In the capital of the Land of Earth, the Daimyo's castle, which had stood for over a thousand years, was destroyed by a Konoha ninja.
The Daimyo had ruled this plateau for a millennium, an unbroken line passed down through generations.
The people of the capital did not know how to face what came next.
They did not know where to go from here.
If they chose a distant relative of the Daimyo as the new ruler, it seemed likely to provoke Konoha's ninja.
Inside the capital, everyone was on edge.
The city was under martial law, and the streets were empty.
Konoha ANBU moved swiftly across the rooftops one after another.
By order of Konoha's fox, the ANBU were summoning certain people to meet him.
Many people left their hiding places and, after receiving Konoha's orders, headed toward the castle.
The castle walls had vanished.
The bedchamber district behind them had been completely erased.
Some buildings in the administrative district at the front still remained.
They arrived at a courtyard on the side. This courtyard had originally been the Daimyo's archives office, but now, a strange trident emblem hung there.
Those with better information recognized it as the emblem of the Church of the Three Calamities.
This courtyard had been converted into a temple of the Church.
At the entrance to the temple courtyard, a beautiful woman with pale golden hair stood on the steps, inspecting those who had come to meet Fox.
The scroll in Yakushi Nonō's hands contained detailed records of important figures in the Land of Earth's capital.
"Ten representatives of enlightened nobles, twelve representatives from major merchant associations, twenty-one representatives from major guilds, and sixteen representatives from agricultural cooperative guilds. Fifty-nine people in total."
Only then did those selected understand that they had all been screened by Konoha.
Yakushi Nonō counted them and found there were only fifty-one. She looked to Blossom Deer at the side in confusion.
Blossom Deer said, "Lady Nonō, eight people resisted to the death. Their resistance was extremely fierce, and they refused to cooperate with Konoha. I accidentally killed them."
Yakushi Nonō was just about to say something when someone walked out from the courtyard gate behind her.
There was reproach in Yako's tone.
"Blossom Deer, you were far too careless. How could you be so impolite?
You only went to notify a few people, yet you accidentally killed eight of them. I must punish you severely. For this mission, your reward will be cut in half!"
Blossom Deer quickly lowered her head.
"My apologies, Commander Fox. I will try to be more careful in the future."
The people below the steps raised their heads and saw the one who had led the upheaval in the capital—
Konoha's fox.
He wore a fox mask. His face could not be seen. His expression could not be known. His eyes could not be read.
But the killing intent he naturally carried made everyone fall silent in fear.
"If someone is willing to be buried with the Earth Daimyo, then let them be buried with him."
Yako looked at the fifty-one people beneath the steps and said:
"Since all of you have arrived, I will assume none of you intend to be buried with the Earth Daimyo.
I hope you can establish a joint government, elect a prime minister, and govern the Land of Earth.
As for exactly how you elect that person, or who you elect, I will not interfere."
Yako glanced at Yakushi Nonō.
Yakushi Nonō had planted a spy among these fifty-one people. She would find a way to make that Konoha spy the first prime minister of the Land of Earth.
In the midst of chaos, certain special methods were unavoidable.
Yako continued:
"I have several expectations for this joint government.
The first is to adapt to the Church of the Three Calamities' teleportation shrines.
From now on, physical distance will no longer be a problem. Everyone can use the teleportation shrines to rapidly reach other places.
The second is to make developing production the highest priority.
In the old era of one nation, one village, ninja could not constantly protect vast fields or scattered workshops. This caused production to be extremely poor.
Production was never secure. A single minor Fire Release from a wandering ninja passing by could destroy an entire village's year of labor.
From now on, every city and town will fall within the coverage of teleportation shrines. The ability of ninja to maintain order will reach a new level.
The third is to dismantle the border defense systems between great nations and increase economic, cultural, and personnel exchange with other great and small nations."
Yakushi Nonō's eyes flickered. As she stared at the side of Fox's mask, her gaze was filled with worship.
Fox had become the strongest ninja in the shinobi world.
And he was changing the shinobi world.
As the Wandering Miko, Yakushi Nonō had traveled through most towns and villages in the shinobi world.
The atmosphere inside ninja villages was like hell. Everywhere were professional executioners called shinobi. Every ninja lived under the shadow of death, never knowing whether they would survive until tomorrow.
Outside the ninja villages, life for commoners in rural settlements was even more difficult.
Most of the time, ninja could at least decide when they would go to their deaths.
But if a random ninja passed by a village, that ninja might kill everyone in it.
To commoners, ninja—who possessed violence—were terrifying gods of death.
It was true that nobles maintained order. After the fact, they would issue missions to investigate village massacres. But that was still an investigation after the fact. By then, everything was already too late.
Because of this, most commoners could only live humbly around great nobles, trying to stay as close to them as possible.
The people in the capital's slums had a much higher chance of survival than farmers in villages.
All commoners had no choice but to depend on nobles.
The lawlessness of ninja outside the villages also intensified the commoners' dependence on nobles.
Perhaps all of this would change because of the teleportation shrines.
If a tragedy occurred anywhere, the great ninja villages could react quickly and send ninja squads to maintain order. In that case, wandering ninja, samurai, and ninja from other villages would no longer dare act recklessly.
This kind of deterrence was far more efficient than the old mission-commission model of the one nation, one village era.
In the old era, if a noble wanted to commission ninja to investigate a massacre, they first had to go to a ninja village and issue the mission. Then the ninja squad had to travel to the site. A round trip could easily take half a month.
Many missions ended with nothing.
Yako continued:
"I do not know what this joint government will become. I will watch you, and I will collect intelligence on you.
I hope you will carry out the rules I establish.
If you are unwilling, my subordinates may once again suffer an accidental slip of the hand.
My subordinates do not earn mission pay easily. I assume none of you want to see me deduct their pay again."
Blossom Deer thought to herself:
'Commander Fox, this is going a little too far, isn't it?
Threaten them if you want to threaten them, but why drag me into it?
What use is my name? Obviously, your name is the one that works.'
"You are the first batch of councilors of the Land of Earth's joint government. Do your work well. I hope the Land of Earth becomes more prosperous in your hands than it was under the Daimyo."
Yako led the first group of councilors around the temple, explaining how to use the teleportation shrine and how to worship the Three Gods.
Standing on the steps and watching the fifty-one councilors leave, Yako sighed.
"I do not have the time or energy to slowly build a new order. I can only use force and coercion to construct a framework.
I hope the Land of Earth's joint government can adapt to the new order, so I can promote this model to the other great nations as well.
Nonō, you will be responsible for supervising the joint government."
Yakushi Nonō took out a Snow Rabbit mask.
"Very well. I will keep watch over the joint government."
Yako said to Blossom Deer, "Let's go. We continue forward—to Iwagakure."