The replacement of the Land of Sea's Daimyo went quite smoothly. Orochimaru happened to have a subordinate lurking by the Daimyo's side as his guard.
Using the collected body tissues, Vegapunk spent several days creating a new Clone—this crude Clone's lifespan would likely be less than ten years, and its physical fitness could only be maintained at the level of an ordinary person, but it was more than enough for a replacement.
In fact, all the Daimyo replacements were such crude things. From the beginning, Vegapunk did not want to give these Clones too long a life.
Although theoretically, the Clones were all set with a Thought Seal by Vegapunk, the human brain and thoughts are the most mysterious and unpredictable things. If they stayed in that Daimyo's position for too long, heaven knows if something like a Clone Awakening would happen.
He simply gave these Clones a lifespan of less than ten years. For Vegapunk, he only needed these Clones to provide a stable transition... A month later, Vegapunk's forces had undergone integration, and the number of Ninjas finally broke the 2,000 mark.
Especially with the help of Orochimaru's laboratory, Vegapunk produced a lot of Gene Modification Fluid. Some Ninjas who had performed meritorious deeds gained Zoan-type transformation abilities, and their high-end power was once again strengthened.
Most importantly, in terms of area alone, the Land of Sea was not much smaller than the entire Land of Water archipelago. If it weren't for the fact that it was much further from the continent than the Land of Water, and that it didn't have its own Ninja village, the Land of Sea might have become the so-called sixth great nation.
In other words, the Land of Sea's foundation was already quite large, with at least enough potential in population and economy to become a major power.
So when the Land of Sea announced it would form an alliance nation with the Land of Snow and several other small coastal countries, the entire Ninja World was quite surprised.
However, those truly concerned about this issue were actually the nations of the Ninja World; as for the Ninja villages, they didn't care much.
To some extent, Ninjas themselves have no so-called national borders. Just as the Daimyo of the Land of Wind often commissions tasks to Konohagakure, Konoha does not fail to complete them just because it's a mission from a hostile nation's Daimyo.
Not to mention that the Land of Sea belongs to the deep sea. Except for Kirigakure, other Ninja villages basically get no missions from here. If it weren't to guard against Kirigakure, Konohagakure would not have established a secret base in such a place.
Of course, not all Ninja villages were indifferent; for example, Kirigakure of the Land of Water was extremely sensitive to the current changes in the Land of Sea.
As mentioned before, nations and Ninja villages are not completely bound together. Many times, some large Ninja villages even take on many missions from countries other than their own. Among them, Kirigakure is the most prominent.
Kirigakure's traditional sphere of influence is not just the Land of Water. The Land of Water's land area is far smaller than that of other countries. The reason it can support a large Ninja village like Kirigakure is that the mission quotas of most maritime nations are basically with Kirigakure.
Originally, the Land of Sea was also a place where they performed missions. As a country nearly the size of the Land of Water, with population and natural environment not inferior to it, it could be said that the Land of Sea was originally one of Kirigakure's economic pillars.
The Land of Sea forming an alliance did not affect Kirigakure too much—that was a problem for the Land of Water's Daimyo to consider—but the Land of Sea establishing its own Ninja village made all the Kirigakure Ninjas jump in anger.
So many countries were originally the foundation for Kirigakure's missions, accounting for almost one-third of Kirigakure's pure mission income and nearly one-fifth of Kirigakure's total income!
It could be said that the effect of this blow in weakening Kirigakure was not at all inferior to the blood mist policy, and the effect was much faster than the blood mist policy.
Without a doubt, even though Kirigakure is currently in a state of chaos due to the blood mist policy and the rejection of Bloodline Limit Ninjas, these people prepared to go to war with the Land of Sea without hesitation!
Under these circumstances, even that mastermind Uchiha Obito could not suppress the Ninjas of Kirigakure. After all, controlling the Mizukage and controlling Kirigakure are two different things.
Of course, Obito didn't intend to suppress them. If Kirigakure wanted to start a war, Obito was even somewhat happy to see it happen!
He even had the idea of strengthening the combat power of the Land of Sea. On the one hand, it was out of hatred for Kirigakure, and on the other hand, a weakened Kirigakure would also benefit his future plans.
"That is the Land of Sea, they actually established some nonsensical Sea Ninja Village!"
The speaker was a fierce man over two meters tall, looking like a mountain of flesh. On his back, he carried a weapon that was more like a spiked club than a sword.
Beside him was a man with no eyebrows, his eyes cold and his mouth tightly wrapped in bandages.
Standing behind the two was a strange man with a shark-like face. Standing together, none of the three looked like people to be trifled with.
The three Ninjas had just stepped off the ship, and their fierce aura caused the crowd on the shore to consciously avoid them.
"Don't waste time here! Let's go! I really want to see the despair of those trash Ninjas when they see us Kirigakure Ninjas!"
The man with no eyebrows spoke indifferently after glancing around.
"Heh, Zabuza, you're just a brat who recently qualified for the executioners blade, and you're already putting on airs in front of me? If you want to order me around, go get the executioners blade from Biwa Jūzō first!"
The mountain-like giant turned sideways. His massive body was enough to put pressure on ninety-nine percent of people. However, the man named Zabuza was clearly not among that ninety-nine percent.
"How could I? Senior Suikazan Fuguki has always been my target!"
Zabuza spoke with feigned sincerity, but he deliberately emphasized the word 'target'. It was hard to imagine what kind of target that was.
"Humph! It better be!" With a cold snort, Suikazan Fuguki did not pursue the matter further. After all, all Kirigakure Ninjas were like this.
In fact, the level of mutual trust among Kirigakure Ninjas was inherently low. Especially for Ninjas with greater strength and higher status, they were full of mutual suspicion. As long as they didn't fight each other during an operation, it was considered tacit cooperation.
Because almost every Ninja who could climb to the upper echelons of Kirigakure had hands stained with blood—not just of enemies, but mostly of companions. Therefore, they naturally could not trust each other.