Iwagakure—once, the dark brown mountain south of the village that had obstructed the trade route between the village and Bird Country—had been removed not long ago by Deidara, a rogue ninja from Iwagakure.
And now, a new entrance to Iwagakure had appeared there. Merchants entered in droves, eager to seize the wave of opportunity brought by the newly opened trade route. Every extra coin they could make was a coin earned.
Inside the Tsuchikage Building, the desk was covered in densely packed documents. Ōnoki himself could not even be seen beneath them, though the sound of a stamp striking the desk rang out from time to time.
"With this many documents, when am I ever going to finish stamping them...?"
Though Ōnoki complained aloud, he could not hide the smile on his face.
This was all money. Every document he stamped meant another share of import and export tariffs for the village. For a village that had just finished building the Ninja Association—Iwagakure Headquarters—it was a timely windfall, a perfect chance to fill the fiscal deficit caused by construction materials and labor costs.
Knock, knock, knock!
The urgent knocking at the door made Ōnoki's smile widen.
"Looks like another batch of merchant caravan documents has arrived."
"Come in!"
The door opened, and it was Ōnoki's son, Kitsuchi. Just as Ōnoki had expected, Kitsuchi carried a thick stack of documents and placed them on a temporary desk beside him. Then he pulled a reddish-brown scroll from his chest and handed it to Ōnoki.
"Old man, this is intelligence from our undercover contact in Hidden Cloud."
"It says that after Senya and Konoha's delegation arrived in Hidden Cloud, he did not take on the main duties of this visit."
"Over on Jiraiya's side, he seems to be discussing something with Fuzishou Tingxiang,