"Naruto: My Ninja Skills"Chapter 171: The Old Fox
"Based on practical considerations, it's neither possible nor reasonable for us to oppose the Senju. Eliminating warfare—at least within a certain region—has always been our objective, and this goal can only be achieved through cooperation with the Senju."
"If we don't cooperate with the Senju, our development prospects would at best be equivalent to the Land of Waterfall in the northwest. Such middling nations have no voice in the Shinobi World—they can only drift with the current."
"So everyone must maintain basic rationality."
"In reality, great ninja clans struggle to escape historical inertia. Compared to us, they'll always lack vitality. Therefore, remember this: when the time comes, the ones supporting this new hidden village will still be... will only be us, the Fireflies. There's absolutely no doubt about that."
"Everyone must actively participate in the new village's construction, especially institutional development, because this new village's framework cannot be separated from Fireflies Village—otherwise, it simply won't develop."
"Participate actively, don't resist."
"I noticed someone here created a one-to-one replica of Fireflies Village's buildings. Isn't this just antagonizing the other ninja clans? It makes us look like we don't follow the rules... I won't investigate which unlucky fool gave that order, but fix it immediately."
"What we need to bring here is the Fireflies organization and its spiritual core, not the village itself."
"Substance over form—don't you understand this? Have your brains gone stiff?"
Yūshin criticized the organization members without mercy. These people still hadn't grasped the new hidden village's essence.
"Lord Yūshin, didn't you say the Fireflies organization would cease to exist..."
Chitose Fūma still tried to argue, but before Yūshin could respond, Hideyuki Nara silenced him with a slap... In name only—do you understand what "in name only" means?
Yūshin ignored the clueless youngster and continued:
"Everyone truly has no need to reject the new hidden village. You can consider it a larger ninja village developed from Fireflies Village's foundation. We have first-mover advantage... As long as everyone works hard, we can still lead most of the new village's departments."
"Right now, other ninja are busy concluding the war; only we have the energy to devote to the new village's construction. Don't waste this opportunity."
Other ninja clans actually lacked experience in institutional development, but the Fireflies were different.
While others fought, they built; while others took physical education, they took cultural classes. Isn't creating a certain gap perfectly natural?
Hearing Yūshin speak this way, many people showed expressions of sudden understanding, and some even began exchanging knowing glances... They probably only comprehended the part about "leading the new village's departments."
"However, don't become too complacent. To wield power, you must demonstrate corresponding capability. If your skills are inferior, you must gracefully step aside... At least during Hashirama's administration, the village can still guarantee overall fairness."
"If certain people perform poorly in certain positions, then only the capable should rise and the mediocre step down. We can't be jealous of talent... Nepotism? I can't afford to lose face like that."
Yūshin was teaching everyone how to conduct themselves within the new hidden village. Adopting an antagonistic attitude was neither appropriate nor intelligent; only by actively integrating into the new village could they share in the benefits brought by its development.
I for the collective, the collective for me—this wasn't difficult to understand.
"Lord Yūshin, please rest assured. We have experience managing Fireflies Village. If we still can't compete with other ninja after this... that would be too shameful."
Everyone voiced their positions, each carrying a spirit of determination to prove they were no inferior to ninja from other great clans.
"In summary, narrow-mindedness will kill the Fireflies, but inclusiveness will ensure their longevity."
Seeing everyone calm down and genuinely absorb his words into serious consideration, Yūshin continued:
"Since the Fireflies will no longer exist nominally, when everyone joins the new hidden village, you'll join under your respective clan names... Ninja not clearly affiliated with specific clans will be uniformly assigned to a new ninja clan, which could be called the Yūshin Clan or something else—it doesn't matter."
These ninja without clear clan affiliation weren't necessarily originally Hagūgen ninja. After all, during the Fireflies' expansion, they'd absorbed many "nameless clans," and some clans had dwindled to just a few members—how could they call themselves clans?
"Then let's go with the Yūshin Clan," Wakamatsu Tachibana immediately agreed.
He considered this a good thing. "Hagūgen" only represented their past, but "Yūshin" could represent their present and future.
"Acceptable." Yūshin nodded in approval.
Actually, this matter would later exceed his expectations. If "Konoha" was a larger Fireflies, then in the future, the "Yūshin Clan" would become a smaller "micro-Fireflies"...
Perhaps simply because this new ninja clan bore such a name, quite a few minority members from other Fireflies ninja clans would leave their original clans and, without even changing their covers, directly join the new clan.
Even their clan leaders would support this decision. They could indeed contribute their strength to the new village, but some ninja had to closely follow Lord Yūshin's footsteps—this was an absolutely correct choice... Ahem, these people currently didn't fully trust the new village and were hedging their bets.
The Yūshin Clan was equivalent to a Fireflies seedling—if the new village couldn't nurture it, everyone could become nourishment for this seedling again.
Yūshin didn't intend this; he simply hoped some ninja would have a sense of belonging. Who could have anticipated his decision would have such effects?
Of course, during this meeting, everyone's thinking hadn't yet developed to that degree. They'd only understand after returning home to reflect and connect the dots.
"Lord Yūshin, what's the significance of joining the new village under clan names?"
Hideyuki Nara might not have misunderstood Yūshin's meaning, but there were definitely people present who didn't understand, so he was asking on everyone's behalf.
"On one hand, it's to avoid being too conspicuous. Our ninja will play roles in the new village's various departments. After obtaining actual benefits, we should try to prevent people from associating these benefits with a unified organization's control."
"On the other hand, it's more practical—this concerns voting rights."
"Voting rights?" Most people remained confused.
"Yes. Everyone comes from different backgrounds. To maintain a new village's cohesion, what's most important? Fairness."
"Regarding status—specifically 'political status' and 'influence status'—Hashirama Senju will definitely strive to ensure fairness and consistent power between small and large clans. Otherwise, wouldn't the new village just be scattered sand?"
"Voting rights represent the power to decide the village's major affairs and development direction. Such matters are unlikely to adopt a one-person-one-vote principle; ninja clans should become the voting entities."
"At such times, large clans must actually suffer losses... Everyone's in the same collective, large clans are so powerful and consume so many resources—shouldn't they yield to smaller clans?"
"The key is that Hashirama himself comes from a large clan background, so he can only make himself suffer losses, not let small ninja suffer."
Hmm, if certain matters required clan voting based on a one-clan-one-vote principle, who could outvote the Fireflies... Of course, this power might only be effective during Hashirama's administration—the future was uncertain, but this was already sufficient.
Many things during the founding period would form inertia and unspoken conventional rules.
Lord Yūshin was truly cunning—claiming to abandon the Fireflies organization while actually abandoning nothing except the name... By now, quite a few people were already harboring such thoughts.
"Everyone needn't be overly serious."
Yūshin felt he'd successfully turned most people's minds around, so he concluded:
"Actually, as long as we control a certain department, the Fireflies will never truly disperse—and this department will inevitably be under our control."
"Which department?" Even Hideyuki Nara couldn't figure this out.
"The budget department... More precisely, the department that requests budgets from the daimyo. Don't forget, a ninja village's primary military funding source is the daimyo's allocations. A ninja village must be supported by a nation."
"The daimyo? Ah, you mean..."
"Daimyo Kiyosui!"
Holy shit, is this right? Such deep scheming!
Everyone looked at Yūshin, feeling that at this moment he smiled like a fox.
Many people didn't understand why Yūshin so vigorously supported Daimyo Kiyosui—they all thought it was friendship at work, but they hadn't realized...
The Fireflies supported Kiyosui Shimizu in becoming the Land of Fire's ruler. Once successful, the task of communicating with this monarch about funding would naturally fall to the Fireflies... You help me, I help you—could this also be a revolving door?
"Ahem, does everyone understand? Today's meeting is confidential. Now go do whatever you need to do."
Yūshin announced the meeting's end. Though everyone still had many questions, under Yūshin's intimidating gaze, they obediently left the conference room one by one.
"Lord Hideyuki..."
After exiting, someone immediately couldn't contain themselves and wanted to ask Hideyuki Nara something.
"Don't ask me. Maintain confidentiality and think for yourselves... Also, remember to modify those buildings—don't let Lord Yūshin personally come discipline you."
Previously, everyone inevitably harbored some resentment about Yūshin's "non-resistance" policy. How could the Fireflies organization be absorbed by the Senju alliance? The Fireflies had always absorbed others—when had others ever absorbed the Fireflies?
But after this meeting, they were convinced.
Theoretically, the Fireflies were indeed absorbing the Senju alliance, just in a gentler manner.
A snake swallowing an elephant could only proceed slowly... Breaking into parts was for future reassembly.
At this moment, Yūshin still sat alone in the conference room, stretching his legs and leaning back against the chair's backrest, somewhat disregarding his image.
He'd said much but hadn't mentioned arrangements for himself... because he genuinely had thoughts of retiring at the peak.
This guy had made specific and detailed arrangements for the Fireflies organization. If you carefully considered his true character, there was actually no small suspicion of burden-shifting and abandoning responsibilities.
Managing so many people was mentally exhausting. He'd never liked this lifestyle—ultimately, having enough for oneself without worrying about others was more free and comfortable.
The organization now had "self-sustaining capability," so naturally he could confidently let go. Next, the organization could be managed by Hashirama Senju, and in the future, it could contend with Tobirama Senju—anyway, it had nothing to do with Yūshin anymore.
Subsequently, Yūshin wrote a letter informing Hashirama Senju about the new village's construction situation and the Fireflies organization's method of joining the Senju alliance. After understanding his plan, Hashirama hurriedly came from the front lines to the new hidden village's location.
First, he had to examine the new village's location, but more importantly, he wanted to understand Yūshin's thinking in detail.
After Hashirama's arrival, Yūshin personally accompanied him to inspect the village's construction. At this time, Hashirama's mood was completely different from when he'd visited Fireflies Village—because this was his own village.
Some things he didn't understand but found fascinating to watch, such as some buildings' exterior walls that had somehow changed from red paint to green paint, then back to red... truly puzzling.
"Yūshin, why did you split up the Fireflies and have them join the alliance as separate clans... I don't quite understand."
Walking along, Hashirama suddenly spoke.
Without his troublesome younger brother present, their communication flowed much more smoothly. Yūshin replied:
"Because the Fireflies have completed their historical mission, or rather, this new village is an expanded Fireflies... An organization doesn't need two voices, two centers, or two leaders. For the new village to unite with one heart, the Fireflies should appropriately fall silent."
"Yūshin, I think you've misunderstood me..."
"Hashirama, the Fireflies aren't disappearing—they're just no longer participating in management work. They'll transition to being a completely 'civilian organization' and can engage in ninja charity activities and such in the future."
Hashirama wasn't completely clueless either. He understood Yūshin's words were correct, but found it somewhat difficult to accept the Fireflies disappearing, since he genuinely loved the Fireflies' ideals...
However, it was indeed true—the Fireflies' ideals could become the new village's ideals.
If the Fireflies transitioned to a civilian organization... as long as they still existed, it would compensate for some regret in Hashirama's heart.
This was Hashirama Senju for you. When Yūshin said the Fireflies would become civilian, he was willing to believe this explanation. If it were Tobirama... hmph, Tobirama was probably feeling delighted right now about the Fireflies splitting into clans before joining the Senju alliance.
"The new Fireflies organization—I'll make you the first member."
"Really, Yūshin? That's settled then!"
Hashirama Senju appeared very happy, but his eyes still carried a trace of melancholy... He felt very guilty toward Yūshin, believing Yūshin had abandoned too much for the new village's development.
Of course, he couldn't understand Yūshin's eagerness to retire—it could only be called a beautiful misunderstanding.
"By the way, do you have any suggestions for the new village's name?" Hashirama asked.
"Huh? Isn't it called Konoha?"
Yūshin immediately realized that theoretically Konoha was a name chosen by Madara Uchiha, so he quickly began covering:
"The new village's name shouldn't carry any particular ninja clan's characteristics—that would be too narrow."
"Konoha..."
Hashirama carefully contemplated this name's meaning.
Yūshin had to continue explaining, though his voice grew quieter and quieter, like whispering:
"Where the leaves dance, fire burns eternally?"
Honestly, Yūshin found these words somewhat cringeworthy, but Hashirama was extremely satisfied. He slapped his thigh forcefully:
"Konoha—what a great name!"
Hashirama felt he was shouldering more and more responsibilities, so he believed he couldn't continue being willful.
Yūshin had sacrificed so much for the new village—how could Hashirama drag down the peace process due to personal emotions and judgments based entirely on individual factors?
No more hesitation. When it was time to act, he must act.
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