Chapter 244: Playing tricks?
The entire ninja world was condemning the Sand Village.
But that was only on the surface.
Behind closed doors, the Sand Village's pharmaceutical resources continued flowing smoothly into every nation's markets. Even those villages with meaningful military strength that had publicly turned toward Konoha and severed their formal cooperation with the Sand Village had only closed off a portion of the market.
At the civilian level, meaning the daily lives of ordinary people, dependence on Sand Village medicines had not diminished at all.
This was because the counterfeit medicines Konoha had pushed to market were concentrated primarily on battlefield trauma treatment, targeting ninja as the main consumer group. Their development and distribution of civilian-grade pharmaceutical alternatives was moving considerably more slowly.
In that segment of the market, the Sand Village still held an effectively monopolistic position.
Furthermore, absorbing another village's market share required time and sustained effort. Based on the current pace and efficiency of Konoha's market push, including the feedback coming back from actual buyers, it would take at least a year before Konoha's market presence could genuinely compete with the Sand Village on equal footing.
In other words, regardless of how many nations and powerful figures were publicly posturing their criticism of the Sand Village, or even dispatching envoys to the Land of Wind's Daimyo's office attempting to leverage the situation, they were still quietly maintaining their private cooperative relationships with the Sand Village behind the scenes.
The overall picture, when viewed honestly, looked more like an elaborate performance of political theater than anything resembling genuine united opposition.
That said, Konoha and the other four great hidden villages had obtained what they actually wanted from the exercise. That was the so-called moral high ground. A publicly righteous image.
The Sand Village's sudden military strike against the Land of Rain had given the other four great hidden villages a common position to stand on together for the first time. The major villages and their respective Daimyo offices issued joint statements. Even the previously fiercest combatants, Konoha and the Hidden Mist Village, set down their weapons.
This marked the formal conclusion of the Third Great Ninja War.
Of course, statements were statements. Just as it had been after the Second Great Ninja War, the official end of hostilities did not mean friction and small conflicts would not continue breaking out beneath the surface. A war that had burned for years left behind resentments and grievances that did not vanish overnight. The path toward genuine peacetime, with enough breathing room for each village to rebuild and recover, would likely require several more years before the war's aftershocks fully faded.
The Kazekage building. The office.
Shimizu stood holding a compiled report of the current battlefield situation across the Land of Rain's various regions and handed it to Yuji, saying, "Lord Kazekage. Please review this."
Yuji accepted it and began reading through the contents.
"The external forces operating within the Land of Rain's borders have been essentially swept clean. These groups were almost all armed organizations and factions that had moved in from elsewhere to exploit the Land of Rain's chaotic conditions. Some of them were even detachments from smaller hidden villages."
"As for the current internal situation, the Hidden Rain Village's remnant forces, including all locally aligned factions with known ties to Hanzo's organization, have been located and eliminated in nearly their entirety," Shimizu added.
"So the flies have been cleared out as well. What remains are just the local resistance organizations native to the country, correct?" Yuji nodded.
"That is right. These homegrown rebel groups are not particularly threatening in isolation. But fully consolidating control over the Land of Rain is not as simple as just eliminating them. What is needed is a sustained garrison presence across every region over a defined period of time, maintaining a firm and visible military posture that extinguishes any regional faction's belief that resistance could ever succeed.
The goal is to create a deeply rooted sense of military inevitability, so that regardless of how much time passes, anyone who considers mounting a resistance understands they would simply be choosing death."
Shimizu continued.
"Only by doing this can the Land of Rain be brought into a genuine period of stability, after which the village can begin concentrating its energy on development and reform."
"How long will that take?"
Yuji set the document down.
"At minimum, one year," Shimizu said, analyzing it carefully.
Theoretically, after one year, the Land of Wind could be considered to have achieved genuine comprehensive control over the Land of Rain. At present, what had been achieved was occupation. Full consolidation was still a work in progress.
"How is the reconstruction of the second hidden village coming along?"
Yuji asked next. The second hidden village he was referring to was the rebuilt Hidden Rain Village.
"It should be finished within a few months. The original village was small to begin with and the construction scope is not large. Our assigned personnel are almost entirely in position already," Shimizu replied.
"And the Fuma clan?"
"Managing well enough. After all, they are not operating on a conventional front-line battlefield. Their opponents are rebel factions, so the pressure they face is not particularly severe," Shimizu said.
"Though a few members refused to follow orders and arrangements. Sasori handled them."
"I see," Yuji said, rubbing his temple.
"On the Konoha side, Namikaze Minato is about to formally become the Fourth Hokage. Contact the Daimyo's office over there. Whatever our current relationship with Konoha looks like, we should still send along some form of congratulations."
"Understood," Shimizu said, turning to leave.
After he had gone, Black Zetsu slipped out from within the wall behind Yuji.
"What is it?"
"Something has happened in the Hidden Mist Village," Black Zetsu said.
"Speak."
"The Third Mizukage is dead."
"That quickly?"
Something stirred quietly in Yuji's chest.
The Third Great Ninja War had only just ended, and the Third Mizukage was already gone. The timeline was considerably faster than the original story.
"He was killed," Black Zetsu added.
"By whom?"
"Naturally, by the people closest to him. While Madara was still alive, the Hidden Mist Village managed to maintain some degree of fragile balance. Madara's relationship with the Hidden Mist Village was not purely exploitative. There had been a degree of genuine support extended to them as well."
"The Third Mizukage, when measured by his authority, his reputation, and the contributions and military achievements he had accumulated since taking the position, could not compare to either of his predecessors. Combined with the extended period he had spent under Madara's influence, which had effectively reduced him to a puppet throughout, this had made it impossible for him to build genuine loyalty within the village."
"So the moment the Great Ninja War ended and he was already gravely ill, he naturally became the ideal target for anyone who wanted to move against him. Eliminating him now was the perfect opportunity to claim the Mizukage seat."
Black Zetsu laid it out slowly.
"A butterfly effect?" Yuji wondered to himself.
No. Something felt off.
Black Zetsu's explanation sounded reasonable on the surface, but something about it nagged at him.
Madara's death had not been something Yuji had interfered with directly. He had only eliminated Obito. Madara's control over the Third Mizukage and his indirect influence over the Hidden Mist Village's operations had not been something that started yesterday.
Even though Madara had already died some time ago, the damage done to the Third Mizukage over that long period of control could not simply be undone. The internal dynamics of the Hidden Mist Village that had been set in motion would not have changed just because Madara was gone.
By any reasonable calculation, the butterfly effect Yuji had introduced should not have produced such a clean and obvious result. The Third Mizukage's death was inevitable, but why this quickly? And more importantly, the manner of death was clearly not natural causes.
Yuji's mind sharpened as these thoughts settled. He stood and turned to look at Black Zetsu directly.
Black Zetsu met his gaze. The room went very quiet for a moment in a way that felt unsettling.
A second or two passed.
Black Zetsu swallowed involuntarily.
Then Yuji's composed expression broke into a smile, dissolving the tense atmosphere.
"A bit unexpected, but dead is dead. Find a way to bring the body back."
He gave the instruction casually.
"Understood," Black Zetsu replied.
And immediately left.
Only after confirming Black Zetsu had gone did Yuji allow the cold edge to surface in his eyes.
"So. Moving this quickly to start playing games with me."
He laughed coldly to himself.
His instincts were telling him clearly that all of this was almost certainly Black Zetsu's doing. But for the moment, he could not identify its purpose.
Yuji decided to keep one eye open and one eye shut for now.
In Black Zetsu's assessment, Yuji's knowledge of the ninja world's history and secrets was extraordinary, but Black Zetsu did not understand that Yuji was a transmigrator, someone who under conditions where the fate line was not heavily disrupted could effectively see what the future held.
With both Madara and Obito dead, the plan to manipulate Yagura and plunge the Hidden Mist Village into its era of blood and darkness would no longer come to pass.
A Hidden Mist Village without that interference would theoretically develop along more normal lines without any intervention from Yuji.
However, Yuji now had a very clear understanding of the Hidden Mist Village's internal situation. Given the village's particular assessment system for ninja, which had produced deeply entrenched customs over generations, and the fractured and disunified power structure within the village, the Third Mizukage's death at this moment would create an unmistakable power vacuum.
Yagura was the most likely candidate to become the next Mizukage, but the other major clan representatives and power factions within the Hidden Mist Village also harbored ambitions for the seat. They would not simply yield.
There was a real possibility that civil war would break out.
...
Stones???
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