"Lord Hashirama is—" Fūmori Masaki did not expect to hear this news. Although it was unexpected, it was also within reason; after all, Hashirama's health was deteriorating, and he could pass away at any time. Emotionally, however, it was still hard to believe.
"Hurry back and prepare. The sooner you return, the more likely you will be able to see him one last time. If you are slow, it might not be certain," Tobirama said.
"Teacher, will you not go back to see him?" Fūmori Masaki couldn't help but ask.
Tobirama shook his head and said, "I cannot leave this place. If I leave, the Land of Lightning will surely counterattack immediately. Besides—" He picked up a scroll from the side and handed it to Fūmori Masaki. "Look at this."
Fūmori Masaki took it and saw intelligence stating that the Land of Water's forces were moving north along the coast. Fūmori Masaki immediately understood that the Land of Water had come to provide support; otherwise, there would be no need to ignore the areas where their main forces could not reach and instead approach the location of the main forces.
"It seems you understand. That is why, at such a critical juncture, I cannot leave this place even more." Tobirama sighed. He wanted to go back and see Hashirama, but his duty as Hokage prevented him from abandoning this place. Therefore, he could only let Fūmori Masaki go in his stead. Fūmori Masaki was his student and also had a mentor-student bond with Hashirama, although it was only regarding Senjutsu, it still existed.
Tobirama lowered his head, wrote a few words on a scroll, handed it to Fūmori Masaki, and said, "Take this back as well. This is the document appointing Uchiha Kagami as a Jonin. Let him lead the troops to deal with the Land of Wind—heh, this action by the Land of Water is actually a good thing. Uchiha Kagami does not have to face the unfavorable Kirigakure Ninja, but can instead deal with the Sunagakure Ninja; it should be easier to fight."
Fūmori Masaki felt that letting the Uchiha Clan, who excelled in Fire Release, deal with the Sunagakure Ninja was indeed an easy task. Fire Release inherently countered the Sunagakure Ninja village; whether it was Wind Release or the newly emerged Puppet Technique, the only thing to worry about was the Secret Technique of the Sand. In the terrain of the Land of Wind, that would be a huge advantage, but it shouldn't have much effect in the Land of Fire. As long as Uchiha Kagami insisted on a defensive battle, there would be no problem.
The pressure on Uchiha Kagami's side had decreased, but the pressure here had increased. Fortunately, the Land of Earth was an ally, and their Earth Release was the perfect weapon against the Kirigakure Ninja. Likewise, the Land of Lightning could deal with the Land of Earth, and Konohagakure could deal with the Land of Lightning. With each other keeping the others in check, the alliance would be more stable. However, places where four countries were fighting would inevitably be more tragic.
Fūmori Masaki remembered that the Second Tsuchikage and the Second Mizukage died together; it must have been on this battlefield. Even they, as leaders of the Ninja Village, had fought to such an extent; one could imagine how intense the battles of others would be. The painful memories left by the First Great Ninja War lay in this.
Tobirama also knew that with the Land of Water participating, the battlefield here would become more intense, and the losses to the Ninja Village would be greater. Therefore, he agreed with Fūmori Masaki's idea: as long as peace talks were possible, then negotiate. There was no need to act out of momentary anger, and they couldn't wipe out the Land of Lightning anyway. Getting a satisfactory result was enough.
Fūmori Masaki suggested to Tobirama that they should focus on striking the pro-war faction led by Kinkaku and Ginkaku, and also make good use of the captured Kumogakure Ninja. As long as Kumogakure did not want to abandon these captives, they would be much more likely to be willing to negotiate peace and have disagreements with the pro-war faction. Regardless of the outcome, it would be a good thing for Konohagakure.
"I will issue a statement," Tobirama said. "According to what you said, I should also treat these Kumogakure Ninja well and promote the importance of peace to them?"
"Of course, if peace talks are possible, these people will all have to be sent back," Fūmori Masaki said. "On one hand, treating captives well can shape the image of our Konohagakure. Even if they have stance issues, they will have some [sympathy] when facing us in the future; after all, people are not unfeeling. On the other hand, there is that young girl named Sora. If there are no accidents, she should become a high-ranking official of Kumogakure. If we can treat her well and let her understand Lord Hashirama's ideas, do you think she would be willing to contribute to the peace of the Ninja World in the future?"
"Are you being too kind to the enemy? Will they appreciate this?" Tobirama asked.
"Teacher, if we always treat the Land of Lightning or other countries as enemies, then this Ninja World will never have peace," Fūmori Masaki said. "Except for some lunatics and careerists, as long as life is passable, who would like to fight to the death with others? As long as there is room for maneuver, they will be willing to compromise. Like in the past, when Ninja Clans killed each other, everyone hated this, but because they served different masters, they still had to fight. But after Konohagakure was established, they were directly employed by the country and no longer hired by hostile feudal lords. Didn't everyone live together peacefully? If it weren't for this war threatening our survival, we wouldn't be fighting this war, right?"
"I see," Tobirama nodded slightly. "Your so-called kind treatment of captives is to let these people know how high the price of war is, and that peace is a better method. That way, after they go back, they will become our allies, disintegrating the opponent's will to fight from within, especially that girl named Sora. She can exert an influence that affects the entire Kumogakure!"
"Exactly, Teacher," Fūmori Masaki said. "Although we cannot rely entirely on them, given the current situation, we can only rely on them to ensure peace, because we cannot directly defeat any major power, and we cannot even inflict heavy damage. This is bound to be a lose-lose situation."
In Fūmori Masaki's view, the best way was to unify the Ninja World and provide the same set of values. As long as the results of the unification were not shaken and the system could support the country, after three generations, it would basically be guaranteed not to split. But if it could not be unified, they could only settle for the next best thing: let the Land of Fire become the hegemon of the Ninja World, weaken the strength of other major powers so they could not pose a fundamental threat to the Land of Fire, control the country through economic and political influence, and form a Ninja World Alliance centered on the Land of Fire, infiltrating the influence of the Land of Fire into every aspect of other countries, which could also maintain peace.
This mainly depended on the situation of other countries. Fūmori Masaki had his own set of ideas for enriching the country and strengthening the military, and the specific implementation would depend on the situation. When the power of the Land of Fire was enough to annex all countries, that would be the beginning of unification.
However, this was based on the premise that other countries could not keep up with the development speed of the Land of Fire and were a generation behind the Land of Fire in terms of systems. Looking at how other Ninja Villages were learning the system established by Tobirama, they still had a good spirit of learning. It was hard to guarantee whether they would learn Fūmori Masaki's methods and also drive their countries to become strong. If that were the case, Fūmori Masaki would only be able to consider establishing a Ninja World Alliance, because the cost of unification would be very high, so high that the Land of Fire could not bear it.
"Let's talk about this later. The important thing now is to end this war quickly," Tobirama said.
Fūmori Masaki withdrew from the camp and went to prepare for returning to the village. First, he had to bring back the refugees who had lost their homes due to the war to Konohagakure. It wasn't that Tobirama had a sudden burst of benevolence; the main reason was that Tobirama needed them to supplement the number of Ninja in the Ninja Village. This war made him realize that the number of Ninja was still too small. At the same time, it could also allow Civilian Ninja to gradually come to the fore, taking a step closer to Hashirama's ideals.
Although Tobirama had other motives, in terms of propaganda, he still focused on ensuring their livelihood. This was why the refugees were willing to go to Konohagakure. And Tobirama was not lying; compared to going to other feudal lords, life in Konohagakure was far better than there, mainly because of the different Ninja Village system, which meant they did not need to adopt the exploitative methods of the nobles.
After Fūmori Masaki had organized all the refugees, he selected some wounded who could not continue to fight in the short term and some others as subordinates in the camp, and set off with the Fourth Division that had come to support, escorting these refugees to Konohagakure.