Chapter 615: Winning Hearts

“Lord Leader, Senior Hanzo asked me to give this to you after the battle,” the Rain Ninja Anbu explained.

Muzuki took the scroll, placed it in his Ninja tool pouch, then formed a hand seal and released Medical Ninjutsu on Hanzo.

Under the influence of Yang Release Chakra, Hanzo’s wounds gradually healed.

The surrounding Rain Ninja saw this and understood, as if they somewhat grasped Hanzo’s actions.

“Take Senior Hanzo to prepare his remains, and also have someone clean up the traces here,” Muzuki said to the Rain Ninja Anbu.

Then, Muzuki looked at the other Rain Ninja. “I know everyone might be feeling down right now, but there are many things we need to handle. A meeting will be held in half an hour, and everyone needs to be present.”

All the Rain Ninja brought by Hanzo were not ordinary Rain Ninja; they were Hidden Rain Jōnin who held important positions in the Amegakure and were part of its management.

“Understood, Lord Sōsuke,” a Rain Ninja replied after adjusting his emotions.

During the second unrestricted lecture, he had followed Hanzo to Six Paths City to attend, and he had a good impression of Sōsuke.

Hanzo’s death pained him, but he did not hate Sōsuke.

Because in his view, this was not a struggle for fame and fortune, but Hanzo’s inheritance ceremony, and Sōsuke was the successor Hanzo chose.

The other Rain Ninja also responded, and no one chose to be a troublemaker.

On one hand, Hanzo had already prepared them mentally, and on the other hand, Sōsuke becoming the Leader of the Hidden Rain Village was not an unacceptable matter for them.

Because Sōsuke was a Ninja from the Land of Rain and had always worked for peace in the Land of Rain, achieving results.

This was one of the most important reasons. Everyone had seen what the Shinobi Sect had done and knew that Sōsuke and the Shinobi Sect genuinely wanted the Land of Rain to prosper.

Noticing that the Rain Ninja were not hostile towards him, Muzuki nodded inwardly.

Although these Rain Ninja were weaklings that Muzuki could easily kill, management couldn’t solely rely on killing.

He had just taken over the Amegakure; if he went on a killing spree, who would manage it? The entire Amegakure would fall into chaos.

Muzuki took Nagato to the Rain Ninja’s office building and walked to the door of the Leader of the Hidden Rain Village’s exclusive office.

Pushing open the wooden door of the office, Muzuki surveyed the layout of the office.

Aside from some Land of Rain characteristics in the decor, it didn’t give Muzuki any special feeling; it was just an ordinary office.

“I didn’t expect the outcome to be like this. I shouldn’t have tried to persuade Yahiko last night,” Nagato sighed.

For the Shinobi Sect, this result was perfect.

Not only did Muzuki become the Leader of the Hidden Rain Village, but Hanzo and the other former high-ranking Amegakure officials died, which would not affect Muzuki’s integration of the Amegakure’s power.

Before coming, Nagato hadn’t expected things to progress so smoothly.

He had thought that Hanzo and Danzo Shimura would besiege Muzuki, and that Hanzo might use the Amegakure’s Ninja army to besiege Muzuki, but he never thought Hanzo would admit defeat and pass on the leadership to Muzuki.

After all, Hanzo had previously tricked them into a trap under the guise of cooperation to kill them, so Nagato found it hard to imagine Hanzo’s character.

“What’s wrong with Yahiko?” Muzuki asked, pulling out an office chair and sitting down.

“He wanted to come with us to the Amegakure to see Hanzo,” Nagato explained.

If Yahiko had come, even without exchanging words, Nagato felt that Yahiko seeing Hanzo like this would have made the trip worthwhile.

“Notify him to come over now,” Muzuki said, taking out a scroll from his Ninja tool pouch.

He could still see the final portrait now; later, he would only see a photo when visiting the grave.

Nagato felt that Muzuki’s words made sense, nodded, and went out to contact the Shinobi Sect.

Muzuki opened the scroll and began to carefully examine its contents.

“Sōsuke, by the time you read this scroll, I will already be dead.”

Muzuki sighed slightly. Perhaps Hanzo had already resolved to die when he sought out the Shinobi Sect.

That’s why he didn’t accept any of the opportunities Muzuki offered.

“You don’t need to feel any particular emotion about this. I just want you to know one thing: only you can bear the heavy burden of the Land of Rain.”

“Although you are now the Leader of the Hidden Rain Village, I still want to remind you not to merge the Amegakure with the Shinobi Sect for now. This will attract the targeting of the Five Great Ninja Villages.”

Muzuki showed an approving expression; this coincided with his own thoughts.

His system was a teacher system, not a Shinobi Sect prosperity system. Rushing to merge the two forces would do more harm than good.

Without merging, both the Shinobi Sect and the Amegakure were under his control. Aside from a bit of inconvenience in administration, there were no major drawbacks.

Merging would be different. In the eyes of other Ninja forces, the Land of Rain would become even more formidable and have greater potential.

The current structure of the Ninja World was the Five Great Nations system established by the Five Great Ninja Villages through several major wars, with the Five Great Nations of Fire, Wind, Earth, Lightning, and Water dividing the interests of the Ninja World.

The rise of the Land of Rain would inevitably impact the current system, and suppression was an unavoidable outcome.

“You can falsely claim that I am still alive. If intelligence work is done well, it should not be exposed for several years.”

Muzuki showed a thoughtful expression. He would temporarily reserve this opinion and wait for a meeting to discuss it.

He wasn’t planning to hold a century-long funeral for Hanzo, but he also didn’t intend to just bury Hanzo in a random pit.

Muzuki wanted to hold Hanzo’s funeral according to the normal standards of a Leader of the Hidden Rain Village, but this would make intelligence work more difficult.

“Guang Jun, Zhu Zhu… these few can be considered decent talents among the Rain Ninja.”

Next were the names of some Hidden Rain Jōnin. Probably because the scroll couldn’t hold too much content, Hanzo only wrote a few names and then marked a document for Muzuki, indicating that there was more detailed content there.

Muzuki found the document and glanced at it, realizing that Guang Jun was the first Rain Ninja to respond after he spoke.

In addition to the Ninja’s information, Hanzo also briefly described the situation of the Amegakure in the scroll.

The Second Shinobi World War had caused heavy losses to the Amegakure, but after more than a decade of recuperation, the Rain Ninja had recovered a lot of their vitality.

Before the Shinobi Sect emerged, the Amegakure’s daily life was quite good.

After the Shinobi Sect emerged, the Amegakure had to spend energy confronting the Shinobi Sect, and then also had commissions snatched away, which hindered its development somewhat.

However, the Shinobi Sect was still very young, so overall, the Amegakure was still a relatively healthy Ninja Village.

“One thousand six hundred and fifty-two Ninja, plus the two hundred Ninja from the Shinobi Sect, means nearly two thousand Ninja can be mobilized,” Muzuki thought, putting down the Amegakure’s Ninja data.

With over eighteen hundred Ninja at hand, Muzuki could not only maintain the security of the Land of Rain very well but also dispatch more forces to promote the Shinobi Sect.

When it was almost time for the agreed-upon meeting, Muzuki took Nagato to the largest conference room in the office building.

Inside the conference room, there was only one chair with a backrest; otherwise, it was empty.

Muzuki sat directly in the only chair, waiting for the Hidden Rain Jōnin to arrive.

Nagato, meanwhile, stood beside Muzuki.

“Lord Sōsuke.”

“Lord Leader.”

As the time drew closer, the Hidden Rain Jōnin arrived one after another, greeting Muzuki, who was seated in the chair.

When the time arrived, Muzuki lightly cleared his throat and said, “The meeting begins.”

“First, the matter we need to discuss is the funeral of Senior Hanzo.”

The Rain Ninja all showed expressions of attentiveness; this was indeed a significant matter.

Hanzo was ultimately killed by Sōsuke. If Sōsuke casually botched Hanzo’s funeral, no matter how good an impression they had of Sōsuke before, they would feel uncomfortable.

“My idea is to follow normal protocol. However the funerals for previous Leaders of the Hidden Rain Village were handled, Senior Hanzo’s will be handled the same way.”

The Rain Ninja nodded; there was indeed nothing wrong with this.

“However, Senior Hanzo had an idea. He thought that if the Five Great Ninja Villages knew that the Amegakure was under my control, it would arouse their suspicion. He wanted to use an intelligence gap to create the illusion that he was still alive, thereby buying time for the Land of Rain’s development.”

As he spoke, Muzuki looked at Nagato.

Nagato understood immediately, took the scroll, walked to the front of the Rain Ninja, and spread it open.

The Rain Ninja could clearly see Hanzo’s advice to Muzuki on the scroll. As for some other contents, they were covered by a slip of paper.

Some of the content was not suitable for everyone to know.

“It’s Lord Hanzo’s handwriting!”

Some Rain Ninja looked at the familiar script and instantly recognized that this was a scroll written by Hanzo himself.

Other Rain Ninja saw the line “By the time you read this scroll, I will already be dead” and couldn’t help but feel their eyes well up.

After about three minutes, Muzuki looked at the Rain Ninja standing at the very front on the left and asked:

“Guang Jun, do you have any thoughts on this?”

Guang Jun was stunned, not expecting Sōsuke to suddenly want his opinion.

After composing himself, he showed a serious expression and said:

“I think Lord Hanzo’s idea is very good. We can simply bury Lord Hanzo and then conceal the news of his death.”

“Konoha is already targeting Lord Sōsuke’s Shinobi Sect. If they knew that Lord Sōsuke also became the Leader of the Hidden Rain Village, they would definitely be extremely wary of the Land of Rain.”

“Furthermore, Lord Sōsuke’s Shinobi Sect is already on good terms with Iwagakure. If Iwagakure knew about this, their attitude towards the Shinobi Sect might change.”

“Sunagakure has always been very wary of the Amegakure. They might take some action after hearing the news.”

As Guang Jun analyzed the pros and cons, many Rain Ninja nodded in agreement. This was indeed a measure with far more benefits than drawbacks.

After all, this wasn’t about not burying Hanzo; it was just not holding a grand funeral, which most Rain Ninja could accept.

One must remember that during intense wars, many Ninja couldn’t even retrieve bodies and could only hold symbolic funerals.

“Lord Hanzo sacrificed so much for the Amegakure, how can we let him die in obscurity!” another Rain Ninja said excitedly.

“At least, at least let everyone in the village know.”

The atmosphere fell silent for a moment.

This was a reason that was difficult to refute.

Hanzo had indeed done a lot for the Amegakure. Without Hanzo, the Amegakure might have been just an ordinary, unremarkable Ninja Village.

Muzuki looked at the excited Rain Ninja. This was also the Ninja mentioned in Hanzo’s scroll, Zhu Zhu.

The name seemed a bit strange to him, but in the current world, it was a normal name.

Because here, ‘Zhu’ referred to a fierce beast.

Muzuki scanned the room and said, “Let me tell you my thoughts.”

“The funeral will be held, according to the normal standards for a leader.”

“Lord Sōsuke, in that case…” Guang Jun couldn’t help but want to speak, but Muzuki interrupted him; his words weren’t finished.

“But we will not publicly announce my identity as the new Leader of the Hidden Rain Village,” Muzuki continued.

“We’ll choose a Ninja to act as the public leader to deceive other forces. In addition, the relationship between the Amegakure and the Shinobi Sect will not change for now.”

“What do you all think?”

This was a compromise solution.

To be most cautious, it would definitely be to spread false information, creating the illusion that Hanzo was not dead.

This way, in the eyes of other Ninja forces, the Land of Rain would not only have Sōsuke, a formidable individual, but also the demigod Hanzo, effectively adding a top-tier powerhouse out of thin air.

Hanzo’s reputation did indeed suffer after being defeated by Sōsuke, but that didn’t mean Ninja would underestimate Hanzo’s strength.

Aside from being defeated by Sōsuke, Hanzo had no other losses.

Prudence was indeed important, but Muzuki felt that the emotions of his subordinates also needed to be valued.

He was an airborne Leader of the Hidden Rain Village, and gaining the recognition of these former subordinates of Hanzo was also a very important task.

“Lord Sōsuke’s idea is better than mine. Although it lacks the deterrence of Lord Hanzo, it will also reassure the surrounding Great Shinobi Villages more,” Guang Jun praised.

He was very happy, feeling that Hanzo’s efforts were not in vain.

Whether Sōsuke could lead the Land of Rain to achieve Hanzo’s unfulfilled goals was yet unknown.

But Sōsuke indeed did not disappoint. Even after defeating Hanzo and becoming the Leader of the Hidden Rain Village, he still showed sufficient respect for Hanzo, not just looking at benefits.

“Your idea is very good,” Zhu Zhu also briefly expressed his agreement.

When Zhu Zhu first heard Sōsuke mention Hanzo’s funeral, he was actually a little angry.

Because he felt there was no need for discussion; a grand funeral would suffice. Sōsuke bringing this up must have some ill intent.

Now, Zhu Zhu felt some guilt, thinking he had misjudged Sōsuke; he had been shortsighted.

The Rain Ninja all agreed, with no one raising an objection.

If Muzuki’s system could display everyone’s favorability, Muzuki felt that the Rain Ninja should be wildly increasing their favorability towards him right now.

Besides Hanzo’s funeral, Muzuki also brought up the issue of the Shinobi Sect.

The Amegakure and the Shinobi Sect didn’t need to merge immediately, but deepening their communication was necessary.

Muzuki’s idea was to have Ninja from the Amegakure study at the Shinobi Sect, and Ninja from the Shinobi Sect perform missions in the Amegakure, to foster a clearer understanding of each other and strengthen their sense of identity.

After Muzuki finished handling the affairs of the Amegakure, he opened his system panel.

Danzo Shimura, this Konoha high-ranking official, indeed had influence. With Danzo Shimura’s death, Obito and Shisui’s life missions both underwent some changes.

Among them, Shisui’s progress was the most obvious, directly exceeding a mission settlement node.

Muzuki could only say that Danzo Shimura truly lived up to his reputation as the “King of Blame”; the changes caused by his death were indeed significant.