Naruto: Starting with Tsunade

Chapter 177 Aokiji's Ambition

Aokiji shook his head: "You really went all out. We've been comrades for the past few days, after all."

"Stop pretending, you're much tougher than me."

Kakuzu hoisted the two corpses onto his back, preparing to exchange them for money.

"If we delay handing over the body and collecting the reward by a day or two, it could cause trouble if a ninja manages to extract the dead person's memories."

Aokiji thought for a moment and said cautiously, "Our mountain clan in the village has this kind of ninjutsu. I don't know if other ninjas can do it, but it's always better to be cautious."

"You're really cautious."

Kakuzu listened to Aokiji's advice and decided to wait a few days before exchanging the corpse for money. He had also heard of this ninjutsu that could even remember the dead.

However, this ninjutsu has a flaw, which depends on the degree of decomposition of the corpse, or more precisely, the brain.

Generally, to obtain the memories of a corpse, special spells are used to preserve them immediately after death.

If we don't do this, over time, the memories we can extract from dead corpses will become very much a matter of luck.

A few days later, Kakuzu arrived in front of Aokiji with several large boxes.

Aokiji lay on the sofa with his hands behind his head and casually asked, "How much?"

"Two hundred million." A cheerful voice came from beneath Kakuzu's mask.

He wouldn't have dared to dream of such a price before. A bounty of 3000 million taels was basically the limit; going any higher was extremely difficult.

Aokiji laughed and said, "When it comes to their own safety, these wealthy people are never stingy."

Kakuzu chuckled.

"You seem to be in a good mood?"

Kakuzu shook his head, suddenly feeling somewhat sentimental: "Most of the time, an S-rank mission that a Jonin undertakes at the risk of his life only earns a mere million ryo."

"But look at us now, kidnapping a rich person easily costs at least hundreds of millions of taels of silver. The risks and rewards are truly disproportionate."

Aokiji laughed: "Well, most ninjas still have a ninja mindset, they care too much about their reputation. But that's precisely why we make money."

Ninjas are all quite proud, and even if they fall on hard times, they will not take up other professions, as this would be a disgrace to them, let alone become kidnappers.

A highly skilled ninja is less likely to fall into poverty, so it's unlikely that a highly skilled kidnapper would appear.

Kakuzu is an extreme case.

"Hmph, that's true..."

At this moment, as if reminded by Kakuzu, Aokiji made a connection to something and fell into deep thought.

Kakuzu asked, "What's wrong?"

After thinking for a moment, Aokiji rested his chin on his hand and smiled as he spoke, "Brother Kakuzu, don't you think this world is strange?"

"strangeness?"

"Don't you think that the 'one country, one village' model is a deformed product?"

"A deformed product? You really dare to say that. This is a system created by the God of Shinobi to pacify the chaotic world. In the past, the average lifespan of a ninja was only 30 years or so. It was because of his system that countries followed suit, and the world finally ushered in peace. I remember that your ancestor, Uchiha Madara, also contributed a lot to this."

Everyone here has lived through that era and knows very well what that time was like.

Although he didn't get along with the First Hokage, he couldn't help but admire the man's great achievements.

"Are you saying you're going to dismiss both of them?"

"I was merely looking at the issue with a critical eye," Aokiji shook his head. "The 'one country, one village' system—the village provides military protection, the daimyo provides financial support, each fulfilling their role, and all is well—but is that really the case?"

Kakuzu narrowed his eyes slightly: "What do you mean?"

"Haven't you felt deeply about what I've been going through with you these past few days?"

"Compared to ordinary people, we ninjas are too strong, so strong that we can ignore all rules if we want to."

"Take these rich people for example. You've seen them, haven't you? They may have a lot of money, but so what? They're still being manipulated by the two of us. All the money they worked so hard to earn can be taken away from them at will if I want."

"As for the daimyo... forgive me for speaking frankly, but they are just an extension of wealthy merchants. At most, they have more money, but in essence, they are just weak and ordinary people."

"In a one-on-one fight, even a casually graduated genin from our village could easily slaughter a daimyo like a chicken or a dog."

"Do you think the Daimyo wouldn't be able to sense something like this?"

"That's why I said the one-country-one-village system is problematic. In the past, there was only one country in the world. The emergence of the one-country-one-village system was just a compromise that the daimyo had to make out of fear of the power of us ninjas."

At this point, Aokiji paused deliberately and asked, "Guess what I would do if it were a daimyo?"

Kakuzu was taken aback: "What do we do?"

"If I were the daimyo, I would certainly try to kill all the ninjas. The ninjas are too powerful and threaten my rule."

"Of course, at this point, naive people will say that they have absolutely no intention of replacing the daimyo. But do you think the daimyo will believe that? In their eyes, it's not about whether you want to or not, but whether you have the ability."

"Going back to the previous question, if I were the daimyo, I would do everything I could to kill all the ninjas. Of course, with the daimyo's abilities, it would be almost impossible to kill all the ninjas."

"Therefore, the only way is to weaken them, such as by reducing military spending. Of course, there has to be a limit to this. If the reduction is too excessive, the ninjas will not be able to survive and will become kidnappers, which is something the daimyo does not want to see. A more secure and effective method is to wage war against various countries in the name of protecting territory. In this way, the ninjas will fall into the state of killing each other again."

"Oh, right, why did you say 'again'?"

"Hehe... I think in the past, the daimyo used the employment relationship to constantly increase the hatred between ninjas, making them kill each other, which led to a sharp decline in the number of ninjas. It wasn't until the appearance of the First Hokage that this situation changed. The daimyo were forced to accept the system of one village per country due to the First Hokage's powerful strength."

Kakuzu stared intently at Aokiji. To be honest, the other's words had a huge impact on his worldview, and he could hardly believe that a mere brat would utter such words.

In the past, after his assassination attempt failed, he had discussed the system of one village per country with the First Hokage. At that time, the First Hokage did not give him a satisfactory answer. It is truly unbelievable that he would see it in a kid today.

Kakuzu asked, "So, after saying all this, what are you trying to do?"

Aokiji said in a deep voice, "I want to restore the system of a single nation."

Kakuzu was taken aback, somewhat confused by Aokiji's meaning.

Judging from the conversation just now, this brat in front of me should be the type who looks down on the daimyo. How could he be willing to follow the daimyo and be subservient to him?

However, Aokiji's next topic surprised him somewhat.

"In this world, the concept of a daimyo (feudal lord) is simply necessary."

Whether anyone had mentioned this before was unknown, but at least in his knowledge, Aokiji was the first person to put forward this view, which surprised Kakuzu greatly.

"In the end, what is power? It's nothing more than coercion and bribery. Coercion represents force, and bribery represents money. In reality, the village represents force, and the daimyo represents money. If the daimyo, who represents the power of money, wants to regain force, he must eliminate the obstacle of the ninjas."

"As a ninja, I naturally do not want to be used by them to fight this meaningless war, so I want to turn the tables and destroy the daimyo."

Kakuzu understood Aokiji's meaning. If the ninja war was deliberately instigated by the daimyo, then eliminating the daimyo would cut off the source of the trouble. However, this would only create new problems.

After a moment's thought, he gave this reply: "What you're doing is just jumping from one extreme to another. In the past, the village was limited by money to develop, but once the daimyo is eliminated, the village will be free from the constraints of money and will develop uncontrollably like a wild beast. At that time, in order to obtain resources, wars will definitely break out between countries, and this war will be more brutal than ever before."

Aokiji was slightly surprised, not expecting Kakuzu to have thought of this. He smiled and continued, "Have you ever thought about unifying the world?"

Kakuzu looked at Aokiji as if he were a madman.

P.S.: I don't have time to write anymore. I'll speed things up in the next few chapters so Itachi can die.

(End of this chapter)