Chapter 42 — First Break Their Diplomacy, Then Isolate the Enemy
"Ninja wars… are weapon expos?"
Orochimaru repeated the phrase with an odd look.
Despite his desire to slip away and avoid being dragged into someone else's war,
curiosity toward Oda Nobunaga kept him in the Land of Fields.
He had absolute confidence in his ability to survive—
even if everything burned down, he could always slither away.
And so, here he was, following this strange, unnervingly composed young daimyo
to the frontlines of a coming war.
As they walked, Orochimaru cast an admiring eye upon the mountain fortress sprawled before them,
a mountain fully reshaped into a military stronghold.
But he couldn't ignore Nobunaga's earlier comment.
"Is that not what they are?" Nobunaga replied calmly.
"War reparations go straight into training a new generation of shinobi.
Territorial concessions are rare these days.
What ordinary civilians see most clearly…
is that the victorious village receives more mission commissions."
He spread a hand.
"And what do civilians gain from a shinobi war?
Beyond shedding their blood to prove how 'strong' shinobi are—
they get nothing."
They walked through the reinforced corridors,
past steel supports and chakra-forged stone.
Despite his harsh criticisms of ninja, Nobunaga spoke with genuine appreciation
for what they could achieve when applied to construction.
Before heading to the Land of Snow, he had already dispatched a large group of shinobi
to secretly begin work on this mountain near the border of the Land of Fields and Land of Hot Water.
Delaying Cloud and Grass in Azuchi Castle had bought him even more time.
Now, after just a month or two,
the primary invasion route Cloud Shinobi would take
had already become a full-scale fortress—
complete with a certain "device" hidden deep at the lowest level.
In Nobunaga's eyes, even world-class civil engineers from his previous life
wouldn't have built faster than this.
Orochimaru had to admit it—
Nobunaga's critique wasn't wrong.
Civilians were the spectators and the victims in shinobi wars.
They bled and died, while gaining nothing in return.
And shinobi—as a group—treated them terribly.
Slaughter, coercion, collateral damage…
some shinobi even believed killing civilians was a kind of twisted mercy.
Orochimaru remembered it well.
He'd seen children in the Second Great War in the Land of Rain.
Back then, his instinct was also to simply kill them.
If not for Jiraiya's idiocy and Tsunade's rare moment of hesitation…
"Fear," Nobunaga added, glancing at him.
"Even in peace, civilians continue to fear shinobi.
A single wartime massacre can leave a wound that lasts for decades."
"And shinobi only appear before civilians during missions—
many of which involve killing."
He lightly tapped a railing.
"That reinforces the image that shinobi exist for one thing only:
to kill.
Tell me, Orochimaru—
would powerless civilians ever like killers who'll take a life for pocket change?"
And the fortress lights glimmered off his eyes like cold stars.
Hearing Nobunaga's words, Orochimaru frowned slightly.
The statement "shinobi are either killing or on their way to kill someone" clearly irritated him.
As a shinobi who had long been numbed to killing,
Orochimaru still couldn't help feeling a trace of displeasure.
To refute Nobunaga, he brought up the lowest of D-rank missions—
the errands every new genin must complete.
"Ninja missions aren't all killing. There are missing cats, lost dogs… even farm-"
Nobunaga smiled faintly.
Nobunaga cut him off with a single sentence:
"Those tasks are inside the shinobi villages. They have nothing to do with ordinary civilians."
Orochimaru's rebuttal died on his lips.
Even protection missions outside the village frequently ended with a shinobi killing someone "for practice."
And worse—killing often paid better.
How could common people genuinely admire a profession that resembled
a group of highly skilled street assassins doing business in the open?
What sane person would see mercenaries who kill for money and think,
"Wow, that's cool!"?
And even if some idiot did admire them—
wouldn't they realize that someone else could hire the very same shinobi to kill them one day?
Orochimaru changed the subject.
"Then why aren't merchants in the Land of Lightning cooperating with Kumogakure?
If they care only about profit, as long as the price is high enough,
they'll willingly stick their heads into a noose for money."
He knew Nobunaga's reasoning had flaws.
He simply couldn't pinpoint them at the moment.
So he redirected the discussion.
"Do you remember what I asked that night?"
Nobunaga gazed toward the distant Land of Lightning and replied,
"You were asking about law."
Orochimaru blinked.
He hadn't expected that answer.
Which shinobi took civil law seriously?
Law existed for ordinary people—shinobi lived by violence.
"Yes," Nobunaga continued calmly.
"Law."
"Shinobi bring destruction.
But law is the only shield ordinary people have to protect themselves."
"With law, civilians can't kill each other at will.
Disputes can be resolved with rules.
They have something to rely on."
"Without it?
The world becomes simple—whoever is strongest is 'right'.
A pure hellscape."
He turned to look at Orochimaru.
"Kumogakure shattered that law.
And not just on any civilian—
they shattered it on me, a daimyo."
"Think about it. If even a daimyo—far above civilians—can be insulted, threatened, or coerced by shinobi,
and law can't protect him…"
"Then what about ordinary people?"
"They may not understand politics.
But they understand one thing:
If shinobi can violate the law at will,
their own lives could be taken at any moment."
"This isn't the 'age of shinobi rule' yet,
and already civilians are terrified."
"What happens when shinobi truly rule everything?"
Orochimaru's eyes widened.
"Shared outrage…?"
He finally understood why the civilians of the Land of Fields so passionately supported this war.
Supporting Nobunaga was also supporting themselves—
defending the only thing that could guarantee their safety:
Law.
"…Not enough," Orochimaru muttered.
He finally spotted a flaw in Nobunaga's logic.
"You're still only talking about civilians.
Merchants think completely differently.
They don't care about law.
For profit, they'd sacrifice anyone—including themselves."
Nobunaga chuckled.
"A daimyo is also a person,
and a merchant is also a person."
As he strode deeper into the fortress, Orochimaru stayed behind for a moment—
and suddenly his eyes widened.
Of course.
Daimyo weren't afraid of shinobi?
Then why did the daimyo from every great nation
intervene to protect Nobunaga?
Because Cloud Shinobi had marched brazenly into a daimyo's private estate
and tried to force him to bow.
This wasn't like the Hyūga incident in Konoha—
that was internal shinobi politics.
This time, the conflict was pure:
Shinobi vs. Daimyo.
A struggle for authority.
A fight neither side could retreat from.
With Nobunaga standing at the front as the "sacrificial cannon,"
it gave every other daimyo the perfect excuse to join hands behind the scenes
and pressure the shinobi system.
As long as Nobunaga wasn't hopelessly outmatched,
the daimyo would absolutely support him from the shadows.
If he lost—he died alone.
If he won—every daimyo would benefit.
"A diplomatic break…?"
Orochimaru recalled a term he had once heard from Kimimaro.
Suddenly everything made sense.
If daimyo were secretly buying up supplies,
then of course merchants would "run out of stock"
and refuse to sell to Kumogakure.
And some merchants understood perfectly well—
weakening the shinobi's dominance would give them more power.
And Nobunaga, of course, must be holding an enormous reserve of supplies.
"This man…"
Watching Nobunaga disappear into the fortress,
Orochimaru let out a cold laugh.
Using fear to rally the civilians.
Using power politics to unite the daimyo.
This Oda Nobunaga—
was far more dangerous than he appeared.