Chapter 217: The Final Victor

Chapter 217: The Final Victor

As it turned out, Ishiro's worries were unnecessary. This timing was too advantageous for Iwagakure. Konoha being bogged down in the Land of Whirlpools battlefield meant that the most likely force to cause trouble was absent.

So, after the three days of competition ended, Iwagakure remained peaceful and safe. Apart from providing more topics for everyone's conversations and the three days of competition bringing a significant wave of income to Iwagakure's finances, nothing else happened.

At the entrance of Iwagakure, Ishiro bid farewell to Yahiko and his two companions. Walking back alone, he listened to the villagers' discussions and smiled faintly to himself.

Ogura Saki and her two companions were probably not in a good mood right now.

The ultimate winner of this Chunin Exam was from Sunagakure, precisely the puppet master whom Ishiro and Koku had paid close attention to during the written exam that day.

Ishiro still remembered the Kazekage's loud laughter coming from the high platform when the competition ended.

And Ishiro's three disciples were all dissatisfied with their own performances. Ogura Saki was eliminated on the second day during the 21-to-11 match.

Takumi fared better, only encountering a strong opponent in the first match of the third day. The one who defeated him was that same Sand puppet master. He was ultimately stopped outside the top six.

Shinya Matsutani had the best luck, squeezing into the top six. But with his insufficient chakra, he was outmatched in such continuous competitions. After the first match, he had little chakra left because he had consumed too much when performing his combination ninjutsu, so he was quickly defeated in the second match.

None of Ishiro's three disciples made it into the top three.

From Iwagakure's side, two made it into the final top three. One of them was Ikura's disciple, Hanpei Haraguchi. Unfortunately, in the end, both Stone ninjas lost to that Sand puppet master.

So today, the most discussed topic among the village civilians was that Sand ninja. Everyone felt it was a great pity; clearly, Iwagakure occupied two of the top three spots, yet the grand prize was taken by a Sand ninja.

"Ryosuke, a new generation genius puppet master from a civilian background in Sunagakure." Ishiro murmured the name of this newly promoted Chunin from the Sand named Ryosuke, then quickened his pace towards the training ground.

Sure enough, Ogura Saki and her two companions were training desperately, and Ikura's three disciples were also there. The six of them were training individually, without any communication.

Ishiro watched for a while, then clapped his hands, calling the six over.

"I know you feel bad for losing to ninjas of your own age. But I want to tell you, ninjas must get used to this kind of failure. Since the era of hidden villages began, apart from Konoha's First Hokage, no one has been able to prove themselves the strongest in any given era."

"How to face failure is also a very important lesson in a ninja's career. Take me, for example. My talent is average, not outstanding among my peers. Although I entered the advanced class during my Ninja Academy days, my practical combat results were always at the bottom."

"However, now in the village, only two people can defeat me." Ishiro held up two fingers.

After a pause, Ishiro continued, "And I know the gap between myself and those truly strong individuals. I have been working hard, I believe in the path I have chosen, and I firmly believe that one day, I can stand at the same height as them."

"Only I can defeat myself. If others defeat me, it will only give me one more goal to strive for."

After Ishiro gave the six a bowl of "chicken soup for the soul" (a pep talk), he was about to crack some jokes when he was surprised to find that Ogura Saki's entire demeanor had changed after hearing his words.

Ishiro's words had suddenly made her realize that she had never been a genius; she had always been a pursuer striving relentlessly for a correct goal.

Ishiro was very familiar with this scene. He gestured to the other five, signaling them not to disturb Ogura Saki. Then he left Ogura Saki alone to quietly complete her first transformation.

Watching Ogura Saki immersed in her own world, Ishiro's thoughts suddenly drifted back to his first batch of disciples. According to Ikura, Chiko Tomoe had also completed her first transformation during the Chunin Exams.

Could it be that the Chunin Exams were a hurdle for his disciples?

"It seems it's about time to disband the second squad. I wonder what my third batch of disciples will be like?" Ishiro began to look forward to the future with anticipation.

Originally, Ishiro had come to comfort the six youngsters, but with Ogura Saki's interruption, everyone's mentality had adjusted, and Ishiro's further words were no longer needed.

After Ogura Saki awakened, Ishiro took out a large pile of ninjutsu from a sealing scroll – B-rank and C-rank alike – and distributed them among his three disciples.

Then Ishiro ruffled each of their heads and said, "Teacher can only accompany you this far. You will have to walk the rest of the path yourselves."

Then Ishiro said to Ikura's three disciples, "Haha, none for you. If you want ninjutsu, go find your own teacher."

Dai Shimoyama rolled her eyes. She understood this contemporary of her own teacher much better than her two teammates did; he was just a goofball.

Starting today, he would train wholeheartedly until the Ninja Academy's new batch of graduates finished.

Ishiro had many things to train. Sage Jutsu, which had been suspended for over a month, needed to be picked up again. His proficiency with Chidori Nagashi needed to be deepened. The application of Lightning Release: Lightning Burst also needed to be arranged, as this would aid in the development of his new Kekkei Genkai later.

Besides these training contents related to the main quests, Ishiro also needed to conduct many other practices. For example, new tactical research for Lightning Release, practice of the S-rank ninjutsu Shinra Tensei, improving proficiency with Porcelain Release, and in-depth development of Water Release.

After viewing all of Iwagakure's A-rank ninjutsu, Ishiro also had a few suitable ninjutsu he wanted to train, such as the Weighted Boulder Jutsu.

It was just that Ishiro had long since gotten used to the setting of never having enough time, so he naturally made some trade-offs, prioritizing the main quests first.

Among the three training items related to the main quests, the simplest was the research of Lightning Release: Lightning Burst.

This was the easiest point; Ishiro already had a training direction.

That was Lightning Release: Rasengan. Ishiro planned to incorporate the Lightning Release application from the Lightning Burst ninjutsu into the Rasengan.

Ishiro accompanied his three disciples in training for another day, then found Ōnoki and explained Ogura Saki's situation and his own intention to disband the second squad.

Ōnoki was very pleasantly surprised upon hearing this. He hesitated for a moment and said, "Ishiro, I will arrange for these three. But, why don't you take on a few more disciples this time?"

Ishiro was speechless. What was this situation? Had he encountered a capitalist? Was this an attempt to exploit him to death?

Seeing Ishiro looking at him warily, Ōnoki snorted and said, "If you take on three more disciples, I can agree to let you manage one less department."

Hmm, this condition was quite tempting. The departments Ishiro was originally in charge of were four: the Medical Department, the Intelligence Department, the Interrogation Department, and overseeing the Tailed Beasts.

Later, the Intelligence Department was transferred to Saka. The department with the most affairs for Ishiro was no longer his concern, so Ishiro's workload had not been heavy recently.

However, among the remaining three departments, the Medical Department was undergoing major changes, so it usually had many affairs. Most of the documents Ishiro processed came from the Medical Department.

If the Medical Department was also removed, would he be completely idle?

But taking on six disciples seemed a bit tiring.

After thinking for a moment, Ishiro said, "Lord Tsuchikage, have you ever considered increasing the number of advisors? Look, although each of us has departments we are in charge of, the ninja world has many affairs, and we often need to go out. If there could be one or two more people, wouldn't the village's administrative processing be more efficient?"

Hearing Ishiro's words, Ōnoki was initially annoyed, thinking: "You are clearly the most relaxed person, yet you are still thinking of slacking off."

But as he listened, Ōnoki became tempted. His workload was the largest; almost all documents processed by the advisors had to pass through Ōnoki's hands again.

Although in most cases, Ōnoki would not change the advisors' handling opinions, all Kage of various hidden villages went through this to understand village affairs in detail.

But after hearing Ishiro say this, Ōnoki suddenly thought of adding an advisor specifically to help him process documents.

Shaking his head to dismiss the thought, Ōnoki continued to Ishiro, "I will consider increasing the number of advisors. But even if it's increased, the number of departments you are in charge of will not decrease."

Ishiro said "Oh," and walked away dejectedly.

The next day, Ishiro was alone in Han's valley, developing the Lightning Release Rasengan. The second squad had already been disbanded, and his three disciples had begun their new ninja paths as Chunin.

Ishiro had already decided that after Ikura finished the matters at hand, he would start training Sage Jutsu. In the future, apart from the daily practice of absorbing natural energy, the rest of the time would be used for training. And the main content of the training would be the Lightning Release Rasengan.

A few days later, the joint Chunin Exams, which had garnered much attention from all parties in the ninja world, completely faded from everyone's sight.

Just as everyone was turning their attention to the Land of Whirlpools battlefield, a treaty of alliance between four nations—Earth, Wind, Rain, and Rivers—directly detonated the entire ninja world.

It was heard that after Konoha held a high-level meeting for an entire night, they dispatched a support force led by Orochimaru and Jiraiya the next day, heading directly to the Land of Whirlpools frontline.

Konoha had finally made up its mind to completely end the war.

The imposing Konoha wanted to replicate the scene from the Land of Rivers battlefield where they dealt with Sunagakure, but they came up empty. Yagura Karatachi led the Mist ninjas to retreat just in time.

Konoha directly became a laughingstock.

However, this decisive action by Konoha's higher-ups also aroused the vigilance of other countries.

Konoha was still Konoha. Even if it had suffered heavy losses in the Third Great Ninja War, its high-end combat power was still intact. Konoha could casually dispatch three Kage-level individuals to the same battlefield while ensuring its main base was not empty.

This was something other hidden villages could not do no matter what. So Konoha's purpose of flexing its muscles this time was still achieved.

Regardless, the Third Great Ninja War was thoroughly over. All countries began to review the entire war, discovering that only the Land of Earth was the complete winner. Konoha only obtained the empty title of a victorious nation. Beyond that, it gained no substantial benefits.

Whether there were benefits or not, Konoha originally didn't care; Konoha hadn't gained anything in the previous two great wars either. But everything is feared by comparison. When Konoha's higher-ups compared the situation before and after the war, they embarrassingly discovered that the final victor was only Iwagakure.

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