Cherreads

Chapter 275 - Chapter 274: The Village Hidden by a Waterfall (bonus chapter)

Chapter 274: The Village Hidden by a Waterfall (bonus chapter)

The next day, Ishiro, as usual, brought the three new disciples of Squad Five to the training ground and began the self-introductions.

Today, Ishiro was not wearing the Tsuchikage's attire but a standard Iwagakure Jonin uniform.

"Hello. First, let's do a self-introduction. My name is Ishiro. You can call me Teacher Ishiro or just Teacher. I specialize in ninjutsu, my favorite food is grilled meat, and the thing I hate most is sitting in an office handling official business."

As he spoke, Ishiro glanced around guiltily, afraid that Ōnoki or the other advisors would discover him being a bad influence on the children.

"My dream, well, it's always changing. When I was young, I hoped to become an outstanding ninja. Later, that wish came true, so I changed my dream to becoming the Fourth Tsuchikage of the village."

"Not long ago, that dream also came true. Now my new dream is to make the village stronger and more prosperous."

"Alright, it's your turn. Who wants to go first?" After speaking, Ishiro looked at the three with anticipation.

Riori Uzumaki was the first to speak impatiently, "Teacher Ishiro, my name is Riori Uzumaki. I'm good at taijutsu."

At this point, Riori's voice became a little quieter. In fact, her taijutsu was not good. She just had a lot of chakra and a good physique, making her rather durable; her fighting skills were genuinely average.

However, if not for taijutsu, she really had nothing else to show for herself.

Seeing that Ishiro was still smiling at her, Riori continued, "My favorite thing is eating. Not just grilled meat, I also like ramen, dango, and red bean soup. The thing I hate the most... the thing I hate most is theory class."

As she spoke, Riori's confidence waned again. After all, the person in front of her was the Tsuchikage. Would he be upset if she directly said she hated theory class?

After a pause, seeing that Ishiro was not angry, Riori continued, "My dream is to become an outstanding ninja, or even the Tsuchikage. I want to restore the glory of the Uzumaki clan in the village."

Ishiro nodded and said, "A very grand dream. But this dream is not easy. Little Riori, you must work hard."

"Yes, I will," Riori nodded vigorously.

The second to speak was Kiyoshi Ishizawa. He was a bit calmer than Riori. "Teacher Ishiro, my name is Kiyoshi Ishizawa. My specialty should be Water Release, but I've only just learned the water attribute transformation and haven't learned any Water Release ninjutsu yet."

"I like swimming. I don't seem to have anything I hate. My dream is to become a powerful Water Release ninja."

Ishiro nodded and also encouraged him, "Then Little Kiyoshi must also work hard."

Finally, it was Akino Atsumi. She lowered her head and said somewhat timidly, "Teacher Ishiro, my name is Akino Atsumi. I don't have any special abilities."

At this point, Akino, whose head was already lowered, lowered it even further. She didn't dare to look at the others and said to herself, "I like to read books. I don't like to see the disappointed expressions of my family. My dream is to become a ninja, even if it's just a Genin."

In fact, Akino was already considered a Genin, but she was probably one of the weakest Genin in the history of Iwagakure. By rights, she was not qualified to graduate; she had only taken the fast track thanks to Ishiro's favor.

Ishiro stood up, walked over, ruffled Akino's head, and said with a smile, "Little Akino, you have to have confidence. Teacher is very optimistic about your talent. Teacher believes you will definitely become an outstanding ninja."

Akino was somewhat surprised. She looked up at Ishiro doubtfully. She saw no trace of a lie in his eyes, only expectation.

So Akino nodded heavily and said, "Yes, Teacher Ishiro, I will work hard."

Ishiro chatted a bit more with his three new disciples, and then took them out for grilled meat.

Next, Ishiro began to train the three new disciples while also taking them on missions.

Kiyoshi Ishizawa was appointed as the team captain. Although Riori should have been given the role based on strength, her intelligence was a cause for concern, so Ishiro still chose Kiyoshi.

The initial training was very simple, mainly basic exercises. Riori's physique was very good, so this area was not a key training target for her from Ishiro.

But Kiyoshi and Akino gave Ishiro a hard time. Their foundations were too poor. Whether it was stamina, strength, speed, kunai throwing, or taijutsu skills, they were all far from meeting the requirements of a Genin.

But this was also good. Ishiro was not in a hurry. He would first slowly consolidate the foundation of the three. Ishiro was not worried; at worst, he would lead them for another year, spending a total of three years on Squad Five.

Apart from her good physical strength, Riori was a complete mess in other aspects. So, besides adding some extra weight to her physical training, her other training was the same as the other two.

These peaceful days lasted for about a month. Ishiro finally proposed the unreasonable request to leave the village again for a trip.

Looking at the helpless eyes of Ōnoki and the others, Ishiro felt very guilty. He was now the Tsuchikage. He had only been in office for a month, and he was about to leave the village without cause. The important thing was that Ishiro was leaving secretly and did not intend to announce it, and it was unknown how long he would be gone this time. This was not how the Kage of a village should act.

Although the village's defense would not be a major issue with or without Ishiro, the significance was different.

However, precisely because Ishiro was now the Tsuchikage, Ōnoki and the others had no way to stop him. In the end, the advisory council still approved Ishiro's request.

Before leaving the village, Ishiro first assigned new training tasks to his three disciples.

Ishiro required that, on the premise of not interrupting the original basic training, Riori must learn tree climbing. This little girl's chakra control ability was almost zero; Ishiro didn't know how she had learned in the Ninja Academy.

Kiyoshi had to master a C-rank Water Release jutsu. He had already completed the water attribute nature transformation. The reason he hadn't learned ninjutsu before was because he couldn't afford to exchange for it and had no family inheritance.

Finally, for Akino, Ishiro's requirement was that she must finish reading all the basic knowledge books on sealing jutsu collected by the village.

The three had no resistance to Ishiro's arrangements. Not to mention Ishiro's status as Tsuchikage, Ishiro's halo as a renowned teacher was powerful enough to make the three of them follow his words without question. And this was the first time Ishiro had formulated different training tasks for the three members of Squad Five.

The three guessed that Ishiro was preparing to discover their special talents, so they were all very excited.

After giving instructions to his three disciples, Ishiro left Iwagakure alone.

The first stop of Ishiro's trip this time was the Village Hidden by a Waterfall. In the original story, because of the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, Fū, Ishiro had a pretty good feeling about Takigakure, even though the village had produced a traitor like Kakuzu.

But in this life, the feeling was different. During the Third War, although Taki and Kusa were neutral, they both leaned towards Konoha. Although the two villages did not participate in the war, they both did not welcome Iwa ninjas into the Land of Waterfalls and the Land of Grass, yet they turned a blind eye to Konoha ninjas.

This action made Ishiro have not a shred of goodwill towards these two hidden villages.

So, this time, coming to Takigakure to stir up trouble, Ishiro had no psychological burden whatsoever.

Due to its geographical location, Takigakure was relatively mysterious among the small and medium-sized hidden villages. Iwagakure didn't even have a single intelligence ninja who had infiltrated Takigakure. Because it was too difficult to transmit information out of Takigakure, planting intelligence ninjas was not cost-effective.

However, Ishiro could fly. What waterfall obstructions, what natural barriers of high mountains, to Ishiro, they did not exist.

Using the Light/Heavy Rock Jutsu combined with the Camouflage Jutsu, flying slowly in the air, with sensory ninjutsu and Mind's Eye fully open, searching carefully, Ishiro soon found the exact location of Takigakure.

The Village Hidden by a Waterfall was located in a canyon. At the bottom of this canyon was a huge cave-like depression, and the village was situated in this depression.

The location was indeed hidden enough. If he didn't use his Mind's Eye for a large-scale scan, just by relying on his naked eye, Ishiro also wouldn't be able to find this hidden village.

Finding the location of Takigakure was only the first small step. The second step was to find the Jinchuriki.

That's right, Ishiro's target this time was the Tailed Beast: the Seven-Tails, Chōmei.

Kushina Uzumaki was pregnant, the savior Naruto was about to be born, and the Nine-Tails Rampage was coming. It seemed out of character for a major villain like Ishiro not to get involved.

But Ishiro was now a Kage. To openly cause destruction would be to declare war.

After thinking it over, sending a Tailed Beast to Konoha was a good idea. The Nine-Tails had been sealed for so long; it was time for it to meet its little friends.

The current Jinchuriki of this generation in Takigakure was naturally not Fū from the original story; Fū was probably still an infant at this time. Takigakure did a very good job of keeping secrets. Whether in the original story or in this life, Ishiro did not know who the current Jinchuriki of Takigakure was.

However, this was no difficulty for Ishiro. There was no one in Takigakure who made Ishiro feel wary, including their so-called leader.

The strongest person in Takigakure, in Ishiro's eyes, was just an Elite Jonin, and not even a top-tier one at that.

The only thing Ishiro was concerned about was the bad influence; he didn't want to start a war because of himself, even though the things he did had always been similar to war.

Scanning Takigakure over and over with his Mind's Eye and sensory ninjutsu without any restraint, Ishiro finally confirmed the target of his trip.

Extending from Takigakure deeper into the cave, there was a small hut covered with sealing runes. Outside the hut stood guard three Jonin. Ishiro deduced that the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki should be in that hut.

Feeling the faint commotion coming from within Takigakure, Ishiro was not concerned. His recent probing must have been discovered.

But anyway, he had found the target. Next, he just needed to take the Seven-Tails away before the main Taki forces could arrive.

Ishiro used the Light/Heavy Rock Jutsu to rush towards that small hut at full speed.

"Porcelain Release: Kunai Rain!"

Ishiro formed hand seals, creating countless rock kunai, which continuously rushed towards the small hut.

The three Jonin outside the hut, if placed in Iwagakure, would only have the combat power of Elite Chunin. Ishiro didn't even bother to look at them.

Sure enough, the continuous kunai easily took the lives of the three. The only thing the three did was to fire a distress signal into the sky.

Ishiro didn't care about these things. After dealing with the three Jonin, the kunai rain did not stop and plunged directly into the small hut. Or rather, the target of the kunai rain had been the small hut all along; dealing with the three Jonin was just incidental.

"You're courting death!" A huge chakra fluctuation suddenly came from the small hut, and then the hut was instantly blown apart.

A huge, bright red chakra monster that surged out from the hut immediately attracted Ishiro's attention. As expected, it was the Seven-Tails.

A huge number of kunai rained down on this chakra monster from all directions.

"It's useless. You have no idea what you're facing," an old voice came from within the chakra monster.

The corner of Ishiro's mouth twitched. "What fool is this? He doesn't even recognize my, the Fourth Tsuchikage's, Porcelain Release? Is the Village Hidden by a Waterfall too isolated, or has this Jinchuriki not had contact with the outside world for a long time?"

None of this concerned Ishiro. Since this Jinchuriki was seeking death himself, that was great.

Ishiro's hands quickly formed seals. The porcelain rocks scattered around the Seven-Tails began to re-aggregate, and in the blink of an eye, formed a cage that tightly enveloped the Seven-Tails.

And this cage was also covered with sealing runes.

"Five Elements Seal, Seal!" Ishiro shouted in a low voice.

"No, impossible!" Accompanied by that incredulous old voice, the Seven-Tails' chakra quickly retracted and soon disappeared, leaving only a human-shaped object wrapped in porcelain on the spot.

With a wave of Ishiro's hand, that human-shaped object flew up with him.

By the time the leader of Takigakure arrived with the main force, Ishiro had long since disappeared without a trace.

♧♧♧

We've hit 400 Power Stones goal As promised This week, here's the bonus chapter. Thank you for your support—please keep it coming!

More Chapters