"Here, Hokage-sama, this is the war-preparation plan. If there are no problems, you can sign it and we can carry it out."
Inside the office, Tomita respectfully handed Haru Konoha's response plan for the coming war. Haru flipped through it roughly and did not care much about the specific measures.
They had been fighting for so long already that the people below him were extremely practiced at drafting war plans. They were all more or less the same.
Haru only cared about one thing.
How much money would it cost?
War was burning money. If you had money, you could fight as long as you wanted.
"4.5 billion ryo?"
Haru sighed. He had already been mentally prepared, but the number still made his tongue click. And this was only the early preparation stage. The truly murderous part would come if things dragged into a war of attrition.
Lives would be consumed, and money would keep burning.
Fortunately, this war would not last too long.
Haru signed his name, and Konoha's treasury could now release the funds.
He wondered how Shikaru and Takuma were doing with the implementation of the plan. For the past few days, Haru had barely been able to eat or sleep properly, just waiting for good news from the two of them.
His restlessness did not last long. An Anbu ninja soon delivered a letter from Shikaru.
Everything was proceeding smoothly. The Daimyo had already agreed. All that remained was execution. Shikaru requested the temporary deployment of an Anbu squad to assist them, because the number of people who might need killing in the coming days would be a little high.
Haru naturally approved.
Sending Anbu was arguably overkill. The targets were only ordinary people, though admittedly they held power.
But what did power amount to in front of violence?
The Daimyo had already given his approval, so killing them would be fully legitimate.
For more than a month after that, Haru and Shikaru kept exchanging letters, updating one another on the plan's progress.
Shikaru mostly reported good news and avoided dwelling on the bad. He did not describe the difficult parts of the operation in much detail, but even so, Haru could still see from between the lines how complicated the matter really was.
The web of relationships among those nobles and merchants was unbelievably tangled. No one who dealt in something as major as pig iron was without some real backing.
Some nobles had even tried to invoke the Uchiha name, claiming to be old clients of the Uchiha clan and insisting that because of their decent relations with the clan, they should not have to comply.
To be safe, Shikaru had specifically asked Haru for instructions on how to handle people like that.
Haru only gave one answer:
I only want the result. I don't care about the process.
Shikaru understood immediately.
Kill them.
Of course, killing was only the last resort. If things could be resolved peacefully, then that was preferable. After all, the goal was money. There was no need to turn the ground red with blood.
That was also why Haru had sent Takuma along. The Hyuga clan was very patient and very good at dealing with people. They also had fairly decent relations with the nobles and great merchants of the Land of Fire. Most people would give Takuma some face.
After all, pig iron futures were not necessarily harmful to them. On the contrary, they could greatly accelerate pig iron trade, make prices transparent, and cut down on the profits taken by middlemen who relied on information gaps.
But there were always blind idiots who refused to see reason. In those cases, Shikaru had no choice but to be ruthless and send each of them off to meet the Sage of Six Paths with a shuriken.
Some merchants were so fearless that they even hired bounty hunters to attack Shikaru and Takuma. As for those especially stubborn elements, it was no longer just a matter of one person dying. Their entire family had to die.
After more than a month of extremely complicated and exhausting negotiation and killing, Shikaru and Takuma finally finished integrating all the channels within the Land of Fire. There was even a developing tendency toward unifying the domestic price of pig iron across the country, which was a pleasant surprise to Haru.
Still, Haru did not intend to stop there.
He wanted more.
He wanted to lay groundwork for the future.
The Land of Iron was one of the biggest producers of iron ore in the ninja world, accounting for almost thirty percent of the total market. Haru wanted to extend his reach there as well.
But that idea was immediately cooled by a bucket of cold water from Shikaru. It was simply too far for Konoha's arm to reach.
Integrating channels inside the Land of Fire had been troublesome and tedious, but with the Daimyo's backing, everything at least had legal cover. The ninja could act openly and legitimately.
Once things crossed national borders, however, it became a diplomatic matter. Konoha ninja could not just run into the Land of Iron and start killing people. That was not realistic, and the Daimyo would never support it.
Haru found that deeply regrettable, but he did not give up.
If force would not work, then they could use softer methods. They could invite the people there to join the Land of Fire's trading channels instead. The Land of Fire was the richest country in the ninja world. There was no way people would willingly ignore such a huge market.
And once they stepped onto the Land of Fire's turf, they would have to obey the Land of Fire's rules.
Sitting in the Hokage office, Haru finally let out a breath of relief.
The preparations were complete.
Now all that remained was to wait for Kirigakure and Iwagakure to make their move. That would still take some time. War between great ninja villages was not something that started the moment someone slapped the table. It involved enormous mobilization, intelligence work, and supply purchases.
The spies Haru had planted in those two villages were sending back reports every day. There was no shortage of secret arts in the ninja world for transmitting information, the most typical example being summon beasts, which allowed news to travel at great speed.
Everything was ready.
All they needed now was the right wind.
Land of Fire
Inside a certain bounty office, all sorts of lowlifes filled the place. Missing-nin, down-and-out samurai, thieves, all kinds of people.
A strange-looking middle-aged man dressed head to toe in black stepped in, with exposed arms marked by thick stitched seams, and dark green pupils in his eyes. In one hand, he carried a severed human head.
The instant he entered, the previously noisy bounty office became dead silent. Everyone was afraid of offending him and bringing death upon themselves.
Smack.
He tossed the head onto the office counter. Blood splashed across the manager's face, but the manager, who normally looked vicious enough himself, only put on a smiling face.
"Kakuzu-sama, another mission completed. As expected of one of the ninja world's famous gold-rank bounty hunters!"
"Pay me."
Kakuzu ignored the flattery completely. He only cared about getting his reward.
"Of course!"
The manager hurried to verify the head and confirm that the dead man really was the target. Once that was done, he immediately went to fetch Kakuzu's bounty.
Six large boxes of cash were set on the table in front of Kakuzu. He opened one. Inside were stacks of bills amounting to a full 100,000 ryo, packed to the brim.
This mission had not been especially difficult. The target had just been a minor noble, protected by a few chunin and one special jonin. For Kakuzu, that had been effortless.
"Smells wonderful..."
Kakuzu picked up a banknote and inhaled deeply, savoring it, then let out a satisfied sigh.
In this world, only money was truly beautiful.
Only money was worthy of trust.
Kakuzu packed the money away, then took on another bounty so he could continue making more.
After leaving the bounty office, he went as usual to a weapon shop to sell the weapons stripped off the ninja he had killed.
Looting bodies was a good habit. Amateur fighters always carried plenty of supplies: shuriken, kunai, even explosive tags sometimes. Altogether, that could still fetch tens of thousands of ryo.
Kakuzu privately marveled at how good he was at making money and running a household.
Weapon Shop
"Did you hear? The pig iron business in the Land of Fire just got shaken up. Some big shots up top came up with a thing called futures."
"...That actually sounds good. Prices are more transparent now, so getting stock later should be easier for us too..."
"Too small-minded. Way too small-minded. The merchants who originally wanted to hoard pig iron and jack up prices are now planning to speculate on futures instead..."
"Ha, so what? Konoha and Kumogakure already signed a peace agreement. The two strongest ninja villages aren't fighting now, and pig iron prices already fell two or three times over. I don't think it'll go anywhere."
"I'm not so sure... futures have huge potential... This could make serious money."
The shop owner and some customers chatted casually. Under the joint push of Konoha and the Land of Fire, pig iron futures had already spread through the industry, and exchanges handling the trades were springing up all over the Land of Fire.
Kakuzu was haggling with the shop clerk, trying to push the price of the weapons up a little. These merchants always liked to press down on second-hand goods.
What black-hearted businessmen.
"What is pig iron futures?"
It was Kakuzu's first time hearing the term. As a ninja, he naturally dealt with weapons often enough, so he understood pig iron.
But at first he did not care much. With his level of strength, he generally had no need for kunai or shuriken and felt buying such things was just a waste of money.
Originally, he had not been particularly interested in pig iron futures at all.
But the moment he heard the words make serious money, Kakuzu's eyes lit up.
(End of Chapter)
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