Who is the enemy?
Terumi Mei thought for a moment and said:
"The Land of Water is next to the Land of Fire, so the most likely enemy is Konoha Village in the Land of Fire."
"However, the Third Hokage of Konoha, Sarutobi Hiruzen, is old and frail, and with Danzo's sudden death, Konoha has internal and external troubles, and is getting weaker, so it's not much to worry about."
"Iwagakure and Sunagakure Village.
The former Tsuchikage is also old, but more cunning and secretive than Sarutobi Hiruzen. Iwagakure is generally adopting a policy of shrinking, hiding its strength and building up its people. However, I haven't heard of any strong people in the new generation.
The latter, Sunagakure Village, is struggling with financial pressure, and puts more effort into how to make a living than into military equipment. Even the Kazekage has to dig for gold and sell Ninjutsu to get supplies.
These two don't really count as enemies."
Terumi Mei spoke eloquently and clearly. Kirigakure had just finished its internal troubles in the Village of Blood Mist, and everything was waiting to be rebuilt. What she was guarding against was external troubles. She had been carefully gathering information in advance, in case other ninja villages took advantage of the situation.
"Lastly, there's Kumogakure. Since the Fourth Raikage, Ai, came to power, he has been greatly expanding his military equipment. Also, the Land of Thunder and the Land of Water face each other across the sea, and are relatively close."
Expanding military equipment requires a lot of manpower and money, which is a very heavy investment for a village.
Any investment wants to get a return.
And for military expansion to bring a return, it must be achieved through the plunder of war.
Terumi Mei concluded: "If we're talking about enemies, the most likely one is Kumogakure."
Linto smiled and shook his head.
"Not right? Then is it Akatsuki, the masked man, or the new Daimyo of the Land of Water?"
Terumi Mei said: "It's said that the Daimyo's second son inherited the position of 'Daimyo', and there haven't been any new measures yet. But because you killed his father, he has to 'show' you something, or the Daimyo's dignity will be gone."
Linto still smiled and shook his head.
"That's not right either, and that's not right either."
Terumi Mei peeled off a segment of an orange and threw it at Linto with a displeased look: "What do you say it is?"
Linto took the orange and casually tossed it into his mouth.
"To explain this problem, we can't look at the present, we have to look at the past, at the ninja world hundreds of years ago... or rather, the ninja families."
"At that time, ninjas were organized in families and hired by Daimyos, nobles, and business groups, but it wasn't a stable employment relationship. Whoever paid helped whoever, running around and fighting all day, just to get food for their families."
"They were more like beggars than ninjas."
Terumi Mei nodded.
Before the ninja villages were established, it was the most chaotic and dark period for ninjas.
"Until Senju Hashirama appeared.
He was unbeatable throughout the world, uniting the scattered ninja families, letting the ninjas join together, and establishing the first village – Konoha."
"He let all the ninjas in the world know that life could be lived this way."
The others nodded slightly.
This wasn't a secret. The legend of Senju Hashirama was a story that almost every ninja village told to its children, and it was the starting point of each ninja village's history.
"The ninjas of the major countries followed suit and established ninja villages."
Linto said, "Then, Senju Hashirama distributed the tailed beasts. What do you think of this?"
Konan shook her head and said two words: "Naive."
Terumi Mei also said: "He was too confident. If he had kept all the tailed beasts in Konoha, Konoha would never have lost in the subsequent ninja wars."
Linto nodded and said: "That's right, but your conclusion is the result of reasoning backwards. I think, for Senju Hashirama at that time, he definitely had to distribute the tailed beasts."
Konan became interested: "Why?"
"It's not because there were villages that they got the tailed beasts, it's the opposite. It was precisely because they had the tailed beasts – this decisive battlefield deterrent – that the other four newly established ninja villages were able to stabilize in the form of 'villages', and not collapse under some small shocks."
At that time, Konoha had Senju Hashirama, an absolute backbone. The so-called backbone isn't just about being strong, it's also about the personal charm to gather heroes together.
The ninja villages outside of Konoha, even if they had many strong people inside, still focused on their families in the short term, when facing attacks, the Daimyo's money, or other sudden situations.
It was unavoidable that people's hearts would waver.
The tailed beasts would become the stabilizing force.
"In Senju Hashirama's view, the ninja villages were definitely not enemies, but comrades-in-arms working together to fight against the Daimyo. Senju Hashirama alone couldn't fight against the era at that time.
So, he distributed the tailed beasts in order to let the 'comrades' all over the world stand up, form ninja villages, and have the capital to negotiate with the Daimyo."
"With villages, ninjas no longer had to undercut each other, no longer had to endure the bullying of Daimyos, nobles, and business groups, and could live a little more...like a person."
The people in the room were silent for a long time before slowly nodding.
That's right, compared to the past, the living conditions of ninjas were indeed much better.
Many people even respected the Daimyo on the surface, but secretly, they treated the Daimyo as a silly ATM.
"But…"
Sasuke thought for a while and said: "Senju Hashirama was so powerful and respected by other ninja villages, why didn't he just overthrow all the Daimyos and unify the world himself?"
Linto had also considered this question. It was precisely because he had considered it that Linto was able to resist Danzo's Kotoamatsukami during his last trip to Konoha, and reject the other party's invitation to "great unification".
"Because of three reasons."
Linto held up three fingers:
"First of all, the ninjas at that time were just a group of ignorant people who only knew how to kill. If they overthrew the Daimyo and sat in that position, they would only make a mess of the country."
"Second, once ninjas took over, with the ninjas' knowledge and the social environment at that time, it would be fine for the first generation, but starting with the second and third generations, they would follow the old path of the Daimyos. Overthrowing one Daimyo would just mean that they became a new Daimyo, which would be meaningless."
"Third, a country only has so much wealth, and the pie is only so big. If ninjas went up and distributed the wealth to their ninja brothers and sisters, who would get less? The working officials? No, that's impossible, so they would only be able to squeeze more from the common people."
These were not what Senju Hashirama wanted.
Even less what Linto wanted.
So, faced with the temptation of "great unification", two men from different eras chose to refuse.
Terumi Mei sighed softly: "So... the only thing to do was to distribute the tailed beasts and establish villages."
With villages, ninjas could negotiate with the Daimyo, learn knowledge, have extra time to research technology, and have the opportunity to solve the three problems mentioned above little by little.
Konan crossed her arms: "But, Senju Hashirama eventually died, and his ideal also collapsed."
The ninja families disappeared, and ninja villages were established. Not only did this not reduce the war, but the scale of the war became even larger, and more and more civilians were hurt.
Linto nodded and took another sip of tea.
"Because the Daimyo, or rather the group of officials behind him, are not stupid. They know what the ninjas want to do, and they also know what means can be used to stop all of this from happening."
At this point, the topic shifted from the past back to the current ninja world.
"Our enemy is the Daimyo?" Terumi Mei asked.
"Yes, but not only them."
"Our enemy is the Daimyo, the group of officials behind them, the terrible rules that have maintained the world until now, the three problems mentioned above, and even more –"
Linto put his thumb on his chest.
"At some point in the future, we ourselves may be corrupted and assimilated by the rules of the world."
The others stared blankly at Linto, feeling an indescribable impulse surging up from the depths of their hearts. Rolling chimes echoed in their ears. After listening carefully for a while, they realized –
Where were there any chimes?
It was clearly their pounding heartbeats.
"Detected world shift, obtained 1000 Soul Shards..."
"Obtained 1 Ascension Star Core."
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