Sit Down and Talk

Land of Soup, Kumogakure's temporary camp.

With Dodai's assistance, Dada sent out order after order concerning the Blacksmith Shop. Beneath his childish exterior lay a calm confidence that everything was under control.

His young body had not limited the intelligence of a mature soul. Dada was merely drawing on the wisdom of his previous life; much of the actual work still had to be carried out by others. Yet in the eyes of Kumogakure's upper ranks, it was somewhat terrifying.

To them, Dada not only possessed wisdom no less than an adult's, but his perspective and breadth of knowledge also seemed far beyond those of ordinary shinobi. They could only attribute it to the fact that the place Dada had once stayed in truly held a great deal of precious knowledge.

"The Orphanage, the Blacksmith Shop, even this clash with Konohagakure at the negotiating table... Dada, you've truly surprised me." The Third Raikage's eyes brimmed with pride.

This kid takes after me.

Dada shot his lazy Father a sidelong glare. For some reason, he had recently felt that there was more and more to do. Was this Raikage of his perhaps a little too irresponsible?

At first, he had only wanted to increase his own influence a little and improve the Orphanage's terrible conditions. But lately, why did things seem to be gradually heading in the wrong direction...?

I really miss those days when I could just lie around every day. I only wanted to talk big, not become a model worker!

"Just think of yourself as an advisor. Dodai will assist you. Keep it up."

Yeah, right. As if I'd believe that.

In the future, Kakashi became a shinobi at six. Now, Dada had become an advisor at six.

Of course, this advisor position was merely nominal, intended to make it easier for Dada to handle daily affairs. After all, without a proper title, his words would carry no weight. It would not be announced publicly, but it was still rather astonishing.

Dada felt as though even splitting himself in half would not be enough.

His most important task each day was still training.

Previously, he had been refining Chakra on and off, fishing for three days and drying the nets for two. After years of that, he had only filled one-third of his football-field-sized reserve. Yet after Old Man Jishi's diagnosis, he instead needed to speed up his Chakra refinement.

Three times a day, two hours each time. Aside from eating and drinking, most of his day was spent refining Chakra.

It was dull and tedious.

But whenever he recalled risking his life against the Konohagakure shinobi, the way he had moved with such unstoppable vigor—whether it was Tsunade, Torifu Akimichi, or even two other people, none of them could have so much as touched him—he felt a surge of secret satisfaction.

It was a little boring, but it would be good if he could resolve the abnormality in his body sooner.

Now that he had grown a little, both his refinement speed and endurance were far better than before. By his estimate, within two years, his body could undergo a certain change and be properly nourished by Chakra.

He did not know what kind of abilities would emerge then. The abilities he could use so far roughly fell into three kinds: pulse imaging in his mind, extreme physical speed, and electric shocks that ignored defenses.

Especially after swallowing three Soldier Pills, Dada had possessed surplus Chakra within his body for the first time. Unfortunately, he did not know a single ninjutsu and could only charge in by relying on his body's extraordinary abilities.

Yet he always felt that the abilities within him did not end there. If a hungry, weakened body could still unleash such abilities, then a well-fed, strong, healthy body would naturally be even more formidable.

Besides, he had coveted ninjutsu for a long time. Dada also wanted to play around with flashy, fancy ninjutsu.

Other than daily training, he handled various affairs with everyone else's assistance, mainly matters related to the "Blacksmith Shop."

Following the thinking of people in the Shinobi World—especially those Great Ninja Villages—they might have chosen to build an entirely new Blacksmith Shop system from scratch for the sake of security. But Dada possessed the knowledge of his previous life. Rather than starting over, he used the Kitano Blacksmith Shop as his foundation and copied its model wholesale.

The Yotsuki Clan had sent over thirty trustworthy people from Kumogakure to the Kitano Blacksmith Shop. Some were the Yotsuki Clan's own forces or clan members outright, while others had been recruited from the village. Given the Yotsuki Clan's standing in Kumogakure, they could all be regarded as their own people.

Together with a selected group from the original Blacksmith Shop, these people would learn the Blacksmith Shop's core operating model. Following Dada's plan, after three months of selection and screening, those chosen would form the backbone for replicating the Blacksmith Shop model in neighboring countries.

Dada particularly valued the Land of Iron, famous for producing renowned blades, and the Land of Frost, a source of iron ore and coal.

At the same time, people were sent to the Land of Waves to find the craftsmen for whom Kitano Izumi had previously installed water-powered stamping equipment. These craftsmen would also be brought into the fold.

In addition, Dada intended to use Sealing Scrolls as a logistics force in the future.

Sealing Scrolls in the Shinobi World were incredibly useful, but they were expensive, difficult to make, and required shinobi to manipulate them with Chakra to store or retrieve items. Thus, even by the later stages of the story, they had never been used for civilian purposes.

But the Blacksmith Shop already had enough shinobi participating in it, so the availability of users would no longer be a restriction.

The next issue to resolve was how to develop Sealing Scrolls with lower costs and larger capacities.

When it came to Fuinjutsu in the Shinobi World, the Land of Whirlpools was still the place to look. After the Land of Whirlpools was destroyed, Konohagakure gained the greatest share of its legacy. This would also be a key focus of the upcoming Fire-Lightning negotiations.

There was also an unexpected gain: Kumogakure obtained a pair of Three-Tomoe Sharingan.

Danzo had truly tried to steal a chicken only to lose the rice. He had been forced to remove the technique placed on the Sharingan.

How these eyes would be used had yet to be decided. This era lay after Madara Uchiha's fame had faded but before a new powerful Uchiha had emerged. Thus, aside from Dada, no one in Kumogakure, including the Third Raikage himself, placed much value on them. They knew they were valuable, but if given the choice, the Third Raikage would rather have strategic eyes like the Byakugan.

After remaining in the Land of Soup for another week, the negotiation delegation led by the Third Raikage arrived in the Land of Iron. The Third Raikage arrived two days later than the Third Hokage, but it was hardly meant as a show of dominance. After all, they were not the anxious ones, were they?

In truth, the fact that the Third Raikage A was willing to negotiate meant that he belonged to the Peace Faction. Toward the end of the First Shinobi World War, he had supported the Second Raikage's Peace Faction. A disliked meaningless war, but he did not fear war either.

Thus, although Kumogakure had obtained a great many bargaining chips through a series of coincidences, these events had come suddenly not only for Konohagakure but also for Kumogakure. Kumogakure had no intention of taking the opportunity to provoke a war. As always, the conflicts in the Shinobi World had not yet reached such an acute stage. Peace remained the prevailing theme.

In the end, the confrontation between the two villages still had to return to the negotiating table.

Dada believed that while the Shinobi World was currently at peace, the recorded Second Shinobi World War was only about three years away. Furthermore, the interval between the Second and Third Shinobi World Wars was extremely short. Altogether, the Shinobi World would be in turmoil for more than a decade around those two wars. Therefore, the most important thing now was to ensure that Kumogakure possessed enough foundations to develop peacefully and remain secure before any possible war broke out.

When chaos engulfed the Shinobi World, Kumogakure could focus as much as possible on development, remain outside the turmoil, and watch the storms unfold.

Of course, that was the ideal outcome.

When Dada laid out this strategy to the Third Raikage, the Third Raikage approved of it. His son's wisdom had proven itself many times already. Though he would not blindly trust him because of his age, he had come to regard Dada as an important strategist.

Inside a sealed stone chamber, the meeting between the leaders of the two villages was about to begin. Though both sides had brought many people, only the two Kage and their respective guards could enter the meeting room.

The Third Raikage had brought his son, Yotsuki Ki, and Kawanishi Kyohei. Oh, and Dada as well. That made one person too many, but who would make things difficult for a child?

Dada did not recognize either of the Third Hokage's two guards. However, judging by their appearances, one was a Nara Clan member with a pineapple-shaped hairstyle, while the other was a Hyuga Clan member with the Byakugan.