After leaving headquarters, Shinichi walked alone toward a cliff on the left side of the camp.
At that moment, fierce winds swept curtains of rain through the air. The sky was so dark it hardly seemed like daytime. Only the occasional lightning bolt tearing across the heavens could suddenly illuminate the entire land in a ghostly white.
For several consecutive days, the weather along the southeastern coast of the Land of Fire had grown increasingly severe, as though heaven and earth themselves were echoing the brutal slaughter between the ninjas of the two nations along the coastline.
Yet when the driving rain reached above Shinichi's head, it seemed to strike an invisible barrier, quietly parting, diverting, and sliding away.
The unseen currents flowing around him even reduced the howling of the wind, leaving only a faint humming sound.
The Three-Tails Jinchuriki?
Shinichi's feet never stopped moving, but his mind was already racing.
The Three-Tails Jinchuriki, whom the Village Hidden in the Mist had hidden for decades, had finally... Boom!
A massive thunderclap exploded violently, as though something had torn the heavens apart from within. The deafening roar rolled across the sea, and even the earth beneath his feet trembled slightly.
Shinichi's train of thought was cut short. His steps paused, and he slowly raised his head, gazing deep into the endlessly churning storm clouds filled with writhing bolts of lightning.
"The Three-Tails is a turtle, right? Then its shell should be pretty hard."
After staring for quite some time, this thought flashed through Shinichi's mind, then his expression shifted slightly.
With a flip of his wrist, a pitch-black, ancient-looking sword hilt quietly appeared in his hand.
The Blade of the Thunder Spirit!
In the next instant, countless blue-white arcs of lightning erupted around Shinichi's body, dense electric currents leaped and intertwined across his skin like living creatures.
At the same time, the Blade of the Thunder Spirit in his hand burst forth with a brilliant golden blade of lightning, colliding and intertwining in the air with the blue-white lightning surrounding him.
Two different kinds of lightning, one blue-white and one brilliant gold.
At first, the distinction between them was clear, but soon they began to permeate and merge with one another.
Blue-white and golden arcs intertwined into a dazzling curtain of light, gradually transforming into an almost incandescent white brilliance.
For a moment, the air within several meters of Shinichi was ionized and hummed continuously.
Even the rainwater evaporated into clouds of white mist before it could even fall.
After both Pinnacle of Ninjutsu Level 1 and Master of Lightning Style had been generated, Shinichi's command over Ninjutsu as a whole and his specialized application of Lightning Style had both risen to an entirely new level.
Over the years, he had gradually come to understand the relationship between comprehensive and specialized talents.
The enhancement provided by a comprehensive talent in any single attribute was generally about one level lower than a specialized trait of the same grade.
For example, if his current Pinnacle of Ninjutsu Level 1 was applied solely to Lightning Style, its enhancement would be roughly equivalent to Master of Lightning Style (Blue).
Its strength, however, lay in its versatility.
It simultaneously covered Fire, Wind, Lightning, Water, Earth, Dark, Light, and many other fields.
In other words, his actual enhancement in Lightning Style at this moment was roughly equivalent to stacking two blue-grade Master of Lightning Style talents together.
Although it still fell slightly short of a true purple-grade Lightning Style talent, the gap was no longer large.
"Let's try it."
With that thought, the crackling golden lightning surrounding Shinichi suddenly contracted and completely withdrew into his body.
Immediately afterward, countless high-speed rotating wind currents surged out beneath his feet, wrapping around him layer after layer and propelling him forward.
A short, piercing whistle of wind sounded.
His body shot upward through the torrential rain like a meteor flying against gravity, heading directly toward the massive thunderclouds where lightning flashed, and thunder rumbled without end.
As Shinichi's trajectory continued to climb, violent winds churned, and the sea of clouds rolled.
The countless wind vortices surrounding him resembled an invisible giant pump, frantically drawing in the airflow within a radius of several hundred meters, shredding, tearing apart, and consuming the dense black clouds.
They transformed into rolling waves of white vapor that surged behind him.
And Shinichi's speed grew faster and faster.
Under the dual enhancement of Pinnacle of Ninjutsu Level 1 and Master of Wind Style, his flight speed was already many times greater than when he had first created Wind Style Nintaijutsu.
Moreover, he had gained mastery over even more refined applications of Wind Style.
...
"The winner! Isshin of the Ashina Style!"
One day later, on the Land of Iron, capital.
Before the eyes of countless spectators, Isshin unsurprisingly and as always defeated his opponent with ease.
From the moment the referee announced the start of the match to the moment his opponent was thrown out of the ring, less time had passed than it took the referee to finish reading both competitors' names.
With effortless ease, he secured the overall championship of this year's National Swordsmanship Tournament of the Land of Iron.
"And thus, all events of this year's National Swordsmanship Tournament have concluded successfully! Please wait a moment. Shortly, our esteemed General Mifune of the Land of Iron will personally present awards to the victors and bestow the title of Saint Swordsman upon those of exceptional achievement!"
"But now, audience members! Please give the warmest cheers and applause to the ultimate champion of this tournament, instructor Isshin!"
Before the announcer had even finished speaking, thunderous cheers erupted from the stands surrounding the arena.
Wave after wave of sound crashed through the venue as countless spectators rose to their feet, desperately waving small flags bearing the Ashina Style emblem.
Many older spectators could not help but feel emotional.
In all these years, they had never seen a competitor so powerful and so flamboyant in style.
From the preliminary rounds all the way to the finals, almost no one had survived a single exchange against instructor Isshin.
The referee would barely finish shouting start, and the match would already be over.
Many people had not even managed to settle into their seats before the opponent on stage was already lying flat on the ground.
One could only say that he truly lived up to his reputation as the powerful samurai who had fought the famed Crimson Flame Shinichi to a draw several months earlier and had made a pact to become the strongest in the future.
His overwhelming strength also filled many Land of Iron spectators with a profound sense of pride.
Of course, many spectators also harbored a small regret.
Isshin's matches were excellent, but they ended far too quickly.
More often than not, people had only just opened their mouths and prepared to watch a thrilling duel when, before they could react, the only things left on stage were the tall young man's figure and the referee's stunned declaration.
It was as fast as lightning, gone in an instant.
On stage, Isshin smiled warmly and nodded toward the surrounding spectators one by one.
His smile was friendly, gentle, bright, and sincere, like a celebrity holding a fan meet-and-greet.
At the same time, however, he was secretly pondering something else.
"When exactly will the Saint Swordsman occupation on my system panel finally be generated?"
(Note: I'll be changing Grand Master Swordsman occupation to Saint Swordsman occupation; it sounds much better, I believe.)
Despite all the unconventional tactics he had used to turn a tournament that originally belonged only to samurai circles into a hot topic throughout the Shinobi World, he still had no certainty about how much longer it would take for the Master Swordsman title to evolve into Saint Swordsman.
Check my Patreon for 130 more chapters
Pa treon. com/SweetestDeath