Chapter 338: The Air of a Great Nation
Regarding Tsunade's proposal to have him and Danzō go together to deal with Pakura, Hiruzen Sarutobi directly nodded, stating that Konoha was short on manpower, and this was indeed something only the two of them could do.
However, he looked at his best buddy who hadn't made a sound, and then could only take the initiative to say, "Tsunade, let's hand over the training of the Anbu to Root. This is also a tradition of the Anbu. The original intention of establishing Root was to train Anbu members."
Tsunade knew what Hiruzen meant. What original intention? It was all an excuse. Root was established to do the dirty work; training the Anbu was just the reason given on the surface.
Hiruzen's meaning was very clear: they had to give Danzō some benefits, otherwise he wouldn't put in the effort.
"The Anbu's tasks are heavy. How about this: every half a month, I will send ten Anbu squads to receive training from Root. If the training effect is good, we will rotate them later," Tsunade finally made a concession.
After the meeting ended, as Danzō was leaving the Hokage Tower and heading for the Root base, a smile finally appeared on his face. The concessions from Hiruzen and Tsunade were completely within his expectations.
Regardless of whether they suspected the source of Root's intelligence, the fact that Danzō had produced intelligence that the Anbu had failed to detect was always a reality.
With this premise, Danzō's proposal for Root to train the Anbu appeared reasonable and logical.
Then Danzō had stoked Hiruzen's desire to weaken the Sand's strength. At this time, Tsunade, who was short on high-end combat power, could only dispatch him.
This way, he didn't even need to open his mouth; they would take the initiative to make concessions.
Training Anbu ninjas—of course Danzō would train them. But choosing some suitable ninjas to brainwash was also possible.
"Hmph, Hiruzen, your disciple is as weak as you are. Not a bit of the authority a Hokage should have," Danzō, having gained an advantage, did not forget to pat himself on the back in his heart, expressing his disdain for Tsunade who had conceded so easily.
After returning to Root, Danzō said to a subordinate, "Don't sever contact with the Iwa side directly. Since the Fourth Tsuchikage is willing to cooperate, then I will have the opportunity to get enough benefits from Iwagakure."
"Ishiro, the Fox of Iwa, do you think this old man doesn't know what you're up to? This old man is just using you," Danzō said to himself in his heart.
That's right, the source of Danzō's intelligence was deliberately leaked by Ishiro. The in-depth cooperation with the Sand this time could not be interfered with by external forces. Yes, Ishiro believed that the exchange for Pakura this time should be an in-depth cooperation, not just an exchange of prisoners.
As long as Pakura was still in his hands, Ishiro was not worried about Rasa going back on his word. As for after the exchange was completed, Rasa could do whatever he wanted. Anyway, Iwagakure had already gotten what it wanted.
So after the matter was finished, Ishiro had the Anbu make another trade with Danzō's Root.
Of course, for this kind of less important intelligence trade, Ishiro did not make an exorbitant demand, only exchanging it for a useless A-rank ninjutsu.
...
A month later, Iwagakure became lively. Konoha, Sunagakure, the Village Hidden in the Rivers, and other small hidden villages surrounding the Land of Earth all sent representatives to participate in the joint Chunin Exams.
In fact, the purpose of these small countries was only to understand the suddenly changed relationship between the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth. At the same time, it was also not to offend the Land of Earth. After all, everyone was still very economically dependent on the Land of Earth now.
However, regardless of their purpose, the prestige of Iwagakure's joint Chunin Exams this time was still established.
Iwagakure thus welcomed another peak period of human traffic.
Originally, this time was not the regular ninja promotion time for Iwagakure. The large-scale Chunin promotion selection within Iwagakure this year had ended half a year ago. In times of peace, Iwagakure's promotion quotas were relatively small, with only one Chunin selection per year.
So there were not many particularly outstanding Genin within Iwagakure. Of course, according to wartime standards, there were quite a few who had already reached the Chunin level.
Fortunately, it wasn't just Iwagakure; other hidden villages were more or less the same. For example, in Konoha, the average level of their students was probably even worse. Konoha, unlike Iwa, which had not suffered great losses since the Second War, was not in a hurry to promote Genin. Konoha, however, was short on manpower, and the threshold for promotion had already been lowered a great deal.
So this Chunin Exam was destined to be a round of rookies pecking at each other.
For the villagers of Iwagakure, being able to watch the excitement and see ninjas from other hidden villages was enough. If they could also sell some local products from the Land of Earth, that would be even better.
The leading Jonin from Konoha who came to participate in the Chunin Exams was Kakashi Hatake.
For such an occasion, sending a Kage's disciple was most appropriate. The status of a Kage's disciple was special and could express the importance of the event. On the other hand, the talent of a Kage's disciple was not bad, and they could hold their own.
Unfortunately, Tsunade had no disciples, only an assistant: Shizune. Shizune's strength was clearly not enough, so Tsunade appointed Kakashi, the disciple of the former Hokage, as the leading Jonin for Konoha's side this time.
Because the situation in the ninja world was very unfavorable for Konoha, Tsunade and Hiruzen attached special importance to the cultivation of the village's talented younger generation.
And Kakashi was the representative of the talented younger generation, the one with the most hope of becoming a Kage-level in the young generation. Tsunade and Hiruzen spent a lot of effort on counseling Kakashi.
So the current Kakashi, although still a bit listless, had never slacked off in his training and had become an Elite Jonin early on.
In addition, in this life, Kakashi had not been corrupted by "Make-Out Paradise." His spirit was not so decadent, and his body had not been hollowed out.
Considering that Kakashi was not old and had some issues with his mentality, the steady Hiruzen also sent a middle-aged Jonin as his deputy. This person was from the Nara clan, named Shikazumi Nara.
Although Shikazumi's strength was only that of a Jonin, his advantage was his high IQ and rich experience. He had been to many great hidden villages as a member of Konoha's delegations.
In Hiruzen's arrangement, Kakashi was just the public face. If there were any diplomatic matters that needed to be handled, Shikazumi could make the decision.
After Kakashi's group entered Iwagakure, they were arranged in a large izakaya. This was the main place where Iwagakure received foreign guests.
The Konoha party of about twenty people had an independent courtyard.
Before they arrived, ninjas from many hidden villages had already come. The courtyards on both sides of theirs were already occupied by ninjas.
Shikazumi asked the waiter who had brought them in, "Which hidden villages' delegations have arrived? Which village is next door to us?"
The waiter did not hide it and said, "The Sand, River, Grass, and Waterfall have all arrived. Your Konoha is considered to be late. Next to you are the ninjas from the Village Hidden by a Waterfall and the Village Hidden in the Sand."
Shikazumi's face stiffened, then immediately returned to normal. But in his heart, he was cursing, "Iwagakure is too malicious, to actually have us live with Takigakure."
Konoha had not returned the Seven-Tails for a long time, which made Takigakure's dissatisfaction with Konoha grow stronger. The Daimyo of the Land of Waterfalls had contacted the Daimyo of the Land of Fire many times, requesting the return of the Seven-Tails, but the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, because he didn't know the specific situation, directly passed the buck back to Konoha.
Iwagakure wanted to increase the contact between the two sides to intensify the conflict.
As for why they had arranged for the Sand on the other side, Shikazumi was not yet clear. He planned to go and visit the Sand later.
However, Shikazumi soon understood Iwagakure's intention. When he and Kakashi went to the Sand's residence, they happened to see several Sand ninjas following an Iwa ninja into the distance.
"Did the Sand proactively want to go out, or was it an arrangement by Iwa?" Shikazumi wondered in his heart.
His confusion did not last long because his and Kakashi's visit was rejected by the Sand. You must be joking! Before they came, Rasa had personally instructed them not to offend Iwagakure over some minor matters at this time. To prevent Iwagakure from using it as a pretext, the Sand did not want to have any close contact with Konoha.
Shikazumi was a bit grave. He said to Kakashi, "Let's go for a walk too."
When the two left the izakaya, a small squad of Iwa Anbu came up to meet them and said to Kakashi, "Members of Konoha, if you want to stroll around the village, please allow us to accompany you."
Shikazumi said, "I saw that the Sand ninjas just now didn't seem to have an Anbu escort. There was only one Iwa ninja with them."
The Anbu squad leader said, "I'm sorry. Sunagakure is our steadfast ally. Konoha is not yet."
Since they had spoken so bluntly, what else could Shikazumi do?
So the two of them led four Anbu and began to stroll around Iwagakure.
Along the way, neither Kakashi nor Shikazumi felt very good.
When the villagers of Iwagakure saw the forehead protectors on their heads, they all raised their chins, with an expression that said, "Your Konoha is nothing special. You won't be able to jump around for much longer."
This situation was not an isolated case; almost everyone they saw had this attitude. Even when children saw Konoha ninjas, there was a kind of fighting spirit in their eyes.
As if to say, "Don't you die too early. You must leave your head for me. I need your life to increase my future merits."
Kakashi and his group also saw some ninjas from other hidden villages.
The villagers of Iwagakure had a sense of superiority when facing these ninjas, but their posture was not held too high. In short, it gave people a feeling of, "Welcome to Iwagakure. We welcome you to look around and learn more. We hope you will escape poverty and get rich soon."
And when the villagers of Iwagakure saw their own ninjas, their eyes were full of satisfied and proud smiles.
Kakashi had seen little of the world. He just felt a bit uncomfortable but couldn't say exactly why. But Shikazumi gradually began to understand.
He had been to many hidden villages, including the former Iwagakure, but only the villagers of Konoha had this kind of situation. He remembered that the last time he came to Iwagakure, it was not like this.
Shikazumi explained to Kakashi, "Actually, this is a sense of superiority generated by the villagers of Iwagakure being very confident in their village and very proud of living in it."
"Haven't you noticed that our Konoha's villagers are also like this? I have been to many hidden villages and have never seen this situation in the villagers of other countries. I didn't expect that the villagers of Iwagakure would also have this kind of self-confidence." Shikazumi's tone was somewhat low. He had previously thought that Konoha was special, that they who were bathed in the Will of Fire were the happiest.
What Shikazumi didn't know was that this thing had a name: the air of a great nation.
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