Internal Debts Aren't Debts

Early Morning

Uchiha Nan climbed out of bed, supporting his aching lower back. He walked to the window and pulled open the curtains. Sunlight streamed in and spilled across the bed, bathing the snow-white naked body in golden light. It was quite a sight.

He got hard!

But the mirror facing Uchiha Nan in the room made him forcibly suppress the urge.

His hair was a mess, his eyes were deeply sunken, dark circles hung heavily beneath them, and somehow his beard had grown so long overnight.

I've been ruined by wine and women. I look utterly haggard!

From today onward, I'm abstaining from women!

Uchiha Nan secretly made up his mind. That taste of indulgence was simply too addictive; he could not play himself into kidney deficiency.

"Master, you're awake?"

Fu rubbed her eyes. She had apparently been awakened by the noise Uchiha Nan made. Seeing his naked body, she instinctively covered her eyes, then suddenly realized that she was naked too. She hurriedly grabbed the bedsheet and covered herself, her cheeks flushed crimson.

So cute.

Watching Fu fumble about in panic, Uchiha Nan sighed inwardly.

"Master, I'll go make you breakfast right away."

Fu nudged Rin, trying to wake her so they could help Uchiha Nan get dressed and wash up.

"Forget it, don't go through all that trouble. I'll eat out myself. You two keep sleeping."

Uchiha Nan waved a hand. Experiencing the life of being dressed and washed by others once was enough. There was no need to make the two sisters work so hard.

Without giving Fu a chance to argue, he took a change of clothes and walked out of the room. After washing up and shaving, he found a breakfast shop at random and ate.

After breakfast, Uchiha Nan headed to the conference room.

There was still an hour before the meeting began, and Uchiha Nan had originally assumed there would not be many people in the conference room.

Yet it was packed to the brim. Nearly every senior member of Konoha's clans, large and small, had come.

But thinking about it, that made sense. The higher-ups were handing out pay. Anyone who was not eager to collect their salary had to have something wrong with their head.

Thinking this, Uchiha Nan made his way through the crowd to his seat.

When everyone saw Uchiha Nan enter, they tactfully fell silent and returned to their seats.

Sitting in the central seat at the head of the table, Uchiha Nan swept his gaze across the room. Seeing that Mito Uzumaki had not arrived today, he casually asked Toma Senju, "Why hasn't Mito-sama come today?"

Toma Senju's fists instantly clenched. It was hard not to suspect that Uchiha Nan had brought it up deliberately.

His mother had been beaten into a pig's head by the evil Uchiha Nan. If the Uzumaki Clan did not possess such powerful vitality and recovery abilities, she might have been disfigured.

In any world, a woman's face came first. Mito Uzumaki was only considering the bigger picture; otherwise, she would probably have fought Uchiha Nan to the death.

"Mother is unwell, so she did not come today."

Toma Senju answered expressionlessly, with no intention of arguing with Uchiha Nan.

"Oh! So her injuries from last time still haven't healed."

"You...!"

Toma Senju snapped. He was now certain that Uchiha Nan was doing this on purpose.

Don't get angry. I'm not angry.

Toma Senju decided to endure it once more. Tearing off all pretenses with Uchiha Nan now would bring him no benefits. For all he knew, Uchiha Nan was waiting for him to lose his temper.

It was time to distribute funds. He could not fall for it!

Toma Senju turned his face away and pretended not to hear Uchiha Nan.

"The Hokage is already here, and everyone is more or less present. Let's begin the meeting."

Hyuga Takuma stepped forward to smooth things over, unwilling to see Konoha's two major clans become too hostile.

"Then let's begin!"

Uchiha Nan nodded and commenced today's money-distribution meeting.

"The Land of Fire has allocated funds to Konoha."

Uchiha Nan deliberately paused. The Clan Heads of every clan looked eagerly at him, wanting to know the amount.

"Thirty billion!"

The figure shattered the conference room's former silence, and everyone immediately began chattering among themselves.

Was thirty billion a lot?

Given to a single clan, it would naturally be an astronomical sum. But this amount was for all of Konoha.

After subtracting the ten-odd billion owed to the various clans, less than twenty billion remained.

And that only covered Konoha's ninja clans. There were also countless civilian ninjas. There were not many chunin and jonin, but there were plenty of genin, which was another sizable expense.

Then there were all sorts of other places. There were simply too many things that required money.

"Today, we will discuss this funding."

Uchiha Nan had only recently taken office. He was not yet in a position to make decisions unilaterally and freely use the allocated funds.

The ninjas of the entire village were eyeing this money like starving wolves.

As soon as Uchiha Nan finished speaking, everyone began voicing their opinions freely instead of merely whispering among themselves.

These ninja clans first believed that the previous debts should be paid off, and only then should they discuss how to use the remaining money.

A long list of budget items was compiled: Konoha's daily operating expenses.

The Ninja Academy needed to continue enrolling students, which required money.

There were also various ninja tools, Soldier Pills, and Exploding Tags.

Konoha's hospital needed to expand, and Medical Ninjas had to be trained as well—another major expense.

Then there was the funding for the defensive lines against Kirigakure and Iwagakure, which was no small sum. Simply maintaining permanent garrisons cost five hundred million ryo per month. If local friction escalated into war, that figure would triple or quadruple.

There was also Kumogakure. Although they had signed a peace agreement, that was no guarantee of safety. The necessary precautions still had to be made.

The staff members recording everything at the side kept calculating the future budget expenditures.

Seeing that the discussion had more or less concluded, Uchiha Nan asked about Konoha's future budget needs.

"Reporting to Lord Hokage, if no large-scale war breaks out in the future, fulfilling all these budget requirements will likely take more than fifty billion."

"Hiss."

Just as expected!

Uchiha Nan held his head. Budgets were never enough.

Every ninja village had its shortcomings. Either there was not enough funding for training at the Ninja Academy, or their medical capabilities were lacking, or their defensive forces were insufficient.

The people present had practically listed everything Konoha needed to develop as a ninja village. This amount of funding was definitely not enough.

"What if war breaks out?"

Hyuga Takuma asked. The recorder showed a bitter smile. Once war began, how could any budget possibly be sufficient?

You were burning money. How could burning money ever be enough?

"The situation doesn't look too optimistic!"

"Comrades."

Uchiha Nan faced the crowd with a serious expression. They were still short of money—desperately short!

"Konoha is our shared home. We must weather this storm together and carry forward the spirit of the Will of Fire."

"..."

Uchiha Nan first launched into a long speech, conveying the spirit of the meeting.

Since Konoha did not have enough money for development, someone had to pay for it. Other than these wealthy ninja clans, who else could shoulder the transfer payments?

The civilian ninjas?

How much could possibly be squeezed out of them?

Even a starving ninja clan was still richer than a camel!

What Konoha owed was money from the ninja clans. This was an internal matter—an internal debt!

Internal debt was not debt!

Let the ninja clans suffer; he would bear the infamy!