Naruto: Starting With Creating A Genius Persona

Under the leadership of their fox-like third Tsuchikage, Onoki, the Village Hidden in the Stones had always maintained an exceptionally flexible style of diplomacy.

Moreover, throughout the entire war, the Village Hidden in the Stones had never actually fought Konoha, so even if it was the first to respond, it could hardly be considered bowing to anyone.

Onoki also took the opportunity to package the Village Hidden in the Stones as a peace-loving nation within the statement, presenting it as though it had always stood for harmony.

The moment the Village Hidden in the Stones made its position known, the pressure on the remaining three villages instantly reached its peak.

No matter how many times the leaders of the Village Hidden in the Sand, Village Hidden in the Mist, and Village Hidden in the Cloud cursed behind closed doors in their respective meeting rooms, the time had come when they could no longer avoid taking a public stance.

After all, the tide of public opinion was overwhelming and unstoppable.

When the entire Shinobi World was watching the dividing line between "Civilization" and "Barbarism" that Konoha had drawn, remaining silent was equivalent to placing oneself on the opposite side of civilization.

Nor was it merely outside public opinion piling on the pressure. Even the ninja within their own villages had begun discussing the matter privately.

After all, as long as someone was human, they would inevitably yearn for those ideals that represented goodness and basic human decency.

Even if they were ninja, they were still human. Every person hoped that if they were wounded and fell in battle, they would receive treatment instead of being finished off by an enemy’s blade, and that if they were captured, they could survive until the day they were exchanged rather than silently disappearing into some hidden dungeon or ending up strapped to a blood-soaked experimental table.

Even Village Hidden in the Mist, infamous as the "Bloody Village Hidden in the Mist" and long dedicated to molding its ninja into perfect tools, was no exception.

Very soon afterward, the Village Hidden in the Sand, the Village Hidden in the Mist, and the Village Hidden in the Cloud each issued their own public responses, one after another.

The Village Hidden in the Sand declared that the convention’s contents did not fundamentally conflict with the reform policies being promoted by the new Kazekage, Rasa, and that protecting civilians and treating prisoners humanely had always been principles the Village Hidden in the Sand followed throughout its previous wars.

Village Hidden in the Mist stated that the convention should be examined from a calm and objective perspective, while emphasizing that the Land of Water itself had also been affected by the ongoing war and therefore agreed with protecting civilians.

Lastly came Village Hidden in the Cloud, as stubborn as a bull. Its statement reluctantly acknowledged the convention’s basic principles but devoted a lengthy section to stressing that "The implementation of any convention must not become an excuse for weakening another nation’s national defense capabilities."

At the very end, it also denounced Konoha’s hypocrisy, singling out Shinichi Higashino as the greatest hypocrite of all.

But regardless of how fiercely Village Hidden in the Cloud cursed, at this point all Four Great Ninja Villages had issued their initial responses and had begun contacting Konoha to negotiate matters such as the conference date and the selection of representatives.

While issuing their public responses, however, the other Four Great Ninja Villages, led by the Village Hidden in the Stones, were also communicating frequently behind the scenes, preparing to join forces and place sufficient pressure on Konoha.

That old fox Onoki quietly acted as the intermediary; the Village Hidden in the Sand and Village Hidden in the Mist readily went along with the arrangement, and although Village Hidden in the Cloud was reluctant to communicate with the Village Hidden in the Stones while they were still at war, it was equally unwilling to simply let Konoha dictate the direction of events.

All of them were calculating how to coordinate with one another during the convention negotiations, how to accept the convention without appearing to be led around by Konoha, and how to prevent Konoha from taking all the advantages and stealing all the glory in this diplomatic contest.

For example, they considered demanding that Konoha release a batch of prisoners of war first as a gesture of sincerity, or changing the convention’s name from that of a city in the Land of Fire to something else, or raising the issue of holding Konoha accountable during the conference for its previous raids against the Village Hidden in the Cloud’s logistics.

...

During the period when the Five Great Ninja Villages were negotiating back and forth over the conference date and the selection of representatives, while the other four villages secretly coordinated with one another and probed each other’s bottom lines, Shinichi temporarily set aside the mountain of work that had accumulated before him and quietly set out for Shikkotsu Forest.

According to his expectations, he would inevitably attend the conference in the Land of Iron afterward as one of Konoha’s representatives.

When that time came, a fierce battle of words, open and covert struggles, would be unavoidable at the conference. It was even possible that actual fighting would break out.

After all, the Village Hidden in the Sand, Village Hidden in the Cloud, and Village Hidden in the Mist all hated him to the core, and even the Village Hidden in the Stones, which had yet to fight Konoha, would probably be more than happy to see him dead.

However, Shinichi did not place too much importance on the confrontation in the Land of Iron.

At most, the struggle at that conference would only be an interlude. The true battles and long-term conflicts would begin after the convention was signed, when Isshin, as President of the International Supervisory Committee, would inspect the various nations and personally hold them accountable, and he also intended to have Genjo accompany him.

When the time came, both open and hidden resistance would be inevitable, and one battle after another would surely await them.

Therefore, before setting out, he had to find a way to further increase the combat strength of those two clones.

And Shikkotsu Forest was his destination this time.

First, it was for the sake of learning Sage Arts.

Genjo had been constructed with the first Hokage’s cells as its core and naturally possessed a Sage Body from birth.

Although the "Sage" in a Sage Body and the "Sage" in Sage Arts were not the same thing, the two were by no means unrelated.

The first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, had possessed astonishing attainments in Sage Arts, entering Sage Mode almost instantaneously.

Tracing back even further, the Sage of Six Paths had been the supreme master of Sage Arts. While ordinary people required years of sensing and balancing Nature Energy before they could barely cross the threshold, for the Sage of Six Paths, he practically mastered the basics the moment he began cultivating, and mastery came as soon as he entered the entry level.

This was not merely a matter of personal talent.

The deeper reason was that the Sage Body itself originated from the God Tree and the ten-tails, and, within the God Tree and the ten-tails’ instinct to devour heaven and earth, Nature Energy also fell within their scope of consumption.

For precisely that reason, in the original timeline, Madara Uchiha, who had never systematically studied Sage Arts throughout his life, instantly mastered Sage Arts after becoming the ten-tails’ Jinchūriki.

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