"Yes!"
Koshiro downed the drink in one go, all the while stealing glances at Gen’nosuke from the corner of his eye.
Seeing Gen’nosuke standing there completely dumbfounded, his jaw practically on the floor, Koshiro felt absolutely nothing.
Loser. Accept the judgment of fate.
Who told you to be one step too slow?
Of course, Uchiha Kei hadn’t raised his cup solely to toast Koshiro. Everyone received a drink, and naturally, host and guests alike enjoyed the toast.
Everyone except Gen’nosuke.
Human joys and sorrows were never the same.
Watching Koshiro about to come out on top, Gen’nosuke could only find the entire situation noisy and irritating.
I entered the mortal world without knowing the hardships of life.
Then, when I looked back, I had already become one of the people suffering.
Three parts of the sorrow are in this cup of wine, and seven parts are in the wine itself.
How had even eating a lamb chop turned into a trap?
The boat of friendship was unreliable after all.
It was practically riddled with holes!
Gen’nosuke was extremely annoyed.
Why had he been so greedy?
If he’d been a little more cautious, could he have reported his information before Koshiro?
After all, he knew far more about the situation than Koshiro did.
He had even obtained his intelligence by selling his charms.
Pakura was merely a foolish woman, just as easily manipulated as he himself was.
This time, the two of them had simply used each other.
Unfortunately, Koshiro had beaten him to it.
Fortunately, the two men were responsible for different areas and therefore viewed the problem from different angles.
The intelligence they obtained was naturally different as well.
Gen’nosuke was responsible for the Sand shinobi’s upper ranks.
Koshiro, who handled logistics, didn’t care who belonged to the upper ranks and who belonged to the lower ranks.
In the eyes of the Sand shinobi, Koshiro was basically an NPC who handed out quests:
"There’s work today. Come here, get paid by the day! Work for one day, then take three days off!"
He treated everyone the same.
As a result, Koshiro was extremely popular among the lower-ranking Sand shinobi.
The higher-ups, however, disliked him because Koshiro had absolutely no respect for them.
After the Sand shinobi had eaten their first proper meal, several jōnin leading them decided that mission rewards should be distributed through them and that the shinobi should be paid on a monthly basis.
That was how the other daimyō treated their Kage.
It shouldn’t be this current system of "work as much as you want and get paid accordingly," with no organization or discipline whatsoever.
The jōnin had been protesting this arrangement to Gen’nosuke for a long time.
But Koshiro continued to do things his own way.
Because of this experience, Koshiro had interacted with the majority of those more than four thousand Sand shinobi.
He therefore had far more authority to speak on the matter than Pakura , who spent her time in Nanga talking about ideals.
At this moment, because Koshiro had beaten Gen’nosuke to the punch, he was feeling particularly triumphant.
Sure enough, what matters isn’t how well I live.
What matters is that I live better than my friends.
Seeing Gen’nosuke like this, Koshiro even wanted to offer him a few words of encouragement from the perspective of the victor.
"Brother Gen’nosuke, the road ahead is long. You must restrain yourself, practice self-discipline, smooth away your sharp edges, hide your wisdom, and curb your desires."
"One day, the trapped dragon will finally meet the rain. For now, let the crane return to freedom."
"Forget that this body belongs to you, and win yourself a life of carefree wandering beneath the heavens!"
Opportunities belonged to those who were prepared.
And Koshiro had been preparing himself at all times.
Having used Gen’nosuke as a stepping stone to earn this opportunity to display his achievements, Koshiro immediately seized the moment.
"My lord, meeting with Pakura is simply a waste of your time."
"She can’t make any decisions at all."
"That is also the fundamental reason she only makes demands without offering anything in return!"
Koshiro paused, seemingly organizing his thoughts.
"My lord, Lady Pakura doesn’t even represent the upper ranks of these Sand shinobi."
"She is merely cannon fodder pushed forward by those few jōnin."
"It’s not that she doesn’t want to offer Nanga something in return and establish trust."
"It’s that they simply have nothing in their hands to offer!"
Kei was surprised by this statement.
Power was built from the bottom up.
Without the support of those beneath them, how could a leader truly be called a leader?
And if someone couldn’t represent anyone, what exactly could they bring to the negotiating table?
"You mean the Sand shinobi are no longer willing to obey their leadership?"
Koshiro nodded.
"Yes, my lord."
"These Sand shinobi originally came out here prepared to risk their lives. There was never much distinction between them in the first place. They were all basically walking corpses."
"They had already prepared themselves to die."
"But that kind of preparation requires courage."
"Once they were given a chance to survive, that courage naturally disappeared."
As he spoke, Koshiro raised his cup and toasted Uchiha Kei.
"Because of your financial support, my lord, I gave them an opportunity to survive without risking their lives."
"Those Sand shinobi completely broke free of the Land of Wind’s control."
"But their combat strength—and their will to fight—have also been reduced to almost nothing."
Koshiro lowered his head in embarrassment.
"That is also why we only arrived after your battle was already over."
"Those Sand shinobi spent the entire journey deliberately slowing us down."
"So that’s what happened."
Kei thought about it and realized that it made sense.
Auxiliary forces serving another regime really are always like this.
Kei shook his head, indicating that he didn’t mind.
Originally, he hadn’t expected to fight the Sarutobi Clan directly.
Based on his understanding of the Third Hokage, and the Third Hokage’s understanding of him, the battle with Konoha should have gone something like this:
The Third Hokage would arrange his forces.
Kei would arrange his forces.
Both sides would form up at the border and begin shouting at each other.
"What are you looking at?"
"I’m looking at you. So what?"
"Keep staring and see what happens."
"Try me."
"What are you staring at?"
They would repeat the cycle for an entire day.
Eventually, everyone would get tired.
The matter would then end without a real fight.
Everyone would return home and proclaim their own victory.
So the arrival of the Sand shinobi had merely been intended to bolster the numbers and lend their presence.
In short, the original plan had merely been a grand show of force between the two major gang bosses of Konoha.
Neither side had actually intended to start a full-scale brawl.
Who could have expected Grandma Gen to see through the Third Hokage’s weakness and give the situation a push from behind?
The war had erupted before anyone was prepared.
Thinking about it afterward, Kei couldn’t really blame Gen.
Both he and the Third Hokage had simply taken things for granted.
The war horn didn’t care what either of them wanted.
The contradictions within society had already accumulated to the point where all they needed was an opportunity to explode.
The Sand shinobi’s attitude, however, was simply too realistic.
"Don’t the Sand shinobi care about their families in the Land of Wind anymore?"
Koshiro, who had deeply embedded himself among the Sand shinobi’s lower ranks, quickly answered Lord Kei’s question.
"That is actually the result of a fortunate coincidence."
"We removed all the shinobi from the Land of Rivers."
"As a result, the Land of Rivers became completely empty."
"The daimyō of that country was still in the Land of Fire, organizing a government in exile from the Daimyō’s court."
"The entire Land of Rivers was practically deserted."
"So Sunagakure invaded the Land of Rivers!"
"Once the Sand shinobi occupied the Land of Rivers, they discovered that there was practically nothing left."
"But fortunately, there was still the land itself."
"Although it was far poorer than Konoha’s territory, it was still far better than the Land of Wind."
"And it had access to the sea."
"Those were all advantages!"
The more Koshiro spoke, the more animated he became.
"If they’d been given enough time, the Sand shinobi might even have had an opportunity to develop the region."
"At the very least, they could have relocated a considerable number of people there."
"The Land of Wind may be poor, but they could still squeeze more out of their available manpower."
"Unfortunately, not long after they occupied the territory, news arrived that you had defeated Konoha."
"The Sand shinobi were so frightened that they withdrew from the entire region."
"For a poor country like the Land of Wind, taking over a territory with nothing in it would already have been difficult."
"Without a stable period for development, it would have placed an enormous burden on their already strained economy."
Koshiro complimented Kei before continuing.
"After the Sand shinobi withdrew, the people I had left behind in the Land of Rivers finally became useful."
"Uchiha Uchiha Gouguan and the others began doing what I had previously been doing—continuing to issue missions and recruit shinobi."
"During the great withdrawal, a small number of Sand shinobi who had grown tired of the poverty of the Land of Wind simply remained in the Land of Rivers."
"Perhaps a few hundred of them at first."
"These days, the number has probably grown to more than a thousand."
The slight intoxication brought by the fruit wine made Koshiro’s affection rise with the breeze, while his grievances remained unresolved.
Clearly, he wasn’t very good at holding his liquor.
"The Sand shinobi work in the Land of Rivers and send their earnings back home to support their families."
"Sunagakure didn’t realize what was happening at first."
"But by the time they did, Sand shinobi living near the border had already begun coming to the Land of Rivers to find work."
"It had become completely normal."
Hearing Koshiro say this, Kei genuinely hadn’t realized that so much had happened after the battle with the Third Hokage.
"Oh?"
"But as far as I know, the leaders of the various hidden villages have labeled my actions a rebellion."
"In every country and every hidden village, condemning me is practically a matter of political correctness."
Koshiro burst out laughing when he heard this.
"Heh. Don’t worry about it, my lord."
"Insulting Lord Kei is how they preserve their lives."
"Working for Lord Kei is how they make a living."
"The people who curse Lord Kei the most are precisely the ones who lack the qualifications or connections to come here and work for you."
"But as long as you give them an opportunity to work for you, they might still curse you when they’re facing people from their own countries."
"Yet once they’re standing on Nanga’s territory, they’ll sing your praises at the top of their voices!"
Koshiro gestured wildly as he spoke.
The situation left Uchiha Kei simultaneously amused and speechless.
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