The End

Uchiyama Takuhiro and Wada Akio were lost in their own worlds, unsure when they would wake up, but the Chunin Assessment had to continue.

The last of Yichen's six disciples to compete, and the only one to lose, was Kawazoe Yura, who was learning Sealing Jutsu.

Ninjas who use Sealing Jutsu are at a huge disadvantage in battles against opponents of the same level, and have almost no chance of winning.

Kawazoe Yura performed relatively well. Her tactic was to counter metal; she sealed a large number of Kunai and mechanisms into scrolls beforehand and then released them during the battle.

This tactic was naturally devised by Yichen, referencing Tenten from the Konoha 11 in the original work. However, Kawazoe Yura came from a commoner background, and her family simply couldn't afford such a high-spending tactic. Most of what she used today was paid for by Yichen, with the remainder earned by herself working for the Barrier Team.

As for the rewards from the missions he received during his two years as a ninja, unfortunately, they all ended up in Yichen's pocket.

This was something Yichen and his disciples had agreed upon. Yichen would first pay for the training expenses for his disciples, and then deduct the cost from their mission rewards.

Basically, Yichen 'Yichen disciples never received any compensation while working under Yichen, because they still owed him a large amount of Contribution Points and silver by the time the team was disbanded.

When Kawazoe Yura fights alongside Kanako, her Sealing Jutsu are very effective, but when facing a one-on-one opponent, her Ranged Sealing Jutsu are practically useless. In other words, Kawazoe Yura lacks effective means of combat. Therefore, Yichen was mentally prepared for Kawazoe Yura to lose the match.

Yichen originally thought that Katsuya, the Genjutsu ninja, would also lose, but to his Yichen, he actually completed this disruptive Genjutsu that could be used in actual combat on the eve of the Chunin Ninja Exams.

Yichen also participated in the research of this Genjutsu. The foundation of the Genjutsu technique was a C-rank Genjutsu from Iwagakure, but that Genjutsu technique was too complicated to cast and required the ninja to keep Hand Seals after casting.

However, this newly developed Genjutsu is a sustainability Genjutsu. Although it is still at the C-level, its greatest advantage is that the caster does not need to maintain control after the Genjutsu cast. The caster can take this opportunity to launch a follow-up attack.

Of course, Genjutsu also have drawbacks. They are not very strong and are easily seen through by enemies, especially some mentally strong ninjas, against whom this technique is basically useless.

To prolong the time it takes for the enemy to fall under the spell, Katsuya had considered this issue when developing his Genjutsu. He chose to reduce the effective range of the Genjutsu. For example, when Katsuya's opponent was under the Genjutsu just now, most of the scene he saw was real, with only a small area directly in front of him being inaccurate in his line of sight.

The Kunai that Katsuya attacked him approached him from this very spot. It was this little trick that made this new C-rank Genjutsu less easily seen through by the enemy.

At this point, all six of Yichen's disciples had completed the first round of the competition. Yichen decided to advance the top five, and as for Kawazoe Yura, she could also advance to Chunin by going through the Barrier Team's process.

Therefore, the six members of Team Three and Team Four have now completed Yichen's first objective, and they no longer need to participate in the competition the following day. Among them, Uchiyama Takuhiro has directly completed his transformation into a Jonin, taking the lead over the others.

Thinking of this, Yichen turned his head with a smile to look at Wada Akio beside him and Uchiyama Takuhiro below.

Five days later, the Chunin selection exam was officially completed, and Yichen selected 100 people out of 500 to advance to Chunin.

Holding the list, Yichen went to Ōnoki's office.

"Lord Tsuchikage, this is the list of newly Chunin," Yichen handed the list to Ōnoki, then pointed to Wada Akio and Uchiyama Takuhiro at the front and said, "They're very lucky; these two will both become Jonin next year."

When Ōnoki saw that Yichen had suddenly advanced to the rank of Chunin a hundred, his face twitched slightly, but upon hearing the second half of the sentence, he was immediately overjoyed and quickly turned his gaze to the first two names.

Upon seeing Wada Akio, Ōnoki's eyes lit up, and he said, "Is this Wada Akio the top student who graduated two years ago? He's already Jonin?"

"Yes, this Wada Akio is quite strong, with a much Uchiyama Takuhiro. I estimate we won't have to wait a year. Moreover, his promotion was only completed after I talked to him about the Will of Stone and the capacity of a Shadow. So there are no problems with his mindset, and he is worth focusing on cultivating."

Ōnoki nodded and said, "He is indeed a promising talent. Seeing him reminds me of you ten years ago."

Yichen rubbed his nose and said, "To be honest, I'm not as good as these younger generation. I even took a detour and wasted a lot of time back then."

Ōnoki shook his head. "Taking detours is also valuable experience. The path of a ninja is difficult, and the higher you go, the more it tests a ninja's character. If you hadn't had those experiences before, it's hard to say whether you could have reached this point now."

Yichen nodded slightly, but did not reply.

Ōnoki then turned his attention to the name of Uchiyama Takuhiro and exclaimed, "Yichen, your greatest strength is teaching disciples. I remember this Uchiyama Takuhiro too. He wasn't particularly outstanding in the Advanced Class back then. I didn't expect him to have grown so much now."

"By the way, I've promoted all three of your second batch of disciples to Jonin. Although they're not quite ready yet, with war imminent, the village urgently needs a group of elites to step forward and shoulder more responsibilities."

Yichen nodded, not surprised by this. In peacetime, the village would be stricter in its Jonin, like Yichen. Back then, Yichen had the strength of Jonin very early on, but he was stuck at the Special Jonin level and had not been promoted for a long time.

However, this is a time of war, so it's understandable that Matsutani Shinya, Ogura Saki, and Takuya were promoted quickly after reaching the required strength. Two years ago, Kawakita, Tomoko, and Kajiyamari were also promoted immediately because of the Third Shinobi War.

"The younger generation in the village is getting stronger and stronger, and we seniors can't let our guard down. Yichen, when do you plan to start learning Kekkei Tōta?" Ōnoki suddenly changed the subject, turning the conversation to Yichen.

Like Kekkei Genkai, Iwagakure also has a complete set of training theories for Kekkei Tōta. However, theory is one thing, and it's already quite remarkable that Iwagakure can produce a small number of Explosion Release Ninja. Expecting a large number of Dust Release users to appear is almost impossible.

However, regardless of the circumstances, the village does have a method for cultivating Kekkei Tōta. This method is the same as the two bloodline techniques that Yichen developed before, and it does not rely on bloodline inheritance.

So far, only one Kekkei Tōta has existed in Iwagakure: Dust Release. In fact, there's only one Kekkei Tōta in the entire Ninja World, except for Wood Release.

According to the description of the S-rank Secret Treasures, Yichen had indeed reached the threshold for cultivating the Kekkei Tōta technique. However, since there were no other Kekkei Tōta techniques to refer to besides Dust Release, Yichen did not know in which direction to develop his Kekkei Tōta.

I happened to be talking about this topic with Ōnoki today, Yichen I decided to have a proper discussion with Ōnoki about the development of Kekkei Tōta.

After listening to Yichen's account, Ōnoki pondered for a moment and said, "My teacher, the Second Tsuchikage Mu, once said something. He said that Dust Release is Dust Release, Dust Release Ninjutsu is Dust Release Ninjutsu. Dust Release Ninjutsu is just one application of the Dust Release Kekkei Tōta."

"I didn't understand the meaning of that sentence before, but after hearing your question today, I think I understand now. Perhaps our understanding has been flawed all along; we subconsciously associated Dust Release: World Splitter Jutsu, Dust Release: Limit Splitter Jutsu with Dust Release itself."

"Actually, we were wrong. Kekkei Tōta are very unstable. Even I can only use Dust Release outside my body. Although Dust Release Chakra is modifying my body, my body is not immune to Dust Release."

Yichen thought to himself that this made sense. There were many examples in the original work where certain Kekkei Genkai ninjas were not harmed by their own incredibly powerful bloodline limits. For example Mei Terumi's Melt Release; Mei Terumi could wipe the Melt Release from the corner of her mouth as easily as wiping away saliva.

However, it seems that Dust Release doesn't work; Ōnoki himself doesn't dare to use Dust Release.

Ignoring Yichen's thoughts, Ōnoki continued, "Because the Dust Kekkei Tōta the Dust Release is unstable, the teacher developed two applications of Dust Release: World Splitter Jutsu and Limit Splitter Jutsu. Perhaps these two methods can also be applied to other Kekkei Tōta."

Upon hearing this, Yichen's eyes lit up. So that's how it is! When reading the original work, Yichen felt that Dust Release was related to Sealing Jutsu, and now that he heard it, he was right. The Particle Style World Splitter Jutsu must have been used by the user to release the power of Dust Release Chakra through Sealing Jutsu.

To put it another way, the World Splitter Jutsu isn't Ninjutsu to Dust Release. It can be used with Dust Release as well as other Kekkei Tōta. For example, Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet and Fire Release: Fire Dragon Bullet Ninjutsu very similar, and their principles are roughly the same.

"So, if I develop a new Kekkei Tōta, I won't need to think about how to develop Ninjutsu anymore; I can just practice the World Splitter Jutsu and the Limit Splitter Jutsu?"

Hehehe, so the biggest problem is solved just like that? There's no need to even think about what form the new bloodline limit actually takes! Just blindly fuse with it and you're done?

Feeling that his future was bright, Yichen just stood there grinning foolishly, completely oblivious to what Ōnoki was saying next.

After a while, Ōnoki, who felt like he was talking to thin air, sighed, ignored Yichen, called Kitsuchi in, and began to handle official business.

By the time Yichen came to his senses, Ōnoki had already buried his head in his documents and was too lazy to pay him any attention. Yichen gave an awkward smile and then slunk away from the Tsuchikage's Office.

Yichen had already seen the development scroll of the S-rank Secret Treasures Kekkei Tōta. Back then, in order to cultivate Senjutsu and better control the three different energies, Yichen had carefully analyzed that scroll.

Now that he needed to develop the Kekkei Tōta, Yichen carefully reviewed the contents of the scroll several times.

The next day, at the Training Ground.

Yichen was pondering the development of a new Kekkei Tōta technique on his own. Through theoretical analysis, Yichen discovered that although cultivating Senjutsu and cultivating Kekkei Tōta had many similarities, the difficulties of the two were different.

The greatest difficulty in cultivating Senjutsu is petrification, which was solved by a Black Rod that Yichen obtained from Nagato. Besides this, there was the unfamiliarity with Natural Energy, but this was also resolved by Yichen rationally allocating his mental energy across several energy sources.

The difficulty in cultivating the Kekkei Tōta is the elemental advantage/disadvantage. The five types of Chakra are not without mutual interference. For example, the Porcelain Release developed by Yichen uses two elements: water and earth. Earth Release counters Water Release.

At that time, there were only two attributes, Yichen focused all his attention on them, so whether he restrained them or not didn't have much of an impact.

However, there are now three types of Kekkei Tōta: water, earth, and lightning. Yichen cannot focus all his attention on the water and earth types. This is because there is another type of elemental advantage/disadvantage: Lightning restrains Earth.

Ōnoki's Dust Release technique includes three attributes: wind, fire, and earth. There is only one elemental advantage/disadvantage: Fire restrains Wind. Earth Release has no relationship with either wind or fire.

In other words, the Kekkei Tōta technique that Yichen wants to develop may be more difficult than Dust Release.

However, Yichen also has advantages: his training in Senjutsu has given him rich experience in fusing the three types of energy. Yichen's starting point is higher than that of Ōnoki when he learned Dust Release.

According to the Second Tsuchikage Mu, Yichen doesn't need to worry about the issue of Kekkei Tōta a new Ninjutsu. He just needs to release the fused Chakra forward using the method of the World Splitter Jutsu.

Therefore, the next steps in the practice become clear.

First, learn the World Splitter Jutsu. This must be done first, otherwise the fused Kekkei Tōta Chakra will harm the user.

Then, the three Chakra natures are fused together externally. This process is the most dangerous, and according to Ōnoki's wishes, he must accompany him throughout the entire process.

Finally, there's the fusion within the body, using Chakra to modify the body and elevate the Life level. Ōnoki stopped at this step. Only by completing this step can a ninja avoid being harmed by their own bloodline limit.

After the analysis, Yichen began to allocate time for future training.