Naruto: I'm really not an evil scientist!

The daimyo of the Land of Water was naturally very unhappy about this—after all, in everyone's mind, the Land of Birds was the Land of Water's little brother.

Even without the concept of colonies, the daimyo of the Land of Water instinctively hoped that the Land of Birds would be as weak and submissive as possible.

Even if he couldn't force the ruler of the Bird Country to come and report every year, nor could he make the other party build roads for his residence every year, the daimyo of the Water Country still hoped that the other party could always stand behind him and be a well-behaved follower.

You can't take what your older brother won't give you.

The Bird Country had previously played the role of a subordinate quite well.

If the Land of Birds were to have ninjas and ninja villages now... that would be a bit tricky.

Ultimately, the gun is the kidney of the rulers.

Even if the Land of Birds is too powerful to support a strong ninja village, it still means that the Land of Water's influence over the Land of Birds will be reduced to some extent.

This is clearly not what the Daimyo of the Land of Water wanted to see.

That's how this commission came about.

If Kirigakure really succeeds, that would be great.

While weakening the Land of Birds, the Daimyo of the Land of Water also gained leverage over the Hidden Mist Village—look, you did the dirty work for me, so don't even think about challenging me anymore.

If they actually succeed, the Land of Birds will definitely hate Kirigakure to death, and the trouble will never end.

If Kirigakure fails to do so... they will win.

The daimyo of the Land of Water is truly like Qin Shi Huang accidentally touching an electric wire—he's won by a fluke.

This not only relieved my anger but also eliminated a major threat—if Kirigakure can't even handle such a small matter, how will they be willing to risk their lives for me in the future?

These nobles are no good at fighting or running a business, but they are all experts at playing pranks.

As for a direct refusal... it seems that what Kirigakure did recently has indeed thoroughly angered the Daimyo of the Land of Water.

But that's the problem; it won't disappear just because you ignore it, so...

Chapter 501

Moreover, Hiruko, being a time traveler, actually knew even more.

These wandering ninjas harbor ulterior motives.

In the original work, after the ruler of the Land of Birds took in wandering ninjas, these wandering ninjas murdered the ruler.

For the sake of her country and people, Princess Zhulu endured humiliation and hardship while using the Ghost Warrior as a smokescreen to search for the truth of what happened back then—this was originally a storyline set more than ten years later.

Simply put, it's about the messy affair between Emperor Wu of Liang, Xiao Yan, and the Grand General Hou Jing.

Even if Hiruko knew this, let alone the fact that the other party was currently very good at disguising himself, even if Hiruko had the evidence, it would be difficult for the ruler of the Bird Country to believe him.

Who told someone to have such a bad reputation... The Fifth Hokage personally came to tell you, "The people you took in want to kill you." Anyone would beat him up before listening.

Even though it hadn't been implemented yet, Hiruko knew in her heart that the ruler of the Land of Birds would definitely not agree to Kirigakure's request, and would instead get closer to the wandering ninjas...

In truth, this was all Hiruko's fault.

To be precise, it's the fault of the ruler of the tea country.

Based on Hiruko's own experience, the uprising of the ruler of the Tea Country should not have succeeded.

That riot was filled with all sorts of luck and chance; if His Highness had been even slightly less lucky, he would have died in a very rhythmic way.

But as mature adults, we are all results-oriented.

Ultimately, the ruler of the Tea Country successfully staged the uprising and truly made his country prosper. Therefore, his reckless actions at the time should be called far-sighted planning.

Even though the Tea Country is currently just a raw material supplier for Coca-Cola, the biggest advantage of a small country is that it is easy to change course and easy to satisfy customers.

The small amount of money that the wealthy merchants deliberately let slip was enough for the Tea Country to eat its fill.

With a large influx of funds from foreign countries, ordinary people had formal jobs, so there was no more unrest, and tax revenue increased.

With more tax revenue, the Tea Country can spend more money on infrastructure...

To be fair, the ruler of the Tea Country is not particularly wise or powerful, but he is rich, the people don't cause trouble, and they are willing to invest in infrastructure. Even the worst ruler can be limited by such circumstances.

While the economic system constructed in this way is simple, its advantage lies in its ability to form a closed loop.

It is foreseeable that as long as the ruler of the Tea Country does not cause trouble in the next few years, the Tea Country will definitely continue to grow stronger.

Considering the existence of the Edict of Peace and Tranquility, the Land of Tea should have little to worry about for at least the next nine years...

A young man who was not very capable at first became a wise and benevolent ruler after launching reforms. Other rulers could not help but feel envious.

Anyway, the ruler of the Bird Kingdom will definitely give it a try.

So, even earlier than in the original timeline, he began trying to make contact with those wandering ninjas...

This matter was not only very difficult for Hiruko, but also even more unsolvable for Kirigakure.

That's why Mei Terumi didn't ask Hiruko any further questions, and instead reached an agreement directly—little did she know that a Tenseigan would fall from the sky and land right in her house.

***

After listening to Mei Terumi's words, Kisame gradually understood everything.

However, given Kisame's intelligence, it would indeed be difficult for him to perfectly resolve this matter.

He excels at direct confrontation, not this kind of roundabout political maneuvering.

and so……

"Who to kill? Where? How many?"

Kisame asked the three ninja questions very seriously.

Kisame of this era may not have reached the pinnacle of his life, but he is certainly at the level of a Kage.

If he really wanted to assassinate someone, he would most likely be able to do so.

However, this does not align with Mei Terumi's original intention.

If Terumi Meditation wanted to solve the problem through assassination, she had far too many options.

Mei Terumi didn't want to kill anyone; she wanted Kirigakure to weather this crisis peacefully. The daimyo's schemes in the Land of Water were deadly enough, and the poisonous darts thrown by the elders in secret were even more vicious.

This is the price of skipping the Takigakure Village quest.

Mei Terumi doesn't regret her initial choice, but right now... she doesn't want any more conflict, but rather wants to develop quietly.

"Kisame, we don't need you to kill people, we just need you to scare people."

"Terrifying."

"Yes, that's right. The old Chinese man from the Bird Country is a fairly staunch advocate of reform."

He's been urging the Bird Kingdom's ruler to accept those wandering ninjas... Killing him would come at too high a price, making it a losing proposition, so let him leave the scene for now.

It's not wrong to weaken someone's supporters before dealing with them.

But Zhao Mei couldn't understand how to scare an old Chinese man into giving up his support for the king.

Kisame also looked at Hiruko with a puzzled expression.

"Don't look at me like that... I already found out that the old Chinese gentleman loves fishing, but he's not very good at it and has bad luck, so he always comes back empty-handed."

As Hiruko spoke, the corners of his mouth turned up slightly, revealing a smile that Terumi Mei recognized very well—a smile that belonged to a schemer.

"While he was fishing, you secretly slipped into the water and baited his fishing buddy with fish."

When everyone else has started fishing but he hasn't, and he's getting frustrated, you can secretly bait a large fish weighing around 120 pounds for him—let him play it for half an hour, and then let the old Chinese man catch it.

But before you collect the fish, you can make the big one break the fishing line and escape... that's achievable, right?

A person in a position like Lao Zhong would inevitably have ninja bodyguards by his side.

Even for Kisame, sneaking up to the other side would be difficult.

But if Kisame were in the water and couldn't use chakra to hide...

“In that case, it would indeed force that old lord to leave.” Mei Terumi closed her eyes and imagined the situation Hiruko had described—an old lord who had waited so long to finally catch a big fish, only to have it escape at the last moment; the sense of despair he felt was enough to drive anyone to despair.

"But what if I accidentally anger him to death?"

"It shouldn't be that bad... It's just an experiment anyway."

Since Hiruko had already said so, Terumi Mei was too lazy to object.

"What should we do after we let that old Chinese man leave temporarily?"

"Of course, we should persuade the ruler of the Bird Kingdom to dig up bird droppings."

As usual, Hiruko once again revealed an action plan that no one could understand at all.

However, the element of conspiracy actually accounts for a relatively small portion of Hiruko's plan this time.

He really didn't want to waste Konoha's diplomatic resources any longer.

So this is an open scheme—I'm letting you choose for yourself in a fair and square way, and no matter what you choose, it's all within my calculations.

It's impossible for the ruler of the Land of Birds to be unaware of the danger posed by wandering ninjas—even if those wandering ninjas were truly harmless, a monarch would instinctively choose to side with his own people.

It's like doing business; even the most incompetent servants you keep yourself are more reliable than thugs of dubious origin.

Unless there is absolutely no other choice, who would use ninjas of unknown origin as their own army? Judging from the intelligence gathered by Konoha and Kirigakure, the Land of Birds does indeed have some financial problems—not the kind of poverty that leaves them destitute, but a chronic anemia that persists year after year, where they are neither full nor starving.

Taking in wandering ninjas was truly a last resort.

If there's even a little bit of money... then let the Land of Birds have some money.

To put it bluntly, Hiruko intends to rub sugar into the wounds of the Land of Birds, further weakening its immunity.

Apart from the Land of Fire, the other countries are basically named after their most distinctive features.

Like a bird kingdom, that means there are really a lot of birds.

These birds have long occupied the area around the Bird Kingdom for countless years, and over time, many bird droppings islands have formed.

To the untrained eye, these bird droppings islands are useless, and even locals rarely visit them—after all, who wants to live surrounded by bird droppings every day? However, in the eyes of Hirukho, these are all huge mineral deposits—phosphates!

On Earth, there is a country called Nauru, which was once very wealthy because of the huge amount of poop produced by seabirds, and even the entire population was obese.

Fortunately, the problem was eventually solved—because all the phosphates had been extracted.

As for the Bird Country... we could never finish digging it all up in this lifetime.