In the end, Senju Tobirama decided to teach Yuya a life-saving technique: the Soul Imprisonment Technique.
Simply put, even if your body died, this ninjutsu would keep your soul bound to it for a while. If you restored your body's vitality during that time, you could be brought back to life.
During the Fourth Shinobi World War, the reanimated Tobirama used this technique to save Sasuke's life.
Of course, at this point in time, Senju Tobirama was teaching Yuya this technique purely so he could use it to protect himself.
Compared to his peers, Yuya's combat strength was obviously overwhelming. The Uchiha and Hyuga prodigies were all pushovers he could handle with ease.
But he wouldn't fare so well against Kage Level fighters.
And in Senju Tobirama's eyes, Yuya was the best candidate to succeed the Third Hokage. He'd certainly be measured against Kage Level figures in the future.
That meant Yuya would inevitably face all kinds of assassinations and attacks.
Having one more life-saving skill was always a good thing.
Back to the Uchiha Clan.
The Uchiha Clan was furious because the whole village now knew about the proposal they'd received from Yuya.
As for building a water plant inside the Uchiha Clan Compound, the ordinary residents of Konoha didn't have much to say about it. They had to work every day, after all. How were they supposed to find time to worry about things like this?
But the other ninja clans were different.
In their view, Konoha's decision to build a water plant for the Uchiha wasn't a problem in itself.
After all, the Uchiha Clan Compound was near the Naka River. With that natural geographic advantage, the other clans couldn't object to building the plant there.
But the problem was, the Uchiha were getting a water plant... What about us?
How come we don't get anything?
We're all ninja clans in Konoha. You can't play favorites, can you?!
And every clan has people working under you, Lord Hokage! You can't neglect your own people, can you?!
Senju Tobirama was about ready to burst a blood vessel.
What was the point of building a water plant?
Did they really think it was some low-level scheme to fill bottles with water and sell them?
It was meant to support Yuya's second-phase renovations by laying water pipes to every home in Konoha. Then people wouldn't have to go through so much trouble to fetch water, or buy overpriced water from the water vendors.
They could just turn on the tap at home and water would come rushing out. How great was that?
Those clans would benefit too! It wasn't as if the pipes wouldn't reach their homes! What were they making a fuss about?
Tobirama didn't understand, but Yuya did know what those clans wanted.
He simply told Senju Tobirama to ask whether they were looking for compensation.
Sure enough, several clans came right out and said they wanted a share of the Steel Mill's profits.
The Steel Mill's job was to smelt raw materials into molten iron and shape it. Strictly speaking, it wasn't high-tech work, but it certainly made money.
After all, with ninjas around, the cost of mining iron ore was practically just a few Explosive Tags and some chakra. Often, they didn't even need Explosive Tags. One Fire Release technique heated the rocks until they glowed red, then one Water Release technique made them crack apart. How easy was that? How could any of that count as a cost?
But you could walk into the Steel Mill and come out with a finished product, and those sold for a pretty penny.
A kitchen knife cost at least 500 Ryo, and it was perfectly normal for a better one to cost twice that.
The patterned, silvery knives mixed with silver that Yuya's high-end restaurants ordered cost tens of thousands of Ryo apiece.
And don't even get started on the tableware.
Of course, those were the market prices. As for Yuya, he could just issue an order for the Steel Mill to make the items, then have the restaurants send someone to pick them up.
That wasn't an abuse of public office. Strictly speaking, the Hokage Office owned all the restaurants Yuya had opened.
The restaurants could cover the salaries of the ordinary clerical staff at the Hokage Office each month.
So it didn't count as Yuya abusing his privileges for personal gain.
If you really wanted to get into it, the biggest expense in all of Konoha was the monthly pay for the jōnin.
A jōnin could generally earn 500,000 Ryo a month.
(Kakashi's rank earned him over 800,000 Ryo a month, but he was an elite jōnin. Ordinary jōnin definitely didn't get that much.)
There weren't many jōnin, but their monthly pay still came to nearly ten million Ryo.
That was a fixed expense that couldn't be cut, and Yuya had no intention of cutting it anyway.
However, since he was only handling administrative affairs on an acting basis, directly ordering jōnin around could cause confusion over who had what authority. So Yuya usually had Senju Tobirama issue the orders a second time.
Although Senju Tobirama said he trusted Yuya, Yuya still stuck to that process of reporting and assigning orders through him.
Yuya was thinking about the future. The saying "Those who start the precedent leave no heirs" was exactly what this was about.
If Yuya set a precedent, people who came later would use him as an example.
Having finally made it to the world of Naruto, Yuya knew he would never surpass Senju Hashirama in the history books. The God of Shinobi had ended centuries of war across the Shinobi Continent and created the rules of a new era.
But Yuya didn't want a single stain on his record.
If he had to explain it, well... when the time came, he'd just say that his decisions to plunder other countries' wealth and use it to bolster Konoha were Senju Tobirama's idea.
He couldn't have a single stain on his record!
That was the stubbornness of a future Hokage who wanted to be remembered by history.
Unaware that Yuya would keep dragging him out to take the blame after his death, Senju Tobirama was now fuming.
Those clans were just too much. When Yuya had come to ask them to contribute, they hadn't cooperated. Now that they saw Konoha giving the Uchiha a benefit, they jumped out and shouted, "I want one too!"
They were shameless when it came to their own interests.
Yuya, however, wasn't bothered in the slightest.
People would die for money, just as birds would die for food.
Yuya scoffed at Konoha's motto: "Wherever the leaves dance, the fire burns."
That kind of brainwashing only fooled children. Once they grew up, who still believed that nonsense?
Yuya was a committed realist. He believed that people and causes couldn't last on empty ideals, slogans, and brainwashing.
Simply put, if he had to choose between spiritual fulfillment and a loaf of bread, Yuya would choose the bread without a moment's hesitation.
Yuya had never believed that anyone could hold on to their principles in the face of personal gain, let alone these clans made up of so many ninjas.
Senju Tobirama asked Yuya what they should do. Yuya spread his hands. "Let them stew. You and the merchants of Konoha built those steel mills two years ago with ten million Ryo, Uncle. Why should we give them to these clans?
"But we can't ignore their opposition either~ So~ We'll just give up on building the water plant.
"Oh, of course, we can't keep this to ourselves.
"Konoha belongs to everyone. Let's tell the whole village about it too."
Senju Tobirama froze, then narrowed his eyes at Yuya. "You brat, you're ruthless... But I don't see anything wrong with it. Those ninja clans really do need to be put in their place."
So Senju Tobirama had his secretary prepare a notice announcing that, because of the Sarutobi, Shimura, and several other clans, the Uchiha water plant couldn't be built. Everyone would have to keep buying water from the water vendors.
As soon as the news got out, the ordinary residents of Konoha exploded.
On that day in Year 18 of Konoha, several clans in Konoha got their first taste of what a public-opinion campaign could do.
Of course, in the history books of later generations, this was also recorded as a decision made by Senju Tobirama alone. The future Third Hokage, Kamigane Yuya, who was studying under the Second Hokage at the time, had played no part in the incident.
People reading the history books in later generations could only sigh helplessly. "The Third Hokage, Kamigane Yuya, what a good man. He was devoted to the people, but his mentor died young, and he spent his formative years learning from a rotten-to-the-core uncle. That's how he picked up so many underhanded schemes."
"Senju Tobirama, the Second Hokage, was a disgrace to history."
"What a shame that such an upright and noble Third Hokage had the misfortune to meet the wrong mentor."
...Of course, that was all in the future.
As for now...
The Uchiha Clan Compound was completely stunned:
Where was our water plant?
Where was the huge water plant we were supposed to get?!
We hadn't even finished discussing it! How could they just decide not to build it?!
When Naruto appeared, there was a refrigerator in his home, and it had electricity and running water. That meant Konoha's infrastructure wasn't bad at the time. And although Naruto's milk had expired, that was his own fault. In other words, Konoha's infrastructure was complete back then, with everything people needed. Even someone like Naruto, who lived on a monthly allowance—the Third Hokage didn't give him much—could still get by. That showed Konoha was actually pretty wealthy. Thinking about it, the Third Hokage was pretty good at managing the economy too... Though it was also possible that the other people in the Hokage Office were the ones who built it up.
Before you continue