How much sweetness does a person whose life has been filled with suffering need before it can finally fill the emptiness inside?
The answer was simple.
Just a little sweetness was enough.
That was where the happiness of Feishui Town came from.
Feishui Town was a remote settlement in Naka. If a shinobi did not possess enough physical stamina, making the journey from central Naka to this place in a single trip was quite difficult.
As a result, life in Feishui Town was peaceful and comfortable.
In the world after the Second Shinobi World War, industrial appliances such as refrigerators, radios, and electric lights had already appeared.
Naka was even more advanced. Color televisions had already become commonplace, and even popular movie stars had appeared.
Yet in remote areas, technology seemed to remain stuck in an extremely backward era.
As Kei traveled, the closer he came to central Naka, the more satisfied he became with the lives of the people under his rule—but the more complaints he heard.
The farther he traveled from Naka, the less satisfied he became with the local standard of living, yet the more praise he received.
When the people of Feishui Town saw Kei, they all knelt by the roadside.
They did not know who Kei was, but they recognized those red eyes.
They were the genuine eyes of the Uchiha Clan—the eyes that were even nobler than those of Lord Kenga, the town mayor. Ryō had taught everyone about them before.
Even the boldest villagers did not dare raise their heads. They could only stare cautiously at the nobleman’s shoes and timidly invite him,
"My lord, would you honor our home with your presence tonight? We’re making braised pork knuckle!"
That was the most tempting invitation the people of Feishui Town could think of.
Who could possibly refuse a meal of braised pork knuckle?
Not even the town mayor could.
Faced with such simple-hearted people, Kei smiled.
"No, thank you. I still have somewhere to go."
As he spoke, Kei crouched down.
In Naka itself, Uchiha were already a familiar sight. The people of Naka still respected the Uchiha, but they were not servile in their presence.
In places farther from Naka, however, getting villagers who were already kneeling to stand up was troublesome.
It was easier for Kei to simply crouch down and speak to them.
Otherwise, every time he asked a question, they would kneel again.
"Old sir, your family seems fairly well-off. If you took in some of those famine refugees, you could secure another hundred mu of land for your family. Why don’t you people seem to like them very much?"
The old man remained kneeling by the roadside, but there was no hiding the contempt in his voice.
"My lord, it’s not about the land. The life we have today was earned by proving our loyalty to the Uchiha. Why should they be able to come here and immediately enjoy the same life as us?"
Kei genuinely had not expected that answer.
"Oh? Then how did you prove your loyalty to the Uchiha?"
The old man remained on his knees and pointed toward the house behind him.
"My lord, do you see my mansion?"
Kei looked up.
The so-called mansion was nothing more than four or five large brick-and-tile houses. It could hardly be called luxurious. By Naka’s standards, it was merely an ordinary village home.
But seeing the pride on the old man’s face, Kei tactfully played along.
"It’s quite nice. I wonder what story lies behind this house?"
The old man’s voice became even more animated.
"It’s not actually that long ago. Back then, wasn’t our lord fighting the reactionaries of Konoha? All the shinobi in our town had been called away to war. Then some Sand shinobi from the Land of Rain came here looking for trouble."
"They demanded food and drink, and then they even tried to drive us out!"
"I lowered myself and treated those shinobi with all the respect they wanted. Then I lured them into my house, got them drunk on the fruit wine we’d brewed ourselves, and finally used a bundle of explosive tags to send both them and my house straight into the sky!"
Don’t be surprised that an old man without chakra could use explosive tags.
Naka simply did not have enough shinobi. Many places needed shinobi to clear mountains and build roads. There was no way around it, so Naka had developed explosive tags containing pre-stored chakra.
Even ordinary people could use them.
The only drawback was that their power was considerably weaker.
But bundle enough of them together, and they were still quite lethal.
The old man seemed to have told this story countless times. Every time he recounted it, he made it more vivid than the last.
"The people of the town were so grateful for what I did that they rebuilt this house for me. It’s all brick and tile. Much better than the wooden house I had before!"
"Back then, I was the pride of the entire town."
At this point, the old man’s previously triumphant expression suddenly changed. His spirits sank slightly.
"Unfortunately, times have changed. Ever since Qingshui Town took in several disabled shinobi as ninjutsu instructors, the atmosphere in our town has changed too."
"These ungrateful fools in the village actually started blaming me for going too far back then, saying I should have left at least one of those shinobi alive."
"They even say that the reason our town doesn’t have a school is because of me, and that once we finally get one, I have to make a large donation!"
Although the old man complained, his words were still filled with pride.
"Hmph! Do I look like a man who doesn’t have money?"
Kei began to understand.
The people of Feishui Town had become a different kind of people.
They had faith.
They had pride.
They were no longer a group of walking corpses merely trying to survive.
"So you look down on outsiders?"
Hearing his lord mention those refugees again, the old man began rambling in an attempt to extinguish whatever compassion Kei might have felt for them.
"Of course. Those outsiders know nothing except stealing chickens and dogs. They’re useless at everything, and they won’t even listen when someone tries to teach them. They’re completely worthless!"
Then the old man gave an example.
"Our village once tried to save them. We told them that Kuninotokotachi had bestowed his blessing upon the Uchiha, that the Zōka Sanshin favored the Uchiha, that Izanagi served the Uchiha, and that the Uchiha were the Ōkuninushi-no-Mikoto of this land, the Ninigi-no-Mikoto."
These were all myths that had spread throughout Naka.
According to the mythology, the Uchiha who sat high above in the Divine Court were to be called the Holy Uchiha.
Only beneath them came the Uchiha and the Red-Eyed Uchiha.
The old man continued his rambling.
"As long as they were willing to believe, willing to worship the Uchiha, we’d be willing to give them something to eat."
"But they only put on an act. They claim to believe, but there isn’t even a trace of Uchiha glory in their hearts. How could people like that possibly deserve to live on the same land as us?"
The old man was furious.
He was especially enraged by people who were starving and only wanted food while possessing not the slightest bit of faith.
"If they would just believe in the Uchiha, would they still be starving?"
The man’s completely self-righteous answer, which ignored cause and effect entirely, left Uchiha Kei speechless.
Kei changed the subject.
"Then, old sir, is there anything about your current life that you’re dissatisfied with?"
Hearing this, the old man’s head shook like a rattle.
He looked like a child afraid that complaining about his teacher would earn him punishment later.
It was impressive that, at his age, his neck was still so flexible.
"My life is better than even the daimyō’s. If I had anything more to complain about, I’d simply be an ungrateful man!"
As he spoke, the old man scratched his head sheepishly.
"If I absolutely had to name one thing I’d still like to have... My lord, is there any way you could arrange for us to have a Shinobi Academy too?"
Seeing that Kei did not immediately refuse, the old man quickly explained his request.
"The neighboring village already has a school. We’re the only ones in Feishui Town who don’t have one."
"Even if you could only send us a retired shinobi or a disabled shinobi who was injured in battle, that would be enough. Of course, it would be even better if they were a shinobi from Naka. We’d respect such a person like a saint!"
Kei understood the request, but he was somewhat puzzled.
"You people really want to become shinobi that badly?"
There was regret in the old man’s voice, as though he were stubbornly refusing to admit that he had any regrets.
"Not exactly. But learning is always a good thing."
"We’re old. We probably won’t have the chance anymore. But if our children have the opportunity to become shinobi, that would still be a good thing."
"Even if they can’t serve you directly, my lord, there’s nothing stopping them from coming home afterward and farming for you."
"There’s no harm in learning more!"
Kei continued talking with the old man for quite some time.
He discovered that the people here really were very satisfied with their current lives.
And that satisfaction did not make Kei feel comforted.
Along the way, Kei concealed his identity and visited taverns and restaurants, quietly listening to people’s conversations.
He discovered that the closer he got to Naka, the more worldly experience the people had—and the more complaints he heard!
There were endless complaints about how difficult life in Naka was, demands that "idols" and "experts" should receive higher status, calls to abolish the privileges of shinobi and establish equality for everyone, claims that Kei’s greatest stain was failing to occupy Konoha, and even people saying that any dissenter should simply be cut down with a single stroke.
Everyone seemed capable of coming up with some opinion.
Yet none of them could explain the reasoning behind their ideas.
The world simply wasn’t revolving around them, and therefore the world was at fault.
It seemed that the more worldly experience people gained, the more dissatisfied they became with their own lives.
But when Kei traveled farther away from Naka and entered these isolated communities, the people who had only just begun enjoying a good life seemed to love their lives more and more.
Kei continued forward alone.
Joseph and Johnny followed closely behind him, with the Red-Eyed youth known as Cha between them under their supervision.
The little girl who had once given Kei a tiny flower also accompanied him.
She was Cha’s lord.
This outing really did seem more like a countryside excursion than an inspection tour.
"Sunflower, do you like Naka as it is now?"
"Not really."
The little girl answered absentmindedly.
"Oh?"
"My lord, when we first arrived in Konoha and were confined to a corner of the Uchiha compound, we were assigned a tiny single room."
"That night, I was so happy that I rolled around on the floor of my own room, carefully arranging everything inside."
"That was the first time Sunflower had ever owned something that truly belonged to me!"
Oboro and Zhujun had left with Gen’nosuke and Koshiro, so Sunflower had become Kei’s personal attendant.
The little girl couldn’t actually do much, but having a girl present when receiving female guests prevented many unnecessary complications.
And Sunflower was extremely strong now.
At the very least, she could fight Kakashi to a standstill.
The girl played with her short blade and answered her lord’s questions half-heartedly. Her mood was far more suited to sightseeing than serious business.
"Later, we moved to Naka, and Sunflower got a huge house of my own."
"Forget rolling around on the floor. I could even gallop around inside the house!"
"But I couldn’t summon the same enthusiasm for organizing that huge house as I had when arranging my little room."
Kei thought about it.
It really was true.
When he was young, he used to steal a few yuan from home to go to an Internet café. Even if he didn’t have enough time to make it more than a few miles down the road in the game, he had been incredibly happy playing.
When he grew up, he could play games whenever he wanted.
Yet somehow, he never had the same passion anymore.
It was as though the more you obtained, the less you felt there was worth cherishing.
When Kei arrived in Feishui Town, the people’s lives made him feel comfortable.
Yet he also felt that something was wrong.
After leaving Feishui, Kei spent the entire journey trying to reason with himself.
The weaker and more ignorant the common people were, the stronger the country became.
This was the so-called theory of "weak people, strong state"—an ancient governing philosophy used by monarchs for thousands of years.
History had proven that such a method could be highly effective when there were no powerful external enemies.
But Kei disliked it.
"A weak people and a strong state isn’t a good thing."
"The people of Feishui make their rulers happy, but they aren’t worthy of praise. The idiots of Naka are annoying, but the ideal state is for everyone to possess the same ambition as the people of Naka!"
"Suffering isn’t something worth glorifying."
"The people of Feishui aren’t living well because their lives are particularly wonderful. Their lives seem wonderful only because they’re being compared with those refugees."
"So they feel happy."
"Because the people may be guided, but they should not necessarily be made to understand."
"As for the people of Naka, they complain constantly, yet their lives are far better than those of the people in Feishui Town."
"Even so, they remain dissatisfied."
The more Kei thought about it, the angrier he became.
"The more absolute a person’s understanding becomes, the more firmly they cling to whatever they believe."
"The idiots of Naka have simply seen more of the world. That doesn’t mean they’ve learned more."
"The problem is with the education, not with the people of Naka!"
"Their idiotic way of thinking comes from having their material needs satisfied while remaining spiritually empty."
"I’m the one who’s wrong, not them."
"I’m the one who’s wrong!"
Kei continued consoling himself this way.
How had happiness and a beautiful life somehow become opposing concepts?
Something had clearly gone wrong somewhere.
There was nothing wrong with pursuing a better life.
There was nothing wrong with being content with an ordinary one, either.
But neither could be defined by a small number of people.
You couldn’t let a handful of people who were good at talking nonsense tell you what happiness, joy, and beauty were supposed to be.
You had to understand them yourself.
You had to experience them yourself.
It seemed that Naka needed to promote basic education on a massive scale.
When ideas were monopolized by a small group, and ninjutsu was monopolized by a small group, the people would lose their ability to think independently.
Academic cliques and shinobi factions could not be allowed to find fertile ground in Naka.
If everyone in the next generation of Naka could become a shinobi, then perhaps the privileges of shinobi would disappear as well.
Once he had figured this out, Kei’s mood improved somewhat.
As their pace quickened, they were also approaching their destination.
Looking at the Land of Rain ahead, Kei gritted his teeth.
"I really am breaking my back worrying about the ungrateful people of Naka. The more I think about it, the angrier I get!"
"If I don’t beat up Hanzo of the Salamander, the shinobi demigod, I won’t even be able to sleep off this autumn fatigue!"
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