Chapter 544: Heading to Kirigakure
Pakura's face filled with black lines after hearing Maki's explanation.
'isn't this over yet?'
No...
Maki was deliberately making her feel embarrassed to change the subject, so Pakura would stop pursuing the issue of the gossip backfiring.
Pakura wasn't stupid.
After spending so much time around the Three Gossip Girls, anyone with even a little insight would have started to understand how their minds worked.
Still, she didn't pursue it any further.
After all, if she kept insisting, it would only make her seem flustered, as though she were protesting too much.
"By the way, Kirigakure's situation isn't much different from Sunagakure's. Once you get there, you may run into something similar."
Just as everyone was about to step into the Flying Thunder Formation, Gaara suddenly remembered something and offered one last reminder.
By "something similar," he meant people like Hōichi—the conservatives, the ambitious schemers, and all those who stood in the way of progress while constantly wishing for "the old village to return."
Among the Five Great Ninja Villages, Sunagakure and Kirigakure suffered from this problem the most.
Both villages had passed leadership to the younger generation while the older generation had largely disappeared.
Kumogakure had once been in a similar situation.
However, the Fourth Raikage had taken office much earlier. He was now nearly fifty years old, and his authority and methods far surpassed those of Gaara or Terumi Mei.
Iwagakure, on the other hand, was the perfect example of the saying: Having an elder in the family is like possessing a priceless treasure.
Whenever trouble arose, Ōnoki simply stepped forward.
His seniority alone was enough to silence everyone.
After being traumatized by the Uchiha, Ōnoki had "fallen."
He abandoned the Will of Stone and became what could only be described as a lawful tyrant.
For the village's sake, he was willing to do anything.
The Will of Stone had become the Pitch-Black Will.
In the original story, it wasn't until the Five Kage united against Madara that he rediscovered the Will of Stone.
Now, thanks to Kurotsuchi's influence and because he had genuinely witnessed the possibility of peace in the ninja world, he had managed to recover about half of his former self.
Whether Ōnoki had changed or not, however, didn't affect how others viewed him.
In everyone else's eyes, he was still the dictator who had already "gone dark."
Oh, right.
In the Boruto storyline, after growing old and senile, Ōnoki once again abandoned the Will of Stone, became a dictator, sidelined the Fourth Tsuchikage Kurotsuchi, created artificial humans, concealed everything with genjutsu, bypassed the higher-ups, and seized military and political control of Iwagakure himself.
Naturally, just before dying, he once again rediscovered the Will of Stone.
Since the current Ōnoki hadn't shown any signs of heading down that path yet, there was no need to bring it up.
As for Konoha…
Although Tsunade wasn't exactly young, her rise to power could also be considered part of this same situation.
Konoha didn't have the advantage of "an elder being a priceless treasure."
When Tsunade became Hokage, the only elders around were a handful of stubborn old fossils standing in her way.
But…Who said you actually needed an elder?
Instead of looking for one...Why not just create one?
The older generation might have died.
So simply revive them with Impure World Reincarnation.
The situation in Konoha and the Land of Fire had been the last among the Five Great Nations to begin reform.
It had also started out with the most severe internal problems.
Yet as time passed, both Konoha and the Land of Fire had become the places with the fewest opposing voices in the entire ninja world, second only to Amegakure.
They had even surpassed Iwagakure, the first village to embrace reform despite having its priceless elder.
But that wasn't because Tsunade possessed extraordinary political skill.
Nor was it because the people of Konoha and the Land of Fire were especially cooperative.
There was no such thing as peaceful days without sacrifice.
It was simply that Senju Tobirama's Flying Thunder God Technique and Multiple Shadow Clone Technique were carrying the burden behind the scenes.
When Senju Tobirama wanted someone dead...Not even Senju Hashirama could save them.
Imagine someone secretly placing a Flying Thunder God seal on your food delivery.
Then, while you're eating...A Flying Thunder God Slash suddenly appears.
How exactly are you supposed to defend against that?
And if there were more enemies...
Tobirama wouldn't even bother showing up himself.
He would simply use the Flying Thunder God derivative technique later developed by the Fourth Hokage, Flying Thunder God: Guiding Thunder, to endlessly teleport Mutual Multiplying Explosive Tags directly onto the target.
It could only be said...
No two people in the same family ever turned out the same.
When Senju Tobirama encountered someone obstructing the village's development, he would first lecture them with a serious expression.
If words failed...He would immediately stab them.
When Senju Hashirama encountered someone obstructing the village's development, he would kindly try to persuade them.
If persuasion failed...He could only sigh in pain before reluctantly stabbing them.
Uchiha Madara had every right to testify to that.
In short…Even if Terumi Mei's abilities were exceptional, she couldn't be everywhere at once.
She simply couldn't eliminate every problem within Kirigakure.
Even now, with the Impure World Reincarnation Second Mizukage, Hōzuki Gengetsu, helping her, he still couldn't produce the same results Tobirama achieved in Konoha.
The mustached Hōzuki Gengetsu was simply too kindhearted.
Just think about how he behaved during the Fourth Great Ninja War.
He couldn't even bring himself to kill the incompetent shinobi of the Allied Shinobi Forces, people who weren't even from his own village.
If it had been the Third Mizukage instead—the man who originally established the Bloody Mist doctrine...
Well...
That was harder to say.
After all, the people opposing Terumi Mei now were precisely those who wanted Kirigakure to return to the Bloody Mist era.
Even if the Third Mizukage himself were here, would he really be able to attack the younger shinobi of his own village who idolized and worshipped the era he had created?
...Probably?
Unless the Third Mizukage was another utterly ruthless monster like Senju Tobirama.
Unfortunately, history recorded no such thing.
Everyone knew only that the Third Mizukage had established the Bloody Mist.
The version that truly became infamous for its cruelty was the Bloody Mist after "Uchiha Madara" took control.
You couldn't simply assume that because the later Bloody Mist was incredibly brutal, the original Bloody Mist must have been exactly the same, and therefore conclude that the Third Mizukage was an absolute butcher.
It was the same as today's Will of Fire.
Now it was overflowing with bonds and "as it should be."
Could you therefore work backward and conclude that when Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara founded Konoha, they were already bond-type ninjas who thought all of this was perfectly natural?
Even if they actually were...That still wouldn't be valid reasoning.
With that, the group used the Flying Thunder Formation to travel to Kirigakure.
Meanwhile, Kakashi also sent an invitation to Might Guy back in Konoha.
In Kakashi's eyes, the first impression Shira had given him was already very similar to Guy.
Now that Shira kept pestering him, he resembled Guy even more.
Rather than having Shira help develop Breathing Techniques, wouldn't it make far more sense to let Guy, the true taijutsu master, come over?
Two people specializing in taijutsu exchanging ideas would surely accomplish more than Kakashi trying to imagine everything himself.
Besides, once he arrived in Kirigakure, his main mission would be promoting Sage Mode.
He definitely wouldn't have time to deal with Shira.
What was Shira supposed to do in the meantime?
Spend the whole day relaxing on the beach?
Given Shira's personality, which was so similar to Guy's, he would never be able to sit around doing nothing.
It was much better to let Guy come over and have the two of them keep each other occupied.
It wouldn't even take Guy much time.
He only needed to use the Flying Thunder Formation teleportation point in Konoha.
Back in Konoha, after receiving Kakashi's message, Guy immediately gathered his three students.
"Tenten, Neji, Lee..."
Guy held Kakashi's letter with a solemn expression.
"This is a challenge from Kakashi."
(End of this chapter)