Chapter 182: The Konoha 12 Graduate
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Takagi Shōban, these past two years, although consistently retreating in defeat when facing Terumi Mei and Kumogakure's forces externally, relying solely on his 'godfather' Uchiha Fugaku to counter the enemy, was someone Uchiha Fugaku had to admit he couldn't outdo when it came to striking hard internally.
The former Uchiha Fugaku believed Danzo was the most shameless vermin he had ever seen. But before the various operations Takagi Shōban pulled off in Kirigakure, Danzo's petty tricks seemed like those of a moral model.
Ever since Takagi Shōban ascended to the Mizukage seat, the purges within his ranks never ceased. Of the two Elite Jounin who previously had a chance to compete with him for the Mizukage position, one was arrested and imprisoned by him on charges of colluding with the north (Mei's faction), then had a batch of crimes fabricated against him and was executed. The other, seeing the situation was bad, directly defected to the north.
Furthermore, Takagi Shōban strictly controlled speech internally; any remarks showing dissatisfaction with him or the Konoha garrison would be sanctioned by him.
Moreover, when distributing the four ninja swords still remaining in Kirigakure, Takagi Shōban even displayed an astonishing mathematical talent to Uchiha Fugaku.
In Kirigakure, besides the Mizukage, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen held the most revered status. Therefore, after taking power, Takagi Shōban naturally wanted to arrange these four swords for his confidants. However, according to Kirigakure's rules, to formally inherit the position of one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, one needed the approval of more than half of the village's Jounin.
At that time, Takagi Shōban's internal control was not as strong as it was now. The confidant who received the most votes only got 46%. But Takagi Shōban simply waved his hand and, on the grounds that it was "rounded up to over half," directly finalized the ownership of these swords.
And towards Uchiha Fugaku, Konoha's five-star general personally decorated by Uchiha Douhuan, Takagi Shōban was utterly fawning. First, he spent vast amounts of manpower and resources to build Fugaku a residence in Kirigakure even more luxurious than the Mizukage Building, and his daily morning and evening greetings never ceased. Fugaku felt this fellow was more filial than his own two sons.
Furthermore, Takagi Shōban had also subtly expressed to Uchiha Fugaku his desire to acknowledge Uchiha Fugaku as his adoptive father. But as soon as he showed this inclination, Uchiha Fugaku rejected it. What a joke! Truly accepting this fellow as an adopted son would be to bring shame upon the Uchiha's glory.
Such was the situation in South Kirigakure. North Kirigakure hadn't fared much better these past two years. To preserve Kirigakure's sovereignty while obtaining Kumogakure's aid, Terumi Mei incurred enormous debts to Kumogakure. Therefore, in North Kirigakure, whether commoners or ninjas, everyone lived very frugally. The economic development achieved in the south with Konoha's strong support naturally made the people in North Kirigakure restless. Compared to the few 'South-defectors' who fled from the south, there were far more cases of people from North Kirigakure defecting because they couldn't endure poverty.
Terumi Mei had no solution for this either. After all, Uchiha Douhuan hadn't performed for her how to handle such a situation.
However, Uchiha Douhuan, after learning about the plight of this 'half-disciple' of his, also had the White Zetsu mixed into North Kirigakure take action, pointing out a clear path for Terumi Mei.
An article titled "Lady Terumi Mei Shatters Uchiha Fugaku's Susanoo with a Kunai" spread throughout North Kirigakure almost overnight.
Under White Zetsu's operation, a wave of personality cult worship swept through North Kirigakure. Before Terumi Mei could even react, she was already being hailed as Kirigakure's great sun, the sole hope for leading Kirigakure out of chaos.
And although Terumi Mei herself wasn't clear what exactly had happened, under this trend, the decrease in defectors from North Kirigakure was an indisputable fact.
For these past two years, the two sides in Kirigakure had constant friction at the border, but neither side had the determination to directly go to war. The situation thus stabilized.
As for the Land of Lightning, after Uchiha Douhuan planted the seeds of division, and with White Zetsu's unremitting efforts, this rift grew larger and larger over two years.
Especially after one White Zetsu, playing a Land of Lightning white samurai, 'knelt on the neck' of another White Zetsu playing a 'hājīhēi' until death, a massive riot erupted within the Land of Lightning.
Countless Land of Lightning 'hājīhēi' took to the streets, raising slogans of "Hājīhēi Lives Matter," and initiated a new round of 'zero-dollar shopping' (looting).
The white people of the Land of Lightning, seeing this situation, were also displeased. You 'hājīhēi' haven't done few illegal and criminal things normally, and even that 'hājīhēi' who was knelt on and killed was because he committed a crime and violently resisted arrest. And now you say we law-abiding white people discriminate against you?
The Land of Lightning had always been abundant in martial virtue. The initial demonstrations quickly transformed into violent protests. The commoners of Kaminari no Miyako all took to the streets, fighting with people of different skin color.
In the end, Kumogakure had to dispatch a large contingent of ninjas to restore order in Kaminari no Miyako.
However, although the riot in the Land of Lightning was suppressed by the dispatched Kumogakure ninjas, the flames of this fire successfully spread to Raikage A himself.
The white people of the Land of Lightning believed the Raikage favored the 'hājīhēi', but the 'hājīhēi' of the Land of Lightning accused the Raikage, as a member of the 'hājīhēi' himself, of not standing on their side.
Although A himself didn't care much for such gossip, these remarks indeed seriously affected the morale of Kumogakure Village ninjas. Now, Kumogakure's 'hājīhēi' ninjas had started to openly refuse missions with white ninjas.
A saw all this and was anxious, but had no solution.
As for the Land of Earth, having just experienced a major war but only gaining some barren land difficult even for farming, they needed a very long time to lick their wounds.
Among the Five Great Ninja Nations, besides Konoha, only the poorest Land of Wind had not experienced any issues.
However, the Fourth Kazekage Rasa was clearly not one to remain idle. These past two years, he had also thought about joining the Land of Waterfall's battlefield to get a slice of the Land of Waterfall's mineral resources.
For the Land of Wind, as long as there was a little advantage to be gained, they absolutely wouldn't want to miss it.
However, Uchiha Douhuan used only one move to make the Land of Wind behave.
Just as Rasa's side had gathered its army and contacted Iwata Sawaki, Uchiha Douhuan's side directly, in the capacity of Grand Minister of State, passed a bill to protect the mineral industry interests within the Land of Fire and its allies. Simply put, it was to impose an additional 20% tariff on the Land of Wind's metal resources.
This move crippled the Land of Wind's economic lifeline. One must know, the largest source of income for the entire Land of Wind was various minerals from the desert, and the biggest buyer of these minerals was the Land of Fire and surrounding small countries. Once Uchiha Douhuan added this tariff, and in his capacity as Grand Minister of State, issued a warning to the Land of Wind's Daimyo not to interfere in other countries' wars.
Initially, the Land of Wind's Daimyo was very defiant, retaliating by imposing a tariff on the Land of Fire as well.
Uchiha Douhuan, seeing this, directly changed the tariff to 300%. The 20% tariff was the result of Uchiha Douhuan having Kado carefully calculate it; it would put great pressure on the Land of Wind but not cause them to completely collapse. But after the other side retaliated, when Uchiha Douhuan set the new tariff, his approach was basically to close his eyes and add zeros.
Anyway, after crossing this line, whether it was 300% or 3000% made no difference at all.
Sometimes Uchiha Douhuan really wanted to understand the Land of Wind Daimyo's thought process. Uchiha Douhuan initially adding tariffs was just a small warning; he didn't really want to do anything to the Land of Wind. After all, adding this wave of tariffs also had a certain impact on the Land of Fire's own economic development.
But the Land of Wind's Daimyo actually dared to retaliate with tariffs against him. This was unlike the trade war between two major powers in Uchiha Douhuan's previous life.
In the trade between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind was at a disadvantage. The Land of Fire did not rely on the Land of Wind's mineral resources, especially after Uchiha Douhuan got his hands on several large mines in the Land of Waterfall. Conversely, without the various goods produced and grains cultivated by the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind found it difficult to even maintain daily consumption. After the two sides completely fell out, in less than two months, the Land of Wind's Daimyo could only raise his hands in surrender.
The Land of Wind's Daimyo, after conversing with Uchiha Douhuan, returned to his country and warned Rasa, threatening to cut off funding, ordering Rasa not to act rashly.
Even if Rasa wanted to do something, he had to immediately behave.
After all, up to now, among the major ninja nations, only Sunagakure in the Land of Wind still completely relied on the Daimyo's funding for survival.
...
After the war between the Land of Earth and the Land of Waterfall ended, the ninja world entered a brief period of peace. Apart from Onoki stepping forward to pressure the Land of Rain, demanding the Akatsuki organization within their borders return the Tailed Beast, no other particularly major incidents occurred.
And Akatsuki gave no response to Onoki's pressure. Only Hanzō, controlled by Nagato, came forward to state that there were no terrorist organizations within their Land of Rain, and then continued their policy of isolation.
Ever since suffering a great loss at Uchiha Douhuan's hands last time, Nagato had taken Akatsuki into hibernation. The underground bounty stations of the ninja world hadn't seen their figures for a long time.
However, Jiraiya, upon learning during a return visit to the village that Nagato was still alive, planned to volunteer to go to the Land of Rain. Uchiha Douhuan didn't stop this either. After all, under his own deterrence, he reckoned Nagato wouldn't dare to deliver a fatal blow to Jiraiya.
...
One year passed in the blink of an eye. Naruto and Sasuke's generation, possibly Konoha's most talented batch of Ninja Academy students in nearly a decade, also reached graduation time.
As agreed, Kakashi, on graduation day, went to the clan lands of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio, becoming the witness to the earring oath of this generation of Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino. Furthermore, he would personally serve as their team leader.
As for Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hyuga Hinata, who had already been confirmed not to inherit the Hyuga clan's main house, they formed a reconnaissance squad as originally planned. And their team leader was Uchiha Shisui, whom Uchiha Douhuan forcibly dragged out from the clan lands.
Regarding Shisui becoming Kiba and Shino's team leader, neither the Inuzuka clan nor the Aburame clan had any objections. After all, the current Shisui was the strongest in the entire Uchiha clan besides Uchiha Douhuan and Uchiha Fugaku, who was acting as Kirigakure's shadow ruler in the Land of Water. Furthermore, Shisui's qualities as a ninja were absolutely top-tier. With him as team leader, safety was definitely guaranteed.
As for this year's undisputed strongest twin stars, the Brave Star and Crown Star of the Seven Star Society, Naruto and Sasuke, Uchiha Douhuan assigned them to a squad with Neji, who had already trained in the Anbu for a year. Uchiha Douhuan personally served as their team leader.
Regarding this outcome, no one in this year's class was surprised. After all, since the 5th grade, the two had no longer participated in internal class spars. In a duel between the two, never mind the Ninja Academy teachers participating as referees, even being caught in the crossfire could result in serious injury.
Sasuke's current fighting style is exactly the same as Uchiha Douhuan's wide-open, powerful approach. And Naruto, after gradually improving his relationship with the Nine-Tails these past few years, could also begin to borrow a bit of Tailed Beast power. Coupled with his Multiple Shadow Clone group assault tactic, often involving hundreds of clones, his fighting style was hardly less dynamic than Sasuke's.
In the Hokage office, after Uchiha Douhuan personally placed forehead protectors on the two, he looked at them with a pleasant chuckle, "Time flies. You two are now official ninjas."
"Hehe! I've been waiting for this day for so long!" Naruto said excitedly. "Teacher, what's our first mission?"
"Generally speaking, newly graduated Genin can only perform D-rank missions in the village like finding cats, dogs, or picking up trash. These past few years, some tasks like helping out at construction sites have also been added," Uchiha Douhuan said with a smile.
"Huh? Is that all?" Hearing this, a look of disbelief instantly appeared on Naruto's face. "Ninjas also have trash-picking missions?"
Sasuke, upon hearing this, facepalmed helplessly. These years, although Naruto could fight him back and forth, and could even gain a slight upper hand relying on his beast-like physical constitution, in terms of ninja fundamentals, the other was appallingly lacking. As a ninja, didn't he even know to gather basic intelligence before acting?
"Of course, this is a necessary path for every Genin," Neji spoke up at this point.
"But, Neji, you've been graduated for a year already, right? How come I haven't seen you pick up any trash?" Naruto asked curiously.
"I was in the Anbu training for a year under Teacher's arrangement, waiting for you two to graduate," Neji explained.
"Hehe, want to skip picking up trash and directly take high-level missions?" Uchiha Douhuan then looked at Naruto with a smile.
"Is that really possible?" Naruto's eyes lit up upon hearing this.
"Of course. With your strength, doing such D-rank missions is indeed a waste of your talents," Uchiha Douhuan chuckled. "However, to bypass this stage, you have to prove to me that you have this strength."
"Tomorrow morning, 8 AM, assemble at Training Ground No. 3. Remember to eat a full breakfast," Uchiha Douhuan said meaningfully.
(End of Chapter)
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