Chapter 315: Cultural Confidence (bonus chapter)
This high-level meeting in Iwagakure lasted until very late, as everyone discussed many specific methods on how to conduct the propaganda.
Starting the next day, an additional item was added to the daily lives of the villagers of Iwagakure: discussing the heroic figures and deeds promoted by the village.
At the beginning, the discussions among the villagers went like this:
"Do you know Nakata Hajime, the Head of the Medical Department? He's the strongest medical-nin in our village," Villager A said with a show-off expression to the people who were idle with him.
Villager B directly said he didn't know and asked Villager A to properly educate him, which gave the former a great sense of satisfaction for his vanity.
Unexpectedly, Villager C spoke up first, "I'm familiar with this! Head Nakata is a relative of my neighbor's daughter's senior. He's not only the number one medical-nin in our village, but he has also researched many medical ninjutsu that the village didn't have before."
"Previously, our Iwagakure's medical ninjutsu was far inferior to Konoha's, but now the gap between us and Konoha is no longer large."
"Konoha only has Tsunade, who became the Fifth Hokage by relying on medical ninjutsu. Otherwise, it's not certain whose medical ninjutsu is stronger, ours or Konoha's."
After speaking, Villager C even looked at Villager A with a provocative expression.
At this time, someone raised a doubt, "Is that true? How come I have the impression that the village is not good at medical ninjutsu? That Mystical Palm Technique, very few people in the village know it."
Villager A quickly said, "How old is your news? Now, there's a whole bunch of medical-nin in the village who know the Mystical Palm Technique. If you randomly pick an apprentice, they might even know it."
The others gasped in amazement upon hearing this. A thing called pride quietly surged from their hearts.
Not long after, the news that the village's medical ninjutsu was not weaker than Konoha's had completely spread throughout the entire village.
Then, after most people knew this news, someone else brought up a new topic, "Hehe, you only know that the village's medical ninjutsu has progressed rapidly these years and will sooner or later surpass Konoha, but do you know about other things?"
Then, after successfully attracting everyone's attention, this person continued, "Our sealing jutsu has already surpassed Konoha's in the truest sense."
"Really? Really? Have we really surpassed Konoha?" Many people couldn't wait to know the details. This was both automatically driven by their sense of belonging to the village and also so they could show off to others later.
"Of course it's true! You all know about the Uzumaki clan, right? What, someone actually doesn't know about the Uzumaki clan? The Uzumaki clan were the original masters of the Land of Whirlpools. Their sealing jutsu is top-tier in the ninja world. They were once allies with Konoha, and the wife of Konoha's First Hokage was also from the Uzumaki clan."
"But because Konoha stood by and watched, the Uzumaki clan was annihilated by the combined forces of the Cloud, Sand, and Mist. Our Lord Third personally rescued some of the Uzumaki clan's survivors back then."
"These members of the Uzumaki clan brought with them their most skilled sealing jutsu. So, from that time on, our Iwagakure's sealing jutsu was no longer weaker than Konoha's."
At this time, another person interjected, "I know about this. My daughter has a classmate who is from the Uzumaki clan. I heard that Lord Fourth also took a member of the Uzumaki clan as a disciple this time."
The previous person continued, "That's right. And in these years, Konoha's sealing jutsu has been stagnating. Even more so, because the Fourth Hokage and his wife, Kushina Uzumaki, died in battle, Konoha's sealing jutsu has now regressed severely."
"And our Iwagakure is the exact opposite. Lord Fourth has been leading the Barrier Team in researching new sealing jutsu. Think about it, we have been constantly progressing, while Konoha has been regressing. Haven't we surpassed Konoha?"
"So that's how it is! Lord Fourth is wise!" Most people believed it.
But there were also those who didn't believe, "Have we researched any powerful sealing jutsu?"
The previous person was not flustered at all and said directly, "The specific sealing jutsu is a ninja's secret. But there is one thing that can prove it."
This person deliberately paused, then said mysteriously, "Among the disciples from Lord Fourth's previous batch, there is one named Yuran Kawazoe. She participated in the R&D of that powerful sealing jutsu and made a great contribution."
"Now, Lady Yuran is already the Deputy Head of the Barrier Team. Think about it, how old is she? If she hadn't researched a sealing jutsu of great power, how could she have been promoted unconventionally?"
"So that's how it is!" The onlookers felt they had discovered the truth.
For a long time after, the villagers of Iwagakure were all discussing these matters.
They felt like there was good news every day:
The village's Lightning Release ninjutsu had made a major breakthrough, and genjutsu had also made considerable progress.
Since the era of hidden villages, the Land of Earth was the only country to have expanded its territory. If not for the Land of Grass in between, our Land of Earth would have long since made the Land of Fire cede territory and pay reparations.
The Land of Earth is the only country where you don't have to worry about rogue ninjas and bandits within its borders. I heard that when Konoha ninjas go to the toilet at night, they have to consider whether to hire a ninja as a bodyguard.
Our Iwagakure is the great hidden village that produces the fewest rogue ninjas (automatically ignoring the Cloud). Unlike Konoha, which often has ninjas defecting; even a Hokage candidate would defect.
Our Land of Earth's international influence is increasing day by day. Our surrounding small and medium-sized countries now have very good relations with us. You have to know, these countries used to be close to Konoha.
We are now allies with Sunagakure, one of the five great hidden villages. But what about Konoha? They couldn't even protect their ironclad ally, Uzushiogakure.
Our village also has a Kekkei Tōta. I heard that both our Lord Fourth and his disciple, Ogura Saki, have developed new Kekkei Genkai. In contrast, Konoha has even lost its strongest, the Wood Release.
What "lost"? It was clearly Hiruzen who was afraid of a Wood Release user appearing and threatening his rule, so he sent all the members of the Senju clan to the battlefield.
I heard that Hiruzen is also going to make a move against the Uchiha clan. At that time, the number one clan in Konoha will be his Sarutobi clan.
"Aren't there still the Hyuga clan?"
"What do you know? The Hyuga clan's territory was just destroyed by Hiruzen himself a few days ago, under the pretext of dealing with the rogue-nin Orochimaru. Tsk, who doesn't know that he and Orochimaru were just putting on a show?"
"Our Iwagakure is the most united. Even for the competition for the Fourth Hokage, Lord Ishiro and Lord Ikura just had their respective disciples compete."
"Unlike Konoha, where Hiruzen, to pave the way for Orochimaru, directly used public opinion to force White Fang to commit suicide. Later, when Orochimaru grew too fast and threatened Hiruzen's position, he then supported Minato Namikaze."
"Heh, Konoha!"
A new topic every day. The villagers of Iwagakure had good, top-secret intelligence about their own village to listen to every day, and new dark history of Konoha to complain about.
Life was full of flavor.
In these casual conversations, the Iwagakure villagers' sense of belonging to the village, their identification with the Iwa ninjas, and their pride in being a member of the village were all rapidly increasing.
A few days later, when the ninjas who were originally on missions outside returned to the village, they found that the village had changed greatly.
The buildings of Iwagakure hadn't changed, but the way the villagers looked at them had changed. It had become more cordial, more proud. That confidence, of "everyone else is suffering while I alone am sweet," that emanated from their whole bodies nearly blinded everyone.
These ninjas quickly went up to inquire. After all, gathering intelligence was already everyone's instinct.
Coincidentally, these villagers also needed ninjas to confirm things. The result was that the villagers would say a little, and those ninjas would acknowledge a little.
Those ninjas thought about it carefully and felt that it was indeed so. "So the village has already become this strong?" Looking again at the villagers' gazes towards them, these ninjas also subconsciously puffed out their chests.
In that instant, their morale and spirit became more condensed. Although there was no qualitative change, there was still a slight increase in their combat power.
This scene was coincidentally seen by Ishiro in the shadows. Hmm, Ishiro was very satisfied.
These few days, Ishiro had been secretly observing the changes in the village, and the content and methods of the village's propaganda had also been constantly adjusted.
This was not the first time Ishiro had seen a change in the mentality of the village's ninjas.
In addition, Ishiro felt that he himself was also changing. Last time in Konoha Village, after gaining some enlightenment, Ishiro's spiritual power had greatly improved.
Afterward, feeling the changes of the villagers in his own village and the improvement of Iwagakure's strength, his whole person had been feeling warm all over, feeling full of energy for everything he did (except for processing documents).
Ishiro felt that even the speed of his Wind Release training these past few days had quickened a lot.
However, the villagers didn't seem to be very certain about these rumors yet. Ishiro was lost in thought.
Thus, that afternoon, Ishiro gathered the villagers for a speech.
Ishiro stood on the roof of the Tsuchikage Building. The villagers surrounded the few streets near the building, all waiting with expectant faces for Ishiro to speak.
This was the first special speech Ishiro had given since succeeding to the title of Fourth Tsuchikage.
"Hello everyone, I am Ishiro, the Fourth Tsuchikage you have chosen."
"Fourth! Fourth! Fourth!" Everyone's enthusiasm was high. These days, they had heard many things about the village, and they knew that many of these things were related to this Fourth Hokage.
Ishiro waved his hand. After the crowd quieted down, he continued, "First, I want to tell everyone that the news you have heard these days is all true."
"Oh!"
"That's great!"
"It's really true!"
"We're about to surpass Konoha!"
This time, Ishiro did not interrupt the villagers' cheers.
After a long while, when the crowd began to quiet down on their own, Ishiro continued, "There are many things everyone is not clear about. Today, I will report the results of the village's research to everyone."
"First is ninjutsu of various attributes: in previous years, our village didn't know many things, mainly Earth Release, then a small amount of Water and Fire Release. Lightning Release was particularly rare."
"Taking this opportunity, let's demonstrate the Lightning Release everyone has developed."
As soon as Ishiro's voice fell, one Anbu on each side of the audience immediately cast an A-rank Lightning Release. The two A-rank jutsu covered the area above all the villagers' heads, collided with each other, and emitted a dazzling light.
The villagers were first startled, and then there were continuous cheers.
Just like that, Ishiro demonstrated many of the achievements the village had made: medical ninjutsu, sealing jutsu, summoning animals (he didn't choose the sharks, but used the Giant Panda), Kekkei Genkai (Porcelain Release, Blaze Release).
Ishiro even demonstrated the legendary Sage Jutsu, which was said to be known only by the First Hokage back then.
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We've hit 200 Power Stones goal As promised This week, here's the bonus chapter. Thank you for your support—please keep it coming!