Regardless, Shimada Shigetoshi would never take his eldest son's opinion on naming his youngest son. Thus, Hanzo had no choice but to accept the fact that his little brother was named Genji.
It's worth mentioning that the dragon tattoo on Genji, like Hanzo's, was that of a black dragon.
The color of the Shimada family's dragon tattoos varied according to talent. The worst was the white dragon tattoo, better was the red dragon tattoo, which was the level of most clan members. Higher still was the blue dragon tattoo, which signified a "genius" in the normal sense; Shimada Shigetoshi also had a blue dragon tattoo. And one level above that were the black dragon tattoos, like those of the Hanzo brothers.
Of course, the color of the dragon tattoo only represented the general potential for developing the bloodline. In the history of the Shimada clan, there were not a few who were born with red dragon tattoos but surpassed the level of jonin. For such strong individuals, the red dragon tattoo was merely an auxiliary effect.
There were also many who were born with blue dragon tattoos but lacked ambition, ultimately only achieving the strength of a special jonin.
However, compared to the total number, these were still minority incidents. As for Shimada clan members with black dragon tattoos, according to the clan's records, all of them, except for those who died prematurely, were able to reach a level beyond jonin, and most were quite skilled at that level.
However, this was also matched by the scarcity of black dragon tattoos. The appearance of innate black dragon tattoos was completely irregular; sometimes there wouldn't be a single case for decades, while other times there might be one or two within a generation or two.
Therefore, when the news spread that the clan leader's youngest son also had an innate black dragon tattoo, the entire Shimada clan erupted in a frenzy.
"The clan leader must be from Europe, huh? Wait, where's Europe?" — by an envious and jealous Shimada Passerby A.
"Why do you care so much? It's a blessing for our Shimada clan that both young masters are so powerful! Maybe in twenty years, the two great powerful clans will become three great powerful clans!" — from the fantasy of Shimada Foot Soldier B.
Consequently, Shimada Shigetoshi's position as clan leader became even more secure.
After Genji's birth, the high-ranking members of the Shimada clan held another secret meeting overnight. This time, when Shimada Shigetoshi again proposed Hanzo as the first candidate for clan leader, no elder grumbled. Of course, to appease the elders, Shigetoshi still symbolically added another name to the list of candidates to show democracy, and that name was... Shimada Genji...
Genji's birth was like a stone thrown into a calm lake for Hanzo, creating ripples that then subsided, leaving the surface peaceful once more.
The only difference was that Hanzo's daily routine now included an extra task—babysitting.
As clan leader, Shigetoshi had many duties. When he led the clan members on mercenary missions, Hitomi would take his place, along with the elders, to handle internal clan affairs.
In such situations, the task of looking after the child naturally fell to Hanzo.
However, as days turned into weeks, Hanzo's easy life came to an end.
According to the tradition of the Warring States period, where even seven or eight-year-old children had to go to the battlefield, four-year-old Hanzo was not far from it.
It wasn't that Hanzo didn't want to start cultivating chakra and ninjutsu earlier, but training too early could overdraw one's potential. Moreover, those who had just started training for a short period were no different from ordinary people. Therefore, three to four years was the minimum time for rapid ninja training in various ninja clans during the Warring States period, which is why there were seven or eight-year-old children on the battlefield, but no younger ones.
However, to quickly train a child into a barely battlefield-ready rookie ninja in three to four years, which was nearly half the time of the six-year ninja academy after the start of the plot in later generations, the various ninja clans, after completing basic training, immediately moved on to combat training related to battlefield fighting. Only then could seven or eight-year-old children possess a certain level of combat capability.
However, ninja clans also had an advantage in cultivating the new generation that ninja villages did not.
For example, in the six years of the Konoha Ninja Academy in later generations, more effort was put into instilling the Will of Fire in the new generation and cultivating maximum loyalty. Ninja clans, however, had no such need. In the broader environment of the Warring States period, no one would accept you except your own family.
If a ninja wanted to be a double agent, the first reaction would surely be, "Are you feigning surrender? Kill them first." At the very least, they would be sealed and dissected for research. So, operations like Yakushi Kabuto's rise from nobody to big shot by being a spy were completely dead-end jobs in the Warring States period.
Fortunately, for Hanzo, who had already been designated as the primary candidate for the next clan leader by his clan leader father and several elders, the path of a double agent was completely unnecessary to consider.
"...Chakra has seven attributes: earth, wind, water, lightning, fire, Yin, and Yang. Among them, Yin and Yang are basically present in every ninja to some extent, but related ninjutsu are extremely rare, mostly applied in the form of bloodline limits. The most typical example is the Sharingan of the Uchiha clan, one of the two great ninja clans, which is a powerful Yin Release bloodline limit." Shimada Shigetoshi sat cross-legged on a large rock, speaking eloquently.
Hanzo sat below, listening intently to his father's introduction. Although he had some understanding from watching anime in his previous life, the mere snippets shown in anime couldn't compare to a genuine Kage-level expert personally explaining it before him.
As a transmigrator, Hanzo understood very well that one could be lax about anything else, but never about cultivation. After all, this was a world where the strong preyed on the weak; if you weren't strong, you wouldn't even have the chance to be a slacker.
"...So, normal ninjas mostly use the five elemental ninjutsu as their primary ninjutsu." Shigetoshi paused here, allowing Hanzo some time to digest the information, then continued, "The chakra of our Shimada clan members is mostly wind-attributed in terms of the five elements, with a few having other attributes."
"Father, what is my chakra attribute?" Hanzo didn't know if chakra paper existed in the Warring States period, hence his question.
"Here." Shigetoshi took out a blank piece of paper from his ninja pouch, then, holding it between his index and middle fingers, casually tossed it. Hanzo instinctively reached out, and the next second, the paper lay quietly in his palm.
Hanzo was startled; this casual toss alone showed Shigetoshi's considerable skill in chakra manipulation.
"Infuse your chakra into it. Wind-attributed paper will be cut, lightning-attributed will wrinkle, earth-attributed will crumble, fire-attributed will burn, and water-attributed will get wet."
Yesterday, Shigetoshi had already taught Hanzo the method of chakra refinement. Perhaps this body's talent was indeed exceptional, as Hanzo quickly refined chakra. Although Hanzo's chakra control was still very rough before further training, infusing it into chakra paper was a simple task.
Controlling a surge of chakra, he infused it into the test paper. Immediately, the paper was cut into two halves, and then it crumbled.
"Earth and Wind, not bad. Wind attribute has extremely strong offensive power, and Earth attribute excels in defense and stealth. A very good attribute combination." Shigetoshi nodded, evaluating it calmly.
Hanzo was quite satisfied with this as well. Just as Shigetoshi said, wind and earth attributes were indeed a very good combination.
"Alright, now that your chakra attributes are clear, let's proceed with basic training to improve your chakra control." Shigetoshi was not in a hurry to have Hanzo practice any of the ninjutsu, taijutsu, or genjutsu. Instead, he prioritized having Hanzo practice tree climbing and water walking, two ancient and classic foundational ninja skills.
For a ninja, the importance of chakra might differ among ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu, but none can exist without the foundation of chakra. As the saying goes, 'sharpening the axe does not delay the chopping of wood.' With good chakra control, the cultivation of any of the three—ninjutsu, taijutsu, or genjutsu—will yield twice the results with half the effort.