In the end, Hozuki Mangetsu chose to prioritize the clan's development and accepted the post of Kirigakure's chief mining captain with a pained expression.
This did not surprise Araki.
In fact, if Hozuki Sengetsu had been the one here, Araki figured he would have accepted it with great delight, refusing to trade it away for anything. The more mature Sengetsu understood even better what controlling Kirigakure's mineral lifeline meant for the Hozuki Clan.
After all, clan ninja of this era basically put their own clans first.
Filial sons were a rare species.
As for whether allowing the Hozuki Clan to control such a lifeline would make them capitalists capable of manipulating political power in the future...
Well, in the short term, whether in terms of implementation or strength, they were nowhere near that level.
And if they were talking about ten years from now, then barring any surprises, the Shinobi World would have long been unified by then. Controlling the ocean's mineral resources would certainly be frightening, but freely manipulating the Shinobi World's political power would probably still be a stretch.
Besides, in this world, no matter how much money one had, strength was what ultimately mattered.
Anyone Karatachi Yagura could not suppress, Araki would suppress himself!
Now that the mineral vein had been found and specialists had been assigned to study excavation and mining, Araki naturally had free time on his hands.
After all, he could not dive into the deep sea himself. He had swordsmanship more than capable of mining, yet nowhere to use it!
That regretful sigh made Hozuki Mangetsu, who now had no choice but to devote himself wholeheartedly to researching mining ninjutsu—or rather, [Hard Whirlpool Water Blade]—break out in black lines.
As the saying went, if one wanted to do a good job, one