"To lose the people and keep the land is to lose both."
"To lose the land and keep the people is to keep both."
"As long as everyone is alive, there will be opportunities to take back the lost land in the future."
"But if everyone dies in battle, the land that has been defended will be taken back by the enemy in the next charge."
"I know."
Tsunade rolled her eyes at him.
Having been deeply influenced by his ideas, she was not an orthodox ninja.
The higher-ups in the other villages all hoped that the ninjas in their villages would complete their missions, even if it meant death.
This included the current higher-ups of Konoha.
This included Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Although he also had the intention of leading Konoha to soar, and even, after knowing the "ambition" in Li Anshi's heart, was willing to make some preparations for the Konoha in his heart, whether it was by having the major ninja families start businesses, or by cultivating Sakumo Hatake and Tsunade, it was all to make Konoha better and more resilient to risk.
However, in order to strengthen his control over his subordinates, what Hiruzen was currently implementing was still the same mission system as the other villages.
However, with the expansion of the village's trade routes, the ninjas of the various clans had an extra choice.
They also had more options for the missions issued by the village.
This was very detrimental to the management of a village.
Therefore, in order to prevent a situation where his orders could not leave the Hokage's building, Hiruzen had also stipulated how many ninjas each clan must have on the roster.
Furthermore, every ninja on the roster had to do their best to carry out the missions issued from the Hokage's building.
Otherwise, the Hokage could, based on the performance of each family's ninjas, decide whether to continue to allow that family to conduct a certain business activity.
In this way, his control over Konoha had been raised to another level.
After all, before, whether a ninja from a clan completed a mission or not was only related to the individual and had little to do with the family.
But now, in order for the family to obtain more resources and autonomy, they would pay a greater price to complete the village's missions, to ensure that the family's interests would not be harmed.
However, this was only limited to the ninjas in the clans.
The commoner ninjas had no other way to obtain business. All they could do in the village were some small businesses, such as restaurants, flower shops, and so on.
Their businesses were not comparable to those of the clans at all.
An individually owned shop was highly replaceable.
But the businesses operated by the clans were basically "monopolies."
On the other hand, the commoner ninjas had no ninjutsu resources, and their own strength was not very strong. Even if they had a way to earn money, they couldn't protect it.
What Tsunade and Sakumo represented was naturally the growing number of commoner ninjas.
In fact, she was committed to completely turning the ninja clans of Konoha into commoners, to eliminate the gap between them, and to give them the same resources, where the capable would rise and the incompetent would fall!
And it was precisely because of this that, before she had changed Konoha into the village in her heart, she cherished the lives of the ninjas under her command very much.
She would not let her soldiers become a sacrifice to the political struggles of the Konoha higher-ups.
"However, even if we are to leave, we cannot let the Rain have any opportunity to exploit."
Tsunade rubbed her forehead.
This was what was giving her a headache right now.
Although every village would have its political squabbles, no matter how intense the political situation in the village was, in their external declarations, they would always present a harmonious and unified appearance.
After all, there were no good people in the ninja world.
Even the five great villages were constantly being coveted by the other four.
Once a village exposed its own weaknesses, the other villages would swarm like hyenas, eager to devour it and use it as a stepping stone for their own advancement.
Of course, because of the constraints of the daimyo and nobles of the five great nations, the other great villages could not completely destroy a weakened one.
However, the daimyo and nobles of the other countries were also very happy to obtain some of the resources and wealth of that country when their own village had the upper hand.
Konoha was the number one ninja village, and was already coveted by the great villages.
Especially since it was the first to withdraw from the First Great Ninja War, giving it three or four more years of recuperation than the others.
It could be said that weakening Konoha's power was the common goal of all the ambitious people in the ninja world right now.
Hanzo of the Rain, naturally, could also see this clearly.
Otherwise, in the face of the retreat of the ninjas from the Cloud and Stone, he would have long since arrogantly gone to war with them, using the two great villages to establish the fame of the Rain.
And it was precisely because he had seen through the situation that he had maintained a certain tacit understanding with the Cloud and the Stone, and wanted to take a bite out of Konoha.
Li Anshi guessed that perhaps the higher-ups of the two villages had already communicated with the Rain.
In fact, the Rain might have even received material support from them.
Currently, the friction between the Rain and Konoha on the border was, on one hand, a show for the other two villages, to prove that they had not violated their agreement.
And the fact that the friction between the two sides was controlled within a certain range, without a large-scale conflict, was also the Rain buying time to digest the resources of the two great villages.
The stronghold of Konoha had been established to resist the invasion of the Rain.
If Tsunade were to leave with the ninjas under her command for no reason and abandon the defense of the border, it would surely arouse the suspicion of the other great villages.
At that time, the news of the discord among the higher-ups of Konoha would surely not be hidden from them.
In the eyes of the elders of Konoha, the political struggles of the higher-ups might not be a big deal and were still within their control.
But many times, it was not what you thought it was, but what others thought it was.
In the eyes of the higher-ups of the other villages, the fact that she was willing to retreat with her subordinates rather than defend the border showed that the internal strife among the higher-ups of Konoha had surely reached a life-and-death level.
At that time, the neighboring Stone, Sand, Cloud, and Rain would all think this was an excellent opportunity and would surely launch another expedition against Konoha.
At that time, even if Konoha explained that its higher-ups did not have such a serious political struggle, it would be useless.
Once the situation was set in motion, one side would surely fail, or both would suffer.
No, for Konoha, as long as a battle occurred, it would be a loss.
And for the other villages, to unite to weaken Konoha, even if they themselves would suffer serious losses, as long as they could bring Konoha's strength down to a level comparable to theirs, it would be considered their victory.
However, for now, the great villages, besides Konoha, were still recuperating and beginning to prepare strategic supplies.
The Land of Rain also needed time to absorb the supplies from the other great villages to strengthen itself, so for now, the situation in the ninja world still seemed relatively calm.
However, for Tsunade's side, this calmness was a matter of pulling one hair and moving the whole body.
"So troublesome..."
He shook his head.
This was one of the reasons why he didn't want to become Hokage.
With his personality, he simply didn't want to be tied down by the many affairs of the village.
If he were to become Hokage, at most he would just give his subordinates a direction and let them implement various plans according to it.
But as for the various struggles for benefits in the village, that was not his strong suit.
Perhaps he could use his nearly invincible power to suppress all the dissenting voices.
But he also knew that such a high-pressure rule was not healthy and would not last long.
The world bustles, all for profit.
The world bustles, all for gain.
This was a characteristic hidden in the bones of humanity.
Relying on faith alone might allow some people to maintain a high fighting spirit and a firm stand.
However, ten, twenty years later, would their descendants still have such a firm faith and high fighting spirit?
If the interests of all classes could not be balanced, then the existence of a regime would not last long.
Looking at the ninja world, it seemed that only the daimyo and nobles of the countries had a backward but complete management system that had allowed them to be passed down for thousands of years and have great control over the world.
Even a ninja as strong as the First Hokage had never had the thought of ruling the entire world.
His thoughts were all centered on the ninja.
Including the later Naruto and Sasuke, who had invincible strength but also limited their sights to the profession of "ninja."
For thousands of years, ninjas had died one after another, and many clans had been wiped out in the long river of history.
However, the situation of the five great nations and a dozen or so smaller countries had rarely changed.
Those small countries that had been destroyed were mostly those that had no complete system and were formed by ordinary people.
If it was a country formed by a daimyo or nobles who had been passed down for many years, it would surely have a complete system of inheritance.
For example, the Land of Snow.
In the future, the younger brother of a certain daimyo of the Land of Snow had rebelled and overthrown his brother's rule, but he had not changed the interest structure of the country. It was not until more than a decade later that the former daimyo's daughter, with the help of Konoha ninjas, had defeated her uncle and regained the position of daimyo, and the country had not experienced any turmoil.
From this point of view, the power structure of the countries in the ninja world was much higher than that of the villages.
After all, the inheritance of a country was much longer than the history of the ninja.
And the inheritance of the villages was just a product created by two pacifists, Hashirama and Madara, based on their own dreams.
With their political intelligence, establishing a ninja village was their limit.
In his opinion, the only qualified "Kage" in the ninja world should be the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju.
If he had had the same strength as his brother, the ninja world would have long since been unified by the Senju.
If he had not been ambushed by the Cloud, then with his political talent, Konoha would have long since been forged into an iron plate.
In fact, if he had studied the history of the country, perhaps he could have created a system that was more suitable for Konoha and for the ninjas.
Unfortunately, in this world, there were no "ifs."
After his death, the situation in Konoha had already gone in another direction.
Hiruzen did not have his vision. If not for Li Anshi, Konoha would probably have continued to move towards its predetermined future.
Even now, he could not be sure what kind of changes the future of the ninja world would undergo.
"In any case, just send me a message when you're about to leave."
"At that time, I'll come to the border for a stroll."
"If the Land of Rain really dares to attack Konoha at that time, then I'll just wipe out the Hidden Rain Village."
"It just so happens that I haven't acted in a while. Many people have probably already forgotten my legend."
"Using the life of the 'Demigod' Hanzo to reforge my legend should be grand enough."
"I just don't know, if the 'Demigod' dies at my hands, what kind of name will those guys in the ninja world give me?"
Hearing him say this, Tsunade immediately gave him an elbow.
"Hmph, I knew you were up to no good."
"It seems you've been coveting Grandpa Hashirama's title for a long time."
"That's not it."
He rubbed his chest. He had to say, her strength was really great.
With his current physique, he had actually felt pain.
It was important to remember that she hadn't even used her "monstrous strength" yet.
Once she did, if he were to be hit like that, he would probably be seriously injured.
"It's also possible that the title the ninja world gives me will be Madara's 'Asura'."
Hanzo's title was "Demigod."
If he were really to be killed by him, it would mean that the title of "Demigod" was simply not worthy of him.
And how many titles in the ninja world were more prestigious than "Demigod"?
Counting them carefully, only titles like "God" and "Asura" were higher in rank.
In the legends of the ninja world, "God" and "Asura" were existences of the same rank.
It was just that "God" was on the side of humanity, protecting it, and was regarded as the side of justice.
And "Asura," on the other hand, took pleasure in slaughtering humans and was considered the side of "evil."
Hashirama had promoted his "peace" in the ninja world, and in order to prevent wars from happening again, he had bowed to the ninjas of the other great villages.
Therefore, he had been called the "God of Shinobi" by the ninjas of the world.