Chapter 141: Controlling the Daimyo

"Tsk... Konoha as it is now is truly miserable! It's fortunate that the so-called Nine-Tails Incident was merely a ruse in our plan; if the Nine-Tails had truly erupted in Konoha, the current Konoha would be in a real bind!"

Sitting in the Hokage Office, Uchiha Feiyu flipped through the documents in his hand and remarked with a sigh.

Konoha on this timeline was much more miserable than in the original story; after all, in the original, Orochimaru only defected from Konoha after the Third Ninja World War ended, and he didn't stir up any major waves within Konoha.

Furthermore, in the original, the Cloud Ninja and Rock Ninja had the incident where the Third Raikage fought against ten thousand Rock Ninja for three days and three nights to cover his retreat; the two villages nearly beat each other to death, and by comparison, Konoha's threat level had to take a backseat.

But in this Ninja World War, both the Third Raikage and the Fourth Raikage died at the hands of Konoha, and the Rock Ninja were also single-mindedly determined to suppress the powerful Konoha; the two great ninja villages, if not perfectly coordinated, were at least single-minded in their focus on dealing with Konoha.

If not for the fact that the Yellow Flash and the Nine-Tails jinchuriki were too much of a threat in the later stages, Konoha truly wouldn't have been able to withstand the enemy's offensive. Even if Minato could mow down enemies quickly, it would have been impossible for one person to hold a front line once the low-level ninja were wiped out.

"There are actually only three thousand active-duty ninja... even if you add the hidden strength of the various clans, the current number of Konoha ninja wouldn't exceed five thousand..."

"Tsk... and several hundred of those should be Uchiha Clan ninja, who aren't exactly of one mind with Konoha right now."

"If you subtract those accelerated-training ninja under the age of eleven or twelve, Konoha's actual strength on paper probably doesn't even reach two thousand ninja."

In its peak period, Konoha's recorded number of ninja alone was definitely over ten thousand; if you count the ninja hidden in secret departments, plus the clan ninja who weren't registered, the total number of ninja was around twenty to thirty thousand.

But no matter how much of a cannon fodder a ninja is, they are obtained through training at the Ninja Academy, which definitely costs a significant amount of time and energy.

"Woo... Feiyu, why are you worrying about such things? Anyway, the other ninja villages will all be under your control by then, so there's no need to worry about a new Ninja World War. Let Konoha recover slowly—cough, hmm, woo..."

"Funding issues... it doesn't really matter. I will definitely control the Fire Daimyo and the nobles anyway; when the time comes, getting as much money as I want will just be a matter of saying the word, right?"

Admittedly, among the twenty or thirty thousand ninja, the vast majority are cannon fodder Genin, and the vast majority of those who died in the Ninja World War were such ninja.

Uchiha Feiyu stroked Tsunade's blonde hair, pressed down on her head, and said impatiently with a roll of his eyes: "Work seriously!"

Although the number of ninja is small, the training budget is much higher than that of ordinary soldiers; at the very least, ordinary soldiers don't need to go to school to learn.

Tsunade, who was below, made a few muffled sounds and began to work carefully again. Even when she heard Uchiha Feiyu's idea of sacrificing Konoha's ninja, she didn't react at all, only working a bit more intensely.

This is actually a vicious cycle. It can be said that losing half of the ninja and losing two-thirds of the ninja might seem like a difference of only one-sixth, but the recovery speed of the ninja village could differ by more than double.

"There's no other way... Konoha's recovery speed is already fast enough. The Ninja Academy is already recruiting at full capacity and has lowered the standards for those entering. If we expand any further, Konoha's finances won't support it!"

"Besides, who says Konoha's recovery speed has nothing to do with me! The faster Konoha's strength recovers, the more power there will be to sacrifice later!"

Uchiha Feiyu shook his head, appearing worried as if he were deeply concerned about Konoha, which made the authentic Hokage, currently crawling under the desk, unable to help but speak up with a stammer:

Even if he wanted to harvest the Ninja World, he had to cultivate this crop of leeks first! Letting these ninja grow wild, how could that compare to intensive cultivation?

Plus, with the number of Konoha ninja so low now, the funding obtained from missions naturally wouldn't be very high either.

There's no need to mention the funding from the Land of Fire; just speaking of the commission taken from missions, it's basically two or three out of ten. After all, there are many platforms in the Ninja World to post missions, and if they took too much, the ninja might just run off to the underground black market to do missions.

Uchiha Feiyu's desire to control the Five Great Shinobi Villages did not stem from any desire for power, but rather from viewing the entire Ninja World as his own medicinal field and nursery.

It can be said that the current Konoha, in terms of overall strength, has lost nearly two-thirds compared to before the Ninja World War.

And the funding for Konoha comes partly from the Land of Fire and partly from the commission taken from various missions.

After a while, Uchiha Feiyu let out a long breath. Tsunade crawled out from below, wiped her mouth, and sat in Uchiha Feiyu's lap.

And... without enough ninja, there's no way to execute more missions, and naturally, one cannot collect more funding. Without enough funding, naturally, one cannot cultivate more ninja...

It can be said that the training cost of every single ninja is no less than that of an average military officer, and the requirements for various equipment far exceed the individual armament of soldiers in the cold-weapon era.

Not to mention that although Genin have the highest mortality rate, it doesn't mean that Chunin and Jonin die any less; it's just slightly better than the mortality rate of Genin.

Uchiha Feiyu reached his hand into Tsunade's collar and began to toy with her while speaking. Upon hearing such a rebellious plan, Tsunade only squinted her eyes with a flushed face, leaning tightly into Uchiha Feiyu's arms.

"Then I'll leave it to you, Feiyu. If there's anything you need me to cooperate with, just give the order!"

"Speaking of which, Feiyu, you are still a member of the Uchiha Clan. Those Uchiha..."

"No need to care about those Uchiha. If they like to keep to themselves, that's for the best. I have my own ideas for when the time comes; these people are all high-quality medicinal ingredients, far more precious than ordinary ninja."

In Uchiha Feiyu's eyes, the Uchiha Clan was of course very important, but this importance was reflected more in their preciousness.

Although his bloodline was already approaching the Six Paths Level and he even possessed the Sage Eye and Sage Body, it was clearly only at the lowest level among the Six Paths Level. He couldn't even compare to the Sage of Six Paths, who wasn't even a pure-blooded Otsutsuki, and there was still a lot of room for improvement in his bloodline.

However, ordinary ninja were no longer of much use to Uchiha Feiyu, but those ninja who possessed Otsutsuki bloodlines could still allow Uchiha Feiyu to continue to improve.

"By the way, besides the Uchiha Clan, where is Konoha's Senju Clan? I haven't found much information in Root... The Senju Clan can also be considered decent medicinal ingredients!"

Hearing the four words "Senju Clan," Tsunade, who was lying in Uchiha Feiyu's arms and being made dizzy by one of his hands, felt her body tremble slightly and became a bit more sober.

But when she looked up at Uchiha Feiyu imploringly, what she saw was Uchiha Feiyu's cold gaze.

Feeling a pain in her chest and seeing Uchiha Feiyu's increasingly impatient expression, Tsunade revealed a trace of bitterness and said:

"Woo, I, I know... The Senju Clan back then, because of Grandfather's ideas... some chose to integrate into Konoha and intermarry with other ninja, and some... are in the three departments of Konoha: medical, education, and the Anbu..."

"I... I will find a way to gather the members of the Senju Clan back together..."

"Hmm, when the time comes, make them have more children and train more ninja. The stronger their bloodline development, the better their medicinal effect."

Uchiha Feiyu chuckled and looked at Tsunade. Tsunade looked at the smiling Uchiha Feiyu, her eyes unfocused as she nodded:

"Understood, I will make you satisfied, woo... I will cultivate more medicinal ingredients for you, and more cauldrons..."

"Good, that's a good girl. Let me reward you properly."

The strength in Uchiha Feiyu's hand loosened, turning from a grip to a gentle touch, moving lower and lower, from the peaks into the valley. The eyes of Tsunade, this big fat sheep, became increasingly unfocused, almost dripping with moisture, her body twisting, wishing she could completely knead herself into the body of this young man before her.

Subsequently, this Fifth Hokage of Konoha was placed on the Hokage desk, feeling her body go cold, and finally, a wave of intense heat.

Three months passed, and Tsunade officially became the Hokage. However, there was one more thing to do after becoming Hokage:

Travel to the capital of the Land of Fire and receive the Hokage's appointment letter from the Fire Daimyo.

Although this was just a formality, in order to show respect, generally speaking, the Hokage would personally go to the Capital of the Land of Fire, at most bringing a few members of the Shadow Guard.

And this time, Tsunade took Uzumaki Kushina, Shizune, and Uchiha Feiyu directly to the capital of the Land of Fire.

Anyway, the Shadow Guard members of the Hokage include those who are blatant and those who hide their identities like the Anbu. As long as Uchiha Feiyu wore a mask and had Tsunade's endorsement, there was naturally no need to worry about his identity being exposed.

In fact, with Tsunade's status as Hokage, even if she directly pardoned Uchiha Feiyu and recalled him to Konoha, it wouldn't be a problem; it was just a matter of whether Uchiha Feiyu himself was willing.

The four of them traveled from Konoha to the capital of the Land of Fire without being in too much of a hurry. Along the way, Uchiha Feiyu enjoyed the meticulous service of the three women, and it took them nearly half a month to arrive at the Daimyo Mansion.

The rest of the events need not be mentioned. Even though the Fire Daimyo had the protection of the so-called Twelve Guardian Ninja of the Land of Fire, he had no power to resist Uchiha Feiyu and easily fell under the God-Controlling Technique.

It wasn't just the Fire Daimyo, but also the noble ministers of the Land of Fire; basically, the entire upper echelon of the Land of Fire was rounded up and became Uchiha Feiyu's puppets.

Even the Twelve Guardian Ninja of the Land of Fire were likewise controlled by Uchiha Feiyu, just to be safe.

The chakra version of the God-Controlling Technique might be very difficult to break, but it is not difficult to discover; not to mention abilities like the Byakugan, simply using chakra sensory perception to sense the flow of chakra in the brain is enough to spot the problem.

The Fire Daimyo is not a Shadow of the Five Great Shinobi Villages; no one suspects a village Shadow of being under Genjutsu because a Shadow's strength is immense, and others naturally would not expect it.

As for figures like the Daimyo, once their implemented policies change too drastically or they exhibit any abnormal behavior, the Guardian Ninja would certainly be the first to check the Fire Daimyo's head to see if he is under Genjutsu.

Only by also controlling these so-called Twelve Guardian Ninja with Genjutsu could the secret truly not be leaked.

However, what Uchiha Feiyu did not expect was that among the Twelve Guardian Ninja, he actually saw an acquaintance: Asuma, who is only fifteen or sixteen years old now but has already begun to look prematurely aged.

In the original work, Asuma joined the Twelve Guardian Ninja for a long time; as for whether it was out of youthful arrogance and dissatisfaction with his father, or simply as the son of the Hokage carrying political goals to join the Twelve Guardian Ninja, the original work never fully confirmed it.

It is also possible that both situations played a part, but regardless, he has indeed joined the Twelve Guardian Ninja now, and is even the youngest among the twelve.

Uchiha Feiyu did not go easy on him, but considering they were at least classmates in the past, while controlling him with the God-Controlling Technique, he also made him the leader of the Twelve Guardian Ninja and the Daimyo's number one confidant.

"It's just that this way, this guy Asuma probably won't return to Konoha. It doesn't matter; being a Guardian Ninja is definitely much better than being an ordinary ninja anyway."

The Fire Daimyo's Guardian Ninja not only have noble status and receive power and money far exceeding that of an ordinary Jonin, but they are also much safer than the average ninja from a Ninja Village.

According to Uchiha Feiyu's understanding, since the establishment of the Twelve Guardian Ninja system, not a single Guardian Ninja has ever sacrificed their life while in office.

By comparison, the Shadows of each village are much more miserable; basically, none of them live until retirement.

At the Daimyo Mansion in the Land of Fire, Uchiha Feiyu sat in the main seat at the very top, while the Fire Daimyo, Tsunade, and numerous nobles of the Land of Fire sat below, looking at him with faces full of respect.

"The next task for the Land of Fire is to do its best to cultivate more ninja. In addition to strongly supporting Konoha, there must also be a massive dissemination of the Chakra Refining Technique; it would be best to carry out universal training!"

Hearing this, the Fire Daimyo frowned and spoke with some difficulty:

"Providing the funds for Konoha's recovery is no problem, but if you want to promote universal chakra training, there are still several difficult problems."

"What are the problems? Tell me!"

"The first is the lack of teaching resources... The entire Land of Fire has about 300 million citizens, but those who possess chakra, even counting those wandering ninja and even ronin samurai, probably do not exceed 30,000."

"Although the Chakra Refining Technique is not considered something too profound, at the very least, one must undergo one or two years of study and understanding before one can truly refine chakra."

(End of this chapter)