Chapter 17 Ginza
As dawn broke, pale golden light bathed Konoha Village.
From the perspective of Fire Shadow Rock, the entire village resembles a slowly unfolding folding fan.
The core of the fan-shaped structure is the administrative district, where the Hokage Building stands majestically.
It is surrounded by official agencies such as the Ministry of Administration, the Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Health.
On the police headquarters building a little further away, the Uchiha clan crest, a fan, proclaims the clan's power and status in Konoha.
The area extending outwards from this semicircle is the territory of each ninja clan.
The Uchiha and Hyuga clans' secluded mansions retain the style of the Warring States period.
The faint barking of dogs could be heard from within the Inuzuka clan's territory, while the Nara clan's herb garden gleamed green in the morning mist.
These scattered clan settlements surround the administrative center like stars around the moon.
Interspersed throughout are the training grounds of the Ninja Academy and the courtyard of Konoha Hospital.
Further outwards, the civilian residential areas spread outwards along a fan-shaped arc.
The houses stand in close proximity, and the shop signs gradually become clear in the morning light.
Smoke rose from the rooftops of countless homes, mingling with the dust and smoke from the early morning ninja training grounds.
Streets radiate outwards from the Hokage Building, like veins on a fan, connecting the entire village.
Surrounded by several guards, Mitokado Homura stood before the majestic gates of Konoha.
The morning light stretched the giant gate's shadow long, like a clear boundary line.
He looked back at the village, his gaze landing on the particularly conspicuous building in the center—it was even more magnificent and imposing than the Hokage Building.
A huge fan-shaped family emblem was engraved on the dark wall, its metallic patterns shimmering with dazzling gold in the morning sun, making his eyes twitch uncontrollably.
Anyone staying within Konoha, as long as there is no obstruction, no matter which corner they are in, will inevitably see that flamboyant fan emblem the first thing they look up at.
Even from the perspective of Konoha's main gate, what passersby and visitors see first is not the stone statues of the Hokage of each generation.
Rather, it is the Uchiha clan, a commercial behemoth that proclaims wealth and power.
The giant tower has become a landmark building in this city with a permanent population of over 200,000, which is pronounced as a village but written as a metropolis.
'I hope Hiruzen can handle the Uchiha properly... If he can restrain and tame them like Tobirama taught Uchiha Kagami...'
The thought was cut short as soon as it arose, turning into a barely audible sigh.
"...ultimately, it was a wartime situation beyond our control."
Mitokado Homura adjusted his glasses, turned around, and stepped out of the Konoha gate.
Under the watchful eyes of the gatekeeper ninja and many others, the group's figures gradually disappeared into the distance.
They eventually disappeared on the forest road leading to the capital of the Land of Fire.
After resting for a while that evening, Koharu Utatane, who had just moved to another dormitory, stood by the office window, her gaze fixed intently on the towering commercial skyscraper that seemed to pierce the clouds.
As an advisory elder responsible for Konoha's logistics and finances, she saw that building not only as Uchiha property, but also as a worrying tax haven.
When Konoha Village was first established, all industries were waiting to be developed, and the village was extremely poor.
All the ninja clans brought capital into the village, collectively laying its foundation, and none of them had a concept of taxation.
In the long period of peace that followed, more and more people were drawn to Konoha.
Especially after the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, clapped his hands and gave away the "Wood Release techniques" Wood Release ninjutsu for free, more and more people who couldn't survive outside came to admire it.
As a result, Konoha flourished day by day.
The tax system was not established until the reign of the second-generation Tobirama Senju.
However, facing the opposition of the entire ninja clan, Tobirama Senju, who was not in a hurry and did not expect to die so quickly, placed Konoha's main tax revenue on the rewards for ninjas after completing their missions.
For businesses operated by the ninja clan, only a symbolic fixed amount of tax is charged, and for numerous small businesses, no tax is charged at all.
When Hiruzen Sarutobi succeeded to the position, he naturally followed the old system and continued the established procedures.
Each ninja clan tacitly manages its increasingly prosperous family businesses—
From ninja tool forging to medicinal herb trading, from real estate leasing to usury.
The presence of the ninja clan can be found in any profitable field.
At first, everyone was making money peacefully, and Koharu Utatane, who was staying in the dormitory, didn't think anything of it.
But with the rise of the Uchiha clan, who disdained business management, and their continuous emergence of "irreplaceable" products, especially after this commercial behemoth was built, everything changed.
Rumor has it that its daily revenue alone is enough to surpass the entire monthly income of a small family.
This dazzling building not only reshaped Konoha's skyline, but also cast a restless shadow in the hearts of every ninja clan.
Seeing the Uchiha clan making a fortune, many other clans secretly followed suit and sold their best-selling products.
Furthermore, some ninja clans attempted to steal trade secrets using their family's secret techniques.
The final result was that they tasted the iron fist of the Uchiha clan—
The Uchiha clan today is not the same as it was during Fugaku's time.
Under the strong leadership of the hawks, headed by Uchiha Anlan, the clansmen retaliated with swift and decisive measures and with perfectly legitimate reasons!
With a single Sharingan hypnosis, the thieves were traced and all those involved were imprisoned.
The Shimura and Sarutobi clans make up the majority, while the rest are small families that follow suit.
Major clans like the Ino-Shika-Cho trio and the Hyuga clan have maintained a cautious wait-and-see attitude.
After the situation escalated, Hiruzen Sarutobi had no choice but to personally intervene and mediate.
Not only were the families involved ordered to compensate the Uchiha clan for their enormous business losses, but an exception was made to allocate prime land in the center of the village.
The Uchiha clan was granted permission to build what is now Ginza, a commercial mega-tower overlooking the entire village and integrating daily necessities, ninja tools, catering, entertainment, and leisure services.
All Uchiha shops on the streets and alleys were included in it.
Furthermore, while siphoning off the entire Konoha economy, it also attracted many ninja clans to settle there.
This led the Uchiha clan to act as landlords, providing housing and welfare for many non-ninja clan members in order to increase clan cohesion.
On one hand, they used mutual benefits as a bond to win over ninja clans that could be won over, thus creating what is now known throughout the Land of Fire as a den of iniquity.
Koharu Utatane tapped her fingertips on the ledger in frustration, her mind preoccupied with how to swindle money from the Uchiha clan.
But she also knew that openly asking the Uchiha for money was like provoking a tyrant.
Those Uchiha clan members were truly capable of forcing all the shops belonging to the Utatane clan to close down.
There are plenty of reasons you can easily come up with.
This is the Konoha Police Force, authorized by Tobirama Senju, which combines law enforcement, legislation, and justice, and is even more extravagant than the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
'The Uchiha clan is not a monolithic entity.'
'Both the Uchiha clan head's faction and the dove faction are inclined to align themselves with us.'
Koharu's gaze deepened, and a thought surfaced in her mind.
'If Hiruzen, in the name of Hokage, were to appeal to their emotions and reason with them… the clan head would surely not refuse this olive branch from the Hokage.'
End of this chapter...