"Ryosuke, you've already unified the entire world. What do you plan to do next?"
Jiraiya's question made the lively drinking table fall silent.
Kakashi and Iwamine both put down their glasses and looked at Ryosuke, waiting to see what kind of answer he would give.
Unifying the world, defeating powerful enemies, resolving the hidden dangers that had plagued the ninja world for thousands of years…
Any one of these achievements, placed on a single person, would be enough to make their name go down in history, and enough for any individual or group to devote an entire lifetime to.
Ryosuke had accomplished all of this in just a few short years.
The reason he could do it was, first, his terrifyingly overwhelming strength, and second, and more importantly, the indescribable, unique charisma he carried.
Click!
Ryosuke set down his wine glass. The smile on his face slowly faded, his back straightened, and he spoke softly, "The upper level, the daimyo, the nations, the ninja villages… we've already dealt with them, completely."
"But the old daimyo and bureaucratic groups stood too high above the ground. After removing them, the impact on the people at the bottom was actually not as big as we imagined."
"So next…"
The smile vanished entirely from Ryosuke's face.
"…it's the middle-level forces of the ninja world."
The five great nations merged, bureaucratic groups were reorganized, and financial conglomerates disappeared. For ordinary civilians, it was nothing short of a complete change of heaven and earth.
But what about factory owners, business owners, and the small local landlords in various villages?
Ryosuke said, "People work eight hours a day. If they create a hundred yuan in value, a conscientious boss takes half and gives the other half to the workers. An unconscientious boss takes eighty percent and gives the remaining twenty percent to the workers."
"The proportions go up and down, but roughly speaking, that's how it is."
Kakashi scratched his head. "Isn't that normal?"
'Isn't that just how companies and bosses work?'
Ryosuke shook his head slightly and said seriously, "No. All the wealth that's created should belong to the workers."
"All wealth is created by 'workers', and this is a broad definition, procurement staff, technical staff, office workers, frontline operators, they're all workers."
"Only when all of it goes to the workers is there a world without exploitation, a world that truly follows distribution according to labor."
After he said this, Iwamine could still ponder it thoughtfully, but Kakashi and Jiraiya were already staring in shock, thinking they must have drunk fake alcohol or that their ears were playing tricks on them.
The Ryosuke they knew wasn't someone who spoke so unreasonably.
Jiraiya pressed his dry lips together, thought for a while, and said, "But Ryosuke, giving everything to the workers sounds great, but… isn't that too unfair?"
Companies and factories are set up by bosses who risk losing everything.
Without bosses setting up factories, workers wouldn't even have jobs.
The boss takes some, the workers take some, doesn't that make sense?
Just like the landlords in the past, you have people, I have land, we cooperate, and after the harvest we split the money. The tenant farmers even had to thank the landlord.
Ryosuke said seriously, "Perhaps bosses and factory owners did take risks, but they've long since gained returns far exceeding those risks."
"I will not allow anyone to rely on ownership of the means of production, do no labor, and yet seize the fruits of others' labor. That is not cooperation, it is exploitation."
Public ownership of the means of production.
The people being masters of their own affairs.
And a sense of ownership.
These were the things Ryosuke intended to do next, and things that absolutely had to be done.
In the past, the upper and middle levels of the ninja world were bound together by bloodlines, clans, and noble families.
Now, Ryosuke had broken that bloodline-first, father-to-son, son-to-grandson structure, launched a new administrative system, and allowed outstanding talents to enter the official system through examinations.
The advantage was that elites gathered together, people who actually got things done.
The disadvantage was that among elites, the bonds were no longer blood ties, but ideology and interests.
In other words, in the past, when families and bureaucrats wanted to betray the country or humanity, they still had to think it over, worrying about the impact on their clans.
After Ryosuke overturned the old system, once members of the new administrative system developed seeds of "betrayal" or "self-interest" in their hearts, they would have very little psychological burden.
Otsutsuki Kinshiki, Momoshiki, Isshiki, Kaguya, one after another had died in the ninja world. It was hard to say whether new Otsutsuki would appear in the future.
If they wanted to avoid a situation where, when the Otsutsuki invaded the ninja world again, a group of elites made the wrong choices under pressure or temptation, reform toward public ownership was critically important.
Ryosuke explained everything calmly. He wasn't passionate or heated, just plain and steady, like he was telling a boring story.
But to Kakashi and the other two, it felt as if they were witnessing an earthquake that would sweep across the entire ninja world and affect everyone.
Seeing them staring at him blankly, Ryosuke chuckled lightly and picked up his glass.
At first glance, what he said might sound complicated, but the core idea was actually very simple, "Those who work more earn more; those who work less earn less."
Under Ryosuke's influence, warfare in the ninja world had disappeared, and with support from research institutes, more and more people could eat their fill.
And now…
"…it's about letting everyone eat that meal with a bit more peace of mind."
As for weapons research, lunar development, and space exploration, of course those still had to be done. But for the near future, Ryosuke wanted to focus more on people's livelihoods.
Especially after learning how Kaguya and Black Zetsu's family had influenced the ninja world for a thousand years, Ryosuke wanted even more to free everyone from such miserable lives.
———
The drinking didn't last very long.
After carrying out Obito's death sentence today, Kakashi and Jiraiya ended up talking about Minato Namikaze, Rin, and the Third Hokage.
Then they thought of Naruto, who had grown up lonely since childhood. Affected by their emotions, they got drunk after just a few cups and collapsed into a staggered sleep.
Jiraiya was completely drunk, and even while unconscious he occasionally cursed things like "that damn Danzo."
It wasn't easy to leave two drunk men in an izakaya. Leaving them to Iwamine to watch over, Ryosuke hoisted Jiraiya on one shoulder and Kakashi on the other, preparing to take them back to his residence in Kirigakure.
Iwamine saw through Ryosuke's concern. She tilted her head slightly, her brows curved like a crescent moon, and smiled as she looked over. "Oh my, if I'd known that getting drunk meant Lord Ryosuke would personally carry me away, I would've pretended to be drunk too."
Ryosuke knew she was joking. He smiled and waved his hand, then turned and walked out of the izakaya.
Iwamine didn't close the door, letting the light from the entrance slantingly illuminate Ryosuke's path as he walked away. She stood quietly by the doorway, lit a lady's cigarette, and watched his retreating figure.
Only after the cigarette burned out did she let out a soft sigh and turn off the lights.
———
Over the next two months, the ninja world was extremely turbulent.
It wasn't because the Otsutsuki had attacked again.
No matter how tempting the ninja world was, the Otsutsuki couldn't be fixated on wreaking havoc on this one planet every single day.
It was the business owners who were making trouble.
They were relatively restrained, knowing where the red lines were.
But the spoiled young masters and young ladies had no such sense of limits.
Recently, the ninja forces and the Extermination Army had been busy arresting people, and quite a few had tried to pull strings and ask Ryosuke for leniency.
In response, Ryosuke showed a rare lack of sympathy.
In the end, people have to take responsibility for their own actions.
After this happened a few times, everyone understood Ryosuke's determination and no longer dared to come begging for favors.
In the blink of an eye, it was late summer.
Ryosuke sat facing Terumi Mei. The two of them were looking at a document together. Halfway through, Ryosuke suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck, as if some little ghost were blowing cold air at him.
He turned his head to look.