Konoha Ninja's Account of Sand Village

Not everyone within a ninja clan is a ninja.

There are certainly ordinary people among them.

Or perhaps some possess the talent for ninjutsu but simply have no desire to become a ninja; you cannot force them to do so, can you?

Therefore, these individuals are Yuya's primary targets.

This is because, within a ninja clan, these people are responsible for the lowest tier of labor.

In other words, they are the ones who provide resources for the ninja clan.

Simply put, in the past, they were the ones farming, trading, and weaving to support the ninjas who protected them.

During the Warring States period, this model was quite reasonable.

Ninjas provided protection, and civilians provided resources.

However, in the era of hidden villages, this is no longer suitable.

Because these civilians not only hand over resources to their clans but must also hand over a portion to the village.

Since that is the case, they should either stop paying the clan, or stop paying the village.

Konoha has never forcibly levied grain or money from clans like Sarutobi, Hyuga, or Shimura, but the taxes that must be collected annually are certainly collected.

However, it is always a matter of "give what you think is appropriate" each year; both sides are well aware of exactly how much is being given.

Naturally, this model cannot be sustained indefinitely.

But in the past, the village had just been established, and later, there were wars to fight.

Even now, the war has not ceased; Kumogakure has only retreated temporarily and has not signed a peace treaty.

During wartime, one certainly cannot afford a falling out with these clans, so Senju Tobirama merely takes out his little notebook to keep a record of them.

Senju Tobirama has certainly kept in mind the fact that when Yuya went to the village to solicit supplies last time, few clans gave him any face.

Regardless, even if the concept of solicitation was proposed by Yuya himself, he represents Senju Tobirama.

Oh, I finally managed to get my hands on tens of millions, and you all blocked my door demanding money; now that I've sent someone to solicit supplies, you won't even give me face? Is that how it's going to be?!

Senju Tobirama keeps it in his little notebook, but Yuya would not do the same.

From the very beginning, he never took these clans seriously.

When it comes down to it, a clan is nothing more than a group of people with the same surname huddling together for warmth.

The name of a clan is very useful when resisting external enemies.

But is Konoha an external enemy?

No, so Yuya has ten thousand ways to dismantle these clans.

It is just that, to prevent the intensification of conflict, Yuya chose to cut the meat with a dull knife. If Kagami Uchiha had not had a sudden whim to come and take a look, he would never have discovered the fact that many ordinary people within the Uchiha clan have already chosen to leave the clan grounds to live in the urban areas of Konoha.

Here is the key point: it is true that the internal problems within the Uchiha clan in Konoha are serious, but are there no problems within other clans?

Do they not oppress the ordinary members of their own clans?

How could that be possible.

It is only a matter of the degree of oppression.

Now that it is the Uchiha clan suffering the most severe oppression, eventually, the ordinary members of other clans will surely leave their clan grounds one by one to live in the four urban districts—North, South, East, and West—that Yuya has planned.

Can Kagami Uchiha stop them?

He cannot.

To put it bluntly, this is a multiple-choice question.

In the future, what a so-called clan can bring you is merely a sense of collective belonging from living together with people of the same clan.

Anything else? Nothing.

Can Konoha not provide the protection that the clan provides?

Can Konoha not provide what the clan provides?

Konoha has so many job openings; factories are snatching up people so fast it's almost crazy. Often, the machines and materials arrive, but there are no workers, and the machines are left sitting there in vain. Every day that passes is money lost—money in Yuya's eyes.

Once these ordinary people from the clans come out, they will discover that as long as you work hard in the urban areas of Konoha, your life will definitely be better than it was back in the clan grounds.

For those like the Uchiha, it is even better by several times over.

There will be no cult-like figures knocking on your door to preach the Seven Deadly Sins of Konoha and incite you to oppose the village, nor will there be monthly dues that must be paid.

And once they come out, they realize: who does the Konoha Police Force belong to?

The Uchiha.

What are they responsible for?

Guarding Konoha.

Oh, so after coming out, you don't have to pay anything, and you can still enjoy the same protection as before...

Then why not move out?

Once you move out, you'll realize...

It's truly much more comfortable.

(Of course, there is another benefit to moving out: in the unlikely event that the people in the Uchiha Compound go insane, they won't be wiped out. After all, killing people inside the Uchiha Compound is a family matter, but killing people once they've moved out becomes a village matter for Konoha. Itachi Uchiha gives this a thumbs up.)

Having figured this point out, Kagami Uchiha decisively adjusted his stance.

He chose to just slack off.

He wasn't the clan head of the Uchiha, and if he were to be honest, he didn't think there was anything wrong with these Uchiha clansmen leaving the Uchiha Compound.

Truth be told, they were living much better now, weren't they?

Since that was the case, why go and disrupt Yuya's layout?

Kagami Uchiha had finally seen it: this person, Yuya, was different from the Second Hokage.

There was no need to elaborate on Senju Tobirama's talent for ninjutsu; "Professor of Ninjutsu" was the best praise one could give.

But Yuya was different.

This youth hadn't displayed any strength in ninjutsu at all, yet he was already enough to send a chill down Kagami Uchiha's spine.

Kagami Uchiha didn't think he could pull off such a massive layout, one that sliced away at the flesh of every ninja clan like a dull knife.

He was convinced from the bottom of his heart that Senju Tobirama had handed the village's administrative affairs to Yuya.

Well, even though he was convinced, whether Sarutobi Hiruzen, Shimura Danzō, and the others were convinced was another matter entirely.

Kagami Uchiha put his worries aside and focused on strolling through the commercial district with his wife; honestly, it was quite enjoyable.

The commercial district was incredibly lively, even at night.

And compared to the cold, aloof atmosphere of the shops from Kirigakure, the pair of siblings managing the sole shop from Sunagakure were extremely enthusiastic.

Because Konoha was so large, there were always people who wanted to try the flavors of other villages.

Cactus fruit... hmm... never eaten it before, should I give it a try?

It wasn't expensive anyway; 100 ryo for a skewer of two fruits was truly pocket change for the current residents of Konoha.

Trying something new was fine, too.

The shop on the Kirigakure side was managed by a pair of siblings from the Chiyo Clan of Sunagakure. Although the lease was only for one year, it was precisely because of this that Sunagakure wanted to utilize the shop to its fullest potential.

The Sunagakure ninjas who had come to Konoha had long since begun their investigation.

Oh, don't misunderstand; they weren't secretly targeting Konoha's various classified areas to infiltrate and steal intelligence.

It was more direct: observation.

Open, honest observation.

These Sunagakure ninjas were stunned the very first day they arrived in Konoha.

The roads were actually all paved with stone?

And these stones clearly showed signs of being polished.

Laid out on the road, they appeared smooth and didn't hurt one's feet.

Just this alone was already incredible to the people of Sunagakure; the roads in their own village were all paved with a mixture of dirt and gravel, the kind that would be completely ruined once it rained.

However, if it actually rained, the people of Sunagakure would be too happy to care about the roads turning into mud.

After all, their village was also short on water.

Short to what extent? A Water Style ninja who went over there would be treated like a treasure.

But usually, no Water Style ninja was willing to go; after all, the training environment in Sunagakure wasn't suitable for them, and famous, powerful Water Style ninjas didn't care for the meager benefits Sunagakure could offer.

Returning to the main topic, the roads were one aspect, but the prosperity of Konoha was something these Sunagakure ninjas could see with their own eyes.

And it wasn't just the prosperity of pure military might.

During the day, those large buildings in the four planned districts of Konoha were basically empty; even if there were people, they were mostly the elderly, weak, sick, or disabled.

But the forests surrounding Konoha were billowing with thick smoke, continuous and unending.

One look and it was obvious they were working.

By dusk, the whole village seemed to suddenly be activated. Those young and middle-aged adults rarely went straight home after getting off work; they would either call a few friends to drink, chat, and eat skewers, or simply head to a Konoha gambling den.

Oh, those gambling dens were gone now; there was only one official Konoha gambling den.

It was said that business was booming to an explosive degree.

The Sunagakure ninjas noted this down in their notebooks, intending to have the Kazekage confiscate the assets of those gambling den owners and exile them upon their return, so the village could run the gambling dens itself.

There were gambling addicts in Sunagakure too, but the scale certainly wasn't as large as Konoha's.

This Konoha, busy with work by day and bustling with life by night, made the hands of the Sunagakure ninjas ache from all the note-taking.

Because the construction sites in Konoha never stopped. The completion of the Wetland Bridge wasn't the end; bridges could be built and roads repaired in other places too.

Moreover, the current scale of Konoha village was still too small to accommodate too many people; it would likely be overcrowded once it reached a million. By then, they would either have to continue expanding buildings upward or develop the outer districts. Yuya chose to lay the foundation for the second option first, which was why construction was also happening outside the village.

The ninjas of Sunagakure were utterly bewildered: just how much money did Konoha actually have?!

With so many construction projects underway simultaneously, not to mention the wages for all those workers...

Just how wealthy was Konoha?

The observers from Sunagakure were baffled, but a few days later, a rumor suddenly began to circulate in Konoha: it was said that Konoha intended to build a water plant in the Uchiha clan grounds to the east.

Upon hearing this news, Sunagakure could no longer sit still.

After all, they were truly desperate for water...

And so, their team leader directly submitted a diplomatic request:

Big brother, please help out your little brother and set up a water plant for us over there too.

I've been searching for nearly an hour and still can't find where the recommendation slot data is located. Forget it, let it all burn; whatever happens, happens. Whether I pass the first round of recommendations or not, screw it—I'll know the outcome in three days anyway. It's actually better if I don't get promoted; if I do, it'll just be a mountain of trouble, and the editor will probably demand more updates. I'm saving my stockpile for the official launch... [PS: The world runner-up is the biggest loser. 17 Gaming won all year, but they took second place at PGC. Even though the prize money is decent, it's still a huge pity not to have the Grand Slam. Sigh.]