"Actually, most of the time, I'm quite willing to listen to reason."
"But if you refuse to be reasonable, then I have ways of dispensing with reason myself. A thousand years ago, Kaguya Ōtsutsuki used force to bring peace to a world in chaos. As I am now..."
"It seems I could give that a try, too..."
After saying that, Uchiha Shunichi withdrew his chakra. The shinobi attending the meeting could finally feel their own chakra and bodies again.
A moment ago, they had been utterly at his mercy. Almost everyone had been terrified, unable to even conceive of resisting.
Though fear still lingered in their hearts, Uchiha Shunichi's words had been etched into everyone's mind. There was no chance anyone had failed to hear them...
Even after Uchiha Shunichi withdrew his oppressive presence, no one at the meeting spoke. The silence felt almost unreal.
"Hokage, after that display, I find it very hard to believe you won't use force to coerce us."
Finally, after a long wait, Gaara was the first to speak.
Of the Kage present, Gaara was the youngest aside from Uchiha Shunichi. Yet his courage and conviction surpassed those of the other Kage.
After all, he had grown up in harsh circumstances and was already well accustomed to being at a disadvantage.
"Rest assured, I won't resort to that sort of coercion again before this meeting ends. My goal is to solve the problem, after all, not start a war on my own!" Uchiha Shunichi answered Gaara calmly.
"In that case, I agree to the Hokage's proposal for now. But words alone aren't enough. I still need more concrete evidence that you aren't doing this to fulfill your own ambitions," Gaara continued.
"Unifying the entire shinobi world-it's hard to believe a goal like that isn't driven