After returning home and spending three proper days living a life where she did not have to think about work at all, and could even go find Rei Kaguya for lunch and dinner dates every day, Mei Terumi ultimately returned to her post ahead of schedule.
And when the people of Kirigakure once again saw Mei Terumi's figure in the position of the Mizukage's secretary officer, a feeling called reassurance could not help rising in their hearts.
Had Kirigakure finally returned to normal?
It was only natural for Kirigakure's shinobi to think this way.
Because while Mei Terumi had been away handling negotiations with Konoha, Rei Kaguya, lacking a trustworthy secretary officer, had directly appeared in person to handle all the village's intelligence and paperwork, large and small.
And the greatest difference between him and her was that Rei Kaguya's eyes could tolerate just the tiniest bit less sand.
When Mei Terumi was present, things were still all right. After all, she was also a Bloody Mist shinobi raised under Kirigakure's traditional education. Although she walked very, very close to Rei Kaguya, at least in the handling of certain matters, she could understand, and even tolerate, the maladjustment of Kirigakure shinobi during this transitional period.
Most of the time, she would leave everyone some room to maneuver. Even when mistakes were truly made, the corresponding punishment would be relatively lighter.
But Rei Kaguya was different.
As the most radical reformer in Kirigakure, and even in the entire shinobi world, his patience toward those who intentionally or unintentionally interfered with his reform policies had always been quite limited.
Certain issues that Mei Terumi would handle with an appropriate bias toward Kirigakure's shinobi, once they fell into Rei Kaguya's hands, would usually become typical examples with an extremely strong effect of killing the chicken to warn the monkeys.
Although only three or four such unlucky fools appeared during this period, the deterrent effect on Kirigakure from top to bottom was still extremely obvious.
At the very least, in the implementation and execution of the policies Rei Kaguya had seriously and specifically emphasized, there were already very few people who dared harbor luck and treat them lightly.
"I finally understand why everyone looked like the whole world was celebrating when they saw me return."
After spending the entire afternoon placing the various documents piled up inside the Mizukage's office back where they belonged, Mei Terumi supported her slightly aching slender waist and spoke to Rei Kaguya, who had just returned to the Mizukage's office carrying dinner for two.
"I'm not saying your methods were too excessive or anything, Rei. But considering that the village is about to enter a new round of expansion, being a little lenient and letting them make up for their mistakes with merit should also be acceptable, right? It could even help win over the village's popular support along the way…"
"It is precisely because we are about to begin external output that I must let them know early which fields can use flexible moral bottom lines, and which fields must absolutely not be casually interfered with."
Rei Kaguya pushed Mei Terumi's portion of seafood fried rice in front of her and shrugged.
"When they already dare to reach their hands up and down, take benefits, and extort others during Kirigakure's internal reforms, if I release them without doing anything and let them go outside, wouldn't they torment the allies we finally won over until they suffered beyond endurance? It's not as if I didn't give them necessary preferential treatment and privileges. If they insist on being greedy and crossing the line, then I can only let them and the families behind them reacquaint themselves with me."
"You really are becoming more and more fond of acting willfully while relying on your own strength…"
Mei Terumi shook her head helplessly, opened the insulated box containing the seafood fried rice, and gently smelled that incredibly familiar aroma.
At the same time, she picked up an intelligence scroll she had deliberately set aside, shook it toward Rei Kaguya, and asked curiously,
"But speaking of which, this fellow… are you truly planning to use him, Rei?"
"If Konoha hadn't been smashed into this state, there would have been no problem keeping him frozen for a while longer. But now that Konoha has become like this, it would be far too wasteful not to release him and seize the market in time."
Rei Kaguya looked at the word "Sasori" printed on the scroll and spoke casually.
"Besides, using him at this time also happens to sell Queen Sara of Roran another favor, giving her an opportunity to use Roran's strength to help Konoha in return. During the days you were away, after receiving the intelligence that Konoha had suffered a great disaster, she wrote me several letters in a row. In every single one, she asked when exactly the puppetry technicians we promised to provide Roran would arrive."
"Then how will Sasori of the Red Sand's watcher be arranged? Will Shisui Uchiha still be responsible?"
Mei Terumi lightly spun the intelligence scroll on her fingertip and asked with some curiosity.
"Serving as Sasori of the Red Sand's watcher is related to both Kirigakure and Konoha's safety, and requires someone skilled in the genjutsu that Sasori of the Red Sand is least good at dealing with. Other than our warm-hearted and kind little brother Shisui, who else is more suitable for carrying out this mission?"
Rei Kaguya smiled as he took a piece of deep-sea tuna sushi from his own insulated box and put it into his mouth, speaking somewhat indistinctly.
"Aren't you worried that if he spends too much time outside the village, he'll develop some strange thoughts?" Mei Terumi asked casually from the perspective of Kirigakure's interests.
"Hm, how should I put it? People from the Uchiha clan are basically the kind of fellows who cling stubbornly to what they believe. Before they receive an ideological shock on the level of heaven and earth overturning, they usually won't betray the thing they are currently upholding."
Rei Kaguya swallowed the sushi in his mouth and spoke without concern.
"I used ideas and concepts two or three steps beyond the current era to reshape his understanding of the world. If someone can theoretically convince Shisui Uchiha to betray me again, then that person's ideology must be so radical that the entire shinobi world would be unable to tolerate him for even a moment. A madman like that would naturally draw the whole shinobi world's siege without me needing to create any momentum. What would there be to worry about?"
"Only two or three steps ahead!?"
Hearing Rei Kaguya's self-evaluation, Mei Terumi opened her eyes wide in shock.
"I… I thought the future you envisioned, Rei, was already a perfect ending that could let peace forever cover every person in the world…"
"A perfect ending? Mei Terumi, you really do think too highly of me…"
Rei Kaguya shook his head helplessly and spoke with some emotion.
"Systems, laws, and thoughts that look perfect in the present will also expose more and more limitations and shortcomings as the era continues developing. Not to mention that the ones responsible for maintaining systems and enforcing laws are humans, beings so easily changed and corrupted…"
"Putting everything else aside, suppose we completely unify the shinobi world, and during the next several decades of rule, we continue maintaining Kirigakure's unique privileged status within the state as we do now. Do you think the countries and hidden villages we conquered, and the descendants of those people, would rise in rebellion because of the injustice they suffer?"
"…Even thinking that far ahead is still not enough?" Mei Terumi caught the falling scroll in midair and asked with a complicated expression.
"Unfortunately, the human race will never stop moving forward and developing. That means people of the present can never truly predict the exact form of the future. It also means human thought must constantly advance and expand. Otherwise, it will be thrown behind by material development and drag the entire world into confusion and stagnation."
"So that is why, even knowing that Nagato's ideas are not completely aligned with yours, you still spoke frankly with him about your various concepts and insights regarding the world?"
"As for Nagato, I was only broadening his way of thinking. It can't really be said that I have especially high hopes for him."
Rei Kaguya thought for a while. An odd smile could not help appearing on his face.
He clasped his hands behind his back, looked out the window, and spoke slowly.
"If we are talking about who I place more hope in when it comes to breakthroughs in humanistic thought, then it would still be the people of the Uchiha clan—especially those geniuses talented enough to awaken the Mangekyo Sharingan."
"I can't help looking forward to the scene where they, through contemplation and analysis of history and reality, open up a philosophical system of thought unprecedented in the shinobi world. Then, because of their respective understandings of and persistence in philosophy, they use those pairs of Mangekyo Sharingan that reflect their souls to collide fiercely with one another."
"That would surely be the most brilliant ideological clash in the history of the shinobi world, and also the easiest one for people to understand, wouldn't it?"
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