Konoha: Offer your heart to the Hokage!

The buildings in Konoha are new and nice, while the buildings in the capital are old and dilapidated.

Looking at the utility poles along the street, the capital city has a larger area, but at a glance, there are far fewer utility poles than in Konoha. The more utility poles there are, the more complete the supporting facilities are, and the higher the city's electricity demand is.

In recent years, Konoha has been expanding rapidly, undertaking massive infrastructure construction. The electricity consumption of various laboratories and the Evangelismos Hospital has skyrocketed, necessitating the continuous addition of new utility poles. In bustling commercial districts and densely populated streets, utility poles are densely packed together.

After a brief glance around, she quickly looked away.

He had initially held some expectations for the capital, but after seeing it with his own eyes, he was left only with disappointment. The most advanced city in the ninja world at present was Konoha. If he wanted to live a more enjoyable life in the future, he would have to build it himself.

Just now.

The daimyo's envoy, Minamoto no Shiba, had already trotted over and said warmly, "Third Hokage, and those behind you, welcome to the capital. The daimyo has been waiting for you for a long time."

When Shinji's resume was sent to the daimyo and officials, it sparked a lot of discussion.

Everyone is wondering why the Third Hokage of Konoha wasn't a member of the Senju clan, had no master-disciple relationship with the two previous Hokage, and wasn't even originally from the Land of Fire.

They are not connected by academic ties, blood ties, or geographical ties.

But nobody's stupid. Zenin Shinji was able to become the Third Hokage with such overwhelming power despite such unfavorable initial conditions, so he must have some extraordinary abilities. As long as he can continue to protect the Land of Fire and safeguard the interests of the Daimyo, he is worthy of recognition and friendship.

Minamoto was very attentive, smiling and leading Shinji and his party into the inner city without immediately meeting with the daimyo.

After a day and a half of continuous travel, it was already afternoon, not the right time for a formal meeting.

This meeting is a political debut by the new Hokage and the Daimyo of the Land of Fire to demonstrate their amicable relationship, and naturally it will be held under the spotlight.

The closer the relationship between a ninja village and the daimyo's prefecture, the more funding the village receives, creating a win-win situation. Konoha is the best example; their friendship has even reached the point of forming an alliance through marriage.

In contrast, Kirigakure is a prime example of the opposite. Rumor has it that Kirigakure would directly send ninjas to assassinate domestic officials, seizing profits through bloody and ruthless means.

After a brief discussion, the two sides scheduled a formal meeting for the following morning.

In addition to the four major powers, many smaller countries will send officials and daimyo envoys to attend the ceremony and reassess Konoha's strength.

The daimyo is protected by "elite" ninja like the Twelve Guardian Ninjas, but their numbers are limited, and the overall defense of the capital still relies on Konoha.

For this reason, Konohagakure has a permanent base in the capital to receive village ninjas on official business and resident ninjas.

Shen'er and his party will be staying here for the next few days.

After official business is finished, it's time for personal matters.

Upon arriving at the base, Genka revealed a sly smile and, like a fly rubbing its hands together, extended an invitation to Shinji and Uchiha Setsuna: "Third Hokage, Hiroshi, Setsuna, how about we go to an izakaya to relax?"

"Don't be too reserved. As Da Ming often says, relax when you should relax."

"If you're worried about your identity, you can use the ninja's transformation technique."

"..."

Shen Er wondered to himself whether this izakaya was legitimate or not.

Senju Momoka and Nara Hiro had strange expressions.

Uchiha Setsuna, standing to the side, looked conflicted, and swallowed back the words that were about to come out.

That's why you have to say that Shen Er is a good Hokage who understands his subordinates. He usually gives his subordinates a lot of "red envelopes" (bribes), so that they will fight desperately when something really happens.

Shen Er saw through Setsuna's thoughts: "I won't go in. As for Setsuna and Hiro, they can go if they want, it's fine."

Uchiha Setsuna's spirits lifted immediately. "Yes, Hokage-sama!"

"I...I will gather intelligence for you!"

Intelligence? A guide to the customs and traditions of the Land of Fire's capital?

He waved his hand and dismissed them.

They entered the Konoha garrison in the capital and inquired about the situation from the commander.

The stronghold is commanded by a commander and a deputy commander.

The head ninja, Nara Kensho, is a Jonin, with a seniority similar to Nara Hiro; the deputy head ninja, Hyuga Koichi, is a Special Jonin. The Nara and Hyuga clans have maintained close ties with the Daimyo's government since the Warring States period, and having ninjas from these two clans in command serves as a bridge between the Daimyo and the Hokage.

However, since the establishment of the ninja village, this neutral stance has begun to shift.

When faced with a choice between the Hokage and the Daimyo, the vast majority of Konoha ninjas would side with the village.

Nara Kenshō spoke frankly and without reservation, revealing all the information about the capital.

He emphasized the Twelve Guardian Ninja: "The leader of the Guardian Ninjas, Jonin Kazuya, harbors hostility towards Konoha. He has expressed his dissatisfaction in public on several occasions, feeling that Konoha's development has surpassed that of the capital, and advocates for reducing or even stopping various support funds for Konoha."

"However, the daimyo ignored him."

Listening to his story, I even thought that many years later, among the Guardian Ninja of Asuma's generation, there was an outlier named Kazuma who wanted the Daimyo to abolish the Hokage, and he actually took action, triggering a civil war among the Guardian Ninja.

Where did an ordinary Jonin, who was just guarding the village, get the courage to stand against Konoha? Did the Daimyo give it to him?

There is even reason to suspect...

After the death of the daimyo of Hashirama's generation, the successor began to fear the power of the Hokage, so he deliberately allowed people like Kazuya to stand out and test Konoha's bottom line.

Influenced by this ideology, and passed down through generations, it finally cultivated, decades later, radicals as capable as Ma.

He has some ability, but not much.

They couldn't even defeat a moving human head with a bounty of 35 million taels.

Da Ming's thoughts were completely unconcerned.

He didn't have the innate respect for daimyo that traditional ninjas had. If a daimyo didn't meet his expectations, he would just kill him and replace him with another.

However, this incident still reminded Shen Er that the reason Kazuma was able to become a villain in the theatrical version like Satoru and Shennong was because he possessed a forbidden resurrection technique similar to the Impure World Reincarnation.

[Earth Release: Reincarnation Technique]: Using the corpse of the deceased as a medium, the Earth Release technique is used to construct a body that is exactly the same as the deceased's body in life, thus achieving resurrection. The resurrected person becomes the caster's puppet, and their appearance, physical abilities, and chakra levels are exactly the same as in life. They can even use the ninjutsu they used in life.

It is nominally an earth-escape technique, but in essence it is closer to a forbidden technique.

The theoretical upper limit is extremely high, but how much it can actually play is still unknown. Furthermore, because it is an Earth Release technique, the resurrected dead have negative resistance to Lightning Release.

A unique setting characteristic of Naruto movies.

If the mechanism doesn't overlap with that of the Impure World Reincarnation, it means the dead are far more useful than the living. Even if the mechanisms overlap, gaps can be filled to make the resurrection technique more complete.

In any case, this is at least a possible approach.

Impure World Reincarnation, Earth Escape Reincarnation, Puppet Technique, One Qi Transforms into Three Pure Ones.

Shen Er snapped out of his thoughts and asked, "What type of ninja is this Kazuya?"

"Proficient in Earth Release and skilled in developing ninjutsu," Nara Kenshō replied succinctly.

The chakra nature and areas of expertise match, and considering the timing of the emergence of Earth Release: Reincarnation...

Shen Er decided that when he met with the daimyo tomorrow, he would not only observe whether the daimyo met his expectations, but also take the opportunity to observe Kazuya.

If the conditions are right, I could deliberately release some of the research data on the Impure World Reincarnation to guide the other party. This would turn him into a puppet without his knowledge, forcing him to refine and develop the Impure World Reincarnation for me.

Chapter 180 Daimyo: How about you marry Tsunade-hime?

Tonight is Christmas Eve, and Danzo has still not launched an assassination attempt during this time.

At noon the next day, Shen'er and the daimyo held a formal meeting.

The current daimyo is only in his early twenties, and by seniority, he is Tsunade's uncle.

The daimyo was sizing up Jin, and Jin was also observing the daimyo and the Twelve Guardian Ninja behind him.

The leading guardian ninja was Kazuya, whose features were strikingly similar to those of the future Kazuma, confirming that he was indeed Kazuya's ancestor. Having clearly seen his appearance, Shen Er felt confident and could proceed with his plan, turning this person into his tool.

Overall, these twelve guardian ninjas didn't meet Shen'er's standards. Of the twelve, only six were Jonin or Special Jonin, and the remaining six were merely Chunin.

The number "twelve" itself has a lot to say about it.

Even the concepts of Saint Seiya's twelve palaces, Demon Slayer's twelve demon moons, and Hunter x Hunter's twelve earthly branches flashed through my mind, all of which originated from the Western zodiac constellations and the Eastern twelve earthly branches system.

In Konoha alone, there are also the sayings of the Konoha Twelve Konoha Young Masters and the Twelve Golden Immortals.

In comparison, the twelve guardian ninjas of the Land of Fire seem rather low-class mixed in with them.

But this is only from the perspective of a powerful figure like Jin. In the eyes of ordinary ninja villages, and even the Five Great Ninja Villages, the protective forces surrounding a daimyo are very strong. Even a regular genjutsu jonin wouldn't be able to easily kill or control the daimyo with genjutsu.

"I didn't expect the Third Hokage to be so young. Judging by your age, you should be thirty-four this year?"

"Yes."

The daimyo, holding a small round fan to half-cover his cheek, spoke slowly, "Shen'er, is it alright for me to address you like this?"

Who are you calling "Shen'er"? Is "Shen'er" someone you can call anyone? Even if you don't call someone an adult, you should at least call them "Uncle".

You have already chosen the path to your death; prepare to dissolve easily in water.

Even though he had already decided in his heart to kill this person who disrespected his name, he put on a warm smile on the surface: "Of course, Your Excellency."

Daimyo laughed upon hearing this.

In his eyes, this Third Hokage, who was not from the Senju clan, was just as gentle and easy to manipulate as the rumors suggested.

This put his mind at ease, and he planned to gradually dismantle that bullshit Will of Fire, weaken the Hokage's power, and eventually return control of the ninjas to the Daimyo.

Both of them had their own ulterior motives, yet they both wore smiles on their faces.

In front of envoys from various countries and officials from the Land of Fire, they staged a ninja world version of "The Reconciliation of Generals and Ministers".

After completing the public formalities, the group moved to a closed-door meeting.

The core of the meeting was to determine the special aid funds that the Land of Fire would subsequently allocate to Konoha.

Ninja villages have an enormous need for funds, but ninjas, as professional military combatants, do not participate in agricultural or commercial production. With very few exceptions, the vast majority of ninjas' ninjutsu can only be used for combat and does not help their lives or contribute to people's livelihoods.

Ninjas who can build houses and reshape the landscape with a mere wave of their hand, like Hashirama, are extremely rare in the ninja world, spanning five thousand years.

The cost of supporting one ninja who specializes in combat is equivalent to supporting 100 ordinary civilians. A country with a population of one million can barely train 1 ninjas. The small number of civilians in Konoha Village naturally cannot afford to support so many ninjas.

Ninjas also need to eat and dress decently, so in order to make a living, they need to accept missions at the ninja village's mission center, from which the village takes a cut.

If the ninja village wants to develop, relying solely on taking a cut is definitely not enough.

Moreover, in many cases, the ninja villages themselves funded and dispatched these tasks, providing work for some ninjas as a form of social welfare. A classic example is the classic case of the dozens, even hundreds, of requests in Konoha to find a lost raccoon cat.

A cut is part of the village's income. However, the largest and most stable source of income is still the fiscal appropriations issued by the Daimyo of the Land of Fire.

Ultimately, independent ninja villages cannot be self-sufficient and cannot do without the financial and material support provided by the state.

money……