On the official road leading to the Land of Fire, a luxurious carriage was traveling along the main highway.
"Rest assured, given my status, I truly don't believe the Third Hokage of Konohagakure would have the audacity to move against me!"
Dressed in extravagant clothes and reclining in the carriage with his head resting on Hancock's plump and soft thighs, Vegapunk spoke with full confidence.
"It doesn't matter. Even if that Konohagakure or the Third Hokage harbors ill intentions, I will protect you!"
Compared to Vegapunk, Hancock was even more confident, feeling that her current strength was unrivaled even in the One Piece World, let alone in this Naruto World where there was a serious power gap and Six Paths level experts had not appeared at all.
Sitting outside the carriage driving it, Uchiha Obito rolled his eyes. Hancock's strength, even just the tip of the iceberg, was enough to destroy all of Konoha. Having her protect Vegapunk from the Third Hokage—it sounded like a lion protecting a mastiff from a kitten. Was this not a bit of an overkill?
Besides, how could he forget? Vegapunk also held a series of titles, such as the Heir to the Land of Sea and the Special Envoy of the Land of Water and the Land of Wind. While this status might not be a huge deterrent to rogue Ninjas who had nothing to lose, the Great Ninja Villages wouldn't dare offend such a high-ranking noble.
"Hmm... actually, it's hard to say. I recall Konohagakure having someone named Danzo, ruthless and audacious. Even knowing Vegapunk's identity, he might still try something."
Obito tilted his head, thinking to himself.
As Vegapunk's influence over the overseas territories and the Land of Wind grew, much of the intelligence naturally couldn't be hidden anymore, even if they wanted to. Not to mention, given Vegapunk's own personality, he wouldn't bother hiding such things anyway.
In fact, if not for his deceptive age, information about him would have been on the desks of every major Ninja Village as soon as the Sea Ninja Village was established.
And with Vegapunk's abilities, even if the leaders of those Ninja Villages only knew the tip of the iceberg, they would likely both fear and covet this genius!
For some reason, Obito even hoped that Konohagakure would actually have some conflict with Vegapunk; it would be quite a show to watch.
After all, since he had hit a brick wall himself, Obito naturally hoped others would experience it too. Even in his current state, Obito still possessed this kind of schadenfreude.
Inside the carriage, besides Vegapunk and Hancock, there was a woman dressed in blue with long brown hair.
Although still young, she already exuded a mature charm. Her full figure traced seductive curves, and combined with the faint elegance on her face, she was a beauty with a mature, 'big sister' vibe to anyone who looked.
However, this beauty had a cautious expression on her face as she performed the duties of a servant. While massaging Vegapunk's feet, she said with some concern, "Konohagakure might not do anything openly, but they probably won't be so honest in the shadows."
"Hehe... isn't that even more interesting, Mei Terumī? When those guys hit a brick wall, they'll naturally behave."
"Besides, if they're going to pull some tricks in the dark, we aren't exactly honest people ourselves, are we? Not to mention our goal this time is Kakashi's Mangekyo Sharingan, and even for the next step of the plan, our target is the Land of Fire itself."
Hearing this, Mei Terumī was slightly stunned. "But Lord Vegapunk, for something like seizing the Sharingan, couldn't you just leave it to the one driving the carriage outside? As for the Land of Fire, I feel that with our current strength in the Land of Sea, we could completely occupy it, couldn't we?"
"That's not necessarily true..."
Vegapunk smiled slightly. "Don't take the other countries for fools. As far as I know, the Land of Earth, the Land of Lightning, and the Land of Fire seem to have reached some sort of tacit understanding."
The reason he felt these countries had a tacit understanding was that, according to Vegapunk's knowledge, the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning had already signed a peace treaty, and Hyuga Hizashi had not died—evidently, this time, Kumogakure hadn't pulled any tricks during the signing of the agreement.
To others in the Ninja World, this seemed perfectly normal. Only Vegapunk, who truly understood the original history, knew that this was bound to be because the growth of the Land of Sea and the Land of Wind had forced Kumogakure to change its strategy.
Kumogakure, which should have taken the opportunity to weaken Konoha Village—or at least extort them heavily—now likely preferred to ally with Konohagakure to counter the increasingly powerful Sea Ninja Village.
As a massive peninsula nation, the Land of Lightning was arguably the country that valued the ocean most after the Land of Sea. Whether it was shipbuilding, fishery development, or maritime trade, these were all key projects for the Land of Lightning.
However, over the years, with the unification, development, and growth of the Sea Country Alliance, the Land of Lightning's influence at sea had been suppressed more and more. Some small islands they originally controlled had all been annexed by the Land of Sea.
Most importantly, the disruption of maritime trade routes, along with the dumping of goods by the Land of Sea after its productivity and technology advanced, had caused the entire Land of Lightning's economy to fall into a state of stagnation.
The economic stagnation of the Land of Lightning naturally affected Kumogakure. Kumogakure might not know much about economic issues, but the Land of Lightning was a major power after all, and its technology and civil awareness had developed to a certain level. The high-ranking officials had their own think tanks and clearly understood why their country's predicament had arisen.
Influenced by the Land of Lightning and the increasing strength of the Sea Ninja Village, it was natural for Kumogakure to feel uneasy and seek an alliance with Konoha.
In fact, this situation wasn't limited to Kumogakure and the Land of Lightning; the situations for the Land of Fire and Konohagakure, as well as the Land of Earth and Iwagakure, were similar. It could be said that although the three countries hadn't officially allied yet, they had long since formed a certain tacit understanding.
"The three countries have already allied? That is indeed troublesome." Mei Terumī frowned, but she still had great confidence in the current Sea Ninja Village.
After the Ninja Village and the nation completely merged into a specialized state violence apparatus, the Sea Ninja Village also received military funding from the entire Sea Country Alliance. With sufficient money and resources, Vegapunk's technology could be fully converted into combat power. Today, the entire Sea Ninja Village could easily field over a thousand powerhouses at the Jonin level alone.
A thousand Jonin, plus twenty to thirty thousand Chunin-level cannon fodder—in Mei Terumī's mind, this was almost enough to rival the Ninjas of the entire continent.
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