Five days had passed since the Uchiha family opened their doors to the desperate. The makeshift medical tent in the Land of Rice Fields was quiet, the frantic rush of triage finally giving way to the steady, exhausted breathing of the recovering refugees outside.
Inside the main tent, the air was heavy. Kaori lay resting on a simple cot, her eyes open but her body perfectly still. Ren sat on a wooden stool nearby, staring blankly at his hands, which were stained with dried blood and dirt.
The tent flap brushed open, and Satoshi walked in. He looked tired, the dark circles under his eyes a testament to days spent organizing starving, traumatized people.
He walked over to Kaori, gently sitting on the edge of her bed, and brushed a strand of hair from her face. Then, he turned to his son.
"Ren," Satoshi said softly, noticing the hollow look in his son's eyes. "What happened? What are you thinking about?"
Ren didn't answer immediately. He slowly lowered his hands, letting out a dry, humourless chuckle.
"Dad," Ren began, his voice laced with a cold, simmering anger. "In the last five days, looking at these people... what I have seen and realized is that the ninjas and the hidden villages—especially the Five Great Villages—are sick. It just makes me feel disgusted towards them."
Satoshi sighed, his shoulders slumping. "War is always ugly, Ren."
"This isn't just about the ugliness of war," Ren countered sharply, his Mangekyō spinning briefly in the dim light before settling back into his dark eyes. "This is just a fraction of the war between the Great Nations. What makes me truly disgusted is that the Great Nations who wage these wars don't have to face any of the real consequences. Inside the walls of Konoha or Iwa, they are living like there's nothing going on. The people who truly suffer are the common civilians from the smaller nations who have absolutely nothing to do with The War."
Ren stood up, pacing the small space.
"Every Great Nation wants to expand its territory. Everyone wants the fertile lands. But they will never fight inside their own borders. They won't risk their own infrastructure. Instead, they fight their wars in the smaller nations, keeping their own countries perfectly safe."
Ren gestured vaguely toward the horizon. "The sole purpose the smaller nations exist—the Rain, the Grass, the Hot Water—is to act as the buffer zones. They are designated ashtrays for the Great Nations' fires."
Kaori turned her head slightly.
"And the rules of engagement?" Ren let out another laugh, this one dripping with mockery. "Konoha and the other villages loudly proclaim their noble rule: 'Ninjas are forbidden to kill civilians.' Do you know what that really is, Dad? They aren't saving civilians out of morality. They are just securing their job market for peacetime."
Satoshi frowned, following Ren's dark logic. "Job security?"
"Think about it," Ren pressed. "You destroy their houses, their money, their livelihood, and their food. You force them to migrate from their ancestral lands. Some of them can't even leave the battlefield intact—we've spent five days reattaching limbs to prove it. After they finally reach an untouched country like this one, they have no way to earn money. They have no way to survive."
Ren pointed outside the tent, toward the sprawling refugee camp. "Countries like the Land of Rice Fields get swarmed by refugees. The sudden influx causes extreme hyperinflation. Food becomes an impossible luxury. These people don't have any option other than looting or banditry just to avoid starving to death."
Ren stopped pacing and looked his father dead in the eye.
"And when they become bandits, what happens? It creates tasks for the ninjas. The local Daimyos commission the Hidden Villages to clear out the very bandits the villages created. It's an endless cycle of C-rank and B-rank missions. Even in peacetime, they won't let the smaller nations stabilize. Especially the smaller ninja villages, because they are direct competitors for the mission market. So they send organizations like the ANBU or Root to assassinate their leaders and sabotage their infrastructure to ensure there is no stabilization."
Satoshi looked down at his hands. He had served in the Konoha Police Force and fought in two Great Wars. He had seen the corruption, but hearing his son deconstruct the entire shinobi economy with such brutal clarity was chilling.
"What is truly terrifying," Ren continued, his voice dropping to a whisper, "is that the ninja villages never actually cared about the fertile land. They won't do farming there, and neither will the Daimyos. The people who actually need the farmland are the common people. But the common people are brainwashed to think that the ninjas are fighting for them—obtaining the fertile land or defending it."
Ren scoffed. "What the civilians don't know is that the ninja villages don't care about them at all. The civilians are just fat sheep to them, whose wool needs to be obtained from time to time through taxes and mission fees. And the citizens of the smaller nations? They are just the razors used to extract that wool."
Kaori sat up slowly, her physical exhaustion overshadowed by her sharp intellect. "And the monopoly on power keeps them in line," she added quietly.
"Exactly, Mom," Ren nodded. "Chakra refining techniques and jutsu. The Great Villages guard them with their lives. They make absolutely sure that nothing leaks out to the civilian population. They will hunt down anyone who possesses a jutsu or a chakra refining technique who isn't affiliated with a Hidden Village, an official organization, or a Daimyo. They execute them or absorb them to ensure the civilians never obtain it."
Ren clenched his fists, his voice hardening. "The common people can't even retaliate against the ninja villages and Daimyos. If they tried to rise against the ruling class, no matter how large their population might be, they would be dealt swiftly overnight. There is no equality in this world; it's like pitting a group of ants against an elephant. It is the absolute despair caused by the inequality of power."
Satoshi looked at Ren with grave seriousness. The atmosphere in the tent had shifted from a political critique to something far heavier.
"Ren," Satoshi asked carefully, "do you have something in mind? Are you planning to do something?"
Kaori also looked at Ren, her dark eyes waiting for his reply.
Ren pondered for a second. When he spoke, his voice was calm, yet it carried the weight of a monumental decision.
"Mom, Dad... do either of you want to become a Daimyo?"
Satoshi and Kaori both said in unison, "What?"
Satoshi blinked, entirely caught off guard. "I thought you were going to establish a ninja village."
Ren replied, shaking his head. "That won't make any difference, Dad. By establishing a ninja village, we would just become one of them. The Great Nations would simply give us the title of the Sixth Great Ninja Village and absorb us into their broken system."
"What I am going to do will make us the enemy of all the hidden villages."