Chapter 273: Changes
The exchange gathering competition ran across two days.
The first day of competition came to an end.
At this point, only the final main event remained.
Sand Village versus Konoha in the Jonin division.
This was the true inter-village competition between both sides' newer generation fighters.
All participants in this exchange gathering had strict age requirements. Even Jonin-level competitors could not be older than eighteen.
Up to this point in the results, Konoha had essentially won comprehensively.
On the first day of competition, the Sand Village had been thoroughly humbled. Outside of the Genin division where the two sides had tied, both the children's division and the Chunin division had ended in clear losses for the Sand Village.
Yuji himself, however, showed not the slightest concern throughout. He exchanged a few final pleasantries with Minato and the others before leading Shimizu, Baki, and the rest of the delegation back to their accommodations.
On the way back, the mood among the Sand Village group was somewhat subdued.
They had believed that after all the Sand Village's development and reform, the village's newer generation should at minimum be able to fight on equal terms with Konoha's, even if not surpass them. Reality had given everyone a lesson.
"That Uchiha Shisui," Shimizu said, still carrying a note of wariness as he walked behind Yuji.
"Yes. A ceiling-level talent for the future. Not inferior to the Fourth Hokage's gifts," Yuji replied.
"Teacher, I'm sorry."
"Lord Kazekage."
Yashamaru and the others were visibly dejected.
"Winning and losing are the most ordinary things in a ninja's life. Only by encountering opponents who genuinely challenge you, and discovering your own shortcomings, can you find the motivation to train harder and grow. Today's results are only a snapshot of this moment. A person can lose, but their heart cannot afford to. "
Yuji smiled and offered the words of reassurance.
"Understood," Yashamaru and the others said, managing to produce somewhat forced smiles.
It was clear they had still taken a noticeable blow to their confidence.
In truth, Yuji could have told them in advance about certain story characters' abilities and techniques, helping Yashamaru and the others formulate targeted combat plans to improve their win rate. But he had deliberately not done so, because that would have felt somewhat like cheating.
The exchange gathering was meant to be a test of real strength. It was more important for the newer generation to recognize the gap between themselves and their Konoha peers.
Besides, even with his quiet assistance, the puppet corps fighter and Shira would most likely still not have been able to beat Guy, Itachi, and Shisui.
"Tomorrow we will win," Pakura said suddenly from within the group.
"Tomorrow's Konoha Jonin division will almost certainly include that genius Kakashi," Shimizu reminded her.
"Whoever it is. None of them should dream of taking a single win from me."
The Jonin division competition rules were somewhat different. It would be a round-robin format with five competitors from each side.
After saying this, Pakura looked at Yashamaru and the others.
"You people did not only embarrass yourselves. You lost face for the village and for Lord Kazekage as well. When we get back, you will all go through an intensive training period under my supervision until I decide you are ready to move freely again."
"Is that really necessary," Yashamaru's mouth twitched once, without any hesitation redirecting blame toward the other three.
"The losses were on those three, not me. If you want to run extra training, find them."
"You are one team. Stop making excuses," Pakura said, her voice flat and cold.
"Actually, the main purpose of this exchange gathering was to broaden everyone's horizons and give you all a concrete understanding of the strength of the same-generation fighters from other villages. Winning or losing is not the most important thing here," Yuji said with a light smile, essentially pleading the case for Yashamaru and the others.
He genuinely did not want to put too much pressure on the younger generation.
"Lord Kazekage. I feel this is a small matter that does not require your attention. Leave it to me," Pakura replied calmly, though there was an unmistakable edge of stubbornness running beneath the words.
It was the same attitude she had carried since childhood whenever the two of them interacted. Only now, with more people around and Yuji present as Kazekage, she was making a visible effort to hold it in slightly.
Yuji cleared his throat once and said nothing further.
Shimizu beside him also quietly pressed his lips together.
Both of them could see it clearly. Pakura was genuinely angry.
Pakura was no longer the young girl she had once been. She was now the Sand Village's renowned genius female ninja, with real combat achievements and strength that commanded genuine respect, a bloodline limit of her own, a transplanted Byakugan, and Yuji's direct student.
Virtually the entire Sand Village tacitly acknowledged that she would almost certainly be among the village's senior leadership in the future, perhaps even one of the village's top-tier combat powers in the generation to come.
She already carried considerable standing and influence.
And as she had grown older, hardened by the ninja world's battlefields, Pakura's personality had become increasingly mature and cold. The lightness and easy smiles of her youth were mostly gone.
Yuji understood clearly why this change had happened.
To begin with, although Pakura, Yashamaru, and the others were his students, in practical terms their ages were not dramatically different from each other. It was simply that Yuji had risen and matured so early and so quickly.
Among his students, Yasumaru was actually older than Yuji.
As people of the same generation, Pakura and the others had also felt the shadow the Second Great Ninja War had cast over the Sand Village, and had then personally lived through the Third Great Ninja War themselves.
Pakura had been fiercely competitive since childhood. Watching the Sand Village develop at a rapid pace, she had come to understand clearly that what the village had built was not easily maintained. It required overwhelming strength to protect.
Otherwise, when the Third Great Ninja War broke out, if Yuji had not been there when the Third Raikage led the Hidden Cloud's elite forces to the Sand Village to cause trouble, that crisis would have been extraordinarily difficult to resolve and could easily have become a catastrophe for the village.
Pakura had watched all of this with her own eyes.
In the past she had lacked the capability to do anything about it. But now, as her strength had grown, she had proactively taken responsibility onto her own shoulders. She wanted to help Yuji as Kazekage share some of the burden.
Because of this, in recent years she had been continuously and almost frantically taking on mission after mission for the village. She had essentially become an earlier version of what Sasori had once been, a mission-obsessed fighter.
She kept herself in a constant state of high-pressure operation at all times, and in any large-scale campaign or battlefield situation, she was always the first to push to the frontline.
Yasumaru had once discussed Pakura's changes with Yuji, noting that because she had always held Yuji as her mirror and the target she wanted to surpass, she had begun consciously shaping herself in that direction.
On the battlefield, she showed no mercy to enemies and struck without hesitation. Gradually this had caused her personality to develop a certain forceful and domineering edge. She would not tolerate the slightest grain of sand in her eye.
In the entire Sand Village right now, the only person she would listen to was Yuji.
"Ah," Yuji said softly, watching Pakura's silhouette walking ahead of them, letting out a quiet sigh.
He genuinely did not know whether this particular change in Pakura was good or bad.
In truth, this kind of personality shift was also connected to the Sand Village's longstanding culture. The Third Kazekage, Rasa, Sasori, all of them had walked this same path. Pakura had been shaped by her clan's influence since childhood, and the most fundamental driving force, of course, was her loyalty to and protectiveness of the village.
By now Pakura wore her green hair in a high bun, a Sand Village forehead protector tied across her brow, a sleeveless backless outfit with fitted shorts, and purple wrist guards on both arms. Her appearance and clothing had become almost identical to how she looked in the original story. Just very slightly younger.
Yashamaru and Sakamoto still carried a trace of youth about them. But Pakura already looked like a seasoned battle-hardened ninja, a fully matured woman.
Pakura paid no attention to Yuji's gaze. She had already turned to look at the four other competitors who would be fighting alongside her tomorrow and was beginning to give them serious and methodical instructions.
...
BOnus @200 PS
Read upto 80 chapters ahead@ keepsmiling818 p2reon