The Ceiling of the New Generation of Ninja

He returned the way he came, then entered the Land of Waterfalls, and then entered the Land of Rain via the Land of Grass.

When he appeared in the Land of Stone, it was already common knowledge.

There's no way around it. Aside from the Land of Iron and the Land of Waterfalls, Kusagakure and Rain Village are both second-tier ninja villages. The chances of him traveling such a long distance across multiple countries without being discovered are extremely slim.

The appearance of Uchiha Shingen in the Land of Stone as an observer of the war between Iwagakure and Cloud Village has sparked much speculation.

The Hokage Building remained silent as always.

Mediation is necessary, of course, but it's just a means to an end. The Leaf Five are only concerned with one thing: will it escalate into a Ninja World war? If so, which ninja village poses the greatest threat to Hidden Leaf Village?

You should observe the Iwagakure and the Cloud Village, and you should also observe the Sand Village.

Apart from Uchiha Shingen, there is currently no one else in Hidden Leaf Village who is suitable for this job.

Only he can complete this S-class mission.

For Uchiha Shingen, revisiting this familiar place meant that the Land of Stone was no longer the same as when he last visited.

When he last visited, there were vibrant community organizations everywhere.

This time, you won't be able to see it.

Wearing the Konoha Ninja uniform, wherever he went, he was no longer met with the wary and slightly malicious glances of the past, but with fear.

Having been a battleground between the Sand Ninja Army and the Rock Ninja Army for many years, this country has a very deep impression of being a major ninja village.

They deeply understood one principle: one should not provoke the ninjas of a great ninja village.

Those vibrant civilian organizations, after the large influx of ninjas from the Great Ninja Village into the country, will transform themselves and become more benevolent than anyone else.

In short, it means "I'm harmless, please let me go."

While the Sand Ninja and Rock Ninja wouldn't intentionally harm genuinely kind people from the Land of Stone, they see dynamic organizations like this as no different from thieves and would happily treat them as easy prey.

It would replenish their own military supplies and also garner gratitude from the local residents—why not?

Most Sand Ninja and Rock Ninja aren't lucky enough to have a face that looks like a good person, but good looks can't stop them from wanting to be good people.

Desert men, as tough as swords, also hate evil as much as they hate swords.

Even the most steadfast Turkish men have compassion in their hearts.

Don't ask, the answer is that human nature is inherently good, and who doesn't want to be a good person?

Therefore, this once vibrant organization had already ceased to exist before Uchiha Shingen arrived.

This is the norm in the Land of Stone. The Sand Village and the Iwagakure are like farmers, while the vibrant organizations are like weeds—they can't be burned out by wildfires and they grow back with the spring breeze, making them a model of sustainable harvesting and development.

However, the battle between the Sand Ninja and the Rock Ninja has begun to spread to the towns.

The battlefield situation in the Land of Stone is completely different from that in the Land of Iron.

Both sides engaged in combat with relatively frequent exchanges.

Neither the Sand Ninja, skilled in poison attacks, nor the Rock Ninja, skilled in combining Earth Release, could completely avoid harming civilians.

All they could do was try to avoid fighting in the fields and instead engage in combat in towns.

But the towns themselves were also objects of contention.

When Uchiha Shingen arrived at the first town, he happened to witness this scene.

The attackers were Rock Ninja, and the defenders were Sand Ninja.

It's fair to say that the Rock Ninja had some integrity, knowing that there were a large number of ordinary people in the town, and that their goal was to capture the city rather than destroy it.

They didn't even use Earth Release to destroy the city walls.

Destroying city walls with Earth Release is easy, but rebuilding them is not something that Earth Release alone can do.

If it were that simple, there wouldn't be a category like masonry structures.

After all, once the Rock Ninja captured the town, they became the defenders.

After observing for a while, Uchiha Shingen found that the Sand Ninja were performing better than the Cloud Ninja.

On the battlefield of the Land of Iron, the Rock Ninja suppressed the Cloud Ninja.

But here, it was the Sand Ninja who suppressed the Rock Ninja.

The Rock Ninja were restrained, and so were the Sand Ninja. The war between the two villages had not lasted long enough for them to disregard civilian casualties in their pursuit of victory.

Rasa's elitist policy is working very well; he is a good Kazekage.

In this war, the Rock Ninja turned the tide against the Cloud Ninja.

Meanwhile, the Sand Ninja Army, led by Rasa, also turned the tide of the war.

The Sand Ninja Army gained the upper hand, so much so that the Rock Ninja needed to reinforce their troops on this front.

Iwagakure started to falter because the Sand Ninja army displayed overwhelming superiority.

Puppet Technique, which seems rather useless among the Five Kage, fully demonstrates its value in this kind of conventional warfare.

At the same time, just as Ōnoki and Deidara played an important role in the Land of Iron, Rasa and Gaara, who were both master and apprentice and father and son, played the same role in the Land of Stone. Kitsuchi alone could not withstand the torment of these Magnet Release ninjas.

The Mining Shadow isn't just good at mining; he became the Kazekage through sheer skill.

After Uchiha Shingen appeared on the battlefield, he soon encountered the Sand Ninja squad that had come to greet him.

Unlike Ōnoki, Rasa was much more open in inviting Uchiha Shingen.

Uchiha Shingen gladly accepted the invitation.

He was eager to see if there were any differences between Gaara in this timeline and the original timeline.

The Sand Ninja Army's main camp was built very close to the border between the Land of Earth and the Land of Stone.

This place was originally the main camp of the Rock Ninja army.

After Uchiha Shingen entered the camp, he saw many traces left by the Rock Ninja army.

Sunagakure, that was a truly brilliant battle.

Rasa's tents were all gold; no wonder he's a character with Obito.

Upon entering the tent, Uchiha Shingen finally saw the Fourth Kazekage after a long separation.

Rasa looked to be in excellent health.

"Shingen- kun, it's been a long time." As soon as they met, Rasa greeted Uchiha Shingen with a hearty smile.

He didn't look like this during the Joint Chunin Exams.

Back then, Rasa was stern and rarely smiled; his face practically screamed, "Being the Kazekage is exhausting."

"Lord Kazekage." When traveling on official business, Uchiha Shingen never gave anyone cause for criticism regarding etiquette. He bowed and sincerely praised, "Under your leadership, Sunagakure is becoming increasingly prosperous."

Putting aside his stance, he still admired Rasa.

He felt that he and Rasa had many things in common, since they were both in the business of making money.

He doesn't mine cryptocurrency, but being a CFO isn't easy for him either.

Rasa not only wanted to make money, but he also longed to strengthen the military of Sunagakure, a desire he held onto for many years.

After the Third Shinobi World War, Sunagakure became a laughing stock in the Ninja World.

Now, the Sand Ninja Army has repaid their shadows with concrete actions.

In this battle, Sunagakure, as one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, truly deserved its reputation.

"I dare not accept such praise; we cannot compare to Hidden Leaf Village," Rasa laughed. "If only a genius like Shingen had been born in Sunagakure."

"Lord Kazekage, you flatter me."

In this playthrough, he was recklessly targeting Cloud Village, but in the first playthrough, he was actually most concerned about Sand Village.

To be fair, the First Five Kage were all ruthless. Take the First Kazekage Reto, for example. Among the other four Kage, he took the most aggressive route. He used overwhelming power to beat up all the ninja clans, big and small, in the Land of Wind before he was able to create Sunagakure.

The true establishment of the Five Kage's status was at the first Five Kage Summit. No one paid any attention to Takigakure, which also possessed Tailed Beasts. Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara were in a league of their own, but the next level up were the other four Kage. Only Senju Hashirama had the ability to gather them together.

Even today, the Magnet Release Kazekage, remains one of the most prestigious lineages in the Ninja World.

And speaking of this...

Uchiha Shingen looked around but didn't see Gaara.

"Lord Kazekage, speaking of which, Gaara is your son, isn't he? Like father, like son," Uchiha Shingen asked tentatively. "You must be very proud of him."

Rasa's smile noticeably faded.

"It's nothing, he's just an ordinary Sand Village, he's far from being good enough."

Chapter 44 The Ceiling of the New Generation of Ninjas

In the original timeline, Gaara made his appearance with an incredibly awesome demeanor.

To put it in Zero-timeline terms, Gaara, who first appeared before the audience during the Joint Chunin Exams, was a total show-off.

In terms of age, among the ninjas of Naruto and Sasuke's generation, only two people in the original timeline could hold their own: Gaara and Deidara.

Gaara is even stronger than Deidara.

Of course, in this timeline, Deidara is not from the same generation as them.

Aside from the two old monsters 'Chakra reincarnations, Gaara, in a normal sense, is the pinnacle of this generation of ninjas.

However, judging from his serious cheating during the first round of the Chunin Ninja Exams, this show-off's academic performance is probably not that great.

You'd have to ask Rasa, after all, he was a big shot who could compete with Uchiha Itachi for the Best Family Award in the original timeline.

Rasa was very generous and invited Uchiha Shingen to chat in his extravagant golden tent, so Uchiha Shingen also decided to be a generous person.

He couldn't stop talking about Gaara; his central message was clear. "Your kid is so amazing, show him off!"

This was something that Rasa couldn't take anymore.

If he didn't have enough faith in his relationship with his deceased wife, and if this guy in front of him didn't live next door, he might have started to doubt whose child Gaara really was.

Of course, this was a joke, but Rasa felt very uncomfortable that a powerful ninja who was recognized as being able to control Tailed Beasts was showing such intense interest in the Jinchūriki of Sunagakure.

"Lord Shingen seems quite concerned about my son."

"Genius ninjas are common, but geniuses who can give even the Hidden Kitsuchi of Iwagakure a headache are rare, Lord Kazekage," Uchiha Shingen laughed. "Our Sasuke the same age as Gaara, yet he is far inferior. How could we not want to meet such a genius?"

Rasa chuckled.

Why did the Kumogakure perform so poorly this time? Don't you have any idea?

Over the years, you've been targeting other people's most talented individuals, and if you can't assassinate them, you openly find excuses to cause trouble and sabotage them.

Although no solid evidence could be found for the assassination cases, Uchiha Shingen was the prime suspect.

They've come openly quite a few times, and Kumogakure almost failed to retrieve the Eight-Tails again, with Uchiha Shingen's reason being that the Eight-Tails attacked him first.

At that time, many talents painstakingly cultivated by Kumogakure were taken away in one fell swoop by Uchiha Shingen and the Eight-Tails' stray bullets.

Rasa thought, this person is really ruthless.

This is far more ruthless than killing another Raikage.

A Five Kage- level figure targeting a group of Chunin —those Chunin, if they weren't tough enough, wouldn't be able to escape.

In recent years, because of this kind of thing, the level of thuggery in Hidden Leaf Village has really skyrocketed.

Fortunately, he always turned out to be the rogue Cloud Village.

As for Gaara, Rasa felt that his own feelings were not important, so his method of raising Gaara was also acceptable, because Gaara was no longer his child the moment he became Jinchūriki.

But he knows very well what Gaara is like now, and he absolutely wants to avoid any opportunity for the two of them to meet.

The Sunagakure keeps Jinchūriki's identity as Gaara a secret; Gaara isn't even officially listed in the Sunagakure's official organization.

There was no way around it; ever since he sent his brother-in-law to assassinate Gaara, Gaara's mental state had become extremely unstable. In Rasa's eyes, his son, though a genius, was also a failed Jinchūriki.

That's what he thought, and that's what he said. The higher-ups in Sand Village all know that Rasa considers Gaara a failure.

It failed the test.

In Rasa's view, a true Jinchūriki would only be one who, even after being assassinated by his brother-in -Gaara, still cares for the village.

According to Rasa's theory of efficiency, since Gaara was a failed Jinchūriki and had abandoned his son, he should have extracted the One-Tail from Gaara's body and resealed it for the next destined person. However, he did not.

He seemed to have forgotten about it, and even went so far as to teach Gaara a few more Ninjutsu.