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Chapter 53 — Clash of Ideals, The End of Genshi
Kirigakure, like every great village, had its spies within Konoha.
Though their rank was low and they couldn't learn every detail of Pain's assault, they had recorded what truly mattered — Pain's voice echoing across the sky, his sermon on pain and peace. The spies brought that back to the village, and Genshi had read every word.
He had found it both frightening and childish.
Power, yes — terrifying power. But the philosophy behind it? Naïve.
Konan remained silent.
In recent days, influenced by Alex, her faith in Nagato's vision had begun to waver. She no longer followed blindly. If the shinobi world truly functioned as Nagato envisioned, it would still collapse in the end.
Genshi continued, his frail voice calm but firm. "Feel pain. Experience pain. Accept pain. Understand pain — only then will peace arrive."
He shook his head. "And yet, in just sixty years since the founding of the shinobi villages, there have already been three Great Ninja Wars. Every village has known pain, deep and unending, and still... the wars continued. Peace never came."
Konan repeated Nagato's doctrine. "That's because the balance of power between villages is broken.
If we gathered all nine Tailed Beasts and created a weapon capable of annihilating an entire nation in an instant... then distributed those weapons equally among all villages — big and small alike — every nation would possess the power to destroy the other.
Mutual fear would prevent war. No one would dare to attack. That's the only way to achieve lasting peace."
Alex understood Nagato's logic — it was essentially nuclear deterrence.
But in a world like this, such an idea would crumble.
Genshi dismissed it outright. "Naïve! You think a mere weapon — a lifeless object — can suppress human ambition and fear?
Let me tell you this: if the smaller villages were handed such weapons, they wouldn't keep them for long. The Five Great Villages would take them back — one by one."
His tone sharpened. "They can't hold them. The Five Great Villages would never allow tiny nations a power capable of destroying them."
"Such weapons wouldn't create peace — they'd create chaos. Even within the Great Villages themselves, blood would be spilled over power and control. Imagine the smaller ones — they'd fall apart even faster."
"If a deposed leader wanted revenge, if some fool decided to die together with the rest of the world — what then?
The entire shinobi world would become more unstable than it already is. Once one weapon is fired, the others would follow. Retaliation after retaliation — until everything is gone."
"Not just casualties — extinction."
Genshi fixed his cloudy eyes on Konan. "A world where every village holds such a weapon is a world where every village lives in fear. Do you truly believe these small nations, with their fragile leadership and greed, can control power like that?
What happens when one of them is led by a fool... or a madman?"
His voice trembled but grew fierce again. "Then the entire world burns.
Such a plan brings not peace, but the promise of annihilation."
"The Five Great Villages would never tolerate that instability. They'd reclaim the weapons immediately. You wouldn't even need a Kage-level shinobi — a single jōnin could steal them in the night.
And so, like the Tailed Beasts, those weapons would end up right back in the hands of the Great Villages."
"Then, when the next Great War breaks out, one side would use it first... and the others would follow. Everyone dies together."
"Or perhaps a space-time user — or any shinobi with a unique ability — would secretly plant the weapon in an enemy village and detonate it.
There are too many ways to use such a weapon. No one could guard against them all. It would only deepen the cycle of mistrust."
Konan frowned. "What if the weapon could only be activated by a village's leader, bound solely to them?"
"Still too simple," Genshi said flatly. "A single genjutsu could control that leader. How would they stop it?"
"Even with seals or safeguards, it's still just an object. The shinobi world is full of bloodline powers and abilities — there's always a way around them.
And worse — this world isn't short of ambitious tyrants or madmen who wish to see it burn. If one of them got hold of the weapon, everything would end."
Alex listened quietly from Konan's chest.
The old man was right.
A "nuclear deterrent" in a world of chakra and teleportation could never hold. Even in his past life — a world without jutsu or genjutsu — there were still missing warheads.
In this world, where space-time ninjutsu existed, theft would be child's play. Once those weapons spread, it was only a matter of time before one fell into a lunatic's hands — and then, total destruction.
Genshi drew a deep breath, his frail body suddenly alight with energy — the last flare before death.
"Once, the God of Shinobi sought to end war — to bring peace through the founding of the shinobi villages.
And yet... before the villages, the world was chaotic, yes — but the deaths were limited. The destruction, contained.
Now, entire nations go to war at once. The three Great Ninja Wars have been far bloodier than all the chaos that came before."
"If your leader's plan succeeded," he said, voice growing hoarse, "the next war would be even greater. The casualties would dwarf all others. The shinobi world itself could end."
He set down his cup with a faint clink. "That is the shinobi world. That is the fate of shinobi. The greater the power one holds, the greater the devastation it brings. That is the curse we can never escape."
Konan fell silent.
Nagato's philosophy, she realized, could not work.
Only by doing what Alex had said — by using overwhelming strength to unify the entire shinobi world — could war truly be erased. Only then could peace exist.
Swish!
A masked figure appeared silently behind Genshi, placing two glass tubes on the table before vanishing again — one filled with icy blue liquid, the other a pale white.
Alex's gaze fixed instantly on them.
Genshi pushed the samples toward Konan without hesitation. "These are what you came for. The blue one contains cellular samples derived from the Yuki clan — Ice Release. The pale one, from the Kaguya clan — Shikotsumyaku."
He drained the last sip of his tea, his once-bright energy fading all at once.
"I once wandered into a hidden place before the villages were founded," he murmured. "There, I touched a strange black stone... and it revealed my fate to me.
Ninety years... It told me I would die at ninety."
His voice weakened to a whisper. "And today... is my ninetieth birthday."
"The time has come... I can no longer watch over this village."
His head slowly bowed, his words soft, sincere — barely audible.
"I only hope... that once you've taken what you need... you'll leave Kirigakure unharmed."
Even in his final moment, his heart remained with his village.