Watanabe was an intelligence agent serving the Land of Fire's Daimyo, as well as an excellent lobbyist and politician.
His purpose in coming to Konoha was to persuade the Fifth Hokage, Tsunade, to side with the Land of Fire and send troops to campaign against Lin Qing.
Though Konoha was no longer what it once was, with its next generation failing to measure up, a starved camel was still bigger than a horse. If they really squeezed, they could still wring some value out of it—at the very least—
Wasn't the old Third still alive?
Dying on the battlefield was quite an honorable reputation, after all!
Besides, Watanabe truly felt there was nothing to deliberate over.
"Lady Tsunade, your grandfather, Hashirama Senju, created the hidden village system so that there could be peace, so that ninjas could live good lives.
Search your conscience. Has the Land of Fire ever shortchanged Konoha all these years?"
"No."
Not only had it not done so, but even after the Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, died, and Konoha lost a great number of elites in the Third Shinobi World War and the Nine-Tails incident, the Land of Fire had not withheld so much as a single bit of military supplies.
Watanabe nodded and continued, "I believe you understand what Lin Qing intends to do. You are an intelligent person, so I'll speak to you as one—
Lin Qing wants to wipe us out, and wipe you out too, then divide the cake among the commoners."
"I admit that the current system leads to wars in the Ninja World every so often.
But compared to the wars of the past, where entire clans were routinely exterminated, the Shinobi World Wars—at least on the level of the Five Great Nations—have been relatively restrained.
In fact, I believe