Evidently, the Fourth Shinobi World War had shifted the nation's balance of power.
The Hidden Leaf's aura of invincibility had been shattered by the enemy's incursions deep into Land of Fire territory, while the Daimyō's illusion of godhood had all but evaporated when it was discovered that he had been killed by a bunch of starving peasants who had stumbled upon his hidden palace, far from the front lines.
In comparison, the capitalists—
Munch, munch, munch.
"Naruto, please chew with your mouth closed," Sakura whispered, flicking a grain of rice from her cleavage. "I can barely hear myself think."
A long table had been set up in the mess hall, which had been redecorated into a banquet hall. Naturally, the Daimyō sat in the seat of honour at one end, while the Lord Regent sat to his right, with Sakura and Naruto sitting across the table from him, on the Daimyō's left. An enormous roasted pig sat in the middle of the table, thankfully hiding Tarutsu's nasty face from view.
Sakura resumed her earlier thought:
—in comparison, the capitalists had survived the ordeal far better than the other two traditional poles of power. War was an excellent opportunity for merchants to make profits, and by divesting assets they knew would be seized and reinvesting trade benefits, hiring foreign shinobi for protection, and generally knowing which way the wind was blowing, the cleverest of them had somehow managed to emerge even richer than before.
For instance, the Gatō Transport Company. Thanks to their caravans and ships, and their shady connections with Kirigakure's pirates, they had avoided most of the losses their contemporaries had suffered and emerged as the number one zaibatsu in the Lands of Fire, Wind, and Water.
In comparison, the nobles were stuck to their respective territories, wholly dependent on raising taxes from the people who lived on their lands to make money. Whether they were ruined or managed to maintain the status quo depended largely on luck, on whether their lands had been invaded or successfully defended. They were far less flexible, so it was hardly surprising that many of them had not been able to recover from the recent war.
In other words… the nobles needed the Hidden Leaf's shinobi more than the Hidden Leaf needed them, and that gave Sakura leverage she could use against the capitalists to obtain whichever benefits she desired. Even though the various noble factions had lost much of their historical power, their influence could not be ignored… as evidenced from the fact that Tarutsu himself was supporting young Hinoura-heika, Daimyō of the Land of Fire by divine mandate.
"Thish ish sheriously delish, ya know?" Naruto said with his mouth full, thrusting a plate laden with assorted roasted meats under her nose. "You've gotta try thish, Shakura-chan!"
Sakura cast her gaze across the banquet hall.
Prefectural governors, nobles who had managed to cling to power, influential capitalists and captains of industry had all made the perilous journey through the fog between worlds to reach the Hidden Leaf Village. They each had their own reasons for coming here tonight; some wanted the village reopened so they could fully access its services again, others were here for the pleasures of the flesh offered by the Manyū clan, but most were here for a much simpler reason…
"I've long heard rumours of the Edo Tensei, the Impure World Reincarnation Jutsu that allows its caster to fish souls out of the Pure Land and forcibly incarnate them within this mortal coil, but I never quite believed them," one fat nobleman was telling his neighbour at the table, taking a brief pause from tearing into his food to speak. "I saw the First Hokage when I was but a wee lad, and seeing him here, alive fifty years after his death, I cannot help but think those rumours were actually true all along!"
"It seems the shinobi of the Hidden Leaf have perfected the jutsu," said his companion, an aged noblewoman in a purple furisode. "I was told the jutsu brought one back in a tortured form composed of dust, a mere puppet unable to enjoy the pleasures of life, but just look at the First Hokage, happily eating and laughing away… he seems very much alive to me, don't you think?"
"It's not true, kore!"
The two noblemen looked at their young waiter in confusion. If memory served, wasn't this the Third Hokage's grandson? What was he doing here, waiting tables and shouting in their ears while bringing them new dishes fresh from the kitchens?
"It was that Pain bastard's jutsu that revived everyone, kore!" Konohamaru shouted. "Don't you think Sakura-neechan and gramps would've revived everyone who died during the war if they had that power, kore?"
Silence fell over the banquet hall.
"Grandson!" the Third Hokage roared. "What are you doing here!?"
"Oops, busted," Konohamaru said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. "They found us, kore!"
Sakura watched as Konohamaru ran straight to his teammates, resulting in them being discovered as well. They flipped over a few tables as the shinobi in charge of security chased after them, and after leading him in circles around a particularly rotund old man a few times, they finally escaped into the kitchens, whereupon a cacophony of crashing pots and pans and smashing earthenware rang out.
"Come to think of it, didn't the Fifth Hokage have some kind of secret jutsu to maintain her youth?" one decrepit noble lady said, once calm had returned. "I should very much like to shave off a few years…"
Sakura's sharp ears could hear every word that was being said in the room, and the topics that most often came up were resurrection, rejuvenation, eternal youth, and immortality.
True resurrection could be achieved with the Rinnegan's Outer Path. With Organic Reincarnation and Creation Rebirth, Sakura could restore her body to its peak state whenever she was hurt, and with the power of Gelel Stones, she could maintain her youth… but true immortality, or eternity, had yet to be achieved.
Sakura's duty was first and foremost to the Hidden Leaf Village, and then to the Land of Fire… if she gave these powerful people, who had never wanted for anything, what they had always wished for but could never obtain, she would undoubtedly reap great benefits, both for herself and for the village, and yet…
Those things belonged to the Ōtsutsuki, to the domain of the divine… a path that denied humanity. And yet, those things were what humanity most desired. Despite Sakura's lust for chakra, never once had she considered becoming the Ten-Tails' Jinchūriki during the past two years, because she knew deep down that it was a path from which there was no turning back.
"Gllk!"
A strangled cry suddenly stirred Sakura from her philosophical musings.
"Somebody help, the First Hokage is choking on a chicken bone!"