Chapter 226: This Is What Politics Is
"Ah?"
But Shikaku Nara's words left Jiraiya dumbstruck, completely unable to imagine there could be so many twists and turns involved.
"How—how can you do this?" Jiraiya shot to his feet in shock, glaring at Shikaku Nara.
"This is framing and entrapment!"
"How can you call it framing?" Shikaku Nara argued righteously. "If they had no treasonous intent, no matter how much I tempted them, today's events wouldn't have occurred."
"Look at those smaller families who didn't participate. They also didn't know our plan beforehand, but they didn't fall for it!"
"At most, my scheme can be considered entrapment."
"I know Lord Hokage is kind-hearted, so everything was designed based on a scenario where everyone emerges unharmed."
"In fact, the results were very ideal—everything went exactly as planned."
"How is this ideal?" Jiraiya paced the room in agitation. "Those clan jonin are furious beyond measure."
"You're clearly just... just..."
Jiraiya struggled for a long time to find the right words, unable to figure out how to describe this approach.
Shikaku Nara's methods were very logical and very effective, but they were truly difficult for him to accept.
This approach wasn't upright and aboveboard at all—instead, it was full of underhanded schemes, completely contrary to his usual way of doing things.
"Lord Hokage." Shikaku Nara reminded him: "Things have already reached this point. Regretting it now is useless."
"If Lord Hokage feels my methods truly violate propriety and will affect village harmony and stability, you can certainly punish me severely."
"Strip me of my position, or other punishments—I can accept them all."
"The Nara family won't have any objections either. We'll select another excellent clan member to replace my position and continue serving Lord Hokage."
"That's not necessary." Jiraiya waved his hand irritably. "Your intentions were for the village's good. I can't punish you for your goodwill."
"But this kind of thing absolutely cannot happen again. At least you need to give me advance warning so I'm prepared!"
"My sincere apologies, Lord Hokage." Shikaku Nara immediately prostrated himself in apology.
"The main consideration was that your heart is too kind, Lord Hokage. If I'd told you in advance, you most likely wouldn't have agreed."
"So I took it upon myself to act. Please forgive me."
"Please rest assured, I will never act on my own authority like this again."
"Sigh!" Jiraiya sighed, about to say something when his brow suddenly furrowed, as if detecting some problem.
He pondered carefully for a moment, then his gaze at Shikaku Nara suddenly turned peculiar.
"My choice to flip the table was completely spontaneous—a momentary impulse after finding no solution."
"Even I didn't know beforehand I would do this."
"So how did you know I would choose to break the deadlock with force?"
"Or rather... was your last-minute retreat also a snap decision?"
"If I hadn't chosen violence at that moment, but instead reluctantly retreated and agreed to those clans' conditions, would you have simply gone along with it, playing your role and enjoying the spoils of victory alongside those clans?"
"Ah, wait—that's not right. Knowing you high-IQ types, you probably prepared seven or eight contingency plans. No matter what I chose, you'd have ways to handle it."
"Either way, those fools were out front as cannon fodder while you hid behind the scenes. Whether advancing or retreating, you'd remain undefeated."
"Lord Hokage, you're being overly suspicious." Shikaku Nara's expression remained unchanged as he answered: "As Hokage advisor, I understand Lord Hokage's character quite well. I could completely judge that you would absolutely never compromise with the clan jonin, and would definitely resolve this dispute in a very decisive manner."
"The facts prove my judgment was correct."
"Really?" Jiraiya's own mind wasn't particularly sharp, but he'd witnessed how clever some people could be, so he couldn't determine whether Shikaku Nara's words were true or false.
"Of course it's true!" Shikaku Nara declared with absolute certainty. "My judgments never fail!"
"Lord Hokage indeed showed great decisiveness. Your appearance standing atop Gamahiro and roaring powerfully had much of the First Hokage's bearing when he dominated the shinobi world."
Being praised so effusively by Shikaku Nara, Jiraiya couldn't help scratching his head and grinning sheepishly.
"Oh well, oh well, I'm not that great! Haha..."
Shikaku Nara secretly breathed a sigh of relief, skillfully deflecting the topic.
"Now that things have reached this point, Lord Hokage should begin considering how much wealth to confiscate from these families."
He pulled out a ledger from his sleeve and respectfully presented it with both hands.
"I've already compiled statistics on these families' assets. Their main liquid wealth is all listed here. Please review it, Lord Hokage."
"Heh, so you had this prepared all along!" Jiraiya smirked, but his attention indeed shifted to this matter.
He didn't reach for the ledger, instead beginning to hesitate.
Should he really use this excuse to confiscate these families' assets?
Would doing so... be appropriate?
Seeming to guess Jiraiya's thoughts, Shikaku Nara continued:
"Lord Hokage, you've seen what kind of character those people have."
"They respect power but not virtue."
"Don't let their current surrender fool you—they won't truly give up."
"Lord Hokage could certainly treat this incident as if it never happened, letting them off lightly to demonstrate your mercy."
"But these families won't feel grateful for Lord Hokage's mercy. Instead, they'll think you're too soft, easy to bully."
"They'll only become more presumptuous because of this, acting increasingly outrageously, bit by bit testing Lord Hokage's bottom line until you can no longer tolerate it and begin punishing them."
"I believe Lord Hokage shouldn't give them the chance to probe gradually. Better to be decisive from the start, completely crushing their delusions to avoid future trouble."
"Is that so!" Jiraiya felt these words made sense, but his heart still felt uncomfortable, unable to get past this mental hurdle.
"But doing this, isn't it—isn't it somewhat—a bit too underhanded?"
Facing Jiraiya's question, Shikaku Nara smiled broadly.
"Lord Hokage, politics—this is what politics is!"
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