When Mei Terumi finished speaking, she felt utterly drained. Then came an indescribable dread and unease. By saying those words, she had placed herself in opposition to every wealthy merchant and noble in the Land of Water-even the Daimyo himself.
Uchiha Chisen had yet to say anything, but Genji already felt the world spinning around him. He almost wished he could faint on the spot.
As an elder who had founded Kirigakure alongside the First Mizukage, Genji had lived among the Land of Water's countless islands for nearly a century. He knew only too well what its wealthy merchants, nobles, and even its Daimyo were like.
If Uchiha Chisen swept through the entire Land of Water the way he had dealt with the Kirigakure Ninja, the wealthy merchants and nobles who survived could probably be counted on one hand.
"Sir, you mustn't!" Disregarding the fearsome reputation Uchiha Chisen had just carved out through slaughter, Genji pleaded in a trembling voice, "The Land of Water lies overseas. All travel and trade depend on seafaring merchants, and its countless islands rely on the nobles and the Daimyo to govern them. You cannot-"
Genji could even endure the "atrocity" of Uchiha Chisen's massacre in Kirigakure, but he could not stand by and watch him use the same methods against those powerful figures.
To put it bluntly, Ninja were merely expendable resources. Even if Uchiha Chisen's slaughter had crippled Kirigakure, it would recover sooner or later, so long as those powerful figures continued to support it.
But if Uchiha Chisen killed all the village's "backers"-
"Cannot what?" Uchiha Chisen merely gave Genji a calm look, yet it sent a chill through the revered elder. "Are you saying that because those wealthy merchants monopolize maritime transport, and because those nobles and the Daimyo rule the