The Final Victor

As it turned out, Yichen's worries were unnecessary. This timing was extremely advantageous for the Iwa ninja. Konoha was deeply embroiled in the Land of Land of Whirlpools war and unable to extricate itself, which meant that the most likely force to step forward and cause trouble was gone.

So after the three-day tournament, Iwagakure remained peaceful and undisturbed. Apart from having more topics to talk about and the tournament bringing a significant increase in revenue to the Iwagakure's finances, nothing else happened.

At the entrance of Iwagakure, Yichen saw Yahiko and the other two off, then walked back alone, listening to the villagers' discussions, and smiled slightly to himself.

Ogura Saki and the other two are probably in a bad mood right now.

The ultimate winner of this Chunin Ninja Exams was Sunagakure, the very same Puppet Master who had been the focus of Yichen and Hu's attention during the written exam.

Yichen still remembers Kazekage's loud laughter coming from the high platform after the competition ended.

Yichen's three disciples were dissatisfied with their own performance. Ogura Saki was eliminated in the 21-to-11 round the next day.

Takuya fared better, only encountering a formidable opponent in the first match of the third day. He was defeated by that Sunagakure Puppet Master. Ultimately, he was stopped from the top six.

Matsutani Shinya the luckiest, making it into the top six. However, his insufficient Chakra reserves made him ill-equipped for the continuous matches. After the first match, he was almost out of Chakra, having expended too much energy using Combination Ninjutsu, and thus quickly lost the second match.

None of Yichen's three disciples made it into the top three.

Two Iwa ninja ultimately made it into the top three, one of whom was Haraguchi Hampei, a disciple of Ikura. Unfortunately, both Iwa ninja were defeated by the Sunagakure Puppet Master.

So today, the most discussed topic among the villagers is that Sunagakure. Everyone feels it's such a pity that two of the top three spots were taken by Iwa ninja, yet the grand prize was still won by a Sunagakure.

"Ryosuke, a new generation of genius Puppet Master from the commoner background of Sunagakure." Yichen murmured the name of this newly Ryosuke Sunagakure of Chunin named Ryosuke, and then strode towards the Training Ground.

As expected, Ogura Saki and the other two were training hard, as were Ikura's three disciples. The six of them trained separately without exchanging any information.

Yichen watched for a while, then clapped his hands and called the six people to his side.

"I know you're upset because you lost to ninjas your own age. But I want to tell you, ninjas must get used to this kind of defeat. Since the era of the ninja villages, apart from the First Hokage of Konoha, no one in any era has been able to prove themselves to be the strongest."

"How to face failure is also a very important lesson in a ninja's career. Take me for example, my talent is average, and I am not outstanding among my peers. Although I entered the Advanced Class during my time at the Ninja Academy, my combat performance was always at the bottom."

"However, there are only two people in the village who can defeat me right now." Yichen held up two fingers.

After a pause, Yichen continued, "Moreover, I know the gap between myself and those truly strong individuals. I have been working hard, I believe in the path I have chosen, and I firmly believe that one day I can stand at the same level as them."

"The only one who can defeat me is myself. If others defeat me, it will only give me another goal to strive for."

After giving the six a pep talk, Yichen was about to crack a joke when he was surprised to find that Ogura Saki's entire demeanor changed after hearing his words.

Yichen's words suddenly made her realize that she had never been a genius; she had always been a pursuer who relentlessly strived for the right goal.

Yichen was very familiar with this scene. He gestured to the other five people, telling them not to disturb Ogura Saki. Then he left Ogura Saki alone to quietly complete her first transformation.

Watching Ogura Saki, who was engrossed in her own world, Yichen's thoughts suddenly returned to the first batch of disciples. According to Ikura, Tomoko also completed her first transformation during the Chunin Ninja Exams.

Is the Chunin Ninja Exams a hurdle for his own disciple?

"It seems like it's about time to disband the Team Two. I wonder what my third batch of disciples will be like?" Yichen began to look forward to the future.

Yichen originally came to comfort the six little ones, but Ogura Saki's interruption changed everyone's mindset, and there was no need for Yichen to say anything more.

After Ogura Saki woke up, Yichen took out a large number of Ninjutsu from the Sealing Scroll, including both B and C ranks, Yichen distributed them to his three disciples.

Then Yichen patted each of their heads and said, "Teacher can only take you this far. You'll have to walk the rest of the way on your own."

Then Yichen said to Ikura's three disciples, "Haha, there's no share for you. If you want Ninjutsu, go find your own teacher."

Shimoyama Tamaki rolled her eyes. She knew her teacher's classmate much better than her two teammates. He was a complete goofball.

Starting today, the new graduating class of the Ninja Academy will dedicate themselves to training until graduation.

Yichen has a lot to learn. He had stopped practicing his Senjutsu for over a month and needs to pick them up again. He also needs to improve his proficiency with Lightning Release: Lightning Release: Chidori Flow. He also needs to work on the application of Lightning Explosion: Lightning Release, as this will be helpful for developing his new Kekkei Genkai later.

Besides the training content related to these two main quests, Yichen also needs to do many other exercises. For example, researching new tactics for Lightning Release, practicing the S-rank Ninjutsu: Almighty Push, improving his proficiency in Porcelain Release, and further developing his Water Release skills.

After watching all the A-rank Ninjutsu from Iwagakure, Yichen also had a few suitable Ninjutsu he wanted to learn, such as the Added-Weight Rock Technique.

Yichen was already used to the fact that there wasn't enough time, so he naturally made some choices, prioritizing the main quest.

Of the three training methods related to the main quest, the simplest is the study of Lightning Release: Lightning Explosion.

This is the simplest point; Yichen already had a direction for cultivation.

That is Lightning Release: Rasengan. Yichen plans to incorporate the Lightning Release usage from the Lightning Explosion Ninjutsu into the Rasengan.

Yichen spent another day training with his three disciples, and then found Ōnoki to explain Ogura Saki's situation and his plan to disband Team Two.

Ōnoki was overjoyed to hear this. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Yichen, I will make arrangements for these three. However, why don't you take on a few more disciples this time?"

Yichen was speechless. What was going on? Had he encountered a capitalist who wanted to exploit him to the death?

Seeing Yichen looking at him warily, Ōnoki snorted and said, "If you take in three more disciples, I can agree to let you manage one less department."

Hmm, that's a tempting offer. Yichen originally oversaw four departments: the Medical Department, the Intelligence Department, the Interrogation Department, and the department responsible for guarding the Tailed Beast.

Later, the Intelligence Department was transferred to Saka, and the department with the most affairs for Yichen was no longer related to him, so Yichen's workload has not been heavy recently.

However, among the remaining three departments, the Medical Department is currently undertaking a major operation, so it also has a lot of business to handle. Most of the documents that Yichen processes come from the Medical Department.

If the Medical Department is moved away as well, wouldn't I be completely free?

Leading six disciples seems a bit tiring.

After thinking for a moment, Yichen said, "Lord Tsuchikage, have you considered increasing the number of advisors?"

"You see, although we each have our own departments to manage, there are many things to do in the Ninja World, and some of us often need to go out. If we could have one or two more people, wouldn't the village's Administrative Affairs Department more efficiently?"

Hearing Yichen's words, Ōnoki was initially angry, thinking: You are clearly the one with the most ease, yet you still want to slack off.

But as he listened, Ōnoki became interested. He realized that his workload was the heaviest; almost every document that the consultants had processed had to go through Ōnoki's hands again.

Although in most cases, Ōnoki would not change the advisors' decisions, this was how the Kage of each ninja village came to understand the affairs of their respective villages in detail.

But after hearing what Yichen said, Ōnoki suddenly wanted to hire a consultant to help him with his documents.

Shaking his head to stop thinking about it, Ōnoki continued to Yichen said, "I will consider adding more consultants, but even if we do, the number of departments you are in charge of will not decrease."

Yichen gave an "oh" and Earth Flow.

The next day, Yichen practiced Lightning Release: Spiraling Sphere alone in the valley where Han was. Team Two had disbanded, and the three disciples had begun their new ninja paths as Chunin.

Yichen has made his decision: once Ikura finishes his current tasks, he will begin practicing Senjutsu. Aside from his daily Natural Energy absorption practice, he will dedicate all his remaining time to cultivation. The main focus of his training will be the Lightning Release: Spiraling Sphere.

A few days later, the Joint Chunin Exams, which had garnered much attention from all sides of the Ninja World, completely faded from everyone's sight.

Just as everyone's attention was focused on the battlefield in the Land of Whirlpools, a treaty for an alliance between the four ninja countries of Earth, Wind, Rain, and River ignited the entire Ninja World.

It is said that after a High-Level Meeting night, Konoha dispatched a support force led by Orochimaru and Jiraiya to the front lines of the Land of Whirlpools the next day.

Konoha has finally made up its mind to end the war completely.

The aggressive Konoha wanted to replicate their victory against the Sunagakure on the Land of Rivers battlefield, but they missed their target. Karatachi Yagura led the Mist ninja in a timely retreat.

Konoha became a laughing stock.

However, the decisive action taken by Konoha High-ranking officials has also raised concerns among other countries.

Konoha is still Konoha. Even though it suffered heavy losses in the Third Shinobi War, its high-end combat power is still there. Konoha can easily dispatch Three Kage-level to the same battlefield, while still ensuring that its headquarters is not empty.

This is something no other ninja village could ever do. So Konoha achieved its goal of flexing its muscles this time.

Regardless, the Third Shinobi War was completely over. As nations began to review the entire Third Shinobi War, they discovered that only the Land of Earth was a true winner; Konoha only gained the empty title of victor. Aside from that, they received no substantial benefits.

Whether there was any benefit or not was not something Konoha cared about originally, as Konoha had not gained anything from the first two major wars. However, everything is subject to comparison. After Konoha High-ranking officials compared the situation before and after the war, they embarrassingly discovered that the only victor was Iwagakure.