News

No matter what Sunagakure was thinking, if they came knocking and begged me to butcher them, then even if they were a scrawny cut with barely any fat on them, why wouldn't I take advantage of them when they were practically begging for it?

But honestly, compared to Kirigakure, which was surrounded by ocean and had enough seafood alone to feed an entire country, Sunagakure in the Land of Wind really had nothing.

If you had to name a specialty, it would be the desert, followed by things like cacti and desert camels.

The main problem was that the desert didn't even have oil. It was just a plain, simple desert. What a pain.

The best part of the Land of Wind was in its northwest, where there was an oasis. A river flowing down from the snowy mountains ran through it, and the region had minerals too. Its resources were very abundant.

But all of that belonged to the daimyo of the Land of Wind.

Sunagakure? They'd given you a patch of land to build your village on, and you should be grateful. Don't push your luck—there wasn't going to be anything more.

The Land of Wind did give them some money each year, but honestly, it wasn't much.

So Sunagakure spent its days dreaming of digging up gold in the desert.

But now it wasn't a dream anymore. The terms Konoha had discussed with Kirigakure hadn't been kept under wraps. Afraid Konoha might sign the agreement and then deny it, Kirigakure had announced it the very day it was signed.

When Yuya saw it, he thought, Oh? You're afraid people won't know you got played by me? Fine, we'll make it public.

So the other major countries, as well as the smaller ones, saw it too.

Sunagakure began to ponder.

By rights, they were a major country too. Konoha was afraid Kirigakure might join the war, so they'd pulled this stunt to buy time—without a doubt, Sunagakure's leadership also thought that was Konoha's motive. If so, then they could do the same.

You have to make a deal with us too.

If you don't, we'll send troops to attack you!

And so Sunagakure came begging to be taken advantage of.

Yuya naturally agreed without hesitation.

Senju Tobirama finally let out a sigh of relief.

Of the five major countries, the Land of Wind and the Land of Water had just signed treaties with us. There was no way they'd start a fight now.

That meant I could turn my attention to dealing with the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth.

And so Konoha's momentum surged once more.

It was now late summer.

From early to late summer, Konoha had maneuvered through the war and finally confirmed that the other two countries wouldn't join in. The results were significant. And there was no need to explain what late summer meant, was there?

That's right, the rice had ripened.

It was time to harvest it.

But right at this point, something major happened.

A squad from Iwagakure killed another squad from Kirigakure.

The circumstances were simple enough. Since the negotiations hadn't worked out earlier, Kirigakure's shinobi might still have joined the war.

That was why several hundred Kirigakure shinobi were still stationed with the joint forces of Iwagakure and Kumogakure.

A lot of people were already unhappy that they hadn't gone to the front lines, since they were still eating the joint forces' food every day.

Then Kirigakure announced that they wouldn't be fighting Konoha and were withdrawing.

Iwagakure and Kumogakure were furious.

You'd been eating our food for nearly three months, and now you were just saying you wouldn't fight?!

There weren't that many of them, but it was still infuriating.

Still, they figured they were already struggling to deal with Konoha alone. If they had to face Kirigakure too, there'd be no way to win. So the leaders of the joint forces decided to swallow their anger and let the shinobi go home.

If the Kirigakure shinobi had simply left as soon as they received their orders, there wouldn't have been any trouble.

But they just had to eat one more meal with the joint forces.

What, Kirigakure wasn't feeding you? You had to freeload one last meal, huh? (To be fair, Kirigakure's food really wasn't great. You were what you ate, and Kirigakure mostly ate seafood. Eat too much of that stuff and you started to feel like you smelled fishy yourself.)

So Iwagakure, which was in charge of supplies, gave them half the usual portion. The Kirigakure shinobi weren't full and demanded more. Then the Iwagakure shinobi in charge had a short fuse. One "You can have my ass!" was all it took to set off the powder keg.

And that was how an entire squad of Kirigakure shinobi ended up dead.

When the Tsuchikage and Raikage heard the news, they were stunned.

What was this?

Was even heaven helping Konoha?

When Yuya heard about it, he couldn't help marveling at how bizarre it was.

As far as he knew, in the original history of the First Shinobi World War, the Land of Earth had indeed fought the Land of Water. The Tsuchikage and Mizukage had killed each other, but the reason they'd fought was unknown.

At any rate, it definitely hadn't been over a bit of food, like this time.

But now it had happened anyway. The two countries at opposite ends of the map would probably still end up fighting.

Good grief. The force of history correcting itself was terrifying.

And that was exactly what happened.

Second Mizukage Gengetsu Hozuki had a terrible temper. You could tell from how he'd nearly gone ahead and fought Konoha without a second thought.

Now that an entire squad of his Kirigakure shinobi had been wiped out, how could he let that go?

The Tsuchikage had to hand over the culprits.

But the Second Tsuchikage had a few things to say too. What kind of people were those Kirigakure shinobi?

They'd eaten and drunk their fill for three months. Now, when it was time to harvest the rice, they hadn't offered to help at all and were just running off. Fine, they could leave, but they still had to eat one last meal before going! What were they, starving ghosts?!

There was no way he'd hand over the culprits! If you had the guts, come and get them yourself!

The Second Mizukage wouldn't put up with that. He really did lead his people straight over.

Senju Tobirama even wondered for a while if the guy was using this as an excuse to start a fight with us too.

But the Second Mizukage did exactly what he said he would. He went right past Konoha's defensive line without even looking at it and continued west.

And so, a country in the far northwest of the Shinobi World map and a country in the far southeast clashed in the northernmost part of the Land of Fire, fighting so fiercely that heaven and earth darkened.

Senju Tobirama and the Second Raikage had plenty they wanted to say when they saw this. In the end, both sides settled on the same words:

Let's call a temporary ceasefire. I'm going home to harvest the rice first, then I'll come back to fight.

We'll harvest the rice, and while we're at it...

Watch the show.

So, in early autumn of Year 17 of Konoha, the front-page headline of the first issue of Ninja News, founded by Yuya, read:

[Shocking! The Second Mizukage and the Second Tsuchikage Clash—And the Reason Is This!]

The people of Konoha had never seen anything like it. They bought up all two thousand copies of the first issue in no time.

This so-called Ninja News had no barriers to entry. Printing, woodblock printing, and all that—one ninjutsu was enough for a shinobi to handle it.

Still, this sort of institution was necessary.

After all, a country needed an institution that could give the people something to pass the time and control public opinion.

Of course, since it wasn't hard to set something like this up, Yuya figured the other major countries would soon follow suit.

Well, that was fine too. He'd created some jobs for shinobi in those countries.

For now...

I'll watch the show first...

In the autumn of Year 17 of Konoha, Yuya returned to Konoha.

He had come back to visit his teacher's wife, Uzumaki Mito.

At the same time, he learned some news. "The Land of Whirlpools wants you to return, ma'am?!"

Yuya immediately frowned.

What was the Land of Whirlpools...

planning?!

Damn it, a notification popped up in my author dashboard. I thought I'd gotten a recommendation, but it turned out to be a writing contest promotion. And it was for fantasy, too. When are they going to run a light-novel fanfiction contest? I probably wouldn't win, but it'd be nice just to be an entry.