Mount Myōboku, Toad Hall.
The Great Toad Sage's terrified scream still echoed through the air, throwing the entire sacred land into chaos.
Meanwhile, in Iwagakure, a thousand miles away.
Inside the Supreme Elder's office, the atmosphere was awkwardly strange.
Uchiha Yoru sat with one leg crossed over the other, clutching a thick financial report in his hand. His handsome brows were knotted tightly together.
"Lord Yoru, look..."
The newly appointed chief financial officer, a goateed old man who was exceptionally skilled with an abacus, stood trembling before the desk, his forehead drenched in cold sweat.
"This month's expenses... are really becoming impossible to cover..."
Yoru slapped the report onto the desk with a bang and rolled his eyes irritably.
"Obviously. Did you think I was blind?"
The deficit on the report was so long it could have stretched from the top floor of the Tsuchikage Building all the way to the village gates.
The strings of astronomical zeroes made one's heart tremble.
Orochimaru's research department was practically a money-devouring beast.
One day, they requested a high-pressure centrifuge. The next, they wanted to import a batch of ore samples from Ōtsutsuki Clan ruins.
They spent money like water without even blinking.
Deidara's side was no less troublesome.
Ever since Yoru had talked him into researching "Nuclear Peace Art," his consumption of Explosive Clay had increased tenfold.
The target range behind the mountain was blown flat by him once every three days on average, and the rebuilding costs were nearly catching up to military spending.
Then there was the maintenance of the modern ninja academy's equipment, the village-wide supply of genetic enhancement drugs for ninja...
Every last one was a bottomless pit.
Iwagakure had deep pockets and was swimming in money.
But at this rate of spending, within two years, that old