how are you still breathing levels of stupidity. However, revealing the truth would have destabilizing effect in and especially outside of Konoha. The clan heads in the village would be upset at the news, but they would eventually accept the truth. The samurai clans and the daimyo would never accept the truth and would be infuriated at the thought of a mere shinobi pretending to be connected to the kami.
Finally Hiruzen said, "I cannot reveal that now Hikari. It is currently a classified secret that I don't want to burden you with keeping. Just be grateful that even in death both the Yondaime and his wife are doing what they can to help Konoha. All of you must keep this a secret for now. But, that doesn't stop you from using this as inspiration to improve yourselves."
Hiruzen was happy to see that his genin accepted this order and advice without complaint. He then made a promise to himself to double check on what Minato and Kushina's favorite foods were so he could make them in offering in thanks and for advice. Hopefully, the kami they were the avatars of would see fit to visit him so that he could work out a cover story that wouldn't offend the kami or endanger Konoha.
The old swordsmith Totosai wondered why his old friend Hiruzen had invited him to visit Konoha shortly after the one year anniversary of Danzo's failed coup and Hiruzen's reinstatement. Not that Totosai was going to deny Hiruzen a perfectly reasonable invitation when he really didn't have anything to do with his time. Hiruzen had even been kind enough to pay for his trip from his village near the capital. Besides, Hiruzen was technically Totosai's feudal lord since his place of residence during the last census was in Konoha's han in the Land of Fire.
About two days out from Konoha by carriage, Totosai gained an unexpected traveling companion. Klein was a semi-retired armorer who like Totosai was technically a vassal to the Hokage. Both of them had moved out of Konoha years ago because newer laws and the resulting changing markets made their trades less profitable in Konoha. Then when the carrage was half a day away from Konoha the old artisans picked up a third traveling companion. Ashitaka was a bow maker in one of the outlying hamlets sworn to Konoha.
This led to a sword maker, an armor maker, and a bow maker entering a ninja village. Totosai would have expected this to be the start of a bad joke under normal circumstances. However, Totosai was left curious since he was personally involved and Hiruzen never did things without a reason. Why bring three masters of crafts that were effectively dead or dying for ninjas here?
Soon the carriage reached the Hokage Tower where the trio was promptly led into the tower by a full team of ANBU guards. Hiruzen was sitting in his full Hokage regalia with a stack of books on his desk and three chairs placed in front of his desk. The trio politely bowed to their lord and then spoke as one. "You summoned us Hokage. How may we serve?"
Hiruzen looked at the best experts he could call on in their chosen fields and said. "Thank you for coming so promptly when summoned. Please sit down. I have some things I need to talk about in your fields and I need your experience to make a good decision." The trio had looks of surprised on their faces as they sat down. Hiruzen wished people would stop being so surprised when he asked for their advice or opinions. He got to where he was in life by knowing when he didn't know something and how to find someone to teach him what he needed to learn.
The Hokage continued once the trio was seated. "A member of a clan here in Konoha was recently gifted a set of arms and armor that according to the person giving them once belonged to a great general of an empire that ended over 500 years ago. According to what I have been told this empire was at the western end of the largest continent of the world. I can only assume that the empire must have been on the other side of the Celestial Empire across the Elemental Sea."
"This set of arms and armor actually dates back to an earlier era of that empire, but they are still in good condition. I summoned the three of you to examine these items and to get your opinion on just how useful they might be." Hiruzen then reached behind his desk out of view and pulled out a sword and gave it to Totosai. He handed a bow and quiver to Ashitaka. Finally, he handed a set of metal armor and a round board to Klein.
Totosai unsheathed the sword which had a blade around the length of a katana and examined it. The blade was strait which was rather odd to the swordsmith. Blades in the elemental countries had typically been curved since before the start of the Shogunate Era some 800 years ago. The blade itself was double sided while the handle was short for a blade of such length. A double handed style would not work with this sword. It seemed primarily designed for thrusting while still being good at cutting. Totosai could see this sword being very effective on the battlefield in the right hands.
Hiruzen watched quietly as his experts examined the arms and armor of Flavius Belisarius that Minato had gifted Naruto as a birthday present for his future use. Kushina had supplied a mountain of books relating to the use and manufacture of such weapons along with providing historical and cultural information to place where the weapons came from. It was utterly fascinating to Hiruzen to learn about an entirely different world.
Once the trio stopped examining the items the Hokage spoke again. "Men, I would like your opinions on the items you have been given for review."
Totosai spoke first. "This is a very good blade. It's not very well suited for most kenjutsu styles used today. However, that doesn't change the fact that it is a good blade." Totosai's eyes narrowed slightly as a realization hit him and he spoke again. "It also sidesteps most of the laws and taxes on bladed weapons. This is especially true for those laws on blades longer than the legal definition of a dagger."
Except for Kumo, most shinobi villages had turned away from sword usage over the past couple of decades. That was because most of the daimyos had created a series of laws at the behest of their samurai that made owning and using an heirloom sword very expensive for non-samurai. Getting a new sword made if you weren't a samurai involved so many fees and registration forms that it generally wasn't worth it. The Land of Lighting was an exception because the Raikages had maintained a policy of strait up killing any politician who tried to push forward such a law.
Klein spoke next. "This armor shares many similarities to the old Kusari Gusoku style armor that fell out of favor during the end of the Shoganate. Iron supply shortages at the time and the use of seals to help reinforce lacquered leather scales led to the rise in popularity of the Do-maru style armor. As a form of armor I cannot find any fault. It's only real weakness would be extremely thin piercing attacks like senbon. It also cannot have any seals placed on it due to small area of the individual chain links in the armor."
"Both of these weaknesses are negated by the shield paired with it. It's a personal shield unlike the shield stands and shield carts the ashigaru use in the samurai armies. I do find the holding spaces for darts to be a very interesting innovation. Seals could be incorporated into it like the ashigaru's to offer good protection against most regularly used ranged jutsus." Klein glanced at Totosai and started to piece the clues together. "Its biggest issue is that it is designed to be used with styles probably unknown in the elemental countries."
Ashitaka finally spoke after Klein was finished. "This bow is amazing sir. It's at least a third the size of our yumi style bows with similar draw weights. I know of many woodsmen who would love to have a bow like this when dealing with thick forests. However, from what I can see it would also take a bit longer to make than a yumi style bow. It also uses materials that an experienced bowmaker would be unused to handling. It and its arrows smaller size would also make it far easier to be sealed away when not in use."
Hiruzen smiled at the news. This was just what he was hoping to hear. The arms and armor along with the supporting information sent by Minato and Kushina was both literally and figuratively a godsend for Hiruzen. He had been quietly trying to fight the degradation of his rank and file shinobi's combat abilities with little success for decades. The shadow wars that the daimyos played on each other through their hidden villages during the three shinobi wars had taken up too much of Hiruzen's time and energy.
He hadn't been able to stop many laws from being passed by the samurai that gradually weakened the shinobi. Many of the laws were coached in such tones as to make opposing them seem treasonous. These laws also worked their poison gradually by slightly increasing a tax over several years here or increasing the number of forms there. It was so subtle that most people couldn't see the pattern. Hiruzen could only see it now after living through the decades and paying attention to what happened.
The elite stars of Konoha's forces had adapted well enough. However, the same could not be said for the genin, chunin, and even a few tokubetsu jonin. Too many promising young shinobi had been cut down where they could have lived if only they had proper armor. Said armor was denied to them because it had become too expensive for most non-samurai or ashigaru to use leading armor to fall out of favor.
Similar reasons lead to the abandonment of most weapons by konoha shinobi except for kunai and shuriken. The problems with this were many. Most shinobi just did not have the chakra reserves to use high powered jutsus in any form of lengthy combat. This left them vulnerable if the first or second attack failed to kill the opponent. Kunai were meant as a multipurpose tool for when chakra usage was not wanted with a secondary role as a backup knife. They weren't meant to be a ninja's primary close quarters combat weapon like they had become and they certainly were not meant to be used a projectiles. Hiruzen would never know how that old drinking game had actually entered mainstream combat usage.
Another problem shinobi forces had developed was an issue of range. Few ninjutsu had a range of over 50 meters and almost none could come close to 100 meters of effective distance. All of those ninjutsus required large chakra reserves and years of training in control in order to be used one or two times by most jonin. Any semi-competent samurai or solidly trained ashigaru could use a bow and fire 5 shots a minute and reliably hit the target 150 to 200 meters away with barely any chakra useage. Most good ones could fire faster and from an even further distance.
Hiruzen knew that these hadn't been major problems for shinobi in his grandfather's day. Back then shinobi were primarily used for espionage, sabotage, and assassination. But now shinobi were primarily used as guards, rural police, and as rapid response military forces with their old focuses as a useful legacy feature. Training had somewhat adapted in the younger generations for their new roles. It was just that the equipment hadn't adapted.
Minato and Kushina, bless their divine hearts, had given Hiruzen the tools he needed to reforge Konoha's forces. Comparatively easily stored or hidden bows would drastically increase the range of almost all his forces. Cheap swords and armor in the foreign style would bypass the economic hurdles against his shinobi surviving in prolonged close quarters combat. Most samurai would scoff at the idea of shinobi using foreign based tools and would be unwilling to make rules against using such "inferior" weapons.
Furthermore, it would be easy to get Konoha to adopt the new weapons and armor along with several other complementary tools that Hiruzen was planning on bring back into style as they complemented the gifts Naruto had been given. News had been quietly circulating for months now in Konoha that the Yondaime and his wife had been given as servants by the Shinigami to the kami of a very distant land. From time to time this kami had seen fit to reward the couple for their faithful and exemplary service with gifts. These gifts were in turn given by the couple to Konoha since they wanted to look after their village.
Hiruzen turned to his three experts with an almost predatory gleam in his eye. "Well gentlemen, I am sure that the receiver of these gifts will be happy to know that he has been gifted very useful tools for his future career. Now it is time to discuss some other matters. Namely what are your fees for moving all three of you and your apprentices along with your families to Konoha proper? Once we decide that the four of us can head out and you can each pick where your new workshops will be. Location will not be an issue I assure you."
Arashi Kazama was sitting in stands of the ninja academy with pride as the exhibition started. Ten year old Naruto was one of the contestants in the mounted exhibition matches. He was dressed in the standard academy uniform which consisted of a steel helmet with a built in blank forehead protector of the 'Namikaze' style. Naruto wore the now standard long sleeve green academy shirt with a 'Namikaze' style cuirass covering his torso and his arms to his elbows. There was a band on Naruto's left hand that had his shield sealed away while a band on Naruto's right had his bow sealed away. Naruto was wearing a belt that held his practice sword in its sheath with a series of seals opposite the sheath contained various missile weapons and supplies. All of Naruto's legs were covered in tough long-legged brown pants that ended tucked away in closed steel toed boots. The only visible mark of individuality in the uniform was the clan seal on the belt buckle.
This restructuring of the academy was part of a series of reforms Hiruzen had forced through despite many prominent clan leaders initially objecting to it and other reforms. However, the Hokage didn't fool around with the clan leaders' egos. He pulled out the cold hard facts that shinobi deaths had been increasing since the Second Shinobi War and that this trend was reversed among those who had adopted the Namikaze Armory compared to their peers. It was hard for many to argue against changes designed to save their kids' lives in a very dangerous career. Especially when Hiruzen hit their egos by telling them that samurai dealt in pride while shinobi dealt in practicalities.
With a loud voice the officiating chunin called out, "Summon shields!" As one, the ten contestants swiped the seals on the band of their left arm summoning their shields. Ten shields with Konoha's symbol on a green background appeared in the kids' hands. Once they were genin they could have shields with their clan symbols displayed.
The chunin then said, "Do all contestants have six shuriken loaded on their shields?" After seeing a round of nods the chunin continued. "Contestants will proceed one at a time to gallop on their donkeys and shot their shuriken at the provided targets. Targets are set at 30 meters away from the track line. Points will be allotted for hitting targets and for the location of the hits based off of potential lethality. Points will be deducted from the contestant's score if they slow the pace of their steed."
After saying this, the chunin summoned the first contestant and had her run the line. Arashi watched as the girl took the bo shuriken style shuriken from her shield and threw it at the target. The dart like style of shuriken was seeing resurgence in Konoha displacing the hira shuriken style Arashi had used in the past. The girl did very well on her first throw. However, she had a bit of trouble getting a new shuriken as the donkey galloped. This pattern repeated throughout her run resulting in the girl not hitting three targets due to having gone past them.
No one in the audience mocked the girl for not hitting so many targets. Mounted combat was still so new that many shinobi took classes in how to fight on a steed. Officially, this was introduced to help shinobi defend wagons. Arashi knew that truthfully this was so that those with potential could be found for the developing pegasi and unicorn corps. Once the girl had finished her run she left the field and the next contestant made his run. This kid did even worse in Arashi's eye having thrown all his shuriken in a rush and missing several targets by a very wide margin.
An old lesson from his old Jonin sensei Sakumo Hatake came to mind. Never throw a weapon in combat if you're not confident about the shot. One throw must lead to one kill. Another shot can be found later, but a loss shuriken could be your death. Most of the other kids did better on hitting their targets or not throwing on a bad shot.
Finally the moment Arashi was waiting for came when Naruto led his mount to the starting line. Naruto encouraged his donkey to go as fast as it could when the chunin gave the signal. His hands quickly and firmly grabbed his shuriken while his eyes remained focused on the target. Naruto let the shuriken fly at the optimal time and each struck true.
Parental pride filled Arashi's heart as he examined the targets Naruto hit with his binoculars. Each shuriken was embedded in its target by 4 or 5 centimeters. Moreover, Naruto's shuriken had struck either an eye socket or the throat. Any real person struck would have been killed with such throws even if Naruto's shuriken weren't covered in poison.
The chunin running the event called out. "The winner of the mounted shuriken throwing contest is Naruto Uzumaki. Arashi enthusiastically joined the crowd in cheering on the announcement of Naruto's victory. Naruto turned on his mount and grinned at the crowd before returning to his fellow contestants. The chunin called out. "Seal away your shields and return to the waiting area."
Naruto led the other contestants back to the waiting area since he was the winner of the match. Karin was the first to greet him when he reached the donkey's post. Naruto was given just enough time to tie the donkey to the post and dismount before Karin tackled him in a hug. "Congratulations on winning Naruto."
"Thanks Karin." Naruto eagerly returned his sister's hug and said, "However, I can't take too much pride in my win. After all, my biggest competition was benched back here."
Karin resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her brother in all but blood as she replied, "Oh don't sell yourself short Naruto. We both know that you're much better at the mounted competitions then I am. Besides, clans are only allowed to have one clan member in each competition per grade. So it only makes sense that we leave the mounted competitions to you. Would you rather take my place in the calligraphy contest coming up?"
A nervous look appeared on Naruto's face at the thought of trying to copy of series of old court poems in kanji. It was only thanks to lots of time and effort that he could competently read and write in kana thanks to his ADHD and dyslexia. Kanji, especially the more fanciful traditional kanji, was just barely in Naruto's power to read slowly. As for writing it, the less said about that disaster the better.
It was an open secret in the family and at the academy that Karin was going to be the only member of the Uzumaki to be a traditional seal mistress for the current generation. Karin and Arashi were trying to help Naruto develop a form of sealing using either Latin or Greek. However, that kind of experimentation was slow going due to the nature of seal experiments and they fact that they didn't take to those languages like Naruto did.
Naruto conceded the point to Karin saying. "I thought our goal was to honor our clan in this exposition. When did we change the goal to mocking them?" This earned Naruto a quick punch to the shoulder as Karin led him to the waiting area.
Kiba and Choji soon joined the Uzumakis with Choji speaking first. "Good match Naruto. We saw everything on the exposition genjutsu one of the instructors is creating over there." As Choji said that he pointed to the wall to the group's left where everything the instructor was seeing was displayed on a mirror.
Kiba snorted and said, "You're just lucky I wasn't able to compete or I would have blown you away. Still, you did alright Naruto."
Karin fought down the urge to smack Kiba and said, "Alright? You think Naruto did alright? Is Akamaru going to be doubling as your seeing eye dog in the future because Naruto did fantastic. Besides, how can you claim that you would have won when you were ejected from the riding classes?"
"Hey!" Kiba called out, "That wasn't my fault. I was doing great in the riding classes before they kicked me out. It's totally unfair what they did to me."
Choji opened another bag of chips and cut in. "Uh Kiba you were lucky you were only kicked out of the riding classes remember? I seem to recall the Sandaime berating you for accidentally gelding that pegasus they brought in to show us why we'd want to learn how to ride well."
Kiba huffed as he tried to forget about the incident as he referred to it. He had been showing a new kunai trick he had learned from a cousin while the boys were waiting for the girls to finish looking at the pegasus. The kunai ring had slipped from the tip of his pinky finger as he was twirling it about. The kunai had gone sailing in the air and some of the classmates had screamed startling the animal causing it to take flight. Unfortunately the pegasus flew right in line with the kunai and lost what would have been his two best buds.
Fortunately for Konoha's Pegasi Corps the pegasus in question was a second generation homebred foal with many brothers and cousins to continue the herd. That was a good thing for Kiba as well or he would have been ejected from the academy and imprisoned for life over destroying a vital village resource. Kiba's mom still hadn't been happy having to pay the village the price of a traditional warhorse as part of the fines for his blunder.
The pegasus in question had been quietly gifted to the Uzumaki Clan along with half the fines leveled on Kiba by the Hokage. Hiruzen did not want to risk offending the kami that became Minato and Kushina. The money was used to build a new altar at the Uzumaki shrine dedicated to the unknown kami. The gelded pegasus was named Narses by Naruto after the famous eunuch general in his mother's history books about the land the kami intertwined with his parents came from.
For the next twenty minutes or so the group chatted amongst themselves while watching the other matches. Naruto then said, "Well our year's mounted archer contest is coming up shortly. I should get ready for it."
Karin smiled at him and said, "Knock them dead Naruto." Choji and Kiba also wished Naruto well as he headed to the donkey posts. Naruto got on the now rested donkey and followed his classmates to the arena. He waited for the chunin to tell them to unseal their bows and eagerly did so.
Once Naruto had his bow in his hand he was in the zone. Things seemed so much clearer to him when he had a bow in his hand. Naruto's vision had always been surprisingly good even if somewhat inconsistent. For example, he had amazing vision outside on most nights and at the same time his dark vision was baseline when he was indoors away from windows. This paled to what Naruto felt when he had a bow since it seemed like he instinctively knew what to ignore and what to focus on. His already stellar aim also seemed to skyrocket when he used a bow.
Naruto patiently waited for the chunin to call his name and then he bolted. Arrows were grabbed from his quiver, notched, drawn, and released with lighting fast speed. Each arrow flew straight and true at Naruto's intended targets which were the furthest ones on the field. As Naruto had done before with the shuriken, each of his targets would have died if they were a real person. Naruto reached the end line of his run in what seemed like seconds to him having completely astonished the crowd. Twice as many arrows had been fired by Naruto than any of his competition and they were all instant kill shots.
A loud gasp of shock and surprised filled the crowd breaking Naruto from the zone. He saw some onlookers pointing at him. Or rather, they were pointing above him. Naruto then notice that a light was shining over him. He looked up and saw two glowing signs floating over his head.
Author's notes: 30 meters for shuriken and 200 meters for arrows from yumi style bows are accurate ranges for adults in the real world from what I could find in my research. I am assuming that chakra makes a person inherently stronger given the feats we regularly see ninjas in Naruto do who aren't known for being physically impressive.
Yes, Konoha is adapting Roman arms and armor for their use. Unlike Camp Jupiter, Konoha's arms and armor are modeled on the Dominate/pre-thematic Roman armies whereas Camp Jupiter equipment is from late Republican/Principate legions. This is probably due to Jupiter's pride as at that time he was viewed by the Romans as the chief god whereas in the Dominate time Sol Invictus and Mithras were the favored gods of the pagan population while Christianity was winning the religious struggles.
Hiruzen's changes are him trying to adjust konoha's equipment to better fit the needs of the shinobi. Kunai historically were more used for making holes in walls or for helping to scale up buildings by ninjas. The use of them as a stabbing weapon was more of backup role in real life. Also in real life, they weren't meant to be thrown. Shuriken were also historically used as a distraction weapon as their lethality either required a lucky strike on a vital body part or as a poison delivery vehicle. I don't recall anyone in Naruto using poison on their shuriken.