Mashu lowered her head, clenching both hands into fists.
Her chest heaved, her breathing quickened, and her eyes reddened.
Yet she stubbornly refused to let her tears fall.
She wanted to argue, to defend her village's dignity, to prove that the history she had learned was true...
But deep down, she had already begun to waver.
The "justice" she had been taught and the words of the man before her collided like two raging torrents in her heart, leaving her at a loss.
Watching her, Xuandou softened his tone somewhat, but did not yield in the slightest:
"The reality of the Shinobi World is this cruel."
"As long as the nations remain in this loose warlord state, the daimyō will wage war again and again for land and resources, and the ninja villages for mission commissions and profit."
"In such a situation, weaker nations and ninja villages can only suffer disaster, their people displaced and their shinobi killed on the battlefield."
"That is the cruel law of the Shinobi World-the strong prey on the weak!"
Mashu abruptly raised her head, one last spark flaring in her eyes:
"What about you?"
"How is what you're doing any different from what those daimyō do?"
"You say Sunagakure was wrong to invade the Land of Fire, but isn't your Uchiha annexation of other countries an invasion too?"
"Of course there's a difference."
Xuandou's voice was calm.
"What I'm doing is putting an end to all of this."
"Not replacing one ruler with another to continue the oppression, but building a Shinobi World with no more wars and no national borders."
"I want all shinobi to no longer have to risk their lives for those nobles on high, and all civilians to no longer be driven from their homes because a border has shifted."