In the Sand Village, the clones are everywhere, and the Arkham game begins

Chapter 538 Otsutsuki Shibaju

"No rush, Tsunade. Tell me about what has happened during this time."

Orochimaru listened quietly as Tsunade finished recounting what had happened during this time, his expression calm, before turning to Tobirama Senju.

Tobirama Senju closed his eyes, lowered his head, and remained silent.

Orochimaru knew that Tobirama Senju meant that he was also helpless.

In this situation, no matter how clever or resourceful you are, you are powerless to reverse the situation.

"Surrender, and I think the Fourth Kazekage will agree."

Orochimaru pondered for a moment, then said decisively.

Tsunade's expression froze for a moment.

"Lord Hokage, you..."

"Why, Hokage-sama!"

"The Sarutobi clan's ninjas are almost all dead. I must avenge my clan and the Third Hokage. I will never surrender!"

The crowd was outraged, but some remained silent.

Those who followed me here are all absolute loyalists of Konoha, and many of them have formed deep-seated hatreds with Sunagakure during the war.

But they also understood that Konoha had no future.

Orochimaru remained calm and silent until everyone's voices had subsided before he slowly spoke.

"The village is gone, am I still Hokage?"

"Lord Hokage, you will always be our Fourth Hokage. We have seen everything you have done since the Third Hokage died in battle. If it weren't for your heroic efforts, the village would probably have been destroyed long ago."

A middle-aged ninja from the Akimichi clan spoke earnestly to Orochimaru.

"But the village was still destroyed."

Orochimaru shook his head.

"If you still consider me Hokage, then listen to me one last time. We have lost, but we are not all dead. I can spare a way out for you, the civilians in the village, and the ninja academy students who were captured by Sunagakure."

This is the last thing I, as Hokage, can do for you.

Tobirama Senju looked at Orochimaru and asked:

"How can you ensure they survive after surrendering? If I were the Fourth Kazekage, Shimizu, I would never leave behind the core members and die-hard loyalists of other ninja villages. I would only selectively recruit some local forces to better manage ordinary people."

"Lord Tobirama, what is your opinion of that Shimizu?"

Orochimaru asked Tobirama Senju in return.

“People like you and me might be once-in-a-century talents. I think he will recognize our value. As long as we don’t do anything unnecessary or threaten the rule of Sunagakure, there won’t be any other problems. He will be tolerant.”

Is he going to sell himself into servitude to give his subordinates a way to survive?

"You are the Hokage, so you should make the decision. I am just a dead man. Once this is over, I should return to the Pure Land in peace. You don't need to summon me again."

Orochimaru did not answer directly, but looked at Tobirama with an apologetic gaze.

He didn't think Shimizu would let Tobirama Senju off the hook.

Looking into Orochimaru's eyes, the white-haired old man felt utterly exhausted.

For the past two years, after being pulled out of his coffin, he worked tirelessly to protect Konoha for the younger generation, only to end up like this.

He was genuinely afraid that Orochimaru would not only sell himself out, but also sell out the Second Hokage.

The thought of having to continue working for others and doing scientific research for the rest of his life—no, forever and ever—made Tobirama Senju's heart tremble.

Why did I have to be so impulsive as to invent the Impure World Reincarnation technique?
Tobirama Senju only wanted to go back forty years and give his younger self, who was still alive at the time, a good slap in the face.

Otherwise, you should find a place to seal your soul beforehand, otherwise you won't find peace even in death.

……

……

While the island's elite troops were still hesitating about whether to surrender with Orochimaru,

The Country of Wind, Sand Hidden Village.

The largest meeting in the history of Sunagakure is underway.

In addition to Shimizu and ten core high-ranking members of Sunagakure, the participants included dozens of Jonin who held important positions in various departments.

The main topic of discussion at this meeting was the policy direction of Sunagakure after unifying the ninja world.

For nearly forty years, ninja villages only needed to fight wars under the leadership of the Kage; governing the country was the business of the Daimyo and nobles, so ninjas generally did not have the ability in this area.

However, after the original Daimyo of the Land of Wind was overthrown by revolution and the Sand Village underwent institutional reforms, the entire country was directly governed by the Land of Wind. Although the two years were short, they successfully produced many talents in domestic administration, and after being trained, they were quite capable.

The Sand Village Jonin present were selected because of their achievements over the past two years.

In the extraordinary world, without sufficient strength, it's difficult to maintain one's position in order to rise to the top.

Unless one possesses truly exceptional abilities, such as Elder Genji of Kirigakure, they can only stand out. However, they often cannot truly stand alone. Just like Genji, who was very capable, he could not become the Mizukage and could only serve as a deputy, similar to the advisor of a local official such as a county magistrate in ancient times.

In Qingshui's view, all of the dozens of people present were capable of governing a region and managing a local area.

Perhaps their domestic affairs skills are only barely adequate, but ninjas are not ordinary people. Many problems faced by ordinary officials can be solved directly by them using extraordinary methods.

There are also problems that even extraordinary abilities cannot solve, but they can stabilize the local area and temporarily stabilize the situation when faced with intractable problems, which is enough for those above to deal with them further.

These people who become Jonin are generally quite intelligent; they are among the best of the best among ninjas. Besides their strength, they are usually quite smart as well.

Aside from the brilliant Danzo Shimura, who seemed shrewd but was actually incredibly stupid.

Whether these Jonin were truly intelligent or had powerful families behind them and the help of trusted subordinates that enabled them to achieve success in the past two years, Shimizu only had these capable and loyal subordinates.

For at least the past two years, under the leadership of the Third Kazekage and Chiyo, they have governed the Land of Wind quite well. With this foundation, Shimizu believes that even if their territory expands several times over, things won't get too bad. The personnel allocation and administrative direction in each region are complex and time-consuming, but once the general direction is set, the elites from Sunagakure will implement policies according to local conditions.

What truly leaves people undecided is whether or not to relocate the capital, or rather, to find a different place as the political center of Sunagakure.

Furthermore, there is a consensus that in this new era, Sunagakure should undergo further institutional changes and expansion.

It's already an authoritarian government that rules the ninja world continent, much like a central imperial court, so calling it a "village" wouldn't be quite right.

Therefore, it is essential to establish a truly effective regime that governs the ninja world, with Sunagakure as its predecessor.

After some discussion, the proposal to move the capital was ultimately rejected by Shimizu.

The Land of Wind is the base of their regime, just as Guanzhong was to the Qin and Han dynasties and the Tang dynasty. Only by establishing the capital here can they provide the strongest foundation for Sunagakure.

However, it is also true that the Land of Wind is bitterly cold.

The construction of canals and the blasting of mountains to draw in water vapor did indeed improve the environment of the Wind Kingdom, and various road infrastructure projects also enhanced transportation.

If the environment is unfavorable, it can be improved.

In a world without supernatural powers, relying on the people and making good use of science, it is still possible to transform the environment and turn deserts into oases, although it requires decades of unwavering dedication. In the world of supernatural powers, this time is greatly shortened, making it entirely worthwhile.

As for the ninjas' concerns about uneven resource distribution leading to stronger development in local areas compared to the central government, that's not a problem either.

As long as Shimizu is still around, and as long as Sunagakure's high-end combat forces can maintain an absolute advantage over the enemy, then everything will be fine.

On the contrary, the Land of Wind, as its core territory, needs such a place to siphon talent, resources, and technology from the entire ninja world, strengthening the core and weakening the branches, in order to consolidate its rule.

As for further reforms to the Sunagakure system, Shimizu opted for a cabinet parliamentary system and completely abolished the ninja village system established by Hashirama Senju. The name Sunagakure will also become history.

Including the Land of Wind, the names of the Land of Fire and the Land of Earth, which had already been destroyed, were all abolished. The entire ninja world consisted of only one country and one government, namely the Land of Ninja. The official structure largely continued to use the old Sand Village system.

As for what happens next, we can only wait and see how things go in practice before making any adjustments.

The one busy dealing with these mundane matters is naturally just a shadow clone.

The main body of Shimizu, along with numerous other shadow clones, had more important matters to attend to.

One month after Ichishi died.

It is located in a new city dozens of kilometers away from Sunagakure.

One after another, the shadow clones of Qing Shui busied themselves inspecting a massive circular instrument that was comparable in size to a town.

This is a super-giant particle collider.

According to Shimizu's calculations, the dark energy generated by this thing once it is activated is many times greater than that in the One-Punch Man world, enough to destroy the ninja world tens of thousands of times over.

With resources from the entire ninja world available, Shimizu naturally wants to maximize his efficiency.

On this day, two special visitors arrived at this place.

"Senior Yuyi, I wonder how your preparations are going?"

As Shimizu walked through the passageway, she asked Hagoromo Otsutsuki, who was floating beside her in her spirit form.

"Let Hamura speak. I'm busy with matters concerning the Pure Land. Hamura did most of the work on the arrangements for the ninja world."

The Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo Sage pointed to the Hamura spirit beside him, whose face bore a six-tenths resemblance to his own.

"Yes, everything is ready. I have used the two moons located at opposite ends of the planet as nodes to introduce the Six Paths Yin-Yang Power that my brother and I have stored up. This is enough to protect the star system where the Ninja World is located and push it into your world, while also preventing the Ninja World from being affected by the movement."

Otsutsuki Hamura spoke calmly to Shimizu.

The three of them planned to pull off a big scheme: before ascending to the Dimensional Demon God level, they would rip off the Otsutsuki God handsomely.

"I'm all ready here. The particle collider can be started at any time. However, this world belongs to the Otsutsuki God. If we extract a large amount of dark energy at once, it might attract his attention. So, as soon as possible after the dark energy is extracted, we should combine the power of the three of us to push the star system where the ninja world is located into my world. Before that, Senior Hagoromo should push the Pure Land away from this world."

This process will consume a significant amount of dark energy, but more than half should remain. I will hand it over to the two seniors. This dark energy will be sufficient to upgrade the Pure Land into a complete world, with plenty to spare.

Shimizu introduced the particle collider to the Otsutsuki brothers, while also reiterating their plan in detail.

The plan is dangerous, but if successful, the rewards will be enormous.

Not only will the ninja world remain unchanged, but Shimizu and Hagoromo Otsutsuki will also be able to successfully become multiverse-level dimensional demons, standing on equal footing with the Otsutsuki god in terms of rank.

Even if they can't win against the Otsutsuki God in a direct confrontation due to their lack of resources, they can still take their world and run away, and that guy will be helpless against them.

The only difficulty is whether the Otsutsuki god's reaction will be timely enough, and how long the three of them can hold out after he reacts.

Shimizu was still somewhat confident about this.

While multiverse-level beings are terrifying, Shimizu still has a clear understanding of their strength, after all, his Marvel avatars have dealt with dimensional beings like Mama Dominion and the Vishanti quite a bit.

Within its world, multiverse-level beings are nearly omniscient and omnipotent, but ultimately not truly omnipotent.

While defeating it within its own world is virtually impossible, putting up a fight is not impossible when well-prepared.

What truly solidified Shimizu's confidence was neither his god-level strength nor the Yin-Yang power accumulated by the Sage of Six Paths brothers over a thousand years.

Although their power is extremely vast and their mass is very high, it is still far from the multiverse level.

However, there is one person whose difference from the Otsutsuki God is very small, perhaps only half a step.

The three moved to a nearby room filled with sealing spells.

The corpse of an Otsutsuki lay quietly on the operating table, connected to countless instruments.

This is not Isshiki's corpse, but the corpse of Otsutsuki Shibakai, whom he had hidden.

It seems that Isshiki has some connection with Otsutsuki Shibai. Perhaps he coveted Shibai's power, or for some other reason, Shibai's corpse was placed in Isshiki's Daikokuten.

This is what Shimizu found after he killed Isshiki, when he followed the spatial coordinates he had opened to find Daikokuten and receive Isshiki's legacy.

The corpse of such a powerful being is extremely valuable. After finding it, Scorpion spent all his time in the laboratory studying this body that still contained great power after death.

(End of this chapter)