Different People's Schemes

Outside Konoha, the once-desolate Naka Shrine had quickly become bustling.

Kei couldn't understand why shinobi, such incredibly efficient working machines, weren't being put to good use building and developing things, instead of being used for something as inefficient as war.

War had always consumed GDP. Who would fight to the death unless they had no other choice? Farming was the way to go.

The genes buried deep in Kei's bones had awakened.

Earth Release could be used for construction, and Water Release for irrigation. Shinobi could farm and raise livestock on a massive scale without relying on the natural environment, unlike ordinary people.

Even Uchiha Oboro, a good-for-nothing with an F-level strength rating, was more productive than a hundred ordinary people, while consuming far less than ten. It made absolutely no sense under the law of conservation of energy.

The Naruto world was far too underdeveloped, and its people's productivity was far too low.

Ordinary people could only farm in villages near water sources. Even now, villages still fought over water.

And yet shinobi skilled in Water Release didn't seem to have any interest in farming. It was an utter waste.

Uchiha Kei wouldn't stand for it.

And so, the Naka Shrine visibly transformed into a collection of pastures and farms.

What was considered a desolate, inhospitable place looked to Kei like fertile land.

After lying fallow for years, the black soil was so rich that you could squeeze oil from it.

As for the lack of water, and how the plants could only rely on rain—that was because the shinobi weren't putting their minds to it. A lack of water might be a problem for ordinary people, but was it really a problem for shinobi?

Wasn't water something they could produce with a clap of their hands?

While the Hokage consolidated his resources and built up his strength, Uchiha Kei claimed and developed vast stretches of wilderness.

He set up trading posts along the main roads to Konoha, opened hot springs in the hills and wilds, gathered refugees at fortress checkpoints, and established settlements for wandering shinobi in strategic locations—even assigning them missions.

In short, any lifeblood flowing through Konoha had to pass through Uchiha Kei's hands, so he could have a taste.

Even without the system, Uchiha Kei could support a large population within two years. With the system's help, all the more so. The mission hall in Konoha was already little more than a decoration to him.

Even so, Uchiha Kei wasn't satisfied.

With his strategy of encircling Konoha with wilderness, sooner or later he would make Konoha his inner city.

Around the Naka Shrine, Granny Ogen and the Iga Clan built forty-nine yamabushi lodges, centered on the main hall dedicated to Maitreya Bodhisattva. They named the place the Iga Forty-Nine Temples.

This would be the academy where the Iga Style's ninjutsu was taught.

Wandering shinobi only had to earn merit for Uchiha to study there.

When the Konoha Ninja Academy opened up the Three Basic Jutsu, it sparked a revolution in the Shinobi World. Training Genin in bulk became the norm.

The Iga Forty-Nine Temples went even further. It taught everything from the basic Three Basic Jutsu and chakra cultivation to the "Five Ways and Seven Precepts of the Shinobi," along with food, incense, medicine, breath, and body.

Those with talent who passed the trials would also be taught the ninjutsu textbook, Bansenshukai.

It contained basic applications of the five elemental releases, as well as methods for performing jutsu with the Iga Style's simplified Hand Seals.

Even if you were hopeless with your hands, you could still form Water Release: Great Waterfall Wall with just three seals as long as you graduated from the Iga Forty-Nine Temples. You wouldn't be much slower than those show-offs who used a ridiculous number of Hand Seals.

As you could see, if the Ninja Academy was just an elementary school for producing cannon fodder, then the Iga Forty-Nine Temples was a professional college that took students from the basics all the way to specialization.

At the very least, graduates would become the backbone of the Shinobi World: Chunin.

The Iga were being so bold, but the Koga weren't sitting idle either.

The Koga Clan occupied the hill behind the Naka Shrine.

They named the previously nameless hill Handosan and enshrined Vairocana there. It would be the Koga's training ground.

It was also an intelligence and mission center for wandering shinobi.

While the Iga excelled at teaching, the Koga specialized in making ninja tools. Second Generation Onimaru, Third Generation Kikuichimonji, and the Twelve Heavenly Crafts were all forged with the help of Uchiha Kei's blueprints.

The wandering shinobi considered these weapons treasures, but the Uchiha under Kei didn't think much of them. The Koga Style wanted to use chakra-conductive materials to make these flashy weapons.

A legendary weapon with a story behind it was worth far more than an ordinary weapon—perhaps even a hundred times as much.

Don't worry. There would definitely be someone willing to pay for it.

What warrior could resist Dojigiri Yasutsuna, the blade that slew demons and saved warriors? Or the martial way that cut not only flesh but the soul?

Besides, it came with a built-in glowing enchantment.

Kei also felt no man could resist becoming Luke Skywalker, so it was time to seize a chakra mine.

And so, thanks to Uchiha Kei's efforts, this place became just like another hidden village, except that it was sparsely populated.

But Kei believed that one day, it would be bustling with people too.

The Third Hokage watched everything unfolding before his eyes, barely able to keep himself under control.

The shinobi fleeing the Land of Water and the Land of Wind had gathered under Uchiha Kei, and their numbers had reached over a thousand.

These wanted criminals from various countries had once hidden in the Land of Fire in small, scattered groups. Now, they had openly gathered in the little village Uchiha had built.

They might be weak, but how many enemy spies were hiding among them? Did Uchiha Kei even know?

"What a cesspit. What a disgrace!"

Sarutobi gritted his teeth in hatred, swearing to himself that he would annex Kei's territory sooner or later.

Uchiha Kei didn't care. He knew that the heart of his operation would always be the people he had summoned. Gathering so many wandering shinobi was just a way to muddy the waters.

While the Third Hokage treated Uchiha Kei as his sole target for the time being, Kei had never once considered the Third Hokage his target.

Follow someone else's rhythm, and you'll spend your life composing their music.

Uchiha Kei's world was the stars and the sea. Whatever lay within his sight, he loved; whatever his heart reached for, he cherished.

The Third Hokage didn't matter. The Daimyo didn't matter. What mattered to the Uchiha was their absence.

For now, Uchiha Kei had only one reason for gathering so many unruly wandering shinobi: to find out who was backing the Bounty Exchange.

With hidden villages and ninja halls already in place, why were so many missions and so much money still flowing to the Bounty Exchange?

And these missions paid far more when they went through the Bounty Exchange.

It wasn't as if Konoha refused assassination missions. Even if you wanted to kill a Konoha shinobi, another hidden village would take the job.

So it made little sense for certain unsavory missions to be handed to the underworld.

Then who was supporting the Bounty Exchange?

It was an organization spread across the Shinobi World. Even if it had originated because there were so many wandering shinobi, Kei couldn't believe it had survived without substantial financial backing.

Now Uchiha Kei wanted to make the first move. He would use the advantage of his system to create a mission hub in the Shinobi World that offered generous rewards, placed no restrictions on who could take a job, and kept the danger low.

Once this mission hub was up and running, the Bounty Exchange would have to decide whether to raise its prices if it wanted to survive.

If it didn't, then perhaps the Bounty Exchange had come into being simply because there were so many rogue shinobi. Once they had a better option, it would have no reason to exist.

But if the Bounty Exchange's mission rewards rose along with them, then it would mean someone was backing the rogue shinobi, and that those people wanted the Shinobi World to remain in constant turmoil.

Then things would get interesting!