"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid we really can't agree to this."
"Head Ninja, can't you see how much your village would benefit from this?"
"Shikaku, of course I can. But doing this would turn my village into nothing more than a Konoha dependency. And hasn't Konoha committed enough sins in the Land of Hot Water already?"
"Is that so? I think I understand."
Shikaku Nara left the meeting with a rather unpleasant expression. He had actually expected these face-to-face negotiations to be anything but easy.
After all, Shikaku Nara knew that what he intended to do on Konoha's behalf was truly unfair to these Small-Country Ninja Villages.
To put it bluntly, they would be turned directly into Konoha's puppets.
If these people had any ambitions left, any desire to control their own strength and authority, they would not agree easily.
And that was precisely the case. The Head Ninja Shikaku Nara faced was just such a person.
He appeared righteous, determined to prevent Konoha from completely occupying the Land of Hot Water.
In reality, he wanted to preserve his position, his place as the Yugakure Head.
In a world like this, anyone without power would meet a miserable end.
Unfortunately, neither Xia Yan nor Konoha as a whole was willing to let these small villages possess power independent of them now.
During Hiruzen Sarutobi's era, they had been powerless to do anything about it. Back then, having each village control half was the most suitable arrangement.
Although they had won both the Second Shinobi World War and the Third Shinobi World War, they had paid a devastating price.
Of course, during Hiruzen Sarutobi's era, they had never thought along these lines either.
After all, they had not had as many ideas as Xia Yan back then, much less spent time