Chapter 216: Forming an Alliance

Chapter 216: Forming an Alliance

The Land of Rivers, aware of its status as a small nation, arrived early, even though the final round of matches was still three days away.

Ishiro led Yahiko and his companions to the accommodations carefully prepared for them by Iwagakure, and only then did he pull the three of them along to tour the Stone Village.

Iwagakure could indeed be called prosperous now. As they strolled through, Yahiko and his two companions were filled with envy.

While treating the three to Iwagakure's unique local snacks, Ishiro also introduced them to the layout of the Stone Village.

Yahiko knew Ishiro was teaching him how to build his Village Hidden in the Rivers, so he listened very attentively.

Of course, Ishiro only touched briefly on matters involving confidential information.

After dinner, Ishiro escorted Yahiko and his companions back to their lodgings and arranged to bring his own disciples to meet them the next day. Nagato mentioned that the three of them were also preparing to take on disciples, but the children they had their eyes on were still in school and had not yet formally become their students. Naturally, they hadn't come along this time.

Upon hearing this, Ishiro immediately began to think about what gift to give. The best gift for a ninja was, of course, ninjutsu. When he had taken disciples himself, Yahiko and his group had gifted him two B-rank ninjutsu and a set of B-rank sword techniques.

But Ishiro had already given all his own ninjutsu to Yahiko to serve as the foundation for the Village Hidden in the Rivers. The only things he could offer now were the Lightning Release: Chidori and Lightning Release: Chidori Nagashi.

Although the other five C-rank Lightning Release ninjutsu were learned by observation from Cloud ninjas by Ishiro, Koku had contributed to their acquisition, so Ishiro couldn't give them to ninjas outside of Iwagakure.

And Chidori and Chidori Nagashi were both A-rank ninjutsu, not suitable as gifts for fledgling Genin.

Thus, Ishiro spent an entire night writing down his own training insights. Ishiro believed these insights held some value, especially the thought process behind developing ninjutsu, which should be helpful to new ninjas.

While Ishiro was at home writing his insights, Yahiko, upon returning to their lodgings, was pulled aside by the high-ranking officials from the Land of Rivers and asked many questions. When they heard that Ishiro was an advisor to Iwagakure, they were surprised by the breadth of Yahiko's connections and also gained more confidence in this trip.

Actually, they still lacked understanding of ninjas and didn't comprehend Nagato's and Yahiko's current strength. Otherwise, Ishiro felt they might develop ambitions similar to Hanzō's back then, thinking of pushing the Land of Rivers into the ranks of major powers.

Currently, the strength of all nations in the ninja world was generally at its historical peak. Kirigakure's number of Kage-level individuals had reached two, comparable to its strongest period.

Kumogakure, including Killer Bee, had three, placing it in its golden age.

Iwagakure, including Ishiro, also had three, surpassing its historical strongest period.

Only Sunagakure was somewhat miserable, consistently maintaining two Kage-level individuals. But if the Third Kazekage hadn't died and Sasori hadn't defected, the Land of Wind, possessing four Kage-level individuals, would still be the second strongest in the ninja world.

As for Konoha, including Kushina Uzumaki and Fugaku Uchiha, they had a total of eight Kage-level individuals, also the period with the most Kage-level individuals since the village's founding. This didn't even count Might Duy, who was super-Kage level for half a minute.

Under these circumstances, the Village Hidden in the Rivers producing two Kage-level individuals didn't seem like much.

But looking back ten years, the total number of Kage-level individuals in the Five Great Shinobi Countries would be at least seven fewer. If the Land of Rivers had possessed two Kage-level individuals at that time, even Konoha's Hokage would have lost sleep.

It should be known that the Land of Rain, with only one Kage-level individual back then, had wanted to challenge the status of the Five Great Shinobi Countries.

However, these were all just assumptions. The few high-ranking officials from the Land of Rivers were unaware of Yahiko's and Nagato's true significance; they were merely happy that Yahiko had such a good relationship with an advisor from Iwagakure.

The next day, Ishiro called his six disciples and went together to meet Yahiko and his two companions. Ishiro also gave Nagato the training insights he had written overnight.

Nagato didn't refuse; he genuinely considered Ishiro one of his own. Yes, one of his own on the path to their ideal.

That day, Ishiro again took Yahiko and his companions on a tour of Iwagakure. The four of them also went to Iwagakure's training grounds for a round of sparring.

The results of the sparring left Ishiro somewhat dejected. Losing to Nagato was one thing, but now he couldn't even defeat Yahiko.

Clearly, Ishiro had become a near-Kage first, but Yahiko had progressed faster than him; Yahiko was now almost officially Kage-level.

Ishiro understood the reason: his own physical constitution was too poor, and this transformation process was relatively long.

It was like with Ishiro's first batch of disciples; Chiko Tomoe had clearly begun her transformation first, but it was Kajiyama Ri who became a Jonin first. This was because the difference in their foundations was too great.

Ishiro remembered that it seemed to have taken Nagato only a few months to go from near-Kage to Kage-level, perhaps even less than a few months; after all, Ishiro hadn't been by Nagato's side constantly.

There was no comparing himself to a monster like Nagato, but losing to Yahiko still made Ishiro feel a bit awkward. Although it was just sparring and many trump cards weren't used, Ishiro still felt a sense of frustration.

The changes brought by his Porcelain Release were still too slow; otherwise, his physical constitution would have been fundamentally adjusted long ago.

"Fortunately, I can still bully Konan a bit," Ishiro's mood improved slightly after defeating Konan.

Konan was still only an Elite Jonin at this time. Her Paper Release, intercepted by Ishiro's Porcelain Release, couldn't get close to Ishiro, making her completely countered by him. In the end, Ishiro won easily.

Then Konan replaced Ishiro as the only one among the four in a bad mood.

...

On the final day, the third round of the joint Chunin Exams officially began. Rasa arrived just before the exams started, making quite an entrance.

The seating arrangements in the stands fully considered the status differences of the various leaders. Ōnoki and Rasa sat at the very top, each with two guards standing behind them. On Rasa's other side, a slightly lower spot was left empty; this was reserved for Hanzō.

Although Hanzō had not been invited, Ōnoki still showed due respect.

In a lower position on Ōnoki's other side sat Yahiko, with Nagato and Konan standing behind him. The four positions were neither too close nor too far, allowing for conversation while maintaining a certain safe distance.

After discussion, the village higher-ups did not leave a place for the Third Raikage, because one of the reasons for allying with Sunagakure was to jointly resist Kumogakure.

This was the first time Ōnoki, Rasa, and Yahiko had met each other. Unlike Ōnoki, who was well-prepared, Rasa was very surprised to discover that this small Village Hidden in the Rivers actually had two Kage-level individuals. He even suppressed his dissatisfaction with the original seating arrangement.

Originally, both Sunagakure and Konoha had guessed that the Akatsuki organization, which had taken control of the Land of Rivers, definitely had Kage-level individuals, but Rasa had never imagined there would be two.

This was hard for Rasa to accept, considering that Sunagakure and Iwagakure each only had two Kage-level individuals. Rasa didn't yet know that Ishiro was also near-Kage level.

Today, Ishiro did not appear openly in the venue, the purpose being to conceal his intelligence from Rasa. Anyway, as long as he didn't appear before ninjas of the same or higher rank, it was difficult for other ninjas to perceive a near-Kage's aura.

Only during Ishiro's first close-quarters encounter with Minato Namikaze did he vaguely sense Minato's strength. But Ishiro's judgment at that time was primarily based on the original story.

Yahiko still had some interest in the matches; Rasa and Ōnoki actually had no interest at all.

Then Rasa initiated, and the three began to discuss the matter of forming an alliance. Although the details would take time to hammer out, many broad intentions could be agreed upon first.

Because all three parties had the intention to ally, the conversation between the three leaders went relatively smoothly.

There were also some minor episodes. For example, when Rasa and Yahiko couldn't reach a consensus on a certain matter, Ōnoki proposed that the outcome of a match below would decide it. Whoever judged correctly would be heeded.

This greatly tested a ninja's discernment. Both Rasa and Yahiko agreed.

For the first two matches Ōnoki designated, Rasa and Yahiko both chose the same winner, so it was naturally dropped. It wasn't until the third match, when Ishiro's disciple Ogura Saki faced a puppet master from Sunagakure, that their opinions differed.

Yahiko supported Ogura Saki, while Rasa supported his own village's puppet master. Although their choices had an emotional bias, what was more important was their confidence in the ninja they chose.

The result of the battle made the expression under Rasa's face covering very unsightly; their Sand Village's puppet was utterly defeated.

The strength of a puppet master lies in tactical concealment. Although the battle environment of the exam venue, after being arranged by Iwagakure, was not as empty as the one Konoha held in the original story, it was still not easy to hide puppets.

And Ogura Saki excelled in Wind Release; Wind Release users had relatively strong perception abilities. Although not comparable to specialized sensory ninjutsu, they could still find some clues.

After Ogura Saki used Wind Release to successively destroy two puppets that had lost their concealment, the puppet master, pained by the loss, chose to admit defeat.

Ogura Saki's Wind Tornado was too much of a counter to puppet masters. Wherever the Wind Tornado passed, even if it didn't hit the puppets, it could destroy the chakra control threads along the way.

Such an open and straightforward competition was disadvantageous for puppet masters; unless they had very strong puppetry skills, it was difficult to gain an advantage.

In the afternoon, the 21 matches of the first day ended. All of Ishiro's and Ikura's disciples had advanced.

This was enough for Ishiro. Iwagakure wasn't as fussy as Konoha; according to Ōnoki's plan, as long as one won a match in the third round, they could be promoted to Chunin.

Moreover, ninjas who failed in the first match but performed relatively well could also be successfully promoted. So, there were about 30 promotion spots in this joint Chunin Exam.

Ishiro, who had been hiding in the shadows and cooperating with Koku to secretly learn ninjutsu, smiled faintly when he saw all three of his disciples advance. Their location had been carefully designed when this venue was built, allowing them to clearly sense the contestants in the venue.

After sensing with his Mind's Eye that the three leaders on the high platform had departed, Ishiro said goodbye to Koku and also left.

During the matches, Ishiro had no specific tasks; the alliance negotiations did not require his participation. But Ishiro was not idle either; he needed to personally patrol the entire village, searching for potential enemies.

If anything happened at this time, Iwagakure would be the one to lose face. Ōnoki had to negotiate the alliance with Rasa and Yahiko, and Ikura was in charge of the joint Chunin Exams. Only Ishiro was free, and the village's safety also required his utmost attention.

After patrolling the village, Ishiro went to several secret departments, such as Han's and Rōshi's residences, and places like the prison and medical departments. By the time he had meticulously checked everything, it was already dark.

Due to the influence of the original story, although Ishiro knew that holding the joint Chunin Exams would definitely benefit Iwagakure, he still didn't feel completely at ease.

After Ishiro came out of the intelligence department, he looked at the sky and breathed a sigh of relief. The first day had passed peacefully.

On the second day of the competition, the tension between the contestants was much heavier, but the atmosphere among Ōnoki, Rasa, and Yahiko had become much more harmonious. Evidently, the three parties had reached many agreements the previous night.

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