Path Of War

The throne room was bathed in the light of the late afternoon as Brie continued to sit still on the steps. Above her, Arthur remained asleep in his chair. It was easy to forget the sheer scale of the chessboard he was playing on.

Having somewhat forgotten what happened next, she stood up, looked, and grabbed a paper from the research notes. The title read, "Ryugetsu’s Temple."

"Oh yeah," she whispered. "I forgot you did that."

Her mind once again wandered through the timeline of Arthur’s conquests.

Since his pockets were still deep, and the plaza was still being built, Arthur had adopted his Ryugetsu persona once more to interact with Sora again.

But the boy wasn’t present at the time. Instead, the Temple was under attack by occultists that Arthur and Chiriku managed to eventually defeat.

Things were becoming too easy for Arthur at that point.

The politics, the disguises, the assassinations—it was all routine. But what was an acting feudal lord to do with so much power and idle time? He needed to test his physical limits without revealing his true identity.

So Arthur created a spectacle by using his authority and massive funds to organize the ninja world’s first-ever taijutsu-only tournament.

It was hosted in the Land of Waves, which was perfect since it was still a neutral territory outside the direct jurisdiction of the five great nations. Flyers and promoters were sent to every corner of the map.

The premise was simple: no ninjutsu, no genjutsu, no weapons. Just raw, physical combat.

The turnout became staggering when shinobi from all over the world desired to come. Not everyone could participate, of course. Many applicants had active bounties on their heads, making it far too dangerous to step into an arena surrounded by law enforcement and elite ninjas.