This puppeteer is a bit... well...

Chapter 266: To live as a ninja or to be a ruler?

The rest of my life...

Hong was stunned.

As servants, isn't it our duty to serve our masters for a lifetime?

Why would the owner ask such an unnecessary question?

But she quickly realized what was happening, and her face turned as red as steam.

"Hmm~"

The sound was very low, as faint as a mosquito's buzz.

But Ryuji heard it clearly and couldn't help but smile.

"Once I've finished dealing with all my mundane affairs, I'll resign from all my positions and then find a beautiful, secluded place to live happily together."

"Um!"

Hong's voice became softer and more endearing.

Ryuji instinctively wanted to pull Hong into his arms, but when he raised his hand, he realized he was a head shorter than her. It wasn't that Ryuji was short; he was 1.8 meters tall.

Compared to Hong Yi, who is about two meters tall, it looks very short.

Noticing her master's embarrassment, Hong couldn't help but chuckle softly, and pulled Ryuji into her arms as he felt awkward.

"I'll protect my master!"

Ryuji didn't hear him; he was already lost in the delicate fragrance of the pink, gentle embrace of the place.

……

The sunlight completely dispelled the darkness, shining upon the earth and revealing the battlefield, littered with wreckage, smoke, and corpses.

As the joy and excitement of victory faded, everyone fell silent.

The Third Kazekage, along with the high-ranking officials of Sunagakure, stopped about ten meters to the right of Ryuji.

He looked at the two embracing each other, remained silent for a moment, and then asked, "...All the prisoners are imprisoned, what's the next step?"

The Third Kazekage's words were filled with anticipation, and his burning eyes were brimming with ambition.

All forces in the ninja world have been defeated. At this point, as long as we continue to advance, we can unify the ninja world without lifting a finger... No leader of any force could resist such a temptation.

Ryuji froze, sensing that Kurenai felt the same way. The two, lost in their sweet moment, seemed to have forgotten themselves.

Ryuji chuckled softly, casually separating from Kurenai. He straightened his clothes, coughed twice, and then looked at the group of high-ranking officials led by the Third Kazekage, "That depends on what kind of future you or the village want."

"What do you mean?"

The Third Kazekage asked, puzzled.

"If the village still wants to be a ninja village, and everyone still wants to live as ninjas, then demand reparations according to the war game, and release all the prisoners..."

"etc……"

Granny Chiyo interrupted Ryuji's story, questioning, "Why must we continue living as ninjas just to demand reparations and release them according to the War Games? Can't we just unify the ninja world?"

"Of course..." Ryuji laughed, "Given the current situation, there shouldn't be any obstacles to easily unifying the ninja world, right? And then what?"

"And then?" Granny Chiyo asked, puzzled. "After unifying the ninja world, Sunagakure will be able to monopolize missions from all countries and grow into an unprecedented behemoth."

"Is it really that easy?"

"Is there some other problem?"

"Tell me, what's the most common thing in ninja missions?"

"what?"

Seemingly surprised that Ryuji would ask this question, Granny Chiyo paused for a moment, then fell into deep thought.

Not only Granny Chiyo, but everyone else also lowered their heads and pondered this question.

"They're the enemy!"

Before they could reach a conclusion, Ryuji gave the answer.

"enemy!?"

Looking at the speechless faces of the group, Ryuji continued, "Whether it's ordinary bandits, ronin, or ninjas from other villages, the most common problem encountered in missions is the enemy."

"However, if a village unifies the ninja world, then there will be no more ninjas from other villages as enemies."

"Secondly, the unification of the ninja world means long-term peace, happy lives for the people, and a sharp increase in public order. Ordinary bandits and ronin will gradually decrease until they disappear..."

At this point, Long Er paused.

He looked at the high-ranking members of Sunagakure, who seemed to have thought of something, and gave them a half-smile.

"It seems you've thought of that too. That's right, once there are no enemies, there's no need to issue missions."

Ninjas are mercenaries; they are paid to do things that solve problems for others.

This profession isn't as glamorous and heroic as it's portrayed in anime. Besides tasks like guarding, it also involves invasion, robbery, and assassination.

Therefore, only those who are invaded or assassinated would hire ninjas to protect themselves.

If there were only one faction in the ninja world, one side would hire villages to carry out assassinations, and the other side would hire ninjas from other villages to protect them... Not to mention whether the villages would be so cruel as to make their own ninjas accept missions that would lead to infighting, even if they were willing, the employers wouldn't dare!

Knowing that the enemy hired ninjas from your village to assassinate you, who would dare hire you to protect them?

What if the money you give is less than what the enemy gives, and the guard ends up becoming an assassin instead?

Similarly, the other party will have similar concerns.

Aside from assassinations, there are missions for wars between nations, commercial competitions, and escorting caravans... If there are no enemies who are also ninjas, then there is no need to hire ninjas as bodyguards.

The village's main income comes from these C-level and above missions, which may involve encountering enemies.

Without these, even if they monopolized mission commissions worldwide, they would only be menial tasks that genin could easily handle, such as moving things, helping farmers cultivate fields, cleaning cities, and delivering messages. Let alone developing into an unprecedented behemoth in the ninja world, it would be a different story whether they could even support the current number of ninjas.

Therefore, if they want to continue living as ninja villages and ninjas, the ninja world cannot be unified.

After hearing Ryuji's explanation, everyone suddenly understood.

The Third Kazekage let out a long sigh and said, "No wonder the First Hokage and Madara Uchiha, who possessed the power to unify the ninja world, never considered such a thing. It turns out there was this factor involved."

"No, I don't think they even considered this aspect," Ryuji thought to himself.

The First Hokage may simply not want to invade others. Although Madara Uchiha was a bit violent, he also wanted to subdue other ninja villages rather than destroy other forces.

To put it bluntly, although Madara Uchiha and the First Hokage had different personalities, they both had a morbid desire for peace.

"If you want to be a ninja, then demand reparations according to the war game and release the prisoners. If you don't want to be a ninja, then destroy the daimyo's palace as well and complete the great feat of unifying the world."

"But in this way, everyone will become a subject of the rulers, and even if something happens and help is needed, there will be no such thing as an employee. Instead, the rulers will protect the ruled, and the ruled will pay taxes to the rulers... Well, they should be called new daimyo, ministers, and soldiers."

"this……"

"Think about your choices carefully!" Before anyone could offer their opinions, Ryuji continued, "But whatever you choose, I will support you to the end. However, if you choose to continue as ninjas, I will establish a department to oversee all villages and prevent frequent wars. I'm tired of so many wars over the years, and the upcoming war will be the last one I participate in. Think it over carefully!"

After saying that, Long Er walked past them.

Red, carrying Black Zetsu, followed behind.

……

In her portable research lab, Wanlijiang pointed to the two halves of the body soaking in a medicine jar and said, "Kohinata's body was twisted in two. Fortunately, the twist was at the waist, so he didn't die immediately. He was given first aid with medical ninjutsu and is barely clinging to life."

"This guy's overconfident!"

Ryuji looked at Kohinata in the jar and mocked, "You clearly have such great strength, and with the Sage Robe I gave you, you could have crushed them with absolute power, but you ended up in this miserable state."

Kohinata's taijutsu is top-tier... Unlike Might Guy or Might Guy, he is purely a skill-based fighter. Even Madara Uchiha and Ryuji Uchiha wouldn't be stronger than him in pure taijutsu.

With such strength, if one were to enter Immortal Mode from the start, it would be a King-level player crushing a Platinum-level player.

But he insisted on showing off, and as a result, he overdid it, leading to a lose-lose situation with his enemy.

"Seeing that it was just a few teenagers, I couldn't help but hold back," Kohinata's voice came through the microphone next to him.

Long Er scoffed and continued to mock, "Was it really because they were young that you held back? I remember the report said there were two middle-aged men in the infiltration team!"

Upon hearing this, Kohinata fell silent.

Indeed, he did not show mercy because of the other person's age, but because the other person was a ninja from Konoha.

Although he has betrayed Konoha, he grew up there and still has feelings for it.

Although they had betrayed their former allies, they remained determined to live as ninjas of Sunagakure. But emotions don't simply disappear or intensify because of personal will.

In his heart, there was still a lingering attachment to Konoha.

Looking at Kohinata's complicated expression, Ryuji lost interest in teasing him and sighed, "Fine, I won't pursue this matter. I'll make you a new body tomorrow."

"Thank you, Lady Aya!"

"Don't thank me yet!" Ryuji raised his hand and said, "It's not that I can't understand how you feel..."

After a pause, Ryuji continued, "If you truly can't bear to leave Konoha, I'll give you a chance to choose again. But if you choose Sunagakure and continue like this, don't blame me for being ruthless. Think it over carefully!"

"I see."

Seeing this, Long Er nodded and walked to the other side of the laboratory.

As his strength increased dramatically, his personal space also grew significantly, from about a hundred square meters to the size of ten football fields.

Ryuji walked for two minutes and arrived at an operating room. There were seven beds inside, and Killer Bee and the other seven Jinchūriki were lying on them.

"Hmm, things are going well." Ryuji glanced at the information on the testing equipment and nodded slightly.

If a Jinchūriki is deprived of their Tailed Beast, they will die within a short period of time, the duration of which depends on the Jinchūriki's vitality.

When Ryuji arrived, he froze their life force to prevent them from losing their lives, all so that they could wake up safely afterward... This was a deal between Ryuji and the tailed beasts.

He would have the tailed beasts help him, while he would ensure the safety of the jinchūriki.

Although not all of these tailed beasts liked their jinchūriki, and not everyone's request was to save their jinchūriki, the situation at the time was uncertain, so Ryuji simply froze everyone.

As for why we should negotiate with them instead of using force to make them submit... it's because the circumstances don't allow it.

Ryuji absorbed the Ten-Tails into his body, and then separated the Ten-Tails from the other tailed beasts inside his body, allowing the tailed beasts to enter the seeds of the Divine Tree that were parasitizing his body, causing them to grow rapidly.

In this way, he still possesses the combat power of a peak Six Paths level, while the descending Kaguya-hime faces the situation of her chakra being separated, allowing Ryuji to easily achieve victory in the ocean of his mind.

Otherwise, if Kaguya were in her full form, even in the battle within the spiritual ocean, her 100% chance of victory would become a 50/50 chance.

"I'll come back to save you after I've dealt with the Otsutsuki clan."

It's simple to revive the Jinchuriki: just return the Tailed Beasts to them.

However, Ryuji still needs the power of the tailed beasts to help him, so he cannot return it to them for the time being.

"Next up is the Otsutsuki clan."

……

By absorbing Kaguya's memories, Ryuji mastered the method of connecting with the Otsutsuki clan in the universe, and his plan to lure them all to Earth was already in place.

but……

"To be on the safe side, it would be best to eliminate the Otsutsuki Isshiki who remains on Earth first!" Ryuji looked at Kurenai, "Still haven't found Jigen?"

"A thorough search is underway, and we should receive news soon."

Cixian was a monk.

But countless years ago, Isshiki Otsutsuki and Princess Kaguya descended to Earth and planted the Divine Tree.

In order to make the divine tree grow quickly, Isshiki decided to use Princess Kaguya, who was his attendant, as fertilizer to feed the divine tree... This was not to make Princess Kaguya die.

The Otsutsuki clan possesses the ability of wedges. By planting a wedge in a suitable container beforehand, and then transferring their consciousness before being devoured, they can revive on the container.

The Otsutsuki clan always used this combination when they colonized planets in space and planted the Divine Tree.

But what Isshiki didn't expect was that Princess Kaguya also possessed a Ten-Tails, which she then fused with. Taking advantage of Isshiki's unpreparedness, Princess Kaguya ambushed him from behind, using him as fertilizer to feed her Divine Tree, which led to the events that followed.

But at a crucial moment, Shiki used his ability to shrink his body, escaped halfway, and found a substandard container before he died... a monk named "Jigen".

Cixian could barely withstand the wedge, but not the power of the first form, so he lay in wait in the shadows, searching for a new, suitable vessel.

If we don't take this guy down, summoning the Otsutsuki from outer space to Earth will pose an additional threat.

"No matter what, the enemy is in the open while we are in the dark. Given that they don't know the situation, it's quite easy for us to find a living person," Hong said.

Scarab puppets are now ubiquitous in the ninja world; unless you're a White Zetsu, it's impossible not to find one.

"Then let's keep searching. I can't wait to lure the Otsutsuki clan members to Earth one by one, and then gradually devour them."

(End of this chapter)