"Miwa, is Xia Chuan not around?"
"Someone is causing trouble in Tanzaku Town, and Xia Chuan went to handle it. After that, she might also take a trip to the Land of Waves and won't be back for the short term. Boss, do you need someone to pass a message to Xia Chuan?"
After reporting Xia Chuan's movements, Kawaki Miwa lowered her head slightly to wait for Karn's next instructions.
"No need, let her go tend to her work. Aside from Tanzaku Town, is business in the other places running smoothly?"
Karn took the ledger from Kawaki Miwa's hands and continued to ask. Last time, some native nobles in the Land of Fire had grown envious of Karn's influence, but they had refrained from taking action out of respect for his formidable martial might; now, it seemed they were about to lose their patience and make a move from the shadows.
"Kawaki Town is the place with our strongest military presence and is very stable, with all revenues steadily increasing. Aside from Tanzaku Town, only River Valley County is a bit chaotic."
When Kawaki Miwa mentioned this, she paused slightly before continuing to speak to Karn: "Someone hired rogue ninja, seemingly targeting us specifically."
"Then go contact Kakuzu's subordinates, seven million ryo. If Kakuzu thinks it's cheap, raise it to ten million ryo, but tell Kakuzu that he must eradicate the people behind the scenes."
After giving his orders, Karn closed the ledger. He was not a professional accountant, but he could still understand the bookkeeping methods in the shinobi world. The revenue within Konoha was not counted in this ledger, but currently, the total profit from the three locations in the Land of Fire had grown to over seventy million ryo per month.
This included the total income from three casinos, four dessert shops, a confectionery factory, four izakayas, three restaurants, and three grain stores. Among them, the casino revenue was the major share, accounting for seventy percent of it, while the rest were just supplementary developments. Karn had not invested much thought into these shops.
These were all managed by Xia Chuan. Karn had given her a certain degree of autonomy, so whenever Xia Chuan sensed a money-making opportunity, she would take the initiative to act.
At first, she only opened an izakaya outside, and after slowly earning money back, Xia Chuan invested step by step, which was also within the scope of Karn's permission.
Now, Xia Chuan already intended to build a production chain starting from the source, purchasing grain directly from farmers and then supplying it in batches to grain stores and breweries everywhere. The brewery had not been built yet, but Karn had said last time that he would handle the brewery's production equipment, as he looked down on the traditional brewing methods in the shinobi world.
There was also the income brought by the Spring Beauty Bookstore. Averaged out each month, it was close to twenty million ryo. Relying on the seven novels Karn had given them, the Spring Beauty Bookstore had now expanded to over twenty branch stores and established distribution agreements with bookstores in the other major nations, making a fortune and winning big.
The Daimyo of the Land of Fire's annual allocation to Konoha was barely over two hundred million ryo, while Karn's monthly income alone was over ninety million ryo. To say he was wealthier than a nation might be a slight exaggeration, but with his single strength, he could entirely support the whole of Konoha-provided they were not at war.
Once a war started, the Daimyo's mansion's war funds for Konoha might be three to four times the usual amount, and weapon expenses alone constituted a major share. Normally, Konoha was not responsible for the ninja's shinobi tool expenses, but during wartime, it was different, and Konoha fully reimbursed them.
There were also mission rewards, condolence money, medical and logistical supplies, and so on. Added together, it was definitely a huge figure.
You couldn't have ninja spending their own money to risk their lives for Konoha, so reimbursement was inevitable. Furthermore, after a ninja died in battle, Konoha was also responsible for the living expenses of the fallen ninja's children until they graduated from the Ninja Academy or had a certain source of income.
If Konoha didn't even care about this, then the Will of Fire would become a joke.
"Miwa-san, I'm going to a trip to Konoha, so I'll leave things here to you."
After reviewing the affairs of Kawaki Town, Karn said to Kawaki Miwa. However, upon hearing Karn's words, Kawaki Miwa hurriedly offered a suggestion: "Boss, please take a team of Konoha ninja bodyguards with you. Although there hasn't been any assassination attempt yet, just in case..."
Kawaki Miwa was somewhat worried that those people would assassinate Karn recklessly. Their influence might seem vast, but if anything happened to Karn, that influence would surely collapse.
"Well... this also serves as a reminder for me, but let's skip it this time. It will be very difficult for them to gather my whereabouts."
Karn told Kawaki Miwa. He always came to this world through the Trading System's shuttle function, and his arrival location was related to Tsunade.
"The bodyguards you and Xia Chuan have are too few. The people around her can deal with ordinary people, but they struggle against some bounty hunters. You should send someone back to Konoha to issue two more B-rank bodyguard missions. In the future, both of you should have two Chunin squads following you."
Two Chunin and six Genin, and their activity range was entirely within the Land of Fire-Konoha would certainly not take on assassination missions concerning this area. Even if other ninja villages took them, they would have to consider the difficulty of coming to Konoha to deal with two Chunin squads, and one careless move could become the fuse for a war.
"This... thank you, Boss. I'll go arrange it right away, but you should also pay close attention to your own safety..."
With a flutter of emotion in her heart, Kawaki Miwa said to Karn. Being able to have two Chunin squads protect them at all times meant the boss truly valued them deeply.
After entrusting Kawaki Miwa with several matters, Karn used the Trading System's shuttle function to arrive very swiftly at a forest near Konoha. This movement method, identical to Space-Time Ninjutsu, made it extremely difficult for anyone wanting to gather intelligence on him.
Upon entering Konoha, Karn walked toward his own commercial street.
In less than two years, he had opened a total of thirteen shops within Konoha, basically covering food, drink, entertainment, and clothing. Although that street was somewhat out of the way, it was the only street in Konoha focused primarily on commerce.
Currently, the person responsible for managing all the shops within Konoha was Nanami, who was extremely conscientious and responsible, managing everything in good order. Recently, she had been talking with several other households on this street about real estate transactions. Knowing that Karn was prepared to build a commercial street, Nanami was working hard in that direction.
Among these thirteen shops, aside from the pharmacy, the rest of the businesses were doing very well. After all, the war had stopped, and the shinobi world had entered a brief period of peace. Aside from ordinary civilians falling ill with everyday ailments, others no longer needed to purchase medicine, so lagging sales were inevitable.
Karn was also pondering expanding the pharmaceutical business into the small countries. The major nations had stopped fighting, but some small countries were still experiencing turmoil.
After listening to Nanami's report, Karn felt there was nothing in Konoha that required him to worry, though he still asked one extra question: "Has anything happened recently?"
"There is one matter I need to tell the boss. Kushina Uzumaki has been coming to the shop every day recently. She wanted me to tell her the news when the boss came back, but I didn't agree. I felt it would be better to inform the boss about this beforehand."
Nanami didn't hesitate to sell out the favor Kushina had asked of her, even though she and Kushina had a slight connection, and she knew Kushina's relationship with the boss was quite good.
However, this matter touched upon her principles, so Nanami certainly could not agree to sell out her own boss's whereabouts to Kushina.
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