A Treatise On The Creation of Myth Inspiring Blades

You hear the tales and legends of mythical blades that can wield untold powers, how they and their wielder brought entire civilizations to their knees and raised others to heights nigh unheard of. But much more rarely do you hear the stories of those who created such weapons. And even rarer can one get a straight answer on how weapons of such great and terrible power are even forged.

In the heart of a volcano, or quenched with the blood of a thousand samurai; handed down from the heavens to man by kami herself; or crafted with the heart, soul, and essence of a truly noble hero. Even bequeathed to a legendary warrior by a mysterious woman who lives in a lake, whom destiny foretold would live to see and bring about greatness.

Well, I'm here to tell you that all of those legendary stories meant to explain the awe inspiring power of those weapons and how they came into existence, are complete and utter bullshit.

Yes, it may be true that blades have and do still exist with these awesome powers. Blades that are seemingly able to control oceans, or ones with the ability to cut a mountain in twain with one might swing from their wielder, and even 'living' blades crafted by a smith so dedicated and ferocious that they are imbued with a form of sentience. All of those exist. But, they are crafted just like any other weapon, by men. More specifically by humans.

Humans of all ages, races, genders, creeds, religions, and training. Many of whom have crafted weapons so powerful they outlived their creators by hundreds of years, and were only buried in time and history through tragic loss or massive concerted effort on the part of their enemies. Some of them are even still around, although they are so old the original master of the weapon is known only to the sands of time and the cold, sharpened steel of the blades themselves. Oftentimes the power that was imbued into them dulled without the knowledge or right to wield them.

This power to create and wield these great weapons is one often only kept from the world due to the secretive nature of those skilled and dedicated enough to even fathom a small fraction of the power behind the techniques necessary to create such monstrous weaponry. This art form, created by the progenitor of chakra himself as a lower form of a technique supposedly only within the grasp of the gods, the Banbutsu Sōzō, or Creation of All Things. Is known simply as, Chakra Smithing.

The ability to forge, extrude, shape, quench, and temper a weapon all through the use of one's own chakra. Old legends and stories tell of a great man, the Rikudou Sennin or Sage of the Six Paths, as he goes by many names to many different people, who created and perfected this art while on his monks journey through the lands that would eventually become the Elemental Nations. And he did so on a mere whim, almost as an afterthought. For what is it to create a blade with an edge so sharp a traditional scabbard cannot even hold it, from a man who could create life with but a thought?

And it is with these seemingly mythical origins, of a seemingly mythical blade, created by a man who is shrouded in both myth, legend, and history, that the tale of Chakra Smithing begins. A blade, supposedly dubbed Fuchūina ejji or Careless Edge, named this not by the man himself, who never saw fit to name such a perfect weapon, but by those who had the unfortunate fate of seeing the cutting edge of the blade in battle. With this weapon, a puzzle was thrust into existence that would motivate and drive those few who were good enough to even begin scratching the surface of this art seemingly reserved for Kami herself and the occasional gods amongst men.

A few men were even bold enough to get close. The names of some of these master craftsmen were lost in history, but some of them are not. For there was one great bladesmith of no contemporary equal who was believed to be able to forge legendary weapons on a mere whim, even if those tales are certainly a little tall, they are not as far off as others would have you think.

His name, Yawarakai Uzumaki, date of birth and death most likely lost in the siege of his beloved homeland, along with the vast majority of his knowledge and many of his truly master crafted weapons, of which only two are known to have ever even left Uzushiogakure, let alone stayed outside of it. And only one of those is thought to still be in existence, although which one and where it is located is a mystery, having been the only truly masterful works he ever allowed to be given to a non-Uzumaki.

Supposedly giving it to the Fire Daimyo as a gift in return for one of his daughter's hands in marriage. While this story is definitely based in truth, as the man did in fact marry one of the Daimyo's younger daughters, which in turn led to some key nobles in both nations to follow the leader and intermarry, securing treaties and alliances. So the gift of one of his master works for her hand in marriage is not out of the picture at all, but there are no explicit records proving the sword was a part of the deal or if it was even acquired from outside sources.

While his truly greatest blades were most likely either destroyed by his or one of his students' own hands to keep it out of the hands of Uzushiogakure's enemies, there are still a few blades of his thought to be existing outside of his home and now final resting place. And while these blades may not be on par with even half of what some old stories and scrolls say his master works were capable of, they are still blades with few peers in sight. One of these was a gift from Yawarakai to a very good friend and ally Tobirama Senju, the second Hokage, and is known as the Raijin no Ken. A blade now considered to be a priceless treasure to Konoha, and was once stolen but has since been recovered.

Even I am uncertain of Yawarakai's exact level of mastery in this ancient and secretive art, as it is nearly impossible to gauge his level of skill with so little information on the man. With only a few blades of his still in existence and those being lesser blades in comparison to his truly great works, and even fewer stories or descriptions of his weapons in combat, as he tended to leave very few survivors. And most of the accounts from those who survived being at best distorted and shaky from the trauma one must have endured from a battle with the man. Not to mention the trauma of seeing so many of your comrades die to such a weapon, people naturally tend to exaggerate and demonize such a thing, through no fault of their own.

Even if he also happened to be the most prolific writer and mind pertaining to the subject of Chakra Smithing in known history, which is both saying a tremendous amount and very very little. As most of his manuscripts are based almost entirely in mythical theory and study of other Chakra Smiths, many or possibly all of whom were lesser smiths than himself, or are so vague on the topic that they only barely serve as a history lesson to the uninitiated and a reminder to historians that this skill does indeed exist and that even the man himself believed he never came close to The Sage.

Even Konoha, his village and nation's greatest ally, only has a scant few scrolls or bits of knowledge from this once living legend that pertain to Chakra Smithing. Or even just to what any of his really powerful blades could do.

But I believe it would be more than safe to say that he was without a doubt the person closest to reaching the myth of the Fuchūina ejji.