Chapter 179: People Who Do Not Accept Peace

Onoki is the oldest Kage in the Ninja World; he cannot see the root of war and does not understand what Konohagakure is doing.

He thinks it was his own efforts that persuaded the Fourth Kazekage and the Fourth Raikage, causing them to change their minds and unite to resist Konohagakure's expansion.

In reality, both of those houses were so poor they were nearly starving to death; if they didn't make one last stand, they would have no choice but to surrender.

As for the so-called Anti-Konoha Alliance, the true main force is just their Iwagakure village alone.

Regarding the opposition force stirred up by the Third Tsuchikage, Yamanaka Chujiu's attitude is: ignore him!

No time, and even less energy!

Yamanaka Chujiu is busy pushing for cultural unification!

Compared to infrastructure like roads and public buildings, the assimilation of culture and thought is the soul of grand unification.

The samurai culture of Iron Country, the local culture of Land of Fields, and the maritime culture of Water Country are vastly different from the culture of Fire Country; the national identity and ethnic barriers derived from this are hidden dangers to the unified regime of Konohagakure.

The good news is that the writing and language of the Ninja World are unified, so Konohagakure can skip the most arduous "unification of writing" and start from the easier-to-implement "unification of conduct."

Fire Country, represented by Konohagakure, is more economically developed, and the culture it nurtures has a distinct sense of luxury compared to other countries.

As the old saying goes, it is hard to go from luxury to frugality, but easy to go from frugality to luxury!

Using the improvement of living standards as an excuse, the cultural replication project of Fire Country was pushed forward, easily causing the citizens and ninja of the three countries to fall and accept the daily lifestyle of Konohagakure.

For those who stubbornly insisted on their old ways of life, Yamanaka Chujiu deliberately disparaged them in public opinion, calling them stubborn elements and tumors resisting the progress of living standards.

Next was the promotion of compulsory basic education, expanding the scope of education from ninja, samurai, and nobles to well-off families, and even impoverished ones.

Yamanaka Chujiu did not directly destroy the private schools of samurai and nobles; he used Konohagakure's surplus funds to build new schools on a large scale, recruiting and training teachers, and uniformly using the textbooks of the Konoha Ninja Academy.

The teaching content focused on common knowledge of the Ninja World, writing, and mathematics, while incidentally imparting concepts such as the ideology of grand unification, patriotism, and the etiquette of a harmonious society.

The education system established by Konohagakure would select excellent students to transfer to the Konoha Ninja Academy for further study, completely breaking the barriers to talent mobility and causing the grassroots people of the three countries to develop a yearning for Konohagakure, viewing the privileges of nobles and samurai as a scourge.

In this way, these remnants of the old era became recognized by society as trash, the root cause of the people's suffering.

Not only could they no longer lead the people to hate Konohagakure, they instead became rats that everyone shouted to beat.

After obtaining basic recognition, Yamanaka Chujiu finally reached his hand toward taxation.

He abolished the old, harsh taxes and private noble levies, implemented a unified tax reduction policy, and even issued living subsidies to impoverished families.

The taxes collected by Konohagakure were far less than its investment in infrastructure and education.

But after the people of the three countries paid their taxes, they unconsciously developed a sense of ownership.

Moreover, taxation also helped Konohagakure incorporate refugees and settlements into household registration management, uniformly allocating land and settling residences, greatly increasing the effective ruling population base.

Through comprehensive construction including infrastructure, culture, education, relief, and taxation, Iron Country, Land of Fields, and Water Country were fully integrated into the Konoha grand unification system.

The once heavily fortified and fragmented regional barriers were destroyed, replaced by a unified system, culture, and the recognition that we are one of our own.

Konohagakure does not rule four countries, but an unprecedented superpower.

Although the three major powers of Wind, Earth, and Lightning huddled together in an alliance and coerced a crowd of remote small countries to put up a desperate resistance, everyone knew that Konohagakure possessed absolute strength that they could not oppose.

The alliance was filled with panic, and rogue ninja who voluntarily surrendered came in droves, looking as if the situation was already lost.

The Ninja World ushered in the dawn of true peaceful unification for the first time—no endless wars, no sacrifices for the games of great powers, and no internal strife of the Ninja Sect.

The "Make Konoha Great Again" that Yamanaka Chujiu spoke of, in the eyes of many, was only one step away from being completely realized.

But the impending era of peace and prosperity is exactly what Black Zetsu, who has been dormant in the Ninja World for a thousand years with the sole ultimate goal of resurrecting Kaguya, cannot accept.

This means that his thousand years of effort and the Rinnegan he had finally nurtured would never again have the chance to realize the Eye of the Moon Plan.

How could this be accepted?

Black Zetsu found Obito and told him everything that had happened recently.

Then Black Zetsu said gloomily: "Obito, do you see? This is the answer Yamanaka Chujiu has given the Ninja World."

"When all countries are ruled by Konohagakure, war will be completely ended, past suffering will not recur, and everyone will have attained happiness..."

"Only you, and your Rin, are left abandoned in the past forever."

Obito's shoulders and back tightened slightly, and a suppressed, extreme malice surged within his scarlet pupils.

He roared: "No, I do not accept such peace!"

"A world without Rin has no meaning; it is a false illusion that should not exist!"

Black Zetsu said: "You are right; only the Eye of the Moon can realize everyone's wishes and make up for all regrets."

"Instead of the plan of Yamanaka Inoichi, which sacrifices who knows how many people like you to trade for a portion of people to enjoy their peace."

"We must accelerate the progress of the plan, immediately begin the operation to gather the nine Tailed Beasts, awaken the Ten-Tails, and cast the Infinite Tsukuyomi."

"In the brand-new dream world, war, death, and parting will all return to zero; Rin will stand properly by your side, your youthful days will never dissipate, and all debts and regrets can be perfectly compensated."

"This is not destruction; it is salvation."

"Obito, we don't have much time left; we must hurry!"

Uchiha Obito was already deeply disappointed with the present world, and now Yamanaka Chujiu's success stung him even more.

In the darkest corner of his heart, he cursed more than once: "Why didn't you appear sooner, why didn't you push for grand unification sooner?"

"It's because you came too late that Rin died!"

"It's all your fault!"

Now, Black Zetsu's words completely detonated Obito's darkness.

He would not let this "false" peace descend; if he wanted to realize the perfect dream, he had to overturn the era of peace that was about to emerge.

Black Zetsu looked at the madness in the depths of Obito's eyes and smiled, revealing his snow-white teeth.

Obito, this chess piece, was truly too easy to deceive; what followed was even more troublesome work.

If the selfish Obito could deceive Nagato, who was obsessed with peace and justice, and make the Rinnegan the sharpest weapon to strike at Konohagakure.

Ultimately, let Nagato sacrifice himself in total failure and despair to resurrect Madara Uchiha.