"I heard you say you weren't planning to live in Lute Village?"
Naofumi Iwatani had happened to overhear Ye Uchiha's conversation with the lord of Lute Village and asked him about it.
"I'm planning to build a home in that abandoned mine nearby," Ye Uchiha replied.
His main reason for choosing the mine was secrecy. It was best to keep the base's location hidden for now. Once he had built up enough strength, there would still be time to spread his wings and bare his fangs.
As the old saying went: stockpile grain, build high walls, and be slow to proclaim yourself king.
Ye Uchiha wholeheartedly agreed with that strategy. Although he did not believe anyone in this kingdom could rival him, that only applied to individual combat strength. Taking on the entire kingdom would still be quite a struggle.
That was why Ye Uchiha wanted to build a power base. Individual strength alone would only make people fear him, rather than inspire genuine reverence. In the eyes of those in power, no matter how strong an individual was, there were still respects in which he could never compare to a nation.
Take Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju, who had held the shinobi world in check in the original Naruto story. Both could ride the Nine-Tails and capture a tailed beast with one hand. They had practically toyed with the Nine Tailed Beasts, supposedly "nation-destroying weapons," as though they were mere livestock. Their overwhelming might had cowed the four great nations of Wind, Lightning, Water, and Earth, their formidable reputations leaving every nation trembling, not daring to make a sound.
Unfortunately, after the battle at the Valley of the End, Hashirama Senju had died from his grievous wounds, while Madara Uchiha had faked his death and escaped. Without those two pillars, the Land of Fire could no longer keep the other four great nations in check, setting the stage for the shinobi world wars. Konoha, the Land of Fire's shinobi village, became a tempting prize in every nation's eyes, one they were always eager to take a bite out of.
Barely a dozen years after the chaos of the Warring States Period had been quelled, before the nations of the shinobi world had even finished tending their war wounds, conflict and unrest began anew over resources for survival and the interests of their nations and shinobi villages. The so-called peace agreement signed by the Five Great Nations became nothing more than a worthless piece of paper.
The tailed beasts, originally intended as "nuclear weapons" to deter other nations, became the ultimate weapons with which the Five Great Nations waged war. From the First Shinobi World War to the Third Shinobi World War, which had not involved tailed beast Jinchūriki? Every war's casualties far exceeded the combined toll of the Warring States Period, and the innocent inhabitants of smaller nations caught in the fighting were beyond counting.
Hashirama Senju had longed for peace, yet his own actions had plunged warfare in the shinobi world into an even deeper abyss of hell. Ye wondered what he would have thought of that after his death.
Honestly, Ye Uchiha thought very little of Hashirama Senju's ideals. He had reached an agreement with the Land of Fire's daimyo, established a shinobi village under a one-nation, one-village model, and drawn in clans with bloodline limits as well as ordinary civilians. Although his initial intentions had been good, as the other great nations rushed to imitate him, that village system had undoubtedly expanded the scale of warfare.
Perhaps the only way to truly end the shinobi world's wars was for someone to step forward and unify it through absolutely invincible military might, just as Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had possessed.
In any world, as long as more than one nation existed, conflicts of interest would arise. Small clashes would eventually develop into large-scale, devastating wars.
Medieval Europe on the Earth of his previous life had been just like that. Countless nations stood side by side, with wars and conflicts large and small never ceasing-a minor fight every three days, a major one every five. There had never been a moment's peace. Longer conflicts included the famous Hundred Years' War, which had lasted 116 years.
It was nothing like China, which had unified its feudal states and established a centralized system of government before the Common Era.
If they truly wanted peace in the shinobi world, why not unify it? Although some casualties would inevitably occur at the start, they would be for the sake of permanent peace in the future. Viewed that way, a certain amount of sacrifice was necessary.
They could establish a centralized empire with a single national government. Even if conflicts arose between different regions of the shinobi world, those would merely be internal affairs, rather than the constant turmoil among the Five Great Nations and their smaller neighbors, where people died in great numbers from war every day.
After the Uchiha and Senju had joined forces, Ye Uchiha had proposed this idea. Madara Uchiha and Tobirama Senju had initially been quite receptive, but Hashirama Senju disagreed. He believed that unifying the shinobi world would inevitably bring about an even greater war. Launching a war without provocation would only deepen the hatred in the shinobi world, displace countless innocent civilians, and inevitably cause horrific casualties. That would run counter to his original intentions, so he had flatly rejected Ye Uchiha's proposal.
After Hashirama Senju had finished explaining his views, Madara Uchiha offered no opinion, while Tobirama Senju also remained silent. Clearly, they had sided with Hashirama Senju.
Over this, Ye Uchiha had argued fiercely with Hashirama Senju several times, nearly falling out with him entirely. In the end, Ye Uchiha had lost the patience to keep trying to persuade that stubborn mule.
It was not fair to say Hashirama Senju's thinking was wrong. Someone living through those events would focus on the circumstances before him and struggle to account for the future. Even if he did consider it, whether he could act on it was another matter.
Once people grew accustomed to stable, peaceful lives, they grew weary of the hardships of wandering without a home. That was why Hashirama Senju would never agree, nor would most of the shinobi clans and civilians who had joined Konoha. Such were the limitations of their era.
Had Ye Uchiha not been a transmigrator who knew the plot of Naruto, he probably would have sided with Hashirama Senju too.
Once Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha were no longer there to hold them in check, the Five Great Nations and their smaller neighbors began competing through their shinobi villages, conquering and slaughtering one another until it all escalated into shinobi world wars.
The First Shinobi World War: Konoha versus Kumogakure.
The Second Shinobi World War: Konoha versus Sunagakure and Amegakure.
The Third Shinobi World War: Konoha versus Iwagakure and Kirigakure.
Konoha was inevitably drawn into every shinobi world war. It was only thanks to its endless stream of exceptional talent-Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sakumo Hatake, the Konoha Sannin, Minato Namikaze...-that the village had managed to endure. Otherwise, the four covetous great nations surrounding it would have carved it up long ago, leaving nothing behind.
"Raphtalia, sorry for the trouble, but could you take Kaguya to see the scenery nearby?" Ye Uchiha asked Raphtalia, glancing at Princess Kaguya.
"Huh?" Raphtalia looked from Naofumi Iwatani to Ye Uchiha, bewildered.
"We're going to renovate the abandoned mine next, and the process will be very boring. You girls probably wouldn't want to endure such a long, tedious wait, would you? So why not take a stroll nearby instead?" Ye Uchiha explained.
Naofumi Iwatani also said, "Raphtalia, take Miss Kaguya for a walk and show her around. Just don't go too far."
"All right, I understand. Let's go, Miss Kaguya." Since both of them had said so, Raphtalia could only obediently comply, addressing Princess Kaguya beside her.
Princess Kaguya said nothing and silently followed Raphtalia away.
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