A deal with Kirigakure

"Lord Third, someone outside wishes to see you. He's a merchant from the Land of Fire, and he seems to want to do business with the village."

The Mizukage Assistant reported respectfully to the Third Mizukage. Lately, Lord Third's temper had grown increasingly erratic. He had already disposed of two ANBU under his direct command, and under his influence, the atmosphere throughout Kirigakure had become deeply unsettling.

"A merchant from the Land of Fire? Tell him to see Genji about that. Am I, the Mizukage, supposed to do everyone else's work now? What do we even keep them around for?"

The Third Mizukage snapped coldly after hearing the report. They were bothering him with something like this? It was time the village changed!

Yet as he said those words, the Third Mizukage had completely forgotten the order he himself had issued just a few days earlier: he was to be informed of every matter in the village, no matter how large or small.

"Yes, Lord Mizukage."

The Mizukage Assistant lowered his head as he answered, suppressing the trembling in his heart, then slowly withdrew.

Since the Second Shinobi World War, the Third Mizukage's temper had been poor. The Second Mizukage and the Second Iwagakure Ninja had killed each other, Kirigakure had been defeated by the Sand Ninja, and the village's bloodline clans had gone through the motions without putting in any real effort. Openly or otherwise, they showed little respect for him as Mizukage.

Kirigakure was not weak, but it had too many factions. On the battlefield, it could never bring its full strength to bear, leaving it unable to defeat even the Sand Ninja while they were fighting on two fronts. What a disgrace!

Only an iron fist can unite Kirigakure's strength.

Then the Third Mizukage wrote down the words "Blood Mist." He intended to use this approach to weaken the disobedient bloodline clans while forcing common-born ninja into a brutal survival-of-the-fittest system to strengthen them. Only then could he truly hold power as Mizukage.

Karn did not get to meet the Mizukage. Not every ninja village leader had exceptional foresight-not even Konoha's. Back then, he had only managed to trade smoothly with Konoha because Tsunade, an expert in the field, had vouched for him.

Karn had already prepared himself for being sent to someone else.

"Please wait here for a moment. I'll inform Lord Genji."

With that, the Mizukage Assistant knocked on the door, then went inside to announce him.

Hearing Genji's name immediately reminded Karn of the man's existence. He had appeared very few times in Naruto, but his standing was considerable. He had reportedly assisted three successive Mizukage-the Second, Third, and Fourth-and held a high position in Kirigakure.

Before long, the Mizukage Assistant came out and told Karn, "Please come in."

Genji was a bald, middle-aged man, a few years older than Hiruzen Sarutobi. He handled Kirigakure's routine affairs, including dealings with the Daimyo, logistical support, and so on.

After Karn explained why he had come, Genji was both surprised and tempted. Kirigakure also had spies in Konoha and knew there was a merchant there selling convenient medicines. The Cloud Ninja were not the only ones to have learned of this; the other ninja villages had also received reports from their spies.

The Cloud Ninja had simply been the most decisive, intending to abduct Karn and Kushina together.

What surprised Genji was that Karn had come to seek cooperation himself. He had originally planned to have the spies hiding in Konoha approach Karn.

Kirigakure's spies in Konoha had also bought some of those medicines and sent them back to the village. Tests had shown that they were indeed effective. On the battlefield, they would genuinely be lifesavers.

Once he learned that Karn intended to sell medicine, Genji considered it briefly before readily agreeing. This would be tremendously beneficial to Kirigakure. Even Konoha felt the shortage of medical ninja; how many could Kirigakure possibly have?

Outside the bloodline clans, common-born ninja generally had to wait in line when they fell ill or were injured. Otherwise, they could only tough it out using their own experience. Even ordinary physicians were difficult to find, since only nobles and wealthy merchants could afford to support them.

With Karn's medicines, Kirigakure could greatly ease the situation for its wounded. Besides medicine, Karn also had other goods he wanted to trade with the village, such as grain and ironware.

At this point, Kirigakure held dominance over the nearby seas. Iwagakure had coordinated Earth Release techniques, while Kirigakure had coordinated Water Release techniques at sea. A dozen or so Water Release ninja could easily overturn dozens of large ships.

Beyond the goods being traded, Karn also required Kirigakure to guarantee the safety of his shipping fleet in the Land of Waves. At the very least, Kirigakure ninja could not attack him. If enemies attacked his fleet, Kirigakure would be responsible for finding the culprits.

The payment arrangements were largely the same as with Konoha. Kirigakure received even less funding from its Daimyo than Konoha did, so it too could only put up gold, jewels, and similar valuables as collateral.

However, Karn added one more condition: he wanted chakra metal included among the items Kirigakure put up as collateral, at least once every two or three transactions.

Hearing this demand, Genji immediately fell silent. To ninja, chakra metal was exceptionally valuable and could significantly improve their strength. Adding even a little when forging a weapon could improve chakra flow and other properties.

Kirigakure obtained little chakra metal each year, gathering it from places such as the Land of Rainbows and the Land of Tea. Plenty of hungry wolves within the village had their eyes on it, too. Every bloodline clan wanted a larger share for itself.

Still, medicine would allow Kirigakure to ensure the survival rate of its common-born ninja. After weighing the matter repeatedly, Genji agreed to Karn's demand. Chakra metal could only strengthen individual ninja, whereas the supplies obtained through trade with Karn could meet the needs of most of them.

They settled on a port in the Land of Water as the trading location. Once Karn's cargo ships were built, shipments would begin departing from the Land of Waves. The first transaction was scheduled for two months later.

Karn planned to establish two factories in the Land of Waves first: a pharmaceutical factory and a Fresh Food Processing Factory. With the resources of this major fishing nation close at hand, failing to make good use of them would be a waste.

People in the shinobi world were quite fond of freshwater fish and seafood, but both were difficult to obtain in the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth. Canning them and shipping them there for sale could grow into a sizable business.

Karn also planned to recruit more guards, starting with at least two thousand men. All of them would be trained as regular soldiers and equipped with submachine guns, assault rifles, rocket launchers, and so on. He very much wanted to know which side would have the advantage if an organized army equipped with modern weapons faced a ninja force.

The Land of Waves was too small. It was only suitable for developing business and keeping a small contingent of guards, so Karn planned to build his modern army in the Land of Tea.

However, that meant Karn would have to bring over the arms factory's production lines as well. Otherwise, he would have to keep transporting weapons batch after batch, and buying arms in bulk in the United States was troublesome in its own right.

In the underground laboratory outside Konoha, in the Land of Fire.

Bang!

A violent explosion reduced the death-row prisoner to a cloud of bloody mist. Even the iron-plated floor was slightly dented by the blast.

With keen interest in his eyes, Orochimaru said, "Adding the First's cells actually reduced the power of the explosion. The Extremis Virus alone can release terrifying heat and force, but just now it took the form of flesh and blood. Tsunade, how did the data collection go?"

"I collected the data, but the equipment was destroyed again, and we're out of serum, too..."

Tsunade scratched her blond hair as she answered Orochimaru. A month had already passed. Testing the three vials of serum in batches had killed ten death-row test subjects and destroyed three pieces of equipment, yet they had only made a little progress so far.

"Contact him. We can't let the experiments stop."

With that, Orochimaru turned to continue his research.

Tsunade muttered a few words under her breath. Mainly, the costs were so high that she felt a little embarrassed to ask Karn.