But as an old man who had faced Yanbai during the Second Shinobi World War, Ōnoki knew his ways all too well.
Of the other Four Great Shinobi Villages, Iwagakure could be considered the first to cooperate with the Konoha Shinobi Village.
Through that cooperation, Ōnoki had seen the "harm" Yanbai brought them.
Back then, Iwagakure's younger generation had indeed made money in the Land of Fire.
But the Land of Fire's fast-paced lifestyle had forced those young people to mature far too quickly, to the point of premature aging.
They were supposed to be in their prime, only in their twenties and thirties.
Yet not only did they work themselves half to death in the Land of Fire every day,
they also worried that once they got older, they would no longer have a job to work themselves half to death at.
Working in the Land of Fire, they feared the exhaustion their jobs brought, but they also feared having no work at all.
Under Yanbai's leadership, the Konoha Shinobi Village was not merely the Shinobi World's great vat of corruption. It was also its juicer-and a fucking juicer with faulty wiring, at that.
In the eyes of Princess Senju, Yanbai, they were nothing but tools. And tools naturally meant quantifiable inputs and outputs, with depreciation factored in.
There was no point appealing to Yanbai's feelings.
Yanbai had no feelings whatsoever.
If Yanbai showed any warmth, he was either faking it for greater profit, or he was not Princess Senju.
Precisely for that reason, Ōnoki had spent a great deal of time recalling the Stone Shinobi who had been "working" in the Land of Fire long-term.
The absurd part was this.
After Ōnoki allied with the Land of Lightning and launched an all-out war against the Land of Fire,