From this first move alone, they sensed that Gisei Shiraishi was no simple character.
Ordinary people wouldn't see the nuance, but a truly sharp mind would realize that Gisei was, quite simply, a genius.
His excuse was perfect. They had always been timid precisely because the Third was the Hokage. But now that they had a valid pretext, even if they openly fought the Third for the position—or even staged a coup—they wouldn't find themselves besieged by the entire village.
Internally, they could appease their clansmen; externally, they could use this as a shield.
The Third claimed his actions were for the village, and they could claim the exact same thing. Even if they opposed him, it wouldn't provoke disgust from the neutrals and common villagers just because he was the Hokage.
Everyone is doing it for the village, so why should you be above me?
Just because you are the Hokage, does that mean you alone represent the village?
This situation would never happen again. From now on, the status of commoners would rise, the status of ninja clans would rise, and the Hokage would fall to the back of the line.
Moreover, when propagating this ideology to their clansmen, they could mix in a little selfishness—bringing the "family" into the equation. After all, the concept of "the village" and "the Hokage" felt too distant for most clan members.
The clan heads, sandwiched between the village and their own people, could now reap the greatest benefits. It was simply perfect.
Gisei, however, still had words left unsaid: destroying the Will of Fire wasn't that simple.
The most crucial part of this ideology was to arouse the selfish nature of the ninja clans, making them place the family above the village.
The status of the clan heads would indeed improve, but correspondingly, their personal ambitions would also surge. Once the interests of the village conflicted with the interests of these heads, they could use this excuse to resist the village.
Even if a clan head didn't want to do this, his clansmen would force his hand.
After all, most people in the world are vulgar. But while vulgar people are crass, they are also the most simple and "cute" in their predictability.
Simple people are easily incited. A mob is nothing more than this.
If all the ninja clans adopted this mindset, the Hokage would become a complete joke. No matter what the Hokage wanted to implement, he would have to ask for the ninja clans' opinions first; otherwise, success would be impossible.
In this way, the Will of Fire advocated by the Hokage would also become a joke.
He only needed to provoke a Great Ninja War and beat Konoha until it was crippled. If the ninja clans stayed in Konoha and saw no hope, the idea of leaving would naturally be born.
At that point, if a clan head didn't agree, his own people would boo him off the stage; they would have no choice but to agree.
As long as someone took the lead to leave, the domino effect would make the collapse of Konoha inevitable.
Shifting Konoha from being steered by the Hokage to being steered by public opinion—and the ones who could best represent public opinion were, naturally, the ninja clans.
Once the public opinion within the clans went out of control and ran wild, it would completely destroy Konoha.
Will of Fire?
You should ask for my will first.
Even if someone wanted to rebuild Konoha later, they would absolutely not get approval. After all, Hashirama Senju was already dead. How could the ninja clans, having completely untied their reins, ever go back to being someone else's little brother?
As for whether the Land of Fire would be destroyed, Gisei expressed that this was not his concern. If the Daimyo was smart enough, the Land of Fire might even become more prosperous.
Clap, clap.
The sound rang out; Shuichi Takemoto began to applaud. "Amazing!"
The other clan heads, having realized the brilliance of the plan, also began to applaud.
Gisei shrugged. He didn't have much patience for these people right now. Treating him like a tool was simply underestimating him too much.
His mind was already spinning with ways to kill them all and support puppets who would obey him absolutely.
"Gisei, you just said you wanted to establish a clan school. What does this mean?"
"A clan school means the family runs its own ninja academy, snatching the education rights of the children back from the Third."
"Why do this?"
"Are you stupid? The Ninja Academy is the key place where the Third propagates the Will of Fire. If you still send the clan's children there, there will only be more and more traitors in your clans."
Gisei grumbled, "Education rights are the right to speak. Haven't you always wanted a voice? Then use your money to smash your way into having one."
Everyone understood Gisei's meaning.
Gisei felt his business was done; this inexplicable secret meeting should be over.
He looked at Takemoto, blinking at him. Takemoto understood the signal.
"Everyone should have understood Gisei's thoughts. He is absolutely a qualified leader. I hope everyone can support him as always; he will absolutely not let everyone down."
"That's right. Just this first step has opened the eyes of us old guys who have lived a lifetime. Yukihito has a good grandson."
After a few rounds of polite remarks, everyone left one after another.
Gisei pushed Takemoto and walked out onto the street. Anna Takemoto followed behind them the whole time, lost in her own thoughts.
When they returned to the Takemoto house and Gisei was preparing to leave, Shuichi stopped him.
"You've been preoccupied the whole way back. Is there something you can't say?"
Gisei rolled his eyes at him. "I really don't understand what use it is for you to hold this kind of secret meeting. And what exactly was your intention in making me use the Butterfly Seed to control them?"
Shuichi smiled. "The Butterfly Seed can't control them at all; you should know this well."
"Of course I know that."
"Then guess why I still wanted you to do it?"
Gisei sighed helplessly. "Don't keep me in suspense. They obviously just treat me like a child to be coaxed, wanting me to take the blame. I really don't know what benefit there is in dealing with them."
Shuichi laughed loudly. "You also know you are a child? To actually speak of a coup in front of so many people—simply not knowing the height of the heavens and the depth of the earth."
Gisei now realized he had been reckless, but he had already said it, so what could be done?
"Don't mention a coup again in the future. As soon as you said 'coup,' I detected your thoughts. Do you still want to destroy Konoha?"
Gisei's eyelid twitched. "You guessed this again?"
"You underestimate people too much. Not just me—I'm afraid anyone with a bit of experience could detect that you have a ghost in your heart."
Gisei's eyes darted around. "What do you mean?"
"They all guessed your thoughts. They just didn't say it out loud, afraid of angering you and triggering your killing intent. Dare you say you don't have killing intent right now?"
Gisei's mouth twitched. "...For real? Even that can be seen?"
"Only us few old guys saw it. You, ah... should be more careful!"
"..."
"However, your idea is actually not bad. They also recognized you. Just absolutely don't mention a coup again in the future."
"Since you guessed my thoughts, then you should know I have no interest in being Hokage."
Shuichi restrained his smile and sighed. "Sure enough, this place can't keep you. Aside from me seeing that you don't want to be Hokage, the others probably don't know. In the future, absolutely don't let them detect your thoughts."
Gisei really couldn't understand this old man. Since he knew his thoughts, why did he still do this superfluous thing? What exactly was it for?