The Discipline of Ninja Precepts

The battle was over.

But the mission target of Shiba Seika and Konan on this trip was also dead.

"Seika, you just went and killed him again." After folding her paper wings, Konan landed gracefully, muttering in a daze.

But compared to the past, Konan's words now sounded more like a simple statement than a reproach.

She could no longer bring herself to say words of blame.

The gift Shiba Seika had prepared for her had proven remarkably effective!

Compared to empty debate, a living example was indeed far more likely to wake someone up.

What had all their years of insisting on mutual understanding between people actually achieved? Nothing on this earth was more convincing than Ando's corpse.

"Why is this? Was Teacher's ideal really wrong?"

At this moment, the cut lines on Konan's body from unleashing Paper Style had not yet faded, making her look full of a sense of fragmentation, like a cracked-ice beauty.

Unfortunately, Shiba Seika did not soften his heart. After days of restraint, he finally bared his "fangs" and activated the strongest jutsu in the Naruto world—Talk Style!

"Your ideals might be beautiful, but in the end, they're far too naive.

Mutual understanding between people can only exist among groups with similar positions, experiences, and identities.

The reason the Akatsuki Organization has flourished so vigorously over the past few years is that most of the people you've come into contact with are war victims like yourselves. Your experiences are similar, your demands are close, so it's easy to huddle together for warmth.

But this world has never consisted of just one type of person.

When you are carrying a heavy burden forward, there are inevitably those who enjoy peace and quiet at your expense."

Shiba Seika spoke in a clear, crisp voice, effortlessly tugging at Konan's heartstrings.

"Some people enjoy peace and quiet... you mean the great ninja villages?"

Shiba Seika smiled. "Sister Nan, you're still looking at it too shallowly. You shouldn't limit your perspective to just the ninja world."

As he spoke, he raised three fingers.

"In my view, this world is actually divided into three types of people: the nobles and wealthy merchants led by the Daimyo, the ninja, and the ordinary people at the very bottom who work like beasts of burden.

The nobles and merchants squeeze the commoners to amass wealth, then take a small portion of that wealth and offer it up to the ninja in exchange for the villages' loyalty and service. And in this process, they tirelessly discipline and train the ninja.

Sister Nan, you must have studied the ninja code, right?

The iron law of the ninja world: Everything is for the mission. Those who cannot complete a mission are worthless. As long as the client hasn't provided false information, a ninja must not harm the client in any form or for any reason.

See! This is actually the most outstanding achievement of the nobles' decades-long discipline of ninja!

Under this system of rules, which is like training a dog, ninja can never raise a blade against nobles and rich merchants. On the contrary, as long as these nobles and merchants still have money, they can enjoy the service of ninja anytime, anywhere.

The man on the ground is the best example."

Shiba Seika stepped closer and nudged Ando's corpse with his toe.

"Even in a war-torn country like the Land of Rain, as long as he had money, he could hire ninja to serve him at any time. Even when the local rogue ninja were largely absorbed by our Akatsuki, he could still get in touch with Iwagakure.

If we hadn't killed him today, he might have contacted Sunagakure, Konoha, or even Kumogakure in the future.

Because that's how the rules of this world work. Ninja must serve rich employers like him.

Ninja just have to risk their lives and sacrifice their comrades to complete the mission. But these employers who issue the commissions have many more things to consider in order to accumulate their wealth."

At that moment, even if Konan didn't understand the weight of the formula, she could easily detect the thick sarcasm in Shiba Seika's tone.

She didn't know how to refute these words.

What Shiba Seika said had completely surpassed her past understanding. Compared to the hollow ideals she, Yahiko, and Nagato had inherited from their teacher Jiraiya, Shiba Seika's current theory was a crushing blow.

And the output continued.

"So, as long as the old rules of this world remain unchanged, people like Ando will never be able to understand you.

Those who benefit from the status quo have no reason to actively empathize with the victims of the system.

And ninja can only tragically repeat the periodically erupting Great Ninja Wars, because they have been disciplined to the point of completely losing the ability to question the rules!

When a ninja village is short on money, the only thing they can think of is to start a war to snatch mission quotas from other villages. They never once consider that in every commissioned mission in the past, their effort and gain were never equal!

Take these Iwa-nin, for example. They traveled thousands of miles to the Land of Rain, taking huge risks to proactively serve this merchant Ando. Yet, in reality, the reward they get from this mission might be less than one percent of Ando's total wealth."

Finally, Shiba Seika looked at Konan and delivered the finishing blow!

"So, Sister Nan, do you understand? This is the truth of this world! The peace of the entire ninja world can never be achieved through a childish game of mutual understanding. To achieve true peace, you must break the rules, to overthrow—the entire old world!"

At that moment, Shiba Seika's smile looked to Konan exactly like a demon tempting someone to fall. She wanted to flee, but found she couldn't.

In truth, Shiba Seika at that time didn't necessarily have the ambition to truly overthrow the entire ninja world, but that didn't stop him from painting the picture as grand as possible first.

Just as Lu Xun once said, human nature always tends towards compromise. If you say you want to open a window, most people will disagree. But if you insist on tearing off the roof, they'll probably agree to let you open the window.

If Shiba Seika had directly said he thought their ideals were too childish, Konan would likely have been very resistant.

But if he started by throwing out the grand ambition of overthrowing the entire ninja world, then maybe after a while, Konan would come to realize on her own that mutual understanding was indeed too naive.

It was time to bring a little shock of change to this rotten ninja world!

Besides, most of what he said wasn't fabricated. It was combined with his real feelings over the past few months since his transmigration, and basically fit the facts!

Especially the point about the long-term discipline of ninja—he had experienced it firsthand and felt it deeply.

And at that very moment, what Shiba Seika didn't know was that, not far from their current position on the border of the Land of Rain, a white-haired brat currently suffering deeply from the poison of ninja discipline was silently carrying out his own infiltration mission.

Behind him, this victim's teammate was complaining angrily.

"That Kakashi guy is really infuriating! What does he mean, the mission is more important than comrades? Just because he became a Chunin early, he thinks he can say such crap? How infuriating! I'm going to beat him down one day!"