"You can go do the missions. There's nothing wrong with staying alive."
After a moment of silence, Uchiha Chizumi slowly nodded. He knew very well that if a ninja village no longer had missions, it would lose its source of income—and the remaining Kirigakure shinobi might end up causing even greater evils instead.
"Yes!"
Hearing his answer, Mei Terumi finally let out a breath of relief.
Although Kirigakure's shinobi had been reduced to barely a tenth of their former number, Mei felt that given enough time, the village could still recover a fair amount of its strength. And since Kirigakure was isolated overseas, it still wouldn't fall from its position as a great ninja village any time soon.
"Next… the capital of the Land of Water."
"If we want to spread justice as quickly as possible, the best way is to sweep through the entire Land of Water first, then establish laws and order based on justice, so that justice can truly take root in this land."
…
Konoha.
"So even Kakashi has chosen to support Tsunade?"
Inside the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi turned his gaze away from the crystal ball. Deep exhaustion was written all over his face, and even his eyes couldn't help showing a trace of confusion.
After all, he believed he had done right by Kakashi.
And yet now, even Kakashi was supporting Tsunade…
The confusion on Hiruzen's face only flashed by for a moment before it hardened back into resolve.
"I was not wrong!"
"Absolute Justice is too extreme. They may think it's good now, but justice taken to the absolute ignores human emotion!"
"And besides, if a ninja village wants to grow and prosper, it's impossible for everything everyone does to be just!"
Hiruzen drew on his pipe, murmuring softly as though trying to convince himself. But the truth was, as more and more of Konoha's clans and elite jōnin chose to support Tsunade, he also knew that if a Hokage election were held, he would most likely lose.
In the past, Hiruzen could at least count on support from the daimyo. But now, the Fire Daimyo had long since been frightened by Uchiha Chizumi's methods and would never dare offend him by backing Hiruzen.
"Old man!"
Just as Hiruzen was thinking about what other forces he could still try to win over, the office door was kicked open.
"Jiraiya. Have you finally decided to support me?"
Hiruzen covered the crystal ball and looked at Jiraiya, who had just barged in.
"Uh…"
"Well…"
Hearing that, Jiraiya awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
Not long ago, he had come up with what he considered a perfect plan, and had reflexively run to the Hokage building to get his teacher, Hiruzen, to sign off on it—only to forget that the old man was also looking for him.
"I came to ask whether you could let me work at the Ninja Academy. As a teacher…"
Jiraiya mumbled a vague excuse, trying to muddle through it before bluntly stating what he wanted. When it came to the matter between his teacher and Tsunade, he genuinely wanted no part in it at all.
Whichever one he supported, he felt certain he'd offend the other. Better to support neither.
"You want to teach at the Ninja Academy?"
Hiruzen frowned at Jiraiya's request, but at the same time, Jiraiya's words reminded him of something. Aside from the ninja clans, Konoha also had plenty of shinobi instructors at the Academy.
And Hiruzen was still the Academy's principal. Getting the Academy's support shouldn't be too hard, should it?
"This is about Naruto again, isn't it?"
Even while thinking about the coming Hokage vote, Hiruzen saw through Jiraiya's intentions at a glance.
Jiraiya was planning to influence Naruto by becoming one of his teachers at the Academy.
"I didn't take Naruto out of Konoha, and I didn't take him to Mount Myōboku."
"Didn't the Slug Sage say Naruto should be allowed to choose for himself?"
"If I become Naruto's teacher, that still counts as fair competition, right?"
"And if I can get Naruto to abandon Absolute Justice, you'd want to see that too, wouldn't you, old man?"
Jiraiya knew perfectly well that his little scheme wouldn't fool Hiruzen, and he hadn't intended to hide it anyway.
"Get Naruto to abandon Absolute Justice?"
"You really think you can do that?"
Hiruzen fell silent for a moment, then looked at Jiraiya again.
He admitted that Jiraiya might actually have some talent when it came to teaching students—after all, the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, had been trained by him. But Hiruzen wasn't convinced Jiraiya could make Naruto give up the ideals of Absolute Justice.
"You have to at least try. If you don't try, how do you know it won't work?"
Jiraiya didn't have any real confidence either. But this was the only option he had left. He had spent so many years wandering the shinobi world in search of the Child of Prophecy, and now that the prophesied child was finally right in front of him, there was no way he could just do nothing.
In the end, Hiruzen still signed the approval slip for Jiraiya, allowing him to go directly to the Ninja Academy the next day.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Uchiha Chizumi had already arrived in the capital of the Land of Water. This time, however, Kitsujiro was no longer with him—it had to stay behind in Kirigakure to maintain order.
"So this country really has rotted through from the inside out…"
"From here alone, there are far more evildoers than in the capital of the Land of Fire…"
In Uchiha Chizumi's field of vision, almost everything had turned red. Especially in those mansions, there were barely any people without red names above their heads. That meant the number of evil people in the capital of the Land of Water was beyond imagination.
And just as Uchiha Chizumi arrived in the capital, the daimyo of the Land of Water had already learned what had happened in Kirigakure.
The battle there had been far too massive. And since Uchiha Chizumi hadn't killed those who hadn't committed evil, there were naturally bound to be a few spies among them. It was only natural that the news would spread.
"What is the Land of Fire trying to pull? Sending a Uchiha ninja from Konoha to run wild in our Land of Water?"
"Do they really not fear another shinobi war breaking out?"
The daimyo of the Land of Water looked at the gathered nobles before him, speaking in threatening tones—but everyone could clearly see the fear in his eyes.
What had happened in the capital of the Land of Fire was no secret. The daimyo of the Land of Water had long known that Konoha had produced an untamable mad dog—one that had even bitten the former Fire Daimyo to death.
At the time, he had thought that was just the Land of Fire's internal affair. In fact, after seeing what happened there, he had even secretly gloated over it.
But no matter how much he imagined, he had never expected that same mad dog from the Land of Fire to come to the Land of Water.
And with methods that brutal, no less—he had gone straight in and flattened the Land of Water's ninja village first.
Under those circumstances, how could the Land of Water's daimyo not be afraid?
He had gathered all the nobles of the Land of Water together precisely because he wanted them to band together. At the very least, if that Uchiha Chizumi really did come, they wouldn't be left entirely unable to resist.
"Another war-crazed lunatic!"
The moment the daimyo's blustering words fell, he saw the nobles in front of him staring past him in terror.
And then he heard that sentence.