Although Shin ruthlessly slapped Mashiro, sending him spinning like a top, he actually felt quite grateful to this fool in his heart. He was thankful that the merchant had recklessly and thoroughly destroyed the ideals that Konan had once firmly believed in.
Sometimes, the best allies are unwitting fools. Thank you, Mashiro, for your invaluable service, Shin thought.
If mutual understanding between people only serves to protect jerks like this, is it really worth holding onto such ideals? It takes years of firm commitment to uphold ideals, but their collapse can come in an instant of disillusionment.
From this perspective, today's Mashiro had played an invaluable role. However, it wasn't the right time to deal with him yet. There was still the Iwa captain remaining as the enemy.
Shin first calmed himself, then reminded Konan.
"The enemy is a special jonin skilled in taijutsu. Keep your distance and don't engage him in close combat."
"I know, but how do you know this?" Konan asked with a raised brow.
Shin offered a cryptic smile. "In this world, information is as vital as chakra."
Special jonin aren't quite full jonin; they excel in specific areas that rival jonin-level abilities, but overall, their skills are somewhere between chunin and jonin. For example, in the original series, Gekkō Hayate was a special jonin with expertise in swordsmanship and stealth.
Shin had known for a while that the Iwa team leader was a special jonin. He's always been cautious; if he had believed the threat was beyond his control, he would've called for backup the moment Mashiro began showing signs of betrayal.
His ninja code was always: survival above all.
If Iwa had sent a full-fledged jonin this time, he would've already unleashed Nagato on them. The only thing he didn't know was that this Iwa squad actually had two special jonin. Until now, he still believed the elder he'd killed earlier was just a high chunin.
Thus, at this moment, he carefully arranged his strategy, advancing step by step with Konan—one in the air and one on the ground—slowly tightening the encirclement around the enemy.
The Iwa captain trapped inside had already lost his will to fight, his only thought now being to escape.
How? How could they all fall so quickly? I need to report this!
He hadn't witnessed the fight in the warehouse, so he couldn't fathom how his old comrade and three genin teammates had all been wiped out in such a short time by a boy who appeared to be no older than fourteen or fifteen.
Who is this boy? A jonin already, at his age? Unbelievable. Could he be... Ame's secret weapon? Does this mean... Is Ame actually planning to declare war on Iwa?
Shin hadn't anticipated that his casual performance would lead the enemy's thoughts to spiral this far.
However, as he joined the battle, the enemy's intent to break through and escape became increasingly obvious.
Shin immediately noticed.
"Konan, he's trying to run."
Hearing this, she quickly summoned more paper butterflies, forming a pair of massive white paper wings in the air and spreading them wide to block the enemy's path.
In the original Shippuden, where Akatsuki was filled with powerful individuals, she had earned her place among them.
This young Konan might not be able to take on a full-fledged jonin from a major village, but she was certainly capable of stopping a special jonin who had lost his will to fight.
"Get out of my way!"
Faced with the wings blocking his escape, the Iwa captain lost control of his emotions and let out a beast-like roar.
"Leaving so soon? But the party's just starting."
"Lightning Strike!"
At that moment, Shin closed in, dragging his lightning-charged blade behind him.
"Don't underestimate the shinobi of the Five Great Nations!"
Perhaps realizing there was no hope of escape, the Iwa captain finally ignited his fighting spirit. But Shin remained calm, even showing a hint of disappointment on his face.
How... underwhelming, he thought, his expression only serving to further enrage his opponent.
But Shin was waiting for this moment—when the enemy's emotions would lead to a lapse in judgment. He tossed his straight sword into the air and formed hand seals.
"Water Style: Water Whip Jutsu!"
Just like before, he used a simple, low-level technique. It wasn't as flashy as the Water Dragon, nor as powerful as the Giant Vortex. The summoned stream of water merely circled around the enemy, tightening and binding him.
The Iwa captain scoffed arrogantly, "Brat, do you really think such a weak jutsu can hold anyone?"
However, the enemy failed to notice that, as the water circled him, it had also soaked several paper butterflies that had been attached to him. In the next instant, Shin caught his sword, gently running his hand along the blade, generating sparks with his chakra.
Then, without hesitation, he threw the sword straight at his enemy.
Checkmate.
Sizzle!
Boom!
The lightning from the blade ignited the explosive tags disguised as paper butterflies. With the Water Whip binding him, the Iwa captain couldn't form hand seals and had no way to dodge.
After the explosion, the severely injured Iwa captain lay miserably on the ground, his face still showing traces of shock and terror.
He couldn't comprehend how he had been defeated.
"How…how could explosive tags go off after being soaked in water?" he muttered weakly.
Shin, always cautious, approached to confirm the enemy's state. Only after verifying that the man was beyond saving did he relax.
"Oil."
This idea wasn't even his; it was borrowed from the future. In the original series, Konan later used a similar technique, filling an entire trench with explosive tags and nearly taking down Obito in one move.
The Iwa captain let out a bitter, despairing laugh.
In his final moments, he still tried to threaten them, "Do you intend to provoke war between Ame and Iwa? You'll regret this!"
Shin sneered.
"You infiltrate another nation without permission, attempt to wipe out its official forces with violence, and now you have the nerve to threaten war? You infiltrate, you attack, and now you threaten?"
"How horrible."
"We…we were only…on a mission…it's the job…of shinobi…"
The enemy's voice grew weaker and weaker, the words coming out in broken fragments. But Shin had lost interest in listening.
He casually threw a kunai backward—not only to silence the Iwa captain's excuses but also to test Konan's current resolve.
The kunai flew straight towards the prone Mashiro, who was lying not far away. He had deliberately thrown the kunai slowly, giving it at least half a second of air time. There were still many paper butterflies fluttering around the battlefield. If Konan wanted to stop the kunai, she easily could have.
But in the end, the kunai flew unimpeded and embedded itself smoothly in the merchant's forehead, right between his brows.
Welcome to reality, Konan.
At that moment, he smiled with satisfaction.
"What mission? All I see is you colluding with traitors to overthrow the Land of Rain."
The Iwa captain's eyes widened in disbelief, and, like his comrade in the warehouse, he died with his eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace. The target of their mission this time was also dead.
"You killed them again," Konan murmured blankly as she landed gracefully, retracting her paper wings.
Yet, compared to the past, her words now sounded more like a simple statement rather than reproach. She could no longer voice blame.
The show that Shin had prepared for her had been astonishingly effective. Instead of empty debates, a real, living example was far more convincing.
What had their years of striving for mutual understanding between people actually achieved? Nothing could be more persuasive than Mashiro lying lifeless on the ground.
Seeing is believing, Konan. And what you've seen can't be unseen, he mused.
"Why is it like this? Was the teacher's ideal really wrong?"
Konan's body still bore the cut marks from releasing her paper technique, and she appeared shattered, like a broken vase made of ice.
Unfortunately, Shin wasn't softened by this. After many days, he finally revealed his fangs and began to wield the strongest ninjutsu in the Naruto world—the Talk no Jutsu.
Sensing the moment was ripe, he circled Konan slowly. "Your ideals might be beautiful, but in the end, they're far too naive."
"Mutual understanding between people can only happen among those with similar stances, experiences, and identities."
"The reason Akatsuki has thrived so much in recent years is that most of the people you've come into contact with are victims of war, just like you. Their experiences and desires are similar, so it's easy for them to come together for warmth."
He spread his arms wide, encompassing the world beyond. "But the world has never consisted of just one kind of person."
"While you're bearing the burden and moving forward, there are always others living peacefully, thanks to your efforts," he whispered as he leaned in close.
Shin's clear voice flowed smoothly and effortlessly tugged at Konan's heart.
"Living peacefully... You're referring to the Great Shinobi Villages."
Shin smiled. "Konan, you're still looking too shallowly. You shouldn't limit your perspective to just the shinobi world."
He raised three fingers.
"In my view, there are actually three kinds of people in this world: the nobles and wealthy merchants, led by the daimyo; the shinobi; and, at the bottom, the ordinary people who toil like beasts of burden."
"The nobles and merchants exploit the common people to amass wealth, and then they take a small portion of that wealth to offer to the shinobi, in exchange for the loyalty and service of the ninja villages. And throughout this process, they tirelessly train the shinobi."
"You must have studied the shinobi code, right? The so-called iron rules of the shinobi world: The mission comes first, anyone who can't complete a mission is trash, and as long as the client hasn't lied about the intel, a shinobi must not harm the client in any way."
"But those rules... they're meant to maintain order," she said hesitantly. Then her eyes widened as she began to see where he was leading her.
"Order for whom, Konan? Certainly not for us."
"See? This is actually the greatest result of the nobles' decades-long efforts to discipline the shinobi. Under this conditioning, shinobi can never raise their blades against the nobles and merchants. As long as the wealthy still have money, they can enjoy the service of shinobi anytime, anywhere."
"The man lying on the ground here is the best example of that."
He took a few steps forward and nudged Mashiro's corpse with the tip of his foot.
"Even in a war-torn country like the Land of Rain, as long as he had money, he could hire shinobi to serve him whenever he wanted. Even though Akatsuki recruited many rogue ninja in this area, he still managed to contact Iwa."
"If we hadn't killed him today, in the future, he might have even hired shinobi from Suna, Konoha, or even Kumo. Because this is how the world works: shinobi must serve wealthy employers like him."
"Shinobi just need to risk their lives, sacrifice their comrades, and complete their missions, while the clients who issue the commissions have a lot more to consider as they accumulate their wealth."
At that moment, even though Konan didn't fully understand the value of Shin's words, she could easily detect the deep sarcasm in his tone.
She had no idea how to refute him.
What he was saying had completely surpassed her previous understanding. Compared to the hollow ideals she, Yahiko, and Nagato inherited from their teacher, Shin's theory was like a devastating blow.
"So, as long as the old rules of this world remain unchanged, people like Mashiro will never be able to understand you. The beneficiaries of the system have no reason to empathize with its victims."
"Meanwhile, shinobi are pitifully trapped, forced to repeat the cycles of war in the ninja world because they've been so thoroughly trained that they've lost the ability to question the system itself!"
"When ninja villages run out of money, they can only think of starting wars to seize mission quotas from other villages. They never stop to consider that in every past commission, their efforts and rewards have never been proportional."
"Look at the Iwa shinobi—traveling far from home to come to the Land of Rain and risking their lives to serve this merchant. But in reality, the payment they receive for this commission is probably less than one percent of his total wealth."
Konan's eyes widened in shock. "I... I never thought of it that way."
"Do you understand now? This is the truth of the world. Peace across the entire ninja world can never be achieved through childlike mutual understanding."
"If you want real peace, you have to break the system and overthrow the entire old world!"
"Revolution? Against... everything?" Konan gasped.
"Against a world that thrives on our suffering? Absolutely." At that moment, Shin's smile looked to Konan like that of a devil, tempting her into corruption.
In truth, at that time, Shin might not have truly had the ambition to overthrow the entire ninja world, but that didn't stop him from painting a grand picture for her.
It was like how Aristotle once said that human nature always seeks compromise: people react to temperature changes in a room. If you suggest opening a window when it's comfortable, some might object.
But if you threaten to crank up the heat to an unbearable level, suddenly opening a window seems like a reasonable compromise.
If Shin had directly said that he thought their ideals were childish, Konan would have resisted strongly. But by throwing out the grand idea of overthrowing the entire ninja world, it wouldn't be surprising if, in a while, Konan herself would come to think that mutual understanding was indeed too childish.
It was time to bring a little shock to this decaying ninja world. Besides, most of what he said wasn't just made up—it was based on his real experiences after crossing over into this world for the past few months. It was all grounded in reality.
Especially the part about shinobi being subjected to long-term conditioning—he had personally experienced it and felt it deeply.
At that moment, Shin was unaware that not far from their location, near the border of the Land of Rain, a certain white-haired brat was silently carrying out a covert mission.
Behind him, one of his teammates was angrily complaining.
"He really ticks me off! What does he mean by 'the mission is more important than your comrades'? Just because he became a chunin early, he thinks he can say such nonsense?"