Hearing someone actually respond to him, Brook looked at the watermelon haired Might Guy and smiled in satisfaction.
"Guy, your judgment is excellent. I believe you have the potential to become a peerless powerhouse. In the future, no one here will be able to compare to you."
Brook spoke with a faint smile, already wondering to himself whether an Edo Tensei Might Guy could beat the Sage of Six Paths.
In any case, Brook had already set his sights on Might Guy's soul. He absolutely would not allow it to enter the Sage of Six Paths' Pure Land.
"Thank you for your approval, Senior Brook! My youth is burning even hotter now!"
Might Guy raised a thumb and shouted passionately, his white teeth flashing and his eyes blazing with determination, as if he had finally found a true kindred spirit.
Seeing the conversation between these two "great minds," more than a dozen Anbu silently pulled out scrolls and began writing letters home and their final words.
How could a civilian taijutsu ninja possibly surpass everyone present in the future?
Wasn't that just a pipe dream?
This Senior Brook's taste was really terrible.
No wonder even Kurenai Yuhi, just a Chunin, had been allowed into the Fourth Hokage's reserve guard.
Brook's praise and recognition of Might Guy immediately made Kakashi Hatake and Uchiha Shisui, the two true prodigies in the group, feel a little dissatisfied.
Would Might Guy really become the strongest among all of them in the future? Stronger than the two of them? Stronger than the Fourth Hokage?
And what about Brook himself and Minato Namikaze?
What they did not know was that Brook and Minato were not really "people" in the conventional sense at all.
Brook's true body was a soul, while Minato Namikaze was nothing more than a tool in human form, a different kind of resurrection puppet.
"Is Lord Brook really that powerful? Do you already possess power comparable to the Sage of Six Paths? Can you really bring peace to this world?"
Tenzo, the Wood Release ninja who had been silent for most of the journey, suddenly asked with clear expectation in his eyes.
If Lord Brook was truly that strong, then perhaps he really could suppress the wars of the ninja world and bring peace to the world.
"Little friend, suppressing war in the ninja world is indeed easy for me. But because the Five Great Nations have accumulated grudges for so many years, and because greed and darkness are part of human nature, people from different countries cannot truly live together in peace."
"Unless the entire world is unified, unless every newborn spends decades receiving peaceful education, and unless the next generation completely forgets the hatred of their ancestors, only then might the world enjoy a period of peace.:
"But because of the imbalance of resources in different regions, and because of the vast gap between ninjas and civilians, society will eventually split into classes. And once that happens, war over resources and privilege will begin all over again."
"Humanity can only ever have relative peace. Absolute peace can never exist."
Brook thought for a moment, then decided to shatter the naive dreams of these young people.
Human history had always been the history of war.
Open any history book, and it would be filled with wars, class struggles, oppression, conquest, and bloodshed.
Peace was impossible. Resources and privilege were the things all people pursued.
"All you can do is become stronger, remain true to your heart, and perhaps preserve peace for the place under your protection.
But people always change. The boy who slays the dragon eventually becomes the dragon himself.
And even if you don't become one, one of your descendants will.
Someone too kind can never hold the power of a dragon. And then another dragon will come, kill you, and replace you."
Tenzo and Shisui lowered their heads and whispered in disappointment.
Did that mean there really could never be lasting peace in the world?
"No. Think about the rich and fertile Land of Fire. Have you ever considered the barren Land of Wind and those even poorer minor nations?"
"They also long for the fertile land of the Land of Fire. They also want to eat their fill and live peaceful lives. From their perspective, what exactly did they do wrong? "
"That is why wealthy nations yearn for peace, poor nations yearn to plunder, and powerful nations always crave even more resources, which leads to endless war."
"That is the essence of war."
Brook felt like he was turning into a teacher, so after saying his piece, he closed his eyes to rest and stopped paying attention to the younger generation.
But his words had already caused the members of the guard and the Anbu to sink into deep thought.
So the essence of war was the distribution of resources.
If a country enjoyed peace for too long, its population would continue to grow, yet its resources would remain limited. Once they could no longer support that population, war became inevitable. In that sense, war was also a brutal means of reducing excess population.
If a country was impoverished year after year, and even survival itself became difficult due to natural and man made disasters, then war and plunder became unavoidable choices.
So eternal peace really was just a fantasy.
Uchiha Shisui looked at Brook with countless questions in his heart, yet he still chose silence.
The Uchiha clan wanted more power in Konoha now. Some even wanted to become Hokage and take full control of the village.
Was that also greed? Was that also the pursuit of privilege?
As the strongest founding clan in Konoha, they had never truly been allowed into the highest ranks of power.
That resentment had only continued to grow.
This was the contradiction created when strength and authority were fundamentally out of balance.
The small, silent unit continued moving forward, but a heavy sense of death slowly began to spread through the ranks.
"Everyone, have some faith in Lord Brook. He really is very strong, and this war will end soon. And with me here, I won't let all of you die so easily on the battlefield."
At that moment, the official leader of the squad, the Fourth Hokage Minato Namikaze, finally spoke up to encourage them.
With the Flying Thunder God Technique at his disposal, saving people was never difficult for him.
Most of the Anbu had already finished drafting their wills in their minds. Once they reached the front line, they planned to send those letters and wills back home.
"I believe in Lord Brook! Kakashi, why are you so depressed? That's not like you! Cheer up! Our youth should burn without regrets!"
The watermelon headed Might Guy grinned and shouted.
"Even if this war ends with none of us returning, I've never been afraid!"
"…"
Kakashi and the others still said nothing and simply kept moving in silence.
But inwardly, some of their resolve returned.
After all, even if it truly was a mission certain to end in death, they still had to face it in their strongest state and fulfill their duty as ninja.
Meanwhile, Konan's message also allowed Yahiko and Nagato to relax somewhat.
If their teacher had already taken action, then the Land of Rain would surely not suffer losses on the scale it had during the Third Shinobi World War.
The two of them quickly gathered Amegakure's elite forces and prepared to strike at Iwagakure's supply lines the moment the Death God killed the Third Tsuchikage. Once Onoki fell, they would sever the connection between Iwagakure's forces in the Land of Rain and the Land of Earth itself, then plunder all of Iwagakure's resources.
As for invading the Land of Earth itself, with Amegakure's current strength, they would never dare attempt something that insane.
----------------
On the other side of the battlefield, Kumogakure of the Land of Lightning had already sent a large army across one or two small countries and into the Land of Rice Fields, intending to use that small nation as a springboard to invade Konoha.
However, the moment the Fourth Raikage A and the Eight Tails jinchuriki Killer B saw Konoha's main force, both of them were stunned.
Had Konoha really thrown all of its strength at Kumogakure?
Did Konoha not still need to deal with the Iwa forces coming from the Land of Earth?
They were clearly just trying to bully Kumogakure. Even if they let the Iwa ninja off easy, they were still planning to fight the Lightning ninja to the death first.
Although the Fourth Raikage liked taking advantage of others, he absolutely did not want to be the one fighting Konoha to exhaustion while that old bastard, the Third Tsuchikage Onoki, sat back and profited.
After all, he carried a deep hatred for Iwagakure as well. His father, the Third Raikage, had been worn down and killed by an army of tens of thousands of Iwa ninja.
Now, looking at the elite ninja from Konoha's great clans, even Kumogakure's scouts felt a chill run down their spines.
Konoha had actually deployed over ten thousand ninja just to stop Kumogakure's invasion. If a full scale war broke out now, both sides would suffer catastrophic losses.
It had to be remembered that during the Third Shinobi World War, Konoha had only been able to spare one or two thousand ninja to fight Kumogakure. At the time, they had also been fighting Iwagakure and Sunagakure, while Kirigakure and Amegakure had taken the opportunity to get involved as well.
Even under those conditions, Konoha had still demonstrated the terror of the strongest village in the ninja world.
Of course, Iwagakure and Kumogakure had also been fighting one another during that war.
Later, Sunagakure had been crushed by Konoha, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist had been broken apart, and the Land of Rain had been ravaged.
In the end, Iwagakure had no choice but to stop pressing Konoha directly and instead throw its full strength against the Third Raikage, finally winning a major victory there.
Now, seeing that Konoha had committed its full force to this battlefield, the Fourth Raikage A began to hesitate.
According to Kumogakure's earlier predictions, Konoha was supposed to fight the Land of Earth and the Land of Lightning at the same time, which would leave both enemy fronts with an overwhelming advantage.
He had never expected Konoha to focus on Kumogakure first.
Was this not just bullying?
Had they really underestimated that old bastard Onoki and the Iwa army that badly?
Would those poor fools from Sunagakure really help their "cheap ally," Konoha, and do everything possible to stop Iwagakure's advance?
That made no sense.
Sunagakure should have stayed home and conserved its strength, just like Kirigakure, watching the whole thing from the sidelines and letting Konoha and its enemies bleed each other dry.
Although the Fourth Raikage still had no idea what was happening on the other side of the war, he was already starting to feel deeply irritated.
Should they fight, or should they not?
Before Kumogakure could even finish making up its mind, Konoha's forces had already crossed into the Land of Rice Fields and launched an attack on the Kumogakure army.
At the very front of Konoha's assault was none other than the Uchiha clan, the strongest clan in the village.
To them, this was the best era they had seen in years.
At last, an Uchiha had entered the direct line of the Fourth Hokage.
That meant the clan had to push even harder, win even greater merit, and elevate Uchiha Shisui's standing even further. That would also strengthen his prestige and bargaining power in any future struggle over the Hokage's seat.
As long as the Uchiha clan earned a decisive victory in this war, no one would be able to stop Shisui's rise.
The Sarutobi clan had similar thoughts. They wanted Sarutobi Asuma to enter Minato Namikaze's guard as well, securing the clan's future development.
So they also needed to earn enough merit in this war to keep themselves qualified for the next Hokage election.
By contrast, the Ino-Shika-Cho trio did not harbor such grand ambitions. They only intended to remain loyal to the Hokage line, no matter who ended up wearing the hat.
Within Konoha, the Shimura clan, whose reputation was only slightly better than the Uchiha clan's, had also been pushed to the vanguard and forced to take the first clash against Kumogakure.
Meanwhile, Orochimaru, acting as Konoha's commander in chief, remained at the rear with his chief strategist, Nara Shikaku.
Standing beside him was a mysterious cloaked man wearing a mask. Even his eyes were hidden behind dark lenses, making it impossible for anyone to tell what he was really looking at.
This masked man had already left Orochimaru's side the moment the offensive began.
Nara Shikaku had plenty of questions, but he kept them to himself. As long as the man did not harm Konoha's army, that was enough.
Orochimaru might be sinister, but with the Fourth Hokage's trust still resting on him, his loyalty to Konoha, at least for now, remained beyond question.
After receiving Orochimaru's instructions, the cloaked figure moved off on his own.
Animal Path Danzo, temporarily placed under Orochimaru's command after leaving Brook's side, remained expressionless beneath his mask.
"Outer Path Summoning Technique: Hidden Chameleon!"
In an unseen corner of the battlefield, he coldly summoned three gigantic chameleons. Their eyes, just like Danzo's, bore the purple ripple pattern of the Rinnegan.
"Recover the corpses of ninja with bloodline limits and special talents."
Animal Path Danzo gave the order without emotion.
The moment he finished speaking, the three giant chameleons instantly turned transparent and disappeared. Even their chakra signatures vanished completely, making them impossible to detect through ordinary sensory techniques.
They slipped silently into the forest to carry out their mission.
Meanwhile, as the great nations prepared to go to war, Obito Uchiha and White Zetsu Tobi had already boarded a ship and entered Kirigakure of the Land of Water to begin Obito's revenge plan.
Now that he had lost the intangibility granted by the Kamui Mangekyo Sharingan, Obito could no longer silently control the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, as easily as before.
So this trip to Kirigakure meant abandoning that earlier plan altogether.
With a new pair of powerful Mangekyo Sharingan in his possession, Obito intended to take revenge on Kirigakure openly.
He wanted to recreate the same kind of disaster Konoha had suffered during the Nine Tails attack, except this time it would be the Three Tails rampaging through Kirigakure.
With White Zetsu Tobi helping to mask his presence, Obito was able to slip into the Hidden Mist Village without being detected by its guards.
If he could find the Fourth Mizukage Yagura Karatachi, then with his Mangekyo Sharingan, he should be able to control the Three Tails inside him and unleash it upon the entire village.
And beyond that, Obito fully intended to show those Kirigakure ninja the true power of the Mangekyo Sharingan, the power of a god.
Madara Uchiha's treasured Mangekyo Sharingan made the activation of Susanoo astonishingly easy. Its duration was far longer, and its destructive power vastly greater.
Even Obito, still new to using those eyes, had quickly mastered the power of Susanoo.
He was already becoming addicted to that overwhelming strength. He even regretted not taking Kakashi's Kamui Sharingan back when he still had the chance.
If he had done that, he might have gained this divine power much sooner and perhaps would never have ended up under the Death God control.
But regret changed nothing now.
He could only obey the Death God's order and continue the mission, seize the Three Tails, and collect the bloodline limit ninja of Kirigakure.
…..
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I Became a Demon Sword and Traveled the Anime Worlds