Hiruzen Sarutobi knew very well that with the current strength of Konoha Village, it was already the most powerful military force in the entire Land of Fire. To some extent, it was also the de facto strongest lord of the Land of Fire. However, due to the relationship between the national employer and the mercenaries, Konoha Village did not have the same rights as local lords.
This indeed brought many conveniences to Konoha Village, such as not having the same political constraints as local lords, preventing the Daimyo from interfering in Konoha Village's internal affairs. But the disadvantage was that Konoha Village also couldn't thoroughly intervene in the internal affairs of the Land of Fire.
If it were in the early days of its establishment, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt that this was acceptable. Konoha Village was merely a pure ninja clan alliance, and its living environment still followed the traditional ninja way. Maintaining such an employment relationship was beneficial to both parties: the ninja village provided military force and gained money, while the Land of Fire could use the power of the ninjas, with neither interfering in the other's affairs.
However, after Konoha Village entered a period of rapid development, both the material life within the village and its ideological policies began to deviate from tradition. Especially after the establishment of mercantilism and the revival of the Ninshu ideology, commerce within Konoha Village developed on a large scale. Its scope could no longer meet all demands, and it had to seek markets, labor, and land externally, all becoming targets of demand.
The revival of Ninshu ideology, through the research of Fumori masaki, Kana, and others, further established the theoretical foundation for the almost utopian future of the ninja world envisioned during the Six Paths Sage's era. According to Fumori masaki, it was about seeking the establishment of the Six Paths Sage's ideal society with a scientific and pragmatic attitude.
On this point, Fumori masaki's writings mentioned that he viewed the Six Paths Sage's ideas as the ultimate form of future society in the ninja world. To summarize the experience, he thoroughly explained the development of Ninshu in its early, middle, and late stages, and explained the reasons why the current ninja world has become what it is today.
Although Fumori masaki's ideals in his writings were not explicitly stated, anyone who had deeply studied Ninshu doctrine could feel his strong dissatisfaction with the current national system. In his books, he emphasized the respect for human rights, which was an extension of the Six Paths Sage's ideology. Later, Fumori masaki called it humanism or humanitarianism, while the ideology for achieving the Six Paths Sage's ideal society was called Ninshu Socialism.
Hiruzen Sarutobi understood very well that Fumori masaki would eventually not be satisfied with the current situation, and this was not just his personal demand. With the rapid development of Konoha Village, conflicts with local nobles would always arise; there were already signs of this. It was only through Konoha Village's internal control that a stable state was maintained, preventing a full-blown conflict with national nobles.
Fumori masaki certainly wouldn't believe that the national Daimyo and local lords could fully uphold Konoha Village's ideals. As he just said, Konoha Village must unify the power of the Land of Fire, and to achieve this, Konoha Village must become the supreme leader of the nation.
However, this would undoubtedly be a very difficult path. Although Konoha Village's strength was formidable, it couldn't directly resort to military overthrow, which would only ignite an unprecedented civil war. At that time, not only would it fail to gain supreme power in the Land of Fire, but it might also be exploited by other countries. Even if it managed to succeed, how would it, as a mere mercenary, resolve the issue of traditional thought within the country?
Just thinking about it, Hiruzen Sarutobi could feel the risks involved. Fortunately, Fumori masaki was not such a radical person; he also expressed in his daily life the need to establish diplomatic relations with enlightened nobles. Konoha Village's commercial support also had deep ties with certain local lords, all of whom were nobles Konoha Village had carefully assessed and deemed capable of cooperation.
And it was precisely by leveraging the power of these nobles that Konoha Village wielded significant influence in the political affairs of the Land of Fire, allowing Konoha Village's propositions to be implemented in the ninja world. As for how far it could go,
Fumori masaki couldn't guarantee, so he had to ensure Konoha Village obtained the supreme power of the Land of Fire to ensure the continuous implementation of its policies.
Hiruzen Sarutobi supported Fumori masaki's idea. He himself was a member of Konoha Village. Although he came from a powerful ninja clan, he had sympathy for lower-level ninjas and commoners—otherwise, in the original history, Tobirama Senju would not have considered Hiruzen Sarutobi as his successor—he had no objections to the current village policies of elevating the status of civilian ninjas while maintaining respect for ninja clans. And for the village to gain supreme national power in the future, he saw no problem with it. For him, having the village as the supreme leader would ensure the implementation of current policies, which naturally brought more benefits.
As for the only concern, radicalism, Fumori masaki also controlled himself with good reason. He understood that no matter how rapidly Konoha Village developed, it couldn't control the entire country on its own. Therefore, uniting with existing noble officials was essential, but with careful selection. This way, even if internal conflicts with the Daimyo erupted, the process wouldn't be too intense—Hiruzen Sarutobi saw some clues in Fumori masaki's writings. His future idea seemed to be to confine the Daimyo to a high position, with the lords of the entire country acting as proxies for rule, and Konoha Village, as the strongest lord, would inevitably be at its center.
Hiruzen Sarutobi felt that such an outcome might be the best. Noble rule had been passed down for a long time and could not be abandoned overnight. Rather than aiming to overthrow the entire noble system, it was better to start with an intermediate transition and then proceed gradually. A swift resolution might seem satisfying, but the possibility of a backlash was also very high.
Fumori masaki had said that society has its own laws. If objective laws are ignored and a forceful overthrow is attempted, it will lead to unpredictable consequences. The ideology of Ninshu could be considered advanced, but even powerful figures like the Six Paths Sage and his successors failed to advance society to their ideal state. This shows that when the time is not right, an advanced system may not be more reasonable or suitable for the era than a backward one.
Of course, these were just thoughts in their minds for now, not yet at the stage of implementation. Hiruzen Sarutobi and Fumori masaki tacitly stopped and began discussing other matters, first mentioning the transaction between Kumogakure and Konoha Village.
"Soon, the first batch of exploding tags will be delivered. Then you can take these to trade with the people of Kumogakure. They will send the theoretical results of the Lightning Blast Tags and a batch of finished products here," Fumori masaki said.
Although Konoha Village's trade content included the manufacturing method for Lightning Blast Tags, logically, Konoha Village could completely produce and sell them itself. However, due to its fertile land, Konoha Village attracted a large concentration of powerful ninja clans, leading to a very complex composition of their ninjutsu. While this allowed them to cope with different enemies, it also created a problem—the insufficient number of people using a specific attribute.
If it was just about establishing organized units, there wouldn't be much of a problem, but it would certainly be impossible to establish units with distinct chakra affinities like those in other ninja villages. In other words, while Konoha Village could produce Lightning Blast Tags, neither its efficiency nor its output could compare to Kumogakure, where everyone could use lightning-style jutsu.
Therefore, Fumori masaki also placed an order for a batch of Lightning Blast Tags with Kumogakure. Kumogakure naturally had no objections; since they had already given away the manufacturing technique for Lightning Blast Tags, why be stingy with ordinary finished products? Since there was no problem and Kumogakure could earn money, why not?
"Hmm," Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, indicating he knew about this. "However, we can't keep ordering Lightning Blast Tags from Kumogakure, can we? Ever since the exploding cannon came out, the consumption of these things has rapidly increased. I heard there's some undersupply in the Land of Grass."
The Sarutobi clan traditionally used Fire Style and Earth Style and had always been skilled craftsmen in making exploding tags. After the exploding tag appeared, the Sarutobi clan, the Uchiha clan, and other fire-style clans took on the task of fulfilling exploding tag orders. Even so, there was still some undersupply.
"Yes, in the future, we must find a way to increase production and adopt more convenient and faster manufacturing methods," Fumori masaki understood that with the advent of semi-automatic ninja tools like the exploding cannon, traditional manual production would gradually fall behind and fail to keep up with supply. This was the inevitable trend towards industrialization. "For now, we can only try to improve efficiency and encourage more people to learn Fire Style and engage in production."
Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded slightly. This would increase the number of lower-level ninjas learning Fire Style and entering production. In the past, giving the exploding tag production market to others would certainly harm the Sarutobi clan's interests. However, Hiruzen Sarutobi understood that the exploding tag market after the appearance of the exploding cannon was by no means something one or two ninja clans could monopolize. Their best outcome was to become the major player in it.
Although Hiruzen Sarutobi bore the interests of the Sarutobi clan, as the successor Tobirama Senju had originally intended, he was willing to forgo some unnecessary greed to leave room for civilian ninjas to advance. In the rapid transformation of Konoha Village, he had realized that traditional ways of life were no longer suitable for ninja clans. If ninja clans wanted to live securely in the village in the future, they had to learn to change. Therefore, they couldn't be preoccupied with short-term interests but had to look further ahead.
Hiruzen Sarutobi firmly believed that even if the status of civilian ninjas rose, with the Sarutobi clan's heritage, its loyal and reliable character, and past military achievements, it would still maintain a very high position in the village. There was no need to contend with the village's overall policy. Perhaps some people couldn't understand this, but Hiruzen Sarutobi would do his best to establish this idea within his lifetime.
And this approach to ninja clans was what Fumori masaki had in mind. Fumori masaki understood that it was impossible to completely equalize the status of ninja clans with civilian ninjas; that was an ultimate society belonging only to the Six Paths Sage's ideal, and for now, it was a century-long pipe dream.
If civilian ninjas were promoted indiscriminately without any compensation to ninja clans, it would only ignite the embers of rebellion. Moreover, there were differences in power between people. Placing stronger, more contributing ninja clans on a completely equal footing with civilian ninjas, while seemingly fair, was actually the greatest injustice.
Fumori masaki was committed to ending the traditional monopoly of ninja clans and also hoped to elevate the status of civilian ninjas. As compensation for the sacrifices made by ninja clans, he would make up for them in other ways. For example, allowing ninja clans to be involved in the official enterprises supported within the village, compensating for losses through economic benefits, was one such policy. As for others, there were also some compensation plans.
And under the current circumstances, basically all ninja clans had no complaints. Even the most unsociable Uchiha clan, under the joint management of Fumori masaki and Kagami Uchiha, most people accepted the village's proposals, with only a small number of people still complaining behind the scenes.
Originally, it would take a long time for the steadily rising civilian ninjas to approach the level of clan ninjas—in the original work, although a civilian ninja like Minato Namikaze appeared, astounding an era, he was ultimately just one person, and by then, sixty years had passed since the founding of Konoha Village—Therefore, although ninja clans lost some benefits, with other compensations, they completely overlooked the past.
Fumori masaki felt that this was already the best outcome. Ninja clans had very deep foundations, and their connections through bloodlines made the gap between them and the numerous but loosely connected civilian ninjas difficult to bridge easily. In a situation where classes could not be completely eliminated, one could only hope to break the traditional monopoly and territorial divisions, allowing ninja clans and civilian ninjas to achieve equal status under the law, no longer having the previous barriers, earning respect, and determining status based on contributions. This was already a very fair method.
"If we want to increase production, we need to focus on the Dragon Veins in the Land of Rōran. The key to fully automated ninja tools will definitely be there in the future. In other words, the village must win an advantage in the Land of Rivers campaign, bring all the countries, including the Land of Rōran, under control, and then begin the task of relocating the Dragon Veins," Fumori masaki said.
"Although you say that, it won't be easy, especially moving the Dragon Veins during wartime. It would be very easy for the enemy to target us," Hiruzen Sarutobi said.
"Yes. Your battlefield will probably fall into a stalemate. You definitely won't lose, with you and the people from Kumogakure there. Therefore, the focus of the next campaign will be on the western front," Fumori masaki replied.
"Indeed, winning against the Land of Water won't yield much good, but no matter what, I'm definitely going to settle the score. Just wait for good news," Hiruzen Sarutobi said with a smile.