In the 45th year of Konohagakure, Sunagakure of the Land of Wind, as the host, took the lead in organizing this year's Joint Chūnin Exams. According to the shinobi world's customary practice, Konohagakure of the Land of Fire, as an allied village, was among those invited.
In addition, several small- and medium-sized hidden villages located around the Lands of Wind and Fire—such as Amegakure, Kusagakure, and Hoshigakure—also received invitations and would dispatch their respective teams to participate.
On the day of departure, at first light, a team of more than thirty people had already gathered outside Konohagakure's main gate.
Aside from Jiraiya, who served as the overall team leader, most of the participants were the genin registered for this examination and their respective squad leaders.
Jiraiya stood at the front of the group, clearly somewhat absent-minded, as if he had been pressed into the role against his will. Lacking energy, he began a brief address: "Ah—right, everyone. This trip to Sunagakure is for the Chūnin Exams. Remember, you represent Konoha. You must… forget it. Safety first. Don't overextend yourselves. Sunagakure's got plenty of sand and not much water—take care."
There was no stirring encouragement in his words; it sounded more like a perfunctory routine. After speaking, he waved his hand. "Alright, let's go."
The team set out at once, embarking on the journey to Sunagakure.
After traveling for three consecutive days, the group finally left the borders of the Land of Fire and entered the Land of Rivers, situated between the Lands of Wind and Fire.
The journey was monotonous. As usual, Shinichi maintained his consistent diligence. Whenever the team stopped to rest, he would always seek out a secluded corner near the campsite to carry out his unwavering training.
Today was no exception. After completing his training, he wiped the sweat from his brow and walked back toward the camp.
On the way, his thoughts stirred slightly, and he summoned the personal panel visible only to himself.
[Name: Higashino Shinichi]
[Occupation: Genin / Swordsman]
[Talent: …]
Compared to when he had first become a genin half a year ago, the changes on the panel were not significant.
Aside from [Affinity] upgrading to [Charisma], there was only one additional entry: [Basic Medical Knowledge].
Looking at the panel before him, Shinichi's brows drew together slightly as he recognized that he was now facing two clear bottlenecks:
First, the cognitive threshold had increased substantially. He was already publicly acknowledged in Konoha as a genius. Many performances that would be astonishing when displayed by others were regarded as only natural when coming from him.
People's expectations of his excellence had been raised, causing the same effort and results to yield fewer impression points and less cognitive depth than before.
Second, the halo-masking effect: certain exceptionally standout talents are like spotlights, drawing away the vast majority of attention and making his other abilities hard for outsiders to clearly perceive and remember.
For example, his taijutsu really should not still have been a white basic Entry.
Yet under the overarching impression of "genius"—especially with the dual halos of being a swordsmanship genius who had "defeated White Fang's blade arts," and a ninjutsu genius who had "independently developed an A-rank unsealed ninjutsu"—his solid, outstanding attainments in taijutsu were instead obscured and downplayed.
It was like the First Hokage, Senju Hashirama: 95% of the world's perception and legends centered on his almost mythical Wood Release, to the point that the fact he was also a top-tier master of five-nature chakra control—and even a medical ninjutsu master—was overshadowed by that dazzling halo and became far less known.
'If only the disguise of the Shadow Clone could also…'
Shinichi had put a lot of effort into this idea, but in the end he figured out the system's rules—seemingly simple, yet harsh: Shadow Clones could help him himself gain recognition, but only on the condition that the outside world clearly knew this Shadow Clone was "Higashino Shinichi."
This meant he could have Shadow Clones, in his original appearance and identity, carry out activities with different emphases—for example, one to practice taijutsu, and one to practice medical skills—so as to try to disperse the focus and obtain recognition impressions across multiple areas.
But doing so, in essence, only split his own time into several parts. All recognition would ultimately still stack back onto the single identity of "Higashino Shinichi." The efficiency was a bit faster, but it still could not solve the "halo masking" problem.
He had also considered a more opportunistic approach: over the course of more than half a year of missions, he had once had a Shadow Clone transform into a completely different appearance and identity, and, under a brand-new identity, specialize in building a reputation in a certain field in the mission cities and nearby.
For instance, he created a "Genjutsu Ninja A" who had decent genjutsu attainments and was calm and composed. This genjutsu ninja, whom he called "Crow," acted with composure and deft methods. In several deliberately arranged encounters across a few cities during his missions, "Crow" displayed no small measure of genjutsu skill and a steady temperament.
Based on Shinichi's past estimates of the conditions for generating white Entries, the level "Crow" displayed and the attention he drew should have been enough to condense a white Entry of [Basic Genjutsu], and might even have promoted the upgrade of the [Calm] Entry.
However, after more than half a year of attempts, the panel remained silent.
No matter how deep an impression "Crow" left locally, or how much admiration and speculation he received, that recognition was like rootless duckweed, unable to form any linkage with Higashino Shinichi. Genjutsu-related Entries never appeared, and [Calm] did not budge in the slightest.
This meant that the core rule of recognition lay in the "unity of name and reality": recognition had to explicitly point to "Higashino Shinichi" as the true name and true self.
Disguise meant severing the causal link between recognition and the original self.
Therefore, the idea of using Shadow Clones to open alternate identities and build independent Entry pools completely collapsed. He could not be both "genius ninja Higashino Shinichi" and "genjutsu rising star Crow," or "taijutsu expert so-and-so."
All recognition of his talents had to be borne under the single identity of "Higashino Shinichi," already shrouded in the halo of genius.
'What should I do?'
Shinichi pondered silently.
One option was focused breakthrough—building a peak. Concentrate all resources and persona management on reaching the summit in one field first, achieve accomplishments recognized across the shinobi world, and use that to push toward higher-level Entries.
But the drawback was obvious: the growth of other Entries would inevitably be delayed or even stagnate, and the foundational bonuses those Entries provided were crucial to him.
Moreover, even if he became a godlike existence in one field, he would likely still fall into the predicament of the First Hokage—the world's attention would be firmly drawn to that single, most dazzling halo, and his abilities in other areas would still struggle to gain sufficient recognition to support Entry upgrades.
The other option was to advance along multiple lines and seek balance. But that required more intricate planning and longer-term management. Given that time was not abundant at present, and the cognitive threshold had already been raised, efficiency was a problem.
'When I become Hokage, the first thing I'll do is establish a propaganda department, then buy up all the major newspapers and radio stations in the shinobi world. Even the textbooks of every nation will need a special column about my deeds.'
Shinichi thought viciously—and that was not all. He calculated even more meticulously.
For example, he could shift the publicity focus every few years. For a few years, emphasize physical strength and extraordinary power; then, a few years later, highlight medical benevolence; then stress strategic intelligence and grand planning—ensuring the shinobi world formed a three-dimensional impression of him as an "all-around super genius."
An absurd image even flashed through his mind: in a future classroom, a teacher pointing at the textbook.
"Students, today we're learning a new lesson—'The Hokage Used a Pebble to Knock Down the Moon'…"
"…The Hokage bent down, picked up a pebble from the flowerbed, then looked at the sky and said, 'Damn Ōtsutsuki.' He hurled the pebble upward with all his strength. Soon, the moon in the sky suddenly erupted in dazzling light—then fell…"
"Waaah, Hokage-sama is so great!"
"We can never repay Hokage-sama's kindness…"
In a classroom filled with radiant light, a group of little children raised both hands, jumping up and down, tears in their eyes.
Note: at this moment, the classroom lights were not on.
Damn it.
Shinichi shuddered and quickly shook the increasingly outrageous scene from his mind.
---
I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> patreon.com/TitoVillar
---