The Naruto series has always been labeled as a story of passion and inspiration. While the "passion" part is undeniable—aside from the hundreds of flashback episodes, the rest is indeed quite exhilarating—the "inspiration" aspect, however, is something that Jinghang couldn't entirely agree with. At first glance, it seems like the tale of an underdog Genin rising to become the savior of the ninja world. But if you strip away the layers and look at its core, it's not truly an inspirational story. Instead, it's a narrative steeped in bloodline supremacy—a tale of the "nobility."
In fact, there's only one and a half genuinely inspirational civilian characters in the entire series: Might Guy and his protégé, Rock Lee. In the earlier arcs, Rock Lee opened the Five Gates and gave the then top-tier powerhouse, Gaara, a run for his money. It was a fiery moment, lasting all of ten minutes, but it almost left him crippled. Later, Might Guy opened the Eight Gates and landed a devastating kick on the late-stage powerhouse, Madara Uchiha, burning bright for another ten minutes before being permanently disabled.
The cost for civilians to chase after the prowess of bloodlines is just that high. Though this perspective may seem a bit cynical, when you calm down and think it through, who can honestly say it's not the truth? The so-called "inspirational" journey of the nobility isn't truly inspirational—it's just their natural potential playing out.
After the recent war, Jinghang came to understand this truth even more deeply. To truly elevate the overall strength of the village, it wasn't enough to focus solely on development, reforming systems, or poaching talents from other villages. The key was to increase the number of top-tier elites within the village.
Think about it—how much effort had he poured into developing the village's overall strength over the past few years? And yet, even after staking almost everything, the best he could achieve was a 60-40 victory against an already crippled Iwagakure (Hidden Stone Village) after their defeat by Kumogakure (Hidden Cloud Village). If the opponent had been Konohagakure (Hidden Leaf Village), defeat would have been inevitable. Clearly, his strategy still had significant shortcomings.
In this world, only villages with as many Kage-level or near-Kage-level elites as possible could stand firm and hold their ground. Why was the Akatsuki organization able to wreak havoc across the ninja world with just a dozen or so members? The reason was the same: every single one of them was a powerhouse capable of taking down dragons and tigers. With such individuals, they could practically walk sideways across the ninja world.
Thus, both economic development and combat power must be prioritized and strengthened in tandem.
For Jinghang's generation, it was already a stretch. Including the retired Chiyo, they could barely scrape together six elites. There was no helping it—this was just the foundation of Sunagakure (Hidden Sand Village). However, hope could be placed in the generation of Sasori of the Red Sand. By the time the Third Great Ninja War arrived, Jinghang's generation would be in their prime. If they could produce around ten more ninjas of Sasori's caliber, then what would Hiruzen Sarutobi or Minato Namikaze matter? They could still stand toe-to-toe with them.
The high-level combatants in the Naruto world could essentially be divided into three tiers, primarily influenced by bloodlines.
First Tier: The direct descendants of the Ōtsutsuki Clan—her son, her grandson, her son's descendants, her grandson's descendants, her son's reincarnations, and her grandson's reincarnations. Characters like Hashirama Senju, Madara Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha fall into this category. However, as time passed and the bloodline thinned, top-tier individuals of this caliber became increasingly rare, and reincarnations were even harder to come by.
Second Tier: This included jinchūriki and powerful kekkei genkai users, such as Fū, Rōshi, and Ōnoki. Jinghang's Magnet Release also fell into this category. With the addition of Sage Mode, he could be considered a leading figure within this tier.
Third Tier: This group consisted of relatively weaker kekkei genkai users and highly talented ninjas, like Haku and Kakashi Hatake. However, exceptionally gifted individuals within this tier could, through effort and other means, reach or even surpass the Second Tier. Examples include Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Minato Namikaze, and the Legendary Sannin.
The First Tier was beyond reach; at most, they could later ask Orochimaru for someone like Karin. For now, Jinghang's plan was to select a group of children with potential to reach the Second or Third Tier through rigorous selection and an extremely high elimination rate. These children would then receive concentrated resources for cultivation, aiming to produce a group of Kage-level and near-Kage-level warriors to prevent the village from being stretched so thin in the next war. After all, the Kazekage himself couldn't always be the one fighting on the frontlines.
Among the current children in the village, Jinghang had only two candidates in mind: Hidan and Sasori. The rest would have to be identified through the village's administrative machinery. A unified system of selection and training would be implemented.
Due to the recent Grass Minister Spy Incident, which exposed significant flaws in the village's counter-espionage efforts, Jinghang decided to keep this plan confidential. Instead of discussing it publicly at the hearing committee, he secretly convened a meeting at his villa. Participants included twelve highly trusted individuals who held key powers in the village, such as Rasa, Pakura, Baki, Chiyo, Ebizō, Kamizuru, and Ryōhei. After all, national weapons should not be revealed to others. A trump card is only a trump card when hidden.
After hearing Jinghang's plan, everyone expressed their agreement. Jinghang decided to exercise the Kazekage's special authority to make confidential decisions, bypassing the villagers' representative assembly and the hearing committee to push this resolution forward.
The first issue to address was funding. Cultivating such talents required substantial financial support. Since the project was to be conducted in secret, the funds naturally couldn't be included in the village's public accounts. Jinghang proposed using the ten billion ryō in war reparations from the recent conflict with Iwagakure. After deducting compensation for the families of fallen soldiers, rewarding meritorious personnel, and reimbursing war expenses, there would still be a significant surplus. This surplus would fund the project. After all, money only has value when spent; sitting in the treasury, it's just paper.
Kamizuru, the Minister of Finance, assured that this would not be an issue. Since the funds had not yet been officially accounted for, some adjustments could be made during the bookkeeping process without raising suspicion. However, this statement immediately aroused the suspicions of Ryōhei, the head of the Anti-Corruption Bureau. "You've done this sort of thing before, haven't you?" he accused, nearly sparking a brawl between the two.
After much effort to calm the situation, Kamizuru, a certified actuary, calculated that the surplus could support the cultivation of up to twelve individuals.
Jinghang immediately made the decision: twelve it is. If they could produce twelve such elites, the goal would be achieved. Sunagakure could almost rival Konohagakure. Coincidentally, there were twelve participants in today's meeting. Inspired by the Twelve Earthly Branches, the plan was named the "Branch Plan."
Thus, the first generation of Sunagakure's "Twelve Earthly Branches," who would later shine brilliantly in the Third Great Ninja War, was born—at least on paper.
The group then combined their respective departmental expertise to actively discuss, contribute ideas, and formulate a seemingly feasible training plan. After all, no one had ever attempted to cultivate top-tier talent in such a systematic way before; they could only feel their way forward. Jinghang and Rasa would lead the initiative, with the Education Department, headed by Ebizō, taking the primary role and other departments providing support. A comprehensive "Branch Plan" spanning five to ten years was officially launched in Sunagakure—a bold and ambitious talent cultivation program.
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