Tomorrow, the third Eighteen Seats Council meeting to discuss the newspaper would begin, and this was definitely an opportunity for Danzō.
Last week, he had already used the method Rinjin told him about, borrowing the Fourth Kazekage Rasa's hand to replace three troublesome members of the Eighteen Seats. Behind these three troublesome members were shadows of Hidden Sand Village's upper echelons.
Thinking of this, although Danzō was reluctant to admit it, he still admired Rinjin's foresight from the bottom of his heart.
Previously, the hidden force that had been obstructing the newspaper proposal was Hidden Sand Village's upper echelons. Their thinking wasn't hard to guess—they simply saw the newspaper's potential and wanted to monopolize it, not wanting this power to fall into the hands of the Eighteen Seats.
According to intelligence about the Eighteen Seats collected by two Root organization members under Danzō, the current situation was already very clear.
The Eighteen Seats: thirteen seats represented the interests of various different middle and lower-class groups in Hidden Sand Village. These people all wanted to control the newspaper, this powerful weapon, and their stance aligned with Danzō's.
The three newly replaced seats all had the Fourth Kazekage Rasa backing them.
As for the remaining two seats: one was Toda, promoted by Rinjin, with no entangled interests behind him, seemingly prepared to wait for the highest bidder.
As for the other seat, a woman named Yōhei, she should be backed by a group spontaneously formed by some chūnin and jōnin from Hidden Sand Village.
In Danzō's view, after Rasa controlled those three seats representing the upper echelons, this meeting should go quite smoothly.
Thinking of this, Danzō immediately looked forward to tomorrow's meeting.
...
The next day at 3 PM, the Eighteen Seats Council meeting was punctually convened in the Municipal Department's conference room.
Danzō, disguised as Kaza, sat in the head seat, putting on quite an imposing air. After sternly scanning around with his gaze, he spoke in a deep voice:
"Since everyone is here, let's begin the meeting! This meeting is the same as last time—everyone discuss whether the newspaper proposal should be implemented."
As soon as he finished speaking, the somewhat impatient crowd immediately raised their hands.
"Lord Kaza, I agree!"
"I agree too! We must agree to something so beneficial to the village!"
"I second that! Hidden Rain Village's newspaper has been published for over half a year—what's there to disagree with?"
"..."
Just as everyone was clamoring to quickly pass the proposal and divide the cake, a particularly grating female voice rang out.
"I object!"
The next second, all seventeen seats who had said they agreed, along with Danzō, turned in unison to look at the other end of the conference table.
Yōhei clenched her fists tightly, pressing them firmly on the conference table, fearlessly meeting everyone's gaze.
"I object! This kind of issue concerning the village's direction should be considered more carefully."
The woman's firm words echoed in the spacious conference room. For a moment, angry curses filled the air.
Everyone was fed up with this endless bickering. The cake was already on the table, yet someone kept causing trouble.
On the other side of the conference table, Danzō squinted his eyes, murderous intent lurking in their depths.
He really wanted to use a Wind Release technique to slice this tactless woman who suddenly jumped out to betray them into eighteen pieces, but he couldn't. This wasn't Konoha, and he only had two Root members who specialized in intelligence gathering rather than combat.
If his identity were exposed, the consequences would be unthinkable.
There was an old saying: Lady Danzō, you wouldn't want to be escorted back to Konoha by Hidden Sand Village, would you?
"Hmph! Since there are objections, then so be it!"
Forcibly suppressing his inner resentment, Danzō slammed the table hard, stood up, and strode out of the conference room.
In the conference room, faced with Lord Kaza's long-standing authority, everyone shrank their heads and looked at Yōhei with unfriendly expressions.
Soon, the time came to 6 PM in the evening.
Fourteen of the Eighteen Seats who should have already gotten off work appeared at the entrance of Kaza's mansion, discussing noisily.
"Kubo, you're most familiar with Lord Kaza—this time you must ask him to kick that Yōhei woman out of our Eighteen Seats!"
"That's right! That stinking woman's 'I object' nearly made me die of anger. Those three troublemakers were already kicked out, yet this woman still won't behave!"
Kubo in the center of the crowd also looked righteously indignant.
The people who came today all had more or less connections with certain middle and lower-class groups, and they were also the batch most eager to control the newspaper's power.
Including today's meeting, there had been three in total. Three times!
Their cake that was about to reach their mouths had been ruthlessly knocked over by certain people with ulterior motives three times—this was simply infuriating!
So they couldn't and didn't want to endure it anymore.
Kubo raised his hand to press down, signaling everyone to be quiet, then spoke:
"Friends, we are the Eighteen Seats! Lord Kaza works hard to help us make money, yet there are always certain people with ulterior motives who want to sabotage and monopolize everything. Can we agree to this?!"
"No!"
"Then should we drive these black sheep out?"
"Yes!"
Watching the united crowd, Kubo excitedly waved his arm:
"Good! Today, let Lord Kaza uphold justice for us!"
"Good!"
"..."
On the outermost edge of the crowd, Toda discreetly scanned the excited crowd, a barely perceptible mocking smile at the corner of his mouth.
He just wanted to laugh right now!
Kubo saying these things at Lord Kaza's doorstep was nothing more than indirectly putting pressure on Lord Kaza. In his view, this behavior was quite childish.
Based on his understanding of Lord Kaza, these people were undoubtedly no different from jumping clowns, and their petition would definitely not succeed.
What kind of person was Lord Kaza? On the surface, he looked like just a chef making cakes. But in reality, he sat steadily on his fishing platform and would never personally enter the fray because of the Eighteen Seats' petition.
Just like how those three upper-echelon seats were silently replaced last week, Lord Kaza would only act from the shadows and would never openly enter the field.
In Toda's heart, Lord Kaza was the referee. And referees never entered the field, because once they did, they would have to accept the consequences of being beaten black and blue.
Even if they weren't beaten black and blue, entering the field to swing and sweat wasn't something the elegant Lord Kaza should do.
Actually, his thinking was quite correct.
The reason Rinjin left Danzō to handle Hidden Sand Village affairs was simply because he felt there was no difficulty left now.
Take the newspaper, for example. Everyone knew this thing was good.
If it were Rinjin, he might have immediately vetoed the newspaper proposal when the first meeting didn't pass and forbidden anyone from bringing it up again.
Then those who couldn't resist the temptation of power would personally enter the field and start plagiarizing Rinjin's ideas. For example, the old fossils in the upper echelons who clung to power and wouldn't let go.
But could these people succeed? Impossible. Not to mention the Fourth Kazekage Rasa—even these middle and lower-class groups would definitely intervene to obstruct them.
Even if the upper echelons were willing to let a hundred flowers bloom and allow the middle and lower classes to run small newspapers, these middle and lower classes wouldn't want that.
Because they knew that in the Municipal Department, there was the fair Lord Kaza as a guarantor in the middle. But in terms of pure influence on the village, these people couldn't compete with the upper echelons.
This led to a situation where none of them could handle this thing properly, and in the end, they could only bow their heads and accept Rinjin taking the lead.
The more a superior didn't want power, the more power would flow into their hands. But once a superior entered the field, others would see their weaknesses.
Therefore, the principle of referees not taking action was correct.
Obviously, Danzō hadn't understood this principle.
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