Fourth Generation

Unwilling to give up, Haraguchi Hampei retreated while hoping to get close to the lone Matsutani Shinya.

If they can quickly coordinate with Nakada Tatsunori to eliminate Matsutani Shinya, they still have a chance to turn the tide.

Matsutani Shinya and Haraguchi Hampei somewhat discouraged; in fact, even he himself didn't have much hope.

Even when facing two opponents, Matsutani Shinya still managed to suppress Nakada Tatsunori and Shimoyama Tamaki.

Moreover, Shimoyama Tamaki's situation is very precarious right now, and she could be eliminated at any time.

And...

Just as Haraguchi Hampei was pondering a countermeasure, a shadow suddenly Haraguchi Hampei over him.

"What is that? Little Flower? How could this be? Little Flower has this speed?" Haraguchi Hampei was filled with despair.

Despite being on top of Fat Orange's body, Little Flower displayed speed comparable to Jonin.

Haraguchi Hampei wouldn't normally care about this situation, but with Takuya hanging not far behind him, if Haraguchi Hampei were to be slightly obstructed by Little Flower, it could be fatal.

"I'll risk it all." Haraguchi Hampei forced Little Flower back with a single sword strike, casually discarding his longsword while simultaneously Hand Seals.

"Earth Release: Hardening Jutsu."

Finally, before Takuya could get close, Haraguchi Hampei successfully used a defensive Ninjutsu.

In a desperate situation, Haraguchi Hampei planned to withstand Takuya's attacks and deal with Matsutani Shinya.

However, he clearly underestimated Takuya's close combat ability, or rather, in this situation, he had no other choice.

Known for his speed, Takuya, though not strong in attack power, attacked very quickly, launching multiple full-force attacks on a single part of Haraguchi Hampei.

As a result, Haraguchi Hampei hadn't run very far before Takuya broke through his defenses.

With Haraguchi Hampei eliminated, the next battle was easy. The three Yichen's Squad quickly eliminated the already battered Nakada Tatsunori and Shimoyama Tamaki.

The competition has now officially ended.

The match was short-lived; aside from the initial hiding and reconnaissance phase, the battle ended very quickly after the initial engagement.

However, the audience was quite satisfied.

Watching this match was initially nerve-wracking, with me barely daring to breathe; but then came the thrill of the sudden clash.

There are traps with tricky angles; and dazzling Ninjutsu, including Fire Release, Water Release, Wind Release, and Earth Release —all Five-Attribute except Lightning Release.

It involves both strategic brilliance and cunning, as well as the domineering force of direct confrontation.

Moreover, everyone witnessed A-rank Ninjutsu, Combination Ninjutsu, and even a clash of Ninjutsu at the A-rank level.

In addition, the legendary One-handed Hand Seals and Seal-less Ninjutsu appeared today. Although most people didn't see them, there were ninjas explaining them to them. These are things that are rarely seen during the Chunin Ninja Exams.

What excited everyone the most was that this battle was not a fair contest after both sides stood still, but a battle full of ninja wisdom, which completely refreshed everyone's understanding of ninja warfare.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves, feeling the tickets were well worth the price. Even those who lost money betting on the black market felt the trip was worthwhile.

That's understandable. Putting everything else aside, the sheer amount of trash talk between Haraguchi Hampei and Ogura Saki is enough for people to brag about for a lifetime.

The Area of Effect Ninjutsu were terrifying. Even for Genin and lower, this A-rank Ninjutsu was incredibly impressive, let alone for ordinary people.

The competition ended, and the audience immediately erupted in celebration. After a long while, everyone realized the purpose of the competition, and the cheers turned into a unified chant.

"The Fourth Generation, the Fourth Generation, the Fourth Generation..."

Everyone was shouting as they looked toward the top stands.

Ōnoki looked at the daimyo, who nodded.

So, under everyone's watchful eyes, Ōnoki floated to Yichen's side, took out a set of Tsuchikage's hat and cloak that had been prepared beforehand, and personally helped Yichen put them on.

After Ōnoki, who had put on the Tsuchikage's hat and Tsuchikage, walked to the side, Yichen slowly walked to the railing by the stands.

Looking down at the cheering villagers and ninjas, Yichen raised his right hand and suddenly clenched it into a fist. Then, in the instant the crowd fell silent, he spoke in a voice amplified by Chakra: "From this day forward, I, Yichen, am the Fourth Earth Shadow of Iwagakure."

As soon as he finished speaking, an even louder roar erupted again. This time, there was no unified voice; instead, there were only cheers and shouts as if venting emotions.

Among the crowd, Yichen's teachers, classmates, disciples, colleagues, and subordinates were all shouting and expressing their admiration for the hardships Yichen had endured to rise from a Civilian Ninja to this point.

Even Han, the Five-Tails Jinchuriki, stood in a corner with his disciples, cheering for Yichen.

The main reason why everyone cheered so enthusiastically for Yichen was precisely because of his commoner background. Looking at Yichen, everyone felt like they were looking at their own family member, someone close to them.

Yichen believed that from today onwards, the Civilian Ninja would be even more enthusiastic about ninja training, because they would have a supreme role model.

"I wonder if the villagers of Konoha felt the same way when Minato Namikaze," Yichen thought to himself.

The highly anticipated selection of the Fourth Tsuchikage Ninja World finally come to an end, with Yichen, known as the Fox of Stone, Ninja World elected as the Fourth Tsuchikage.

This news wasn't good for the top leaders of the major powers. Compared to Yichen, they preferred Ikura to take over. Yichen's ability to infiltrate Konoha and Kirigakure clearly showed that he wasn't a Tsuchikage who played by the rules, and no one wanted to deal with such Tsuchikage.

However, regardless of whether any party is satisfied, everyone must accept this fact.

While the high-ranking officials of the major powers were somewhat troubled, the lower-level ninjas and civilians were much calmer about the news.

Of the Five Great Nations, four villages have had their Kage replaced by the Fourth Hokage, leaving only Iwagakure. It's time for Iwagakure to get a new Kage.

The discussion focused more on who among the five fourth-generation members was the strongest, the youngest, and who could go the furthest in the future.

Of course, the most favored one right now is the Fourth Hokage, since Minato Namikaze, with his Flying Thunder God Minato Namikaze, is theoretically unkillable.

The first thing Yichen did after becoming the Tsuchikage was to increase the number of Tsuchikage Assistant.

Yichen three Tsuchikage Assistant originally chosen by Ōnoki were not only not removed, but the organization of Tsuchikage Assistant was expanded with them as the core.

Yichen expanded the total number of Tsuchikage Assistant to ten, and Kitsuchi was put in charge of assigning tasks to these ten people. These ten people would be responsible for handling various documents that required Tsuchikage's processing.

Yichen only needed to listen to Kitsuchi and the others' reports to understand the changes that had taken place in the village.

Yichen even had Kitsuchi and others do the signing for him.

In addition, Yichen expanded the power of the advisors. Yichen stipulated that in the departments under the advisors' supervision, matters such as the transfer of a certain amount of funds or personnel of a certain level do not need to be reported to Tsuchikage. They only need to report at the regularly held meetings.

As a result, the number of files that needed to be processed by the Tsuchikage decreased significantly. And most of the files that needed to be processed by the Tsuchikage were processed by Kitsuchi and the others, so in the end, the Tsuchikage, Yichen, only had less than one percent of the files that Ōnoki originally needed to process.

Of course, this means that Yichen's control over Iwagakure is far less than that of Ōnoki. However, Yichen believes that the Tsuchikage doesn't need to be like the Hokage.

The Iwagakure has a simpler organizational structure and fewer members than the Hidden Konoha. In the Konoha, both internal and external affairs are extremely sensitive, and the slightest carelessness can lead to conflict.

However, Iwagakure was different Iwagakure was quite united internally, and almost everyone was working towards replacing Konoha. As for external affairs, although the Land of Earth was far less wealthy than the Land of Fire, Land of Earth strategic geography was far Land of Fire.

In addition, with the flourishing trade routes, the Land of Earth has maintained very close relations with its neighboring countries in recent years, and its diplomacy is much simpler than that of the Land of Fire.

Therefore, Yichen confidently delegated the daily affairs of the Tsuchikage to the lower levels.

Finally, following the example of Konoha, Yichen appointed Ōnoki as the Tsuchikage's Aide, so that if the Tsuchikage could not be contacted, all matters could be handled by the Tsuchikage's Aide.

Seeing Yichen's series of actions, Ōnoki was completely dumbfounded. So, you just wanted the title of Tsuchikage for nothing, and you didn't want to do any work?

If I had known this would happen, wouldn't it have been better to have Ikura become the Fourth Tsuchikage?

But now that Yichen is the Tsuchikage, Ōnoki couldn't very well overturn his orders as soon as Yichen took office, so he had no choice but to accept it reluctantly.

After delegating the power and affairs of the Tsuchikage, Yichen proposed to take on disciples again.

Ōnoki didn't object to this. If Yichen didn't have disciples to keep him in check, no one knew if he would run all over the Ninja World and forget to come back.

With that in mind, Ōnoki readily agreed and said that even though he was retiring, he would still take on a few disciples.

Yichen nodded quickly in support.

Then Ōnoki took out a list of graduating students from the Ninja Academy from his ninja tool bag and handed it to Yichen.

Yichen could tell from the list that Ōnoki had been thinking about taking on apprentices for quite some time. Many people on the list had Ōnoki's handwritten comments.

The first name that caught Yichen's eye was a familiar one: Deidara.

"Deidara." Yichen murmured the name softly. This person, whom Yichen regarded as the greatest hypothetical enemy to succeed the Fourth Tsuchikage at the beginning of his transmigration, had long since faded from his memory.

That's good. In this life, Ōnoki will have more time to guide Deidara, so Deidara shouldn't go astray.

As for Yichen himself, he did not intend to take on a disciple like Deidara. Deidara was the top student of this year, and taking on such a disciple would not fit his own persona.

Yichen quickly scanned the list of students in the Advanced Class. Although these students were quite talented and some had special skills and ideas, Yichen first focused his attention on the list of students in the Regular Class.

Fortunately, Ōnoki's notes were detailed enough, and the distinctive students in the Regular Class were also introduced.

In the Regular Class, the first name that caught Yichen's attention was that of Atsumi Akino. Because among everyone, only this name was circled twice.

Yichen involuntarily read aloud the note following the name: "Suspected talent for Space-Time Ninjutsu."

The note was brief, just a single sentence, but it caught Yichen's eye.

Yichen quickly looked up at Ōnoki.

Ōnoki naturally knew what Yichen wanted to ask, so he took out a written test paper, "This is a test paper about the village's creation of Space-Time Ninjutsu. Among all the ninjas in the village and the students in the school, only this girl named Atsumi Akino is most likely to have the talent for Space-Time Ninjutsu."

Yichen carefully read through Atsumi Akino's answer sheet, and then Ichiraku.

It turns out that the exam paper was created by Ōnoki, who copied it from the scroll that Minato Namikaze Ōnoki gave to Kakashi.

If Atsumi Akino had answered the questions normally, Ōnoki wouldn't have been able to determine whether they were true or false. But surprisingly, Atsumi Akino said there was a problem with the test paper, that some words were misused.

This is interesting. Either Atsumi Akino is just trying to attract attention, or she truly has a talent for Space-Time Ninjutsu.

Yichen asked, "Has it been tested?"

Ōnoki shook his head. "There's no way to measure it. We know nothing about Space-Time Ninjutsu."

Yichen thought for a moment, then asked, "So, Third Generation, do you intend to take her as your disciple?"

Ōnoki shook his head again and said, "You're best at teaching these kinds of strange students, so I want you to be the one to guide them."

Yichen thought for a moment and then said, "Okay, I understand."

Then Yichen picked up the list and continued looking down.