RADG: Chapter 264/265

Chapter 264: Tailed Beasts Pay Rent, New Organization Established

January, the sixty-eighth year of Konoha.

After winning the Fourth Ninja World War, Konoha took two and a half months to settle the prisoners, briefly digest the fruits of victory, and then continued its pace to swallow up the ninja world.

Five hundred ninja soldiers were divided into fifty groups and swept through the four defense lines of the southeast, northwest, northeast, and southwest, eliminating all resistance forces, non-cooperative forces, and the political entities of various countries.

First of all, the small villages and nations such as the Land of Frost, the Land of Grass, and the Land of Taki, which had sent people to join the Ninja Alliance, finally faced a reckoning after living in fear for so long.

They had lost most of their high-end combat power and had no chance to compete with Konoha.

They did not even need Kage-level fighters to take action.

A ten-man squad led by an Elite Jōnin could deal with a small ninja village.

Moreover, the resistance encountered in these small ninja villages was not that strong. They originally existed as a buffer zone for the big nations. Now that the big nations had been defeated, what was the point of holding on?

Of course, most people who thought this way were civilians or lower- to middle-class ninjas and officials.

Those high-ranking daimyos and nobles hated Konoha and Yami to the core, believing they were people who did not know respect and dared to go against their will, pointing blades at the group in power.

However, the rebels were strong, while their subordinates were incapable. The leaders of these small countries fled and joined forces with the daimyos of several other major nations, trying to continue resisting Konoha by contributing manpower and resources.

The ruling classes of the five great nations had been passed down for thousands of years, and the leaders of smaller nations also had hundreds of years of heritage.

Even if the sky collapsed, there were still many samurai and ninjas surrounding them, all die-hard loyalists.

The Land of Fire had the Fire Temple, and other nations had similar institutions.

In addition, due to the vast terrain, progress slowed down at this stage.

Then, Konoha released several powerful weapons.

From One Tail to Eight Tails, and half of Nine Tails, the tailed beasts joined the assault teams. When they encountered a city with stubborn resistance, they simply closed the gates and released the tailed beasts, using Tailed Beast Bombs to wipe it out.

However, the aura of these tailed beasts had weakened a lot. In the eyes of powerful, perceptive ninjas, it was only about half of their usual strength.

This was indeed the case, as half of their chakra had been taken by Yami as rent.

From now on, the ninja world was his territory. These tailed beasts wanted to live freely without being coveted or disturbed by humans, so they had to show some respect.

Even Nine Tails inside Naruto had to pay rent. The whole world belonged to the king, including Naruto's belly.

When the Sage of Six Paths used Yin-Yang Release to create the nine tailed beasts, he locked their upper limits, so their chakra was eternal and unchanging, neither increasing nor decreasing.

Now that Yami had drained away half of the tailed beasts' chakra, it was like half of a full bucket of water had been scooped out. The remaining half would slowly recover after the tailed beasts absorbed natural energy, until the bucket filled again.

So, this rent was not a one-time payment. Yami had observed that it could be collected again in about ten years, which meant that energy equivalent to one chakra fruit could be extracted every decade.

This was sustainable fishing.

However, how many times it could be repeated depended on how long the natural energy of the ninja world could last.

Yami did not want his territory to become a wasteland.

Without natural energy, the ninja world would eventually become a dead star like those countless planets the Ōtsutsuki had drained.

With the help of the tailed beasts, all resistance became a paper tiger.

The hidden power of the samurai class that protected the daimyo and other clans, which regarded ninjas as mortal enemies, all appeared and collapsed one after another.

Finally, half a year after the operation began, the fragmented ninja world, including many small island nations around the main continent, was brought under the control of Konoha, truly completing unification.

Note that it was Konoha that completed the unification, not the Land of Fire.

Fire, Water, Thunder, Earth, and Wind, the names of these nations entered the dustbin of history from this moment on. In the entire world, there was only one country, the Country of Ten Thousand Ninjas.

The country was governed by a completely new organization, independent of the outdated administrative system of the ninja villages, the World Government.

Konoha was responsible for public security construction, and the World Government was responsible for people's livelihood and development.

The two were equal, with no concept of who led whom.

Ninjas could also serve in the World Government, but correspondingly, they had to resign from all positions within the Konoha system and were not allowed to hold multiple posts at the same time.

The only exception was the members of parliament.

In addition to various departments, the World Government also had thirteen parliamentary seats. All major matters had to be voted on by parliament before they could be implemented.

The Hokage and the Assistant Hokage in charge of Konoha would definitely hold two of those seats.

However, this system had just been established, and the candidates for the councillors had not yet been finalized, so Yami had to take charge.

And the first item passed after the establishment of the World Government… was also ridiculous.

As expected, Shimura Yami's way of thinking was different from others.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 265: We Must Not Discourage the Enthusiasm of the People, Shisui's Problem

A statue over 300 meters tall rose from the site of the original Valley of the End.

The people who built this statue were not ordinary workers, but all ninjas, and above the rank of Chūnin.

After all, at a height of 300 meters, most Genin would run out of chakra before even reaching the top, and their chakra control would not be good enough, which could easily cause damage.

It took three thousand Chūnin two months to complete the sculpture. The rest was the work of the sculptors. During the day, people could be seen crawling on the statue like ants.

As for who the statue belonged to… needless to say.

This was to commemorate and express gratitude to Yami for unifying the ninja world.

They believed that the Hokage Rock in Konoha and the statue in the center of the village were not enough to represent his achievements, so they spontaneously built an unprecedented statue for him at the Valley of the End, so that future generations would have the chance to admire his great deeds.

Yami had tried to refuse in every possible way at the time, but the people were too enthusiastic. In the end, he could only sigh, "You have made me suffer," and let it go.

There was no way. They could not dampen the people's enthusiasm. This was a spontaneous action and had nothing to do with him.

He only made a few requests at the end to ensure that the statue carved by the craftsmen would show at least one-thousandth of his own style.

A year passed slowly.

The turbulent ninja world gradually returned to stability, and the punished ninjas from the defeated nations also completed their tasks one after another and waited for new assignments.

Konoha had become the capital of the Ninja Kingdom, and its size had expanded several times again. Facilities such as the Forest of Death and major training grounds that hindered the city's development were all demolished and moved to the farthest areas.

Tram cables were installed throughout most parts of the city, and public transportation was becoming increasingly complete. Konoha was now too large, and even ninjas needed transportation. They could not simply run across rooftops every day.

Currently, the permanent population of Konoha had exceeded three million, and wealthy merchants and common people from other nations were gradually preparing to relocate.

They could no longer just build bungalows or four- to five-story high-rise buildings as before. More than ten-story residential buildings had begun to appear in the village.

In the former strongholds of Suna, Iwa, and other villages, Konoha also built branch bases to prevent remote areas from slipping out of the control of the Ninja Kingdom.

Hokage Building.

Although he was nominally the current ruler of Konoha, the succession ceremony had not yet been held, so Shisui did not work in the Hokage's office. This was his respect for Yami.

During this year, Shisui's ability and magnanimity had also won over Konoha's high-ranking officials.

Even Danzō's attitude had become much calmer.

He had no intention of causing trouble.

Instead, he led Root to gradually reduce its presence, guarding Konoha only from the shadows. This made Hiruzen jealous.

Damn it, when he was Hokage, Danzō constantly made trouble for him, but now that an Uchiha had taken the position, he became obedient. How could Hiruzen feel balanced?

But Hiruzen had no say in Konoha now. He was just an ordinary supervisor. Whatever he said would be pushed back by the Second Hokage, so he could only sulk in silence.

In the office, Shisui frowned, as if he had encountered a difficult problem and was unable to act.

After a long while, he suddenly spoke.

"Where is Yami-sama?"

An Uchiha quietly walked out from the shadows and whispered, "Two days ago, we received news that Yami-sama is currently in the territory of the former Land of Demons, accompanying Koyuki Kazahana for a film shoot."

"So leisurely…" Shisui sighed subconsciously, then immediately returned to a serious expression.

Only when one was in this position could they understand how much pressure it carried.

In the past, he was Yami's confidant. He knew most of what Yami did, and the important tasks were completed by him personally. It was also through this process that he came to understand Yami's thoughts and ideas, gradually changing his own personality.

After experiencing the initial fear, Shisui had been full of energy when he learned he would become the new Hokage. He vowed to continue the glory created by Yami and keep Konoha strong.

But as he worked on it, he became more cautious.

As a leader, the hardest part was not coming up with ways to do things, but choosing one decision among thousands and bearing the consequences.

Because of his decisions, some people might become rich overnight, while others might become homeless.

Some could rise to high positions, while others would disappear completely into the crowd.

The more emotional a person was, the more hesitant they would be before making a decision, and the more tormented they would be afterward.

At first, he only needed to follow Yami's orders. He never thought that just speaking a word, issuing a command, would be so difficult.

In order to make himself as "absolutely correct" as possible, Shisui had not had a good night's sleep in the past year. Even on weekends, he read documents at home or disguised himself to gather intelligence with his own eyes.

But there were still too many things that made him hesitate, such as the current matter.

Sighing, Shisui instructed Yuichi, "Send someone to find Yami-sama. I can't make the decision on this matter. I am not the real Hokage yet."

(To be continued.)