In the 45th year of Konoha, the Hidden Sand Village of the Land of Wind served as the host for the annual joint Chunin Exams. In accordance with shinobi traditions, their ally, the Hidden Leaf Village of the Land of Fire, was naturally on the guest list.
Additionally, several small to medium-sized ninja villages situated around the borders of Wind and Fire—such as the Hidden Rain, Hidden Grass, and Hidden Star—also received invitations and would be dispatching their respective teams to participate.
On the day of departure, under the faint morning light, a delegation of over thirty people had already gathered outside Konoha's main gates.
Apart from Jiraiya, who served as the general leader, the group was entirely composed of the participating Genin and their instructing Jonin.
Jiraiya stood at the front of the formation, looking distinctly absent-minded. He carried the aura of a man who had been dragged out of bed and forced to work against his will. He sluggishly began his brief pre-departure speech:
"Ah—right. Everyone, our destination is the Hidden Sand, and the objective is the Chunin Exams. Remember, you represent the face of Konoha, so make sure you... ah, whatever... safety first. Act within your limits. The Sand has a lot of sand and very little water, so take care of yourselves."
His words carried zero inspirational weight, sounding exactly like a half-hearted, obligatory routine. After finishing, he simply waved his hand. "Alright, let's move out."
The delegation promptly mobilized, embarking on the long journey toward the Hidden Sand Village.
After three days of continuous travel, the group finally crossed the border of the Land of Fire and stepped into the Land of Rivers, a nation situated directly between Fire and Wind.
The journey was tedious, but Shinichi maintained his usual grueling diligence. Every time the delegation stopped to rest, he would invariably find a secluded spot near the camp to continue his absolute, unwavering training regimen.
Today was no exception. After completing his routine, he wiped the sweat from his forehead as he walked back toward the camp.
As he walked, his mind flickered, summoning the personal interface that only he could see.
Name: Shinichi Higashino
Class: Genin / Swordsman
Talents: [Omitted...]
Compared to when he first became a Genin six months ago, the interface hadn't changed significantly.
Aside from [Affinity] upgrading to [Charm], he had only gained one new trait: [Basic Medicine].
Looking at his interface, Shinichi's brow furrowed slightly. He acutely recognized that he was currently facing two massive bottlenecks:
First: The Cognitive Threshold. Because he was already universally recognized across Konoha as a supreme genius, a massive cognitive threshold had formed. Feats that would leave people utterly astounded if performed by an ordinary person were now viewed as completely "expected" when he performed them.
The public's expectations of his excellence had been pulled so high that exerting the exact same amount of effort and achieving the exact same results now yielded significantly fewer "impression points" and much shallower cognitive depth.
Second: The Halo Effect. Certain incredibly prominent talents acted like massive spotlights, aggressively drawing away the vast majority of the public's attention. This made it exceedingly difficult for the outside world to clearly perceive and remember his capabilities in other areas.
For instance, given his actual capabilities, his taijutsu talent absolutely shouldn't still be stuck at the White-tier [Basic Taijutsu].
However, under the overarching umbrella of his "Genius" persona—and especially crushed beneath the dual, blinding halos of being the "Kenjutsu Genius who defeated the White Fang's blade" and the "Ninjutsu Genius who independently developed an A-rank seal-less jutsu"—his incredibly solid, exceptional mastery of taijutsu was completely overshadowed and diluted.
It was exactly like the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. Ninety-five percent of the world's perception and legends surrounding him focused entirely on his god-like Wood Style. As a result, the fact that he was also a supreme master of all five elemental chakra natures, and an absolute grandmaster of medical ninjutsu, was entirely buried beneath that blinding halo, leaving those facts virtually unknown.
"If only the Shadow Clones' disguises could..."
Shinichi had spent a considerable amount of time investigating this specific idea, but he eventually figured out the system's seemingly simple yet incredibly strict rules: Shadow Clones could help him farm perception, but the absolute prerequisite was that the outside world had to explicitly know that the Shadow Clone was "Shinichi Higashino."
This meant he could have his Shadow Clones—maintaining his original appearance and identity—perform different specialized activities (e.g., one practicing taijutsu, another practicing medicine) to try and scatter the focus and harvest multifaceted cognitive impressions.
However, fundamentally, this just split his personal time into fractions. All the perception generated would still ultimately stack back onto the singular identity of "Shinichi Higashino." It was slightly more efficient time-wise, but it absolutely failed to solve the "Halo Effect" problem.
He had also attempted a far more cunning method. Over the past six months of running missions, he had instructed a Shadow Clone to use the Transformation Jutsu to assume an entirely different appearance and identity. He wanted this new persona to specialize in building reputation within a singular field in the towns and cities they visited.
For example, he created "Crow"—a calm, collected illusionist ninja with exceptional genjutsu skills. During several carefully orchestrated encounters across various cities, "Crow" consistently displayed remarkable genjutsu prowess and a profoundly steady temperament.
Based on Shinichi's previous calculations regarding the generation of White traits, the skill level "Crow" displayed and the attention he garnered should have been more than enough to condense a White [Basic Genjutsu] trait, or perhaps even push his [Calm] trait to upgrade.
Yet, after over half a year of experimenting, the interface remained dead silent.
No matter how deep an impression "Crow" left on the locals, or how much praise and speculation he generated, those perceptions were like rootless duckweed. They absolutely could not form any connection to Shinichi Higashino. No genjutsu-related trait ever appeared, and [Calm] didn't budge an inch.
This definitively proved that the absolute core mechanic of perception relied on "Unity of Name and Reality." The perception must explicitly point to the true name and true body of "Shinichi Higashino."
A disguise meant fundamentally severing the causal link between the perception and the original body.
Consequently, his plan to use Shadow Clones to create burner accounts and farm independent trait pools completely went bankrupt. He couldn't simultaneously be "Genius Ninja Shinichi Higashino," "Genjutsu Rising Star Crow," and "Taijutsu Master X."
The perception of every single one of his talents had to be anchored to the singular identity of "Shinichi Higashino"—an identity already thoroughly engulfed by the blinding halo of genius.
"What should I do, then?"
Shinichi pondered silently.
One option was a targeted breakthrough to hit the absolute pinnacle. He could funnel every single resource and all his PR efforts into reaching the absolute apex of one specific field, achieving a status universally recognized across the entire ninja world, and use that to force the generation of a higher-tier trait.
But the drawbacks were glaring: the growth of all his other traits would inevitably be delayed or completely stagnate. And the baseline stat boosts those secondary traits provided were crucial to him.
Furthermore, even if he became a god-like existence in one specific field, he would likely still fall into the exact same trap as the First Hokage—the world's attention would be permanently glued to his most dazzling halo, making it nearly impossible for his other talents to harvest enough perception to upgrade.
The second option was a multi-pronged, balanced approach. But this required far more intricate planning and long-term PR management. Given his currently limited timeframe and his already drastically elevated cognitive threshold, efficiency was a massive problem.
The second I become Hokage, the very first thing I'm doing is establishing a Propaganda Department. I'm buying out every major newspaper and radio station in the ninja world. Hell, I'll even mandate a dedicated column for my achievements in the textbooks of every nation!
Shinichi thought viciously. Not only that, but he began calculating the specifics even further.
For instance, he would aggressively rotate the core focus of his propaganda every few years. For the first few years, he would hype up his physical invincibility and overwhelming power. The next few years, he would push narratives about his saint-like medical benevolence. Then, he would pivot to emphasizing his unparalleled strategic brilliance... He would force the entire ninja world to construct a comprehensive, multi-dimensional perception of him as an "Omnipotent Super-Genius."
For a split second, a thoroughly absurd scene flashed through his mind: A teacher standing in a future classroom, pointing at a textbook.
"Alright class, today we will be studying a new lesson: 'The Hokage Shoots Down the Moon With a Pebble'..."
"...Lord Hokage bent down, picked up a single pebble from the flowerbed, looked up at the sky, and said, 'Those damn Otsutsuki.' He hurled the pebble upward with all his might. Moments later, the moon suddenly erupted with a blinding flash of light, and then began to plummet from the sky..."
"Waaaah! Lord Hokage is so incredibly great!"
"We can never repay Lord Hokage's boundless grace..."
Inside the brilliantly illuminated classroom, a group of little kids jumped up and down, their hands raised high in the air, tears streaming down their faces.
Note: The lights in the classroom were not turned on.
Fuck!
Shinichi shuddered violently, frantically shaking the increasingly unhinged, horrifyingly bizarre scenario out of his head.