Not long after, all the matches concluded, and the award and promotion ceremony was held at the center of Sunagakure's arena.
Although the atmosphere on Sunagakure's side was somewhat subtle, the basic ceremonial procedures were not omitted; the Third Kazekage and the Third Hokage attended together.
When the final results of the Chūnin Exams were announced and Higashino Shinichi's name was read out, as the champion and the one with the most outstanding overall performance, he was granted Chūnin status on the spot. Once again, a wave of sound mixed with astonishment and applause erupted throughout the venue.
Shinichi stepped forward and, from the hands of the Third Hokage—who served as the special award presenter—received the brand-new flak jacket symbolizing Chūnin status along with the official certification document.
He could feel countless gazes—among them the jōnin team leaders and participants from different shinobi villages seated in the stands—focused on him.
Curiosity, scrutiny, wariness, admiration… all kinds of emotions were present.
He knew that from this moment onward, the name "Higashino Shinichi" would no longer be confined merely to the category of Konoha's "genius genin."
By virtue of two indisputable battles—especially his final performance of breaking through the "Absolute Defense" and publicly revealing himself as the developer of a powerful ninjutsu—he had successfully elevated his reputation and strength onto an entirely new and broader stage.
...
Three days later, at an inn in a small town on the border of the Land of Wind.
On the day after the Chūnin Exams ended, the Konoha group had already set out on the return journey.
At this moment, after completing a day of routine training, Shinichi returned to his room, closed the door, and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.
The fatigue from consecutive days of fierce battles and long travel had not diminished the light in his eyes.
With a slight movement of his mind, the personal panel visible only to him quietly emerged.
[Name: Higashino Shinichi]
[Profession: Chūnin (New) / Swordsman]
[Talents: (list omitted; key changes as follows)]
[Draws Remaining: 1 (Blue)]
First, the [Genin] Entry in the Profession column had been replaced by the brand-new [Chūnin].
This was within Shinichi's expectations. Winning the championship in the highly anticipated Chūnin Exams and receiving personal witness and recognition from two Kage—such "formal acknowledgment" from the highest level of the ninja systems of two major shinobi villages—was extremely efficient, directly driving the rapid advancement of his professional Entry.
[Chūnin: You are now the backbone of the shinobi forces and a squad leader. Significant improvement is granted in the formulation of complex tactics, the combined application of multiple ninjutsu, and the training in chakra nature and form transformation. Efficiency in guiding others regarding ninja aptitude receives a slight increase.]
The professional Entries within the ninja system do not provide direct numerical bonuses like those in the swordsman system. Rather, they function more like an "authority upgrade" and an "efficiency amplifier."
Under the effect of the [Chūnin] Entry, his future learning, training, and practical application in fields related to ninja aptitude would all receive more efficient enhancement.
It even came with an ability to speed up guidance in that regard, which did fit the fact that Chūnin can serve as instructors.
Another major change was in the Talents column: [Ninjutsu Proficiency (Green)] had quietly transformed into [Ninjutsu Specialization (Blue)].
[Ninjutsu Specialization (Blue): Your understanding of ninjutsu principles and your control of chakra have reached an exceptionally strong level. You can perceive the inner connections between different ninjutsu, easily carry out organic combinations and derivative variations of the ninjutsu you have already mastered, or choose the most effective ninjutsu response in a split-second real combat situation.]
This upgrade was the direct reward for the success of his finals strategy.
With the shocking record of "breaking Sunagakure's Absolute Defense" as the hammer, and the astonishing act of "publicly revealing himself as the developer of an A-rank, no-hand-seals ninjutsu" as the anvil, the intense cognition forged by the two together finally broke through the bottleneck that had existed before due to the low cognitive efficiency imposed by professional rank limits, and in one push drove the ninjutsu-aptitude cognition he had long since accumulated past the threshold of blue quality.
By contrast, although his taijutsu aptitude had shone brilliantly in this exam and drawn widespread attention, it did not immediately upgrade to blue.
That, too, was within Shinichi's expectations. Unlike his ninjutsu cognition, which had already been on the verge of breaking through, the deep impression on the taijutsu side needed more time to settle and ferment.
He had a premonition that this upgrade would not be far off—perhaps within a month after returning to Konoha. As the details of the matches spread and were discussed, a blue taijutsu Entry would come about naturally.
Finally, and also as expected, the panel clearly displayed: [Draws Remaining: 1 (Blue)].
This was a precious opportunity that could only possibly be unlocked upon promotion to Chūnin or above. A brand-new Talent Entry—guaranteed to be of blue quality—was about to be grasped in his hand.
Shinichi's gaze fell on the line [Draws Remaining: 1 (Blue)]. A blue Entry—any single one of them could bring a qualitative change.
But he did not rush to draw immediately.
He planned to return to Konoha first, and then, as usual, solemnly bathe and change clothes. After offering a prayer that seemed devout, yet—he himself knew—had no real practical effect, but was full of personal ritual meaning, he would then make the draw, using that to welcome this important gift.
Even though it was useless as hell, a sense of ritual still had to be there.
After closing the panel, Shinichi walked to the window and pushed open the wooden window.
The night sky over the border town was clear; the starlight was sparse yet bright, and in the distance he could vaguely see the continuous silhouettes of mountains in the direction of the Land of Fire.
However, his thoughts drifted toward an even more distant future. Combining fragments of memories from his previous life with what he had seen and heard in this life, he formed a rough and hazy outline of a deduction about the storm that was about to sweep across the shinobi world.
Next year, as the tense atmosphere between the villages continued to escalate, a silent arms race would enter a white-hot stage.
All the major shinobi villages would desperately expand their military strength. Batch after batch of academy students would be pushed to graduate ahead of schedule as if under a rush order, filling the ever-growing ninja forces.
Just as Sunagakure was rubbing its hands together, preparing to make a big move, their village's Akasuna no Sasori—who had long been dissatisfied with the higher-ups—took one look and thought:
You old fossil, you performed so poorly last season that my parents were dragged into it, and you still have the nerve to plan a new one?
So this ruthless man who proclaimed that "art is eternal" simply carried out a housecleaning and took care of the Third Kazekage.
Once the Third Kazekage went missing, Sunagakure initially tried to keep a lid on it and search quietly. But as time passed, when such a prominent Kage vanished, the news inevitably began to leak out bit by bit.
Far away, Kumogakure heard about it.
What? Sunagakure's boss, the Kazekage, is gone?
Let me go see what's going on.
Then the Third Raikage—known for the hardness of his body and his decisiveness in action, and whose behavioral patterns could at times be somewhat abstract—apparently found mere reports unsatisfying.
He personally led an elite squad, staging an extreme penetration maneuver. Crossing more than a dozen small countries in succession, under the watchful eyes of the Lands of Fire and Earth, he swaggered straight into the territory of the Land of Wind.
But upon arrival, he found that aside from sand and rocks, the place was so poor it practically rattled.
Perhaps they felt there was simply no profit to be gained there, or perhaps the Third Raikage himself finally cooled down from his hot-blooded impulse and realized that crossing more than a dozen countries—from the northeast of the continent to the southwest—was indeed somewhat overly abstract.
Meanwhile, under the efforts of Rasa, who wielded Magnet Release, Sunagakure temporarily united and put on the posture of a decisive battle.
The Third Raikage took one look and weighed the situation. With few men on his side, a head-on clash would not be cost-effective. Moreover, the place was barren; even if they captured it, it would have little value and no real opportunity for governance.
So he could only lead his people in a "victorious strategic withdrawal."
Afterward, adhering to a mindset of "everyone wins greatly," both sides declared overwhelming and resounding victory.
Internal crisis gave birth to a new leader. Relying on his Magnet Release ability and his performance during the crisis, Rasa successfully rose to power and became the Fourth Kazekage.
With a new official taking office, several thorny issues had to be faced:
First, the previous Kazekage had vanished inexplicably—an explanation had to be given to the entire village.
Second, in searching for him and preparing for war, their reserves had nearly been drained. With the arrow already nocked, it had to be fired.
Third, having just taken office, he urgently needed to establish authority and consolidate power.
After thinking it over, Rasa slapped his thigh—fine. Old traditions could not be discarded. This massive, perfectly shaped scapegoat would be handed to their old neighbor and "good ally," Konoha.
Thus, Sunagakure launched a surprise attack on Konoha and declared war.
Kumogakure saw Sunagakure's stance and thought:
Well then, if you're attacking Konoha, I'll attack Konoha too!
Iwagakure and Kirigakure, watching from the sidelines, thought:
How could we miss out on this commotion?
If all of you are joining in, we'd better throw in a kick as well—otherwise wouldn't it make our village seem irrelevant?
You should know that when the Five Great Shinobi Villages stand together like this, the world lies beneath our feet.
And so, the Third Shinobi World War—one that would sweep across the entire shinobi world—erupted in full force amid this chain reaction that seemed absurd on the surface, yet was in truth the total explosion of years of accumulated contradictions and calculated interests.
Thinking of this, Shinichi shook his head, dispelling those slightly teasing metaphors from his mind. His gaze grew calm and sharp once more.
Humor was humor, but the cruelty of war was real. The time left to him was only about a year.
Within this brief period of peace, he had to make good use of the new authority granted by [Chūnin] and the blue Entry he was about to obtain, raising his strength to a level sufficient not only to stand firm in the coming storm, but perhaps even… influence the direction of the wind.
'How should I walk the road ahead?'
Shinichi fell into thought. After the battle of the Chūnin Exams, with the new Entry and the subsequent upgrades further strengthening him, he estimated that by then he would probably possess strength roughly at the level of a formal jōnin.
There might still be slight gaps in terms of overall experience, mission records, and handling complex situations. But purely in terms of combat power, the difference would not be great.
And a year later, when the shadow of that great war truly began to descend, he was confident he would stand steadily on the line of jōnin-level strength.
At that time, he would have just turned ten years old—more than two years younger than that later prodigy, Kakashi, who was promoted to jōnin at nearly thirteen.
Moreover, in Shinichi's view, when Kakashi was promoted to jōnin, his strength likely had not yet fully met the hard standard of a jōnin.
After all, he had suffered a heavy defeat against an Iwagakure jōnin. Even the White Fang short blade passed down in his family had been broken, and he himself had lost one eye. His true transformation had only been completed under the intense stimulus of awakening the Sharingan and the death of his companion.
'In a year, I should truly possess the combat power of a formal jōnin—perhaps even stronger,' Shinichi silently calculated. 'With that level of strength, in the early stage of the turmoil, as long as I don't throw myself into the most brutal meat-grinder battlefields or take on the most dangerous missions, self-preservation should be sufficient.'
With that thought, Shinichi withdrew his gaze from the starry sky, intending to end the day.
But at the instant he turned around—
A vague pull, an indescribable and subtle sensation, rose from the depths of his heart without warning.
It was not intense, yet like a pebble dropped into a still lake, it sent out clear ripples.
"Hm?"
He let out a soft sound, halted his movement, and instinctively summoned the personal panel once more. His eyes went straight to the line: [Draws Remaining: 1 (Blue)].
At this moment, that faint, sudden surge of intuition not only failed to dissipate, it instead grew clearer and more intense, as though silently urging and guiding something.
The characteristic of the [Auspicious Sign] Entry was taking effect.
The last time a similar sensation had appeared was three years ago, when he spoke with Kakashi at Konoha's cemetery.
Back then, that hazy pull ultimately guided him, under the "gaze" of the Third Hokage, to speak words aligned with the core of the Second Hokage's final testament—thereby successfully entering the upper echelon's field of vision and gaining attention and resource allocation far beyond that of an ordinary academy student.
So this time…
Shinichi's gaze sharpened. He no longer hesitated.
Wait until returning to Konoha for a ritual?
To hell with the sense of ceremony.
Opportunity does not come twice.
In this border-town inn, beneath the starlit sky—this was the best moment.
He took a deep breath, steadied his slightly quickened heartbeat, and focused all his attention on the line of faintly glowing text.
'Draw!'
A nearly imperceptible ripple seemed to spread through his consciousness before instantly settling. The "1 (Blue)" on the panel returned to zero.
Immediately afterward, at the end of the Talent Entry list, a point of deep blue light blossomed—like a star igniting in the depths of the sea. Within that radiance, new characters rapidly formed and solidified.
[Clone (Blue): You may duplicate a portion of your own origin and fuse it with the bloodline genes of one biological species to create an independent, permanent clone capable of continuous growth. The clone shares consciousness and memory with the original body. The clone may inherit one professional Entry of the original body and 50% of the Talent Entries (rounded down), including at most one purple Talent Entry, and may not inherit this Talent Entry or Talent Entries unrelated to its profession. The specific Entries may be freely allocated. Through physical contact with the clone, the original body may reassign the Entries it has inherited.]
[Note: The external world may also generate cognition effects toward the clone, but such effects are only 50% of normal, and all cognition effects generated will directly feed back to the original body. By sacrificing one purple-quality Entry possessed by the original body, this Entry may be upgraded to purple quality; this is the only method of upgrade.]
[The original body may actively reclaim the clone, thereby absorbing a small portion of the clone's origin to strengthen itself. Once reclaimed, the clone cannot be restored. If the clone dies, it cannot be restored.]
Oh?
This truly was… an unexpected surprise.
It seemed the next plan would need to be carefully adjusted.
A subtle shift flickered in Shinichi's eyes, and the corners of his mouth lifted despite himself.
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