"Everyone saw what happened with the Small Nations Alliance, didn't they? The people we propped up challenged us over power and profit. Though we held the advantage in that war, quite a few people still died because of it."
"And haven't Konoha and the Land of Fire broken enough rules already?"
"Or do you think I, Uchiha Ronglin, am someone who rigidly follows convention?"
"Uh..."
The string of questions left quite a few people dumbfounded.
Indeed, it might have been possible for someone else to follow the rules, but Ronglin was basically hopeless in that regard.
Ever since he had risen to power, pushed out Uchiha Fugaku, and become the Uchiha Clan Head, he had carried out all manner of reforms and broken all kinds of rules. Then he became Konoha's Fourth Hokage, and Konoha underwent earth-shaking changes.
He did things that had once seemed impossible and shattered rules that others had never even dared imagine.
Now, he had even eliminated the Daimyo, placing the entire Land of Fire directly under Konoha's control.
What left everyone even more speechless was that Konoha had not declined because of it. Instead, it had flourished, growing stronger by the day, leaving no room to question whether Ronglin's methods were wrong.
Sometimes, rules existed to be broken—the prerequisite was that someone had the courage to do it.
Therefore, when they learned that Ronglin wanted to annex the entire Land of Rain, the high-ranking officials in the conference room were not shocked. Their first reaction was to weigh the gains and losses, to consider whether it was worth doing. If people from the other villages found out, they would definitely shout:
"The higher-ups of Konoha are all a bunch of lunatics!!!"
Ronglin had done too many things that shocked them, and every one of them