Chapter 180: A Sense of Division
"Before heading to Kirigakure, let's visit the Land of Water's Daimyō first for a little payback."
From Dan Katō's memories, Li Yao knew that the plan to ambush him by the Five Kage had been orchestrated primarily by the Third Hokage. But the real pressure had come from the daimyō of the Five Great Nations, which is what made the alliance of the Kage a reality.
So naturally, the daimyō residences were also on Li Yao's revenge list.
He had no fear of daimyō.
Like many people in his previous life, Li Yao couldn't quite understand how, in a world where chakra granted superhuman power and might made right, the nations were still ruled by daimyō—nobles without a shred of chakra.
And the irony was that these daimyō needed ninja to protect their lives just to survive.
In a world where one's life was always in the hands of ninja, it was absurd that these powerless nobles shaped the geopolitical landscape.
It was ridiculous.
Now Li Yao wanted to see firsthand what would happen if he wiped out a daimyō's estate. Would the entire shinobi world lose its mind, or would everything remain calm? He was eager to find out.
"Ah… the Daimyō's residence!"
Upon hearing Li Yao's plan for revenge on the Water Country's daimyō, Yuzu suddenly shuddered with concern. "Uncle, wouldn't it be bad to kill a daimyō?"
Huh...? Li Yao turned to her in shock.
A survivor of the Uzumaki Clan—one of the two nations wiped out in a single night by the Five Great Nations—was worried about killing a daimyō?
And she was... afraid?
Li Yao had assumed that after spending a year being tortured in Kumogakure's experiments, Yuzu would've become twisted and fearless.
He hadn't expected her to actually feel fear at the mention of exacting revenge on a daimyō!
"Are you really afraid of the daimyō?" Li Yao asked, genuinely curious.
"It's… not that I'm afraid…" Yuzu gave an awkward smile. But from the way her voice trembled, it was clear she was afraid.
"Why?" Li Yao asked again. He truly wanted to understand—why fear someone who posed no threat to her life?
"I... I don't know," she said after thinking for a while. "It's just... killing a daimyō seems like it'll cause big trouble."
"I see."
With that final explanation, Li Yao began to understand her mindset.
To put it simply, the daimyō were the rulers of the Five Great Nations. Even if they were weak, killing one was like assassinating a head of state. The consequences would undoubtedly be enormous.
Yuzu saw herself as a regular person. It was like asking a world champion boxer to kill a national president—whether he could wasn't the question. It was what came afterward: the wrath of a whole nation hunting him down.
Anyone would be shaken by that prospect.
To people like Yuzu , killing the daimyō of the Water Country would lead to everyone—nobles and shinobi alike—hunting them down.
In the public's mind, the daimyō's authority was like the Celestial Dragons from One Piece—anyone who dared touch them would face the wrath of the Marine Admirals.
In the shinobi world, anyone who dared touch a daimyō would face the wrath of the Five Great Hidden Villages.
Thus, the daimyō's prestige was propped up by the might of the Five Kage.
So it made sense that Yuzu instinctively feared them.
But then the real question emerged—if everything depended on the Five Hidden Villages, why weren't they the ones ruling the nations? Why were the noble houses, led by the daimyō, still in control?
There was no real answer.
The only explanation was that people in this world had grown used to this system of governance.
Still… something about it didn't sit right with Li Yao.
Ninja politicians were far from stupid.
Any politician who understood the power of public opinion couldn't be called a fool.
Some of them were experts at manipulating even their own comrades.
And yet, when it came to the daimyō, these cunning politicians all suddenly became helpless, powerless fools with no chakra.
That didn't make sense.
There had to be a secret behind it.
The more Li Yao thought about it, the more convinced he became.
"Heh heh."
Li Yao chuckled suddenly. Maybe this time, by wiping out the Water Country's daimyō estate, he'd uncover something interesting.
One week later—
The capital of the Water Country, named simply "Kyoto," was located in a curved bay area along the coast of the largest island.
It was a bustling trade hub. Merchants from all Five Nations could be seen here.
As Li Yao and Yuzu walked through the streets, something felt off.
There were lots of people…
But no ninja.
Not just few—but none.
Using his soul-sensing ability, Li Yao could scan the entire capital district.
Among the countless merchants and civilians, there wasn't a single ninja.
Only the daimyō's residence and a few noble estates had ninja—either hired guards or retainers. But even those were very few.
Compared to the capital's population of over a million, a few dozen ninja were like drops in the ocean.
It was highly irregular.
It felt as if, even though ninja and civilians lived in the same world, they were separated by an invisible wall.
That sense of division was particularly sharp here.
In smaller towns, the difference wasn't so obvious. But here in the capital, it was impossible to ignore.
It was like someone had deliberately restricted the spread of ninja, confining them to their own isolated space to keep them killing each other.
Li Yao frowned.
Thinking back, it did seem to be the case.
Whether in the Warring States era or the current ninja village era, the bloodiest conflicts were always between ninja.
It was as if the entire role of a ninja had been invented solely for mutual slaughter.
And yet ninjutsu—this incredible power—could have been used to revolutionize productivity, drastically increasing the global population.
But instead, ninja were always at war, and the world's population remained eerily stagnant.
"Why?"
"This is a bizarre world."
Unable to find an answer, Li Yao settled on that conclusion.
"Whatever. Why bother thinking about this?"
He shook his head. His worldview was different from this world's. Trying to make sense of it through his own logic only added unnecessary headaches.
After touring Kyoto and sampling some delicious local seafood, Li Yao and Yuzu arrived at the daimyō's residence that evening.
In an instant, everyone in the estate—ninja included—fell under Li Yao's genjutsu, becoming mindless puppets under his control.
"Summon all your family to the residence," he ordered the daimyō, who was still in bed enjoying the company of several women.
The daimyō immediately abandoned his beauties and got up to carry out the order.
Li Yao then took over his role, thoroughly enjoying himself with the daimyō's women.
But after just half an hour, he lost interest.
Kunoichi were still better—great bodies, higher stamina, and more likely to bring him pleasure.
These ordinary women didn't cut it.
"Uncle, all the shinobi have gathered in the courtyard," Yuzu said, stepping through the door. Upon seeing Li Yao's naked body, she instinctively licked her lips, a flicker of desire in her eyes.
Li Yao didn't bother dressing. He walked into the courtyard naked.
There was something extremely satisfying about doing whatever he pleased inside the daimyō's estate.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three female ninja. Three shadow clones. One at a time.
There were ten Mist shinobi guarding the daimyō's residence. Among them, three were women.
Li Yao used the Spirit Transformation Technique to possess one of them and, together with his shadow clones, resumed his exploration of mental energy fluctuations.
(END CHAPTER)
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