How many countries are there in the ninja world? That is probably something no one can fully know.
Unless you dragged the dead Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo out from the edge of the Pure Land and made him update today's list of changes to the ninja world's nations.
The Five Great Countries occupy the four directions and the center, with countless medium, small, and micro-sized nations interspersed among them.
Some of the more well-known ones include the Land of Rain, the Land of Grass, the Land of Hot Water, the Land of Waterfalls, and the Land of Bears.
These are all relatively strong countries that possess their own independent hidden villages.
Once a country has a hidden village, a small nation develops the ambition to become the Sixth Great Country.
The Land of Waterfalls was once powerful for a time and even received a tailed beast—the Seven-Tails, Chōmei. However, after Kakuzu ran through it from top to bottom farming experience, it behaved itself. Now it relies on its geographic advantage to hole up in a corner, occasionally coming out to reap a bit of profit.
The Land of Rain produced a demigod—Hanzō of the Salamander—who attempted to challenge for the position of the Sixth Great Country. He invaded neighboring nations and triggered the Second Shinobi World War, only to be beaten back by the combined forces of Sunagakure, Iwagakure, and Konohagakure.
At present, it has also fallen in line and is begging to be spared.
There are also some countries with relatively vast territories but no hidden villages, such as the Land of Rivers, the Land of Fields, and the Land of Demons. All of their commissioned missions are handed over to the surrounding great nations.
Together with the Five Great Countries, these nations collectively form the current ninja world. Since the establishment of the one-country–one-village system, the successive Shinobi World Wars, though brutal, have not altered the territorial layout of these countries.
What ordinary people do not know is that mixed in among these large and medium countries are countless tiny states—places like the Land of Pupils, the Land of Claws, the Land of Fangs, and the Land of Greens. Some of them may have territories no larger than a single city.
Such small countries are established and destroyed in everyday cycles, and no one pays them any attention.
When well-known shinobi of the ninja world—such as Sasori of the Red Sand—often say that they wiped out an entire country on their own, they are generally referring to countries of this kind.
It sounds intimidating, but it is actually nothing special—there are plenty of people in the Five Great Hidden Villages who can do it.
Big countries bully small countries; small countries bully even smaller ones; and the even smaller ones… having no one left to bully, can only endure it, or bully their own citizens for fun.
Among all the countries, the Land of Fire where Konohagakure is located is not the largest in area, but it has the best natural conditions. Most of the country is densely forested, with abundant resources.
The country has favorable conditions of rain and heat, fertile land, and is very suitable for agricultural production. At the same time, commerce is developed and the economy is wealthy.
No wonder it gets hit first in every war—looking like some rich guy. If you are not going to hit you, who are you going to hit?
Is the ninja world big? For ordinary people, yes.
But for shinobi, the ninja world is not big. One of Uchiha Madara's boast quotes is: the ninja world is too small, not enough for me alone to make a mess of.
...
In the forests of the Land of Fire, four figures leapt and advanced through the trees at high speed. Their feet touched the trunks, producing a faint sound.
This is the way shinobi travel: fast, efficient, and able to ignore any complicated terrain.
Shinobi jumps rely on bursts of chakra, so when they land, it is inevitable that they will make some sound. The stronger a shinobi is—and the more perfect their control over chakra and body—the smaller the disturbance they leave.
However, among these four figures today, one was clearly different in style from his companions. His body was like a gust of wind—graceful and unrestrained, yet extremely fast—and when he landed, you could not hear any movement at all.
This distinctive style was naturally Higashino Makoto.
Wind-nature chakra has nature transformations of lightness and flow. In order to realize his wish of being able to fly, over these years Higashino Makoto has relied on the extremely high chakra control ability brought by natural energy modification, putting a great deal of effort into training this nature transformation.
For this reason, he likewise divided it into three stages.
The first stage: Wind Release: Light Sky Technique. By using the light, flowing properties of wind-nature, it can increase his movement speed and, to the greatest extent, achieve complete silence.
The second stage: Wind Release: Levitation Technique. It allows his body to remain suspended in the air for a short period of time and to perform various maneuvering actions, catching enemies off guard.
At the same time, it can be considered an initial realization of his dream of flight. When moving, it produces almost no sound—like a ghost.
At present, he is in this stage. Not long ago, during a strength assessment battle with Gekkō Kumomi, he had already used it. Clearly suspended in midair in front of Gekkō Kumomi, with nowhere to borrow force from and on the verge of being grabbed—about to be disqualified in an instant—he suddenly appeared behind him instead, nearly achieving a counterkill.
The third stage: Wind Release: Sky Dance Technique. The name naturally comes from the world of Dragon Ball; upon reaching this level, one would be able to fly freely like a bird.
At the same time, Higashino Makoto also felt that the third stage should be a kind of Wind Release chakra mode, similar to the Lightning Release chakra modes of the successive Raikage.
Gekkō Kumomi led the team at the front, expressionless.
Uzuki Yūgao and Gekkō Hayate traveled while looking on with envy at Higashino Makoto's distinctly styled movement. So cool—so badly wanted.
Higashino Makoto naturally did not hide anything from his companions, but some things are one matter to understand and another to actually accomplish—it comes down to talent.
There is a limit to how much ordinary people can control chakra.
As a jōnin, Gekkō Kumomi had naturally tried it in private as well, only to find—damn it—that it was incredibly difficult. Without spending ten years, it was simply impossible to achieve even the so-called first stage. His disciple was not human; he was a chakra monster.
Thinking about it, that made sense. If it were that easy, then the shinobi of Sunagakure and Iwagakure would all be flying in the sky—so what would there even be left to fight?
Gekkō Kumomi landed first and said, "Let's rest here for a bit. When traveling outside, shinobi should avoid excessive chakra consumption as much as possible, so that we don't find ourselves unable to resist if we encounter danger."
Uzuki Yūgao wiped the sweat from her face when she heard this and nodded in agreement. It was her first time traveling at such high intensity, and she really was somewhat tired.
Gekkō Hayate had not broken a sweat, but his breathing was noticeably heavy. His body severely dragged down his strength—this was congenital and could not be resolved for the time being.
Only Higashino Makoto was like someone to whom nothing had happened, lightly drifting down to the ground.
The three exchanged a glance and had nothing they wanted to say.
Gekkō Kumomi gave Higashino Makoto a look. The latter sensed the surroundings once over and returned a hand signal indicating safety.
Seeing this, Gekkō Kumomi nodded and said to the three, "Although this is just a mission to track down and clear out bandits, it's wartime right now. Large numbers of missing-nin and intelligence squads from other countries are roaming the ninja world, so we need to be especially cautious while we're out. The mission could rise from C-rank to B-rank or even higher at any time."
Uzuki Yūgao asked curiously, "There are still bandits daring to cause trouble in the Land of Fire? Aren't they afraid of dying?"
Gekkō Kumomi sighed lightly and said, "They're basically people from the surrounding small countries. It's wartime, and Konohagakure is short on manpower, so they think they can take the opportunity to make a quick gain."
There was one more point he did not say: there were also people from their own country who could no longer survive and thus turned to banditry. After all, the ninja world is a distorted one—on the surface it seems to have entered an age of electricity and advanced technology, but in essence it is still a feudal system of daimyō and lords.
Some lords do not treat the people under their rule as human beings at all, and this naturally breeds large numbers of roaming bandits.
That was a bit too dark. The disciples were still young, and for the time being, they did not need to know these things.
After resting, the four set out once again. After spending most of the day on the road, they arrived by evening at the southwestern corner of the Land of Fire, at a coastal port city called Hema.
This was a major port in the southwest of the Land of Fire. To the west it bordered the Land of Rivers, and through the maritime route of Tea Islet Bay it connected to the island nations at sea, the peninsula's Land of Tea and Land of Merchants, as well as the western Land of Wind. It was one of the Land of Fire's most important southern outlets to the sea.
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