Kurotsuchi Suffers Emotional Abuse

"What, what did you just say?"

Kurotsuchi stood before Shirozumi, her eyes wide with shock as she stared straight at him.

"Kill the Daimyo—what? Have the ninjas of your Five Great Shinobi Villages all had Ideological Steel Seals implanted in their brains? Have you been controlled by Kotoamatsukami and forced to be loyal to the Daimyo?"

Shirozumi smiled faintly, repeated himself, and threw the question back at Kurotsuchi.

"..."

Shirozumi's words stirred Kurotsuchi's rebellious streak, but she did not dare truly agree with him. She could only approach it from another angle.

"If Iwagakure kills the Daimyo and monopolizes the Land of Earth, the other four Daimyos definitely won't sit idly by. When they gather their respective shinobi villages to attack Iwagakure, I'll be the sinner."

"Sigh."

Shirozumi shook his head and sighed.

He said nothing more and continued toward Amegakure.

Kurotsuchi was left standing there, stunned by his reaction.

She had been waiting for Shirozumi to use some method to convince her. How had it simply ended there?

"Tell me, what exactly was wrong with what I said?!"

Gritting her teeth, Kurotsuchi accelerated with the Light-Weight Rock Technique, caught up to Shirozumi, and grabbed his arm, her voice carrying a pleading tone.

"You want development, yet you refuse Reforms."

"You want to be first, yet you don't dare be the first to step forward."

"From the shinobi village system to the ninja academy to the Anbu, you've imitated Konoha time and time again, picking up scraps from others without ever considering making changes of your own.

"Do you think this is children playing house?

"This is a revolution. What it overturns is the Daimyo's life—the lives of the remnants of the old era."

"In an age of great strife, the strong grow stronger, while the weak perish.

"If you don't kill the Daimyo today and refuse to change, someone else will kill him someday.

"They won't just kill him. They'll kill Iwagakure and everyone else in the Land of Earth too.

"But you won't care. All you need to do is keep obeying the Daimyo's orders and be a piece of meat on the Otsutsuki Clan's chopping block.

"When that time comes, you'll just watch, kneel, and pray for the heavens to grant you a savior.

"If you're lucky, the savior will succeed, and you'll continue barely surviving.

"If you're unlucky, the savior will fail, and then you can all wait to die."

At that point, Shirozumi turned back and glanced at Kurotsuchi, who was gripping his arm. "I thought the Tsuchikage's goal was to lead the Land of Earth and Iwagakure toward prosperity. I never expected the Tsuchikage to be nothing more than a servant."

"Urgh!"

Shirozumi's words pierced deeply into Kurotsuchi's heart, and she nearly let go of him.

Kurotsuchi's chest heaved as she opened her mouth, wanting to retort, only to realize she had nothing to say.

"Come to think of it, is the Daimyo's status really that useful?

"Konan, the Daimyo of the Land of Rain has been gone for a long time, right? Why don't I become the Daimyo of the Land of Rain?

"Then I can hold a Daimyo meeting, discuss things with the other Daimyos, offer them some benefits, and have them send over all the young, beautiful Female Ninjas like Kurotsuchi. What do you think?"

"Don't ask me."

Konan rolled her eyes at Shirozumi and said nothing more.

"Damn it, do you take us for commodities that can be traded?"

Kurotsuchi's stifled voice came from behind Shirozumi.

"When did you get the illusion that you aren't a tradable commodity?"

"Let me ask you this—if the Daimyo of the Land of Earth truly gave that order, would you obey it?"

"Don't tell me you can accept an order to break the peace agreement and start a war against your conscience, but would defy the Daimyo's command over such a 'small matter.'"

"Let me put it another way. If the Daimyo of the Land of Earth gave you two choices—help him start a war, or come to me and become a foot-washing maid—which would you choose?"

Shirozumi glanced back.

"..."

Some things were best left unsaid.

Kurotsuchi fell silent once more.

Shirozumi's words had completely torn away the last shred of pretense.

He had stated it plainly—her so-called Tsuchikage was nothing but a servant.

She considered neither the shinobi village nor her comrades, nor even herself. The Daimyo's orders were her highest principle.

"Then what should I do?"

Kurotsuchi softened.

Her voice softened, and so did the hand gripping Shirozumi's.

"Overthrow the Daimyo system. As the Tsuchikage, take complete control of the Land of Earth and fulfill your ambitions.

"Consolidate all resources and distribute them rationally. Develop the economy, technology, diplomacy, and everything else across the board.

"Don't tell me you lack the ability to do that.

"Based on the intelligence I gathered on the Daimyos of the major nations, it's clear that the Daimyos and their high-ranking associates are all useless parasites squatting in positions they don't deserve.

"Even the Shinobi World's future development will be centered on the shinobi villages. Every new technology will emerge from them.

"All Daimyos are nothing but leeches feeding off shinobi villages and ordinary villagers.

"In other words, tying a dog to the Daimyo's seat right now wouldn't make any difference.

"If you think you're worse than a dog, then pretend I never said anything."

"..."

After hearing the first half of Shirozumi's speech, Kurotsuchi had been about to say that she had never had any experience managing a country. But Shirozumi anticipated her thoughts again, leaving her speechless for a moment.

"Wouldn't that be exhausting?"

Kurotsuchi asked quietly.

By asking that question, she had effectively already yielded to Shirozumi's ideas.

"No, because I also reformed the Kage system after the Reforms. The Kage only needs to make decisions in major matters."

Shirozumi pulled out a new scroll and tossed it behind him. "Kirigakure's Fifth Mizukage has already taken my scroll and is preparing to change Kirigakure."

"The Fifth Mizukage? Isn't the Fourth Hokage the one in power right now?"

Kurotsuchi caught the scroll and asked in confusion.

"Because of the damage the Blood Mist caused the village, the Fourth Hokage voluntarily stepped down. If you have spies in Kirigakure, find a way to contact one and you'll know."

"Alright."

Kurotsuchi did not ask any further questions.

Since Shirozumi said so, it had to be true.

After all, all it took was activating an undercover spy to verify it.

And if they truly had none, they could simply send someone to investigate. A new Mizukage taking office would not be some secret.

Upon learning that the Fifth Mizukage was one of their "kind," Kurotsuchi finally regained her confidence and motivation.

"I didn't expect the Mizukage to be persuaded by you before I was. You should've said so earlier..."

Kurotsuchi smiled.

With a "companion" and a "precedent," doing something that had once seemed so "treasonous" became much easier for Kurotsuchi to accept.

"So, what are you planning to do?"

Now it was Shirozumi's turn to ask Kurotsuchi.

"My strength isn't enough yet. I want to train here with you, improve my strength, and then go deal with—"

"No need."

Deidara interrupted Kurotsuchi, raising the hand with the ring on it and grinning.

"After learning what Itachi, Kisame, and the Strategist did in the Land of Water, I guessed the Strategist's grand plan. So when I returned to the village this time, I dropped a modified C4 over the Land of Earth Daimyo's residence.

"So, Kurotsuchi, thank me.

"And hurry back and become your Tsuchikage. Don't even think about joining the organization! Hmm!"

The C4 Deidara mentioned was not the bomb from CS.

It was the ninjutsu he had originally developed to kill Itachi—C4 Garuda.

Garuda was a clone-explosion technique similar to the Second Mizukage's Steaming Danger Tyranny.

It created a doll identical to himself, one filled with countless tiny explosive spiders too small for the naked eye to detect.

After the doll exploded, the explosive spiders would scatter through the surrounding air and be inhaled into people's bodies.

Through countless tiny explosions, they would completely destroy the human body.

The modified C4 Deidara spoke of had actually removed Garuda's first step.

Rather than using the doll's explosion for the first wave of damage and dispersal, he directly scattered the miniature explosive spiders from the sky like artificial rain.

Moreover, the detonation method no longer required manual activation. Once their density reached a certain level and they were compressed, they would automatically explode.

In other words, they would have no reaction in the air. Only after being inhaled into a person's body would they settle and completely blow the body apart.

And because they were miniature explosions, there would be no sound or flash. To the naked eye, those who were blown apart looked as though they had been turned to ash by Thanos's snap.

For Deidara, who loved loud and lively explosions, developing such a quiet, soundless explosion had not been easy.