[Land of Iron weekly: Breaking! Konoha produces the youngest Jonin in history, Shinichi Higashino, a ten-year-old genius who shocks the nation!]
[Land of Grass weekly: Konoha genius creates another miracle! Ten-year-old Shinichi Higashino was promoted to Jonin!]
[Land of Fire entertainment weekly: Shocking! A ten-year-old Jonin! Our Konoha's genius, Shinichi Higashino, breaks the Shinobi World record, personally promoted by the third Hokage! Hinting he may be the future Hokage?]
[Land of Wind newsflash: Konoha's genius was promoted to Jonin at ten, the Land of Fire may grow even stronger over the next twenty years!]
[Ninja Weekly: A monstrous genius appears in Konoha! What does a ten-year-old Jonin mean?]
[Shinobi World gossip: Ten-year-old Jonin, revealing the growth path of Konoha's genius, Shinichi Higashino!]
[Shinobi World report: Shocking! The youngest Jonin in Konoha's history is born, only ten years old!]
[Shinobi World major news: Huge shock! The youngest Jonin in Shinobi World history is born, only nine years old!]
"Danzo, have you found the source?"
The third Hokage rubbed his temples slightly and shifted his gaze away from the newspapers as he asked.
It turned out that just the day after the higher-ups promoted Shinichi to Special Jonin, news of his promotion suddenly spread throughout the Shinobi World.
And the headlines became more exaggerated one after another, the content more outrageous each time.
Clearly, Konoha officially promoted him to Special Jonin, but in these newspapers, the word Special had been tacitly omitted, leaving only Jonin.
What made it worse was the domestic newspapers of the Land of Fire.
When those media outlets saw it, what? Our Konoha's genius got promoted?
And we were the last to know?
And we saw it in foreign newspapers?
Could they tolerate that?
So they also began reporting frantically.
Each one wrote more exaggeratedly than the last, each headline more sensational.
Now, it was likely that the entire Land of Fire was talking about Konoha's genius, Shinichi Higashino, being promoted to Jonin.
Walking on the street, even a random vegetable-selling aunt could chat with you about that ten-year-old Jonin from Konoha.
"We found it. The earliest publications were several newspapers from the Land of Grass."
"Land of Grass?"
The third Hokage frowned slightly.
"Yes. Then the next day, the news spread to the Land of Iron and was seen by a samurai named Isshin."
The third Hokage's eyelid twitched.
"That same day, he bought out the front pages of almost all major newspapers in the Land of Iron, spending a large sum to have them fully promote this matter."
"This Isshin really is…"
The third Hokage opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.
A perfectly low-key, non-publicized Special Jonin promotion had been turned by him into a sensational headline across the Shinobi World.
The third Hokage sighed, about to say something, but Danzo spoke again: "I suspect that Isshin is the biggest force behind it."
"Hm?"
The third Hokage looked at him.
"Although the Land of Grass newspapers published it first, it was clearly directed by someone. And in the Land of Iron, his actions were even more blatant. Not only did he buy the headlines, but he also had people exaggerate the reports."
After a moment of silence, the third Hokage shook his head.
"I don't think so."
"The Land of Iron is several days' travel from Konoha. Even if Isshin acted immediately after seeing the news, it would have been too late. We promoted Shinichi several days ago, yet the next day, the Land of Grass newspapers had already published it."
"For the news to spread that fast, there's only one possibility."
"The source is within Konoha, likely intelligence agents from other ninja villages."
Although Konoha was a military organization, as the leader of the Five Great Ninja Villages, it also welcomed countless tourists, merchants, and clients who entered and left daily during peacetime.
Among them, having a few intelligence agents from other countries was entirely normal.
Tourism was also a significant source of income for Konoha. They couldn't just shut the gates out of fear of leaks. Besides, those people operated under the identities of tourists, merchants, or clients. No matter how strict the inspections, some would inevitably slip through.
"It seems someone wants to push this child into the eye of the storm."
The third Hokage took a drag from his pipe and slowly exhaled, smoke curling between the two of them.
"To make him the primary target for elimination by all ninja villages."
His tone was calm, but the content was anything but.
Danzo remained silent for a while, then said, "I'll thoroughly investigate… those suspicious individuals in the village."
The third Hokage nodded, his voice still low but carrying a chill.
"It's time for a proper investigation. I want to see which bastard is stirring things up behind the scenes!"
Danzo glanced at him, said nothing more, just nodded, and turned to leave.
This old companion of his usually wore a smiling, kindly face, but once truly angered, his killing intent became even more deeply concealed.
Just like now, his tone sounded as calm as discussing what to eat today, but Danzo knew.
Hiruzen had truly developed the intent to kill this time.
...
Walking on the road home, Shinichi suddenly shivered as a gust of cold wind blew past.
Can I still feel cold now?
Shinichi stopped and was momentarily stunned.
With talents like [Bronze Skin and Iron Bones] and [Splitting Rocks and Cleaving Gold], his physique far surpassed that of ordinary people. Logically, he shouldn't feel cold because of the weather anymore.
Strange.
As he passed a newsstand, his gaze casually swept over the colorful newspapers.
On the front pages, headlines like "Shocking!" "Ten-year-old Jonin!" and "Youngest in Shinobi World history!" were especially eye-catching.
He withdrew his gaze, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly.
He wondered if this wave of manipulation would actually work.
The generation of an occupation entry first required acceptance and recognition by authority, and then widespread cognition needed time to ferment.
Under normal circumstances, he would need to first formally become a Jonin, then wait for the world to gradually accept the fact. Once recognition accumulated to a certain level, it could drive the formation of the Jonin occupation.
This process required time.
So he wondered, could it be done in reverse?
First, make the world recognize him as a Jonin, so that when he truly became one, the recognition would already be in place.
At that point, the generation of the occupation entry might be significantly accelerated, or even directly triggered.
After all, there was already a large gray area between Special Jonin and full Jonin.
Especially for non-ninjas, how could they distinguish what was Special or not?
As long as they saw the words "Ten-year-old Jonin Shinichi Higashino," the impression would be imprinted.
Thus, the moment he received the promotion order, Isshin crossed into the Land of Iron overnight and ran to the Land of Grass.
With a different identity and appearance, he spent money to buy the front pages of several newspapers.
Then the news quickly exploded.
When the news reached the Land of Iron, Isshin stepped forward again, using the identity of Shinichi's future opponent to promote Shinichi's fame and push things further. Buying pages, securing headlines, and exaggerating the reports.
The effect was even better than he had expected.
Of course, for the news to spread across most of the Shinobi World so quickly, he alone wouldn't have been enough.
Aside from the Shinobi World's even greater appetite for gossip than he anticipated, there were definitely intelligence agents from other villages pushing things along, and they had also tacitly ignored the word, Special.
As for those foreign pushers, Shinichi could roughly guess their intentions.
Nothing more than putting him over a fire to roast, making him the primary focus and elimination target of all ninja villages.
A ten-year-old Special Jonin with full Jonin-level strength, his talent was too terrifying. Keeping him alive would only be a future disaster.
But what they didn't know was that this was exactly what he wanted.