While Yuji walked the senior officials through the pharmaceutical industry framework, part of his attention stayed on the Third Kazekage.
Sasori had been introducing the poison gradually for some time now. On the surface the Kazekage showed nothing, his behavior, his speech, his presence in the room all appeared completely normal.
But Yuji's eyes found the back of the man's hand and noted the faint dark blue tint along the veins, barely visible, the kind of thing an ordinary person would never register.
It was progressing.
The discussion continued at length. Everyone had something to contribute, and the energy in the room was high.
The scale of what was being described made the implications obvious to people of their experience, the current hospital department and the small group of researchers were nowhere near sufficient for what this would require.
A dedicated production facility inside the village was the first necessity. Political outreach to friendly small countries and villages could expand the distribution network. The ideas came quickly and enthusiastically.
Then they converged on the same obstacle.
The Daimyo of the Land of Wind.
Factory construction, diplomatic outreach, initial inventory, all of it required either the Daimyo's direct involvement or his funding.
The room's energy shifted perceptibly when the subject arose. The Daimyo's current disposition toward the village was not favorable, and word of the recent internal tensions had reached him, which would only have deepened his dissatisfaction with the village's leadership.
"I'll go see him myself," the Third Kazekage said after a moment.
"I'll go with you," Chiyo said.
The Kazekage going alone might not be enough to convey the necessary seriousness. Two of the village's most senior figures together sent a different message.
Yuji offered appropriate support and left it there. He kept his private assessment to himself. He knew with reasonable certainty that before actual profit figures existed, no amount of personal persuasion or live demonstration of the medicine's effects would produce investment from this particular Daimyo.
The same person who had drastically cut the village's budget and ninja numbers immediately after the Third Ninja World War ended was not someone who responded to potential. He responded to money already in hand.
Yuji's gaze moved around the table to the newer faces, the recently promoted officials, people drawn up from various institutions to fill the gaps the past year had created.
Several of them were still finding their footing within the existing senior structure. They weren't the old guard. They were still in the process of becoming something.
And now Yuji was one of them.
The village's internal tensions, without further interference from him and Sasori, had settled to a level that was tense but manageable. The open friction had receded. Underlying resentments hadn't disappeared, but the economic changes coming would give the civilian faction something concrete to feel the difference in.
Money and resources could address a significant portion of what had produced the discontent.
Then, as Yuji had anticipated, the Kazekage turned to him directly and asked for all research materials to be handed over to the village immediately.
Even now. Even from the person who had built this from nothing.
The Kazekage's character was exactly this, he trusted himself above everyone else, and no amount of demonstrated loyalty or contribution fully dissolved that instinct toward control.
Yuji didn't push back and he didn't simply comply.
"I understand your concern, Lord Kazekage, and I have no objection to the village holding this material," he said. "However, the medicinal data we've compiled is the foundation of everything. If it's leaked, the pharmaceutical advantage disappears entirely."
"My proposal is that the data itself be held exclusively by Grandma Chiyo, and the formulas be kept by you directly, sealed and accessible only to the Kage."
He framed it as a protective measure rather than a concession.
For someone like the Kazekage, holding a portion of the documents and feeling that control was real was sufficient. He didn't need everything. He needed to believe the most important things were in his hands.
That was easy enough to arrange.
"You're right to consider that."
The Kazekage nodded.
He had been somewhat impatient, but the impatience came from a genuine place, with something this significant on the line, any gap in how the data was stored and protected was a risk he couldn't accept.
And beyond the practical concern, there was something else. If the Hidden Sand Village achieved unprecedented prosperity under his watch, his place in the village's history would surpass every Kazekage who had come before him.
He might be remembered as the one who established the village's new foundation. He was not indifferent to that.
"I also spent some time reading materials on economics," Yuji said, smiling. "And as you predicted, Lord Kazekage, I'm genuinely not suited for the role of Economic Advisor.
So I thought it over and decided to stay in my original field. I hope I haven't disappointed you."
The Kazekage paused.
He remembered it now, Yuji, early in his appointment, expressing interest in joining the Council of Advisors to contribute to the village's economic situation. The Kazekage had not taken it seriously at the time. He had expected the ambition to run into reality and fade.
He had not expected this.
"You little brat," the Kazekage said.
He could hear the teasing clearly enough. But with good news in the air and the room full of excitement, and with the scale of what Yuji had actually delivered sitting on the table in front of him, the only dignified response was to concede the point.
At the far end of the table, one person had said nothing throughout.
Rasa.
He understood the weight of what Yuji had accomplished and genuinely felt the hope it represented for the village.
But his emotions in this moment were not simply joyful. They were complicated in a way that was difficult to resolve neatly.
He had never regarded Yuji as a real threat. The age gap was significant. Their generations were different. Military achievement and battlefield record were the traditional measures of a Kage candidate, and by those measures Rasa's position was secure.
But looking at what was unfolding now, and projecting forward, once the pharmaceutical industry took hold and Sunagakure began drawing wealth from across the ninja world, Yuji's standing would reach a level that was difficult to compare to anything measured in battle records.
He was already genuinely popular at the grassroots level. The senior officials in this room were looking at him with open admiration. The contribution he had just laid before them existed in a different category from anything normally used to evaluate a shinobi's value to a village.
If Yuji chose to compete for the Kazekage position, the thought surfaced clearly in Rasa's mind before he could dismiss it.
The Third wouldn't step down for a long time yet. By the time that question became real, Yuji would be an adult, and every concern about age would have resolved itself. His resume and his contributions and his reputation would all have continued growing.
The Fourth Kazekage might not be Rasa.
Something contracted in his chest.
The person he had been watching most carefully had always been Sasori. Sasori's promotions had been exceptions, the village bending its own rules because his ability was undeniable.
The Kazekage had come to trust and rely on him heavily over the past year, which Rasa had observed with his own kind of wariness. Sasori was from Chiyo's lineage. He shared the strong-willed character that the Kazekage respected most in people. He was a genuine candidate.
Rasa looked at Yuji, still smiling easily at the table, and let the thought complete itself.
Even if Yuji had no personal ambition for the Kage position, his relationship with Sasori was known to everyone. The two had been connected since their earliest years in the village, and that connection had never weakened.
'If I want to become Kazekage, I need Yuji on my side.'