What's Wrong?

After settling the massive issue of the Four-Nation Alliance, Senju Tobirama felt quite at ease leaving the village's affairs to Yuya while he headed off to the front lines.

Naturally, he took Sarutobi Hiruzen and Kagami Uchiha with him upon his departure.

When Yuya went to see them off, he couldn't help but feel that Kagami Uchiha was being overly polite to him for some reason.

There was even a faint, underlying sense of...

Respect?

What was going on here?

Kagami Uchiha, you're more than a dozen years older than me; I could practically call you uncle.

Although Kagami Uchiha's attitude left Yuya feeling baffled, he had no intention of changing the arrangements made for the Uchiha clan.

Once the Water Plant was established, the Uchiha clan could earn several million ryo a year just from collecting water fees.

The Uchiha clan would certainly handle the collection themselves, then hand over a portion to Konoha as taxes, keeping the rest for their own use.

However, this meant that the Water Plant was now facing a labor shortage.

The Uchiha clan's residential district used to be filled with idlers wandering about, but now, everyone was practically wishing they could split themselves into two Shadow Clones just to get the work done.

But that would double the level of exhaustion.

Hmm... overwork could genuinely lead to death, so that was probably a bad idea.

With the Water Plant completed, the recruitment news that Yuya had been having Konoha merchants broadcast outside the village finally yielded results.

A small ninja clan arrived in Konoha.

They had heard that Konoha provided land and grain for immediate settlement, though the grain wasn't free—it had to be repaid, albeit over a period of three to five years.

Basically, this policy wasn't exactly attractive; unless someone was truly at the point of starvation, they wouldn't be drawn in.

As it happened, among the small nations surrounding Konoha, there were indeed ninja clans living in such desperate straits.

The clan consisted of over a hundred people, but only three were ninjas, and their strength was at most equivalent to Konoha's chunin level.

If they stayed out there, they would inevitably end up as someone else's slaves.

For the sake of survival, these hundred-plus people came to Konoha.

They only hoped that Konoha would, as advertised, at least let them have enough to eat.

Yuya was naturally very happy.

He knew that without the condition of being truly unable to survive, neither these clans nor commoners would come.

But now, wasn't there a first group?

With a first, there would surely be a second.

Yuya was very satisfied.

Moreover, this notice of Yuya's actually had a second purpose.

It was just that this purpose was a bit too dark.

Konoha was located in the interior of the Land of Fire.

Because the Land of Fire was rich in local resources, no one there reached the point of starvation; although they were heavily exploited by the Feudal Lord of the Land of Fire, it hadn't reached the level of being unable to survive.

This was the reason Yuya didn't target those people.

If he really set his sights on the citizens of the Land of Fire, the Feudal Lord of the Land of Fire wouldn't agree to it either, as their land and mineral resources also required people to mine them.

It wasn't time to fall out with the Feudal Lord of the Land of Fire yet; Konoha didn't have that capability.

And seeing this news, those clans who couldn't survive and had traveled long distances to reach Konoha—the old, weak, sick, and disabled among them must have perished along the way.

Otherwise, they couldn't have persisted through such a long journey.

In other words, this first group of over a hundred people who came to Konoha were all prime-age laborers.

Regardless of gender, what Konoha lacked most right now was people.

Although these hundred-plus people were a drop in the bucket, they were enough to fill the staffing needs of a Steel Mill.

Hmm... as for other places...

I really can't help with that. If we're being honest, what Yuya could guarantee was prioritizing the staffing of his own factories and shops. As for the ninja clans and the factories or shops opened by merchants themselves, there was nothing he could do.

Yuya had calculated that even in this era where human life was as cheap as grass and ninjas graduated at eight and went to the battlefield at nine, even if children were sent to factories at ten, it would still take ten years for a generation to pass.

In ten years, Yuya was confident he could eliminate poverty in Konoha and ensure every household could afford meat; by then, who would be willing to let their children enter a factory at ten?

One could only say that a small operation had the advantages of a small operation.

But Konoha was indeed too small a stage.

The population was too low; no matter how many methods he had, if no one came to Konoha to contribute, there was nothing to be done.

And if he wanted others to come, besides luring them with benefits, then...

It seemed there was only one other way.

--Luring them with benefits was definitely not the way; those who came for the benefits valued the perks, and Yuya would rather distribute those benefits to the people of Konoha village than give them to these outsiders looking to profit.--

The other method is...

Public opinion.

In the 19th year of Konoha, as the front lines of Konoha and Kumogakure entered a grueling war of attrition, various rumors began to circulate across the Shinobi Continent.

Tales of Konoha being overflowing with wealth, of its people eating meat every single day, and of Konoha's combat power being the greatest in the Shinobi World, far surpassing all other villages...

These were facts, but what followed was a different story.

Claims that the air in Konoha was sweet, that the moon in Konoha was rounder than the one in their own lands, that going to Konoha meant getting rich and finding a wife, and that those who went to Konoha would become superior beings—these words began to spread like a virus.

Furthermore, unlike previous intelligence that circulated only among shinobi, this campaign focused exclusively on spreading among the common folk.

By the time the various villages realized what was happening, a full year had already passed.

In the 19th year of Konoha, Yuya upgraded the various factories, primarily prioritizing sewage treatment to the highest level.

After all, Konoha was a small village, and in the previous two years, they had expanded their scale recklessly to maximize profits as quickly as possible, making sewage treatment a pressing issue.

However, this move displeased certain people.

Previously, they could earn 100 a day, but after the sewage treatment measures were implemented, they could only earn 50.

This was the first time Yuya had his secretary forcibly push through a policy.

And it was from this moment on that Yuya, whom everyone had previously dismissed as merely a mouthpiece for Senju Tobirama, officially entered the field of vision of everyone in Konoha.

In the late summer of the 19th year of Konoha, Kumogakure declared they wanted to go home to harvest wheat and requested a temporary ceasefire. Senju Tobirama slapped the request away, thinking, Harvest your mother, keep dreaming. I was only holding back before because I feared those Earth Release bastards from Iwagakure would ambush us during a pursuit.

Now that I don't have that worry, why the hell would I be afraid of you?

Harvest wheat? Go harvest it in hell!

Konoha did not retreat as they had in previous years; instead, they pressed forward, crossing the Land of Iron and entering the territory of the Land of Lightning.

The Daimyo of the Land of Lightning panicked. Previously, the fighting had taken place within the Land of Fire, so he didn't care how much was destroyed.

But now that Konoha had invaded the Land of Lightning...

The losses would be his own precious assets!

No, the fighting absolutely could not continue.

While on the march, Senju Tobirama discovered something within the borders of the Land of Lightning.

That day, Senju Tobirama had intended to go to the river to drink some water and take a bath.

After bathing, Senju Tobirama had a sudden whim to practice some Water Release techniques. It was then that he discovered some fine, golden, sand-like particles surging up from the riverbed he had shattered with his jutsu.

Senju Tobirama dove down to take a look. Although each individual particle was tiny, there was no doubt that what had been exposed from the shattered riverbed was gold dust.

So, underneath this...

There must be a gold mine.

And judging by the brilliant, golden sand exposed, the gold content in the mine below was likely quite high.

Senju Tobirama was ecstatic and ordered Kagami Uchiha to return and bring Yuya to this location within three days.

Kagami Uchiha acknowledged the order.

However, when he returned to Konoha, he saw a crowd gathered at the entrance of the Hokage Office, holding banners that read "Strongly Protest the Closure of the Textile Mill!" and "Pay Back Our Wages!"

Kagami Uchiha was completely bewildered.

What on earth had happened?