Seven Grass Island lay south of Kirigakure.
The weather there was no longer affected by dense fog; otherwise, it would not have been able to grow so many high-quality medicinal herbs.
Warm sunlight shone upon the island renowned for producing all kinds of herbs, yet not a single merchant ship appeared at the docks, which had once been bustling with traffic.
The reason was very simple.
Three enormous warships, each with a large "Water" painted on its side, were neatly docked there.
That was right. With the situation in the Shinobi World growing increasingly tense, places like Seven Grass Island, which concerned strategic material reserves, had long since been cleared out by Kirigakure.
Although herbs were far less effective than medical ninjutsu, aside from Konoha, which had been vigorously training medical ninja since the Second Shinobi World War, the other four great ninja villages had few medical ninja in reserve.
After being injured, hemostatic patches, pain-relief patches, and blood-replenishing pills were the treatments they used most often.
Not to mention the indispensable military ration pills needed when marching to war.
Then why did Kirigakure not occupy such a good place permanently, instead opening it up for others to gather herbs during peacetime?
That was because medicinal herbs had a limited shelf life.
Kirigakure did not have many ninja. During peacetime, the entire village did not actually need much medicine. Rather than expend effort harvesting herbs and making medicine themselves, it was more convenient to wait for others to produce finished medicine and offer it up as tribute.
It was basically protection money.
But wartime was different.
Kirigakure's demand for medicine would increase drastically, and the tribute from those small islands and minor countries was nowhere near enough to fill the gap.
So, for the sake of their own security, they