Chapter 349: Tsunade, the Guiding Light!

"Heh heh, don't get worked up, you two. My Uchiha Clan would never do something as bullying the weak just because we're stronger. We Uchiha aren't capable of such a heartless act either. I'm not Shimura Danzō!"

Uchiha Ren shook his head.

"You've misunderstood what I meant!"

Tsunade's brows furrowed.

"Uchiha Ren, this is not something you can joke about. Stop beating around the bush and tell us directly what you intend to do!"

Uchiha Ren spoke.

"What I said doesn't mean I actually intend to do anything to those civilians. My idea is that we can use them as a shield to protect ourselves—use the threat they represent to gain leverage!"

"Otherwise, how could this be called a gamble?"

Tsunade still did not understand what Uchiha Ren was getting at.

"What exactly are you trying to say?"

Uchiha Ren explained,

"It's simple. We still have several hours."

"We can release the civilians from those shelters, take control of Sunagakure, and restore normal order within the village."

"And then?"

Tsunade frowned.

"What's the point of doing that?"

The more she listened, the more confused Tsunade became. She simply could not figure out what Uchiha Ren was planning.

Orochimaru, however, had understood part of it.

"Ren-kun, are you planning to use this opportunity to take control of Sunagakure?"

"Exactly!"

Uchiha Ren nodded.

"We can take over Sunagakure's defenses, keep its reinforcements outside the village, and then negotiate with Sunagakure's leadership!"

"As long as we stabilize the situation, we'll hold the initiative. From there, everything will become much easier!"

After a brief pause, Uchiha Ren added,

"The situation is overwhelmingly favorable for us right now! With the civilians of Sunagakure serving as our shield, the Sand shinobi will be forced to hold back. Our chances of success are actually quite high."

"This gamble is absolutely worth taking!"

Only now did Tsunade finally understand Uchiha Ren's plan.

"You really are insane! How can you gamble with something like this?!"

"Besides, Sunagakure is one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. How could they possibly compromise so easily?!"

"If I were going to gamble, I'd bet that you're definitely going to fail!"

"Excellent! Then place your bet that way!"

Uchiha Ren was not angry in the slightest. Instead, he looked delighted.

He turned toward Orochimaru and Jiraiya.

"You two know what Tsunade's luck at gambling is like. Betting against her is practically guaranteed to win!"

"If I only had a fifty-percent chance of success before, I'd say I have a ninety-percent chance now!"

Tsunade: "..."

"Wait, wait."

Jiraiya suddenly spoke with a puzzled expression.

"Leaving aside whether your plan is actually feasible, why are you suddenly planning to take control of Sunagakure?"

"How can we interfere in another country's internal affairs?!"

"That's against the rules!"

"Rules? Heh."

Uchiha Ren let out a cold laugh.

"The times have changed. My rules are the rules now!"

Jiraiya's eyes widened, and he froze on the spot.

Tsunade curled her lips and reminded him,

"Jiraiya, haven't you figured it out yet? Uchiha Ren's ambitions are enormous! Taking control of Sunagakure is probably only the first step of his plan!"

Jiraiya froze again and looked at Uchiha Ren in disbelief.

Uchiha Ren simply nodded.

"Jiraiya, didn't you ask me before what Water-Gate and I were actually trying to accomplish?"

"Originally, I hadn't planned on telling you so soon. But things have reached this point, so I won't hide it from you anymore."

"Water-Gate and I have a very simple plan."

"Unify the entire shinobi world—and establish that unity for generations to come!"

Even though Tsunade had already guessed part of it, hearing Uchiha Ren personally state his goal of unifying the entire shinobi world still sent a shiver through her entire body.

She was utterly shocked.

And if Tsunade was this stunned, Jiraiya was even more so.

His mind went completely blank. For quite some time, he could not even think of what to say.

Eventually, Jiraiya recovered and spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Uchiha Ren, do you even realize what you're saying?"

"Leaving aside whether unifying the shinobi world can truly bring permanent peace, do you know how many people will die in the process of unifying it?"

Uchiha Ren remained calm.

"I can't guarantee that unifying the shinobi world will bring permanent peace."

"But it can bring several hundred years of peace."

"And as long as the idea of unity is passed down, even if the shinobi world fractures again hundreds of years later, it will eventually reunify after a period of war and usher in another few centuries of peace."

"As for how many people will die during the process of unification..."

Uchiha Ren looked directly at Jiraiya and asked seriously,

"Will it be more than the number who died during the Warring States Period, which lasted for more than a thousand years?"

"Will it be more than the number who have died in the three Shinobi World Wars that have occurred in just these few decades?"

"Look at it from another perspective."

"Wars have never truly stopped in this world. They have continued for thousands of years, right up until today."

"If war has never ended, then what is wrong with using one war to end war itself?"

"Ending war through war. What's wrong with that?"

Jiraiya was stunned.

He was rendered speechless.

Uchiha Ren did not give him an opportunity to respond and continued,

"Jiraiya, to be honest, I never thought I could broaden your perspective with just a few words."

"Continuous warfare has frightened you into losing your nerve. You've even mistaken brief periods of preparation for genuine peace!"

"And because of that, your disciples were poisoned by your naive ideals and needlessly threw their lives away!"

"What I want to tell you is this: even if you refuse to change, don't stand in the way of the world moving forward!"

"Weren't you always searching for the Child of Prophecy, intending to entrust everything to him?"

"Then keep waiting."

"Even if we ultimately fail, wouldn't that still count as eliminating one wrong answer in our search for the correct one?"

Jiraiya's expression became extremely grim.

He was not angry because Uchiha Ren had belittled him.

Rather, he felt that Uchiha Ren's ideas were simply too dangerous.

Too extreme.

Jiraiya said solemnly,

"But the price of trial and error is far too high!"

"The war to unify the shinobi world will be completely different from the wars we've fought before."

"People really will die in enormous numbers!"

"To achieve great ambitions, one must be willing to make great sacrifices—to transform the world itself!"

Uchiha Ren spoke calmly.

"You don't need to remind me how much resistance we'll face in the war of unification."

"All I can tell you is that we are already prepared for war!"

"This war can no longer be avoided!"

After a brief pause, Uchiha Ren continued,

"But I am by no means someone who loves war."

"All I can do is minimize the casualties of this war as much as possible."

"Just like right now."

"Isn't that exactly what I'm doing—trying to reduce the number of deaths?"

"If we can take Sunagakure without bloodshed, we can minimize casualties to the greatest extent possible."

"Whether for Konoha or for Sunagakure."