Chapter 272: The Fourth
Unwilling to give up, the retreating Hanpei Haraguchi still hoped to get close to the lone Shinya Matsutani.
If he could quickly coordinate with Tatsunori Nakata to take care of Shinya, they still had a hope of turning the tables.
But after just a glance at Shinya in the distance, Hanpei felt deflated. In truth, even he didn't hold out much hope.
In a one-on-two situation, Shinya was still suppressing Tatsunori and Dai Shimoyama.
Moreover, Dai's situation was very precarious at this moment, with a high possibility of being eliminated at any time.
And...
Just as Hanpei was thinking of a countermeasure, a shadow suddenly loomed over him.
"What is that? Kohana? How can that be? Kohana has this kind of speed?" Hanpei's heart was filled with despair.
Kohana, with the body of a fat orange cat, had unleashed a speed no less than that of a Jonin.
Originally, Hanpei wouldn't have cared about this situation, but with Takumi hot on his heels not far behind, if Hanpei was even slightly hindered by Kohana, it would be fatal.
"I'll risk it all!" Hanpei forced Kohana back with a swing of his sword, threw the longsword aside, and simultaneously formed hand seals.
"Earth Release: Hardening Technique!"
Finally, before Takumi could get close, Hanpei successfully cast the defensive ninjutsu.
In a desperate situation, Hanpei planned to endure Takumi's attack and go take care of Shinya.
But he had clearly underestimated Takumi's close-combat ability, or rather, in this situation, he had no other choice.
Takumi, who excelled in speed, although his attack power was not strong, his attack speed was very fast. He continuously attacked one part of Hanpei's body with all his might multiple times.
As a result, before Hanpei could run very far, his defense was broken by Takumi.
With Hanpei eliminated, the rest of the battle was simple. The three members of Ishiro's team, in a flash, eliminated the already battered Tatsunori and Dai.
At this point, the match officially ended.
The match did not last long. Excluding the hiding and reconnaissance phase at the beginning, once the formal engagement began, the battle ended in an extremely short amount of time.
But the audience was still quite satisfied.
Watching this match, there was the initial tension and anxiety, where they didn't even dare to breathe; then there was the excitement of the sudden clash.
There were cunningly angled traps; there were also brilliant ninjutsu—Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth Release. Apart from Lightning, all five main attributes were present.
There were battles of wits and courage; there was also the dominance of a frontal assault.
What's more, everyone had seen A-rank ninjutsu, combination ninjutsu, and even a clash of ninjutsu that reached A-rank power.
In addition, the legendary one-handed seals and seal-less ninjutsu both appeared today. Although the vast majority of people didn't see it, they couldn't stop the ninjas on the side from providing commentary. These were all rare sights in the Chunin Exams.
What excited everyone the most was that this battle was not a fair match after both sides had taken their positions, but a ninja battle full of wisdom, completely refreshing everyone's understanding of ninja combat.
Everyone shouted that they had enjoyed it to the fullest; the price of the ticket was worth it. Even the spectators who had lost their bets in the black market felt that the trip was not in vain.
This was understandable. Setting aside other things, just the clash between Hanpei Haraguchi and Ogura Saki was enough for everyone to brag about for a lifetime.
The shock brought by that large-area ninjutsu capable of changing the terrain was too terrifying. This kind of A-rank ninjutsu was incredibly shocking even for Chunin and Genin, let alone civilians.
After the match ended, the audience immediately erupted into a carnival. After a long while, the crowd finally remembered the purpose of this match, and the sound of revelry turned into a unified chant.
"Fourth! Fourth! Fourth!..."
Everyone, while shouting, turned their gazes to the highest stand.
Ōnoki looked at the Daimyo, and the Daimyo nodded.
Thus, under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Ōnoki floated in front of Ishiro, took out a Tsuchikage hat and cloak that had been prepared long ago, and personally put them on Ishiro.
Only after Ōnoki, who had dressed him in the Tsuchikage hat and cloak, had moved to the side, did Ishiro slowly walk to the railing at the edge of the stand.
Ishiro looked at the cheering villagers and ninjas below, raised his right hand, and suddenly clenched it into a fist. Then, in the moment the crowd suddenly fell silent, he said in a voice enhanced by chakra, "From this day on, I, Ishiro, am the Fourth Tsuchikage of the Village Hidden in the Stones!"
As soon as his voice fell, a wave of sound even greater than before erupted again. This time, there was no unified voice, only cheers and shouts as if venting emotions.
In the crowd, Ishiro's teachers, classmates, disciples, colleagues, and subordinates all shouted while marveling at the hardship Ishiro had gone through to get from a civilian ninja to this point.
Even the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, Han, stood in a corner with his disciples, cheering for Ishiro.
And the main reason everyone cheered so enthusiastically for Ishiro was precisely his civilian background. Looking at Ishiro, everyone felt like they were looking at one of their own, someone from their own community.
Ishiro believed that after today, the civilian ninjas would be more enthusiastic about training because everyone had a supreme role model.
"I wonder if the villagers of Konoha had the same thoughts when Minato Namikaze succeeded to the post," Ishiro thought to himself.
...
The selection of the Fourth Tsuchikage, which had attracted much attention from all parties in the ninja world, finally came to an end. Ishiro, known in the ninja world as the "Fox of Iwa," successfully became the Fourth Tsuchikage.
This news was not very good for the higher-ups of the major powers. Compared to Ishiro, they would have preferred Ikura to take the position. Ishiro, who could infiltrate Konoha and Kirigakure, was clearly not a Tsuchikage who played by the rules. No one wanted to deal with such a Tsuchikage.
But, regardless of whether the various parties were satisfied, everyone had to accept this fact.
And apart from the headaches of the higher-ups of the major powers, the lower-ranking ninjas and civilians were much calmer about this news.
The Kage of four of the five great nations had all been replaced by the fourth generation, leaving only Iwagakure. It was about time for Iwagakure to change to a new Kage.
What everyone discussed more was, among the five fourth-generation Kage, who was stronger, who was younger, and who could go further in the future.
Of course, at present, the one everyone was most optimistic about was still the Fourth Hokage. After all, Minato Namikaze, with his Flying Thunder God Technique, was theoretically unkillable.
...
The first thing Ishiro did after becoming Tsuchikage was to increase the number of Tsuchikage's Assistants.
Ishiro not only didn't remove the three Tsuchikage's Assistants chosen by Ōnoki, but he also expanded the Tsuchikage's Assistant agency with them as the core.
Ishiro expanded the total number of Tsuchikage's Assistants to ten, letting Kitsuchi be responsible for arranging the work of these ten. These ten would be responsible for handling various documents that required the Tsuchikage's attention.
And Ishiro only needed to listen to the reports from Kitsuchi and the others to understand the changes happening in the village.
Ishiro even had Kitsuchi and the others handle the task of signing documents for him.
In addition, Ishiro also expanded the authority of the advisors. Ishiro stipulated that within the departments managed by the advisors, matters of a certain amount of funds or a certain level of personnel mobilization did not need to be reported to the Tsuchikage for instruction, as long as it was reported in the regularly held meetings.
This way, the number of documents that needed to be handled by the Tsuchikage was suddenly reduced. And most of the documents that did need the Tsuchikage's attention would be handled by Kitsuchi and the others. In the end, what reached Ishiro, the Tsuchikage, was less than one percent of what Ōnoki originally needed to handle.
Of course, this way, Ishiro's control over Iwagakure was certainly far from comparable to Ōnoki's. But, Ishiro felt, it was completely unnecessary for the Tsuchikage to be like the Hokage.
Iwagakure's structure was simple, and its members were not as complex as Konoha's. In Konoha, both internal and foreign affairs were extremely sensitive, and a slight carelessness could lead to conflict.
But Iwagakure did not have this problem. Iwagakure was quite united internally, with almost everyone working towards the goal of replacing Konoha. As for foreign affairs, although the Land of Earth was far less prosperous than the Land of Fire, its strategic geography was far superior.
In addition, with prosperous trade routes, the Land of Earth's relations with surrounding countries had been very close these years, making its diplomacy much simpler than the Land of Fire's.
So Ishiro boldly delegated the daily affairs of the Tsuchikage.
Finally, Ishiro also referred to Konoha and appointed Ōnoki as the Tsuchikage's Aide. If the Tsuchikage could not be contacted, all matters could be directed to the Tsuchikage's Aide.
Seeing this series of operations by Ishiro, Ōnoki's whole being was not well. "So, you just wanted the title of Tsuchikage for nothing and don't want to do any work?"
If he had known this, wouldn't it have been better for Ikura to be the Fourth Tsuchikage?
But now Ishiro was the Tsuchikage. It wasn't appropriate for Ōnoki to reject his orders right after he took office, so he could only pinch his nose and accept it.
After distributing the power and affairs of the Tsuchikage, Ishiro proposed to take on disciples again.
Ōnoki did not object to this. If Ishiro wasn't constrained by disciples, who knew if he would run all over the ninja world and forget to come back.
Thinking of this, Ōnoki directly agreed and said, "Now that I'm retired to a secondary role, I will also take on a few disciples."
Ishiro quickly nodded in support.
Then Ōnoki took out a list of graduating students from the Ninja Academy from his tool pouch and handed it to Ishiro.
As soon as Ishiro saw the list, he knew that Ōnoki's idea of taking disciples was not a recent one. Many people on the list had Ōnoki's handwritten comments.
Among them, the first to catch Ishiro's eye was a familiar name: Deidara.
"Deidara," Ishiro muttered this name softly. This person, whom he had regarded as his biggest hypothetical enemy for the position of Fourth Tsuchikage at the beginning of his transmigration, had long since become blurry in his memory.
"Well, that's good. In this life, Ōnoki will have more free time to guide Deidara. He probably won't let Deidara go down the wrong path."
As for Ishiro himself, he had no intention of taking on a disciple like Deidara. Deidara was the top student of this year's class. Taking such a disciple did not fit his persona.
Ishiro quickly scanned the students in the advanced class. Although these students had good talent, and a few had specialties and ideas, Ishiro still focused his attention on the list of students in the regular class first.
Fortunately, Ōnoki's notes were detailed enough, and students with special characteristics in the regular class were also introduced.
The first to attract Ishiro's attention in the regular class was a name called Akino Atsumi. Because among all the names, only this one was circled twice.
Ishiro couldn't help but read out the line of notes after this name, "Suspected talent for space-time ninjutsu."
The note was not long, just a short sentence, but it made Ishiro's eyes light up.
Ishiro quickly looked up at Ōnoki.
Ōnoki naturally knew what Ishiro wanted to ask, so he took out a test paper answer sheet, "This is a test paper made by the village regarding space-time ninjutsu. Among all the ninjas in the village and the students in school, only this girl named Akino Atsumi is most likely to have a talent for space-time ninjutsu."
Ishiro carefully read Akino's answer sheet, and then chuckled.
It turned out the test paper was made by Ōnoki. Ōnoki had transcribed it from the scroll that Minato had given to Kakashi.
If Akino had answered normally, Ōnoki actually wouldn't have been able to judge its authenticity. But magically, this Akino actually said there was a problem with the test paper, that some words were incorrectly matched.
This was interesting. Either this Akino was just playing to the gallery, or she truly had a talent for space-time ninjutsu.
Ishiro asked, "Has she been tested?"
Ōnoki shook his head, "There's no way to test it. We know nothing about space-time ninjutsu."
Ishiro thought for a moment and then asked, "So, Lord Third, are you thinking of taking her as your disciple?"
Ōnoki shook his head again and said, "You are the best at teaching this kind of quirky student. I hope you will be the one to guide her."
Ishiro considered for a moment, "Alright, I understand."
Then Ishiro picked up the list and continued to look down.
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