Chapter 446: Ninja World Exchange Students
Ishiro's words made Konan's face light up with joy. She hadn't expected him to agree so readily.
But after thinking carefully about his words, something seemed a little off.
She looked at Yahiko and Nagato and found that her two companions were looking at her with strange expressions. Ishiro's thought-form was also smiling at her.
Only then did she react; his words had a double meaning.
Her face flushed slightly red, and she put on a fierce expression, glaring at the three bad men who were enjoying her predicament. The three immediately looked away.
Yahiko quickly changed the subject. "Ishiro, won't this be too difficult for you? Will the high command in your village really agree?"
"If they object, you don't have to force it. Even if the exam is held in your village again, we will still come."
"This will not affect the signing of our treaty."
Ishiro rolled his eyes internally. Since when is diplomacy between nations this candid?
But on the surface, he said, "Don't worry. The advisory council in my village is better than you think. They are not that stubborn."
"Besides, two of the advisors are my disciples. You've met them: Kawakita and Megumi. My voice carries a lot of weight in the council meetings."
Konan said in surprise, "Kawakita and Megumi have both become advisors? Some time ago, there was a rumor that Kawakita was already Kage-level. Is that true?"
Ishiro nodded. "That's right. And I have to thank you all for the swordsmanship you gave him when he was a child. He is now walking a path similar to that of a samurai. He became a Kage through swordsmanship and is very strong in close combat."
Nagato asked, "Skilled in swordsmanship, like Hanzō?"
Ishiro said, "Yes. When we killed Hanzō, didn't he leave behind a scroll of his insights on swordsmanship? Kawakita learned a lot from it."
Nagato nodded. He also had a copy of that scroll, but neither the Land of Rivers nor the Land of Rain had any suitable ninja to practice it.
"Later, I took him on a trip to the Land of Iron, where he challenged many of their masters," Ishiro continued.
"Finally, under the guidance of Mifune, the leader of the Land of Iron's craftsman village, Kawakita finally became a Quasi-Kage. By my calculation, that should be a little earlier than when you did, Konan."
Konan was a little envious. "Ishiro, your ability to teach disciples is truly amazing. What about Megumi? What is her strength now?"
Ishiro said, "She is an elite jonin now. She became one even earlier than Kawakita."
"Oh, right. Kanako is also an elite jonin now. Your guidance was a great help to her. The insights you gave her last time pointed out the path for her."
"She can now also directly create explosive tags from her chakra. I'll bring her to this joint Chunin Exam."
"Mm-hmm," Konan nodded vigorously.
Seeing this, Ishiro asked, "Have you all been taking on disciples these years? How are they doing?"
At this, Konan deflated a little. "Our disciples, let alone being as outstanding as Kawakita, we don't even have a single elite jonin like Megumi or Kanako."
"Among all the disciples, the strongest is only a Quasi-Jonin. Although he has been given the title of jonin in the River Village, if he were placed in one of your five great villages, he definitely wouldn't be able to make the cut."
Ishiro thought for a moment. "How about this: our two sides can deepen our ties and create an exchange student system. Every year, or every six months, we can both send a few, or a dozen, people to each other's ninja academies to study."
"Our Iwagakure has established branches in the Land of Snow, the Land of Demons, and the Land of Waterfalls. We will be using this method between these three branches and our village's academy."
"If you are interested, your students can also go to these branches."
"The three of you are very strong, but the other people in your lands are not. Your geniuses have no peers to compete against."
"In this environment, their growth will be very limited. It's good for them to go out and see the world."
After speaking, he thought to himself: This method... I should discuss it with the village high command. We can also use it on Kirigakure.
Konan's eyes lit up. "That's great! Our academy just happens to have several students with good talent right now."
"It's just that their strength has already surpassed their peers in the village by a large margin, and their motivation to train is not strong."
Ishiro smiled. "Then bring all these geniuses to our Iwagakure. Let them see the level of the geniuses cultivated by a great hidden village."
Yahiko nodded. "This is a good idea."
Ishiro said, "Your biggest problem should be that you are unable to cultivate enough outstanding juniors."
"In terms of top-tier combat power alone, you are no worse than the five great villages. Considering Nagato's strength, you are stronger than most of them."
"But your ordinary ninja are completely insufficient. If you can change this situation, you might become the Sixth Great Ninja Village."
"This way, more people will get to know you and will proactively learn about your ideals of peace."
Ishiro had painted a big pie for the three of them.
Yahiko was very much looking forward to this "pie."
Ishiro chatted with the three about some relevant matters concerning the Chunin Exams, then deactivated the Magic Lantern Body Technique.
Before he left, he said to Konan, "Goodbye, Konan. I'll come to see you again next time."
Then he disappeared, leaving a blushing Konan to face the strange gazes of Yahiko and Nagato.
She clenched her fists and thought: The next time his real body comes, I must let him know how formidable I am.
Seeing this, Yahiko smiled and imitated Ishiro: "Konan, I'm going to handle official business. I'll come to see you again next time."
After speaking, he slipped away, leaving a crimson-faced Konan grinding her teeth.
Seeing this, Nagato knew he would become the scapegoat if he didn't leave, so he directly used a body flicker and left the room.
...
Iwagakure, in the Tsuchikage's office.
Elevating the River Village to the Sixth Great Ninja Village and giving Yahiko the title of Kage was originally just something Ishiro had said offhandedly. But now, sitting alone in his office and thinking about it, he felt that this matter was very beneficial to him.
Having a mid-sized hidden village as an ally, and having a great hidden village as an ally, gave two completely different impressions.
This was because he could feel in the high-level meetings that the other leaders in his village placed great importance on their alliance with Kirigakure but were not too concerned about their relationship with the Akatsuki. He believed that other ninja and other villages thought the same.
Once the alliance of Konoha, Suna, and Kumo was formed, in the eyes of most people in the ninja world, the situation would be three against two. Iwagakure's situation would look very unfavorable. After all, they did not have the incredible battle record of Konoha in the past, having fought against four and won.
After thinking about the situation for a while, Ishiro recalled something and took out the ninja world map.
During the battle in the Land of Hot Water, his Mind's Eye, enhanced by Sage Mode, had been fully open. Its range was so vast, far beyond anyone's imagination, including the extremely cautious White Zetsu clones.
The clones had been scouting from more than twenty kilometers away. This distance was already very far; it was difficult for even the Byakugan and the Aburame clan's kikaichū, the strongest reconnaissance abilities in the ninja world, to reach that far. Ishiro himself, when he was doing bad things, would often hide this far away to peek. For example, during the Nine-Tails' rampage in Konoha, he had quietly observed from such a distance.
But the Zetsu clones did not know that after the continuous three changes in Konoha, the extreme sensory range of his Mind's Eye had already risen to a terrifying eighty kilometers. This ability had already surpassed the category of a ninja and was somewhat like that of a sage.
During the intense battle, he hadn't noticed them, especially since they were so strong at hiding their presence. But after the battle, just before leaving, he had subconsciously done a global scan. As a result, he had discovered dozens of White Zetsu clones in the area twenty kilometers away.
Perhaps because they had seen the battle end, more than half of them had quickly left the battlefield.
And what concerned him the most was that the direction in which these clones had left was basically the same.
The White Zetsu's Mayfly technique allowed them to travel underground without obstruction; normally, there was no need to turn. So, Ishiro had every reason to believe that the direction they had left in was the direction of their new base.
It was just that he couldn't guess how far away this new base was.
He found the location of the battle on the map and then, using this as an endpoint, drew a ray along the direction the Zetsu had departed. The ray crossed the ninja world, dividing the map into two parts.
Ishiro looked at this line thoughtfully. Unsurprisingly, Obito and the Gedo Statue were on this line.
But just this one line was not enough. He still needed other intelligence.
While lightly tapping the desktop with his fingers, Ishiro revealed a sinister smile, looking exactly like a great villain plotting a conspiracy.
After a while, he arrived at the training ground for Squad Six.
Seeing his three disciples concentrating on their training, he felt that he was somewhat unqualified as a teacher. He had been causing trouble so often recently that he had neglected their guidance.
He walked over, beckoned to the three of them, and said, "Come over. Tell me about your recent training results."
"Master Ishiro, my Super Beast Scroll Technique has run into difficulties," the first to speak was Sasagawa Ayumi.
Ayumi's training path had never had a role model. Ishiro had traded for this ninjutsu from Orochimaru, but there were no relevant insights with it. Ayumi, with the strength of a genin, was directly practicing at least an A-rank ninjutsu. To be more precise, he was actually practicing a secret technique. It would be a ghost story if things had gone smoothly.
Even if it had been Ishiro himself, who excelled at Water Release, if he had been given the Hōzuki clan's Hydrification Technique when he was just a genin, it would have been heaven-defying if he had succeeded.
Ayumi continued, "Master Ishiro, I also know that chakra is magical. But how can chakra make a drawing into a moving object? I have no idea, and the ninjutsu scroll doesn't describe it in detail."
Ishiro thought for a moment. This Super Beast Scroll likely required a special talent to practice. How to achieve this key point required a special understanding of chakra. This kind of understanding was difficult to write down and could not form a stable inheritance. So, it had never been recorded in the scroll.
Thus, he said directly, "Your teacher is not good at this aspect either. How about this: in a little while, I'll take you to meet someone. You can learn from her how to deal with similar problems."
Ayumi asked curiously, "Does that person know the Super Beast Scroll?"
Ishiro shook his head. "No. What that person knows is Paper Release, a magical ability to transform chakra into paper."
"Paper Release is somewhat similar to what you are learning. They are both magical uses of chakra. She might be able to teach you something."
Ayumi nodded, a little dejected. He felt that he had failed to meet his teacher's expectations. Ishiro had gotten such a high-level scroll for him, but in the end, he still needed to ask others for help.
Ishiro knew what he was thinking but said nothing. This was something he would naturally understand in the future. When he also had disciples, he would understand.
Then, he looked at Chiga. Compared to Ayumi, her training was undoubtedly much smoother. At the very least, she had already trained her blood-sensing ability to a very proficient level. Combined with the sensory ninjutsu he had taught her, she was at least barely qualified as a sensory ninja.
However, Ishiro's expectations for her were very high. This level was not enough.
After thinking, Ishiro said, "Chiga, I don't know where your blood-sensing ability comes from, or if you were born with it."
"But your development of this ability cannot just stop at using it. You have to study where its limits are."
"For example, how many creatures can you sense at one time? How long before the blood left by a living being becomes ineffective? How much blood is needed for you to successfully sense it?"
"For example, how to extend the sensing time, how to judge the other party's distance."
"And, for example," Ishiro paused, then said, "I require that you not only be able to sense the owner of the blood, but also to sense the people connected to this person by bloodline, such as their parents, their children."
"If you are facing a very strong ninja, it will be very difficult to get their blood. But their relatives may not be strong."
"If you can get their relatives' blood and thus complete a lock on this strong person, then the use of your blood-sensing will also be greatly enhanced."
Chiga was taken aback. At this moment, she finally understood what aspect of her Ishiro valued. After his guidance, she suddenly thought of many things.
Many ninja in the world had large clans. If she could use one person's blood to locate all the members of his family, then when those clans encountered her on the battlefield, it would be a nightmare. Even more so, if her ability could also distinguish the strength of the enemy, then in certain special times, even the Byakugan might be surpassed by her.
Chiga nodded vigorously.
"Your teacher is the Tsuchikage and can provide you with many conveniences. If you need ninja blood, I will arrange for the Anbu to give you some for experiments," Ishiro added.
Chiga's eyes lit up, and she quickly nodded her thanks.
Ishiro said no more but looked at the last one, Sōkai.
(End of Chapter)
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