The Situation Has Changed

The Earthwalker Clan, founders of Iwagakure. The first Tsuchikage had been their clan head at the time. The clan claimed that one of their ancestors had been a direct disciple of Six Paths, the strongest wielder of Earth Release, and boasted that as long as they stood upon the earth, they would remain ever-victorious and undefeated.

Obviously, setting aside the first part, the latter was definitely bullshit. Anyone could boast about themselves. Throughout the Earthwalker Clan's history, who knew how many of them had been beaten to death in the mud?

Like the Senju Clan, this family, which had taken one of the Five Kage positions during the early days of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, had not fared well in the First Shinobi World War either. As Tsuchikage, the Earthwalker Clan had likewise been forced to lead from the front and fight the enemy to the death when there was no avoiding it. The result was devastating losses. From then on, they retreated behind the scenes, much like the Senju Clan in Konoha, turning instead to building factions to strengthen and sustain the clan.

Of the six great clans that had dominated the shinobi world for centuries, all five that had stepped into the spotlight as the first generation of Kage learned the meaning of being the first bird shot down. The era of hereditary Kage clans thus came to a hasty end. The five great families all went into seclusion, leaving only the Uchiha Clan. Though they had failed to seize the position of first Hokage back then, that misfortune had turned into a blessing. In one stroke, they rose to become the strongest clan in terms of pure family strength, regardless of faction. Even now, they still stood tall before the world. Of course, people today knew