When Sasuke brought those high level officials of the Land of Fire to the Daimyo's residence, every single one of them had fear written all over their faces.
They were not here of their own free will.
After all, anyone who could rise to a high position in the Land of Fire, even with noble backing, would not be a fool.
The Hokage said it was to rescue the Daimyo, yet the moment he showed up he killed one of the Daimyo's generals. To say he truly respected the Daimyo, no one would believe it.
On top of that, news had been spreading wildly through the ninja world recently about Konoha occupying the Land of Grass.
Many people knew that the guardian ninja who had kidnapped the Daimyo had gone to Konoha to demand an explanation from the Hokage, and after they returned, they were like completely different people.
They even directly attacked the Daimyo.
The reason behind this was terrifying if you thought about it carefully.
So most officials understood that the current Daimyo's residence was basically a dragon's den and a tiger's lair. If they really went, who knew what might happen.
But some things were not for them to refuse.
After Sasuke used a single Fire Release to wipe out all the samurai and ninja who had originally been protecting them, no one dared not come.
After all, dying on the spot or dying a bit later, most people would choose to struggle a little longer.
What if they lived.
But once all of them arrived at the Daimyo's residence and entered the council hall, they all froze stupidly in place again.
Every one of them had an expression like they had seen a ghost.
Because when they entered the hall, they discovered in horror that the one sitting in the Daimyo's seat was actually that young Hokage from the intelligence reports.
Meanwhile, the Daimyo himself, his entire body wrapped in bandages, was standing off to the side instead.
"Hokage, what exactly are you trying to do?"
After a brief moment of shock, one of the ministers immediately had hot blood rush to his head, his brain swelling as he let out an angry roar.
Not everyone was afraid of death. There were still a few upright officials who had their ancestors' laws carved into their hearts.
"You dare commit such a grave act of disrespect and rebellion. Do you have any idea how much disaster this will bring upon yourself?"
They had thought Aoba wanted to do the same thing as Kazuma, to hold the Daimyo hostage and then indirectly control the Land of Fire. They never expected him to directly sit in the Daimyo's seat.
And likewise, once a person enters a crowd, their intelligence drops sharply, and they also gain a kind of inexplicable courage.
With someone taking the lead in accusing him, naturally others followed along.
For a moment, it actually felt like mass outrage.
Sasuke looked at these unruly guys and frowned slightly, wanting to teach them a lesson, but Aoba's voice interrupted him.
Aoba chuckled softly. "Heh, sitting in this seat wasn't my idea. It was the Daimyo's own wish."
"What did you say?"
Many people froze again.
How could the Daimyo possibly give up his own seat to someone else.
At this moment, the sickly looking Daimyo who had been standing beside Aoba stepped forward on his own.
"This matter is indeed my decision. The current situation in the Capital of Fire, with countless soldiers and nobles dead, I bear unshirkable responsibility."
"Your Highness, this matter is not your fault!", An official hurriedly shouted.
But the Daimyo ignored him completely and continued speaking on his own.
"This all happened because I was unworthy of my position. Now, just a few guardian ninja were able to kidnap me and stir up such chaos in the Capital of Fire. If tomorrow an even more terrifying group of villains came, what would we do then?"
The officials fell silent.
The Daimyo continued, "It just so happens that after this incident, I am seriously injured and need a period of rest. Therefore, I am voluntarily stepping down from the position of Daimyo and abdicating it to the one who stopped the chaos in the Capital of Fire in time and possesses sufficient ability, the Sixth Hokage of Konoha, Aoba."
"..."
The hall fell silent for a moment, but very quickly someone raised an objection, "No! Your Highness, the position of Daimyo cannot possibly be handed to someone with no Daimyo bloodline!"
"That's right. The Land of Fire has been passed down for over a thousand years. There has never been a precedent of a ninja without bloodline heritage becoming Daimyo!"
"Even passing it to Tsunade would be fine!"
"Damn it! You evil Hokage of Konoha, did you use genjutsu to control the Daimyo? Were those guardian ninja who suddenly kidnapped him also controlled by you?"
When people panic, they dare to say anything, and then someone ended up speaking the truth.
But as soon as those words came out, many of the officials who had been whipped up in anger fell silent.
'You idiot, you can eat food recklessly, but you can't talk recklessly. Talking recklessly gets you no food to eat, and then you suffer!'
Originally, they just wanted to argue about bloodline to see if they could delay things a bit longer, then once they left the Daimyo's residence, immediately have their ninja and samurai escort them as they fled the Capital of Fire overnight.
But with you saying that, you directly blocked everyone's escape route.
'Say it. Did you do this on purpose?'
Aoba's face once again revealed a meaningful smile, "It seems you all have quite a deep misunderstanding of me. I wonder if there's anyone else who shares his thoughts?"
No one answered.
"No one's talking?"
Aoba slowly stood up from his seat, looking down at the ministers below.
"Those who believe I controlled Kazuma and the others, as well as the Daimyo, stand on my right."
"Those who believe I did not control them, stand on my left."
"You have thirty seconds to make your choice. Otherwise, you might not necessarily be able to walk out of this hall."
Aoba's smile was gentle, but the officials felt bone-chilling cold from it.
The moment his words fell, more than half of them moved.
When thirty seconds passed, almost everyone had moved to Aoba's left side. Only a small handful of stubborn ones remained where they were, glaring at him fiercely.
Aoba was not surprised at all.
A country that had been passed down for nearly a thousand years would have rotted away long ago if it did not have at least a few tough bones.
He also had no intention of sparing these people out of so-called loyalty. His gaze turned toward Uchiha Mikoto and the others at his side.
Without hesitation, the five Uchiha activated their three-tomoe Sharingan at the same time.
Then those stubborn ones turned into dazed geese who obeyed Aoba's every command.
Aoba could have directly used genjutsu to control all these officials and make them obey him.
But that would have been far too wasteful. These officials were able to keep such a huge country running. At the very least, they had something worth taking in terms of management ability.
If he used genjutsu to control all of them, they would be no different from puppets.
Right now, Konoha was severely lacking manpower, so the best approach was to beat some and win over some.
That was the so-called "treat them, behead them, take them in as dogs."
Now that the beheading was done, naturally it was time to take them in as dogs.
Aoba looked toward the other side, at the ministers who had been scared stiff by the Uchiha clan's methods.
"As for you… you will continue to serve as officials of the Land of Fire, but I don't want you to siphon off even a single bit of the Land of Fire's resources again. At the same time, don't speak of what happened tonight."
"Understood, understood. We will follow the Daimyo's arrangements in everything."
The ministers hurried to show their loyalty, though most of them were still thinking about running away.
Aoba naturally saw through their thoughts. In the past, Root had plenty of ways to control people.
"Very good…"
That meaningful smile appeared on his face once again.
Some time later, the ministers left the Daimyo's residence with faces ashen as death.
Now not only could they not run away, their lives were also being held in someone else's hands.
After that, another group of military generals entered the Daimyo's residence, going through the same exact process.
After dealing with almost all of the high level figures, the Land of Fire had completely fallen into Aoba's hands.
———
Early the next morning, the Daimyo's residence announced to the entire Land of Fire that the Daimyo was abdicating out of guilt and transferring the position of Daimyo to Konoha's young Hokage, Aoba.
The reason used was naturally the same set of words he had spoken before the ministers.
And this move received the approval of all the ministers and military generals.
Before the news had fully spread to every city in the Land of Fire, the major nations and ninja villages had already received confirmed information.
Several Daimyo, or the Kage of each village, nearly fell off their chairs when they saw the news.
Even Nagato, who was still in the Rain Village preparing his plans, almost fell out of his wheelchair when he got the news.
Nagato realized that his whatever-the-hell plan suddenly did not seem so important anymore.
Might as well just blow it all up.
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