Ryuji's speech was arrogant, but the villagers' reaction was completely different from before.
Not only were they not angry or repulsed, but they were stirred by the arrogant words, each one fired up and cheering.
Even those who had earlier questioned him, opposed him, were convinced, spontaneously willing to follow his orders.
Because Ryuji had the capital to be arrogant.
The things he said that sounded like bragging were things he had personally achieved, and many people had personally witnessed them.
Unlike Minato, where almost everyone who saw him show off died, so his feats could only be understood through hearsay.
As a result, even when their own Kage issued the order 'allow abandoning the mission upon encountering him', some still didn't believe it, wanting to test it out when they met him.
The result: 'try and you die.'
And Sunagakure was indeed in a very critical moment now, needing someone with confidence, strength, and relative ability to lead.
Just as Ryuji said before, the weak hope that someone will help them, while the strong have others actively help him.
No, saying 'help' isn't quite right.
It should be changed to 'follow' instead.
Because the strong don't need help.
If not for his power sufficient to deter the entire village, upon seeing the former elders' corpses, he would have already been torn to pieces by the angry villagers and Shinobi charging up, with no chance to explain or give a speech.
…
Round Table Conference Room.
Around the cleaned round table sat the young faction councilors and a few elderly men on their last legs.
These elders were the ones who helped found the village with the First Kazekage. They retired shortly after the Third Kazekage took office, similar to Chiyo and Ebizo in the original work who had also retired.
After the speech's great success, Ryuji released the young faction councilors who had been imprisoned in cells.
But a few unlucky ones were used as examples by the former elders to intimidate others, resulting in current high-level position vacancies again.
Ryuji had to visit each one, asking them to come out of retirement again.
Although many didn't give him respect, remaining unmoved, there were also those who valued the village above all.
In the village's critical moment, these people still returned to their positions, helping manage the village.
Then, Ryuji launched a great purge.
He eliminated all remaining participants who colluded with the former high-level officials or participated in this rebellion, over six hundred people, wiping them all out.
Launching such a large-scale great purge while facing defeat against Amegakure was actually very unwise.
Many people, including Aka and Pakura, advised him against it, but Ryuji still did it.
He didn't want to see accidents happen again.
This time going to deal with Amegakure, he might not only face Nagato's eruption but also possible contingency plans prepared by Madara to protect the Rinnegan. He couldn't leave any flaws.
Who knew if Madara had set something up in Sunagakure?
If something unexpected happened in the village while he was at a critical moment in the Amegakure battlefield, leading to all efforts being wasted, that would truly be the end.
"Pakura, take a thousand people to defend the coastal cities!"
During the meeting, Ryuji issued the order.
But this order was baffling, making everyone unable to understand.
"Why defend coastal cities at this time?"
The question came from one of the elders Ryuji had invited back, nearly seventy years old.
His body was gaunt, thin as firewood, could pass away at any moment.
Thus, he showed no fear towards Ryuji, who had just conducted a great purge and still radiated killing intent.
He questioned the unreasonable points without fear.
The coastal areas of Sunagakure needed to guard against only Kirigakure.
But Kirigakure was currently in internal turmoil, with no time to worry about distant mainland matters.
With the Amegakure battlefield at a disadvantage and troop numbers reversed by the enemy, not sending troops to support the Amegakure direction but sending them to the opposite, unnecessary coastal areas.
Such an obviously problematic matter, he had to ask clearly.
But Ryuji didn't know how to explain.
Should he say: Kirigakure is now very likely controlled by Uchiha Madara, and Amegakure has a piece Madara values greatly, willing to spare no effort to save in a critical moment?
If he really said that, who knew how people would think?
After a moment of deep thought, he thought of a lie.
"I have special intelligence sources. Kirigakure's internal turmoil has already ended, and they may join the Shinobi World War at any time."
Kirigakure was located overseas, with perennial heavy fog. The village also practiced a closed, secretive policy, so outside intelligence on Kirigakure was extremely scarce.
Even if Ryuji lied, they couldn't confirm it in a short time.
Moreover, he wasn't entirely talking nonsense.
Although not stated in the original work, Kirigakure did participate in the Third Shinobi World War, fighting against Konoha, Sunagakure, and Iwagakure.
And Obito graduated this year. When Kakashi becomes a Jonin, the Battle of Kannabi Bridge will erupt.
By then, the end of the Shinobi World War wouldn't be far.
If Kirigakure didn't join in soon, there wouldn't be time to fight each of the three villages.
"I see." The elder nodded slightly. "If that's the case, indeed must be guarded against. But then there would be no reinforcements to send to the Amegakure front."
Sunagakure had a small population. Chunin and above numbered around six thousand.
The Third Kazekage took three thousand to attack Amegakure, leaving about three thousand in the village.
Ryuji killed over six hundred, leaving about two thousand four hundred.
Three hundred were sent to Roran, plus Shinobi out on missions.
If Pakura took another thousand, only seven or eight hundred would remain, barely enough to guard the village, absolutely impossible to send troops to support him.
Regarding this problem, Ryuji seriously replied, "I'll take the Puppeteer Corps."
Sunagakure's combat power couldn't be compared equally with other villages' scale.
Because the puppeteer profession excelled at fighting few against many, greatly compensating for numerical insufficiency.
Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, except Sunagakure, each had Shinobi numbers around ten thousand, only Sunagakure had about six thousand.
This numerical scale wasn't even the largest among medium-sized villages, but it didn't hinder Sunagakure from having combat power equal to the Five Great Villages, while villages like Amegakure with larger scale than Sunagakure didn't.
The Third Kazekage's war against Amegakure didn't take many puppeteers.
Because the puppeteer profession itself had a high entry difficulty, numbers were scarce.
With fifty puppeteers sent to Konoha to learn Medical Ninjutsu and related training systems, and dozens sent to Roran to supervise and build the Mechanical City, Sunagakure didn't have many puppeteers left.
Plus Amegakure's remaining forces were weak, the Third Kazekage also felt no need to bring puppeteers.
The Puppeteer Corps was Sunagakure's trump card. The weakest Shinobi inside could at least simultaneously control two puppets, plus the use of poison, ordinary enemies pretty much came to die as many as came.
A hundred-person corps could completely rival one thousand or even two thousand ordinary troops.
If adding Ryuji and Aka's combat power, this one corps could directly engage in a head-on battle with a ten-thousand-man force, victory or defeat still hard to predict.
But considering the opponent had the Rinnegan and Madara, a master whose moves were unknown, Ryuji couldn't count himself and Aka as ordinary combat power.
Maybe they would encounter some trouble, be entangled, unable to provide large troop support.
But the Amegakure's side wasn't that powerful a force either.
Including Rasa's two thousand men there, this hundred-man Puppeteer Corps support would be enough to form an overwhelming advantage in combat power.
Of course, Ryuji was a guy who believed in absolute firepower suppression.
If he had more forces to deploy, he would absolutely not consider issues like reasonable allocation, 'XX number is enough' and such.
War changes in the blink of an eye, who knows what will happen?
Only absolute power is the truth of invincibility.
But he also had to leave Pakura a considerable number of puppeteers.
Otherwise, defending against Kirigakure with a thousand people would be really too difficult.
…
Outside Sunagakure's main gate.
A hundred elite Shinobi emitting an astonishing aura stood in a ten-by-ten formation.
Ryuji and Aka stood at the formation's forefront, giving final instructions to the Round Table Council who came to see them off.
Especially the nearly seventy-year-old elder who looked like he could leave the world at any moment.
"Everyone, while I'm gone, I entrust the village to you all."
Whether the Amegakure battlefield or possible war with Kirigakure in coastal areas, Ryuji wasn't too worried.
Only Sunagakure itself, with only a few hundred people and no master sitting guard, was truly dangerous if an accident happened now.
That's why he had invited out the elders who followed the First Kazekage.
These elders who experienced the First Shinobi World War and lived to now were once also top-tier powerhouses.
Although due to age, their Chakra and physical functions had greatly declined.
But if they disregarded their lives, burning life as a price, they could still erupt with powerful strength for a short time.
Actually, Ryuji could completely give them young bodies, letting the village gain powerful strength in a short time.
But once rejuvenation technology was publicly used, the drawbacks would be too great.
People are greedy.
When you have one thing, you pursue better things.
These elders didn't covet power, putting the village first, because they were already at their limit, it didn't matter anymore.
But if they were rejuvenated, that would be hard to say.
If the young body replacement technology was used to strengthen Sunagakure, maybe in the short term it would make Sunagakure stronger.
But in the long run, it would keep Sunagakure's power center in the hands of the same batch of people, making people do more foolish actions.
Did those higher-ups purged by Ryuji not love Sunagakure?
No, they did.
But loving the village and coveting power are not mutually exclusive.
When they had more desired things in their hearts, their judgments would carry selfish motives, thus harming village interests.
Maybe they themselves didn't intend to harm village interests, but the actions taken resulted in harm.
Just like Danzo.
To say he didn't love Konoha was impossible.
But he also had ambitions; each move couldn't be based purely on village interests.
Especially since giving young bodies couldn't truly make people rejuvenate.
Even if the body became young, the soul was still that soul.
If it was originally a young soul, fine. But an already aged soul couldn't be transformed back through bodily changes.
The body replacement technology ultimately wasn't reincarnation technique.
Letting a decaying soul have a young body was a terrifying thing.