Naruto's words left Ōnoki speechless, his old face flushing red, then turning pale.
Of course he knew that history. In the First, Second, and Third Shinobi World Wars, Iwagakure had acted as an aggressor and fought bitterly against Konoha.
But he quickly recovered and tried to defend himself:
"Th-that was all in the past! Those were grudges from the previous generation, or even the generation before that!"
Ōnoki spoke somewhat hurriedly.
"The shinobi war ended over a decade ago! Every nation has been recuperating and maintaining the peace! How can you claim you're doing this for peace when you're starting a war and upsetting that balance?"
"The past?"
At those words, the last trace of ease vanished from Naruto's face, and his gaze turned deep and icy.
An idiom instantly flashed through his mind.
Nine Generations of Vengeance.
The idiom came from the Confucian classic, the Gongyang Commentary.
"May vengeance still be taken after nine generations? Even after a hundred generations, it may."
Its meaning was: could vengeance still be taken for a grudge nine generations old? The answer was: even after a hundred generations, it could!
The Spring and Autumn Gongyang School, represented by the Gongyang Commentary, explicitly advanced the uncompromising position that "a nation's grievances may be avenged even after a hundred generations." It held that vengeance for grudges between nations remained legitimate and necessary even across a hundred generations.
This stood in contrast to the more moderate principle of "family vengeance lasting five generations" advocated by another Confucian classic, the Zuo Commentary, creating a famous dispute within Confucian scholarship over the ethics of vengeance.
A nation's grievances could be avenged even after a hundred generations!
That was the conviction Naruto held-or rather, one of the historical and cultural justifications he had found for his "war of unification."