The fundraising proposal was rejected after Yuji met with the Kazekage and laid out why it was premature. He told the senior officials to wait, at minimum a few more months. The market needed time.
The Kazekage was genuinely impatient, and he was not alone in it.
The other senior officials shared the same restlessness. These were people with real capability in military affairs and basic village administration, but when it came to markets and trade they were, at best, half-informed.
Even members of the Council of Advisors had begun interpreting the slow early sales as evidence that the ninja world had rejected the new medicine outright.
Yuji didn't argue the point. He watched and noted clearly that the Third Kazekage, in a situation that called for composure and patience, was reaching for anything that felt like action. That was not how a Kage should respond to uncertainty.
He returned to his training and let time do its work.
Shiori and the others continued developing medical personnel. The teaching Yuji had done as hospital director over the previous two years was producing visible results, the new Academy graduates who lacked the aptitude for front-line combat were finding paths into medical roles, filling out the village's numbers in that area meaningfully.
The Hidden Sand's medical system had begun to take on a real institutional shape.
Two months later, the second and third merchant groups returned with encouraging results. More than half of what they had carried out had sold. Not a complete clearance, but enough to demonstrate that the medicine could function as a genuine tradeable resource.
The senior officials, who had been losing sleep over the early numbers, finally exhaled.
A few months after that, the medicine was selling out entirely. The supply constraint was now the bottleneck, not demand. The merchant networks touching the outside world were still limited, relatively few caravans, relatively few countries and villages reached, so the revenue wasn't yet large.
But the profit margin against costs was substantial, and the direction was clear.
Yuji directed that the returns be used to purchase medicinal herb stockpiles rather than reinvested into the village's general operations. War preparation took priority. In his view, everything earned up to this point was a small amount relative to what the coming conflict would produce.
Then the Daimyo made his move.
"Lord Kazekage."
Arai stood in the office and looked at the Kazekage for a moment before speaking. "The pharmaceutical industry required no investment from the Daimyo whatsoever. It was built entirely within the village. Now that it's generating returns, handing a portion of that income over to him, isn't that somewhat..."
He stopped himself.
He had not expected Yuji to be right about this too.
The Daimyo had apparently been watching the new industry's progress, and the moment it became clear the medicine was profitable, he had sent a representative to the Kazekage demanding a share. No formal justification. No framework connecting it to existing fiscal arrangements.
Simply an expectation that the village would comply.
And the Kazekage and the senior officials had agreed.
From Arai's perspective, it was a straightforward loss for the village. The Hidden Sand and the Land of Wind were ultimately one entity, and the Daimyo's long-standing financial support was real, but this industry had been built without him and was just finding its footing.
Carving into the profits now, before the system had matured, was premature at best.
"Besides, what's called the village's industry at this point is almost entirely Yuji's work alone. I only learned from Shiori a few days ago that over the past two years, while he was supposedly just collecting herb information and disease data abroad, he was also constantly finding ways to fund the research himself.
Without that, the project would have collapsed long before reaching this point."
Arai paused, the weight of Yuji's prediction sitting in his chest.
Once there was a first time, the Daimyo would want a second and a third.
"Yuji has contributed enormously to this village," the Kazekage said, nodding. "But that contribution is simply what he should be doing."
As for how Yuji had been generating that private income, one didn't need to think hard to reach a reasonable conclusion.
But that was in the past, and as long as it didn't involve the village directly, it wasn't worth raising.
"He himself has raised no objection to this decision. Does your opinion carry more weight than his?"
The atmosphere in the room shifted.
"Or are you questioning my judgment?"
Arai's throat tightened. Something lodged there. He wanted to say that he was also a member of this village and had standing to speak on its interests. But he looked at the Kazekage's expression and the words didn't come out.
"Arai. You have followed me for many years. I trained you myself. I made you Kage Guard because I trust you. But lately you have changed somewhat. The Arai I knew didn't speak this much out of turn."
The Kazekage lowered his head and returned to his documents.
"Your duty is the Kage's safety. Other matters are not your concern."
"I apologize."
Arai took a slow breath and let his expression settle back into something neutral.
"You will eventually enter the village's senior structure yourself. Many things are not as straightforward as they appear from where you stand now."
It was a word of mollification. Not unkind, but clearly final.
"Yes," Arai said. "If there is nothing else, I will take my leave."
"Hmm."
He stepped out and closed the door slowly behind him. His hand stayed on the doorknob. He stood there without moving, without speaking, for a long time.
On the other side, once Yuji confirmed that the outside market had genuinely taken hold and the momentum was real, he organized a group and joined a merchant caravan heading out to open new territories.
He understood how to make partners feel they were benefiting. He understood negotiation, positioning, the mechanics of building a relationship that produced returns for both sides.
The market thinking from his previous life translated well enough into the ninja world's commercial landscape, the caravan bosses he was working with couldn't match him in adaptability or in reading what the other side of a negotiation actually wanted.
The village's earlier groundwork also helped. In several places, there were already documented cases of patients recovering through the medicines. Those were the keys that opened doors in villages and countries that hadn't yet engaged.
The timing was also deliberate. Once the ninja world had developed a foundational understanding of what Sunagakure's medicines were and what they could do, the next stage could begin.
Kill the Kazekage. Ignite the war.
He and Sasori were approaching fifteen. In the original story, that was the age at which Sasori had moved against the Kazekage. The preparations were essentially complete. What remained was execution, and execution would determine everything that followed.
"And the Daimyo as well," Yuji thought, watching the road ahead as the caravan moved.
That one would also need to be addressed when the time came.
...
Bonus @400 PS
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