Annexing Isan is not an option, as we discussed earlier in the thread. We have no way to convince them that doesn't spoil EM nukes, which would just cause them to develop their own EM nukes and defeat the purpose.
We cannot militarily compel them to be annexed because of AMITY, Isan is a signatory.
As to the second idea, it is absurdly impractical.
1) Yamanaka almost certainly can't do psychic surgery that delicately.
2) If they can, only 2-3 people in their clan can do it at all
3) How are you going to convince all 500 Isanese to undergo psychic surgery without militarily compelling them or spoiling the secret of EM? No amount of "shinies" would ever convince anyone to put their entire country in someone else's power like that.
Subverting Isan to peacefully ensure EM's erasure from their technique libraries and brains would be a months long (at least, if not longer) process utilizing Leaf's soft power, not military might, to effectively if not someday outright annex Isan.
Isan as a highly isolationist polity can be outmaneuvered by Leaf so that Leaf effectively acts as Isan's chaperone when it comes to Isan's dealings with the world stage. Leaf can offer Isan better deals than any other nation attempting to set up trade with Isan so that Leaf monopolizes the main motives Isan would have for coming out of their shell: higher qualities of living and/or new techniques. By coordinating with Asuma to best utilize our new gem making capabilities we can outbid anyone else trying to approach Isan for trade. Every industry or commodity that they could possibly want and get offers from another country we can out compete by subsidizing the loses of the trade itself with our economy breaking gem productions.
While this is going on the Yamanaka, if any are capable of doing this psychic surgery (which I admit is a very big 'IF' so we need to check with Asuma and then Ino if the Yamanaka can deliver on this idea), can start removing EM (and memories of their abductions if such measures are necessary) from adventurous Isan ninja who try to break past Leaf's "benevolent" trade blockade to explore the wider world after ANBU pick those adventurers up.
Psychic surgery of people in Isan would be part of a wider health check up performed over all of Isan's people so that the Yamanaka do not stand out. Just as Noburi cured cleft lips Leaf's medical personnel would be able to drastically and more importantly indisputably improve the Isan people's quality of life. The soft power here is that those who acquiesce to our demands see improvements over those who stubbornly refuse Leaf's offers of help. As long as Isan remains isolated to the outside greater international community it will not matter how long it takes to scrub EM from their collective consciousness since Isan's people are all bunched up together: if someone in Isan
does manage to make an EM nuke all they will have done is wiped their home off the map themselves.
10,000+ man hours spent on erasing EM from Isan peacefully is worth it from a humanitarian and utilitarian perspective alone: all of those lives saved would be worth the time, effort, and money spent. Furthermore we would not be wasting the potential manpower a cooperative Isan could offer to Leaf in the future.
If the Yamanaka cannot erase data from people's minds then the process of eliminating EM from people's memories would take decades as we position better techniques to take EM's place in Isan's culture. Whether or not either of these would be workable timetables would be up to Asuma after the EM council runs the numbers.
Yeah no, Takahashi isn't handing over control of his famously isolationist village on Asuma's word. No one would do that. You would literally have to have been born yesterday to do that.
Takahashi can stay as the petty lord of only Isan so he can rule only Isan as he sees fit while we slowly make the populace more accepting of and willing to join Leaf voluntarily. The proclamation until then would be that Asuma and Leaf would have authority on everything and everyone that leaves or wants to enter Isan's explicit borders as long as those travelers are outside of Isan's borders. Asuma will have that authority in practice not because of outright military aggression but because no one else can afford to out compete Leaf's unofficial yet state endorsed Isan trade monopoly.
If AMITY is successful nations will begin to compete primarily with one another through trade rather than overt or covert violence. Securing a new trade partner early on aggressively like this might raise some eyebrows from the international community but it won't trigger a war unlike nuking Isan outright most likely would given that we almost assuredly need EM nukes against the dragons.
