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In the garden, the atmosphere was extremely heavy.
Asuma sat blankly in his seat, the daimyo's questions from earlier constantly echoing in his mind.
The names of the craftsmen... father... husband... are they people, or tools?
These words shattered his understanding, which he had built over twenty years.
He wanted to refute, but found that he couldn't utter a single word.
Because what the daimyo said was the truth.
He could protect them, because it was an easy thing to do.
But he had indeed never truly put those ordinary people in his eyes.
Just then, a maid came over, preparing to pour wine for Shin.
Shin raised his hand to stop her.
While the maid was at a loss, he picked up his empty wine glass, looked at Asuma, and said, "Asuma, look."
"My glass is empty, if you were me..."
As soon as these words came out, before he could finish, the faces of the Guardian Shinobi changed drastically, and they all knelt down, saying they wouldn't dare.
"I said, 'if'!" Shin shook his head helplessly. "Get up, all of you!"
Only then did everyone get up.
"Let's not talk about chakra consumption, if I were you!" Shin changed his hypothesis and continued. "Could I use ninjutsu to make the wine from this pot automatically fly into the glass?"
Although Asuma's mind was in a mess, he could still answer this question.
"...Yes."
"Good, then let me ask you again." Shin smiled, then pointed to the maid beside him and said, "Why don't I do that, and instead have her pour the wine for me?"
"Wouldn't using ninjutsu be faster and more convenient?"
This question was too simple.
So simple that Asuma didn't even need to think.
"Because... because she is a maid, pouring wine... is her job..."
As soon as the words left his mouth, Asuma himself was stunned.
Maid... job...
It was as if a lightning bolt flashed through his mind, instantly connecting those seemingly unrelated questions!
The names of the craftsmen... family... not letting them finish building the house... the maid's job...
Asuma was completely dumbfounded.
He looked at Shin, his eyes filled with shock and daze, his lips trembling.
It wasn't just him.
Nara Shikato, Hyuga Hizashi... all the shinobi present, at this moment, their expressions all changed!
They looked at the maid standing respectfully, and in an instant, they all understood that most crucial point!
Seeing their expressions of shattered worldview, Shin knew that the time was right.
"Now do you understand?" He spoke calmly. "I made you stop to return these jobs to the craftsmen who need them to support their families."
Shin's voice suddenly turned cold, his sharp gaze sweeping over everyone.
"But do you think what I want to teach you is merely the efficiency of shinobi and not to steal the livelihoods of civilians?"
"You are wrong!"
"I sent you to the construction site to let you see with your own eyes what truly forms the foundation of this country, something that you, the high and mighty strong, have completely ignored!"
"It is those craftsmen! It is those farmers! It is the tens of thousands of civilians who earn their food through their own labor!"
Shin stood up, his hands behind his back, an invisible aura of a monarch enveloped the entire garden.
"I've heard this saying: With great power comes great responsibility."
"And you do fulfill your responsibilities—fighting shinobi from other countries, executing S-rank missions, protecting the safety of the Land of Fire."
"But have you ever thought that your so-called responsibility is itself built upon a wrong foundation!"
Asuma's body trembled violently, his face as pale as paper.
He recalled the Will of Fire his father often spoke of, and the seniors who sacrificed for the village... could it be that they were all wrong?
Shin's voice was like thunder, exploding in their ears.
"For decades, the Five Great Shinobi Villages have been at war, with constant friction. Whose homes were destroyed in every war?"
"Whose trade routes were cut off in every conflict? And behind every mission, how many illicit and dirty dealings were hidden?"
"You are immersed in the honor of shinobi and the bonds of the village, yet you have never truly stooped down to see the full picture of this country!"
The Guardian Shinobi stared blankly at the daimyo, all of them dumbfounded.
And Shin's voice continued.
"Your wars make merchants afraid to invest!"
"Your opposition makes civilians homeless!"
"Your existence has turned the entire country's economy and people's livelihoods into a distorted state, dependent on the shinobi mission system!"
"You haven't personally stolen a craftsman's livelihood, but this shinobi era that you maintain..."
Shin took a step forward, his voice deafening!
"This old order is continuously taking away the right of all ordinary people to stable work and a prosperous life!"
"This is the greatest plunder!"
He looked at the Guardian Shinobi, with a hint of pity in his eyes.
"I stopped the project to make you understand a very simple truth: this country doesn't lack a few shinobi who can build houses."
"Rather, it lacks a peaceful environment where all craftsmen can build houses with peace of mind!"
"A stable order where all farmers can farm with peace of mind!"
"And you, as the violent group of this country, your responsibility is not to do their labor for them!"
"But to use your power to end this damned era of shinobi infighting!"
"To establish an unshakable absolute order!"
"To become the sharp sword and strong shield that maintains this order!"
"In this new order, shinobi are the guardians of the country, the defenders of peace, the enforcers of law!"
"And not warlords who operate outside the country, able to wage war at will for a bit of profit!"
"Let all ordinary people, under the peace you protect, have work, have land to cultivate, have a home to return to, and live with dignity!"
Shin's voice echoed in the night sky, every word filled with power.
"This is the new order I want to establish!"
"This, in my eyes, is the true Will of Fire!"
After speaking, he turned and walked back to the main seat, sitting down again.
The entire garden was silent.
All the Guardian Shinobi sat blankly in their seats, as if their souls had been drawn out.
Looking at their dispirited appearance, Shin's heart didn't have too many ripples, only a flash of determination.
These people, including their fathers, and even the First Hokage Senju Hashirama who founded this era, had fallen into a huge historical misconception.
Ending the Warring States period and establishing Konoha was indeed a groundbreaking feat.
But that shinobi god was, in the end, too naive.
He merely consolidated countless small family wars into several large national wars, replacing families with villages, but causing the scale and destructive power of the wars to increase exponentially.
He naively believed that achieving military balance through the distribution of tailed beasts would bring peace.
Little did he know, this precisely sowed the seeds for the next, larger-scale war.
The one-country, one-village system he established further fostered a distorted economy that operated by selling violence.
Under this system, true peace would instead cause the massive violent machine that is the shinobi village to lose its meaning of existence.
Therefore, the so-called Will of Fire, from the very beginning, only protected the interests of the small group that was Konoha.
This was an old order that was rotten from its foundation.
And what Shin had to do was to personally correct this mistake and uproot this distorted era!