Demagoguery

Demagoguery

"Cough, cough. You did the right thing. If we kept fighting, we would definitely lose—and lose at the hands of our own people."

Inside Sunagakure Hospital, the Second Kazekage, Lord Sāmon, who had just awakened, spoke calmly to Yunqing.

They of Sunagakure had already gained enough from the Second Ninja World War this time. Withdrawing now did not matter.

"Heh, I thought you would blame me—blame me for not giving it my all."

Tilting his head, Yunqing smiled.

"I won't. Starting the war was my idea. Besides, without you, we would have lost even more badly."

As the successor to the First Kazekage, Sāmon was not particularly strong. At most, he had reached Kage-level.

What he truly excelled at was research. Sunagakure had no great bloodline clans, so by studying Shukaku's power, Sāmon had acquired Magnet Release and greatly advanced the study of Puppet Technique.

Sāmon had forcefully raised Sunagakure's strength by a whole level.

With such achievements, once Sāmon had left the battlefield and calmed down, he naturally figured certain things out.

Why had Iwagakure's main forces appeared on the battlefield? Why had Konoha's middle-aged, young, and junior generations all gathered in one place? Why had Sunagakure's supplies suddenly dwindled?

All these questions had emerged during the same period: when Yunqing had single-handedly crushed a force of a thousand and suppressed Iwagakure's vanguard troops on his own.

"Yeah, without me, Sunagakure would have lost even more miserably."

Yunqing replied without the slightest courtesy, leaving Sāmon with dark lines across his face.

This kid really did not know how to hold a conversation.

Sāmon inwardly raged.

Looking up at the sky, Yunqing thought of Sunagakure's strength during this period in the original story and sighed inwardly. All he could say was that it was too miserable.

It was not that Sunagakure was overly aggressive. Life there was simply too hard.

"You should focus on recovering first. Afterward, we'll still need you to continue contributing."

With a slight sigh, Yunqing comforted him.

"I understand. Only after sitting in that position do you understand more things."

Sāmon did not struggle or play hard to get in an attempt to seek greater power.

Any place where people could fight over power and profit had to be peaceful and full of confidence in itself.

Sunagakure was not like that. Its harsh and impoverished life had destined its people not to have such thoughts of vying for power and profit.

Life was already difficult enough. If they still had to fight for power and profit, how could they go on living?

So Sāmon agreed without a second thought. He knew Yunqing needed him.

Only after sitting in that position would one realize just how many things had to be done.

It was still the same Round Table meeting room. Neither the people nor the furnishings had changed much, except that there were a few more people.

"Come on, everyone, tell me what we should do. The situation is already right in front of us."

Yunqing looked at the others with a smiling face, waiting for them to speak.

"I think we should repair our relationship with the Daimyo. We have too few missions now. We simply cannot support so many ninjas."

An elder spoke hesitantly. Seeing that no one objected, he continued, "Especially now that many frontline ninjas have returned. We have no way to settle them."

"That's right, Lord Kazekage. That is what we think as well."

Many others spoke up in succession.

Most of them wanted to repair relations with the Daimyo.

"Suke, tell us what you think."

Having expected this, Yunqing sighed inwardly.

At Yunqing's signal, Suke immediately stood up. "Lord Kazekage, we gained no small amount of spoils from this war. Food, supplies, and money—we will not lack them in the short term. We absolutely cannot compromise with the Daimyo."

Over the next stretch of time, the young ninjas and border ninjas represented by Suke, along with the older generation of ninjas represented by the Council of Elders, launched into a heated argument.

Both sides held firmly to their own positions, and neither could convince the other.

"Lord Kazekage, make the decision."

In the end, both sides turned their attention to Yunqing.

"Enough. Let's leave this matter here. If we keep arguing like this, when will it end? We are all from the same village. We may differ in our beliefs, but we all want what is best for the village."

Yunqing rose to his feet, putting on an expression of deep anguish.

"Let's leave this matter as it is for now and consider it again later. First, I will announce several decisions."

Without giving anyone time to react, Yunqing continued, "First, we will establish a hospital, with Elder Chiyo in charge. Second, we will establish a Research Department, with Lord Sāmon in charge. Third, Suke will command all border ninjas. Fourth, Elder Ebizo will be fully responsible for assisting me in handling government affairs.

My lords, do you have any objections?"

Yunqing's smiling face did not seem intimidating in the slightest, yet no one present wished to object.

Sunagakure only had a few big shots to begin with, and they all stood on your side. How were we supposed to argue back?

Chiyo, Sāmon, and Ebizo were not Suke. They dared to confront Suke because he was young. Those three were all old foxes who had lived for a thousand years; no one could pull tricks in front of them.

"Ruthless. It seemed you truly had no intention of reconciling with the Daimyo."

Atop the Sunagakure building, Sāmon spoke with a sigh.

"Reconcile? How were we supposed to reconcile? He stabbed us in the back, cut our supplies, reduced our mission volume, and colluded with Konoha and Iwagakure.

Which one of those could be easily forgiven? We have money and supplies now. We can develop on our own."

Yunqing chuckled, his tone filled with disdain.

We possessed supernatural abilities. We could easily destroy a country, so why should we submit to ordinary people?

To be honest, Yunqing was certain that if he had lived in the Warring States era, he would definitely have chosen to build a nation centered around shinobi rather than cooperate with ordinary people to establish some one-country, one-village system, isolating shinobi as a supernatural profession and subjecting them to the law of the jungle.

"What about the Five Great Nations agreement?"

Sāmon asked gravely.

"Don't worry. Agreements exist to be broken and invalidated. As long as we handle things properly and possess enough deterrent power, the other shinobi villages will not interfere with us. Who knew? They might even thank us for opening up an entirely new path for them."

Yunqing's words boomed like thunder beside Sāmon's ears.

Sāmon was no fool. Having lived through the era of war, he understood deeply how the one-country, one-village system had come to be.

Hashirama Senju had forcibly carved it out through his own strength.

If Hashirama Senju had not been overwhelmingly powerful, those Heroes who founded shinobi villages would have chosen to conquer the world.

"Better to be cautious. The thing you asked me to research has already shown some promise. I'll make it as soon as possible."

After giving it some thought, Sāmon felt that Yunqing's approach might not necessarily be wrong. As long as they were strong enough, none of it would be a problem.

"Keep at it, Lord Sāmon. The era is forged in our hands. Only hard work can make us rich."

Yunqing raised his head to look at the sky and did his best to tempt him.