Naruto : Akatsuki Bizzare Strategist!

Pakura's face darkened after hearing Maki's explanation.

Was this topic seriously never going to end?

Wait.

No.

Maki was deliberately embarrassing her to change the subject, wasn't she?

If Pakura got flustered enough, she would forget all about the gossip coming back to bite them.

Pakura was not stupid.

After spending this much time with the three gossipmongers, anyone with even a little common sense would have figured out how their minds worked by now.

Still, she chose not to make an issue of it.

If she protested too strongly, she would only look guilty!

"By the way, Kirigakure's situation is actually pretty similar to Sunagakure's. Once you arrive, you may encounter the same kind of problems."

Just as everyone was about to step into the Flying Raijin Formation, Gaara suddenly remembered something and offered one final warning.

By "the same kind of problems," he meant people like Hōichi—old conservatives, ambitious schemers, and anyone else obstructing development while constantly dreaming about how wonderful the village had supposedly been in the old days.

Among the Five Great Ninja Villages, Sunagakure and Kirigakure suffered from this problem the most.

Both villages had experienced younger leaders taking power at roughly the same time that the previous generation disappeared.

Technically, Kumogakure could once have been placed in the same category.

However, the Raikage had succeeded to his position so early that he was already approaching fifty.

His political experience and control over the village were on a completely different level from Gaara or Terumī Mei.

Iwagakure, meanwhile, followed the principle: An old man in the family is a treasure.

Whenever something troublesome happened, they could simply send Ōnoki.

The moment someone with his seniority stood there, hardly anyone dared argue.

After Uchiha Madara traumatized him, Ōnoki had once "fallen."

He abandoned the Will of Stone and entered what could be considered a lawful form of darkness.

For the sake of his village's interests, he became willing to do almost anything.

The Will of Stone had turned into a Will of Darkness.

In the original story, it was only while fighting alongside the other Kage against Madara that Ōnoki rediscovered the Will of Stone.

The current Ōnoki, influenced by Kurotsuchi and having genuinely seen hope for peace in the shinobi world, had probably recovered about half of his old self.

But whether Ōnoki himself believed he had changed was irrelevant to how everyone else viewed him.

To outsiders, he was still the same "fallen" old dictator.

Oh, right.

During the Boruto era, the elderly and increasingly senile Ōnoki lost the Will of Stone yet again.

He effectively sidelined the Fourth Tsuchikage Kurotsuchi, created artificial humans, used genjutsu to suppress information, bypassed the village leadership, and seized control of Iwagakure's military and political authority.

Naturally, right before dying, he rediscovered the Will of Stone…

Again.

For the moment, however, Ōnoki had shown no signs of reaching that stage, so there was no need to dwell on it.

Then there was Konoha.

Tsunade was not exactly young, but the circumstances surrounding her rise to power could still be categorized similarly.

Konoha did not possess an "old man who was a treasure" when Tsunade became Hokage.

All she had were several ancient bastards who constantly got in her way.

But why did Konoha need to have an old man?

Instead of searching for one…

They could simply create one.

The older generation was dead?

Fine.

Use Edo Tensei and bring them back.

Although the Land of Fire and Konoha were the last of the Five Great Nations to begin reforming—and originally suffered from the most severe problems—as time passed, they had actually become the place with the least opposition outside Amegakure itself.

They were doing even better than Iwagakure, which had started its reforms first and possessed its own treasured old man.

That was not because Tsunade possessed extraordinary political talent.

Nor was it because the people of Konoha and the Land of Fire were unusually cooperative and reasonable.

There was no such thing as peaceful years.

Senju Tobirama's Flying Raijin and Multiple Shadow Clone Technique were simply carrying the burden behind the scenes.

If Tobirama wanted someone dead, even Senju Hashirama could not necessarily protect them.

Imagine ordering takeout.

Someone had secretly placed a Flying Raijin mark on the package.

Then, halfway through your meal—Flying Raijin Slash!

How were you supposed to defend against that?

And if there were too many targets?

Tobirama would not even bother appearing himself.

He could simply use the Flying Raijin derivative technique developed by the Fourth Hokage—Flying Raijin: Guiding Thunder—and continuously teleport Mutually Multiplying Explosive Tags straight into the area.

There really could not be two people like that in one family.

When Senju Tobirama encountered someone obstructing the village's development, he would lecture them with a stern expression.

If the lecture failed?

He would draw a blade.

When Senju Hashirama encountered someone obstructing the village's development, he would patiently persuade them with a warm smile.

If persuasion failed?

He would sadly draw a blade.

Uchiha Madara had absolute authority to comment on the difference.

In short, no matter how capable Terumī Mei was, she could not be everywhere at once.

There was no way for her to eliminate every problem inside Kirigakure.

Even with the Edo Tensei Hōzuki Gengetsu assisting her, he could never play the same role for Kirigakure that Tobirama played for Konoha.

The mustached Second Mizukage was simply too kindhearted.

Just look at his performance during the Fourth Shinobi World War.

He could not even bring himself to kill the useless Allied Shinobi Forces attacking him—and those people were not even from his own village.

Now, if they had resurrected the Third Mizukage, the original founder of the Bloody Mist…

Actually, that was hard to say too.

After all, the people opposing Terumī Mei now were precisely the ones who wanted to restore the Bloody Mist.

Even if the Third Mizukage returned, would he really have the heart to kill younger shinobi from his own village whose entire ideology was based on worshipping the era he had created?

Probably not.

Unless the Third Mizukage had also been an absolute monster like Senju Tobirama.

Unfortunately, history did not record enough to know.

All anyone knew was that the Third Mizukage had begun the Bloody Mist era.

The truly infamous, fully developed Bloody Mist system came later, under the Mizukage controlled by "Uchiha Madara."

You could not simply look at how cruel the later Bloody Mist became and work backward to conclude that the original version had been equally brutal, therefore proving the Third Mizukage had been a ruthless monster.

That would be like looking at the modern Will of Fire—now overflowing with suspicious bonds and questionable behavior—and using it to conclude that Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara must already have been bond-type ninja when they founded Konoha.

Even if they actually were incredibly suspicious…

That was still not how historical reasoning worked.

And so, the group used the Flying Raijin Formation to travel toward Kirigakure.

Kakashi also sent an invitation back to Might Guy in Konoha.

From the moment Kakashi met Shira, the man had reminded him of Guy.

Now that Shira had started clinging to him, the resemblance was becoming even stronger.

Rather than having Kakashi personally help develop some new breathing method, why not bring Guy over?

Guy was a true taijutsu master.

Letting two people who specialized entirely in taijutsu bounce ideas off each other sounded far more useful than having Kakashi sit there thinking up theories from scratch.

Besides, once they reached Kirigakure, Kakashi still had the main mission of spreading Sage Mode.

He definitely would not have time to keep Shira entertained.

What was Shira supposed to do then?

Stand around watching?

Go relax on the beach?

With a personality so similar to Guy's, Shira probably could not sit still long enough to enjoy a vacation anyway.

It would be better to bring Guy over and let the two of them occupy each other.

It would not take Guy long to arrive either.

He only needed to reach Konoha's Flying Raijin transfer point and teleport over.

…

Back in Konoha, the moment Guy received Kakashi's message, he immediately summoned his three students.

"Tenten! Neji! Lee!"

Guy stood solemnly before them, gripping Kakashi's letter in one hand.

"This…"

He narrowed his eyes dramatically.

"…is a challenge from Kakashi!"

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