Do you want to be the Takikage?

Development across the shinobi world was uneven. The Five Great Shinobi Villages grew rapidly, while small and medium-sized villages lagged behind.

Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Konohagakure developed the fastest.

Compared with those major villages, the economies and shinobi strength of many smaller villages seemed to have stagnated.

Two villages, however, were exceptions.

One was Amegakure, and the other was Kusagakure.

During the rule of Hanzo of the Salamander, the Demigod of the Ninja World, Amegakure had pursued a policy of isolation.

In his later years, Hanzo of the Salamander had lost all his drive and ambition, caring only for comfort and pleasure.

After a lifetime of fighting, he certainly deserved some rest.

But under his rule, the village's shinobi and civilians had not been able to live the lives they wanted.

Under those circumstances, Hanzo of the Salamander had no right to indulge himself.

After Nagato killed Hanzo of the Salamander, he continued the policy of isolation.

The outside world had not even learned of Hanzo of the Salamander's death right away.

Years of isolation, combined with Amegakure's constant rain, meant food crops could not grow there.

As a result, the village's shinobi and civilians had long lived in considerable hardship.

But Sixia's proposal had persuaded Nagato and brought sweeping changes to Amegakure.

Now, numerous new shops had opened throughout the village.

Some had even been opened by merchants from Kusagakure or other shinobi villages.

Once Amegakure opened its doors to the outside world, countless opportunities for development followed.

Even the village's shinobi could take on more missions.

Laughter and cheerful voices filled far more corners of Amegakure than before.

Shinobi and curious civilians crowded around a newly opened ninja tool shop.

"I heard this Craft-and-Grass Ninja Tool Shop has some serious backing!"

The speaker was a shinobi named Nagataki, who had made something of a name for himself in the Amegakure Black Market.

"What's so special about this ninja tool shop?"

His companion was clearly less well-informed than Nagataki and knew nothing of the shop's origins.

This shinobi had a rather significant background, however. His name was Ibuse Tajima, and he belonged to a distant branch of the Ibuse Family.

Fortunately for him, he was only a distant relative and had little connection to the main family.

Otherwise, the grass on his grave would probably have been three meters tall by now.

At Tajima's question, Nagataki answered smugly.

"The name Craft-and-Grass Ninja Tool Shop means it's a joint venture between the Land of Crafts and the Land of Grass."

"Kusagakure's shinobi are good at studying, researching, and analyzing ninjutsu and ninja tools."

"And the craftsmen of the Land of Crafts are experts at making ninja tools."

"With those two joining forces, the ninja tools they produce are bound to be something special!"

"And look, this Craft-and-Grass Ninja Tool Shop doesn't just sell all kinds of ninja tools. It sells ninjutsu scrolls, too."

"Heh! Once I've saved enough, I'm definitely buying a scroll of the Great Fireball Technique from Konoha's prestigious Uchiha Clan to study!"

Nagataki's eyes brimmed with longing as he spoke.

At present, he knew only some very basic ninjutsu and ordinary taijutsu.

Without any noteworthy ninjutsu to use on missions, he fought with taijutsu most of the time.

Hearing this, Ibuse Tajima said enviously, "Nagataki, I really envy you. You actually manage to save money."

"All my mission pay goes to taverns and hot spring inns."

But once Nagataki actually saved enough to buy that scroll and learned the technique inside...

Ibuse Tajima might well feel lucky that he had never saved up to buy it.

Even when used by proper Uchiha Clan shinobi, that technique had no impressive record.

The secondhand version they obtained from Kusagakure's shinobi might be even weaker.

For now, Nagataki had yet to realize the gravity of the situation.

A look of gratitude suddenly appeared on his face as he spoke.

"I heard it was Lord Uzumaki Shixia, the black market's mission-harvesting machine."

"He suggested opening the village to God and the Angel, and single-handedly brought about the alliance between Amegakure and Kusagakure."

"Otherwise, the village wouldn't have improved so much so quickly, and our lives wouldn't be this comfortable."

The God Nagataki referred to was Deva Path Pain, while the Angel was Konan.

Ibuse Tajima nodded earnestly.

"Yes, we really have Lord Uzumaki Shixia to thank for that proposal."

"And we should thank God and Lady Angel for adopting Lord Uzumaki Shixia's suggestion."

"Otherwise, who knows how much longer our miserable lives would have gone on?"

In the past, whenever Tajima walked through Amegakure's streets, nearly everyone he saw, civilian or shinobi, wore a worried frown.

Now things were different. Even a glance around revealed joy on plenty of faces.

Nagataki continued, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Lord Uzumaki Shixia in the village for a while."

"Bringing Amegakure and Kusagakure together has already changed so much for the village."

"If we could cooperate with even more shinobi villages, we'd surely have an even better future!"

At that, Tajima immediately said,

"I haven't seen Lord Uzumaki Shixia for a while either."

"But I did hear a rumor!"

Sixia knew nothing of the discussions about him among the village's shinobi.

He and Karin were already seated at a ramen stand.

Looking at the ramen before her, Karin could not help swallowing audibly.

This delicacy came from prosperous Konoha. A small village like Amegakure had never had food like this before.

After getting her chopsticks ready, Karin took in the food's aroma and said happily,

"All right, time to dig in!"

As Sixia ate his noodles, he casually asked,

"Yoshikawa, has anything changed in the village lately?"

"Yes!" Yoshikawa answered without hesitation.

"What sort of changes?" Sixia asked.

This time, Yoshikawa thought carefully before replying.

"Lord Sixia, so many things have changed since the village began cooperating with Kusagakure."

"First of all, we have an increasingly wide variety of grains and vegetables."

"Amegakure used to be closed off, and the constant rain here makes it difficult to grow food crops."

"Because the village was isolated, food was extremely scarce."

"Most people in Amegakure had never tasted many of the ingredients available outside."

At this point, Yoshikawa, Yoshiko, and Yuko could not help recalling those bitter years when the village had been sealed off.

Those days had undoubtedly been difficult to endure.

The village did import supplies from outside in Amegakure's name.

But ordinary people like them had no contact with the outside world.

With supplies scarce inside the village, prices remained high.

Life for the villagers was extremely hard, and money was always tight.

Ordinary people generally only dared to fill their stomachs with cheap food, never splurging on expensive ingredients.

Life was no easier for shinobi.

Especially during the period when Sixia had been sweeping through missions in the Amegakure Black Market like mad.

But things were different now. Amegakure had gone from an isolated village to an open one.

Sure enough, Yoshikawa changed his tone and said with a hearty laugh,

"Fortunately, those dark days of going without enough food or clothing are completely behind us."

"Now, almost every day, caravans from Kusagakure bring huge quantities of vegetables, fruit, and other everyday necessities here to sell."

"On top of that, plenty of new shops have opened in the village."

"Some were even funded by merchants from Kusagakure."

"God and Lady Angel really do bring peace and happiness to the village!"

Sixia had been so busy carrying out missions lately that he genuinely had not realized Amegakure had changed so much.

He was also a little surprised. All he had done was grind some points, yet he had brought the village so many benefits in the process.

"So you're here eating ramen?"

At some point, Kakuzu had arrived as well.

Sixia asked in surprise, "Weren't you going to rest?"

Kakuzu grumbled inwardly.

Rest, my ass. I'd just slept for a whole day and night, and then this bastard announced he wasn't grinding missions anymore?

Kakuzu sighed to himself.

He pursed his lips and said flatly, "Couldn't sleep!"

"Ahem!" He then cleared his throat a few times and changed the subject.

"It isn't just ordinary people's lives that have changed dramatically. Life has changed quite a bit for shinobi, too."

"The black market has a lot more commissions from Kusagakure now."

"Of course, they're all jobs that don't pay much."

As the shinobi world's hardest-working man, Kakuzu had been working since the days of Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage.

His fixation on money was extraordinary. Otherwise, he would never have kept working until now.

But even the shinobi world's hardest-working man had to throw in the towel when faced with Uzumaki Shixia, that mission maniac.

Kakuzu liked money and was willing to put in plenty of hard work to earn it.

But he had no intention of working himself to death for it.

Just mentioning black market missions had made his heart skip a beat.

Nagato might have imposed restrictions on Sixia, but who knew whether this fellow would actually listen?

Kakuzu hurriedly steered the conversation elsewhere.

"Since Kusagakure's shinobi are very good at researching, analyzing, learning, and developing other villages' ninjutsu and ninja tools..."

"Amegakure's shinobi have been able to buy quality ninja tools for less money lately."

"Not only that, they can buy ninjutsu scrolls from other villages and learn their techniques."

Generally, the Ninja Academy taught only the three basic techniques and a few other fundamentals.

Learning powerful ninjutsu was still relatively difficult for a shinobi.

Those born into prestigious clans could at least learn things like the Uchiha's little flames that never managed to burn anyone to death.

But if someone lacked a prestigious background and lived in a small or medium-sized village like Amegakure...

Their only chance to learn powerful ninjutsu was to work desperately for the village and earn the approval of its higher-ups.

With Kusagakure joining them, Amegakure's range of ninjutsu had immediately expanded.

After hearing Yoshikawa and Kakuzu's accounts, Sixia realized that bringing smaller shinobi villages together to develop was a very promising path!

As Sixia reflected on what he had just heard, he considered it privately.

This is interesting!

It's only Amegakure and Kusagakure working together so far, and both villages have already changed so much.

There are plenty of small and medium-sized villages in the shinobi world.

If all these villages joined together, pooled their resources, and exchanged what they needed...

Every village could develop rapidly.

As the villages grow more prosperous, they'll generate more and more missions.

The more missions there are, the more benefits I get from my system buddy!

Simply put, if all those smaller villages develop together, I can grind missions quickly and keep getting stronger.

That thought stirred Sixia's excitement!

He might now be an otherworldly being dabbling in tattoos himself, but everyone in the Ōtsutsuki Clan had tattoos.

The butterfly effect he had set off in the shinobi world might well bring those otherworldly beings here ahead of schedule.

So he still could not relax. He had to keep training and growing stronger.

He needed to keep developing the Rumble-Rumble Fruit's powers, as well as those of Kāma.

Once he had pushed the powers of both the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and Kāma to their limits...

When the otherworldly members of the Ōtsutsuki Clan arrived, he could capture them all and feed them to the Ten-Tails. Of course, he could also find other uses for them, such as developing new energy sources.

But that was a matter for later. For now, he needed a way to bring all those smaller villages together smoothly!

Getting all those small and medium-sized villages to unite definitely won't be easy.

In Kusagakure, Mui and I worked together to take out all the village's leaders through underhanded means.

The other villages don't offer the conditions needed to pull the same trick.

I'll have to subdue them by force or entice them with benefits, and see whether they play along.

But there are so many smaller villages. Which one should I start with?

Sixia was very interested in bringing the smaller shinobi villages together for joint development.

Unfortunately, it would not be easy. If they agreed outwardly but remained defiant in their hearts, trouble could easily follow.

After thinking it over, Sixia suddenly raised his head and looked at Kakuzu.

He knew Kakuzu's background. The man was a rogue ninja from Takigakure.

Rumor had spread throughout the Shinobi World that, when ordered to assassinate the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, he had thrown two shuriken from eight hundred li away and fled.

But what had actually happened was most likely that he had briefly fought Hashirama Senju-or at least one of Hashirama Senju's Wood Release clones-before escaping with injuries.

After all, however incompetent he might have been, he could hardly have injured himself just by throwing two shuriken from eight hundred li away.

Yet his failure to complete that assassination mission had earned him severe punishment from his village.

Left with no other choice, he could only steal the village's Earth Grudge Fear secret technique and defect.

So much time had passed that the events of those days had become a tangled mess.

Even Kakuzu himself might not have understood what had really happened all those decades ago.

Sixia, however, felt that Kakuzu had been treated quite unfairly.

Takigakure's system had some very serious problems, too.

The village's leaders back then had quite possibly intended to use its rules to get rid of Kakuzu.

Sending Kakuzu to assassinate the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, was tantamount to sending him to his death.

Even if Kakuzu survived by some stroke of luck, his mission was certain to fail, and under the village's rules, he would still have to die.

In other words, the moment Kakuzu received that mission from his village, his death had already been decided.

If he wanted to live, defecting was his only option.

Sixia felt certain that Kakuzu still harbored resentment over the matter.

That made things easy. After all, he was planning to play the alliance-building game among the Shinobi World's many small and medium-sized shinobi villages anyway.

Why not make use of the talent right at hand and deal with Takigakure first?

With that thought, Sixia looked at Kakuzu and asked a question.

"Kakuzu, what do you think of Takigakure?"

At the mention of Takigakure, Kakuzu's gaze instantly sharpened.

After so many years making his mark on the Shinobi World, he had long since realized just how despicable those leaders had been.

Over in Konoha, the office of Hokage had passed from the First to the Fourth, and after the Fourth died in battle, they had brought the Third back to take charge.

Yet even after all those years, Kakuzu had never found a single ninja in the Shinobi World capable of assassinating Hashirama Senju.

Those old bastards in Takigakure had clearly wanted him dead!

That incident was also what had changed his temperament so drastically, leaving him trusting only money and nothing else.

After a moment of silence, Kakuzu asked, "Why are you asking?"

Sixia responded casually.

"I want to hear what you think of Takigakure."

Kakuzu's expression shifted slightly.

A moment later, he spoke in a cold tone.

"I don't think anything of it!"

"The past is the past."

Without hesitation, Sixia asked, "Kakuzu, do you want to become the Takikage?"