Uchiha: Where's My Huge Water Plant?

In the end, Senju Tobirama decided to teach Yuya a life-saving skill: the Soul Imprisonment Technique.

Simply put, this ninjutsu ensures that even if your body dies, your soul remains tethered to it for a period of time; if you restore the vitality of your body during this window, you can be brought back to life.

In the original timeline, Senju Tobirama, having been brought back via Reanimation, used this very technique to save Sasuke's life.

Of course, at this current point in time, Senju Tobirama was teaching Yuya this technique purely so that Yuya could use it to protect himself.

Yuya's combat prowess naturally crushed his peers; geniuses from the Uchiha or Hyuga clans were mere child's play, easily handled.

However, if he were to face Kage-level combatants, he would still be lacking.

Yuya was, in Senju Tobirama's eyes, the best successor for the Third Hokage, and he would inevitably be pitted against Kage-level figures in the future.

As such, Yuya would certainly encounter all sorts of assassinations and attacks.

Having an extra life-saving skill was always a good thing.

Back to the Uchiha clan.

The Uchiha clan was furious because the plan they had received from Yuya was now known to everyone in the village.

Regarding the construction of a water plant within the Uchiha Clan Compound, the ordinary civilians of Konoha had nothing to say; after all, they were busy with their own jobs and didn't have the time to worry about such matters.

But the other ninja clans were different.

In their minds, the decision for Konoha to build a water plant for the Uchiha was not inherently problematic.

After all, the Uchiha compound was adjacent to the Naka River, and the natural geographical advantage meant these clans had no room to complain about the plant being built there.

But the problem was, the Uchiha had a water plant... what about us?

Why do we have nothing?

We are all ninja clans of Konoha; you can't play favorites like this!

Besides, every clan has people working under you, Lord Hokage! You can't neglect your own people!

Senju Tobirama was so angry he could barely breathe.

What was the purpose of building the water plant?

Did they really think this was some low-end operation involving filling bottles with water to sell?

It was meant to coordinate with Yuya's second phase of infrastructure upgrades: laying water pipes to every household in Konoha so that people wouldn't have to go through the trouble of fetching water or buying it from vendors at exorbitant prices.

Turning on a faucet at home and having water flow out—how wonderful would that be?!

It wasn't as if these clans wouldn't benefit! It wasn't like the pipes wouldn't reach their homes! Why were they making such a fuss?!

Senju Tobirama didn't understand, but Yuya knew exactly what these clans wanted.

He had Senju Tobirama ask the representatives of these clans directly if they were looking for compensation.

Sure enough, several clans expressed their intention to get a share of the profits from the steel mill.

Although the steel mill's work—smelting raw materials into molten iron and casting them—was not strictly high-end, it was genuinely profitable.

After all, with ninjas around, the cost of mining iron ore was almost negligible, consisting mostly of Explosive Tags and ninja chakra. Often, they didn't even need Explosive Tags; a Fire Style jutsu would heat the rock until it glowed red, and a Water Style jutsu would cause the rock to crack naturally. How simple was that? What kind of cost was that?

Yet, once something went through the iron smeltery, it came out as a finished product, and these sold for a high price.

A kitchen knife started at 500 ryo, and it was common for better ones to double in price.

The silver-white, patterned knives inlaid with silver, ordered by the high-end restaurants Yuya owned, went for tens of thousands of ryo apiece.

Not to mention the tableware.

Of course, that was the market price; for Yuya himself, he simply wrote a slip for the smeltery to produce them, and the restaurants would send someone to pick them up.

This was not an abuse of public power for private gain; strictly speaking, the restaurants Yuya opened were all under the name of the Hokage Office.

These restaurants were enough to cover the monthly salaries of the clerical staff and other ordinary employees of the Hokage Office.

By no means could this be considered Yuya using his privileges for personal gain.

If one really wanted to talk about expenses, the bulk of Konoha's budget actually went to the monthly salaries of the various Jonin.

Basically, a Jonin could earn 500,000 ryo a month.

(Someone at Kakashi's level could earn over 800,000 ryo a month, but that was for an elite Jonin. Ordinary Jonin certainly didn't have that kind of treatment.)

Although there weren't many Jonin, their monthly salaries still amounted to nearly ten million ryo.

This was a fixed expense that couldn't be skimmed, and Yuya had no intention of doing so.

However, considering he was only acting in an administrative capacity, Yuya knew that directly ordering Jonin to do things might lead to a confusion of authority, so he usually handled secondary coordination through Senju Tobirama.

Even though Senju Tobirama expressed his trust in Yuya, Yuya still maintained the form of secondary reporting and coordination.

Yuya was thinking about the future; the saying "he who starts a precedent will have no descendants" applied here.

If Yuya set a precedent, those who followed would surely use him as an example.

Having finally come to the ninja world, Yuya knew he could never surpass Senju Hashirama—the God of Shinobi who ended centuries of war on the Shinobi Continent and created the rules of a new era—in the history books of this world.

But Yuya did not want a single stain on his record.

If he really had to say it, well... when the time came, he would just claim that the decisions he made to harvest the wealth of other nations to fill Konoha's coffers were all taught to him by Senju Tobirama.

He could not afford to have a single stain on his record!

This was the stubbornness of a future Hokage who wanted to leave his name in history.

Senju Tobirama, unaware that he would be dragged out by Yuya time and again to take the blame after his death, was currently sulking.

These clans were simply going too far; they hadn't cooperated when Yuya came to solicit their support earlier, but now that they saw Konoha was about to grant benefits to the Uchiha, they jumped out, clamoring that they wanted a share too.

They truly had no shame when it came to profit.

Yuya, however, felt absolutely no emotional fluctuation.

Men die for wealth just as birds die for food.

As for that phrase in Konoha, "Where the leaves of Konoha dance, fire burns on," Yuya scoffed at it.

Brainwashing slogans like that could only fool children; once they grew up, you'd see who still believed in that nonsense.

Yuya was a staunch realist; he believed that relying on nihilism, shouting slogans, and brainwashing for people and affairs was never sustainable.

Simply put, if given the choice between spiritual satisfaction and a loaf of bread, Yuya would choose the bread without a moment's hesitation.

Yuya never believed that anyone could maintain their original intentions when faced with profit, let alone these clans composed of numerous ninja.

When Senju Tobirama asked Yuya what they should do, Yuya simply spread his hands: "Let it be. Those Iron Smelteries were built two years ago by you, Uncle-Master, using ten million ryo to pull in Konoha's merchants. Why should we give them to these clans?

However, we cannot ignore their opposition~ so~ let's just abandon the construction of the Water Plant.

Oh, of course, we shouldn't be the only ones who know about this.

Konoha belongs to everyone, so let's inform all of Konoha about this matter as well."

Senju Tobirama was stunned, then narrowed his eyes as he looked at Yuya: "You brat, you're ruthless... but I don't see anything wrong with it. These ninja clans really do need to be put in their place."

And so, Senju Tobirama had his secretary arrange a public notice, informing everyone that due to the Sarutobi, Shimura, and several other clans, the Uchiha's Water Plant could no longer be built, and everyone would likely have to continue buying water from the water vendors.

Once this news broke, the ordinary residents of Konoha immediately erupted.

On this day in Year 18 of Konoha, the various clans of Konoha experienced for the first time what it meant to face an offensive of public opinion.

Of course, this event was recorded in later history books as a decision made solely by Senju Tobirama; at the time, the future Third Hokage, Kamigane Yuya, who was studying under the Second Hokage, had not participated in this incident.

People in later generations flipping through history books could only sigh helplessly—the Third Hokage, Kamigane Yuya, what a good man he was, dedicated to the people. It was just a pity that his master died young, and during his prime learning years, he followed a master uncle who was rotten to the core, which was how he learned so many underhanded tactics.

Senju Tobirama, the Second Hokage, was simply a sinner in history.

It was truly a pity for the upright and noble Third Hokage; he had met the wrong mentor.

...Of course, that is a story for another time.

As for now...

The Uchiha Clan Compound was completely bewildered:

Where is my Water Plant?

Where did my massive Water Plant go?!

We hadn't even finished discussing it, so why is it not being built anymore?!

When Naruto appeared, his home had a refrigerator, electricity, and water, which showed that Konoha's infrastructure was actually not bad at that time. And although the milk had expired, that was Naruto's own issue, meaning Konoha's infrastructure was complete and had everything it needed. The fact that someone like Naruto, who lived on a meager monthly welfare allowance—the money the Third Hokage gave him each month wasn't much—could survive, proved that Konoha was actually quite wealthy back then. Calculating it this way, it seems the Third Hokage was quite capable at managing the economy... though it doesn't rule out the possibility that others in the Hokage Office were the ones running it.