Chapter 156: Consequences
My sensei's eyes widened at this declaration "What's brought about this change?" she asked seriously.
"There is no change, this has always been my stance. I do not enjoy battle but I have never shied away from it either. I have put in the effort to thoroughly categorize Kekkai genkai for the sake of the future. Naturally I am unwilling to see one of them hidden away like it's something to be ashamed of. Besides it's far too late for that as once the spies find out about the collection the other villages will move regardless of Wood release. They simply can't afford not to as that collection alone could cause the Kekkai genkais of the village to skyrocket." I said honestly.
She had a look of horror as she understood what I meant. What made Kekkai genkai so valuable? Power! However in exchange for that power most Kekkai genkai were exceedingly rare. In fact there was no one alive at the moment other than myself who had managed to recreate a Kekkai genkai from scratch as all the current users were born with or awoke it later. This was mostly due to how little information was available on the subject.-
There were plenty of people with the required mastery over two different elemental chakras but didn't even consider trying to create or recreate a Kekkai genkai due to the sheer unknowness of the topic. There was a serious risk of crippling oneself during experimentation that made pretty much all research into recreating or creating the things nearly nonexistent. This as a result meant that the villages cared little about a single person gaining a Kekkai genkai in a generation. Sure they put a little more effort into killing them off but that was about as far as they cared since one person was in the end only one person.-
My collection however was an existential crisis level problem for the other villages because the whole set was basically a step by step guide to acquiring Kekkai genkai so long as the requirements I set on each one was met by the person trying to learn it. Obviously the requirements were quite high since fusing two chakra natures together was not a simple process for anyone who wasn't a cracked existence like myself but the danger still existed. How many Jonin did Konoha have? Now how many mastered two different chakra natures to a high degree?-
The answer to that second question is how many potential new users of Kekkai genkai Konoha could get following my collections guidance. A lot, the answer is a whole lot of new Kekkai genkai users. ALL shinobi have at least two decent affinities for chakra natures though only one is usually dominant. This means in reality so long as enough effort was put in nearly any shinobi could learn to use a Kekkai genkai with my collections help.-
One or two new Kekkai genkai users in a generation was perfectly acceptable for the other villages but hundreds or even thousands? That was such a massive increase in overall power for Konoha that it would make it an existential threat. It wouldn't even matter whether or not Konoha only wanted peace as the power it would hold tipped the balance far too much. The worst part was that it was far too late to prevent this outcome as the collections had already been seen and utilized by some of Konoha's higher end shinobi and was gaining traction as rumors of it spread from these shinobi to their friends and so on.-
While there was no new Kekkai genkai users yet and so the spies weren't entirely sure if the rumors were true or if this was a trick the situation would change immediately the moment a single new Kekkai genkai user who lacked the associated clan name or ancestry appeared.
"How did we miss this!?" my sensei asked in horror.
"You were too focused on how this would affect Konoha alone to realize the global impact. To be fair though I did this on purpose since otherwise my work would get hidden away as a forbidden set of text and how could I ever accept that?" I said casually.
"You knew!?" she exclaimed angrily.
I nodded "I did. In fact I knew it since I started writing the collection. I was stepping on far too many toes by recreating and recording all these Kekkai genkai and the training process for them not to understand what was going to happen once word of it reached the other villages. Illogical as it is given the nature of Kekkai genkai many clans and villages consider certain Kekkai genkai theirs alone to possess. Naturally they would react quite poorly after learning that the methods to acquire them were in our hands." I admitted freely.
Frankly anyone could have figured out this same thing if I hadn't pulled a fast one to redirect the attention away from it. My little trick was ironically very simple as well. I had effectively waved a bag of gold in front of their eyes and said "Look at how much wealth we have now!" making them fail to realize until it was too late that there was a price to pay for so much wealth. It was a bit like winning the lottery back on Earth where the winner only realized how much stress came with that win after it appeared and the happiness faded.-
Maybe it was a little wrong of me to do this but my views on power were rather clear and this collection would grant Konoha so much more than the other villages. Why would we need to fear war when we could directly erase a village with sheer overwhelming power if they tried to cause one? I was more or less forcing the world to accept peace for however long it took for the other villages to steal copies of the collection and boost their forces with it.-
I was not foolish enough to believe that the collection wouldn't at some point get passed to the other villages. Whether it be from a spy or a traitor unhappy with their position in the village someone was bound to spread the information within the collection out. That was fine though as by the time that actually happens Konoha will have a massive headstart over the other villages.