Anna Takemoto finished her "battle" at the dango shop.
After returning home, she saw her grandfather and father in the backyard. Shuichi Takemoto and Masamasa Takemoto were playing a game of shogi.
Anna stood by obediently, daring not to disturb them.
Soon, the game ended with Masamasa's defeat. Only then did Shuichi raise his head to glance at his granddaughter.
"Has that little guy shown anything unusual lately?" he asked.
After a moment of thought, Anna replied, "There hasn't been anything unusual, but he is a very strange person. I can't quite explain it."
Shuichi became interested. "Boys who inherit that kind of secret technique all become strange. Tell me your opinion."
"Gisei Shiraishi does things with a lot of purpose," Anna began. "I've read all the books he borrowed from the hospital library; they are entirely about medical knowledge related to the human body. He doesn't even spare a glance for books on herbs or drug preparation."
"Previously, after work, he would occasionally go to the training grounds, but for the past six months, he has been hiding at home every day, acting quite mysteriously. I feel..."
Anna hesitated. Shuichi waved his hand. "If you have a thought, just say it."
"Judging by his talent in ninjutsu, I feel that the medical ninjutsu he talked about before has very likely already succeeded. It's just that he has never used it in front of anyone, so I can't be sure."
"Oh?" Masamasa interjected, "Why is that?"
Anna shook her head. "I don't know. His entry into the hospital wasn't that simple, and Uncle Eisawa is also hiding things from us."
Shuichi laughed. "I can roughly guess what Eisawa is thinking, but that little guy is a bit hard to figure out."
Masamasa added, "Father, they've lived here for a year now, but Gisei Shiraishi has never visited us on his own initiative. I feel..."
Shuichi glared at him. "You feel what? You feel he dislikes or even hates us?"
Masamasa nodded with a bitter smile.
"You... with that narrow mind, how can you achieve anything great?" Shuichi chided. "I know it's hard for you to be warm to someone who gives you the cold shoulder. But human hearts are made of flesh. The more he distances himself from us, the more we must redouble our kindness toward him. Even a stone can become warm if you hold it against your heart for a few days, let alone a child less than ten years old."
Masamasa still smiled bitterly. "Father, forgive me for speaking bluntly, but must it be him?"
"It must be him!" Shuichi said decisively, his tone sharp as a nail. "If you don't have the ability to give our clansmen a better life, then we change the person. Right now, I actually feel more and more that the little guy is not bad."
After saying this, Shuichi looked at Anna and asked, "Anna, if I asked you to marry him, would you be willing?"
Upon hearing this, Anna panicked completely, her face flushing red, unable to say a word.
Masamasa got anxious. He only had this one daughter, who was both well-behaved and obedient. Gisei wasn't close to them. If she really married him, wouldn't that be pushing his daughter into a fire pit?
"Father, there's no need to go to such lengths, right? If we explain our blood relationship with the Butterfly Users clearly to the other clans, they might not necessarily withhold their support. We can completely..."
"Shut up!" Shuichi flared up.
Masamasa sighed, looking at his daughter with a face full of guilt.
Anna came back to her senses, her face pale as she said, "Grandpa, I'm three years older than him, and he doesn't have that kind of interest in me. Even if I agreed, he wouldn't agree."
Seeing his son and granddaughter like this, Shuichi sighed. "I know. I won't force you into this kind of thing, but you must be clear that being born into a ninja clan means everything is for the clan. As for what you said, Masamasa, it simply won't work. You have no idea where the clan's crisis truly lies. This isn't about fighting for power and profit, but about life and death."
"If Konoha continues to develop like this, it will definitely become stronger and stronger. But if this goes on, our clan will vanish like smoke in at most a hundred years."
"How is that possible?" Masamasa's face was full of disbelief. "Isn't Konoha getting stronger better for us?"
Shuichi shook his head, a trace of recollection flashing in his eyes, and a look of melancholy on his face. "That guy Yukihito was not only a hero but also a rarely intelligent man."
"Masamasa, you can be considered to have experienced the Warring States period. Why do you think Yukihito led us to join Konoha?"
"Wasn't it for peace?"
"Stupid!" Shuichi laughed in anger. "It's fine to use those words to fool the clansmen, but how can you believe them too?"
Masamasa was left with nothing but embarrassment. Being scolded by his father in front of his daughter—did he, as a father, not need to save face?
Anna saw her father's embarrassment and quickly interjected, "Is Yukihito Gisei Shiraishi's grandfather?"
Shuichi nodded, glaring grumpily at Masamasa, a look of "resentment toward iron for not becoming steel" on his face.
"The strongest ninja clans, the Senju and Uchiha, joined forces to establish Konoha. If it weren't for Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha being too strong, we smaller clans would have been wiped out by them long ago. For peace? Are you joking? Everyone wants to be the boss behind closed doors; who is willing to be someone else's underling? Can't you use your brain a little?"
Masamasa was only left with embarrassment upon embarrassment. He asked, "So we were forced to join Konoha?"
"Before establishing Konoha, the Senju and Uchiha were already top-tier great clans. After establishing Konoha, they became even more powerful. With them united, where was there room for other ninja clans to survive? I don't need to mention the importance of missions to ninjas. After Konoha was established, some small ninja clans couldn't even get a few missions a year. But there was no other way. Hashirama and Madara were too strong, strong to the point of despair."
"Since we couldn't beat them, we could only join them. We joined Konoha under the banner of peace, but in reality, we had to join for survival. Sarutobi was the first to see this, followed by Shimura, then Akimichi, Yamanaka, Nara, and other clans. Perhaps some truly did it for peace, but for most, it was because they had to join. If they didn't, even if Konoha didn't attack, the fate awaiting them would only be a slow extinction."
Hearing this, Masamasa's face was covered in cold sweat. "But after joining Konoha, it really became peaceful. Isn't that a good thing?"
"A good thing? Naive!" Shuichi shouted angrily. "Human nature is struggle. Before, everyone engaged in armed conflict for missions; now, in the village, they engage in political conflict for the right to speak. The struggle has never ceased; it just changed its form. Madara Uchiha saw this, which is why he left Konoha. Do you think his defection happened without us other clans adding fuel to the fire?"
Shuichi stopped there.
Anna couldn't help asking, "What does this have to do with the life and death of our clan? We've already joined Konoha. Even if the struggle is fierce, it won't go as far as exterminating the clan, right?"
"Hashirama Senju came up with the Will of Fire, trying to twist the ninja clans in the village into a single rope. His brother, Tobirama Senju, not only promoted the Will of Fire but also wanted to turn all ninja clans into commoners. This is the real crisis."
"Turn all ninja clans into commoners?" Masamasa's mouth twitched. "How is that possible?"
"At first, no one knew what kind of scheme Tobirama was up to. It wasn't until the establishment of the Ninja Academy that Yukihito immediately sensed this crisis. He even had a premonition that Konoha was about to face a Great Ninja War. Sure enough, the war broke out. Unfortunately, Yukihito died on the eve of its outbreak, but he also left behind a backup plan. Before Tobirama ascended to Hokage, Yukihito sensed something unusual about him, which is why he went out to contend for the Hokage position. He just failed."
Masamasa asked, "Isn't the Ninja Academy a good thing? Why would Uncle Yukihito see it as a crisis?"
"The Ninja Academy is indeed a good thing. Yukihito agreed with it too. What he didn't agree with was that Tobirama's methods were too extreme. Supporting civilian ninjas, playing factions against each other within the clans, basing everything on the village's interests without any regard for how many casualties the clans suffer, even sitting by and watching the extinction of ninja clans."
"Now, there are fewer ninja clans in Konoha, and civilian ninjas are being valued more and more. If this continues, do you think clans will still exert effort for the village? If they don't exert effort, they won't get the right to speak. If they do exert effort, they'll be treated as cannon fodder."
Shuichi sighed and continued, "Yukihito said that Konoha is too strong. Compared to other villages, it has many more families with ninjutsu, secret techniques, and Kekkei Genkai. This has both advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is its oppressive power externally. If war breaks out, no other village can match us. The disadvantage is internal strife. Konoha's internal strife is much more intense than in other villages."
Speaking to this point, he looked at Masamasa and asked, "If internal strife evolves into a coup d'état, what would you do?"
Masamasa hesitated, "Exterminate them?"
"That method is too low-level. There is a much more brilliant method."
Masamasa scratched his head.
"Wage war externally. Turn internal strife into external conflict, and then eliminate dissidents during the war. That is the most brilliant method."