Powerful Money Style

"Lord Toribo, if the tools are reimbursed from the spoils of war, won't it be a bit insufficient?"

Umino Sasuke put on a calculative yet worried expression, subtly setting a trap with his words.

"How could it be insufficient? Although ordinary Sand Ninja don't have much in the way of valuable spoils, we have three Sand Ninja Puppeteers here. Their puppets are very valuable."

Akimichi Toribo, acting as if he were knowledgeable and teaching an ignorant subordinate, spoke with great confidence and a hearty laugh. "If it's still not enough, then we'll follow the rules, and all spoils will be counted as losses."

Aburame Shibi, standing nearby, quickly tugged at Akimichi Toribo's sleeve and whispered, "Captain, you should finish clearing the battlefield before making a decision."

"Right, let's clear the battlefield first."

Akimichi Toribo finally realized he might have spoken a bit too confidently. Unfortunately, having already made such grand pronouncements, it was difficult to take them back.

"Tejudo, come here quickly and report the tool loss statement."

Umino Sasuke waved his hand, calling Tejudo over.

Thus, the Konoha Ninja began clearing the battlefield. The work was relatively simple and quick: using Sealing Scrolls to collect useful ninja corpses, recovering usable Tools, and roughly cross-referencing accounts to see where the expenses might go.

Cross-referencing accounts was mainly to prevent the reported losses from being too outrageous, such as reporting one hundred Explosive Tags lost when only one was actually used.

"What? You're saying you used a hundred and fifty Explosive Tags just now?"

Akimichi Toribo jumped up in shock. Didn't you just say you only lost a few tools?

Was this "a few"?

To speak of hundreds of Explosive Tags right off the bat. A slight increase in reimbursement was normal, but it couldn't be that outrageous, could it?

Explosive Tags had already more than doubled in price compared to usual. Without 4,000 Ryo, you couldn't get one.

One hundred and fifty Explosive Tags meant over 600,000 Ryo.

This was almost equivalent to the reward for an S-rank mission during peacetime.

"Lord Toribo, look at the explosion effects. I really didn't over-report."

Umino Sasuke pointed to the area where Tejudo had previously set up the Heavenly Net trap, looking genuinely pained.

"Do you think I'm ignorant? That would take at most eighty or ninety Explosive Tags."

"And look over there. I used some more Explosive Tags to detonate two Fuma Shuriken. Those two Fuma Shuriken were custom-made in the Land of Artisans, costing 50,000 Ryo each. They were incredibly expensive. It looks like we'll have to eat plain rice for a while."

"Hmm, acceptable."

Akimichi Toribo nodded. Based on this explanation, the losses were only inflated by about thirty percent, which wasn't too outrageous. If it were other Ninja Clan descendants, over-reporting by two or three times was common. This was still somewhat acceptable.

The reimbursement ratio for losses wasn't the problem; it was the sheer base amount that was staggering.

Umino Sasuke quickly tried to mitigate the damage and continued his report: "The Tool Manipulation: Heavenly Blade Chaos used by Tejudo, those Tools can mostly be recovered, so I won't report them."

"Hmm, good."

Akimichi Toribo nodded, expressing his satisfaction. Looking at the various high-quality Tools, and in such large quantities, even if they were recovered, the maintenance and repair costs alone would be tens of thousands of Ryo. The fact that he wasn't reporting them showed he was a thoughtful subordinate.

However, before Akimichi Toribo could feel too pleased, Umino Sasuke reported again: "Look at that Double Iron Prison Gate. It's been damaged into scrap metal. It seems it can only be reforged. I'll just charge for the repair costs. You name a price."

"How about I just reimburse you for an S-rank mission? What do you say?"

"That would be wonderful."

"Dream on. Forget it, there's no need to report it further. All the spoils are yours. All the merit points for this mission to intercept the Sand Ninja will also go to you, so you can recover some of your losses."

Akimichi Toribo looked at the Double Iron Prison Gate. The raw materials alone were worth over a million Ryo. Including manufacturing costs and the sealing talismans on it, it would cost several million Ryo to replace.

An S-rank mission only paid a little over a million Ryo.

These two gates alone were worth several S-rank mission merit points. How could they possibly be reimbursed?

The victory in this great battle was entirely built on money.

Even with all the mission merit points combined, they couldn't compensate for the loss of these two gates.

"Sasuke, you need to be more careful in the future. I know it's all for the village, but you can't keep subsidizing like this. Human energy is finite. When you have a wife and children and your own household, you'll understand the cost of firewood and rice. Sigh, forget it, forget it. I won't nag anymore."

Akimichi Toribo looked at Umino Sasuke, who possessed the strong Will of Fire, with a bit of sympathy. He lectured him earnestly and with great care, finally comforting him, "Although your losses are great this time, it's not entirely without gain. The intelligence brought back by Kagejiro and the others is extremely important. When the time comes for the merit points for this intelligence mission, besides the share for Shin'nosuke and the others, we'll split it fifty-fifty. This way, you can still recover some of your losses."

"Lord Toribo is truly generous! But thirty percent is fine for me."

Seeing such a fair distribution, Umino Sasuke didn't dare to be too greedy.

It wasn't that he didn't want more, but the intelligence mission merit points were too tricky to handle. Getting thirty percent was already thanks to his superior, Akimichi Toribo, taking the brunt of it. Otherwise, he'd be lucky to get ten percent.

"Alright, then thirty percent it is."

Akimichi Toribo nodded, his appreciation for Umino Sasuke's social skills deepening another level. He valued this subordinate even more.

There were many ninja with the Will of Fire, but few who possessed both the Will of Fire and social grace.

If their combat ability was also good, they would be prime candidates for recruitment.

"I also thank you for your support, Lord Toribo."

Umino Sasuke continued to flatter him, believing that by taking good care of his superior, the leader would visit more often, preventing the Sand Ninja from choosing his sector for their breakthrough.

As his flattery reached its peak, Umino Sasuke even took out two bags of his homemade dried fish and secretly slipped them into Akimichi Toribo's hand.

"Sniff! Sniff!" Akimichi Toribo quickly took two deep sniffs. His eyes immediately lit up. Besides the salty flavor, there was also curry flavor, and it was a secret recipe.

In Konohagakure, this item isn't considered all that precious, but on the front lines, it's a rare commodity.

Under the onslaught of culinary diplomacy, Akimichi Toribo immediately surrendered. He promised that from now on, if he encountered any injustice, they could just mention his name, acting like a big brother looking out for his little sibling.

"Captain, your Water Bat hasn't been registered yet."

Tejudo, looking as dejected as a widower, saw they were getting along well and sidled over. He held a small notebook and seized the opportunity to interject with a reminder.

"Right, my Water Bat."

Umino Sasuke finally remembered. His summoned beast, the Water Bat, had been casually sliced in half by the spiky-haired guy and washed away in the river.

Just then, a large mass of black Kikaichū flew over. Inside, a greenish-black mass was faintly visible – it was the two halves of the Water Bat's corpse.

Clearly.

Aburame Shibi had been monitoring the entire enemy obstruction process. Before cleaning up the battlefield, he had already used Kikaichū to retrieve the Water Bat's corpse from the river.