The situation in the ninja world had more or less stabilized.
The Divine Court was steadily growing in strength.
The spreading fame of the Divine Court, together with the rising power of the Heroic Spirit Army and the God Guard, hung over every ninja village like an invisible Sword of Damocles.
Under that unseen pressure, none of them dared make the slightest reckless move.
That included the great villages such as Iwa and Kumo,
let alone the mid-sized and small villages.
Or rather, they simply could not afford the consequences of acting rashly.
Shinju's rule remained as unshakable as a mountain.
He stood before the massive holographic sand table in the Divine Court headquarters, looking down at the map that represented the entire ninja world's power distribution, carrying the air of one overseeing all beneath the heavens.
Konoha—and the Wind Capital that had, in practice, already become its vassal—occupied the richest and most central area on the map.
The other ninja villages were like isolated islands scattered around that core.
"Peace is built on absolute strength," Shinju murmured to himself.
"Our current strength… still isn't enough."
He closed his eyes and allowed his consciousness to sink into the Heroic Spirit Hall within his mind, preparing to begin a new round of operations.
Glancing at that still-astronomical "Correction Point" balance, he once again opened the golden summoning interface.
It was time to add another member to the Heroic Spirit Hall.
This time, he was no longer thinking solely in terms of raw combat power.
As far as fighters were concerned, he already had more than enough Heroic Spirits at Kage level.
What he needed now was sustainability—how to ensure long-term development.
Minato's speed,
Shisui's genjutsu,
Sakumo's swordsmanship,
Kushina's sealing arts…
The top-tier combat strength under his command was already enough to handle any frontal battlefield.
What he needed now was a Heroic Spirit with special strategic value.
His gaze swept across the list of summonable choices.
One name after another, each having left a glorious mark in the history of the ninja world, flashed before his eyes like stars.
[First Hokage · Senju Hashirama]:
The man who founded Konoha, suppressed an entire era with his bare hands, and was praised as the God of Shinobi.
He was also the only person Uchiha Madara ever acknowledged as a lifelong rival.
His existence was one of the cornerstones of the entire ninja world's history.
[Second Hokage · Senju Tobirama]:
Master of forbidden techniques, water-style grandmaster, the ninja world's greatest administrator and reformer.
Specialized in developing practical and highly effective forbidden jutsu, and established a series of systems that influenced the next several hundred years—Ninja Academy, Anbu, and so on.
[First Kyubi Jinchuriki · Uzumaki Mito]:
Princess of the Uzumaki clan, a top-tier master of sealing arts.
She possessed a special ability to sense malice and could perfectly suppress the Nine-Tails.
[Second Tsuchikage · Mu]:
Developer of Dust Release, wielder of the split-and-erase Bloodline Selection.
One of the very top assassins in the ninja world.
[Second Mizukage · Hozuki Gengetsu]:
Skilled in Yin Release genjutsu and Joki Boi, his fighting style was strange, tricky, and ever-changing.
There were even some non-combatant choices among the names.
[Uzumaki Ashina]:
Founding leader of the Land of Whirlpools, clan head of the Uzumaki, said to have mastered every highest-level secret of Uzumaki sealing techniques.
Shinju's brow twitched slightly when he saw that name, and he promptly slid past it.
The Correction Points required for that target were enough to make even him click his tongue, and the uncertainty involved was too great.
His gaze returned to the earlier names.
Hashirama.
The God of Shinobi—his fighting power was basically the ceiling of the world.
One man crushing an entire era wouldn't be a problem.
But what Shinju needed right now was not brute force.
He had already met Hashirama once before; now simply wasn't the right time to summon him back.
Back in the Pure Land, Hashirama had joked that it was unrealistic for a soul to come and go freely from that realm…
Yet very few things Shinju had done so far could be called "realistic" to begin with.
Tobirama.
Without a doubt, he was a deeply tempting choice.
His political talent and ability to build systems were exactly what Shinju needed for his "new order."
The forbidden techniques he had developed—Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique), Edo Tensei (Impure World Reincarnation), Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique), and many others—were full of research value.
He really did play with forbidden jutsu like toys.
During Orochimaru's Konoha Crush plan, they had met once as well, though it had been brief.
Mito.
Her sealing arts might well surpass even Kushina's.
More importantly, as the wife of the First Hokage, she knew many of the oldest secrets between the Senju and Uchiha.
Each choice represented a completely different path forward.
Choosing Tobirama would greatly accelerate the construction of institutional frameworks for the new order.
Choosing Mito would push his understanding of the Tailed Beasts and sealing arts to a whole new level.
Shinju sank into deep thought.
The list before him represented several entirely different roads.
Each option was full of temptation.
His rule required roots, stability—and depth.
But he soon rejected some of these choices.
Hashirama's idealism might very well clash with his own iron-fisted method of building a new order.
That power of his was too overwhelming, and his emotions too strong.
In the early stages of a system that demanded absolute rationality, he could easily become an unstable factor.
At this stage, Shinju still felt it best not to invite the God of Shinobi onto the stage just yet.
Mito's abilities were too specialized.
For the construction of an entire ruling system, her help would ultimately be limited.
What Shinju needed was someone who could take the grand blueprint in his mind
and turn it into a set of precise, efficient, and executable institutions.
He needed a builder.
Not one who built forests and cities,
but one who built rules and order.
He needed an absolute rationalist,
a master of pragmatism,
someone who could hammer cold, abstract ideas into a social framework so solid it couldn't be shaken.
This person could not be ruled by emotion.
They had to possess vision far ahead of their time.
They had to understand how to wield power,
how to design institutions,
how to make an enormous machine run exactly according to its designer's will.
His gaze finally locked onto a single name.
[Second Hokage · Senju Tobirama].
Master of forbidden techniques, water-style grandmaster, the ninja world's greatest administrator and reformer.
Ninja Academy, Anbu, Chunin Exams, Konoha Police Force…
all of these institutions that shaped the ninja world for centuries had been born from his hand.
He was not as dazzling as his older brother,
but it was the framework he created that supported Konoha's prosperity for decades.
The Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Technique), Edo Tensei (Impure World Reincarnation), Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Technique) he devised—
each and every one of them was a work of staggering creativity and practicality.
He was a scholar who treated ninjutsu as a science.
And what Shinju needed—was exactly someone like that.
A chief architect who could build the order of his new world.
(End of Chapter)
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