NABC Chapter 285 Menma's Talk-no-Jutsu
Chapter 285 Menma's Talk-no-Jutsu
Chapter 285 Menma's Talk-no-Jutsu
On the other side, in the ruins of the sand city, hot winds swirled sand through the broken walls, making a mournful sound.
Tsunade stood on the edge of a relatively intact platform, her golden ponytail swaying slightly in the dry wind.
She crossed her arms and gazed solemnly at the distant battlefield, which resembled a living hell.
When she saw the One-Tailed Shukaku, covered in purple cursed markings, appear, her heroic eyebrows involuntarily rose.
"Sunagakure—they even brought the One-Tailed Jinchuriki." Her voice held a hint of surprise. "It seems Rasa has gone all out this time, even using his 'last weapon.'"
Shizune, holding the trembling Tonton, quickly came to Tsunade's side, her face also full of surprise.
Even from this distance, the hatred and tyranny chakra emanating from Shukaku made her feel breathless.
This was the first time she had ever seen a fully-formed tailed beast in person. Compared to the two even more terrifying tailed beasts in the distance, Shukaku was closer to them and the sense of oppression was even stronger!
"Lady Tsunade—is that the One-Tailed Beast from Sunagakure? So—so terrifying chakra—" Shizune's voice trembled slightly, and she subconsciously tightened her grip on Ton-Ton, who also made uneasy "Ton-Ton" sounds.
"That Shura—will he be in trouble facing the One-Tail? Although I've heard that the One-Tail isn't the strongest among the tailed beasts, it's still a tailed beast after all—"
Upon hearing this, Tsunade gave a soft hum, but her gaze involuntarily drifted to the distant Nine-Tails, which was still clinging to the Ten-Tails and frantically devouring its vast chakra.
Her eyes were deep, carrying a hint of reminiscence and complex emotions.
"Troublesome?" Tsunade shook her head, her tone certain: "The other tailed beasts are simply not comparable to Kurama. They are on completely different levels."
She paused, pointed in the direction of the Dark Nine-Tails, and continued, "Look over there. If that guy can subdue and control even the Nine-Tails in that state and that ten-tailed tailed beast—then what about the mere One-Tailed Shukaku—"
Before she could finish speaking, Shizune beside her suddenly widened her eyes and exclaimed in disbelief, "Tsuna! Look!"
Tsunade immediately turned her attention back to the main battlefield.
In the distance, sand and dust filled the sky, and the once fierce Shukaku now looked extremely disheveled!
On its enormous body made of sand, a huge hole suddenly appeared, as if a piece had been forcibly scooped out by some terrifying force!
The once complete head was now missing half of its head, and grains of sand were constantly peeling off and flying from the wound as if gravity had been lost.
Around Shukaku's broken body, a black figure wreathed in pale green light was flashing wildly at a speed too fast for the naked eye to follow!
Each flash was accompanied by a dull thud and Shukaku's even more shrill and painful howl.
Fists covered in green light rained down like raindrops, each blow shattering a large chunk of Shukaku's body, sending dust flying and almost completely engulfing the area.
That was not a close battle at all, but a one-sided, brutal crushing defeat!
"This—this—" Shizune stared in disbelief, while the little pig in her arms buried its head even deeper.
"It's unbelievable—a tailed beast—is being used as a punching bag—"
Tsunade watched this scene in silence, her heart filled with turmoil.
To be able to fight a tailed beast bare-handed and beat it to a pulp is a feat that surpasses the capabilities of an ordinary Kage-level shinobi.
She instinctively reached for her waist, picked up the wine jug she always carried, uncorked it, and tilted her head back to gulp down a mouthful.
The spicy liquid slid down her throat, but it couldn't completely suppress the shock in her heart.
"That guy—" Tsunade put down the sake bottle, wiped her mouth with her sleeve, her gaze fixed on the figure, and muttered to herself, "I feel—there's a strange sense of familiarity about him. Where exactly is he—"
Her whispers were drowned out by Shukaku's final roar, filled with fear and frustration, in the distance.
The massive, tattered body instantly disintegrated, turning into a shower of quicksand that receded rapidly like a receding tide, clearly resealing itself back into the Jinchūriki's body.
The battle came to an abrupt end in a way that surprised everyone.
Before long, a black figure emerged from the gradually calming sandstorm and landed lightly on the high platform of the ruins.
It was the face of the enemy that ended the battle.
His divine robes remained impeccably clean, as if the fierce battle that had just taken place had never occurred.
In his arms lay a sleeping red-haired boy, Gaara.
Tsunade's gaze was immediately drawn to the child in Menma's arms.
She stepped forward and carefully examined Gaara's peaceful sleeping face. The heavy dark circles under his eyes contrasted sharply with his youthful appearance, causing her to frown slightly: "This is the Jinchuriki of the One-Tailed Beast? He's just a child."
There was a subtle, complex quality to her tone.
She thought of Naruto, the same child whose tailed beast was sealed away, who grew up amidst discrimination and isolation from the villagers.
Although she had left the village many years before the Nine-Tails' attack, she knew something about Naruto's situation. Menma didn't answer directly, but instead gestured to Shizune beside her, "Could you please bring me a blanket?"
"Huh? Oh! Okay!" Shizune responded quickly, carefully placing Tun Tun on the ground, and quickly taking out a clean wool blanket from her bag and spreading it on a relatively flat stone slab in the corner.
Menma gently placed Gaara on the blanket and covered him up.
The little boy unconsciously curled up in his sleep and hugged the tattered teddy bear toy in his arms.
"Miss Shizune, could you please boil some more water?" Menma continued, her tone calm, as if she were dealing with a trivial matter.
"Yes, I'll go right away." Shizune didn't dare to delay and immediately took action, taking out some firewood and a jar from her storage scroll to prepare for starting a fire.
Ton-ton obediently squatted to the side, its little eyes curiously observing the sleeping Gaara.
After arranging these things, Menma turned to Tsunade and answered her earlier question: "It's probably because the commotion caused by the Ten-Tails and Kujaku was too great; it would be difficult to avoid attracting the attention of Sunagakure. The chakra fluctuations at the level of a Tailed Beast are the highest level of alarm for any ninja village. So it's not surprising that Rasa not only personally led the team but also brought along the Jinchuriki, who is the ultimate weapon."
Tsunade stood to the side, arms crossed, watching Menma's composed and seemingly in control manner. Suddenly, she chuckled, a hint of coldness in her smile.
"Heh—easy for you to say." Her gaze sharpened as she looked at Menma, her tone becoming aggressive: "You've nearly crippled Sunagakure's elite forces, even forcing the Fourth Kazekage to flee in disarray, and you even managed to kidnap the One-Tailed Jinchuriki. Sunagakure has suffered a significant blow this time, but they certainly won't let it go. What are you planning to do next?"
Her voice rose a few decibels, carrying a questioning tone: "Are you preparing to use this opportunity to formally provoke a war against the Land of Wind? Just like when you annexed the Land of Bears and the Land of Darkness, will you also slaughter the nobles and daimyo of the Land of Wind?"
Faced with Tsunade's sharp gaze and pointed questions, Menma's face remained expressionless, as if he were listening to something that had nothing to do with him.
He even shook his head slightly, a hint of melancholy in his voice:
"As the granddaughter of Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi, and having traveled the ninja world for so many years, witnessing countless deaths and darkness—it's truly disappointing that she would ask such a naive and shallow question."
"What did you say?!" Tsunade's brows furrowed instantly, a surge of anger rising within her.
No one has ever dared to describe her like that before!
Ignoring her anger, Menma continued in his calm yet piercing tone, "So-called nobles and daimyo are nothing but parasites that live off ordinary people, sucking their marrow from their bones."
"Lady Tsunade, you're not that little girl living in the greenhouse of Konoha anymore. Tell me, in all your years traveling the ninja world, how many of the nobles and daimyo you've met have clean hands? How many haven't wantonly exploited and bullied the common people? Every single penny of their mountain of wealth, wasn't it taken from the blood, sweat, and suffering of countless ordinary people?"
He stared coldly into Tsunade's eyes: "What is the meaning of their existence? Besides maintaining their lofty privileges and perpetuating their corrupt and decadent bloodline, have they ever made any contribution to the vast majority of this world?"
Tsunade opened her mouth, wanting to refute, but found her throat was a little dry.
Countless images flashed through her mind.
Those images she deliberately used alcohol and gambling to numb herself and try to forget.
The arrogance of noblemen galloping through the streets, trampling commoners before speeding away; the proclamation of a daimyo forcibly increasing taxes to build a luxurious palace, leading to the bankruptcy of countless families; the despairing eyes of a girl discarded like trash after being played with by nobles; the brutal suppression of commoners who rose up due to unbearable taxes by samurai and ninjas hired by nobles...
She had indeed seen too much, but she always chose to turn away, not to look, not to think, as if as long as she closed her eyes, those sufferings would cease to exist.
Just then, Shizune carefully walked over, carrying a kettle of boiling water.
Tun Tun followed at her feet.
They sensed the tense and oppressive atmosphere between Tsunade and Menma, and their movements became much quieter, not daring to make the slightest sound.
Menma glanced at the timid Shizune and the intelligent little pig, then turned his gaze back to Tsunade, whose expression was constantly shifting, and continued, his tone tinged with sarcasm: "You're saying that without the rule and management of nobles and daimyo, the world would descend into chaos?"
Before Tsunade could answer, he asked and answered himself: "Then please tell me, in the Land of Stars, there are no longer any nobles or daimyo. Have you ever heard that it has become chaotic and the people are suffering? On the contrary, what kind of hellish scene is the Land of Rain under the 'wise' rule of nobles and daimyo that you have seen?"
The suffering of those who struggled to survive amidst war and oppressive rule—aren't these the best proof?
Tsunade instinctively wanted to refute it, saying that it was a system, an order formed over thousands of years!
She blurted out, "But—but this kind of ruling structure has existed for over a thousand years! It—"
"Thousands of years?" Menma interrupted her. "Then, what about a thousand years ago? In ancient times, before the concept of a nation was born, before words like 'noble' and 'daimyo' existed, how did humans live and organize their societies? Did the world fall into perpetual chaos and slaughter because of them?"
"—" Tsunade was completely stunned.
She opened her mouth, but no sound came out.
She received ninja training from a young age, learning ninjutsu, taijutsu, and genjutsu. Her mission was paramount, and she embodied the Will of Fire.
They have never systematically studied history, nor have they thought about the origin and evolution of social structures.
The problem of facial numbness was like a crack that had been carved into her solid cognitive barrier, a crack she had never imagined before.
Menma, seeing Tsunade speechless, knew that his words had had an effect.
He stopped pressing, instead turning his gaze to the dilapidated, sand-and-stone staircase in the adjacent room, his tone softening, carrying a guiding implication:
"Those who divide people into different classes based on blood ties, power, and wealth, like nobles and daimyo, are high and mighty beings, which I call—classes."
"Class?" Tsunade repeated the unfamiliar word unconsciously, her gaze involuntarily following Menma's gaze to the dilapidated staircase.
“That’s right, class.” Menma used a vivid analogy: “Look, it’s like this staircase. At the very bottom, in the largest number, are ordinary people. They are the cornerstone of society, bearing the heaviest labor, yet enjoying the fewest resources and dignity.”
His gaze slowly moved upwards: "Above are the ninja class. They possess power, serve their employers, and live by missions and battles. Those who employ them are usually nobles, daimyo, or other powerful figures. Ordinary people simply don't have the wealth to employ ninjas."
"Above that is the merchant class, who accumulate wealth through trade and exploitation."
"Then came the aristocratic class, who, through blood ties and hereditary status, controlled land, power, and a portion of the military force."
"At the very top, in the fewest numbers, is the daimyo class, the nominal rulers of a country, who possess the highest power and the greatest wealth."
His gaze finally settled on the non-existent top of the stairs, his voice icy: "Each class, the higher up, has fewer people, but the resources and wealth they possess are more concentrated. Ultimately, this forms a stable—pyramid structure."
Tsunade's gaze fell upon the staircase that symbolized the hierarchy, and a thunderclap seemed to explode in her mind!
She murmured to herself, "You mean—those most numerous ordinary people—are actually the foundation—supporting the entire pyramid?"
Suddenly, she remembered some of the seemingly illogical actions of her grandfather, Hashirama Senju, who made the powerful Senju clan members in the ninja world at the time hide their surnames and disperse to integrate into Konoha Village, thus blurring the boundaries between clans—she had only vaguely thought that this was for the sake of village unity before, but now she seemed to have touched on a deeper reason.
Menma seemed to read her thoughts and spoke at the right moment, his tone tinged with regret: "Hashirama Senju... Back then, he did indeed, with his extraordinary vision and intuition, vaguely see some of the cruel truths of this world. The so-called ninja clans, in a way, aren't they just another class standing above ordinary people? Ninjas, through their martial arts, also occupy more resources and social status."
"Ninjas don't fight with ordinary people for anything!" Tsunade retorted almost instinctively, upholding the dignity of ninjas: "Ninjas have their own way of life and rules! We are employed on missions and as servants—."
"So, what has the battle between ninjas brought to this world?" Menma's voice suddenly turned cold, piercing Tsunade's heart like an ice pick: "You saw it with your own eyes, you experienced it firsthand in the Land of Rain! During the Second Shinobi World War, the Land of Rain became a battlefield for the great powers' power struggles. The three great nations of Fire, Wind, and Earth, and even other ninja villages, were drawn into it. What a hell it became! Countless civilians were torn apart by the war, their families destroyed, and corpses littered the fields—weren't all of this caused by the battles between ninjas?"
Tsunade shuddered violently, her face turning deathly pale.
Those memories she had deliberately buried surged forth.
A shattered village, crying children, the pervasive smell of gunpowder and blood, and—the endless sorrow and despair when Duan and Shengshu died.
She stumbled and almost lost her balance.
Tsunade, forcing herself to speak, said with all her might, "So—so that's why my grandfather ended the Warring States period and established the ninja village system! He brought peace to the ninja world! Yes, I admit that wars between major powers were much larger in scale, but at least within each of the major powers, apart from the three Shinobi World Wars, they enjoyed nearly fifty years of peace in total! Isn't that progress?"
She tried to cling to this last belief, to defend her grandfather’s great achievements and to justify her own long-held beliefs.
Menma watched her quietly, observing the struggle and pain, and a glimmer of hope, in her eyes. After a moment of silence, he finally let out a long sigh:
"This is precisely what I regret."
"Regret?" Gang was taken aback, not understanding. "What are you regretting?"
Menma raised his head, his expression heavy with a sense of having pierced through history: "What I regret is that Hashirama Senju, who possessed absolute power enough to sweep across the entire ninja world and crush all other countries and ninja villages, failed to—or rather, was unwilling to—take that final, and most crucial step."
"Why destroy other countries and ninja villages?!" Tsunade shouted excitedly. "Isn't that still war? War with the Five Great Nations? That goes against the peace that my grandfather sought!"
Menma remained unmoved by her agitation. He slowly turned his head, his heterochromatic eyes fixed on Tsunade, and asked a question she had never considered, or rather, dared not ponder:
"Then, Lord Tsuna, please think about this calmly."
"Just like Hashirama Senju ended the internal ninja conflicts in the Land of Fire, bringing decades of peace to the Land of Fire."
"If, back then, Hashirama Senju, with his unparalleled power, had truly unified the entire ninja world, integrating all countries and all ninja villages into one, creating only one country, one ninja village, and one unified will in the whole world—"
His voice wasn't loud, but it resonated deeply in Tsunade's mind:
"Then, through the efforts of two or three generations, time will be used to smooth over and dissolve the hatred and estrangement accumulated between the various ninja clans and countries. So, please tell me."
"Will those three subsequent Shinobi World Wars, which swept across the entire shinobi world, causing countless deaths and injuries, and inflicting unforgettable pain on countless people, including you, ever happen again?"
"A country, a ninja village?" Tsuna froze on the spot, his pupils trembling violently.
This simple yet unprecedented concept instantly swept through her mind, shattering her decades of knowledge.
She stared blankly at Mianma, her mind a complete blank, with only that resounding question echoing in her mind.
Will war still break out?