Upon hearing the voice, Ajisai, who was in the process of sealing her ninja tools, looked up. Following nma's gaze, she saw Jiraiya and quickly waved, calling out: "Jiraiya-sama!"
Jiraiya toned down his vigilance a notch and walked over. His gaze shifted between nma and Ajisai before finally settling on nma. His tone held a hint of teasing but also carried an undercurrent of scrutiny: "Kid, last ti in Agakure, you disappeared without even saying goodbye, leaving Ajisai-chan alone in that ssy place. That's not very gentlemanly."
Ajisai's face flushed red as she hurriedly defended: "Uncle! Don't say things like that!"
nma glanced sideways at the sowhat flustered Ajisai beside him and said: "I truly didn't expect her to make the decision to leave so quickly. The situation back then was special, and I also had other urgent matters that required my attention."
He was referring to the encounter battle with Isshiki and the subsequent matters regarding the Ten-Tails.
Ajisai quickly nodded, helping to explain: "I also didn't expect such a huge upheaval in the village, even Hanzo-sama died. A few friends and I were protecting so innocent villagers and evacuating. Later, we t the injured Jiraiya-sama and decided to leave Agakure with him."
Jiraiya looked at Ajisai's subconscious tendency to defend nma and her slightly shy deanor in front of him, then glanced at the composed fox-masked young man opposite. He couldn't help but rub his nose, grumbling inwardly: 'These two youngsters, they really don't take , their elder, seriously at all! This atmosphere—'
At this point, nma shifted his gaze back to Jiraiya. He got straight to the point: "Uncle, on your journey from the Land of Rain, passing through the Land of Birds, and finally entering the Land of Stars, you must have seen a lot. How do these three countries differ in your perception?"
Hearing this, the playful look on Jiraiya's face gradually faded, replaced by a deep solemnity.
He recalled the horrific scenes he witnessed in the Land of Rain: the scent of blood that even the continuous rain couldn't wash away, numb faces struggling for survival amidst war and oppression, ruins and wandering orphans everywhere.
Even in the relatively peaceful Land of Birds, he had seen noble caravans parading arrogantly past, beggars in tattered clothes huddled by the roadside, unburied skeletons occasionally visible in the wilderness, and countless emaciated refugees trekking with great difficulty towards the Land of Stars, seeking just a sliver of hope.
Only after entering the borders of the Land of Stars did what he saw and heard beco suddenly clear and open.
In the neatly arranged fields were diligent farrs with peaceful expressions, tidy villages had smoke rising from chimneys, prosperous towns were orderly. People's faces carried a sense of stability focused on their own lives. That vibrant vitality even surpassed the famously wealthy Land of Fire.
This stark contrast was sothing Jiraiya could not avoid.
He took a deep breath, his gaze sharp as he looked at nma, asking the question that had long been lingering in his mind: "Kid, I admit, from what I've seen on this journey, the scenery of the Land of Stars is indeed different."
"But I am very curious. You, or rather, the Land of Stars, clearly rose by annexing five small countries through war, using iron-fisted thods to liquidate the old noble and Daimyo classes of those five countries. Logically, such a country is often accompanied by chaos and oppressive rule, and would need over a decade to stabilize. Yet why, in just a few short years, have you managed to govern it into its current state?"
"Even… in many aspects, doing better than the vast majority of countries in the Ninja World?"
nma tilted his head slightly, gesturing towards the direction outside the city: "This isn't the place for such a conversation. Let's talk as we walk."
The three walked side by side, slowly making their way along the wide road leading out of the city.
Soon, they reached the outskirts. Neatly plowed fields and busy farrs lined the roadside, with stretching mountain ranges visible in the distance… a scene of tranquility and harmony.
nma's voice sounded again: "Not long ago, the leader of the Akatsuki, that fellow who calls himself 'Pain', also attacked the Land of Stars."
Jiraiya's heart tightened. He had heard about Pain's attack on the Land of Stars being repelled, but the details were unclear.
nma continued: "At that ti, he also asked similar questions. About peace, about the future."
"And I asked him in return: if he unified the Ninja World through power, ended all wars, then what next? How did he plan to govern this world? How would he allow the people living in it to attain happiness?"
Jiraiya fell silent, rembering the intense argunt with Nagato and Konan after discovering Pain was Nagato in Agakure.
Nagato firmly believed that only by making the world experience extre pain could understanding and peace be achieved, yet he had no vision for the world after peace.
"So, how did Pain answer?" Jiraiya couldn't help but press.
"Him?" nma's tone carried a hint of light mockery: "He had no concrete, feasible philosophy. In his understanding, it seed that as long as the great countries and Ninja Villages stopped fighting each other, war would naturally cease, and peace would fall from the sky."
Jiraiya frowned, instinctively retorting: "Isn't that correct? If the war ends, peace naturally arrives."
This was his, and indeed most Ninja who had experienced the pain of war, most simple-minded thought.
nma shook his head. He turned to Jiraiya, his tone becoming more emphatic: "The war ends, and then what?"
"And then?" Jiraiya was montarily stunned, clearly not fully understanding the question.
"The war ending only ans large-scale killing stops," nma's voice was clear and forceful, as if striking Jiraiya's heart: "And then? You people who have always proclaid 'peace' as your ideal, have you ever thought about, after peace arrives, how to truly make people live better lives? How to eliminate the poverty and hunger seen everywhere in the world? How to let those who lost everything in the war regain hope? What does your 'peace' encompass besides the absence of war?"
This series of questions hit Jiraiya's heart like heavy hamr blows.
Having traveled the Ninja World for decades and witnessed countless tragedies, he deeply yearned for peace in his heart. But all his thoughts and efforts were almost solely focused on 'how to stop wars'.
As for how society should be constructed after wars ended, how to solve those deep-rooted social problems—
This completely touched upon his area of ignorance.
The thousand-year history of the Ninja World seed like a vicious cycle of war. No one had ever truly thought about or practiced the path of 'after peace'.
Jiraiya pondered for a long ti before replying sowhat uncertainly, tentatively: "If… if peace were truly achieved, then… the Kage of each country, each Great Ninja Village, should be able to sit down together, discuss… how to cooperate, how to develop, slowly… solve problems like poverty and hunger?"
His voice grew softer and softer; even he felt this answer was pale and weak.
nma did not mock him but continued pressing like peeling away layers: "Hmm, then, in the absence of war, please tell : what is the root cause of the vast majority of poverty and hunger in the world? Who, or what system, is constantly producing the poor and the hungry?"
Jiraiya fell into deep thought again.
He recalled what he had seen during his travels: farrs crushed by the heavy taxes of nobles, forced to sell their children… villages displaced and their people turned into refugees by a single noble decree… the poor freezing and starving to death outside the opulent mansions of nobles—
The fat, extravagant nobles, the tax collectors creating pretexts to exploit the common people, the local tyrants seizing land, driving commoners to lose their families and hos; the indifferent and callous bureaucratic system that even used Ninja and samurai for violent suppression in the face of commoners' pleas—
Scenes flashed through his mind.
Soon, he involuntarily gave a slight tremble. An answer he might have vaguely perceived in the past but was always unwilling to delve into surfaced in his mind.
It was those lofty nobles and the Daimyo class!
It was their unequal systems constantly squeezing the wealth and sweat of the common people, creating countless suffering.
And the hired Ninja, in many instances, precisely beca the military tools upholding this exploitative system.
For a mont, Jiraiya felt his throat go dry.
He found he could not refute this conclusion.
"N-no! That's wrong!" Jiraiya shook his head vigorously as if to disperse this overly subversive thought, his voice unconsciously rising a bit.
"The employer-employee relationship between Ninja and nobles, Daimyos… it has always been this way for millennia! This is the foundation maintaining a country's operation!"
As a Ninja, the education he received since childhood was to serve his employers, i.e., those nobles and Daimyos, and protect the village's interests.
Now nma was pointing directly at the core of the problem, telling him that those they had always served were the very ones creating poverty. This was tantamount to labeling him, and the entire Ninja Community, as so kind of 'accomplices'. He instinctively felt resistance and discomfort.
"If it has been that way for millennia, does that necessarily make it right?" nma's voice remained calm.
"A thousand years ago, before even the 'Ninja' profession existed, how did the world operate? Tracing back to more ancient tis, before systems like 'nobles' and 'Daimyos' were born, what was the form of human society? Existence does not equate to reasonableness."
"How could there be no nobles—" Jiraiya instinctively retorted, but his words stuck halfway.
He found he could not answer this question.
His understanding of the Ninja World's history was mostly confined to the rise of Ninja Clans and Ninja Villages. He knew almost nothing about more ancient societal structures.
He fell into deep entanglent and confusion.
Intellectually, he had seen with his own eyes the vigorous vitality the Land of Stars exhibited after abolishing the nobility. But emotionally and in his ingrained understanding, he could not fully accept this ans of overturning traditional order through violent revolution.
During the subsequent part of their walk, Jiraiya attempted to refute from various angles, arguing about order, tradition, the necessity of sacrifice.
However, nma could always resolve his argunts one by one with clear logic, a deep understanding of the needs of the lower-class people, and the living reality happening in the Land of Stars.
nma talked about land distribution, universal basic education, dical security systems, equality before the law—
These concepts were both unfamiliar and shocking to Jiraiya.
Ajisai quietly followed the two, looking up at Jiraiya with his furrowed brow engaged in fierce debate, then glancing sideways at the always composed and clear nma.
She was still young, unable to fully grasp the deep clash of ideals in their words. But she was born and raised in Agakure, a land plagued by war and oppression, where she had personally witnessed too much suffering and injustice.
She couldn't understand those complex grand theories, but she could truly feel that the peace, stability, and hope perating this land of the Land of Stars were precisely the things she had yearned for in the depths of her heart yet could not attain.
Her heart involuntarily leaned towards the world nma depicted.
Finally, Jiraiya stopped walking, his face gloomy.
All the argunts seed unable to shake the other party in the slightest… instead, they made his own convictions waver.
Just then, he rembered the vague and heavy prophecy the Great Toad Sage made before he left Mount Myoboku.
That [Child of Darkness] who would bring destruction and change to the Ninja World!
Looking at this mysterious, powerful, and possessing subversive ideas young man before him, a thought burrowed into his mind: 'Could it be… he is the person from the prophecy?'
This thought sent a chill down his spine.
All his doubts and unease seed to find an outlet at this mont.
He stubbornly believed that nma's set of highly inflammatory and subversive rhetoric was nothing but 'demagoguery and heresy'!
It was a tool to win over people's hearts and achieve his ambitions!
"Enough!" Jiraiya snapped in a low voice, interrupting nma. His gaze piercing as he stared at nma, his tone filled with vigilance and resolve.
"No matter how eloquently you speak, you cannot change the fact that you rose through violence and subversion! No wonder so many people follow you, no wonder even people like Shisui and Hizashi were bewitched by you! But I, the Toad Sage Jiraiya, will absolutely not be deceived by your honeyed words!"
An intangible tension began to spread in the air.
nma had never naively thought he could persuade Jiraiya with just a bout of [Talk no Jutsu].
This mber of the Konoha Sannin, who had traveled the ninja world for years and seen much, possessed a will far firr than most. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been chosen by the old toad of Mount Myoboku, who is well-versed in the ways of prophecy, to shoulder the heavy responsibility of guiding the [Child of Prophecy].
Putting it harshly, he was a stubborn mule.
Clashes of ideals were often deeply rooted, absolutely not sothing that could be resolved overnight.
Just like in his previous life when nma argued with people online… even with all sorts of evidence laid out, it was fundantally impossible to persuade the other side.
By now, the three had arrived at an open valley not far outside the city.
The terrain here was gentle, the field of view open. Underfoot was soft grass, with a babbling stream nearby.
Standing at the edge of the valley, one could clearly look out over the vast, boundless Yuga River plain to the west.
It was currently late autumn, the most bountiful season of the year.
Looking out, both banks of the valley and the entire Yuga River plain were covered by a seemingly endless sea of golden rice waves.
Heavy ears of rice swayed in the autumn breeze, emitting a soft rustling sound, as if singing a hymn of harvest.
In the fields, countless farrs were busily working… harvesting, bundling, transporting… their faces beaming with satisfied and joyful smiles.
Even more eye-catching were so strangely shaped, clearly not animal-powered, dium and large-sized agricultural machinery figures visible in the vast fields.
They emitted a low hum, efficiently completing heavy tasks like harvesting and threshing, forming a stark contrast with traditional farming thods, showcasing the unusual agricultural production of the Land of Stars.
This scene full of vitality, hope, and bountiful harvest ford a strong contrast with the tense, swords drawn and bows bent atmosphere from monts before between the two n.
nma turned around, facing Jiraiya, his tone arrogant: "Do you think, in a state where you couldn't even defeat a single Pain, you are qualified to face in battle?"
As soon as the words were spoken, nma casually raised his right hand. A deep, seemingly light-devouring Dark Chakra instantly condensed in his palm, forming a roughly half-ter-long, jet-black Chakra Rod.
He casually swung it. The black rod cut through the air with a low howl, and the surrounding space seed to produce subtle ripples in response.
Seeing this black rod, Jiraiya's pupils suddenly contracted, his face becoming extrely grave.
During the fierce battle with Pain in Agakure, he had deeply experienced the frightening nature of these black rods. They were not only indestructible but could also greatly interfere with, even block, an opponent's Chakra Flow.
He clearly rembered: Back then, when that mysterious person and Shura burst onto the battlefield, with just one strike, using a similar black rod, they completely destroyed one of the Pains!
That overwhelming power, even in retrospect, still made him shudder with fear.
Jiraiya's mind rapidly weighed the options.
In the battle with Pain, he had used all his ans, even entering Sage Mode, and still barely escaped with his life, almost dying there. So of his injuries hadn't fully recovered yet.
And this young man before him was clearly more powerful than Nagato's Pains, yet Jiraiya knew very little about him.
To rashly start a fight under such severely lacking intelligence would be tantamount to seeking death.
His primary purpose for infiltrating the Land of Stars was to gather intelligence, understand the true situation of this erging nation, its leader's philosophy and strength.
That's why Jiraiya had always claid to be a travel writer, emphasized his status as non-Konoha's Ninja… all to lower the other party's guard and facilitate his actions.
If he clashed with Shura here, regardless of outco, it would an the complete failure of his mission, possibly even triggering more serious consequences.
Taking a deep breath, Jiraiya forcibly suppressed the restless Chakra within him. His taut muscles slowly relaxed.
He once again put on that seemingly cynical smile, waved his hand, and his tone also beca more relaxed: "My, my, young man, don't be so hot-headed. Fighting and killing at the drop of a hat, that harms harmony, you know? I am, after all, a man of culture, here to gather material, not to fight."
He skillfully sidestepped nma's provocation, steering the topic away. His gaze returned to the golden rice fields, as if the earlier confrontation had never happened.
"Speaking of which, your farmland planning in the Land of Stars is indeed well done. This yield must be able to feed quite a few people, right?"
nma watched Jiraiya's instant change of expression and didn't press further.
The Black Chakra Rod in his hand quietly dissipated as if it had never appeared.
He could naturally see Jiraiya's misgivings and true purpose. Since the other party chose to back down, he wouldn't pursue relentlessly.
After all, this was his father's teacher. Killing him would be sowhat inappropriate.
"Food is the paramount need of the people. Ensuring everyone has enough to eat is the most basic philosophy of the Land of Stars," nma responded plainly, his gaze also turning towards the bountiful fields.
The atmosphere at the valley's edge temporarily eased from the imminent confrontation to a subtle and fragile calm.
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