No one could say what position the Hidden Leaf Village would find itself in if another war broke out in the shinobi world.
If the Hidden Leaf Village became the target of another joint assault, it would certainly have a rough time.
Although the Hidden Leaf Village was now extremely powerful, its numbers could not possibly match those of several other villages combined.
Still, none of them intended to defy the daimyo's orders.
After all, ninja were a band of mercenaries, and the daimyo was their employer.
As for the daimyo's fear that the Hidden Leaf Village would rebel, he was simply overthinking things.
First, ninja knew nothing about governing a country. Second, if there were benefits they wanted to obtain, they could simply use force to "negotiate."
There was no need to rebel.
Or rather, they had never even considered rebellion in the first place-not even Kirigakure.
They had supported one of the daimyo's children in becoming the new daimyo of the Land of Water, rather than taking control themselves.
That was because a ninja village was like a country's army, and managing an army was not the same as governing a country.
This time, however, the target the daimyo had ordered them to attack was Kirigakure.
That put them in a difficult position. Kirigakure lay across the sea.
Not only would they have to cross the ocean to reach Kirigakure, but once they arrived, they would face a host of Kirigakure Ninja who held the advantage at sea and were all exceptionally skilled at Water Release.
At that moment, everyone in the meeting room turned their gaze toward Uchiha Fugaku.
During the previous war in the shinobi world, it had been the Uchiha who fought those ninja from Kirigakure.
Shisui Uchiha, a member of their clan, had made