Chapter 33: Kurotsuchi Gets Thoroughly PUA'd
"Y..You… what did you just say?"
Kurotsuchi stood in front of Shiromo, blocking his way, staring straight at him with eyes full of disbelief.
"Kill the daimyō," Shiromo repeated calmly, even smiling faintly as he looked back at her.
"What? Don't tell me all the ninja of the Five Great Villages have had some kind of ideological seal implanted in their brains, controlled by Kotoamatsukami, forcing them to be loyal to the daimyō?"
"..."
Being put this way by Shiromo stirred Kurotsuchi's rebellious instincts. But she didn't dare to outright agree with him, so she changed her angle of attack instead.
"If Iwagakure kills the daimyō and monopolizes the Land of Earth, the other four daimyōs definitely won't just sit back and do nothing. When that happens, they'll rally their respective ninja villages to attack Iwagakure. At that point, I'd be the sinner."
Shiromo sighed and shook his head.
He didn't say anything more and simply continued heading toward the direction of Amegakure.
Kurotsuchi was left standing there, stunned by his reaction.
She had been waiting for Shiromo to try to persuade her somehow. How did it just… end like that?
"Tell me, what exactly is wrong with what I just said?!"
Clenching her teeth, Kurotsuchi used Light-weight Rock Technique to accelerate and catch up to Shiromo. She grabbed his arm and spoke with a pleading tone.
"You want development, but you're unwilling to reform."
"You want to be number one, but you're afraid to be the first to step forward."
"From the establishment of the village system, to ninja academy, to ANBU, you've copied Konoha again and again, chewing on leftovers, never once thinking about making independent changes of your own."
"Do you think this is some kind of children's game?"
"This is a revolution. What's being taken is the daimyō's life, the lives of the remnants of the old era."
"In an age of great contention, the strong survive, the weak perish."
"If you don't kill the daimyō today, if you refuse to change, someone else will kill him tomorrow."
"And not just him, they'll kill the people of Iwagakure and the Land of Earth as well."
"But you won't care. You'll just keep following the daimyō's orders, becoming a slab of meat on the chopping block of the Ōtsutsuki clan."
"When the time comes, you'll just watch, kneel, and pray to the heavens for a savior."
"If you're lucky, the savior succeeds, and you continue barely clinging to life."
"If you're unlucky, the savior fails, and then everyone waits to die."
At this point, Shiromo turned his head and glanced at Kurotsuchi, who was still clutching his arm.
"I used to think the Tsuchikage's goal was to lead the Land of Earth and Iwagakure toward prosperity. Turns out the Tsuchikage is just a slave."
"Urgh!"
Those words stabbed deeply into Kurotsuchi's heart. Her grip almost loosened.
Her chest heaved violently. She opened her mouth, wanting to argue, but found that she had nothing to say.
"By the way, is the daimyō's status really that useful?"
Shiromo continued casually.
"Konan-nee, the daimyō of the Land of Rain has been gone for a long time, right? How about letting me be the daimyō of the Land of Rain?"
"When the time comes, I'll convene a daimyō summit, negotiate with the others, give them some benefits, and have them send over young, beautiful female ninja like Kurotsuchi. What do you think?"
"Don't ask me."
Konan shot Shiromo a blank look and said nothing more.
"Bastard… are you treating us like tradable commodities?"
Kurotsuchi's muffled, resentful voice came from behind Shiromo.
"When did you get the illusion that you aren't a tradable commodity?"
"Then let me ask you this, if the daimyō of the Land of Earth really issued such an order, would you obey it?"
"Don't tell me you could swallow an order that breaks a peace treaty and starts a war, but would disobey the daimyō over something this 'minor.'"
"Let me put it another way. The daimyō gives you two choices: one, assist him in launching a war; two, come to me and be a foot-washing maid. Which do you choose?"
Shiromo glanced back over his shoulder.
"..."
Some things become terrifying once they're spelled out clearly.
Kurotsuchi fell silent once again.
Shiromo had completely torn off the fig leaf.
He was plainly saying that her so-called position as Tsuchikage was nothing more than that of a slave.
She didn't prioritize the village, her comrades, or even herself. The daimyō's orders were her highest law.
"Then… what should I do?"
Kurotsuchi's voice softened. The hand gripping Shiromo's arm also softened as well.
"Abolish the daimyō system. As Tsuchikage, take full control of the Land of Earth and realize your ambitions."
"Centralize all resources, allocate them rationally, and develop the economy, technology, diplomacy, everything."
"Don't tell me you don't have that ability."
"Based on the intelligence I've gathered on the daimyōs of the great nations, I can confirm that the daimyōs and those holding high authority under them are all useless parasites occupying positions without contributing anything."
"Even future ninja world development revolves around ninja villages. All new technologies emerge from ninja villages."
"All the daimyōs do is suck blood from the ninja villages and ordinary civilians."
"Put another way, if you tied a dog to the daimyō's seat right now, nothing would change."
"If you think you're not even as good as a dog, then pretend I never said any of this."
"..."
After hearing the first half of Shiromo's words, Kurotsuchi was just about to say that she had never managed a country before, only for Shiromo to once again anticipate her thoughts, leaving her momentarily speechless.
"Then… wouldn't it be really exhausting?"
Kurotsuchi asked quietly.
The fact that she asked this at all meant she had already compromised with Shiromo's way of thinking.
"No. Because I also reformed the Kage system after the changes. Only major matters require a Kage's decision."
Shiromo took out a new scroll and tossed it backward.
"The Fifth Mizukage has already taken my scroll and is preparing to change Kirigakure."
"The Fifth Mizukage? Isn't the Fourth still in power right now?"
Kurotsuchi caught the scroll and asked in confusion.
"The Fourth stepped down voluntarily because of the damage the Bloody Mist caused to the village. If you have spies in Kirigakure, you can try contacting them, you'll know soon enough."
"Alright."
Kurotsuchi didn't ask any more questions.
If Shiromo said so, then it must be true.
After all, this was something that only required activating a single undercover agent.
And even if they didn't have one, sending someone to investigate wouldn't be hard. A new Mizukage taking office wouldn't be a secret.
Learning that the Fifth Mizukage was a "like-minded person," Kurotsuchi finally regained her confidence and motivation.
"I didn't expect the Mizukage to be persuaded by you before me. You should've said that earlier…"
Kurotsuchi smiled.
With "companions" and a "precedent," doing things that once seemed "treasonous" became much easier for her to accept.
"Then what do you plan to do?"
Now it was Shiromo's turn to ask.
"My current strength isn't enough. I want to train with you, improve myself first, and then go deal with…"
"No need."
Deidara interrupted her, raising the hand wearing his ring and grinning.
"After I learned what Itachi, Kisame, and the strategist did in the Land of Water, I guessed the strategist's grand plan. So on my way back this time, I conveniently dropped a modified C4 over the daimyō's residence in the Land of Earth."
"So, Kurotsuchi, thank me."
"And hurry back and become Tsuchikage already. Don't even think about joining the organization! Hmph!"
The C4 Deidara mentioned wasn't the kind from CS.
It was the ninjutsu he originally developed to kill Itachi, C4 Karura.
Karura was a clone-explosion technique similar to the Second Mizukage's Steaming Danger Tyranny.
It created a puppet identical to the user, filled with countless microscopic explosive spiders invisible to the naked eye.
When the puppet exploded, the spiders dispersed into the surrounding air and were inhaled by people.
Through innumerable micro-explosions, the human body would be completely destroyed from the inside.
The "modified C4" Deidara referred to was essentially Karura with the first step removed.
Instead of using a puppet explosion to deal initial damage and spread the spiders, the micro explosive spiders were directly scattered from the sky like artificial rainfall.
Moreover, detonation no longer required manual triggering. Once the density reached a certain level and pressure was applied, they would automatically explode.
In other words, there would be no reaction in open air at all.
Only after being inhaled into the body would they settle and completely blow the body apart.
And because these were micro-explosions, there would be no sound or flames. To the naked eye, the victims would look as if they had turned to ash after Thanos snapped his fingers.
For someone like Deidara, who loved loud and flashy explosions, being able to develop such a silent, soundless explosion technique was like truly asking a lot from him.
(End of this chapter)