Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud.
Tsunade, dressed in a green kimono, took extremely heavy steps as she swept into the Mizukage's administrative building like a violent gust of wind.
And as if this scene had long since been anticipated, just as Tsunade stepped inside, Kirigakure's jonin Ao appeared soundlessly before her and said in an unperturbed tone:
"Please follow me. Lord Mizukage is waiting for you in his office."
"Tch."
Because she was displeased that her actions had been seen through, Tsunade clicked her tongue. Even so, she still maintained basic courtesy and quietly followed behind Ao, entering Rei Kaguya's Mizukage office.
Inside the bright and spacious office, Rei Kaguya was leisurely organizing documents he had taken out from an enormous scroll as tall as a person. He sorted them according to specific categories and order, stacking them neatly for later use.
After seeing Ao silently withdraw after bringing Tsunade here, Rei Kaguya temporarily stopped the work in his hands and said with slight surprise:
"I thought the first person to come looking for me would be Jiraiya… In the end, it was you who realized something first, Princess Tsunade?"
"…What did Jiraiya go do?" Hearing this news, Tsunade could not help raising her brow. "When we talked yesterday about what we should do afterward, he said he wanted to join that history research institution of yours."
"Hm. You heard that from… yes, from Itachi Uchiha, who was relaying Shisui's intelligence, right?"
Rei Kaguya pressed his fingers against his brow. Then, with a bit of helplessness, he shook his head at Tsunade and spread his hands.
"Unfortunately, that institution is currently still in the preparatory stage of collecting materials and documents. Whether it is sorting intelligence about the various policy changes and concrete implementations during the Village of the Bloody Mist era, or categorizing the historical documents provided by Kirigakure and Konoha's ninja clans, everything has only just begun. It is still far from the point where it can be officially established and recruit members."
"With your level of control over Kirigakure, you actually cannot transfer enough manpower to handle this work?" Tsunade asked, her face full of incomprehension.
"Collecting historical materials from various channels, discerning their truth and value, and then drawing out the threads from a tangled mess to analyze a conclusion close to the truth of history is not something just anyone can do."
Rei Kaguya shrugged and said calmly:
"We are not people who personally experienced history. Between us and the truth of history, there is already a layer of hazy mist. Under such circumstances, by the time materials and documents circulate into our hands, they themselves have already undergone one distortion. And if the person who obtains those materials lacks the necessary knowledge and judgment, and uses incorrect historical sources to reconstruct the truth of history, the only answer they will obtain will be even farther from the true history."
"Moreover, even those who personally experienced history only saw one side of its truth. Compared to the complete truth, there will likewise be deviations that are difficult to determine."
"Take the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, as an example. In his eyes, Madara Uchiha should have died in the Battle of the Valley of the End. But we all know that Madara Uchiha not only lived until the recent era, secretly controlled Kirigakure for more than ten years, and even cultivated a powerful and deranged successor who was only one step away from destroying all of Konoha."
"Even history from only a few decades ago, where there are even still firsthand witnesses who can be asked, must face layer upon layer of difficulty and interference. Then, if one wants to trace history back several hundred years, back to the era when the group known as shinobi was born and began to twist, and explore the reason why the shinobi world became what it is today, you should be able to imagine how difficult that will be, Princess Tsunade."
"And in order to ensure the reliability of the materials and documents initially placed before historical researchers, to ensure that when they use these documents to part the fog of history and explore the truth of history, they will not arrive at answers with excessive deviation or even answers that run completely opposite to the truth, I can only work a little harder and personally inspect all the materials by myself."
Tsunade could not help taking a deep breath. Under Rei Kaguya's string of calm, rational, and tightly connected words, she completely accepted his explanation.
But she was still a veteran who had lived through countless battles. She would not forget the purpose of her visit so easily under a mere verbal offensive. After adjusting her mood and expectations, she spoke again:
"Lord Mizukage, you are the expert in this field, so I will not casually comment on matters I do not understand. But since you arranged people early on to receive Jiraiya and me, that means you had already anticipated what kind of thoughts we might have after seeing the things you wanted us to see, correct?"
"I had a general idea of the direction. But as for how much you could see through, there was no way for me to predict that. After all, both of you are shinobi even older than my parents, and you have experienced all three Shinobi World Wars. I did not have complete confidence in how much the two of you could perceive."
Looking at Rei Kaguya's calm smile, Tsunade first unconsciously clenched her fist because her age had been brought up. Then, in the air that was slowly cooling, she quickly regained her rationality. After slowly breathing out a mouthful of white mist, she stared straight into Rei Kaguya's white eyes and asked in a low voice:
"What you call the commercialization of ninjutsu… is actually your plan to use those ninjutsu to openly manipulate the nobles who purchase them, isn't it!?"
"It is a matter of mutual consent. What is there to criticize?" Rei Kaguya casually played with the pen he used to mark the document scrolls, answering without the slightest ripple in his expression. "They pay their money and purchase corresponding services from us shinobi. Is that not the relationship that exists between every mission issuer and every shinobi village?"
"But this curse mark system you developed… is actually meant to do something to that relationship that has continued for many years, isn't it?"
"Oh? Tell me what you think, Princess Tsunade."
Seeing an interested expression appear on Rei Kaguya's face, Tsunade sat down on the chair provided for guests in the Mizukage office. While lightly biting her red, rounded nail, she said in a very complicated tone:
"Normally speaking, in the relationship between employers and shinobi, the employer always has more initiative. They issue employment commissions to shinobi villages because, in essence, they believe the price offered by the shinobi village and the personnel dispatched match their expectations. Added to the credibility accumulated by the shinobi village over a long period, that is what makes them bring high-paying commissions to your door…"
"Although on the surface, it looks like the employer is asking something of the shinobi, if the price given by the shinobi village exceeds their expectations, they will not hesitate to turn around and choose another smaller shinobi village whose price is lower and whose credibility is still passable… In other words, employers hold the final decision over whether or not to hire shinobi. In their dealings with shinobi, they are the side that truly holds the advantage and initiative."
"Correct." Rei Kaguya nodded and looked at Tsunade's eyes with an admiring gaze. "The daimyo of each country also rely on controlling a large quantity of mission resources, as well as increasing and decreasing shinobi village funding, to achieve control over shinobi villages as tools of war… Should I say, as expected of the only heroine among the Sannin? Although you have wasted quite a lot of time, your vision is still more than one level above that of ordinary shinobi."
"I will take that as praise," Tsunade said, her beautiful face darkening. After coughing lightly a few times, she continued, "But the series of curse marks you developed, and the Strength of a Hundred Seal you want from me… are completely aimed at making those who use them unable to leave Kirigakure, aren't they?"
"Is that not only natural?"
Rei Kaguya folded his arms. Though his tone was calm, it concealed a biting chill.
"Allowing the body to return to its prime or even its youth, maintaining a good figure without any exercise or labor… These are S-rank ninjutsu that we shinobi standing at the peak of the shinobi world only managed to develop after spending countless effort and energy. If mortals want to obtain the right to use them, how could they possibly not pay a sufficient price?"
"But why?" Tsunade bit her full lips, still unable to understand Rei Kaguya's reason for doing this. "If you only want all the daimyo and merchants to stand on your side, wouldn't using genjutsu directly be faster and more effective? That Uchiha boy by your side, if I remember correctly, is a genius in the field of genjutsu, right?"
"Genjutsu is indeed useful, but in the end, it has limits and the hidden danger of being broken. The fact that you thought of using genjutsu to achieve the same effect proves that you are an outstanding shinobi. But that is all. You are merely a shinobi."
Rei Kaguya smiled and answered in a voice as still as an ancient well:
"If we use genjutsu to control a target, then once someone breaks that genjutsu, all we will obtain are targets overflowing with anger and hatred toward Kirigakure. It will also become extremely difficult to win them over to our side again.
"But for those who stand with Kirigakure because of my curse marks and your Strength of a Hundred Seal, even if they one day learn that using this combination of ninjutsu will continuously consume and shorten their lifespan, at most, they will merely express protest to us and urge us to quickly develop a combination ninjutsu with fewer side effects and longer-lasting effects. They will not choose to turn against us."
"No one can refuse the temptation of youth and indulgence. This is especially true for those nobles who possess vast wealth and power, yet are forced to abandon their desires because of their aging bodies. Once they taste what it feels like to regain their youth and indulge freely, they will no longer have the qualifications to hold the initiative before us.
"Even if I carry out no further reforms for Kirigakure afterward, as long as these two techniques can be inherited, Kirigakure will forever hold the initiative in negotiations with the Land of Water. Matters such as the daimyo cutting our funding and shinobi quotas will never again happen to Kirigakure."
"…Is that all?"
As Tsunade listened to Rei Kaguya's monologue, she considered the feasibility of his plan in her heart and kept nodding. Yet because of the faintly discernible anger hidden in Rei Kaguya's tone, she could not help feeling puzzled.
What are you angry about?
Why, when you speak of these ninjutsu continuously consuming the lives of those nobles who use them, do you carry an unconcealable pleasure?
Why, when you mention allowing shinobi villages to turn the tables and no longer need to worry about daimyo using funding cuts and similar means to suppress village development… do you reveal such sharp and cold killing intent?
What exactly… did you see?
Without realizing it, Tsunade's gaze drifted toward the enormous scroll as tall as a person.
Sealed within it were copied historical document scrolls from Konoha's major ninja clans, each recording important historical events from their respective clans' perspectives.
Among the demands Rei Kaguya had made to Konoha Village, that item had been the one that could offset the greatest amount of cash compensation.
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