Chapter 253: Conclusion
Takuhiro Uchiyama and Akio Wada were lost in their own worlds, and it was unknown when they would wake up, but the Chunin Exams had to continue.
The last of Ishiro's six disciples to enter the field, and also the only one to lose a match, was Yuran Kawazoe, who was learning sealing jutsu.
Sealing jutsu ninjas are at too great a disadvantage in a battle between peers; they have almost no chance of winning.
Yuran's performance was considered quite good. The tactic she adopted was a "pay-to-win" one. She had sealed a large number of kunai and traps into a scroll beforehand and then released them during the battle.
This tactic was naturally thought up for her by Ishiro, with Tenten from Konoha's twelve in the original story as a reference. However, Yuran came from a civilian family, and her family's financial condition simply couldn't support this kind of money-burning tactic. The majority of the cost for the items she used today was paid by Ishiro, with a small portion earned by herself from working for the Barrier Team.
As for the rewards from her missions during her two years as a ninja, unfortunately, they all went into Ishiro's pocket.
This was also agreed upon between Ishiro and his disciples. Ishiro would advance the fees required for the disciples' training, and then deduct it from their mission rewards.
Basically, none of Ishiro's disciples received any payment while under him because on the day their teams were disbanded, they still owed Ishiro a large amount of contribution points and silver.
When Yuran cooperated with Kanako in battle, her sealing jutsu could play a significant role. But when facing an enemy alone, her long-range sealing jutsu had no foundation to be used. In other words, Yuran had no effective means of fighting an enemy. So Ishiro was mentally prepared for her to lose the match.
Originally, Ishiro thought that Katsumata, the genjutsu ninja, would also lose. But Ishiro hadn't expected that he had actually completed the development of an interference-type genjutsu that could be used in actual combat on the eve of the Chunin Exams.
Ishiro had also participated in the research of this genjutsu. The foundation for its development was a C-rank genjutsu from Iwagakure, but the casting process of that jutsu was too complicated, and it required the ninja to maintain the hand seals after casting.
However, this newly developed genjutsu was a continuous-effect one. The rank of this genjutsu was still C-rank, but its biggest advantage was that after the genjutsu was cast, it did not require the caster's continuous control. The caster could take this opportunity to launch follow-up attacks.
Of course, the genjutsu also had its shortcomings. Its intensity was not high, and it was easily seen through by the enemy. Especially for some ninjas with strong spiritual power, this move was basically useless against them.
To extend the time the enemy was under the effect, Katsumata had considered this problem when developing the genjutsu. He chose to reduce the genjutsu's area of effect. For example, when Katsumata's opponent was under the genjutsu just now, most of the scene they saw was real; only a small area directly in front of them was positionally inaccurate in their line of sight.
And the kunai Katsumata used to attack him approached from this very position. It was this little trick that made this new C-rank genjutsu not so easily seen through by the enemy.
At this point, all six of Ishiro's disciples had completed their first round of matches. Ishiro decided to promote the first five. As for Yuran, she could also be promoted to Chunin by following the Barrier Team's process.
So, the six members of Squad Three and Squad Four had, up to this point, completed Ishiro's first-stage goal. None of them needed to participate in the next day's competition. Among them, Takuhiro Uchiyama had even directly completed the transformation towards becoming a Jonin, a step ahead of the others.
Thinking of this, Ishiro turned his head with a smile and looked at Akio Wada beside him and Takuhiro Uchiyama below.
Five days later, this Chunin Selection Exam was formally completed. Ishiro selected one hundred people from the five hundred to be promoted to Chunin.
Holding the list, Ishiro came to Ōnoki's office.
"Lord Tsuchikage, this is the list of newly promoted Chunin this time," Ishiro handed the list to Ōnoki, then pointed at Akio Wada and Takuhiro Uchiyama at the very front and said, "Very fortunate. These two at the beginning can both become Jonin by next year."
Ōnoki's face twitched when he saw that Ishiro had promoted a hundred Chunin at once, but after hearing the last half of the sentence, he was immediately overjoyed and quickly cast his gaze to the first two names.
Seeing Akio Wada, Ōnoki's eyes lit up, and he said, "This Akio Wada is the top student who graduated two years ago, right? He can be promoted to Jonin so quickly?"
"Yes. This Akio Wada's strength is not weak, and his foundation is much better than Takuhiro's. I estimate we won't have to wait a year. Moreover, his promotion was completed only after I spoke to him about the Will of Stone and a Kage's magnanimity. So there are no problems with his thinking; he is worth cultivating seriously."
Ōnoki nodded and said, "Indeed a good seedling. Seeing him, I feel like I'm seeing the you from ten years ago."
Ishiro rubbed his nose and said, "Speaking of which, I'm actually not as good as these juniors. I walked a crooked path back then and wasted a lot of time."
Ōnoki, however, shook his head, "Walking a crooked path is also a valuable experience. The path of a ninja is difficult, and the higher you go, the more it tests a ninja's character. If you hadn't had those experiences before, it's hard to say if you could have reached this step now."
Ishiro nodded slightly but didn't reply.
Ōnoki then turned his gaze to Takuhiro Uchiyama's name and sighed, "Ishiro, your greatest specialty is teaching disciples. I also remember this Takuhiro Uchiyama; his grades weren't outstanding in the advanced class back then. I didn't expect him to have grown so much now."
"By the way, I have promoted all three of your second batch of disciples to Jonin. Although they are not yet mature enough, with the war imminent, the village is in urgent need of a batch of elites to stand up and shoulder more responsibilities."
Ishiro nodded; he was not surprised by this. If it were peacetime, the village's standards for promoting Jonin would be stricter, like with him. Back then, Ishiro had long possessed the strength of a Jonin but was stuck at the rank of Special Jonin for a long time without being promoted.
But now was a time of war. It was reasonable for Shinya Matsutani, Ogura Saki, and Takumi to be promoted quickly after their strength met the standard. Two years ago, Kawakita, Chiko Tomoe, and Kajiyama Ri were also immediately promoted because of the Third War.
"The village's younger generation is getting stronger and stronger. We as their seniors cannot slack off either. Ishiro, when do you plan to start learning a Kekkei Tōta?" Ōnoki suddenly changed the subject, shifting it to Ishiro.
Like Kekkei Genkai, Iwagakure also had a whole set of theories for training in Kekkei Tōta. But theory was theory. It was already remarkable that Iwagakure could produce Explosion Release users in small batches; expecting to produce Dust Release users in batches was almost impossible.
But no matter what, the village had a method to train in Kekkei Tōta, and this method, like the two Kekkei Genkai Ishiro had developed before, could be achieved without relying on bloodline inheritance.
It was just that up to now, only one type of Kekkei Tōta had ever existed in Iwagakure: Dust Release. It should be said that in the entire ninja world, there was only one type of Kekkei Tōta—well, excluding Wood Release.
According to the description in the S-rank secret scroll, Ishiro had indeed reached the threshold for training in a Kekkei Tōta. However, because there were no other referential Kekkei Tōta besides Dust Release, Ishiro didn't know in what direction to develop it.
Today, he happened to bring up this topic with Ōnoki, so Ishiro decided to have a good discussion with him about the development of Kekkei Tōta.
After listening to Ishiro's account, Ōnoki pondered for a moment and said, "My master, the Second Tsuchikage Mū, once said something. He said, 'Dust Release is Dust Release, and Dust Release ninjutsu is Dust Release ninjutsu.' Dust Release ninjutsu is just one way of applying the Kekkei Tōta, Dust Release."
"Originally, I didn't understand the meaning of this sentence. Hearing your doubts today, I think I understand now. Perhaps our understanding has always been problematic. We subconsciously linked Dust Release: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu and Dust Release: Detachment from the Primitive World Technique with Dust Release itself."
"Actually, we were wrong. Kekkei Tōta is very unstable. Even for me, I can only cast Dust Release outside my body. Although Dust Release chakra is remodeling my body, my body is not immune to it."
Ishiro thought to himself, "That makes sense." There were many examples in the original story where certain Kekkei Genkai users were not harmed by their own incredibly powerful Kekkei Genkai. For example, Mei Terumi's Boil Release; she could wipe the Boil Release from the corner of her mouth as if it were saliva.
But it seemed Dust Release was different. Ōnoki himself didn't dare to take a hit from his own Dust Release.
Ignoring Ishiro's inner thoughts, Ōnoki continued, "Because the Kekkei Tōta, Dust Release, is unstable, my master developed two application methods for it: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu and Detachment from the Primitive World Technique. Perhaps these two application methods can also be applied to other Kekkei Tōta."
Hearing this, Ishiro's eyes lit up. So that was it! Indeed, when watching the original story, Ishiro had felt that Dust Release was related to sealing jutsu. Now that he heard this, there was no mistake. The Atomic Dismantling Jutsu must be the caster releasing the power of Dust Release chakra through a method similar to sealing jutsu.
To put it another way, the Atomic Dismantling Jutsu was not an exclusive ninjutsu for Dust Release. It could be used on Dust Release, and it could also be used on other Kekkei Tōta. For example, Water Release: Water Dragon Bullet and Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet were very similar, and their principles were also similar.
"In that case, if I develop a new Kekkei Tōta, I don't need to think about how to develop ninjutsu for it. I just need to practice according to the methods of Atomic Dismantling Jutsu and Detachment from the Primitive World Technique?"
Hehehe, the biggest problem was solved just like that? There was no need to think about what form the new Kekkei Genkai would take at all? Just mindlessly fuse it and be done?
Feeling that his future was bright, Ishiro chuckled foolishly to himself, completely not hearing what Ōnoki said next.
After a while, Ōnoki, feeling like he was talking to thin air, sighed, no longer paid attention to Ishiro, called Kitsuchi in, and began to handle official business.
By the time Ishiro came back to his senses, Ōnoki had already buried his head in documents and couldn't be bothered with him. Ishiro gave an embarrassed smile and then slipped out of the Tsuchikage's office.
Ishiro had long since read the S-rank secret scroll on developing Kekkei Tōta. At that time, to train in Sage Jutsu and to better control the three different energies, Ishiro had carefully analyzed that scroll.
Now, to develop a Kekkei Tōta, Ishiro carefully recalled the contents of the scroll several more times.
The next day, at the training ground.
Ishiro was alone, pondering the development of a new Kekkei Tōta. After theoretical analysis, Ishiro found that although training in Sage Jutsu and training in a Kekkei Tōta had many similarities, their difficulties were different.
The biggest difficulty in Sage Jutsu training was petrification. This difficulty was solved by a black rod Ishiro had gotten from Nagato. In addition, there was the unfamiliarity with natural energy, but that was also solved after Ishiro reasonably allocated his mental energy among the several energy types.
The difficult hurdle in training a Kekkei Tōta was elemental counters. The five chakra natures were not without interference with each other. For example, the two attributes used in the Porcelain Release developed by Ishiro, water and earth, earth countered water.
It was just that at that time, there were only two attributes, and Ishiro's full attention was on them, so the counter didn't have much effect.
But now, a Kekkei Tōta had three attributes: water, earth, and lightning. Ishiro couldn't put all his attention on just the water and earth attributes, because among the three attributes, there was another counter relationship: lightning counters earth.
The three attributes contained in the Dust Release Ōnoki trained were wind, fire, and earth. Among them, there was only one counter relationship: fire counters wind. The earth attribute had no relationship with the wind and fire attributes.
In other words, the Kekkei Tōta Ishiro was to develop might be more difficult than Dust Release.
But Ishiro also had an advantage: his training in Sage Jutsu had given him rich experience in fusing three energies. Ishiro's starting point was higher than Ōnoki's when he learned Dust Release back then.
According to the Second Tsuchikage Mū's meaning, Ishiro didn't need to struggle with the ninjutsu problem of the new Kekkei Tōta. He just needed to release the fused chakra according to the method of the Atomic Dismantling Jutsu.
So, the next training steps were clear.
First, learn the Atomic Dismantling Jutsu. This had to be put at the very front; otherwise, the fused Kekkei Tōta chakra would harm the caster himself.
Then, fuse the three attribute chakras outside the body. This process was the most dangerous. According to Ōnoki, he had to accompany him throughout the entire process.
Finally, fuse them inside the body, use the chakra to remodel the body, and elevate the level of life. Ōnoki was stuck at this step. Only after completing this step would a ninja not be harmed by their own Kekkei Genkai.
After finishing the analysis, Ishiro began to allocate time for future training.
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