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Before Shirozumi set everyone straight, they had all thought more or less the same way as Itachi.

They believed the Daimyo controlled the economy, the Kage controlled the military, and the shinobi villages depended on the Daimyo's funding.

In truth, the so-called Daimyo were all a bunch of bullies who picked on the weak and feared the strong.

The Raikage of Kumogakure was forceful and often ignored the Daimyo's opinions.

The Kazekage of Sunagakure was weak, which led to their funding being cut again and again.

The Daimyo of the Land of Fire was something else. When faced with someone forceful like Danzo, he cowered like a pig.

When faced with someone naive like Naruto, he started making friends.

And when faced with someone who lacked Shikamaru's strength, influence, and reputation, he immediately turned the tables, throwing his weight around and using his status to suppress him.

So Shirozumi's assessment was spot-on: the Daimyo system was an outdated and harmful custom, and the Daimyo were parasites sucking the life out of their countries.

If people from the Five Great Shinobi Villages heard Shirozumi's words, even those from Kumogakure, which had a poor relationship with its Daimyo, would consider them outrageous.

But everyone around him now was a Rogue Ninja, their thinking unconstrained.

"No problem. Zabuza, you really are better suited to assassinating the Daimyo with Kisame. You've already tried to assassinate a Mizukage, so one more charge won't make a difference.

"It'll also save you from ending up like the previous owner of Kubikiribōchō, swinging your sword at a Tailed Beast Bomb."

Shirozumi agreed with Zabuza, but...

"You've got a real venomous tongue. Say, is that how Jūzō died? He really had guts."

Zabuza's mouth twitched.

Swinging a sword at a Tailed Beast Bomb? What kind of terrifying move was that?

"Jūzō Biwa was my previous partner. We faced the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, back then. He died there."

Uchiha Itachi chimed in.

Mentioning Jūzō brought back memories for Itachi.

It was during that mission that he awakened and mastered Amaterasu.

~

They arrived at the bridge in the Land of Waves.

Gato and his huge group of mercenaries had been lying in wait there for quite some time.

"That bastard probably wants to watch me and the escorting shinobi wear each other down, then kill me here, right?

"If you guys hadn't shown up, Kisame, he might've actually pulled it off. What a bastard!"

Zabuza took in the scene on the bridge and grinned.

"Mr. Zabuza, you're injured. Leave them to me."

Haku raised the hand holding three Senbon and stepped forward.

"Haku's strong enough to handle this trash. You guys watch—"

Zabuza looked toward Shirozumi and the others.

"Let me try my hand at it. After all, I'm still a Pure White Youth who's never killed anyone."

Shirozumi shook his head.

"Oh? Then you do need some harmless enemies to practice on."

Kisame sounded surprised, then agreed.

"Never killed anyone? It seems the Shinobi World may enjoy quite a long period of peace in the future."

Uchiha Itachi smiled faintly.

"Or maybe he just isn't qualified to fight a real enemy. Even a Kage is just a slab of meat on the chopping board. If he can barely injure an enemy, how could he kill one?"

Shirozumi challenged Itachi's claim.

In the original timeline, the peace that lasted less than twenty years after Naruto and Sasuke's battle had come at a cost.

The two of them had deliberately concealed the threat posed by the Ōtsutsuki Clan, giving the Shinobi World a chance to let its guard down.

The price was that when the Ōtsutsuki attacked twenty years later, the Shinobi World was completely unprepared.

That was mainly because the two of them had been too confident and hadn't understood the Ōtsutsuki's true strength.

The Shinobi World seemed to be making rapid technological advances, developing things like Scientific Ninja Tools, but in reality it was still being held back.

All of Orochimaru's research had to be monitored and reviewed by Konoha, while Kabuto Yakushi had simply become the director of an orphanage.

The two top researchers were being restrained.

Speaking of Kabuto Yakushi in the future—

He was one of the few people Shirozumi had known back when he was in Konoha.

"Want to borrow my sword?"

Zabuza asked.

"No. I'm not like you. I'm not some bloodthirsty killer."

Shirozumi refused.

Zabuza laughed and was about to say something when he realized Shirozumi had vanished.

He turned around to see the mercenaries Gato had led falling into chaos.

Shirozumi had appeared behind Gato at some point. He punched straight through Gato's chest, then tossed him aside like a piece of trash.

"You call that not being bloodthirsty? And you call that your first time killing someone?"

Zabuza was speechless.

Even he, a man from the Village of the Bloody Mist, hadn't been so decisive and brutal the first time he killed someone.

Sure, he'd killed all his classmates during his graduation exam at nine years old, including his own teammates, but that wasn't his first kill.

His first time had been as simple as slitting someone's throat with a Kunai.

But on second thought, it wasn't that strange.

After all, even if you'd never eaten pork, you'd still seen a pig run.

Shirozumi had only said he'd never killed anyone, not that he'd never seen anyone die.

As for what Itachi had said about "peace in the Shinobi World," Zabuza couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"So it really is some kind of boost from Senjutsu Chakra?"

Seeing Shirozumi punch straight through Gato, Uchiha Itachi felt sure of his earlier guess.

He'd read in some Uchiha records that the most obvious sign of training in Senjutsu was increased strength.

Another sign was heightened perception, though that wasn't something an onlooker could spot with the naked eye.

And there should also be some changes in appearance.

Itachi had previously dismissed the idea because Shirozumi's situation differed in several ways from what the records said about Sage Mode.

His appearance hadn't changed, and there didn't seem to be any limit on how long he could maintain it.

But Shirozumi's punch now confirmed that Itachi hadn't been wrong.

Shirozumi wasn't cruel and bloodthirsty, as Zabuza had thought.

He'd probably just wanted to test his strength, only to underestimate it and cause this scene.

"Sorry, everyone. I don't know any ninjutsu, so try to bear the pain."

As he spoke, Shirozumi took down two more Rogue Ninjas.

The two wandering samurai exchanged a look, then struck at Shirozumi from what they thought was an unassailable angle. Suddenly their minds went blank. When they came to, they had finished their swings, but hadn't hit anything.

The next moment, two Shuriken thrown from afar struck the wandering samurai in the forehead.

It wasn't Shirozumi who'd done it. It was their fellow mercenaries, who had accidentally hit their own teammates.

"Damn it, this guy's too much trouble! Forget him and take out his accomplices!"

A Rogue Ninja suddenly shouted.

The others came to their senses. Some decided that Gato was already dead, so there was no reason to risk their lives for him, and quietly slipped away.

Everyone else charged toward Itachi and Kisame.

"Uh..."

Standing alone in the open, with no one around him, Shirozumi was stunned.

These people really had a death wish.

He could overwhelm them here, but it wasn't very efficient to take them out.

If they weren't mindless, they'd realize too many of their comrades had died and run for it.

But now they were charging straight over there. They were done for.

"Water Release: Water Shark Bullet Technique!"

A huge shark made of water leaped out of the river beneath the bridge, swallowed the charging shinobi and samurai, then fell back into the water with bloody scraps trailing behind it.

Silence fell at once.