Yes, Yes, You All Made Money

Unlike the desolate single shop in Sunagakure, Kirigakure's ten shops were bustling with activity.

The Land of Water, where Kirigakure was located, was surrounded by sea on all sides and had an abundance of resources.

Kirigakure might have eaten so much fish that they were sick of it, but the people of Konoha still liked it.

Fish was meat, after all. In those days, being able to eat meat at all was a blessing. Who cared whether it was fish or beef?

It was a shame Yuya didn't know how to make ham sausages. Otherwise, with a little starch, he could make something that tasted like meat. He could turn Konoha into a paradise where everyone could enjoy the taste of "meat" within a year.

That wasn't an exaggeration. For ordinary people in Year 18 of Konoha, being able to eat something that tasted like meat at every meal would be paradise.

Unfortunately, Yuya didn't have that skill.

So the best-selling goods at Kirigakure's ten shops were all kinds of seafood.

Including the seafood Yuya had bought earlier under the agreement, Kirigakure had already made several million Ryo just from selling fish.

That was already a major business.

More importantly, this wasn't a one-time deal. You might eat it today and want some more tomorrow or the day after.

Konoha was in an awkward position. New factories were opening all the time, but with a total population of only a few hundred thousand, there was no way to expand production much further.

Population was an important factor in many cases.

Senju Tobirama might have thought that too many people in the village would be a headache, but Yuya believed that more people were always better.

There was also something called a demographic dividend.

It might not be obvious when you looked at individuals, but at the national level, it was clear that a large population was beneficial to a country's development.

The people of Kirigakure were pleased to watch their earnings pour in day after day, but Yuya was even happier.

Why?

Just look at where Kirigakure was doing business.

Kirigakure had certainly made money, but the boats loaded with its goods were selling them in the Trading Zone Konoha had set up.

In other words, the Trading Center—which Yuya had thought might take at least a year or two to get going—had taken off in less than six months, thanks to Kirigakure's help.

Everyone in the Ninja World now knew that you could buy Kirigakure's specialties in Konoha: mild Fruit Wine, all kinds of seafood, and the Salt and Iron unique to Kirigakure.

There was no need to explain iron. Konoha had helped build Kirigakure's Steel Mill.

They had to hand over one-tenth of their total output every year, but that was manageable.

After all, it was only for three years.

At first, the influential families who managed Kirigakure had wanted to hold back production so Konoha wouldn't get much out of them during those three years.

But after doing the math, they realized that they'd end up with far less iron themselves over the same period.

They did the math again and figured that, since the Iron Smeltery was compensation Konoha had given them to keep Kirigakure out of the war—yes, everyone, including the people of Konoha, still believed that—and Konoha was only taking one-tenth, there was no point in deliberately cutting production and limiting their own supply of iron over the next three years.

Of course, in reality, Yuya didn't care all that much about Kirigakure's Iron Smeltery.

After all, he was about to expand his own operation to ten iron smelteries.

Iron could be used for everything, from construction materials for the village to the pots and bowls in people's homes.

Yuya had no intention of letting Konoha's few hundred thousand people simply carry on as they were.

Attracting refugees and people from small clans to Konoha was a long-term policy that had to be maintained.

Of course, it would be even better if the newcomers were all young adults.

Kirigakure's business in Konoha was thriving. Sunagakure watched with envy, but there was little it could do.

It did have specialties of its own. Cactus, Desert Chili Pepper—take your pick.

Desert Chili Pepper was worth considering, but Cactus was out of the question.

The villagers of Konoha weren't camels. They weren't going to chew on that stuff. At most, they'd buy a few to try something new. They wouldn't buy several fish at a time like they did at Kirigakure's stalls.

On the other hand, Chiyo, the young woman minding Sunagakure's shop, delivered the Puppet she'd made to Yuya and collected the balance.

Chiyo was clearly delighted when Yuya paid her.

That one item alone was worth as much as a year's lease on the shop Sunagakure had rented in Konoha.

Everything else they sold was pure profit.

And thanks to Yuya's deliberate arrangements, several restaurants came to Sunagakure and signed contracts to buy Desert Chili Pepper.

The initial quantities weren't large, but as things developed, demand for this chili—which was consumed in huge quantities every day—would surely increase.

They were already selling over a hundred thousand Ryo's worth a day. Of course, that was only the selling price. Once you factored in the journey from Sunagakure in the Land of Wind and the daily expenses of the dozen or so Sunagakure ninja stationed there, they were barely making any money. But the people of Sunagakure weren't about to calculate things that carefully.

To them, was the journey cost? It was just part of their training as ninja!

Well, it was true that the daily expenses in Konoha were a little steep.

After all, Konoha understood men and women all too well.

Massage parlors, jewelry stores, and the gambling dens deep in the Trading Street...

Honestly, if he knew how to make the necessary technology, Yuya would absolutely give the Ninja World a little taste of the shock of internet cafes.

But first, he didn't know how to make the technology or set up a network. Second, the world wasn't peaceful yet. If they opened places like that, the kids would definitely be unable to resist the temptation. Konoha's next generation of fighters might end up in a bad way—maybe even ruined.

But as the saying went, when the sun didn't shine in the east, it shone in the west.

Yuya could open internet cafes in other countries and corrupt their next generations instead.

Too bad having an idea wasn't enough. He needed the ability to carry it out.

Of course, Yuya had already begun his cultural invasion of other countries. The first step was naturally the slogan, "You can buy goods from other countries in Konoha."

Konoha had now gathered resources from the Land of Water and the Land of Wind, allowing them to trade in its Trading Center.

But, if you were being honest...

It still wasn't enough.

Yuya eyed the maps of the Land of Lightning and the Land of Earth, unable to hide his envy.

He really wanted the high-grade Wagyu from the Land of Lightning's ranches and the Land of Earth's abundant food resources—by which he meant potatoes. Go on, tell him you couldn't eat them.

By comparison, the dirt-poor Sunagakure—yes, only Sunagakure was poor; the daimyo of the Land of Wind was rich—and the Land of Water, far from the mainland and reliant on the sea for most of its resources, didn't offer nearly as much potential as these two countries.

But no matter what, the war still had to be fought.

War was the continuation of politics, and Yuya's plan to get those two countries involved so they could make money too—meaning they'd make money in Konoha, but nowhere else—couldn't be put into practice before the war ended.

But that was all right.

He could wait. He had plenty of time.

While Konoha continued to develop rapidly, Yuya opened a shop dedicated to selling clothes. The prices were outrageously high, but you had to admit, it had sold a few items within days of opening.

Well, the buyers were people from the Shimura Clan and the Nara Clan.

Tsk, tsk. Who knew the Nara Clan, with those thick eyebrows, was so rich?

They always seemed so low-key. Couldn't hide it anymore, huh?

As he jotted it down in his little notebook, Yuya quietly established the Ninja Equipment and Information Technology R&D Department.

Its main purpose was research.

After all, Konoha was making money now. It was time to start thinking about how to spend it.

And there was no doubt that research was one of the fastest ways to burn through money.

The first research project: take the exquisitely crafted Puppet from Sunagakure that Yuya had bought for ten million and see whether they could reverse-engineer Sunagakure's Puppet Technique.

Yuya really did like paper dolls, but Sunagakure's Puppet Technique was just too ridiculous.

They were way too ugly. Yuya had only used paper dolls as an excuse.

The real goal was to see if they could reverse-engineer the technique.

Never mind whether they could actually use what they learned. He didn't have to use it, but he had to have it. Understand? It was all about having a strategic reserve.

And so, time passed, little by little.

Then, in late summer of Year 18 of Konoha, the news arrived...

Ultimate Storm even has AI games. That game counts as official, right? So technically, there might be a network. But I'm worried this will turn into "opening an internet cafe in Naruto," so I'll pass on that idea.