Uchiha Tenshu had benefited from the cultivation program.
He hadn't forgotten the people around him, either.
After all,
you had to cultivate the elite before you could lead the elite!
Uchiha Tenshu was a man of his word!
Not only did Uchiha Tenshu teach the little brothers who had rallied around him what he had learned through the clan's elite training program, but once he had entered the program and benefited from its special training medicines, he realized just how much they boosted his abilities.
He couldn't keep them all to himself.
Although his little brothers couldn't get the medicines for free, their families could still pay to buy them.
As for whether their families were willing to spend that money on their children, there was no need to ask. Everyone wanted their children to grow stronger. Even after the Uchiha Clan launched the Elite Ninja Project, clan members who hadn't been selected for it still spent large sums to buy the medicines themselves and advance their careers as ninjas.
Even those who genuinely couldn't afford them
could turn to Uchiha Tenshu for help.
Of course, he didn't simply hand them money.
He offered them a way to work together.
For that,
you had to mention the little inventions Uchiha Tenshu had come up with. After discussing them with his friends' parents, he taught them how to make the inventions in exchange for a share of the profits. With the Seventh Elder as his backing, and Uchiha Tenshu already renowned for his precociousness, nothing went wrong.
His friends all received financial support from their parents.
By now, they had generally reached the level of ordinary Genin and could use the Three Body Technique and a few low-level jutsu proficiently. Next, they needed to keep practicing their Chakra control and work toward becoming elite Genin.
The profit shares from those little inventions had also become Uchiha Tenshu's best source of savings.
As for his first two inventions, the grain-storage technique had brought him an elite ninja training slot and other benefits, so there was no need to dwell on that.
Then there was the alcohol production.
Although it had earned him a huge sum, the amount of money was so staggering that Uchiha Tenshu had never dared to take possession of it.
He had only asked Uchiha Raimon to keep it hidden for him.
After all, with hundreds of millions of ryo, keeping it at home would have drawn far too much attention. It was better to hide it for now.
Speaking of alcohol sales, after handing the business over to the Seventh Elder, Uchiha Raimon, they had agreed that half a share—that is, five percent of the profits—would go to Uchiha Tenshu.
Knowing it was bound to sell well, Uchiha Tenshu hadn't demanded too much. He had also set out how it should be sold.
Alcohol was a vital strategic resource refined from grain, a basic necessity. It could be used to produce all kinds of drinks, but it was also highly effective in medical treatment, disinfecting wounds and killing germs.
That was no small thing.
Never mind the injuries that came from fights between ninjas, such as scrapes and burns or electrical injuries caused by jutsu. When an ordinary person was hit by a jutsu, they usually died on the spot—or were left crippled.
Generally speaking, anyone struck by a jutsu either died immediately or slowly waited for death amid endless suffering.
In an era when Medical Ninjutsu had yet to become widespread, and only a handful of people could use it—and even they weren't very skilled—
wounded ninjas could be in grave danger from external infections, even if their internal injuries weren't particularly serious.
The herbal remedies available relied on repeated trial and error. None could provide a definitive cure.
Some patients grew worse without anyone noticing, their minor injuries gradually turning into fatal ones.
Not everyone had the Sharingan and could see the viruses eating away at their life.
But alcohol could change that.
It worked directly against all kinds of external bacteria and viruses.
It was an extremely important strategic resource.
That was why Uchiha Tenshu had told Elder Raimon from the very beginning to handle it carefully and never let the secret out—especially not to people like Uchiha Ming. Uchiha Raimon had agreed wholeheartedly. Uchiha Ming was one of the elders who supported Uchiha Kin, and he promised not to let a single detail slip.
As soon as Uchiha Tenshu invented the product, Uchiha Raimon had started making it nonstop. Grain was already cheap, selling for just twenty ryo per jin—the price of a bowl of ramen in Konoha. Even with Konoha's high prices, it was practically worthless. The Uchiha had vast farmlands, and in the past, their grain had simply been left to rot and grow mold.
Now that alcohol was available, they could set aside what they needed for themselves and for the coming year, then turn the rest into alcohol. They could experiment with different ratios, make all kinds of drinks, and sell them throughout the Land of Fire for a profit.
They could also produce alcohol as a strategic resource and sell it exclusively to officials, nobles, wealthy merchants, and samurai clans.
Even selling a small amount would be enough to make them rich!
After all, those groups controlled immense wealth and cherished their lives above all else.
For something that could save their lives, they would pay a fortune and keep it on hand.
Uchiha Tenshu had set the outrageous price of ten thousand ryo.
When Uchiha Raimon first heard the price Uchiha Tenshu had proposed, he was so shocked he wondered if the boy had gone mad.
At the time,
Uchiha Raimon had bellowed, "Ten thousand ryo for one bottle of alcohol? Are those daimyos idiots? How could they possibly buy it?"
But Uchiha Tenshu had been right.
Was a mere ten thousand ryo per bottle even worth hesitating over?
Even a single second of hesitation was an insult to the ruling class of the Land of Fire!
After the first batch sold out in a frenzy,
Uchiha Raimon counted money until his hands cramped and laughed until he was nearly hysterical. He immediately relocated his alcohol factory and set up an array of sophisticated barriers. No one was allowed within twenty li of the site. Workers could enter, but no one could leave. They were confined to the factory, where Uchiha Raimon himself was stationed year-round. He kept his trusted subordinates on-site at all times and inspected the workers in rotating shifts to prevent spies from leaking the production process.
It wasn't that Uchiha Raimon was making a fuss over nothing.
At ten thousand ryo a bottle, with each bottle weighing only one-tenth of a jin, a jin of alcohol was worth a hundred thousand ryo. Even if the production process was crude and it took twenty jin of grain to make one jin of alcohol, that was still a five-hundredfold profit. What did that mean? It was like sitting atop a mountain of gold and silver. As long as the Uchiha Clan held on to this craft, they would never run out of money to squander.
Faced with profits that staggering, Uchiha Raimon naturally put the entire operation in the hands of his most trusted people. He wouldn't let anyone else interfere. He moved the whole production process to his own farmland and employed only the villagers who had served the Uchiha for generations.
To conceal how alcohol was made, he also bought large quantities of expensive medicines, giving outsiders the impression that while the alcohol was costly, its ingredients were precious, too.
To this day, everyone in the Uchiha Clan knew only that Elder Uchiha Raimon had "invented" alcohol, which required grain and all kinds of rare medicines to make. They also knew that it was profitable—the public figures claimed a fivefold return.
The Uchiha elders and the leaders of Konoha's other clans all kept speculating about the true profit margin. They were sure it had to be much higher—perhaps seven or eight times the cost, or close to ten times.
But no matter how much they speculated,
they could never have guessed.
Alcohol didn't bring in a sevenfold, eightfold, or even tenfold profit.
It brought in a staggering five hundred times the investment.
Otherwise, even Hashirama Senju might have turned this Uchiha business into a village-owned industry.
As things stood,
the profit was supposedly only five to ten times the cost.
The other clans were still a little envious,
but not enough to make them join forces to seize the business.
After all, other clans had their own industries that made plenty of money, some of them earning several times their investment.
For example, the Nara Clan's antlers and rare medicinal herbs brought in at least five to twenty times their costs. Even after labor expenses were deducted, the profits still fell within that range.
And then there were the Akimichi Clan's livestock farms, the Senju Clan's mines and fruit plantations, the Aburame Clan's...
There were plenty more like them.
Each clan had its own way of making money.
But without exception,
everyone tacitly agreed not to encroach on industries already controlled by another clan.
Otherwise, covert bloodshed would be inevitable!
Now that the Uchiha Clan had secured the alcohol business, the other clans had essentially accepted that the industry would belong to the Uchiha alone.
After all, it was a product that hadn't existed before.
The Uchiha Clan had developed it.
If the other clans tried to muscle in,
they would inevitably invite a covert attack from the Uchiha Clan.
Aside from the Senju Clan,
no clan could withstand that kind of assault.
And the other clans in Konoha
would never dare to target the Uchiha so openly.
Even the Senju Clan wouldn't do something so taboo.
For all they knew, Tobirama Senju might be even happier to see the Uchiha Clan absorbed in business.
The reason Uchiha Raimon had managed to fool all these clans was the fake accounts Uchiha Tenshu had prepared. After Uchiha Raimon's disciples had trained under him, Uchiha Tenshu had also taken on the task of managing the alcohol sales ledger. He simply hid more than ninety percent of the profits.
After deducting workers' wages, subsidies, and routine repairs and maintenance, the books showed a profit of five to ten times the cost.
The remainder, as was customary,
was split in half by Elder Uchiha Raimon, who oversaw grain, with the rest going to the clan.
After all, the inventions belonged to Uchiha Raimon's private business. The clan took half because the grain belonged to the Uchiha; otherwise, it would have taken only a quarter.
Even so, the enormous profits had made the other Uchiha elders envious, and they kept testing the waters.
But Uchiha Raimon kept the crucial details under tight wraps. Not a scrap of information got out.
For now, only Uchiha Tenshu and Uchiha Raimon knew what really mattered. The workers had been split into different tasks like an assembly line, and were also made to carry out some inexplicable steps involving medicine. The final stages—mixing and distillation—took place in the factory's underground chambers and were handled by Uchiha Raimon's personal agents. On top of that, every worker had been placed under a seal and hypnotized with Genjutsu. The secret wouldn't come out anytime soon!
The two of them had also found that making too much money brought its own problems. As an elder, Uchiha Raimon had plenty of ways to spend it, whether by recruiting people, expanding his influence, or investing in other areas.
But Uchiha Tenshu was another matter. He was still keeping a low profile, and he wanted even more to distance himself from these massive profits.
Even now,
Uchiha Tenshu hadn't taken a single coin for himself, afraid outsiders might question where the money came from and what it was connected to.
After all, ninjas were naturally suspicious.
At this moment, all the money Uchiha Tenshu had earned from the alcohol business was still being held by Elder Uchiha Raimon.
As for
why Uchiha Raimon hadn't pocketed the money and killed Uchiha Tenshu to silence him,
or why Uchiha Tenshu trusted Elder Uchiha Raimon so much,
there were deeper reasons for that!
Before you continue