The Greatest Secret

The negotiations went far more smoothly than Kizaru and Tobirama Senju had imagined.

During the negotiations, nearly every condition proposed by Tobirama Senju, who was representing their side, was accepted by the Five Elders.

Facing Kizaru and his party, the Five Elders were as meek as a certain dynasty from Kizaru's previous life.

Besides the most basic demand—the cession of the East Blue—the conditions Tobirama proposed included the following.

1. The World Government and the Land of Light would establish diplomatic relations and coexist peacefully.

2. The World Government would open up commercial exchanges with the Land of Light and would not deliberately obstruct normal trade between the Land of Light's Merchant Guilds and the kingdoms under the World Government.

3. Citizens of the Land of Light would have the legal right to travel freely within the World Government's territory and could not be stopped or detained without cause.

Those were the three main conditions Tobirama proposed. Of them, the second mattered most to him.

Why had the Land of Light come all the way to this pirate world, spending manpower and resources on a distant invasion? Wasn't it for this world's vast markets, abundant labor, and rich natural resources?

Tobirama had thought the World Government would oppose his second condition. After all, they were still at war, and under such circumstances, commercial exchanges seemed unrealistic.

What he hadn't expected was how readily the Five Elders would agree. Their only demand was that normal taxes be paid on commercial trade.

Tobirama naturally had no objection. Commercial exchange was supposed to benefit both sides.

Of course, taking into account the chaotic and complicated governance of the World Government's Affiliated Nations, along with their tax policies—

Tobirama added that the two sides would need to jointly agree on a fixed, standard range