"Naruto-kun, if we're really going to do this, I don't recommend choosing Wave Country."
Yakushi Nonō spoke, her voice somewhat low.
"Tell me your reasons."
Naruto gestured for Yakushi Nonō to continue.
"According to the intelligence I've gathered over the past two months, Wave Country is an extremely impoverished nation. Even the daimyo has no money. Most of the population consists of drifters with no fixed homes, and scenes of starving corpses littering the roads are common. If we take over this country, I'm afraid we'll only be inheriting a complete mess."
"Is that so?" Naruto smiled. "Why do I feel like that's more of an advantage?"
"Huh?"
Yakushi Nonō could not understand.
"Think about it. A tiny, poor, isolated place on an island—no matter what happens there, it'll be hard for the outside world to notice, right? On top of that, most of the civilians here have no fixed homes and can barely afford food. Doesn't that mean they have little sense of national identity? Isn't this our chance to gain complete control over the country?"
"But then we won't have money to support all those civilians."
"We may not have money, but someone does, don't they?"
A wicked grin appeared on Naruto's face, and Yakushi Nonō understood.
"But Gato is still a merchant..."
"A tyrant who uses violence to monopolize an entire country's transportation and shipping can still be called a merchant? Nonō, we can be as warm as spring toward friends, but toward enemies, we must be as ruthless as winter."
"...All right."
Since Naruto had put it that way, Yakushi Nonō did not press the issue further and instead asked, "Then when do we act?"
"Over the next two days, thoroughly investigate the assets owned by Kado Company. We can't let them go to waste. At