Gengo was exactly right. The ninja villages did have the word “hidden” in their names, and the majority of the land of the continent was governed and held by the daimyo. But what did that matter? Even if the daimyo did govern the realms, even if the adjective “hidden” was in there, the ninja weren’t persecuted or anything like it.
Shikamaru was the central pillar of the Allied Shinobi, which was precisely why he presumed to understand a little better than most ninja the true state of the world. The daimyo, and the citizens living in the lands they ruled over, were building good relationships of coexistence and coprosperity with the ninja.
“Answer me, Shikamaru. Why are the ninja persecuted by these people?”
“Exactly when have we ever been persecuted by the daimyo?”
“It’s not only the daimyo. It’s everyone other than ninja living on this continent.”
It looked to Shikamaru like flames blazed up in Gengo’s eyes.
“Well then, I’d like to ask you one more thing.”
“You said just one quest—”
“I want to ask you one more.” Cutting Shikamaru off firmly, Gengo continued. “Ninja have powers different from all other human beings. Would you agree with me on that?”
Chakra and ninjutsu…
Ninja did indeed have powers very different from normal people. Shikamaru nodded wordlessly.
Gengo looked at him, satisfied somehow, before speaking again. “The powers of the ninja are already so strong they cannot be contained within a human framework.”
Once more, Shikamaru nodded.
The fighting of the Great War two years earlier was so tremendous that the fate of the entire planet had rested on the outcome. If the Allied Shinobi had been defeated, Gengo and Shikamaru wouldn’t have been sitting here chatting like this. Uchiha Madara had tried to pull the people of the world into a dream with unimaginably enormous magic, and Uzumaki Naruto had fought to end the war with the nine beasts in his body, the source of his chakra. Neither could have been called human. The very fact of possessing powers that could give rise to people like this perhaps pushed the ninja beyond the category of human.
“Why must those who surpass the human framework conceal themselves and live in villages with the adjective ‘hidden’ in their names? Why must they do the work of maids and earn money by the day? Who was it that saved the world in the Great War two years ago? It wasn’t the daimyo, and it wasn’t the citizenry.” Gengo pulled his elbow off the armrest and sat up tall, thrusting his right arm up high. “Was it not the ninja?”
Full of ambition, Gengo’s voice overwhelmed Shikamaru.
What is this power…?
His heartbeat grew distant. An exultation he had never before felt flooded him.
Why?
It might have been that Gengo had put into words those thoughts that lay sleeping somewhere in his heart.
Exactly.
Two years earlier, the ninja had saved the world.
“Ninja sacrificed their lives fighting to protect this world, and yet precisely how many people know this? The people do not know the name of even Uzumaki Naruto, revered so in the ninja world as the hero who ended the Great War. And Uchiha Madara, Uchiha Obito, Uchiha Sasuke, Hatake Kakashi, the five Kage, Akatsuki—are they not all names to be passed down through the ages in the world of ninja?”
Gengo was exactly right. No matter how the ninja put their lives on the line to protect this world, word of their feats would never reach the people populating it.
“And yet the daimyo rest on the laurels of a peace built on the corpses of ninja, and rule carefree over the citizens of the continent. The shinobi were even thoughtful enough during the Great War to put up a powerful barrier over the battle zones for these fellows. And what did the citizens and the daimyo do for the ninja who had gone to such lengths for them?”
Nothing had changed. And it was no wonder.
Uchiha Madara, who had gone up against the Allied Shinobi in the Great War, and Otsutsuki Kaguya had tried to trap the people of the continent in a spell and turn them into a battery to generate chakra. As a result, in the middle of fierce fighting, the citizens and the daimyo had all fallen asleep. But still, it wasn’t as though there weren’t people who knew what had happened.
“Why must the ninja, with their superior powers, live secret lives in hidden villages?” Gengo stood up tall. “Are the ninja really here for them to toy with, to persecute?” He took a step forward.
The stairs.
One stair, then another, Gengo advanced. “Shikamaru. What I am about to say now is what I truly wish to ask you.” He was already at the bottom, so close now that if he took another few steps, he would be standing directly in front of Shikamaru.
“Should this world not be ruled by those possessing these ‘ninja’ powers?”
Shikamaru was unable to spit out a hard “No.” He was stuck wavering between “yes” and “no.” He no longer knew what was right.
One who endures and perseveres. A ninja. Whatever the power he or she might have, a ninja was a ninja because they used that power on behalf of the people without ostentation or affect.
However.
The chakra and the possibilities of the ninjutsu a ninja possessed were unfathomable. If Gengo was right, and the ninja governed instead of the daimyo, wouldn’t that be a remarkable step forward for this world?
What was the right choice for the people?
Shikamaru had no answer.
“I will unify this continent under the power of the ninja. I will end this era of warlords and infighting, an era that has gone on for astonishingly long. It is possible with the power of ninja!”
Should Shikamaru really kill Gengo? He no longer understood this man.