Chapter 285: Receiving
Chapter 285: Receiving
Due to Kawakita's restlessness, Konoha deliberately dispatched many Elite Jonin to the site of the Chunin Exams when they began.
However, Konoha had clearly overthought it. Kawakita made no unusual moves, and the contestants from Iwagakure participating in this Chunin Exam were also very well-behaved. Only two of the four squads passed the first round, and in the second round, only Chiko Tomoe's squad successfully made it to the central tower.
But because the three disciples of Chiko were lacking in individual combat power and were deliberately targeted by Konoha in the third round's preliminary matches, all of them were defeated.
With all of Iwagakure's contestants defeated, a few from the Sand did make it into the finals. The Cloud and Mist did not send anyone to participate in the exams this time.
However, neither Chiko nor Kawakita cared about winning or losing. They had successfully attracted Konoha's attention, drawing many Elite Jonin here and reducing the possibility of Ikura's side being exposed.
Even Chiko's three disciples were mostly excited. With their talent, being able to fight against Konoha's geniuses at this age, they all said it was worth it.
Since there were no more Iwagakure contestants after the third preliminary round, and Kawakita's request to challenge Konoha's kenjutsu masters again was directly rejected by Konoha, helplessly, Kawakita and the Iwa examinees could only stay in Konoha for one more night before leaving.
The Konoha Anbu, with the help of the Hyuga clan's Byakugan, monitored Kawakita's group all the way until they left the border of the Land of Fire.
What Konoha didn't discover was that on the day before Kawakita's group left, the Anbu led by Ikura had already left Konoha Village a step ahead with the thirteen Uchiha children.
Although Ikura's group occasionally encountered a few Konoha ninja squads along the way, under Ikura's Kage-level ambushes, the Konoha squads were all annihilated before they could even send a distress signal.
A few days later, Ishiro smoothly received Ikura's group at the border of the Land of Earth. Looking at the children being held by the Anbu around Ikura, Ishiro breathed a sigh of relief.
He glanced at Koku beside him, who had his Byakugan activated. Seeing Koku nod, signaling no problem, Ishiro then said to Sakai, who was standing beside him, "Go and see your younger brothers and sisters."
Sakai quickly stepped forward, looking at this one, then at that one, poking this one's face, then hugging that one. He felt as if he was doing nothing, yet was too busy to handle it all.
Ishiro's group waited at the border for another day. After Kawakita's group also arrived in the Land of Earth, they all headed towards Iwagakure together.
After arriving at Iwagakure, Ishiro pulled Ikura and the others into a high-level meeting.
First, they discussed how to arrange for these Uchiha children. In the end, at Ishiro's insistence, the thirteen children were dispersed for adoption, all given to childless civilians or small ninja families.
The ninjas of the Uchiha clan should not huddle together anymore; it was fine for them to live their own lives. They shouldn't think about the glory of the Uchiha clan anymore; just peacefully provide Kekkei Genkai ninjas for Iwagakure would be enough.
Next, Ishiro handed over the newly established Tactical Department to Ikura, letting him directly select suitable personnel from within Iwagakure to form the department.
Finally, Ishiro proposed that he wanted to take his disciple, Kawakita, out for a trip. This reason was very powerful. Kawakita was an Elite Jonin, and a young one at that. A genius like this, if not for Iwagakure having Ishiro and Ikura, Ōnoki might have even taken him as a disciple and cultivated him as a successor.
So when Ishiro proposed to take Kawakita out to challenge sword masters to seek improvement, Ōnoki and the others simply couldn't object to this perfectly legitimate reason. They could only pinch their noses and agree.
Ishiro left the conference room full of valor and vigor. For the first time, he felt he had achieved a fundamental victory in a high-level meeting.
The training of his three new disciples was at a critical introductory stage, so Ishiro decided to bring them along on this trip out of the village as well.
"Teacher Ishiro, are we going to the Village Hidden in the Clouds?" After leaving the village, Kawakita looked at the direction and felt it wasn't quite right.
To go to Kumogakure, they should take the water route, but Ishiro was leading them towards the Land of Waterfalls. Ishiro was planning to take the land route, so Kawakita felt it was strange.
Ishiro shook his head and said, "If we go to Kumogakure, that's called an invasion. The Cloud and we are neighboring countries separated by the sea. Although we have Konoha as a common enemy, we are also in a competitive relationship."
"The Cloud ninjas aren't stupid. Why would they help our village train a ninja? With the Fourth Raikage's fearless personality, he might just keep us there."
"We are going to pass through the Land of Waterfalls to get to the Land of Iron. The samurai of the Land of Iron are all masters of the sword."
"Samurai?" Kawakita was lost in thought.
At this time, Riori Uzumaki beside him asked, "Teacher Ishiro, do samurai also use chakra and ninjutsu?"
Ishiro said, "Early samurai only studied sword techniques and did not extract chakra. Modern samurai, most of them also extract chakra. However, they generally don't use ninjutsu."
"But a ninja can never think according to common sense. There will also be exceptions among samurai. In fact, you have all seen a samurai who could use ninjutsu."
"We've seen one too?" Akino Atsumi asked doubtfully. She didn't remember it at all.
Riori and Kiyoshi Ishizawa also had puzzled looks on their faces.
Ishiro smiled and didn't answer.
"It was Hanzō," Kawakita answered for Ishiro.
"Ah? Hanzō was a samurai? How could that be?" Riori's face was full of surprise.
Ishiro nodded and said, "That's right. Hanzō came from a samurai background. It's just that he broke the shackles of the samurai and walked a path combining both samurai and ninja."
"Sigh, actually, Hanzō was barely qualified to be called a demigod. Possessing the strengths of both schools, Hanzō was nearly unrivaled in one-on-one frontal combat back in his day."
"Teacher, why are you sighing?" Kiyoshi asked.
Ishiro was silent for a moment, then said, "Hanzō's failure lay in his detachment from reality. Being too successful in his early years, rising to the peak of the ninja world so smoothly, made Hanzō seem not so down-to-earth."
"During the Second Great Ninja War, Hanzō was originally confident that he could win the status of the sixth great hidden village for Amegakure, but he failed. After that, Hanzō lived in the shadow of that failure."
"Actually, Hanzō lacked a friend. If in those years, there had been a close friend to tell Hanzō that his efforts were not in vain, that although Amegakure did not get the title of the sixth great hidden village, his persistence had already made the five great nations not dare to look down on him."
"Since the beginning of the Third War, the five great nations' attitude towards Amegakure has not been as casual as towards other small villages. These are all changes that Hanzō brought to Amegakure and the Land of Rain. But Hanzō didn't think so. He always felt that his failure to bring Amegakure to the top at once was his failure."
"Teacher Ishiro, are you saying that Hanzō was too hasty, didn't recognize his own strength, and was too ambitious?" Akino said.
Kawakita was lost in thought at the side.
Ishiro nodded and concluded, "So, in the future, you must never give up on yourselves because of one or two failures. The ninja world is full of geniuses. The one who can laugh last is the true winner."
Since the establishment of the hidden village era, how many Kage-level individuals had appeared in the ninja world? But among these many Kage, how many could live to the grand finale? If it were like the Third Mizukage, whose life was nearing its end, that would be one thing. But the fact was, most Kage-level individuals died in battle.
In the original story, if not for Madara holding back, all five Kage would have been wiped out.
In the end, even after successfully sealing Kaguya Ōtsutsuki, not many Kage-level individuals survived.
Those once stunningly talented prodigies, all reappeared as someone else's puppets.
Ishiro felt some emotion and no longer participated in the chatting of his three new disciples for the rest of the journey.
A few days later, the group of five finally arrived in the Land of Iron.
The strongest in the Land of Iron was naturally Mifune. However, Mifune's strength, if classified by ninja rank, was solidly Kage-level. Kawakita was still far from being a match.
Ishiro led the five to change into the attire of Land of Iron samurai, then equipped each of them with a fitting samurai sword. Then he began to take Kawakita to challenge the famous sword masters within the Land of Iron.
The first master Kawakita challenged was a master of the quick-draw slash in a border region of the Land of Iron.
In their first exchange, Kawakita was somewhat unaccustomed to the samurai's fighting style. Samurai were different from ninjas. Ninjas would usually probe the opponent's abilities, while samurai would mostly choose to seek a quick victory.
And samurai who specialized in the quick-draw slash were experts in this regard. Kawakita's opponent used his ultimate move as soon as the match started, nearly insta-killing Kawakita.
After dodging the vital point by a hair's breadth, Kawakita suffered a minor injury. Fortunately, the opponent lacked a powerful follow-up attack; otherwise, Kawakita would have been dead for sure.
After a few rounds of offense and defense, Kawakita finally grasped the rhythm of samurai combat. Seizing the opportunity when the opponent was charging up after another quick-draw, he injured the opponent with a single strike.
The strength of the first opponent was clearly inferior to Kawakita's, yet Kawakita had almost lost his life. This made the impatience Kawakita felt about his sword techniques not improving slowly calm down.
Next, as the group gradually approached Takumi Village, where the Land of Iron's samurai gathered, the strength of the opponents Kawakita challenged also continuously increased.
However, although the opponents were stronger, Kawakita's performance was even better than before. On the way to Takumi Village, Kawakita had not tasted defeat once.
Originally, Ishiro's plan was to continue having Kawakita issue challenges step-by-step after arriving at Takumi Village.
But who knew that just as they arrived at the entrance of Takumi Village, they saw Mifune leading a large group of people there to welcome them.
Ishiro quickly led the four forward. Ishiro spoke first, "Could you be Senior Mifune?"
Mifune did not put on airs and replied, "I am Mifune. I wonder what important business the Tsuchikage has in Takumi Village. The Land of Iron has always been neutral. If the Tsuchikage has no important business, please return."
Well now. Not only did he recognize him, but from this posture, it seemed he didn't even want him to enter Takumi Village.
Ishiro was not angry either. The Land of Iron had always been neutral, and he understood Mifune. So he said, "I can understand Senior Mifune's concerns. This trip to the Land of Iron has nothing to do with the affairs of the Land of Earth or Iwagakure."
"This is my disciple, Kawakita. He loves sword techniques, but our Iwagakure is not skilled in this. So I brought him to the country with the strongest sword techniques in the ninja world to see the world," Ishiro said, pointing at Kawakita, to Mifune and the nervous people behind him.
After Ishiro finished speaking, he could clearly feel that most of these people breathed a sigh of relief. They were just afraid that the five great nations wanted to drag them into the flames of war.
Since Ishiro had spoken politely, Mifune couldn't be too harsh either. So he said, "Since it's like this, most of the sword masters of Takumi Village are here now. Why not just spar right here?"
Ishiro had no objections either. In both his past and present lives, Ishiro had come from grassroots origins and didn't have so many particularities.
Nodding at Kawakita, Ishiro led Riori and the other two back a certain distance, leaving only Kawakita standing on the spot.
Seeing this, Mifune also led his people back a bit. Then Mifune signaled to one of them. That person immediately walked out of the crowd and came before Kawakita.
Kawakita was not a man of many words either. He nodded at the other party and then launched an attack.
The two were of similar strength. After many rounds back and forth, they were evenly matched. In the end, Kawakita, relying on a ninja's unconventional thinking, narrowly won by a single move.
Seeing Kawakita's performance, the people on Mifune's side were relieved. Kawakita's strength was not weak, especially reaching this level at such a young age; his talent was indeed enviable.
But this swordsmanship certainly wouldn't tarnish the reputation of the Land of Iron. Setting aside Mifune, there were many among them who were confident their strength was above Kawakita's. Kawakita's swordsmanship was inherited from them, but in their eyes, it was still too green.
Sure enough, next, seven or eight masters came out one after another, and each of them defeated Kawakita. A few experienced and powerful ones managed to stop in time. For the few who couldn't stop in time, Ishiro directly intervened with Bansho Ten'in.
The reason why he continued despite multiple consecutive failures was that he saw the light in Kawakita's eyes growing brighter and brighter.
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