Gisei Shiraishi's analysis was so thorough that even the old geezers began to nod in agreement.
"Does that even need to be said? If you want to become Hokage, you must have prestige in the village. And the best way to gain prestige is, of course, through military achievements."
"Exactly. With your strength combined with our resources, racking up military achievements will be a piece of cake."
Hearing this, Gisei smiled and slowly shook his head. "Gentlemen, you are truly too naive. You still haven't seen the situation clearly!"
"I just told you: the Third is in the prime of his life. Even if I have military achievements and prestige, if I want to become Hokage, I'd have to wait until he steps down or dies of old age."
"Furthermore, the Third and his faction started this war specifically to weaken us. Without achieving their goal, they will absolutely not let the war stop easily."
"Once I take you all to the battlefield, I'm afraid we will be dragged down by the meat grinder of war until we bleed our last drop of blood."
"In that case, I gain military achievements and prestige, but I lose your power. Is such a trade worth it?"
Gisei's words struck everyone's hearts like a heavy hammer.
"From what you're saying, you don't intend to go to the battlefield?" Shuichi Takemoto asked, frowning.
"If you don't go to the battlefield, where will you get military achievements and prestige? Wouldn't becoming Hokage just be a bad joke?"
"Yeah, we have no choice. Even knowing the battlefield is a trap, we can only jump in."
"As long as you can gain military achievements and prestige, you have the foundation to become Hokage. As for the Third, we can force him to abdicate later. If worse comes to worst... assassination is also an option."
Assassinating the Hokage—they actually said it. These people...
Gisei sighed and said, "Haven't you realized that from the very beginning, we only had one real path to take?"
Everyone stopped talking, waiting for his answer.
"That path is a coup d'état!"
As soon as the words "coup d'état" were spoken, you could hear a pin drop in the basement.
After a long silence, someone muttered hesitantly, "A coup won't work, right? If our forces try to go head-to-head with the Third's side..."
The rest didn't need to be said; everyone knew the answer. They would lose.
Gisei sneered. "Indeed, our raw strength cannot compare to the Third. He is the Hokage, after all; righteousness, status, and legitimacy are entirely on his side."
"If we stage a coup now, the civilians won't support us, and even the neutral ninja clans will turn their blades against us."
Someone couldn't hold back anymore and asked directly, "Then what exactly do you want to do?"
Gisei narrowed his eyes and began to smile. The moment to reveal the dagger had finally arrived.
"Since a coup is the only path available, our goal is very simple."
"The Third wants to weaken us through war, so why can't we, in turn, use the war to weaken them?"
"As long as he dares to wage war externally, we will add fuel to the fire, provoking conflicts everywhere. It would be best if we can put Konoha in a situation where it is besieged on all sides."
"As for the battlefield, we definitely have to go. Even if we don't want to, the Third and his faction will force us."
"It's just that I hope you understand: we aren't going to the battlefield for military achievements and prestige. We are going to preserve our strength."
"Once the war is over... I don't need to say more, right?"
After Gisei finished speaking, he began to size up these people one by one.
After the war ends, "no need to say more" didn't mean what they thought it did.
Stage a coup to become Hokage?
Hehe, he didn't give a damn about being Hokage. When the time comes, he'd just destroy Konoha directly.
But before that, he had to destroy the Will of Fire first; otherwise, even if Konoha were destroyed, it would just be rebuilt again.
He didn't like doing useless work.
Everyone began to ponder. After a while, some began to shake their heads.
"The plan is very good, but it's not very realistic," Yunosuke Fukuyama said. "Our interests are closely tied to Konoha. Even if we agree to your approach, our clansmen won't agree."
"To be honest, times have changed," Shin Kawai sighed. "In the Warring States period, with just one order from us, all clansmen would fight bloody battles without question. Now, I'm afraid it's very difficult."
Shuichi Takemoto added, "No matter how good a plan is, it ultimately relies on people to implement it. If there are problems with the people implementing the plan, do you know what the consequences will be?"
It seemed these old geezers were sensible people, not so easily fooled.
A coup only needs a reason; if worse comes to worst, they could coerce their clansmen into staging one.
But shady business like deliberately provoking a war to hurt the village—it would be hard to get the clansmen's approval.
If a traitor appeared and intelligence leaked out, they would be caught in a deadly dilemma.
Maybe the Third would be very happy for them to try this. As long as he caught onto one little mistake, he would have a legitimate opportunity to wipe them all out.
These old geezers had already sensed the change in their clansmen's mindset; they just hadn't been able to come up with a countermeasure.
Even Danzo knew to shout slogans when doing his dirty work: "Everything is for Konoha." "For Konoha, no amount of sacrifice is too much."
In short, as long as it was "for Konoha," even if Danzo cuckolded you, you had to smile and forgive him.
If you didn't want to forgive him? Then sorry, for the sake of Konoha, I have to kill you.
As for Gisei's group, acting purely for self-interest meant they couldn't shout such bright and shiny slogans.
"Everything for the clan?"
Hmm, the Third's brainwashing work was quite thorough. Have you heard about the Will of Fire?
It was feared that as soon as they shouted the slogan "Everything for the clan," someone would stand up and righteously place "justice" above family loyalty.
Why couldn't Fugaku Uchiha succeed? It was because his ideological work wasn't in place! Even his own son betrayed him; it was simply tragic.
"It seems everyone is clear about their own situation. Actually, I've noticed it in recent years too," Gisei said.
"Some people have appeared in the clan who consider themselves 'Konoha ninjas' rather than 'clan ninjas.' The situation with my own clansmen is even more serious; after all, the Butterfly User Clan exists in name only."
After Gisei finished speaking, he saw the clan heads start looking at each other. After exchanging glances, they began to shake their heads again.
"Provoking a war to weaken the village's strength isn't that simple. We can't leave Konoha. Many young people in the clan were born here and grew up here. To them, Konoha is far more important than us clan heads."
"Yeah, if we suddenly make them do this kind of thing, we might not even be able to continue as clan heads. We can't do it, and we have no reason to do it."
The corner of Gisei's mouth twitched. "So your support for me becoming Hokage is just talk?"
"You need to get one thing straight: You can't leave Konoha, but Konoha can leave you!"
The faces of the clan heads turned very ugly.
Gisei's eyes rolled a few times, and he spoke with a sly smile: "In the final analysis, you are worried that your clansmen won't approve of this kind of thing, and you fear losing their support."
"After all, the self-interest of a clan cannot compare to the 'interest of the village,' let alone the interest of a country."
"I happen to have a solution. I wonder if you gentlemen are willing to listen?"
Gisei finally revealed his fangs to them.
Originally, he only planned to brainwash his own clansmen. Now, adding all these ninja clans to the list wasn't a big deal.
Why can't self-interest override public interest?
Of course, it was because they just weren't selfish enough yet.