No one outside Kumogakure knew what the village—or the Third Raikage himself—thought about the matter.
Even if they did have something to say, however, now was clearly not the time to act on it.
At the moment, Kumogakure was being battered by Iwagakure's fierce offensive on the northern front. They barely had enough strength to deal with that, let alone stir up trouble elsewhere.
The Land of Iron was universally recognized as a permanently neutral nation. They couldn't exactly march over and demand an explanation just because a samurai had independently developed a Lightning Release Nintaijutsu.
Everyone possessed chakra. If Kumogakure could invent it, then someone else naturally could as well.
Unless Kumogakure could produce hard evidence proving that Isshin had secretly learned the Yotsuki Clan's Lightning Release Nintaijutsu...
They had no choice but to swallow the loss.
Still, accepting it didn't mean ignoring it. Quietly, Kumogakure's intelligence network raised the threat assessment of this Ashina-style swordsman by more than one level.
The other hidden villages reacted much more simply.
Sure, the news of a Lightning Release Nintaijutsu user had shocked them at first.
But after a second thought...
What did it have to do with them? It wasn't their secret technique that had leaked out.
After being surprised for a moment, everyone simply went back to business as usual.
Some village leaders even regarded it as a good thing.
Take the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki, for example.
Although he always claimed to have faith in the wisdom of future generations, deep down he remained profoundly wary of Higashino Shinichi's terrifying talent.
If someone capable of standing toe-to-toe with Higashino Shinichi were to emerge in the future...
That wouldn't be a bad outcome.
Even if that person didn't belong to Iwagakure, they wouldn't belong to any other hidden village either. Instead, they would belong to the permanently neutral Land of Iron.
Simply having someone like that around would force the fully matured Higashino Shinichi to exercise at least some restraint instead of acting however he pleased.
For everyone else, that alone was a good thing.
After all, having only one Senju Hashirama—or one Uchiha Madara—was a terrifying prospect.
But if two such figures existed at the same time, especially if they stood in opposition to one another, the rest of the world would enjoy far greater room to maneuver.
That was far preferable to facing a single unrivaled powerhouse dominating the entire shinobi world.
Of course...
The ideal scenario was having neither.
But if there had to be one...
Then it was better to have two.
Or even more—as long as they opposed each other.
Thus, after Isshin publicly revealed his Lightning Release Nintaijutsu on the opening day of the National Swordsmanship Tournament, every major power across the shinobi world quietly intensified its attention on the samurai of the Land of Iron.
And that...
Was exactly the outcome Shinichi had been aiming for.
Through relentless image-building, calculated publicity, and every trick he could think of to tie Isshin's reputation to major events, he had artificially inflated Isshin's fame to a level far beyond what his actual achievements alone warranted.
As a result, what should have been nothing more than an ordinary tournament among the Land of Iron's samurai became the most closely watched National Swordsmanship Tournament in years.
Over the next three days, under the watchful eyes of every major power—both openly and from the shadows—Isshin became increasingly unrestrained.
While displaying his Lightning Release Nintaijutsu, he also showcased his swordsmanship, polearm techniques, archery, and even firearms one after another, as though the tournament were never a competition to begin with, but a grand stage built solely to display the full breadth of the Ashina Style.
In the end, he crushed every opponent in his path and advanced all the way to the finals.
Meanwhile, throughout those same three days, the situation across the shinobi world remained as turbulent as ever.
The fiercest fighting was still unfolding in the southeastern region, where Konohagakure and Kirigakure continued clashing with increasing intensity.
This time, however, the roles of attacker and defender had been reversed.
Kirigakure sought to use Rinkai City as a forward base to steadily expand outward.
Konohagakure, meanwhile, continually launched counterattacks with small elite units. Whenever Kirigakure established a new foothold at the front, Konoha would strike with uncanny precision from another direction.
The two sides repeatedly wrestled for control of every key tactical position, locked in an endless tug-of-war.
Shinichi's original body hadn't been idle during those three days either.
Leading his squad personally, he wiped out multiple Kirigakure outposts scattered around the outer perimeter.
Now, at the edge of a dense forest, Shinichi was leading his team back after completing another successful raid.
His squad quietly reviewed the battle among themselves.
Walking at the front of the formation, Shinichi's expression remained calm as he silently summoned his personal status panel.
...
Name: Higashino Shinichi
Occupation: Elite Jōnin / Sword Master
Talents: Ninjutsu Mastery LV1 (Purple), Lightning Release Specialization (Blue), Firearms Specialization (Blue), Archery Proficiency (Green), ...
Compared to three days earlier, Shinichi's status panel had changed considerably.
Most notably, Lightning Release Proficiency had advanced to Lightning Release Specialization.
Lightning Release Specialization (Blue): Omitted... (similar to the others.)
The upgrade had been entirely expected.
The National Swordsmanship Tournament was the Land of Iron's grand event, held once every three years and watched nationwide. On the very first day, Shinichi had deliberately thrown out a trump card by publicly revealing Lightning Release Nintaijutsu, drawing the attention of a huge portion of the shinobi world through a series of outrageous publicity stunts.
Even though the clone only received recognition feedback at fifty percent efficiency, it was still more than enough to promote the Entry.
For the same reason, Firearms Specialization and Archery Proficiency had likewise been upgraded—or, in the latter case, newly created—through this opportunity.
Firearms Specialization (Blue): Your understanding of firearms has gone far beyond simple operation, becoming an almost instinctive grasp of their mechanics. You can master their principles, maintenance, and modification at speeds far beyond ordinary people, while drawing inspiration from different firearm designs to organically combine their strengths. This allows you to modify existing weapons or develop custom firearms that surpass conventional performance. In actual combat, your prediction of bullet trajectories and your sense of timing and firing angles are exceptionally precise, significantly enhancing your overall capability in suppressive fire, precision strikes, and sustained combat.
Archery Proficiency (Green): You have moved beyond the fundamentals and stepped into the realm of true archery. Not only do you learn and master all forms of archery and arrow techniques more quickly, but in real combat you can accurately predict a target's movements and, in the blink of an eye, seize the opening for a lethal shot.
His firearms Entry had already been Green rank, and it had accumulated a considerable amount of recognition beforehand. Taking advantage of the tournament to push it up another tier was only natural.
Archery, on the other hand, had never been displayed publicly before. Since there had been no prior recognition to build upon, and because it hadn't been nearly as eye-catching as his other abilities—not to mention the short amount of time—it had only reached Green rank.
Shinichi's gaze settled on Firearms Specialization (Blue).
Although his original body had no intention of using firearms himself or showcasing any talent with them in public, this Entry, when combined with the future forging-type Entry he planned to develop, would be vital to his long-term plans.
Strengthening the combat capabilities of lower-ranking shinobi...
Or even equipping the entire Land of Fire's conventional military so that ordinary soldiers—people who weren't shinobi at all—could become elite fighting forces capable of posing a genuine threat to shinobi, perhaps even jōnin...
Sooner or later, that was a path he intended to take.
Unlike every previous Hokage, whose vision had been confined to Konohagakure alone, Shinichi had decided long ago that once he became Hokage, the first thing he needed to secure was real authority as the supreme military commander of the Land of Fire.
Every military force in the nation, whether shinobi or not, had to answer to him.
Because of that, figuring out how to strengthen his future subordinates had been part of his plans for years.
Even though he didn't yet possess a forging-related Entry, Shinichi had already worked through the idea in broad strokes.
With his current knowledge and the analytical capabilities granted by Piercing Insight, once he found some free time and adapted the designs to this world's technology, he was fully confident he could develop high-explosive grenades on par with explosive tags, along with flashbangs and concussion grenades.
Better yet, none of those would require shinobi to manufacture them.
As long as ordinary civilians were trained as industrial workers, they could be mass-produced indefinitely.
Firearms had existed in this world for nearly a century, yet they remained stuck at the primitive matchlock stage. It would take more than another decade before anything resembling a modern pistol appeared, while automatic rifles were still nowhere in sight. Explosives were likewise limited to crude, outdated formulas.
The existence of shinobi had effectively frozen the development of conventional weaponry.
It wasn't because the technological barriers were impossible to overcome.
Rather, for countless generations, people had grown accustomed to placing every notion of power in the hands of chakra and shinobi. They had accepted as absolute truth that only shinobi could fight shinobi.
Naturally, few people ever bothered exploring the possibility that ordinary humans might also be capable of threatening them.
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