The Curtain Rises

That was indeed the case. Shiraishi Yoshijo had not been wrong at all.

It was simply that both the Land of Water and the Land of Fire had now fallen into a dilemma.

On one hand, they needed the ninja villages to train ninjas for their countries. On the other, they had to face the ninja villages' ever-expanding ambitions. To suppress those ambitions, they needed even greater power.

The Land of Fire went without saying. With the Nine-Tails, the Hokage, and a whole host of powerful experts, if Shiraishi Yoshijo had not kept stirring up trouble for Konoha, Zhixiong might already have lost his life.

The Land of Water had it even harder. Two Tailed Beasts plus the former Kirigakure elite—at first, those people had kept their heads down, but as time passed, they began entertaining other ideas.

Everything appeared harmonious on the surface, yet undercurrents raged beneath. Take Kisame Hoshigaki, the Land of Water's S-rank rogue ninja—he was a sacrifice of that conflict. Uchiha Itachi of Konoha seemed to have been caught in an internal village struggle, but it was actually a struggle between the Daimyo and the ninja village as well.

Through those outward appearances, Shiraishi Yoshijo had already seen the two countries' futures. They would inevitably continue to weaken through internal strife. Either the Daimyo would compromise and restore the ninja village system, or the Daimyo would brutally suppress the ninja villages. There were only those two outcomes.

If Shiraishi Yoshijo had not existed, those two fellows would probably have gone to the Pure Land to meet that old man of the Six Paths long ago.

The reason Zhixiong had been so eager to arrange a marriage alliance with Shiraishi Yoshijo was that he feared the ninja village might take desperate measures. That was why he wanted