At the same time, inside the Kazekage Office Building, an equally fierce argument was underway about the very same assembly.
"Nonsense! This is absolute nonsense!" Granny Chiyo's cane slammed down hard against the floor.
A dull thud-thud echoed through the room.
Her face was livid. "Letting genin take part in village decision-making? Letting civilians oppose shinobi as we revise our guiding national policy?"
"Teizawa, do you have any idea how absurd that is?!"
"What do genin know? Half of them can't even complete a C-rank mission on their own!"
"And civilians are even worse. They don't even have chakra. What 'building Sunagakure' proposals can they possibly bring?"
"Farming? Pottery? Fixing houses? If that's the focus, what do we shinobi even exist for?!"
The more she spoke, the angrier she got, her chest heaving.
Even her white hair trembled.
"I know you want to buy people's hearts," she snapped, "but you don't need to go this far!"
"You're already the Kazekage. You beat Gaara to take the seat, you used your methods to control the daimyō's court, you killed Iwa shinobi to establish your authority…"
"I didn't interfere with any of that!"
"But you cannot play games with the village's foundation!"
"A shinobi village is still a shinobi village. In the end, shinobi are the ones who decide!"
When she finished, the meeting room fell into a brief silence.
Ebizō sat beside his older sister and didn't chime in.
He just stroked his beard, thoughtful, studying Teizawa.
This elder, usually silent and sparing with words…
Didn't have obvious opposition in his eyes right now.
Instead there was a hint of something else.
Scrutiny.
The other senior figures exchanged looks.
Some nodded faintly along with Chiyo's viewpoint.
Some lowered their eyes and said nothing.
Others quietly watched Teizawa's expression.
Teizawa slowly set his teacup down.
Honestly, he was a little stuck too.
Because the "choices" the system had given him were… the kind that made your scalp go numb.
[1. Strengthen the Kazekage's autocratic dictatorship and establish a centralized, unified Sunagakure imperial state. Reward: Taijutsu "Seven-Day Breathing Method."]
[2. Hold a Sunagakure Shinobi Representative Assembly. "You are the light of the shinobi world who represents fairness and justice." Reward: Electromagnetic control range and power +200%.]
Teizawa stared at the options until his eyes crossed.
Option One was basically telling him to become the emperor of Sunagakure, even the whole Land of Wind.
But was dictatorship really that sweet?
Back home, in the history he'd learned, emperors were almost all short-lived, with only a rare handful of freak exceptions.
Why?
Because they worked themselves to death.
A good emperor working for his country and his people, worked to death.
A tyrant busy exhausting himself on pleasures, worked to death.
Either way, "absolute power" wasn't nearly as pleasant as it sounded.
Teizawa preferred holding the core authority himself…
And then acting as a hands-off boss from behind the curtain.
Besides, the reward for Option One…
It was just taijutsu: the "Seven-Day Breathing Method."
That was the technique Shira—some Suna background shinobi in the original story—had created.
At the end of the day, it couldn't be compared to Konoha's Eight Gates.
Option Two's "Representative Assembly" sounded like a fairy tale.
But the reward…
Electromagnetic control plus two hundred percent?
That was his entire strength doubling.
So…
Teizawa hesitated for only a heartbeat.
Then he chose Option Two and immediately acted on it.
Because if he'd already been "liberated" in his past life…
Then he might as well liberate Sunagakure properly.
Back to the present.
He pulled his mind back and looked at Chiyo.
"Elder Chiyo," he said calmly. "You're right."
Chiyo froze.
She had a whole stomachful of rebuttals ready.
She hadn't expected him to agree so easily.
"Genin truly lack experience, and civilians truly don't understand ninjutsu."
Teizawa stood and walked to the window, facing them all.
"But Elder… have you ever considered one question?"
He turned back, his gaze mild.
"Why is it called a village… and not a shinobi concentration camp?"
Chiyo opened her mouth, and for a moment, couldn't find an answer.
"We always say the village belongs to everyone, that villagers are the foundation of shinobi."
Teizawa's voice stayed even. "But for decades, what have the villagers gotten?"
"They pay taxes to support shinobi. Their children enter the academy and sell their lives for the village. In war, they're slaughtered by enemies. In peace, they're ignored and forgotten…"
"And not once has anyone asked them: what do you want?"
His tone wasn't loud, but every word landed cleanly, knocking against everyone's heart.
"Two hundred and thirty billion ryō is a lot."
"It's enough for Sunagakure to build dozens of fortresses, buy tens of thousands of sets of ninja tools, pay wages for decades."
"But if that's all we do, then what about five years from now? Ten years from now?"
"The money will be gone, and Sunagakure will still be the same weak Sunagakure. We'll just have a slightly better generation of equipment."
"Real strength isn't having warehouses piled with money."
"It's having every single person believe this village is worth risking their life for."
His gaze swept over Chiyo, Ebizō—
And the senior figures with their various expressions.
"Let genin take part because they're the future being trained."
"Let chūnin take part because they're the backbone of the present."
"Let civilians take part because they're the foundation of the village."
"One meeting won't solve everything. But at the very least…"
He paused.
"At least they'll know the door to the Kazekage's office isn't closed forever."
Silence.
Chiyo's hand on her cane trembled without her noticing.
She still frowned.
She still thought the whole thing was unbelievable.
But that line, "the door isn't closed forever," kept echoing in her head.
For the first time, she couldn't find words to shoot back.
Ebizō finally spoke.
"Then how do you plan to choose people? You can't hand out a ballot to every single one of the tens of thousands in the village."
"Of course not."
Teizawa returned to his seat, his expression turning practical.
"Genin and chūnin will each nominate five. Civilians will nominate ten."
"They'll be selected by internal elections within their own groups."
"Three conditions: at least sixteen years old, have lived in Sunagakure for at least five years, and no serious criminal record."
He continued, steady and methodical.
"Scope of topics: any concrete proposals regarding Sunagakure's infrastructure, welfare protections, shinobi, education, and medical care can be raised and discussed at the assembly."
He paused, then added:
"Any proposal adopted will earn the proposer a one-million-ryō reward, and public commendation in the name of the Kazekage's office."
"One million ryō!"
Someone at the table sucked in a sharp breath.
Chiyo's mouth twitched again.
She wanted to call it wasteful, grandstanding, buying applause.
But when the words reached her lips, what came out instead was:
"Y-you… where are you getting that kind of money?"
"Two hundred and thirty billion," Teizawa answered as if it were obvious.
"But… that's public property. It belongs to the village!"
"Then spending it on public affairs for the village is perfectly reasonable."
Chiyo choked on it and couldn't respond.
Ebizō looked at the rare sight of his sister getting stonewalled.
The corner of his mouth lifted into the faintest trace of a smile.
He cleared his throat and turned serious.
"Who supervises the election process? How do we ensure fairness?"
"You. Elder Chiyo. And one more widely respected retired jōnin."
Teizawa didn't hesitate. "You'll form an Election Oversight Committee."
"The rules will be posted publicly and subject to village-wide supervision."
"Any fraud gets punished severely."
Ebizō nodded slightly and didn't press further.
Chiyo opened her mouth.
In the end, she only huffed, turned her head away, and refused to look at him.
She didn't explicitly object.
The senior figures exchanged glances. Some looked thoughtful, some still wary…
But no one stood up to oppose him fiercely anymore.
With Teizawa's current strength and prestige, Sunagakure really was his one-man show.
The two elders were the only ones who could still push back hard enough to feel like "power" mattered.
…
So when the announcement was officially posted—
Sunagakure erupted.
From morning until night, the bulletin board outside the Kazekage's office was packed so tightly you could barely breathe.
People who could read recited it to those who couldn't.
Young people explained to elders what "election" meant, what "proposals" meant, what "a one-million-ryō reward" meant.
"One million ryō! That's ten years of food for my family!"
"It's not the money. The real question is… will they actually listen to us?"
"It's written right there. Adopted proposals get public commendation. It can't just be a lie, right?"
"Don't be so sure. Officials lie as easily as they breathe."
The doubts didn't vanish.
But more people started thinking seriously.
If this really happens, what should I propose?
In the west district, the potter whose roof had leaked wind and sand for two years went home and stared up at the hole in his ceiling.
He couldn't read much.
He didn't know how to write a "proper proposal."
But he knew one thing.
If nobody did anything, the next sandstorm season would collapse his roof again.
He dug out the half-stub of a pencil his granddaughter had left behind.
On a crumpled piece of packaging paper, he wrote a few crooked characters.
"Fix the roofs of old houses in the west district."
After he finished, it looked too crude, not "official" enough.
So he crossed it out and rewrote it:
"Request regarding repair subsidies for aging residential housing in the west district."
He stared at the paper.
His rough hand trembled.
Fifty-seven years old.
For the first time in his life…
He felt like maybe, just maybe—
Someone might be willing to hear him.
And on the other side of the village…
On the training field at the Ninja Academy, a few genin who had just returned from a D-rank mission sat in a circle, arguing heatedly about who they should nominate to attend.
"Obviously Ishikawa! He's the smartest. Last drill, the whole plan was his!"
"Ishikawa's no good. He's too quiet. Put him in a serious meeting and he won't be able to speak properly."
"Then Yui-neesan! She's first in theory in our year!"
"Yui-neesan said she's taking the chūnin exams. She won't have time…"
"The chūnin exams will still be there next year. This chance might only come once in your entire life!"
Young faces flushed with the argument.
In their eyes was a kind of light they hadn't felt in a long time.
They didn't know what the assembly would ultimately become.
They didn't know if their small voices would truly reach the Kazekage up on high.
But they did know this—
The door to the Kazekage's office…
Had opened a crack for everyone, for the first time.
(End of Chapter)
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