Before Bai Mo enlightened everyone, their thoughts were actually similar to Itachi's.
They believed that the Daimyo controlled the economy and the Kage controlled the military, and that the Shinobi Villages could not do without the Daimyo's funding.
In reality, the so-called Daimyo are all people who bully the weak and fear the strong.
The Raikage of Kumogakure is powerful and often disregards the Daimyo's opinions.
The Kazekage of Sunagakure is weaker, leading to repeated budget cuts.
The Daimyo of the Land of Fire is quite something; when he encountered someone strong like Danzo, he cowered like a pig.
When he met someone naive like Naruto, he started making friends.
When he encountered someone like Shikamaru, who lacked sufficient strength, influence, and prestige, he immediately took over, using his status to arrogantly suppress him.
So Bai Mo's assessment was entirely correct: the Daimyo system is a bad habit of the old era, and the Daimyo are parasites sucking the lifeblood of the country.
If Bai Mo's words were heard by people from the Five Great Shinobi Villages, even Kumogakure, which had a poor relationship with its Daimyo, would consider Bai Mo's words outrageous.
But those around him now were rogue ninja, whose minds were not bound by convention.
"No problem, Zabuza, you are indeed more suited to go with Kisame to assassinate the Daimyo. Anyway, you've already assassinated a Mizukage, so one more charge won't make a difference.
It also saves you from taking a sword to block a Tailed Beast Ball like the previous owner of the Kubikiribōchō."
Bai Mo affirmed Zabuza's words, but then added, "You really have a poisonous tongue. By the way, is that how Jūzō died? He was really bold."
Zabuza's mouth twitched.
Taking a sword to block a Tailed Beast Ball, what kind of terrifying maneuver was that?
"Biwa Jūzō was my previous partner. We faced the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, at that time, and he died there."
Uchiha Itachi interjected.
Mentioning Jūzō made Itachi recall the past.
It was also during that mission that Itachi awakened and mastered Amaterasu.
~
They arrived at the Great Naruto Bridge in the Land of Waves.
Gato, with his large group of mercenaries, had been ambushing them there for a long time.
"This guy probably wants to see me and the escorting ninja fight to the death, and then he'll wait here to silence me again.
If Kisame and the others hadn't shown up, he might have succeeded. That bastard!"
Zabuza saw the situation on the bridge and grinned.
"Mr. Zabuza, you are injured; leave it to me."
Haku raised his hand, clutching three senbon, and took a step forward.
"Haku's strength is more than enough to deal with this trash, just watch..."
Zabuza looked at Bai Mo and the others.
"Let me try my hand. After all, I'm still a pure, innocent youth and have never killed anyone."
Bai Mo, however, shook his head.
"Oh? Then it's certainly necessary to test your skills on some non-threatening enemies."
Kisame was surprised to hear this, then expressed his agreement.
"Never killed anyone. It seems the ninja world might experience a considerable period of peace in the future."
Uchiha Itachi smiled lightly.
"Or perhaps it's because there's no qualification to strike at true enemies. Even a Kage is just a piece of meat on a chopping board. It's hard to harm the enemy, let alone kill them."
Bai Mo refuted Itachi's statement.
The peace of less than twenty years after the Naruto and Sasuke battle in the original timeline was a peace with a price.
The two of them deliberately concealed the threat of the Ōtsutsuki Clan, which allowed the ninja world to temporarily relax.
The price was that twenty years later, when the Ōtsutsuki attacked, the ninja world was completely unprepared.
Mainly, it was because the two of them were overly confident and unaware of the Ōtsutsuki's true strength.
The ninja world seemed to be rapidly developing technology, creating various scientific ninja tools and such, but in reality, it was still suppressed.
All of Orochimaru's research had to be monitored and reviewed by Konoha, while Yakushi Kabuto simply became an orphanage director.
The two top scientific talents were restricted.
Speaking of the future Yakushi Kabuto.
He was one of the few people Bai Mo knew in Konoha at the time.
"Do you want me to lend you my sword?"
Zabuza asked.
"No need. I'm not like you; I'm not a bloodthirsty person."
Bai Mo refused.
Zabuza laughed and was about to say something when he realized Bai Mo had disappeared.
He turned his head and saw Gato's mercenary squad in disarray.
Bai Mo had appeared behind Gato at some unknown point, directly piercing Gato's chest with a punch, then throwing him to the ground like trash.
"This is what you call not bloodthirsty? This is his first time killing someone?"
Zabuza was speechless.
Even he, who came from the Bloody Mist, wasn't this decisive and brutal the first time he killed someone.
Although he had killed all his classmates in the ninja graduation exam at age 9, including his own teammates, that wasn't his first kill.
His first time was as simple as a kunai to the throat.
But thinking about it carefully, it wasn't too strange.
After all, even if you haven't eaten pork, haven't you seen a pig run?
Bai Mo only said he hadn't killed anyone, not that he hadn't seen people die.
As for Itachi's talk of "ninja world peace," Zabuza didn't understand it.
"It's indeed an amplification like Sage chakra, isn't it?"
Uchiha Itachi saw Bai Mo punch through Gato and reconfirmed his previous guess.
He had learned from some Uchiha records that the most obvious characteristic of practicing Sage Jutsu was increased strength.
Besides that, sensory abilities also became stronger, but this couldn't be distinguished by others with the naked eye.
And the appearance should also undergo some changes.
Itachi had previously dismissed his idea because he felt that Bai Mo's situation had many differences from the Sage Mode described in the records.
His appearance hadn't changed, and there didn't seem to be a concept of a "duration."
But now, Bai Mo's single punch made Itachi certain that he hadn't guessed wrong.
Bai Mo was not as cruel and bloodthirsty as Zabuza thought.
It was probably just Bai Mo wanting to test his strength, but he underestimated it, which led to this scene.
"Everyone, I apologize, I don't know any ninjutsu, so bear with the pain."
As Bai Mo spoke, he dealt with two more rogue ninja.
Two rogue samurai exchanged glances, and believing they had no blind spots, launched a strike towards Bai Mo. Suddenly, their consciousness flickered, and they realized they had finished striking but hadn't hit anything.
The next second, the two rogue samurai were hit in the forehead by two shuriken thrown from a distance.
It wasn't Bai Mo who did it, but their allies, fellow mercenaries, who accidentally injured their teammates.
"Damn it, this guy is too difficult to deal with! Ignore him, take out his comrades!"
A rogue ninja suddenly shouted.
After the others reacted, some felt that since Gato was dead, there was no point in fighting, so they secretly slipped away.
The rest all charged towards Itachi and Kisame.
"Uh..."
Bai Mo, standing alone with no one around him, was stunned.
These people truly had a death wish.
Although he was also crushing them here, his efficiency in dealing with them wasn't high.
As long as they weren't AI, once they saw many people dying, they would just run away.
But now these people were charging directly towards that side? Wasn't that just asking for it?
"Water Release: Great Shark Bullet Technique!"
A giant shark made of water leaped from the water beneath the bridge, swallowed the charging ninja and samurai in one bite, and then fell back into the water with traces of blood and residue.
It instantly became quiet.
....
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