Chapter 150: The Cloud's Path
After a moment of silence, the Third Raikage, A, looked at his youngest son. "Are you going to ask me," he said, "why I chose to back down?"
Dana said nothing, which was a tacit admission.
The Third Raikage looked at his son, who was now as tall as his shoulder, and for a moment, he was lost in thought. When did he get so tall?
"The ninja village system," he said, coming back to the present, "was established by the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju. It united the warring clans, who were in a constant state of conflict. After that, the other powerful ninja and influential clans of the ninja world followed suit. The Yotsuki clan was one of them. At that time, the first Raikage gathered a large number of clans from the Land of Lightning and the surrounding countries and established the Hidden Cloud Village."
"The first Raikage went to the previous Daimyo, who supported the village without reservation. For a time, the Cloud was the most well-funded of the five great villages. This was what allowed us, a village with no major Kekkei Genkai clans, to establish ourselves. So, I do not wish to push the Daimyo too hard. The current Daimyo was a good friend of the Second Raikage when he was young. Dana, there are more resources and benefits to be gained in the ninja world. It is no great loss to give way on some things."
It was true. The little bit of profit in the capital of the Land of Lightning was not important to the current United Iron & Steel.
Dana knew his father was a man who valued relationships. He valued his relationships with the clan, which was why he had been so patient with the dissenting voices. He valued his relationship with his brother, which was why he had allowed Blue Bee to do as he pleased. He valued his relationships with everyone in the village, which was why he rarely punished them severely.
And it was this very nature that had earned him the unwavering loyalty of the Cloud.
He had never met the Second Raikage or the previous Daimyo. To him, they were just names, symbols. But to his father, they were real memories.
"Father," he said with a sigh, "what you say is both right and wrong."
"Oh?" the Third Raikage said, his expression turning serious at his son's formal address. "What is right, and what is wrong?"
"I have another version of the story," he said, "also about the establishment of the ninja village system. Would you care to hear it?"
"Tell me," the Raikage said with a hearty laugh.
"In the Warring States Period, before the hidden villages, ninja were the most dangerous group on this continent. They fought for themselves, without restraint. Every clan could accept any mission. The only limits were their own. No one could control what a ninja clan did. Not the law, and not the Daimyo. And so, in the long Warring States Period, many Daimyo and nobles were killed by ninja. The ninja world was composed of two different sides: the front, which was made up of the Daimyo, the nobles, and the common people, and the back, which was made up of the ninja and their clans. The front may not have been glorious, but the back was certainly chaotic. Small clans, with no commissions to support them, would often turn to banditry. Chaos, instability, and uncontrollability were the hallmarks of that era. Many books have been written about it. It was, without a doubt, a terrible and long period of history."
"So when the hidden villages appeared, the Daimyo of all the countries were ecstatic. They finally had a way to control the ninja. By gathering all the ninja of a country in one place, they could control them all. In the Warring States Period, they had been facing dozens, even hundreds, of small, independent groups, any one of which could have wanted to kill them."
The Third Raikage's head snapped up. Dana's expression did not change.
"So the Daimyo were very happy to use their money to control the ninja. Even the small countries, like the lands of Waterfalls and Grass, were willing to tighten their belts to support the establishment of a hidden village. It was a soft control, through money. And the villages needed the funds to build. But if a village were to break free from this soft control, the most uneasy would not be the other villages, but the Daimyo himself."
"Father, the relationship between a village and a Daimyo is more complex than I have said. In every war, though it is said that the Land of Fire has declared war on the Land of Wind, or the Land of Earth on the Land of Fire, has it ever really affected the Daimyo? Has the territory of any of the great nations ever changed by even an inch? If it doesn't affect the Daimyo, then have you ever thought about why they are so willing to generously support their respective villages in their wars? The villages fight and fight, and in the end, what they gain with their blood is just more 'mission volume.' And who, besides the ninja themselves, cares about that?"
"Dana," the Third Raikage said, shocked, "what are you trying to say?"
"Father," he said, looking at him, his voice firm, "the Cloud has already forged its own path. And on that path, the Daimyo is optional. We are not in his way, but he will not be happy to lose control of the village. And so, he will get in our way. We can afford to lose the profits in the capital, we can even afford to lose the profits of United Iron & Steel in the entire Land of Lightning, but we cannot afford to ignore the relationship between the Daimyo and the Cloud."
"This has nothing to do with who is whose friend. It has to do with who will become whose obstacle."
"The traditional relationship between a village and a Daimyo no longer applies to the Cloud. If we do not make preparations now, this conflict will only grow more intense. We won the war with minimal losses. Our United Iron & Steel, our liaison offices in the lands of Hot Water, Rice Paddies, and Moon, the chakra metal mines we have discovered in the Eastern Archipelago—all of these will eventually break through this thin veneer. But can the village, for the sake of the Daimyo's feelings, tie its own hands and stop its development?"
"...No," the Third Raikage said, gritting his teeth.
"Then do you think," Dana asked, "that as the village grows stronger and stronger, the Daimyo will just sit back and watch as he loses control?"
"...It's unlikely."
"It's impossible," he corrected.
There was one more thing he didn't say: the Cloud would not be willing to let the Daimyo in on their development, to get a piece of the pie. That was something no ninja would accept.
"I knew you were smart when you were a kid," the Third Raikage said with a sigh, "but I never thought you would think so far ahead. The Cloud's future path does not have a place for the Daimyo. So what do you propose?"
Dana looked out the window. From here, he could see the Daimyo's residence, and the residences of the other small country Daimyo.
"If we are weak, he will be strong. As long as the Cloud is developing, some things cannot be hidden. And so, it will eventually become a fierce conflict."
"So?"
"So we must be the stronger party. Only if we are strong will the Daimyo be weak, and we can avoid a fierce conflict, because the initiative will be in our hands."
"He asked us to investigate these merchant guilds," he said, turning back to him. "Withdraw our men, and give him the guilds."
"Wouldn't that be revealing our hand?"
"Yes and no."
"I hate the way you talk," the Third Raikage grumbled. "I don't know who you get it from."
The Cloud would continue to grow stronger, while the Daimyo would stagnate. Some relationships were due for a change.
After a long moment, the Third Raikage, A, suddenly burst out laughing.
"Not bad. That's my son. Dana, actually, before I left the village, I already wrote to the Daimyo. I set your wedding date for the end of next year."
Now it was Dana's turn to be surprised.
"??? I didn't know that! But now, it seems the engagement is off the table."
"That's not what I'm talking about," the Raikage said with a wave of his hand. "The engagement is the engagement. If you want her, she's yours. No one can take her away, not even the Daimyo. The Nine Samurai have already reported to me. You two had a date last night, didn't you?" he said with a teasing tone.
"It wasn't like that," Dana said, embarrassed.
"What I'm trying to say is," the Raikage said, "that once you're married, you'll be an adult. After the wedding at the end of next year, you will inherit the name of 'A'."