Chapter 356: All Talk, No Skill, Yet Always Looking for Trouble!

At the same time, in the Land of Wind, Hidden Sand Village, on the plaza in front of the Kazekage Building.

One group after another of civilians from Sunagakure were escorted from various shelters to the plaza by Konoha shinobi.

Fear of their current situation, anxiety about the future, and anger and hatred toward the Konoha shinobi were written all over their faces.

But circumstances were stronger than people. Under the pressure exerted by the Konoha shinobi, these powerless civilians had no choice but to cooperate, moving forward with the crowd.

Before long, the entire plaza in front of the Kazekage Building was packed with civilians from Sunagakure.

The sight felt strangely familiar to many of them.

They had gathered in exactly this way many times before!

The difference was that those occasions had been for major “celebrations” in the village that required the entire village to bear witness.

Such as the inauguration of a new Kazekage.

This time, however, they had been forcibly gathered by shinobi from an enemy village. It was nighttime rather than daytime, and the people standing atop the Kazekage Building were not their Kazekage, but shinobi from an enemy village!

“The civilians of Sunagakure have all been brought here, but they aren’t exactly looking at us very kindly.”

“I tried talking to them, but I think you should understand as well—the hatred that has accumulated between Sunagakure and Konoha over generations isn’t something that can be dispelled with a few words.”

On the rooftop of the Kazekage Building, Jiraiya looked somewhat sheepish as he spoke to Uchiha Ren, who remained expressionless.

Although Jiraiya had understood the moment he received the mission from the Uchiha that it was impossible to complete, the mission was nevertheless an attempt to put his own ideals into practice.

Now that he had actually failed, Jiraiya still felt somewhat ashamed to face anyone.

Uchiha Ren, who had anticipated this outcome from the beginning, showed no particular reaction. He merely asked flatly,

“Exactly how did you go about it?”

Jiraiya was taken aback and answered somewhat awkwardly, “How? Well, I first tried to calm them down, telling them that we wouldn’t hurt them, and then I intended to persuade them little by little…”

“Foolish!”

Ren looked at Jiraiya with a frown.

“What you’re doing is no different from breaking into someone’s home, killing the man of the house, taking his wife and children captive, then putting a knife to their throats and telling them, ‘Don’t worry, I won’t hurt you.'”

“Have you tried this approach before?”

Jiraiya fell silent, then nodded.

“And did it work?”

Jiraiya gave a bitter smile and shook his head.

Seeing this, Ren’s brow furrowed even deeper.

“If you already know this path doesn’t work, did you never consider trying a different direction? Even if you want people to understand one another, surely this isn’t the only possible method!”

Jiraiya froze and hesitated.

“But this is how it’s always been done throughout history. How could there possibly be…”

“Does something being done throughout history automatically make it right?”

Uchiha Ren cut him off, his voice cold.

“If everything done since ancient times were correct, then why has war continued from ‘ancient times’ all the way to the present?”

“You’re already standing on the shoulders of those who came before you, yet you’re still walking the same roads they walked. What’s the point? What use are you?”

Jiraiya was left completely stunned by Ren’s words.

Then his stunned expression gradually transformed into one of deep self-doubt.

Was he really wrong?

It seemed… he really was.

Ren shook his head.

“Looks like you’ve spent your time either peeping at women or searching for that so-called Child of Prophecy. You never actually took the time to analyze the essence of the problem.”

After a brief pause, Ren couldn’t be bothered to say anything more.

“Just watch me from here on out. Watch carefully and learn.”

With that, Uchiha Ren ignored Jiraiya and walked toward the loudspeaker equipment that had already been set up at the edge of the rooftop.

As Ren approached, his figure became clearly visible to the civilians gathered in the plaza below, drawing everyone’s attention.

“Ahem…”

Ren cleared his throat twice, drawing the attention of the civilians below.

The people of Sunagakure immediately realized what was happening.

The man standing on the rooftop of the Kazekage Building was probably the leader of the Konoha shinobi who had invaded their village!

In an instant, one furious gaze after another fell upon Ren.

If looks could kill, Ren would probably have been hacked to pieces countless times by now.

“Those are some good looks.”

Ren spoke calmly.

“You have every right to be angry. Konoha broke through your Sunagakure’s border defenses in a single day, then launched a lightning assault on your village and captured Sunagakure in less than an hour.”

“In other words, the shinobi of Sunagakure were utterly helpless before the shinobi of Konoha!”

Ren’s contemptuous words immediately inflamed the crowd below.

Some of the bolder civilians, those who weren’t afraid of dying, directly began hurling curses at him.

No matter how terrible something belonging to your own village might be, only your own people had the right to criticize it. When had it become Konoha’s place to lecture them?

For a moment, the civilians of Sunagakure erupted in outrage!

Ren chuckled and simply increased the volume of the loudspeaker.

“You’re angry because, in your eyes, Konoha is the aggressor. We invaded your homeland, so naturally, you’re genuinely furious.”

“Fine. Let’s say that Konoha is the aggressor. But I’d like to ask you something: Was this war started by Konoha?”

“Wasn’t it your Sunagakure that invaded Konoha first, fighting all the way to Kikyō Mountain inside the Land of Fire?”

“And if we go back several decades, starting with the First Shinobi World War, then the Second Shinobi World War, and then the Third Shinobi World War—wasn’t it Sunagakure that initiated the war against Konoha each time?”

“So tell me, then: Which of us is actually the aggressor? Konoha, or Sunagakure?”

“When Sunagakure launches war against Konoha, shouldn’t the hundreds of thousands of people in Konoha be angry? Shouldn’t the tens of millions of people in the Land of Fire be angry?”

“I want to ask you this: Doesn’t this behavior of Sunagakure amount to banditry? Isn’t it shameless?”

“Isn’t it utterly shameless?”

As Ren’s words built upon one another, the civilians of Sunagakure, who had been so enraged moments earlier, gradually fell silent.

The fury that had filled their hearts seemed to drain away in an instant.

Lies don’t hurt people.

The truth is the sharpest blade.

And Ren’s blade was both swift and precise, striking Sunagakure exactly where it hurt most.

He had directly exposed the ugly truth behind Sunagakure’s behavior: they were always eager to pick fights despite repeatedly being unable to win them.

The civilians below could only feel their noses burning with embarrassment, as though their faces were about to turn red.

Beside him, Jiraiya was completely dumbfounded.

He couldn’t understand Ren’s approach at all.