"Who says your ideals are wrong? Ideals are neither right nor wrong, only whether they can be realized. Yahiko wants people to understand each other, for people of great powers to empathize with the suffering of small nations, and thus stop wars. This ideal itself is not wrong, it is even very beautiful. What is wrong is that people cannot truly understand each other."
Before Yusuke could continue, Yahiko couldn't help but voice his doubts and retort, " Yusuke, why can't people understand and agree with each other? Konan and Nagato share my sentiments, and all the ninjas in Amegakure are fighting for the future of Hanzō under Amegakure's leadership. Aren't these examples of mutual understanding?"
At this time, Yahiko had a great deal of admiration for Hanzō. Having Amegakure, he could see that Hanzō was indeed working hard for the peace of Amegakure.
It's fair to say that the atmosphere in Amegakure at this time was much more stable than during Second Shinobi World War.
Furthermore, Yahiko was taught by Jiraiya from a young age and was deeply influenced by Jiraiya's philosophy, always believing in the idea that people can understand each other.
Therefore, there was a great deal of dissatisfaction after Yusuke made such a statement.
However, Yusuke didn't seem to care about Yahiko's questions. Instead, he countered, " Yahiko, let me ask you, is this really mutual understanding? You and Konan grew up together, inseparable. But do you really think you can truly understand each other? Yahiko, your ideal is to achieve peace, but you should understand that Konan and Nagato's ideal is to help you achieve peace."
"Even among you, there are differences, let alone those in Hanzō led by Amegakure. Moreover, even if you could truly understand each other, how would you expect other great powers to understand you? They don't experience the constant rain, hunger, and cold. And it's not just between nations; how would you expect them to understand each other—the poor and the rich, those with ninja skills and those without, those who have lost loved ones and those with fulfilling lives, and so on?"
As Yusuke spoke, his eyes were fixed on Yahiko, as if he wanted to shatter Yahiko's naive thoughts completely, and then he asked, "Furthermore, Yahiko, do you know the reason why Chakra appears?"
Although Yahiko didn't understand why Yusuke would suddenly ask such a question, he still honestly replied, " Chakra seems to be related to the Sage of Six Paths, the progenitor of ninjas, and it originated from the Ninshu founded by the Sage of Six Paths."
"That's right. In the beginning, the Sage of Six Paths discovered the power of Chakra and distributed Chakra to humanity. He hoped that Chakra would become a bond for mutual understanding among people. So he founded Ninshu, allowing Chakra to circulate among people. At that time, people achieved mutual understanding through the connection of Chakra, realizing true peace."
"But this period of prosperity was short-lived. The Sage of Six Paths ultimately failed because he underestimated the complexity and unpredictability of the human heart. Even with the connection of Chakra, problems and conflicts still arose among people, which then escalated into conflict. In the end, the Ninshu of Sage of Six Paths for the sake of peace, disintegrated. In the end, Chakra lost its power to connect people's hearts and was instead used to develop techniques to attack and harm others."
"So, Yahiko, even the Sage of Six Paths couldn't make people understand each other, so what can you do? Therefore, a world where people can understand each other only exists in beautiful fantasies."
"Therefore, Yahiko, if you still want to achieve peace, you must abandon that naive and unrealistic idea as soon as possible, and start from reality and get down to business. Yahiko, you must understand the essence of war. Only in this way can you truly be walking the right path to realizing your ideals."
After listening to Yusuke's thought-provoking words, Yahiko fell into deep thought.
He seemed to have grasped a clue, but he couldn't quite understand what Yusuke meant.
" Yusuke, how can we truly say we're starting from reality and getting down to business?"
"It's very simple, just observe more, travel more, and learn more."
"Observe more" means that when you are carrying out a ninja mission, you should pay close attention to the root cause of the disputes that arise during the mission. You should know that all missions stem from the difficulties people encounter, and you need to find out the reasons why the difficulties occur.
"Go out and see more. You want to bring peace to the Land of Rain, but you can't limit your vision to the Land of Rain. You should also pay attention to other ninja villages and see how other countries solve or consider the same Land of Rain they face."
"Learning more is simple; it just requires you to try more. If you find that other solutions to problems are helpful, then try implementing them. The more times you do this, the more you'll understand what to do next. Of course, just doing this is far from enough. It can only guarantee that the Land of Rain will no longer be impoverished, but it's still far from achieving peace in the Shinobi World."
"To achieve peace between nations, one must understand what I said before: the essence of conflict lies in the struggle for resources and the restraint of strength. Take the Third Shinobi World War as an example. Why did the other ninja villages attack Konoha one after another? Wasn't it because Konoha occupied the most fertile and richest region in the Shinobi World?"
"This aroused the jealousy of other ninja villages, because under such conditions, Konoha's strength would only grow stronger, while the strength of other ninja villages would become weaker. Therefore, in order to avoid being destroyed by Konoha in the future, the other ninja villages had no choice but to start wars and weaken Konoha's strength. Only in this way could they ensure that their own country would not be threatened by Konoha in the future."
His concise and straightforward words revealed the essence of war between great powers, which enlightened Yahiko. However, even after understanding the truth, he felt a sense of defeat.
He realized that this meant his goal of achieving peace would remain forever out of reach, so far that he couldn't help but want to give up.
Of course, the moment the thought of giving up crossed his mind, he immediately dismissed it. Bringing peace to the Shinobi World wasn't just his own ideal; it was also a promise he had made to Konan, Nagato, Jiraiya Jiraiya-sensei, and he would never give up.
" Yusuke, how can we maintain peace between countries?" Yahiko asked.
"If we want peace between nations, then the strength and development of each nation should be roughly equal, and resources should be kept constant. This way, nations will check and balance each other, preventing wars from easily breaking out. Alternatively, one nation could become so powerful that others fear it, and this nation, rich in resources, would look down on other nations. This would also prevent wars from occurring."
"However, both of these methods have a drawback: such peace is not lasting. For example, if a country's development becomes unbalanced, or if the strongest power changes its mind about peace, it will trigger a new round of war. Therefore, if we want to achieve true peace, there is only one way: to make the world have only one voice."
Despite Yusuke's gentle tone, the last part of his sentence sent a chill down the spines of Yahiko and the other two. They seemed to sense the implied bloodshed contained within his words.