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The garden was silent.
Shin's words left every Guardian Shinobi frozen in place.
Their proud beliefs were utterly shattered.
Asuma lowered his head, his gaze fixed on his slightly trembling hands.
These hands had been stained with blood, and had also protected the Will of Fire.
But now, he only felt an unprecedented emptiness and bewilderment.
Nara Shikato's mind was blank. His usual schemes seemed so pale and ridiculous before the grand blueprint described by the daimyo.
In this frozen silence...
"Thud."
A soft sound.
Dull, yet clear.
Everyone looked in the direction of the sound.
It was Chiriku, the monk from the Fire Temple.
He gently laid the tin staff, a symbol of his monastic status and cultivation, on the ground beside his feet.
His movements were slow and solemn, very ritualistic.
Everyone's gaze was drawn to him.
On Chiriku, the compassionate Buddhist nature was slowly dissipating.
He stood up.
Calmly, he removed his monk's hat, revealing his head glinting faintly under the lamplight.
Then, he unfastened the loose monk's robe, a symbol of Buddhist precepts.
The robe slipped from his shoulders.
Revealing a black, close-fitting combat suit!
Underneath the suit, muscles were clearly defined, brimming with power.
It was as if he had transformed from a chanting monk into a warrior.
Everyone was too stunned by Chiriku's sudden action to speak.
Shin leaned back in the main seat, quietly watching the esteemed monk, wondering what he would do next.
Stripped of his monk's robe, Chiriku seemed to have broken free from some shackles.
He stepped forward, walking to the center of the garden, directly facing the young monarch in the main seat.
The next second...
This highly respected monk of the Fire Temple bent his knees and knelt heavily before Shin, letting out a dull thud!
"My lord."
Chiriku spoke, his voice no longer gentle and mellow.
"Please tell me."
He no longer referred to himself as 'this humble monk.'
"How can we create the new order you speak of... where everyone can live in peace, and everyone has dignity?"
"I, Chiriku, am willing to become the blade in your hand, to cut down all obstacles!"
Boom!
Chiriku's vow left the other Guardian Shinobi dumbfounded!
Nara Shikato and Hyuga Hizashi even held their breath!
They understood!
They understood why Chiriku had laid down his staff and shed his monk's robe!
Because the world described by the daimyo could never be achieved through chanting and blessings!
To end this era of shinobi warfare, the price would inevitably be blood and fire!
To establish an order where mortals could live in peace, it was necessary to first use the most extreme violence to bury this decaying old world!
This was a way of Asura... destined to have hands stained with blood!
Chiriku was a Buddhist. He was more compassionate than anyone else present.
But it was precisely because of his compassion that he was the first to step forward!
Because he had awakened.
Chanting and reciting Buddhist scriptures could not save this world.
To establish a Buddhist kingdom on earth, one must first become an incarnation of Asura wielding a sword, to sweep away all karmic obstructions in the world!
To build a Buddhist kingdom on earth, he was willing to enter hell!
Realizing this, Hyuga Hizashi began to tremble violently.
He thought of the Hyuga clan's Caged Bird Seal, destined for eternal suffering.
He thought of his branch family compatriots, branded by the main family and enslaved until death.
Wasn't the new order spoken of by the daimyo the dawn of breaking his own fate, and the fate of the entire branch family?!
He no longer hesitated.
Hyuga Hizashi suddenly stood up, strode to Chiriku's side, mimicked his posture, and knelt down resolutely!
"My lord! I, Hyuga Hizashi, am willing to die for you!"
One.
Two.
The remaining Guardian Shinobi, whether truly inspired, swept up by the atmosphere, or having instantly weighed the pros and cons...
All rose, walked to the center of the garden, and offered their knees before the young monarch.
"Please, my lord, show us the way forward!"
For a moment, they, the backbone of Konoha, all knelt.
The scene was solemn, like a pilgrimage.
Shin watched calmly.
His gaze swept over each person, his eyes deep, as if he could see through their thoughts.
Nara Shikato and Uchiha's opportunism.
Asuma's struggle.
And Chiriku's almost martyred resolve.
Enough.
A single spark is enough to start a prairie fire.
Shin stood up from the main seat.
He did not give orders from above, but instead came before the crowd.
He walked directly to Chiriku, extended his hands, and personally helped the monk, who was willing to transform into an Asura, to his feet.
Shin said softly, "Chiriku, I have received your resolve."
He looked at Chiriku, and then at the others, and said, "You want to know how to do it?"
"The method is very simple."
"The reason this land is plagued by endless wars, in the final analysis, is due to only one reason."
He paused, the words he uttered devoid of any warmth.
"Because there are too many names on this land."
"Konoha, Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, Kirigakure..."
"Land of Fire, Land of Wind, Land of Earth..."
"As long as these villages and national borders exist for one day, war will never end."
"The First Hokage tried it once, but you've seen the results!"
"So, to achieve permanent peace, there is only one way."
Shin's voice suddenly rose, carrying absolute will!
"That is, to shatter all the villages!"
"To flatten all national borders!"
"To use the strongest power to end this thousand-year conflict!"
"To ensure that from now on, only one voice remains on this land!"
His voice echoed in everyone's ears.
"Only when all the people of this land truly become one family will peace endure."
Shin's tone shifted, and the overwhelming aura that could incinerate heaven and earth quietly receded.
"But conquest is only the beginning."
"A world forcibly held together by violence alone is fragile."
His words calmed the shinobi who had just been burning with passion.
The fanaticism and confusion in their eyes rapidly faded, replaced by inquiry.
Shin continued, "The future I wish to see is one where children from the Land of Wind can study with children from the Land of Fire in the same classroom."
"It is where artisans from Iwagakure will forge the sharpest fishing knives for fishermen from Kirigakure."
"When each other's languages are no longer barriers, when a common culture becomes a bloodline, when everyone strives for the same better tomorrow..."
"By then, divisions and hatred will naturally vanish."
Everyone pondered, only Chiriku's eyes shone brightly.
It turned out that what the daimyo wanted was not an empire ruled by an iron fist, but a truly harmonious world.
Such a world could be called a Buddhist kingdom on earth.
Violence was merely a means of clearing away garbage.
Governance was the goal.
Shin ignored everyone's shock. His thoughts seemed to pierce through the night sky, seeing the scene a hundred years later.
"I know this is very difficult."
In his voice, there was a sigh facing endless time.
"So difficult that even if we exhaust our entire lives, we can only lay the first cornerstone for this long road to the future."
These words silenced everyone.
Yes, how difficult it was.
It was simply a fantasy.
In the shinobi world, hatred had persisted for a thousand years.
The blood debts between different villages were simply incalculable.
To make the descendants of enemies sit together, as close as brothers?
How was that possible!
Shin saw their wavering.
"But, as long as the journey begins, there will always be a day when the destination is reached."
He looked at his first followers before him, his voice becoming steady.
"If we cannot do it, then let our descendants do it."
Hyuga Hizashi suddenly looked up.
Descendants...
In his mind, his young son, Neji, appeared.
That child, when he grew a little older, would be branded with the Caged Bird Seal.
Would Neji's descendants also have to endure this fate forever?
No!
If this new order could truly be established... if the boundaries between nations and villages truly disappeared... then what meaning would the Hyuga clan's so-called main family and branch family still have?
The Caged Bird Seal would no longer exist!
Hyuga Hizashi's breathing became rapid, his fists tightly clenched.
Shin's words continued.
"If descendants cannot do it, there are their descendants."
He paused, letting these words deeply brand themselves into everyone's soul.
"Generations upon generations, endlessly."
This proverb, spoken from his mouth now, was no longer an allegory.
But a sacred vow passed down through bloodline.
Asuma's body trembled.
He thought of his father.
He had spent his entire life maintaining Konoha and protecting the so-called Will of Fire.
But what was the result?
The war still hadn't stopped.
Perhaps... Father was wrong from the beginning.
Perhaps, only protecting Konoha was too narrow-minded.
Only when the entire world became one family would there be no need to protect anything anymore.
Because there would be no more external enemies.
Shin's voice rose again.
"As long as we, and our future generations, move towards this goal, never looking back..."
"Then everything we envision today will eventually become reality!"
Boom!
In everyone's minds, it was as if thunder had exploded.
They felt their souls being reshaped.
Their daimyo had not only pointed out the enemies they needed to slay but had also described the homeland they could personally build after the battle ended!
The future was no longer vague.
But a future that, if they just reached out and worked hard, generation after generation, they would eventually touch!
Hope!
Burned fiercely in everyone's hearts!
Watching their transformation, Shin's face finally showed a hint of a smile.
In that smile, there was no monarch's majesty, nor a schemer's calculations.
Only the pioneer's expectations for his followers.
"And you, along with me, will become the... of this new world."
"Pioneers!"