Hiruzen Sarutobi knew very well that, with its current strength, Konoha Ninja Village was already the most powerful military force in the entire Land of Fire. In a sense, it was also the country's strongest de facto Lord. Only the relationship between a national employer and its mercenaries kept Konoha Ninja Village from enjoying the same rights as the Local Lords.
This certainly brought Konoha Ninja Village considerable advantages. For instance, it was not subject to the same political restrictions as the Local Lords, leaving even the daimyo unable to interfere in its internal affairs. The drawback, however, was that Konoha Ninja Village could not fully intervene in the internal affairs of the Land of Fire either.
Had things remained as they were when the village was first founded, Hiruzen would have found this arrangement acceptable. Konoha Ninja Village had been nothing more than an alliance of ninja clans, and its way of life still followed traditional ninja practices. Maintaining that mercenary relationship benefited both sides: the village provided military force and received money, while the Land of Fire gained access to ninja power, with neither interfering in the other's affairs.
However, once Konoha Ninja Village entered a period of rapid development, both its material living conditions and its guiding principles began to diverge from tradition. In particular, after it adopted Mercantilism and revived Ninshu thought, commerce within the village expanded on a massive scale. The village alone could no longer meet all its needs, forcing it to seek markets beyond its borders, along with labor and land.
Through the research of Kazemori Masaki, Kana, and others, the revival of Ninshu thought began to establish a firmer theoretical foundation for the almost utopian vision of the shinobi world's future conceived in the Sage of Six Paths era. As Masaki put