Yahiko's Growth

After traveling at various stops, Yichen and his group of five arrived at River Ninja Village without encountering any unexpected incidents.

The Land of Rivers is not wrong in its name; a great river runs through the entire country, and both the Land of Rivers and the River Ninja Village are located on the banks of this river. However, the distance between the two is not short.

Yichen and his group of five were quickly stopped by a small team of River ninja.

The original River Ninja Village ninjas would never have dared to intercept a group of ninjas from a major country. But the addition of the Akatsuki Organization greatly boosted the River ninja's confidence.

Seeing the River ninja starting to show some of the confidence of Great Ninja Village, Yichen found it somewhat amusing.

The current River ninja are probably the same as the Rain Village before Second Shinobi War II, thinking that with a strong leader in charge, they can stand on equal footing with the Five Great Nations.

However, Yichen didn't care about any of that and said directly to these people, "I'm here to see Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan from the Akatsuki Organization. I'm their friend."

The River ninja were somewhat displeased that Yichen addressed their leader by his first name. In their minds, their leader would one day be called a Kage.

However, since Yichen was a friend of their leader, they politely asked Yichen to wait a moment, and then sent one of them back to the village to report.

Before long, Yahiko and the other two came out to greet Yichen in person.

Upon meeting, both Yichen and Yahiko were taken aback, as they simultaneously recognized that the other was in the same state as themselves: a near-illusionary.

Yahiko was overjoyed and quickly said, "Yichen, you're going to become Kage Level expert too? That's wonderful!"

Yahiko was more pleased than surprised, while Yichen was more surprised than pleased.

In the original story, Yahiko was not Kage Level when he died. However, Yichen recalled that due to the earlier timeline, Yahiko in the original story might not have died at this point.

In other words, Yahiko lived before his suicidal self in the original story.

After a detailed conversation, Yichen suddenly realized that Yahiko had become a Quasi-Kage after feeling the pressure of maintaining order in a medium-sized country, following his role as the leader of the Land of Rivers.

Yichen had to admit, "This is so Yahiko."

Yichen, Yahiko, and the other two strolled and chatted as they walked, leisurely wandering through the River Ninja Village, which was under reconstruction.

After the group toured the office building of the River Ninja Village leader, Yichen finally began to discuss serious matters.

First, Yichen took out a bunch of scrolls that he had prepared beforehand. These were all Ninjutsu that Yichen had obtained from the enemy over the years, as well as Ninjutsu that he had developed himself.

Among them, there is only one A-rank Water Cutting Technique and one A-rank Lightning Release Stimulation Method, the highest level is B-rank and C-rank Ninjutsu, but the advantage lies in the large number of them.

Of course, Yichen had informed Ōnoki about this matter.

It turns out that Yahiko and his two companions only had one Akatsuki Organization under their command. Although the Iwa ninja valued Akatsuki Organization Iwa ninja, they did not consider it an ally.

But the situation is different now; the Iwa ninja village can no longer ignore a ninja village from a medium-sized country with a Kage Level ninja in command.

Therefore, when Yichen proposed handing over the Ninjutsu he had developed and captured to the River ninja before setting off, Ōnoki agreed immediately after thinking about it.

Of course, this is also related to the geographical location of the Land of Rivers, which is situated between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire. This allows it to effectively contain the two biggest rivals of the Land of Earth.

However, the Land of Rivers is not adjacent to the Land of Earth, so there is basically no threat to the Land of Earth.

Therefore, Ōnoki conceived the idea of forming an alliance with the Land of Rivers.

When Yichen saw that Yichen had given him a whole bunch of Ninjutsu, Yahiko. Although their River Ninja Village had inherited the resources of the original River Ninja Village, its foundation was still too weak.

Yichen's action can be described as providing timely help.

After Genin, Yahiko expressed his gratitude to Yichen.

Taking this opportunity, Yichen brought up the matter of the Joint Chunin Exams that Iwa ninja was going to hold.

Upon hearing this, Yahiko agreed without hesitation, saying, "In this war, the Iwa ninja were the first to propose ending the war, and we also want to go to Iwagakure to see Iwa ninja prowess."

"I heard that the end of the war was Yichen to you, Yichen. Although you didn't establish a peace organization like Akatsuki, you were ahead of us."

"You did what we wanted to do but couldn't; you successfully stopped a war."

When Yahiko said this, Nagato and Konan looked at Yichen with eyes full of admiration.

This put Yichen in an awkward position, as his motives were not entirely pure. In fact, Yichen did play a role in these Third Shinobi War, but his role only added fuel to the fire.

"If Yahiko finds out the truth one day, will he lead Nagato and Konan to hunt me down throughout the entire Ninja World?" Yichen thought to himself with a guilty conscience.

However, these were not things Yichen needed to consider at the moment. With the ultimate goal of this trip being to complete the Shield, Yichen called his four disciples over and introduced them to Nagato and the others.

Kawakita also thanked Nagato for the B-rank Sword Technique they had given him.

Seeing that Nagato had taken in another batch of disciples, Yichen felt a pang of envy after looking at four of them, wondering if he should also take in a few disciples.

To this end, Nagato also carefully inquired about several questions from Yichen regarding accepting disciples.

When Yichen visited Akatsuki Organization last time, they discussed a similar topic, but at that time Yahiko and the others were focused on how to train the next generation of Akatsuki Organization. This time, Nagato's question had a very different focus.

Yichen quickly understood, and after considering it for a moment, he said, "Nagato, if you're going to take on disciples, you'd better choose those with lively personalities."

"You are rather quiet. If your disciples are just as quiet as you, it will be difficult for you to teach them. You need to choose students who like to ask questions."

"Besides personality, talent is also very important. Don't be fooled by the fact that my disciples' grades at the Ninja Academy were average; they all have their own special talents."

"Especially Xiao Sha, her talent is a good match for mine, and I can help her develop her talents and strengths very well."

"Nagato, you'd be better off choosing students with strong mental fortitude."

"Your power requires the Rinnegan, but these abilities are not unteachable. Perhaps you can find a disciple suitable to learn your unique Ninjutsu?"

After listening to Yichen's analysis, Nagato nodded, seemingly lost in thought.

Upon hearing that Nagato was going to take on disciples, Yahiko and Konan immediately expressed their desire to do the same, and both asked Yichen for advice.

They chatted until very late before going to rest.

The next morning, Nagato approached Yichen, saying he had something to discuss with Yichen. Yichen assumed it was still about taking on disciples and didn't refuse.

After the two arrived at a Training Ground, Nagato said, "Yichen, because you learned the Banshō Ten'in before, I've been studying the Banshō Ten'in and Shinra Tensei Ninjutsu ever since you left."

"Based on your method of cultivating the Banshō Ten'in, I've devised a method for cultivating the Shinra Tensei. Would you like to give it a try?"

Yichen was completely bewildered. What was going on? Nagato was going to teach him S-rank Ninjutsu?

Could it be to repay the pile of low-level Ninjutsu he gave me yesterday? Although Yichen gave me a considerable number of Ninjutsu, their value was definitely far less than that of an S-rank Ninjutsu.

Furthermore, Shinra Tensei is an S-rank Ninjutsu with unique abilities.

Yichen had considered learning Shinra Tensei from Nagato, but putting himself in Nagato's shoes, Yichen felt he would never easily reveal such Trump Card.

To avoid losing even a friend in the end, Yichen didn't dare bring it up at all. But now Nagato brought it up on his own initiative.

Moreover, judging from Nagato's expression, he had been thinking about this issue ever since I left last time, and it had nothing to do with the pile of Ninjutsu I gave him yesterday.

Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan truly considered Yichen a friend and one of their own.

This is what Yahiko was thinking when he accepted Yichen's Ninjutsu yesterday, and this is also why Nagato wants to teach Yichen S-rank Ninjutsu today.

"Phew~~" Yichen nodded and said, "Nagato, thank you. Come on, let's give it a try."

Then Nagato began to describe in detail the similarities and differences between Shinra Tensei and Banshō Ten'in to Yichen.

Both of these Ninjutsu are related to gravity and are similar in essence, but since the Rinnegan has given them different names, they are indeed quite different.

During Nagato's instruction, Yichen was surprised to discover that Nagato's Shinra Tensei seemed to have no time interval limitation.

It seems that Nagato has completely mastered this Ninjutsu after years of research.

"No wonder Nagato offered to teach me Shinra Tensei; he had the confidence to do so."

Thanks to Nagato's long-term research and reflection, coupled with Yichen's experience in learning the Banshō Ten'in, this learning went more smoothly than expected.

Under Nagato's careful tutelage, Yichen barely mastered the Ninjutsu in just seven or eight days.

However, the power of the Shinra Tensei that Yichen unleashed was too weak.

If you use Shinra Tensei to speed up the Kunai shot, it might have some effect, but if you want to use Shinra Tensei to attack an enemy out of thin air, its power is less than that of the weakest C-rank Water Style Jutsu.

What frustrated Yichen the most was that Shinra Tensei consumed a lot of Chakra; the greater the power, the greater the consumption.

Nagato, with his chakra reserves, was naturally not intimidated, but Yichen's pitiful Chakra reserves were nothing in the face of such a massive drain.

Yichen calculated that if he were to unleash Shinra Tensei at full power now, the energy consumption would be no less than that of an A-rank Ninjutsu, Great Raging Waves, reaching a terrifying 20A.

As Yichen is at the Quasi-Kage level, his Chakra reserves are skyrocketing, now reaching around 1200A.

Chakra level of 1200A seems sufficient to unleash 60 Shinra Tensei, which doesn't seem like a small amount.

However, Yichen has not fully mastered the Shinra Tensei Ninjutsu yet, and the power he is using now is not even up to the level of C-rank Ninjutsu. There is still a lot of room for its power to increase.

At that time, Yichen wasn't sure if 1200A of Chakra would be enough for him to unleash Shinra Tensei once.

Although Nagato taught Yichen the Shinra Tensei, Nagato somewhat awkward because he himself had no shortage of Chakra, so he hadn't considered this situation before Yichen.

Besides being extremely energy-consuming, the interval between uses of this Shinra Tensei is a full minute. Yichen needs at least a minute to recover before he can use it again.

Therefore, the practical application of this Ninjutsu is currently almost zero. Its only advantage is that, like Banshō Ten'in Ninjutsu, it is an instantaneous Ninjutsu that does not require Hand Seals.

After all, he had learned a new S-rank Ninjutsu, and it was an offensive S-rank Ninjutsu at that.

Although it's not very useful now, no one can predict what will happen in the future, so Yichen was still very excited and kept thanking Nagato.