Chapter 307: Rasa Attempts to Haggle
In this world, what people feared was not something being expensive, but other people possessing what they did not.
Rasa naturally understood that.
He knew exactly what kind of situation Hidden Sand Village would face if it did not buy this airship.
If other villages had them, then they could develop tactics and ninjutsu around them. Hidden Sand Village would be forced to face threats from those hidden villages, and that was something Rasa could not accept.
Moreover, for a poor village like Hidden Sand, airships were strategic assets. They could be used to air drop ninja, making many objectives far easier to accomplish. If they had possessed airships during the Third Great Ninja War, and Hidden Cloud had as well, then the outcome of that war might have turned out completely differently.
Konoha might have been torn apart under a joint assault from the other great villages, and its wealth could have been divided among them.
After all, in every Ninja World War so far, the flames of battle had never truly reached Konoha's doorstep. That was one of the main reasons it had always managed to endure. If war had actually reached Konoha itself, it likely would not have withstood many such invasions.
But if every village had airships except Hidden Sand, then the one being carved up might be Hidden Sand instead.
And that could not be allowed to happen.
"Do you think Hidden Sand will agree?" Orochimaru asked as he stood on the airship, looking down at the village below.
"They definitely will. As long as they're not idiots, they'll agree," Amamiya Kenichi said with complete confidence.
As long as Rasa, the Kazekage of Hidden Sand, was not an idiot, there was no way he could fail to understand what this meant.
If the other villages acquired airships, then this would become an arms race.
An arms race started by Amamiya Kenichi himself.
And the basic rule of an arms race was simple. If you had it, then I had to have it too. Otherwise, I would just sit there and wait to be beaten.
Amamiya Kenichi understood that principle very well.
In his previous life, nuclear weapons had first been developed by one nation. Then its greatest rival developed them too. Soon after, other countries followed as well, some with outside help and some only able to shout about past glory. Why? Because if you did not possess such a thing, then you had no real voice.
The same principle applied here.
If other hidden villages had airships and only Hidden Sand did not, then Hidden Sand would simply be waiting to be crushed. Their enemies could cross borders from the sky, launch surprise attacks, and even drop ninja directly above the village itself.
Who could endure that?
Even Konoha would not be able to tolerate flames of war burning over its own home every single day. That kind of thing would be a fatal blow to any village's economy and morale.
That was why the Five Great Nations had always tacitly kept buffer states between themselves. Those small countries bore the brunt of great power conflict and, at the same time, helped shield the great nations' core interests.
Even in the Ninja World, politicians cared about interests, not morality.
In the face of absolute power, morality was worthless.
"So how do you plan to do business? Go down there, or make him come up?" Orochimaru asked as he looked down at the small village of Hidden Sand below.
The black dots on the ground were Hidden Sand ninja. The airship hovered high above them all.
This was not Orochimaru's first time riding in one, but he still had to admit that the feeling was excellent. Its convenience and speed were obvious. It did not need to care about mountains, terrain, or obstacles. It simply flew through the air in a straight line.
As long as the ninja piloting it had enough chakra, it was a remarkable machine.
"Of course we'll talk up here. Going down would be more troublesome." Amamiya Kenichi's Shadow Clone took a sealing scroll and jumped off the airship. Meanwhile, the real Amamiya Kenichi stayed on board and watched from the side.
He had no intention of going down in person.
Rasa was ambitious. Bold, too.
Otherwise, he would never have dared to conspire with Orochimaru in the Konoha Crush Plan.
If Orochimaru had not betrayed him and killed him midway through, and if the two of them had truly worked together from beginning to end, then Konoha might really have suffered a great deal more.
After all, Rasa was still a Kazekage, and a powerful one at that. If he and Orochimaru had joined forces, killing Hiruzen Sarutobi would probably not have been a problem.
Hiruzen had already been under tremendous pressure just from dealing with Orochimaru alone. If not for the Reaper Death Seal, a technique Orochimaru had not anticipated, it would have been impossible for Hiruzen to seal Orochimaru's arms.
At the time, Orochimaru had simply been too confident. He had believed Hiruzen was guaranteed to die, only to be taught a hard lesson by the Reaper Death Seal instead. His hands were sealed, and Sasuke ended up surviving because of it.
And if Hiruzen had died while Rasa was still present, then only Jiraiya would have remained to hold the line. Combined with the Edo Tensei of the First and Second Hokage, Konoha might truly have taken a devastating hit.
At that point, Konoha was in a rather awkward transitional period. Of course, if Rasa had truly been there, Jiraiya might not have stayed idle either.
Still, none of that had actually happened.
So everything beyond that was only speculation.
After a short while, a hot air balloon rose into the sky.
Amamiya Kenichi's Shadow Clone brought Rasa up aboard the airship.
"Oh my, oh my. Welcome, Kazekage-sama." Amamiya Kenichi greeted him with a cheerful smile, rubbing his hands together as if delighted.
Truthfully, he had not expected Rasa to actually dare to come up.
Originally, he had been prepared to use the Shadow Clone to negotiate and simply collect the money. The order he had given the clone was to invite Rasa aboard if possible. If that failed, they would consider another method.
Yet Rasa had really come.
And he had only brought two ANBU guards with him.
That barely counted as a precaution. It was nowhere near enough to deal with Amamiya Kenichi and Orochimaru together.
That could only mean one thing.
Rasa's intention to cooperate was very strong.
His attitude was also very sincere.
"Tenma, your airship is indeed impressive," Rasa said with a faint smile.
But inwardly, his focus was not on appearances. It was on the airship's carrying capacity.
Looking around the spacious interior, he already knew his guess had been right.
This airship truly was an important military technology, one that could even alter the future direction of warfare.
If a machine of this size flew over another village and then deployed ninja from the sky, would that not threaten the very core of that village?
At that moment, Rasa glanced to the side again.
Orochimaru was seated there, but in his eyes, that was merely a graceful masked female ninja. He did not know who this person was, likely just one of Heavenly Demon's companions.
"Of course. Otherwise, how would I dare come all the way here to do business with Kazekage-sama?" Amamiya Kenichi replied with a grin.
Since Rasa had already come aboard, the deal was nearly done.
After all, unless Rasa had taken leave of his senses, he would never try to memorize the design and then return to Hidden Sand to reproduce it by force.
Putting aside whether he could even leave alive after trying that, just offending Heavenly Demon would already come at a terrifying price.
So the fact that Rasa had boarded the airship meant he truly wanted to do business.
That was a good thing.
"But can the price be lowered a little?" Rasa asked.
He looked at the airship with visible envy.
If its carrying capacity truly matched its appearance, then future commercial exchange would become far easier. Hidden Sand's economy might finally become a little less miserable.
"Sorry. No. The current price is already very favorable," Amamiya Kenichi said with a smile as he shook his head.
His business was a monopoly.
"I heard Konoha also seems to have mastered some kind of flying technology." Rasa brought up another point.
Amamiya Kenichi narrowed his eyes.
Of course he understood what Rasa meant.
Rasa was saying that Heavenly Demon was not the only option. Hidden Sand could also choose Konoha.
"Konoha's technology is trash. It's only a crude imitation. Their flying machines don't have the carrying capacity mine does. This is one of a kind," Amamiya Kenichi said with a chuckle.
He had long expected Rasa to bring up Konoha.
And he had already prepared his answer.
"But what if their price is very cheap? Then there would still be room to consider it, right?" Rasa clearly had no intention of giving up on bargaining.
As long as he could save some money for the village, he did not care about his own pride.
"If that happens, then I'm sure Hidden Cloud and Iwagakure won't mind buying my airships instead." Amamiya Kenichi smiled.
He was not going to lower the price.
Nor did he need to.
The technological superiority of the airship was obvious. In the current Ninja World, it stood alone.
Konoha's so called imitation was just that, an imitation.
He could already imagine the direction future aerial research in the Ninja World would take. Bigger airships. Higher flying airships. Faster airships.
But in the end, they would still only be airships.
Without his guidance, people in this world would probably never understand what helicopters or fighter jets even were.
And he had already seen Konoha's aerial machine with his own eyes. Reaching his current level without blueprints was impossible.
"Not even a little?" Rasa frowned faintly.
He had expected Heavenly Demon to lower the price at least somewhat. He had not anticipated such firm confidence.
Could Konoha's flying machines really be that inferior?
"You get what you pay for. Kazekage-sama should understand that better than I do." Amamiya Kenichi gave a casual shrug.
Then silence fell.
Conflict flickered in Rasa's eyes. He was clearly in pain. But after struggling inwardly for a long while, he finally let out a sigh.
Then he paid.
Just as Amamiya Kenichi had said, Hidden Sand could not afford to let the other great villages possess more advanced airships while theirs remained inadequate.
That kind of gap could be fatal.
Rasa did not dare gamble.
Nor could he.
To do so would be irresponsible to the village.
"Heavenly Demon, you really are good at business. But if you're willing to sell this airship now, does that mean..." Rasa looked at Amamiya Kenichi with a probing gaze.
In his view, there was only one reason Heavenly Demon would start selling this technology now.
He had something even better.
"No. I just want to make money." Amamiya Kenichi waved a hand dismissively.
And he was not lying.
For now, the airship was still the most advanced flying machine in existence. More advanced aircraft were still only ideas in his head. Building an airplane was not that easy.
Moreover, once something needed to fly at high altitude, its energy requirements became absurd. In his previous life, a normal passenger aircraft consumed tons of fuel in a single flight, with usage depending on distance.
A fighter jet, meanwhile, could burn around two tons of fuel in an hour, and it needed specialized aviation fuel at that. The cost was astronomical.
But Amamiya Kenichi had other ideas.
This world did have oil, but its true foundation was chakra.
If Sasori's Unit One could run on Kurama's chakra, then aircraft should be able to as well. If that worked, the cost problem could be controlled.
"Here is the airship blueprint. You'll understand how to build it after reading it. I wish Kazekage-sama success on the battlefield." Amamiya Kenichi counted the money with a cheerful grin, accepted it, and then tossed over a scroll.
Rasa opened it and examined it carefully.
After discussing it briefly with the ANBU ninja beside him, he looked back at Amamiya Kenichi.
"May I ask whether this airship itself can be left behind as well?" Rasa asked with a smile.
Amamiya Kenichi was not surprised.
He had already assumed someone would ask that.
"Yes. But the airship itself is a separate purchase. The price is not high. Twenty million ryo," Amamiya Kenichi replied directly.
He already had several spare airships prepared. He could simply replace this one later.
"Ten million. I've already seen the blueprint. The production cost isn't that high," Rasa countered immediately.
Amamiya Kenichi nodded inwardly.
That was true. The asking price had not been especially high to begin with, and ten million was still acceptable.
Still, seeing him agree so quickly made Rasa instantly regret his own number. He was tempted to haggle it even lower.
"Kazekage-sama, this is the lowest price. Otherwise, you may go back down and build it yourself," Amamiya Kenichi said as he narrowed his eyes, seeing straight through Rasa's thoughts.
Seeing that, Rasa gave up and paid.
He needed a finished product in hand.
Even though he did not think Heavenly Demon would deceive him, having the real thing was still safer.
After taking the money, Amamiya Kenichi explained the airship's controls to Rasa. Then he and Orochimaru packed up their belongings, stepped off the airship, and left it behind.
"First, verify the airship's construction. Keep this one well preserved. At the same time, have the craftsmen copy this blueprint several times at once. We will go to Iwagakure immediately," Rasa ordered the moment they were gone.
He needed time to use the blueprint to make some of the money back and ease Hidden Sand's financial strain. Whether it would truly work was hard to say, but it had to be tried.
"Heavenly Demon..." Rasa gazed at the dark figure growing smaller in the distance and fell silent.
"Teacher, we need to move faster. Hidden Sand might go sell this to the other villages," Amamiya Kenichi said.
The moment they landed, he summoned another airship.
"Mm." Orochimaru cast his disciple a glance.
He himself had thought of another solution. They could have added a timed mechanism, making it so the seal could only be opened after a certain period, with the blueprint self destructing if tampered with early.
But Rasa would definitely have been wary of something like that. In the end, this had been the cleanest option.
And so, the airship rose into the sky once again and headed toward Iwagakure.
They needed to move quickly.
The profit from selling the airship blueprint and the finished airship had made even Orochimaru feel a little envious.
At least now, there would be money for experiments again.
As for Amamiya Kenichi, he did not have much reaction.
Although the amount was considerable, it was still not quite enough.
.....
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