Kakashi looked over toward Shanks, who was sitting in the main seat across the table from him, and said, "Definitely, Lord Uzukage. No one would think that Uzushiogakure doesn't have any good and strong future generations. After all, Uzushiogakure has clearly shown the strength of its young generations, either through the shadow guards or the elite shinobis from the Shinobi army of Uzushiogakure."
Shanks, after hearing this, nodded slowly. He was not exactly surprised by the fact that Kakashi knew about the strength of the shadow guards and the elite shinobis in the shinobi army of Uzushiogakure. After all, the major villages possessed strong intelligence networks, and it wasn't like Shanks was trying to hide these things. Uzushiogakure definitely wanted to highlight its strength—but at the same time, keep a certain element of surprise.
Information is useful… but incomplete information is even better.
Like most villages, all the major villages had the information that Uzushiogakure possessed around a hundred shadow guards who were extremely powerful, each capable of fighting at the Jonin level.
But that was not the whole truth.
In reality, there were around one hundred and eighty shadow guards, and all of them had been injected with the Super Shinobi Serum. Every single one of them could fight at least at the Jonin level. Among those shadow guards, nearly thirty were already considered S-rank ninjas.
And not only that—among those thirty S-rank shinobi, ten of them could even use Wood Release.
Of course, the strength of their Wood Release varied from person to person among those shadow guards. Some could only use it in limited combat situations, while others had far greater mastery over it.
The strongest Wood Release user among them was Navi—the same shinobi who had escorted Team 7 to the administrative building earlier.
Although Navi's Wood Release was not as strong as Hashirama's—he could never truly reach that level. After all, Hashirama could use Sage Mode, and his chakra reserves were on an entirely different scale.
Still, Navi's Wood Release was significantly stronger compared to the current strongest Wood Release user from Konoha—Yamato.
Shanks had this much confidence in Navi because Navi did not get easily chakra-drained after using Wood Release. His Wood Release techniques were quite versatile, and he possessed noticeably more chakra than Yamato.
Although Shanks had not met Yamato in person and did not exactly know the precise level of Yamato's chakra, from the memories of the Naruto series and Raphael's analysis, he had a fairly accurate estimate.
Yamato, at best, could not create more than ten or twelve houses using his Wood Release before his chakra reserves started running thin.
If Yamato could construct a single street of houses using Wood Release, then Navi could construct around five entire streets of houses with the same technique.
The difference in chakra capacity alone clearly demonstrated that Navi was far superior in that regard.
And that was not the only advantage Navi possessed.
Navi had also been personally trained by Shanks in the use of Yang Release. By incorporating Yang Release into his Wood Style techniques, the wood he produced became far stronger and far more vibrant with life. The structures created by his jutsu carried a greater vitality, making them more stable and resilient compared to ordinary Wood Release constructs.
A faint smile briefly touched Shanks' lips as the thought crossed his mind. Navi's growth has exceeded even my early expectations.
Meanwhile, the information that the other major villages possessed about Uzushiogakure's military strength was also somewhat inaccurate.
According to the intelligence gathered by other villages, the normal shinobi army of Uzushiogakure supposedly had around fifty ninjas who could fight at the level of Jonin, with a few of them being S-rank.
But that information was also incorrect.
In reality, Uzushiogakure currently had around eighty such shinobi within its army who could fight at the level of Jonin.
And among those eighty ninjas, ten were already considered S-rank.
Only three of those elite shinobi could use Wood Release, but the fact that they possessed that ability had not yet been publicized. Still, the major villages already had their suspicions that these individuals had become so powerful due to the Super Shinobi Serum.
That particular piece of information had been leaked earlier by a traitor within the research department.
Since then, the rapid rise in the number of powerful shinobi within Uzushiogakure had not gone unnoticed by the other villages.
The shadow guards, along with the elite shinobi within the Uzushiogakure shinobi army, had become the clearest living examples of it.
Or, to be precise, the sudden and drastic increase in the number of strong shinobi within Uzushiogakure was the greatest proof that something extraordinary had strengthened the village from within.
But this fact only made Uzushiogakure appear even more mysterious, further increasing its perceived threat level in the eyes of the world.
If it had not been for the presence of Shanks and the Uzumaki siblings, then by now—once again—not just two major villages like Kumogakure and Kirigakure, but the entire alliance of the major villages would likely have launched an attack on Uzushiogakure simply to eliminate the threat before it grew any further.
However, things were very different now.
Most of the major villages highly doubted that they could do anything against Uzushiogakure anymore. The main reason was the existence of the Uzukage and the Uzumaki siblings.
All of them operated on a completely different level.
Each one of them was capable of fighting a Village Kage-level powerhouse in a one-on-one battle, and there was a very high chance that the Kage themselves might not even survive such a confrontation.
They were that powerful.
Because of that overwhelming dominance, Uzushiogakure—which was already considered strong due to the presence of Shanks and the Uzumaki siblings—was steadily becoming even stronger with time.
Yet, despite all of that, there was still a small breath of relief for the other major villages and nations.
So far, Uzushiogakure had not shown any signs or intentions of attacking or conquering other major countries. There had been no aggressive expansion, no sudden territorial demands, and no military campaigns aimed at domination.
Because of that, the other nations remained somewhat calm.
The world stayed on edge—but not yet in panic.
And in truth, that situation existed mainly because Shanks himself had no interest in conquering any of those villages.
Right now, his focus was elsewhere.
His thoughts drifted toward a far more troublesome figure.
Obito Uchiha.
The very idea that Obito was somewhere out there, moving silently behind the scenes, unsettled Shanks far more than any army of shinobi ever could.
He is definitely doing something…
Obito was not the type to remain idle. If he had disappeared into the shadows, then it meant he was preparing something—building an army, forming alliances, or perhaps laying the groundwork for some dangerous scheme aimed directly at Uzushiogakure.
And that was not the only uncertainty troubling Shanks.
There was also Madara.
Shanks was not entirely convinced that Madara Uchiha was truly dead.
Perhaps Madara had found some other way to survive. Perhaps he was hiding somewhere, waiting patiently for the right moment. Or maybe he was already working toward some method of reviving himself again at the peak of his strength.
Shanks simply didn't know.
But Shanks knew one thing for sure: because of the presence of himself and the Uzumaki siblings—anomalies in this world—the overall strength level of the shinobi world was inevitably going to rise.
And he did not have to look very far to see proof of that.
Kakashi was a perfect example.
Kakashi could now use the Sharingan without any real burden on his body because of the Hashirama cells that had been implanted around his eyes. Of course, Hashirama cells were not something that affected only the immediate area where they were implanted. Their influence spread throughout the body, subtly enhancing multiple aspects of the user.
The cells had improved Kakashi's recovery speed, strengthened his vitality, and even increased parameters like his chakra reserves.
Kakashi had already been a genius from the very beginning. But now, with the benefits of Hashirama's cells supporting him, that genius had been pushed even further.
He had become stronger.
Far stronger than before.
And it was not just Kakashi.
Because Konoha had raised its standards in pursuit of greater strength, the other major villages had also begun raising their own bars. Each village had started pushing their shinobi harder, creating increasingly extreme training conditions in order to produce more powerful ninjas.
If Shanks had to make a comparison, he would say that the current state of the world was slowly beginning to resemble the era before the establishment of the major villages—the era of the Warring States.
Back then, only clans existed.
They fought each other constantly, surviving under relentless pressure. Every clan member had to grow stronger just to stay alive, and because of that brutal environment, many extraordinarily powerful shinobi were born.
They were warriors who excelled purely in fighting and killing.
Shinobi who had honed their abilities in the harshest conditions imaginable.
And they were terrifyingly powerful.
In many ways, today's world was beginning to move in that same direction.
Of course, there was still a major difference. The world was not yet filled with constant clan warfare like it had been back then. The great villages still existed, and the world—at least on the surface—remained relatively calm.
But in terms of strength…
The shinobi world was slowly climbing back toward that same terrifying level once again.
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