Chapter 81: ReformAs the saying goes, one does not hit a smiling face. Since the other party was so courteous, Konoha Village naturally could not be rude, especially since they still had not figured out the true purpose of the Hidden Cloud Village delegation's visit.When the Hidden Cloud Village envoy was about to leave, he finally revealed his true colors. He mentioned casually, "Oh, there is one thing I almost forgot. Look at my memory. The Raikage-sama specifically instructed me about this. I am glad I remembered.""Before I left the Village, the Raikage-sama said he wanted to have a friendly match with Konoha Village to spar. I wonder what the Hokage-samathinks about this?"Tsunade raised an eyebrow, knowing this was likely the face-saving exit the Raikage was looking for. She asked, "Oh? I am actually quite interested. What kind of match are you thinking of? Let's hear it."The envoy said, "It is like this. When the Fourth Raikage took office, he said that the Eight-TailsJinchuriki was not allowed to leave the Village for even a step. Therefore, as the closest companion to A, he has always been training at the Valley of Clouds and Lightning.""But after such a long time, we do not know how his training is going. Therefore, the Raikage-sama hopes to invite your Village's Nine-Tails Jinchurikito spar with him.""In return, after the match, we will take your Jinchuriki to the Waterfall of Truth to train. You must have heard of that place! It is the place every Jinchuriki dreams of."Although he spoke only of a match on the surface and even offered a very tempting condition, in reality, Kumogakure had set its sights on the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki again.To date, it is a fact that Konoha Village killed a Kumogakure Jonin, and it is also a fact that the other party's envoy was insulted a few days ago. The request raised by the other party was not actually excessive.Moreover, their attitude was so good that Konohaseemed to have no reason to refuse. But the problem was, who would really feel at ease letting Naruto go to the Land of Lightning? Especially since they had just had a conflict.Just as Tsunade was about to refuse the request directly, Shikaku, who was beside her, spoke up, "Haha, we can agree to your request, but it might take a while."The envoy asked in surprise, "Oh? Why is that? Could it be that your Nine-Tails Jinchuriki has run into a problem?"Shikaku explained calmly, "That is naturally not the case. You and I both know the importance of the Jinchuriki to the Village; we will certainly protect him well.""But he is too young right now. Even if he wanted to make progress in controlling the Tailed Beast, he would have to wait at least ten years.""When the time comes, we will definitely take him there in person. I just do not know if the Raikage-sama has enough patience to wait ten years."In fact, Kumogakure knew very well that Konohawould not easily let the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki leave the Village. The reason they said this was just to pass the buck, to give each other face, and to put an end to this matter.After hearing what Shikaku said, the Kumogakure envoy immediately expressed his full understanding. Without any bargaining, he directly agreed with his statement. Both sides agreed that in ten years, the Nine-Tailed would go to the Land of Lightning to spar with the Eight-Tails.This matter ended with Kumogakure losing one Jonin and one Chunin, coming to a temporary pause. However, the changes in Konoha Villagehad not stopped.Naruto had already decided to change the current landscape of the Ninja World. He wanted to integrate all forces through unification; only in this way could true peace be achieved.Looking at history, to achieve unification, one must improve one's own comprehensive strength. Before that, there were two very important steps: strengthening centralization and reform.And reform is not something that can be accomplished overnight; it often requires the efforts of several generations to be realized.The time Naruto has now is neither much nor little, so this matter must be added to the agenda in advance.A month later, Tsunade, as the Fifth Hokage of Konoha Village, summoned all the prominent clans in the Village for an internal meeting. The main target of this meeting was the Hyuga Clan.Konoha Village is composed of many clans, and there are not a few with hundreds of years of history. Once these clans become too powerful, they will invisibly pose a threat to the Village.Just like the Uchiha Clan before, although they have perished, there are still two clans that maintain a good scale: the Hyuga Clan and the Aburame Clan.It can be said that in these years, due to war, many clans in Konoha have declined significantly.The Senju Clan, the founders of the Village, is just like this. From what is known, only Tsunade and Robin remain. The once-large clan now only has two people left.Now that such a thing has happened, Naruto saw an opportunity to split the Hyuga Clan. The discord between their Branch House and Main House has already been brought to the table. It can be said that this is definitely a good opportunity.At the meeting, Tsunade did not discuss this directly but said, "Now, I want to establish two rules in the Village. One is that all people of Konoha are born equal, with no distinction between high and low status.""The other is that if there is any foreign invasion or provocation, there shall be no compromise or concession, especially no sacrificing one person to exchange for reconciliation.""We will erect a stone tablet outside the Hokageoffice and carve these two rules on it first. If we think of more later, we can add them. I just want everyone to know that the Konoha of today is different from before!"At this time, the other four high-level officials of Konoha were not present, so naturally, no one stood up to oppose this proposal. These two points also directly indicated the new Hokage's emphasis on the life of every person in the Village.But Hiashi knew that the content to be discussed in today's meeting was probably not just this one thing. He still remembered clearly what Tsunadehad said to him a month ago.Sure enough, after announcing this matter, Tsunade turned her gaze directly to Hiashi. She said, "Clan Leader Hiashi, I know that your family's Branch House and Main House is a very long-standing tradition.""But now it seems that there are many unreasonable aspects within it, and the hidden dangers must be clearer to you than to me.""The most critical thing is that now, this has a great conflict with the two contents I just announced. I think it is time for this old tradition to change. I wonder what you think?"
