The Dragon Vein Development Plan was approved

The Fourth Raikage was convinced, but he still persisted in researching a weapon that could kill the Fifth Hokage.

Meanwhile, in Iwagakure, the Iwagakure in the Land of Earth, the Third Tsuchikage was completely out of commission, because his beloved student had run away again.

As Ninja eldest of the Five Kage —no, the Four Kage —his sensitivity to aura was no less than that of the Fourth Raikage, and he also had more direct experience with it.

In his youth, he had personally witnessed Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju their peak and felt their aura as vast as the heavens.

Just like the Fifth Hokage Shazo, when he was intercepted by Black Zetsu, and how he reacted with shock----

In that instant, Ōnoki's psychological trauma, hidden for 50 years, was suddenly brought to the surface, nearly giving him a heart attack.

Although he did not suffer cardiac arrest, his hands and feet were numb, and he fell directly off the flying rocks.

If Deidara hadn't reacted quickly and created a giant clay bird to catch him, Iwagakure would have had a new Fourth Tsuchikage in charge.

What Ōnoki didn't expect was that after he told Deidara about the Fifth Hokage's terror, Deidara actually chose to run away from home again.

Before running away, the Golden-Haired retriever said, "Old man, you have absolutely no chance of defeating the Fifth Hokage. I'm going to follow a powerful Ninja who can beat him."

"I, Deidara, will never follow behind a loser!"

The word "loser" completely broke the Third Tsuchikage, Ōnoki. He collapsed, his vision blurred, and unfortunately twisted his back in the fall, leaving him groaning in pain in the hospital.

Before he could even catch his breath, the Fifth Hokage's reprimand letter arrived in front of him, nearly making the old man's blood vessels explode with anger.

The old man shouted the order, "Assemble the Explosion Corps! Recall Roshi! I'm going to fight Konoha to the death!!"

Then, the veins on his forehead really burst, and blood gushed out.

The ruptured blood vessel rendered the Third Tsuchikage completely incapacitated, but it also lowered his intracranial pressure, restoring his mental clarity.

When his son, Kitsuchi, came to him listlessly and asked, "Third Tsuchikage, the Iwagakure Explosion Corps has assembled. When will they launch an attack on Konoha?"

Ōnoki smiled in disappointment, "Kitsuchi, if only you had stopped me earlier, even if you hadn't done anything after going out. You really aren't suited to be the Tsuchikage."

"Let them all disperse."

Kitsuchi was completely bewildered. "Aren't we going to fight anymore?"

Ōnoki sighed, "What's the point of fighting? It's just courting death."

"I am the Tsuchikage. My duty is to protect Iwagakure, not to let Iwagakure be destroyed for my sake."

Kitsuchi gave a muffled "Oh," and left.

The Third Tsuchikage rolled his eyes in anger; he'd had enough of this stupid son.

With Ōnoki backing down, the Iwagakure Ninja, however unwilling, had no choice but to accept reality.

When Momochi Zabuza returned to Kirigakure with the only Genin squad, he told Genji and Mei Terumi everything, and finally suggested, "For the sake of Kirigakure, let Mei Terumi become the Fifth Mizukage."

Genji asked with a mixture of satisfaction and curiosity, "Zabuza, why did you recommend Mei Terumi?"

Momochi Zabuza said, "I went to Konoha and witnessed firsthand its strength and prosperity, as well as the power, tyranny, and treachery of the Fifth Hokage Konoha."

"The Fifth Hokage's Konoha is now overwhelmingly powerful, far too strong. Even if the Four Great Ninja Villages joined forces, they couldn't possibly defeat Konoha."

"Whoever becomes the Fifth Mizukage is destined to be a punching bag, and their most important task is to maintain good diplomatic relations with Konoha."

Zabuza pointed to his triangular eyes and sneered, "Judging from my appearance, I have no friendliness whatsoever, and I'm not the kind of person who can swallow my pride."

"My becoming the Fifth Mizukage will only bring more harm to Kirigakure, not more help."

"So, it's settled then."

Genji breathed a long sigh of relief and nodded, saying, "That's what I was thinking too, so it's settled then."

"Mei Terumi, you will be the Fifth Mizukage."

Mei Terumi rolled her eyes. "Fine, I'll be the Fifth Mizukage, the one who gets bullied. You know I can still give orders to the two of you."

The Fifth Hokage Shazo, through a series of clever maneuvers, used his own version of the "Konoha Crush Plan" to completely subdue Sunagakure and gain control of a nearly uninhabited area.

He exploited the Joint Chunin Ninja Exams plan, which was a serious humiliation for the Four Great Ninja Villages.

However, under Shazo's strong suppression, none of the Four Great Ninja Villages expressed dissatisfaction; on the contrary, considerable controversy arose within Konoha.

Many Konoha Ninja believe that the Fifth Hokage made a mistake, ruining the large-scale event he had organized without bringing any real benefit to the Konoha.

--

Some Ninja even believed that the Fifth Hokage's behavior was extremely rude, severely damaging Konoha's reputation and the Fifth Hokage's credibility.

Shazo paid no attention to these rumors circulating among the villagers and low- to mid-level Ninja.

This wasn't because Shazo Zuo was mature, determined, and unaffected by others' opinions, but because these words and people didn't align with his thoughts; they weren't topics they truly cared about, so they were undoubtedly rumors spread by others.

If one day the villagers start discussing how high prices are and how hard it is to find work, and the lower-ranking Ninja complain about how few missions there are and how their income is not enough to support their families, Shazo will definitely be terrified and break out in a cold sweat.

He would jump for joy, immediately convene relevant departments to launch a major investigation, and adjust the village's policies in the shortest possible time.

Similarly, when the Konoha Sannin, the 15 Department Head, and the two former Hokage all raised objections, Shazo could not ignore them.

Orochimaru, who was involved in and presided over the entire "Konoha Crush Plan," deserves a clear explanation for his doubts.

Therefore, Shazo specially convened Jonin Meeting from Konoha to explain the purpose of this incident to the Konoha's leadership and inform them of Konoha's specific gains.

Orochimaru was equally unconcerned about the rumors and the damage to the Fifth Hokage's reputation, because he dismissed them as utter nonsense.

Do the Third Tsuchikage and the Fourth Raikage really have credibility?

Does the Fourth Kazekage, who twice betrayed Konoha while acting as an ally, have any integrity?

The Fifth Hokage did not actively attack other ninja villages this time; he merely staged a scene with Orochimaru in Konoha. As a result, the Fourth Kazekage disregarded their status as allies and launched an assassination attempt against the Fifth Hokage.

The Fifth Hokage detected the betrayal in his ally and preemptively eliminated the danger to Konoha. Where did he go wrong?

If nothing was wrong, why was their reputation damaged?

Orochimaru's explanation and rhetorical question made Jiraiya and Tsunade Satori. Jiraiya laughed awkwardly, "Haha, I knew something felt off. I never imagined what kind of reputation the Fifth Hokage had lost. It turns out it was a reputation that could only be used for passive defense."

Shazo sneered, "Oh dear, if we don't teach them a lesson for a while, they'll start getting cocky and daring to cause trouble!"

"It's only been a year since we conquered a certain ninja village, and these bastards in the village dare to apply the Third Hokage's governing philosophy to me, and then criticize me for not acting like the Third Hokage."

The root of the problem lies within Konoha, which is within Shazo's next strike range, so he doesn't plan to act prematurely.

However, the spread of rumors was not solely due to the opposition Ninja. Indeed, many Konoha and Ninja had high moral standards and believed that the Fifth Hokage's actions were not entirely aboveboard.

Shazo was helpless and could only let them say whatever they wanted.

In political and sociological theories, there is a concept of 5%, which means that in a normal society, there must be two groups of people with high and low moral standards, and the minimum limit is 5%.

Under normal circumstances, without intervention, the number of people with high moral standards will always decrease, but once it falls below 5%, there will be a catastrophic collapse of society, and social order will cease to exist.

However, if the intervention is too drastic, aiming to reduce the number of people with low moral standards to 5% or even eliminate them all, it will inevitably lead to social rigidity and moral hypocrisy, and will also cause the collapse of social order.

In any case, for the Fifth Hokage, whose prestige was at its peak, this small injury was completely bearable, so he let it go and did not intend to make any public explanation.

This is one of the reasons why Shazo only launched the operation to seize Rōran after he had Hokage for two years and gained sufficient prestige.

Because he knew that the true value of Rōran could not be made public, he preferred that people say that taking Rōran was a disastrous and unprofitable operation.

However, the core Ninja of Konoha were aware of this, because Shazo needed Konoha Ninja to research the Dragon Vein and decipher the secrets of time.

When Shazo revealed the information about the Dragon Vein to the 20 Jonin Konoha, it immediately caused a stir.

Orochimaru's eyes widened, and he excitedly confirmed, "The Dragon Vein can jump through time?"

Shazo replied, "Based on the intelligence we've gathered so far, quite a few people have unintentionally jumped through time, but we haven't noticed any unusual changes in the time we're in."

Therefore, I believe it's more likely that the jump occurred to a point in time within Parallel Universe, rather than to a point in the past within the current timeline.

Orochimaru was even more excited. "That's even better! Parallel worlds are even more valuable!"

"Fifth Hokage, I misunderstood you. The value of the Konoha Crush Plan ' is simply too great; it's the most successful operation plan in Konoha in the last two years!"

"Time, parallel worlds, spacetime networks—this is just too amazing!"

In reality, apart from Orochimaru, none of the Jonin members of Konoha understood the value of the Dragon Vein.

But in the past two years, Orochimaru has proven his authority in research, and the Konoha Jonin have come to trust his judgment and recognize the value of Rōran.

Shibi Aburame asked, "Are there any special circumstances we need to be aware of when developing and researching Dragon Vein?"

Shazo replied, "Dragon Vein are a new concept for our Konoha. Before we begin any specific research, the most important thing we need to do is maintain secrecy."

Shikaku Nara, recently transferred to the Finance Department, asked a question that concerned him, "Will research on Dragon Vein incur particularly large expenditures?"

Shazo looked at everyone and said, "Everyone, please share your thoughts and report them to Department Head Nara Clan for evaluation."

Shibi Aburame spoke first, "The Dragon Vein is in Rōran. According to intelligence, Rōran was destroyed more than ten years ago, but the specific reason for its destruction is uncertain. I guess it was related to water scarcity."

"Therefore, we need to build a water supply system in the desert, and this project will definitely be very expensive."

Kakashi Hatake said, "I fought in the Land of Wind for a period of time, and the sandstorms there left a deep impression on me; the weathering was extremely severe."

"We'd better build the structures to fortress specifications, and then there's the cost of transporting supplies to the no-man's-land."

Orochimaru chuckled and said, "Time is a realm I've never ventured into before; everything must start from scratch."

"Designing and manufacturing related research equipment will consume a lot of resources, and the expenses will definitely be outrageous."

The Konoha Jonin all spoke up, proposing various expenses according to their own understanding. Shikaku Nara compiled and calculated these, ultimately arriving at a preliminary estimate of the required funding.

The sheer amount of money spent on developing the Dragon Vein astonished everyone present, but Shikaku Nara, who was in charge of finances and was used to large sums of money, remained remarkably calm.

Shazo Zuo asked, "Department Head Nara Clan, does the village have that much money?"

Shikaku Nara replied without changing his expression, "Fifth Hokage, the village currently has sufficient funds and can fully afford it."

"Spending such a large sum of money is completely beyond my authority as Department Head."

Shazo laughed and said, "It's alright. All the Jonin the Review Council are here today, so let's raise our hands and vote."

After understanding the value of the Dragon Vein, the Konoha Jonin naturally voted unanimously in favor of the Dragon Vein Development Project.

If parallel worlds could be connected through the Dragon Vein, it would be equivalent to Konoha having access to endless resources.

If Shazo were to discover the power of time through the Dragon Vein, he would dare to speak loudly to anyone, and wouldn't need to care about figures like Hagoromo Otsutsuki or Kaguya Otsutsuki.

Shazo then suggested, "Judging from the current situation, Konoha's income is growing rapidly, far exceeding my expectations."

"But this means that the previously established restrictions are no longer suitable for the current situation; a project's investment scale may be within acceptable limits, yet it has far exceeded the Finance Department's authority."

This is a very unreasonable situation!

"Therefore, I suggest increasing the finance Department Head's authority tenfold, temporarily."

The Konoha Jonin all nodded in agreement with the Fifth Hokage's proposal.

They were all shocked by the village's wealth. In comparison, Nara Clan's Department Head was far too limited. It was like Konoha possessing a huge reservoir but only being able to irrigate it through a single tap – a huge inconvenience.

The vote to increase authority also passed unanimously.

Shikaku Nara's power had increased dramatically, and he was naturally very satisfied with it.

Shazo was also extremely happy because the amount of work that he had to approve had been reduced by more than half.