Uchiha Akaishi Tour

Chapter 289 Akaishi is truly a strategist bestowed upon the Uchiha clan by heaven!

"In the end, I can only grab some missions." Akaishi shook his head somewhat unsatisfied.

Although Akaishi looked down on Madara Uchiha, he also felt that Madara's original idea was not without merit. If the First Hokage had let Madara Uchiha fight back then, and then he had done a good job and subdued more ninja villages, the situation might have been better.

As for now—

In terms of both strength and situation, there is no longer a basis for annexing the major ninja villages. Even if they win, at most they can only take away the mission area.

"That's probably true—the armies of the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind have basically stopped fighting normally recently, probably because they've reached a tacit understanding and accepted the defeat of Sunagakure." Kouji Kyu chuckled twice.

Normally, although wars between major powers mainly depend on the victories and defeats of ninjas, ordinary troops will also play a supporting role behind the front lines and occupy key points on supply routes.

However, it seems that the Land of Wind has directly admitted defeat, no longer putting on an act, and has even prepared the conditions for the defeat of Sunagakure - that is, to give up control of the missions of those small countries in the east, and even to hand over some missions in the country to Konoha.

In this way, these small countries whose mission areas were taken away are essentially "close to becoming vassals of the Land of Fire".

Furthermore, if missions within the Land of Wind are opened to Konoha, it would be tantamount to accepting Konoha ninjas to operate normally within designated areas of the Land of Wind. In other words, it would mean accepting that the Land of Fire has a certain degree of influence over them and even relinquishing some military deployment rights!

As for the ninja villages, Sunagakure, which was already struggling with its missions due to its active preparations for war and continuous expansion of its ninja force, will see its mission scale further reduced.

Although the number of Sunagakure ninjas will be greatly reduced after this battle, the final outcome of the negotiations will definitely be painful for Sunagakure and will continue to put them under pressure!

It is foreseeable that the size of the Sunagakure ninja will have to shrink further in the future.

However, Akaishi still shook his head and said, "A mission to the Land of Wind? That place where you're constantly eating sand—it's simply not worth the long journey!"

Indeed, Akashi felt that this wouldn't bring much benefit to Konoha.

Although more missions have increased the number of ninjas available for support, the cost-effectiveness of missions from the Land of Wind has decreased significantly for Konoha due to distance, geographical and cultural barriers.

This is a blow to Sunagakure, but it's hardly a compliment to Konoha!

"There's no way around it. The Land of Wind, in terms of sheer size, is two or three times the size of the Land of Fire. Most of it is desert, so the Land of Fire simply can't take it all in. Besides, Konoha would have a hard time subduing the ninja clans here. Even if they gritted their teeth and scattered the Sand Village, they would eventually form a new Sand Village—"

"Besides, if the Land of Fire can't annex the Land of Wind, the people in the City of Fire won't want Konoha to actually take over the Land of Wind's mission area." Kensei walked over at this moment.

With that first word from the clan leader, he also mocked the people from the Land of Fire.

The ninja village system proposed by the First Hokage did indeed end the Warring States period and greatly benefited the ninja community, ushering in a new era. However, it wasn't without its problems.

After the establishment of ninja villages, the ninja community transformed from a clan of ninjas who accepted employment in a disorderly manner into ninja villages with national affiliations.

Although the five great ninja villages are less restricted by nationality because their mission areas are cross-border, and theoretically the ninjas of the five great ninja villages are not considered citizens, they are still subject to the restrictions of the country they live in since they are in a large country!

Even in Konoha, a region with a frighteningly large mission area, 60% of the mission funds come from the Land of Fire.

Especially in the last forty years, the five great ninja villages have become increasingly tied to the countries they belong to.

Of course, the benefits are also obvious.

After the establishment of the ninja village, the number of missions that "ninjas" can take on is much greater than before.

On the one hand, because their reputation is guaranteed, they naturally receive higher recognition; on the other hand, because of the subdivision of ninja villages, they can also receive C-rank and D-rank missions.

After all, in the chaotic Warring States period, no one would entrust important tasks to unfamiliar or unreliable ninja clans. At the same time, tasks such as finding cats and dogs, delivering messages and driving away pigs, or even eliminating small groups of bandits were completely unavailable to ninja clans!

It is precisely because of the ninja village system that the value that "ninjas" can create is several times, or even dozens of times, higher, which has led to the widespread rise of commoner ninjas today. In the Warring States period, the expansion speed of ninja clans was entirely limited by the value of their missions, but now—

Even if the "ninja clan" could reproduce as many times as they wanted, it wouldn't be enough to meet the needs of the missions, which is why "commoner ninjas" began to emerge.

As for letting the ninjas govern the country themselves—

This is not an innovation. Many small ninja villages are now independent. For example, Yugakure Village was also in the Warring States period. There were ninja clans that lived by occupying mountains and ruling over their own territory. However, some of these ninja clans had small areas of control and some were weak. Most of the rest were both small and weak!

Ninjas consume a significant amount of resources, requiring them to draw resources from a large proportion of ordinary people for sustainable development—just look at Might Guy. In peacetime, a terribly weak genin could barely support his family with just one D-rank mission a week, and that was even with Konoha's extremely high cost of living.

This demonstrates the difference in the value of labor between ordinary people and ninjas.

Managing a country, like practicing ninjutsu, taijutsu, and chakra, requires time and energy; it's not something you can do at will.

During the Warring States period, it wasn't unheard of for powerful clans like the Uchiha and Senju to suddenly decide to establish their own countries and govern themselves.

However, putting aside the difficulties that the replaced countries might face in the process, such as hiring other ninja clans to fight against them, even after success, it would be difficult to balance training and governance.

Either governance is neglected, leading to the continuous collapse of rule and an exhaustion from maintaining it through force; or training is neglected, resulting in increasing weakness at the ninja clan level; or the controlled territory is too small, and because it is an independent country, it cannot receive large-scale missions from other countries, leading to resource depletion and forcing the ninja clan to shrink in size.

Because it was generally not feasible, this situation usually occurred in the early Warring States period, when the Ninja Sect had just disintegrated.

By the mid-Warring States period, the ninja clans had generally adopted new practices. For example, after establishing a nation, some clan members would be responsible for governance, while others with cultivation talent would be responsible for cultivation.

The result is that for decades or even a hundred years, they are still one family. But after two or three generations, the clansmen in charge of cultivation try to force their close relatives to take the fruits of their labor, while the clansmen in charge of governance hire outsiders to participate in internal strife. All sorts of chaotic phenomena naturally arise, with blood ties becoming more and more distant and differences in interests becoming greater and greater. Often, they are no longer "one clan".

In fact, the five great noble nations of today are basically the result of the split of the ninja clan, going back several hundred years.

Or rather, it was precisely because of this stage that the true "ninja clan" was formed—a clan that relied solely on chakra cultivation for its existence—and began to separate itself from the rulers. Later ninja clans that imitated the ancient style generally suffered a second round of hardship and did not succeed.

The Land of Whirlpools can't really be considered an independent country; it's more like a place where the Whirlpool clan lives in seclusion.

Furthermore, the resources consumed by the Uzumaki clan ninja actually come from hiring. The small Land of Whirlpools can't support many people because of the "Sealing Technique," so the Uzumaki clan can take the high-end route, easily accepting high-value missions to support the entire clan.

After trial and error, by the late Warring States period, the ninja clan's existence had largely become a "mercenary army" model.

Similarly, nearly forty years have passed since the beginning of the ninja village era, and the form of ninja villages has naturally changed a lot, especially in the relationship between major ninja villages and their host countries!

In the first decade or so, the major ninja villages were more like super-giant ninja clans, with little binding force from the nation. However, now that Konoha is at war with other ninja villages, it has to inform, and even lobby, the Land of Fire for support.

"Sixty percent of Konoha's funds come from the Land of Fire, which is still too much. We should expand our mission areas outside the Land of Fire more—"

"I've long disliked those idiots in the City of Fire—" Yang Yong muttered, echoing the clan leader's words.

"Indeed, during the First Hokage's time, funds from the Land of Fire only accounted for 30%. Back then, Konoha didn't need to consult with the Land of Fire about anything they wanted to do—" Koji Kyu said, shaking his head regretfully.

Koji Ku spent his childhood during the late Warring States period and the early days of the Ninja Village, and he has a deep impression of these times.

Koji Kyu then added, "However, now that those small countries are also establishing their own ninja villages, there are naturally fewer missions outside the Land of Fire."

"So what? We'll take him down!" Yang Yong, with his more radical personality, continued after thinking for a moment, "And it's not just small countries. I think the Land of Lightning is good too. Didn't the Hidden Cloud Village lose its Raikage and suffer from severe internal strife before? I think that Hiruzen Sarutobi just lacked courage. If I were Hokage, I'd just take on the Hidden Cloud Village directly. Then we'd be one village against two countries!"

Chishi could also tell that, given Elder Yang Yong's volatile temper, he must have previously been on the side of the Sha Na faction.

"Why don't you think about it from the other side? There are too many people saying 'The Land of Fire isn't bad either' these days!" Gongzhi Jiu seemed to have had enough of Yang Yong.

Jian Cheng, standing to the side, was also having a headache.

It's not uncommon for the Uchiha clan to have internal divisions.

The fact that they're just arguing now is already considered quite peaceful.

"You two, don't embarrass yourselves in front of the young people!" Jian Cheng scolded lightly.

The more honest Gongzhi Jiu fell silent, but Yang Yong wasn't about to give up. He looked at Chishi and asked, "Chishi, who do you think makes more sense?"

"I think—we can indeed think about it from the other side." Akaishi had been thinking about this as well.

Yang Yong glared at her, while Gong Zhijiu chuckled to himself.

Akaishi quickly added, "What I mean is, since expanding out of the Land of Fire isn't easy, why not try dismantling it? If the Land of Fire is divided into several smaller countries, their nobles won't have much of a hold on us, right?"

Jian Cheng, Gong Zhijiu, Yang Yong: ? ? ?

The three remained silent for a moment.

"Hahaha, clan leader, Akashi is truly a strategist bestowed upon the Uchiha clan by heaven!" Yang Yong immediately laughed and said.

Although Akaishi was just saying it casually, and there are still many difficulties in its implementation, or even if it is impossible to implement it at all, the fact that he could come up with this idea so quickly made Yang Yong realize that the Uchiha clan has successors.

and----

In Yang Yong's view, this kind of wisdom was already at the level of a "brain trust".

"Ahem, remember not to talk nonsense in front of outsiders," Jian Cheng said helplessly.

He used to think that Akaishi was quite easy to manage.

I wonder if it's because the Sage of Six Paths increased the bloodline concentration of Akashi!

"Clan leader, the idea of ​​dismantling the Land of Fire is just a pipe dream, but—I just thought of something. If Konoha wins, perhaps we can avoid directly taking over the mission areas and instead have Sunagakure take on some of Konoha's 'outsourced' work—"

Akaishi was mainly thinking about this just now —