Situation

Hearing Sarutobi Toru's muttered words, the Third Hokage took a drag from his pipe and slowly nodded.

"Yes! It seemed the real reason the other ninja villages were not coming to Konoha for the exams was not because they were afraid of us."

"Was Konoha's current strength making the other ninja villages feel insecure?"

Sarutobi Toru pondered silently.

Konoha's strength had prompted the other ninja villages to build up their military forces in order to improve their "sense of security." That, in turn, caused economic decline, eventually creating a vicious cycle of militarism. To redirect internal conflicts, they could only start a war.

Once war began, the Daimyos of each country would have no choice but to increase Military Expenditure for their ninja villages. Victory would naturally be best, but even defeat could ease the economic crisis.

Of course, once a war began, not even the ninja villages themselves could control it. Just like the world wars on Earth, which had also been caused by economic crises, in the end even the heads of state who started them could no longer control them and could only be swept along into continued fighting.

Beside them, Shimura Danzō merely wore an inscrutable expression as he looked over a thick stack of intelligence reports on commodity prices, grain imports and exports, and population movements.

Should I find someone from the Nara Clan to serve as an advisor? How did they analyze all this? Why can't I understand much of it?

Sarutobi Toru had found the materials on economic analysis and its impact on war on his phone, and had previously shown them to the Third Hokage and Shimura Danzō.

The difference was that the Third Hokage had immediately recognized their value. Though he had not studied them in depth himself, he quickly handed them over to his advisory team and had them thoroughly absorb the material.

Shimura Danzō had also seen the materials' value, but... he had no one under him!

He had no shortage of thugs who could chop people up, but brainy strategists? Why did Root have only one voice? Because there were barely any brains in it!

Still, he knew that war was about to break out.

"In that case, why don't we strike first and deal with the other ninja villages—"

"Ahem, the advisory team has estimated that the other ninja villages are only preparing. There is still a year or two before war begins,"

the Third Hokage interrupted.

"Hiruzen, you are too soft! The Four Great Ninja Villages can never unite. If we act first, we will definitely seize the advantage before that happens!"

"If the strongest Konoha shows itself to be threatening, the other ninja villages certainly will not stand by out of a desire for self-preservation. Konoha will be in danger then!"

Listening to the two argue their cases (haggle), Sarutobi Toru curled his lip again.

At some point, whenever the Third Hokage and Danzo held a meeting in the Hokage's Office, they started dragging Sarutobi Toru in as well, occasionally even asking for his opinion.

Where were Utatane Koharu and Mitokado Homura? Where had those two peacemaker advisors gone?

Oh, the two of them were still in their prime and were out carrying out missions for Konoha!

But Sarutobi Toru had no intention of playing peacemaker. Besides, the Third Hokage and Danzo were not yet what they would be thirty years later. They might appear to argue fiercely, but they could actually reach a solution soon enough through their disputes (discussions).

Sure enough, the final decision was for Shimura Danzō's Root to intensify its infiltration of the Four Great Ninja Villages while freely sowing discord among them. Konoha, meanwhile, would increase support for strongholds in strategically vital areas along its borders, stockpile war supplies, and strengthen border patrols.

With the backing of immense funds, Konoha's conventional military strength had now reached its peak. The village had more than thirty thousand registered ninja, nearly 50% more than during its former heyday. At its current scale, it could utterly crush any single ninja village. Even against two ninja villages working together, it would be more likely to win than lose. If it continued developing, the snowballing advantage would truly leave the other villages completely outclassed.

Thus, even though the other ninja villages were riddled with internal contradictions, they would surely make a move against Konoha in the end. The only question was sooner or later, whether they would gang up on Konoha or take turns fighting it.

Naturally, Konoha hoped its opponents would come one at a time, then descend into mutual chaos and weaken themselves. That would greatly reduce Konoha's pressure.

The other ninja villages each had their own calculations as well. Complete unity was impossible, but whether they would join hands through tacit understanding, confront Konoha while guarding against one another, or simply descend into a chaotic free-for-all, the final outcome remained uncertain.

Danzo's task was to do everything possible to weaken the trust and coordination among the ninja villages. If he could ignite war between them, that would be even better.

"The other issue is the expansion of Konoha Hospital!"

The Third Hokage rubbed his brow and raised another matter.

Konoha Hospital had now spread through nearly every major city in the Land of Fire. With resources heavily funneled into it, Konoha had nearly a thousand medical ninja. Each hospital had between three and five medical ninja, and some small countries had also eagerly introduced Konoha Hospital. The funding earned by the hospitals each year was nearly three or four times the funding Konoha received from ninja missions.

The funds were so abundant that for a while, even the Third Hokage did not know how to spend them. Training ninja, buying weapons, gathering intelligence—after working hard to squander money for quite some time, Sarutobi Toru gave him another channel for spending it: research!

Orochimaru and Hiruko both said, "Toru is right!"

Then the Third Hokage witnessed just how quickly the funds flowed away like water.

Fortunately, Hiruko's New Synthetic Summon Beast Project and Orochimaru's Artificial Bloodline Project had both achieved considerable results, while Sarutobi Toru had developed many new medicines that brought in money. Otherwise, the Third Hokage felt he might have developed heart disease.

As a result, the Third Hokage, who had originally been uninterested in opening Konoha Hospital branches abroad for profit, was now interested again.

"Right now, Konoha Hospital has reached a bottleneck. Hospitals in the Land of Fire and several peaceful neighboring small countries are already saturated, while in the remaining major countries and nations located at strategic chokepoints, the hospitals' safety is difficult to guarantee."

At that, the Third Hokage turned his gaze toward Sarutobi Toru.

The development and expansion of Konoha Hospital had basically been guided and planned by Sarutobi Toru. Now that a problem had arisen, they naturally had to see whether he had a solution.

"That's simple. We can turn the hospitals into a joint-stock system and give a portion to the nobles and Daimyos of each country. When the time comes, for the sake of their own interests, they will not let other ninja villages act recklessly!"

Sarutobi Toru did not disappoint the Third Hokage and quickly proposed a solution.

After all, having lived in a modern information society, he knew some of the methods used by multinational corporations.

"Hm? Taking the route through Daimyos and nobles? That really is a good idea!" The Third Hokage immediately felt enlightened and nodded.

"One last issue." The Third Hokage furrowed his brows. "Lady Mito has proposed replacing the Jinchuriki. What do you... think?"