"Tasks can be carried out; staying alive is not a mistake."
After a moment of silence, Keizumi slowly nodded. He was very clear that if a shinobi village lost its missions, it would also lose its source of funding; the remaining Kirigakure shinobi might instead commit even greater sins.
"Yes!"
Hearing Keizumi's reply, Terumī Mei finally let out a sigh of relief.
Although only about one-tenth of Kirigakure's shinobi remained, Mei believed that given some time, Kirigakure would still be able to recover a good portion of its vitality. Moreover, with Kirigakure isolated overseas, it would not easily fall from its position as one of the great shinobi villages.
"Next, it's the capital of the Land of Water!"
"To implement justice as quickly as possible, the best method is to thoroughly sweep the entire Land of Water clean, and then establish a legal order of justice to ensure that justice can take root across this land."
…
Konohagakure.
"Even Kakashi has chosen to support Tsunade?"
Inside the Hokage building, Hiruzen withdrew his gaze from the crystal ball. A deep fatigue showed on his face, and even his eyes could not help but carry a trace of confusion—after all, he believed he had shown Kakashi kindness.
Yet now even Kakashi had chosen to support Tsunade…
The confusion on Hiruzen's face flashed by in an instant, replaced once more by firmness.
"I am not wrong!"
"Absolute justice is too extreme. Perhaps now they think it is good, but its absoluteness ignores emotion!"
"Moreover, for a shinobi village to grow and prosper, it is impossible that everything everyone does is just!"
Hiruzen smoked, quietly persuading himself. But in truth, as more and more shinobi clans and elite jōnin of Konoha chose to support Tsunade, he also understood that once the Hokage election began, he would most likely be defeated.
In the past, Hiruzen could at least count on support from the Daimyō, but now the Fire Country's Daimyō had already been frightened by Keizumi's methods, and it was impossible for him to risk offending Keizumi by supporting him.
"Old man!"
Just as Hiruzen was thinking about what forces he could still rally, the office door was kicked open.
"Jiraiya, have you decided to support me?"
Hiruzen covered the crystal ball and looked at the Jiraiya who had barged in.
"Uh…"
"Well…"
Hearing Hiruzen's words, Jiraiya awkwardly scratched his head.
Not long ago, he had come up with what he believed to be a perfect plan. Instinctively, he had come to the Hokage building to ask his sensei for approval—but had forgotten that the old man was also looking for him.
"I came to ask… if I could take a position at the Ninja Academy—as a teacher…"
Jiraiya mumbled vaguely, trying to brush it off before directly stating his purpose. As for the matter between his teacher and Tsunade, Jiraiya truly did not want to get involved at all.
No matter whom he supported, he felt he would inevitably offend the other. Rather than that, it was better to support neither.
"You want to be a teacher at the Ninja Academy?"
Hiruzen frowned after hearing Jiraiya's words, but Jiraiya's suggestion gave him an idea. Aside from the shinobi clans, there were quite a number of instructors at the Ninja Academy.
Moreover, Hiruzen was still the Academy's principal. Securing the Academy's support should not be too difficult, should it?
"Is it still for Naruto?"
Although Hiruzen was thinking about the Hokage election, he still saw through Jiraiya's intention at a glance.
Jiraiya intended to influence Naruto by becoming a teacher at the Academy.
"I didn't take Naruto out of Konoha, nor did I bring him to Mount Myōboku."
"Didn't the Slug Sage say Naruto should choose for himself?"
"If I become his teacher, that counts as fair competition, right?"
"If I can make Naruto give up absolute justice, you'd be happy to see that too, wouldn't you, old man?"
Jiraiya knew his little scheme couldn't be hidden from Hiruzen, and he had no intention of hiding it.
"Make Naruto give up absolute justice?"
"Can you really do that?"
Hiruzen fell silent for a moment, then looked at Jiraiya again.
He admitted that Jiraiya did have some ability in teaching—after all, the Fourth Hokage, Namikaze Minato, had been taught by him. But he did not quite believe Jiraiya could make Naruto abandon the idea of absolute justice.
"One has to try. If I don't try, how would I know it won't work?"
Jiraiya himself had no confidence either. But this was the only method he had. For the Child of Prophecy, he had roamed the shinobi world for so many years—now that the Child of Prophecy was right before him, he could not just stand by and do nothing.
In the end, Hiruzen still approved Jiraiya's request, allowing him to go directly to the Ninja Academy the next day.
Meanwhile, Keizumi of the Land of Water had already arrived at the capital. This time, however, Tachibana Jirō was no longer by his side—it remained in Kirigakure to maintain order.
"This country… has truly rotted from the inside out, hasn't it?"
"From this view, the number of evildoers is far greater than in the Fire Country's capital…"
In Keizumi's vision, nearly everything turned red. Especially within those estates, there were almost no individuals without red names—this meant that the number of evildoers in the capital of the Land of Water was beyond imagination.
At the same time Keizumi arrived at the capital, the Daimyō of the Land of Water had already learned of the upheaval in Kirigakure.
The scale of the battle there had been enormous, and Keizumi had not killed those who had committed no evil. Among them were surely spies—so the news spreading was only natural.
"What does the Fire Country mean by this? Sending a Konoha Uchiha to run rampant in our Land of Water?"
"Are they really not afraid of triggering a shinobi world war?!"
The Daimyō of the Land of Water spoke threatening words before the gathered nobles, but everyone could clearly see the fear in his eyes.
The events in the Fire Country's capital were no secret. He already knew that Konoha had produced a rabid dog that could not be tamed—one that had even bitten its own former Daimyō to death.
Previously, he had thought it was merely an internal affair of the Fire Country, even taking some schadenfreude from it. But he had never expected that same vicious dog to come to the Land of Water.
And with such brutal methods—directly flattening the Land of Water's shinobi village first!
Under such circumstances, how could the Daimyō not be afraid?
Gathering all the nobles of the Land of Water was, in truth, his attempt to band together—so that if Keizumi truly came, they would at least not be completely powerless to resist.
"Another war maniac!"
Just as the Daimyō's blustering voice fell, he saw the nobles before him staring in terror behind him.
And then, he heard that sentence.