After Minato returned home, Kushina asked him about the outcome of the discussion. Minato told her Seiichi's plan, and Kushina felt surprised and worried after hearing it.
However, despite how risky the plan sounded, Kushina decided to trust Minato's and Seiichi's judgment. She would do everything she could to protect herself and her child.
Over the next few months, Kushina intended to work hard on exercising and keeping herself in good shape.
Minato also planned to focus more on improving his strength to ensure he could handle any dangers that might arise.
Seiichi, meanwhile, had a much easier time.
During this period, Seiichi mainly worked on improving his own strength.
However, Third Elder Uchiha Gangmu came several times over the clan's financial problems. Pestered until he had no other choice, Seiichi could only offer a solution.
The Uchiha Clan's original plan to fleece the Shinobi World through food was restarted.
But it needed a slight adjustment.
Anyone could now pay to come to the Uchiha and learn the culinary techniques that had once been exclusive to them.
The Uchiha Clan switched to selling only the various special sauces indispensable to those dishes, as well as an all-purpose special seasoning.
(Uchiha Thirteen-Spice?!)
For this purpose, Seiichi specifically had the clan members open a Chef Training School beside the Uchiha Clan Compound.
A plot of land was also set aside inside the Uchiha Clan Compound to build a factory producing the special sauces and seasoning.
With the techniques, people could improve the flavor of their existing food.
But without the special sauces, they could at most reproduce sixty percent of the Uchiha dishes' original flavor.
Even that required a gifted "natural-born chef." Ordinary people relying on technique alone could only manage around forty percent.
So, ever since this plan was introduced, countless chefs from across the Shinobi World came to train beside the Uchiha Clan Compound.
The Uchiha special sauces and seasoning also became hot-selling products throughout the Shinobi World. The special seasoning even became a daily necessity like oil and salt.
It could be used not only in dishes developed by the Uchiha, but also to considerably improve the flavor of everyday home cooking.
The prices were relatively inexpensive, but they still followed the approach of substantial profits and high sales volume, leaving the Uchiha utterly thrilled with how much money they were making.
Unlike before, however, the Uchiha now sold only special sauces and seasoning. Merchants from every country came to collect and transport the goods themselves. Most importantly, the clan members no longer needed to travel everywhere, saving time and effort while keeping them safe.
As a result, compared with the expenses incurred when clan members traveled before, the Uchiha were not making any less money. Their profits had instead grown fifteen to twenty times over.
The life the Uchiha were living left people from other Ninja Clans red-eyed and rock-hard.
They were practically drooling with envy.
But then, one day.
Seiichi was on the laboratory rooftop, drinking tea and watching people come and go through the compound.
He saw Third Elder Uchiha Gangmu come rushing over yet again.
"Huff, huff, huff... Sei... Seiichi..."
Seiichi hurriedly poured Gangmu a cup of tea and pushed it in front of him so he could have a drink and catch his breath.
Gangmu did not even glance at the little teacup. He picked up the bucket of water beside Seiichi and gulped it down.
"Burp... Finally caught my breath."
"What is it now, my dear Third Elder?! Does seeing me sitting here drinking tea bother you? Every time I've barely sat down, you show up.
"Is there some inevitable connection between me drinking tea and you appearing? Tell me, and I'll watch out next time!"
Seiichi had been annoyed lately, too.
He could not hit him or scold him, and anything he said fell on deaf ears. What could you do with an old man his age?!
"Seiichi, this time it's something serious."
"When have you ever not said that?"
"We recently discovered that someone has copied our special sauces and seasoning. I took a look, and they're almost eighty percent similar. Whoever did it is quite an expert in the field."
"Mm, that was expected. Give me the information. I'll make the trip."
Actually, the Third Elder had raised the issue of their special sauces and seasoning being copied back when the Uchiha first began preparing to change their business model.
Seiichi had not thought much of it. Things like this had always been common, and these sauces and seasonings were not high-tech products that were particularly difficult to copy.
Not many people in the Shinobi World could reproduce them, but there were definitely some.
Seiichi's solution was simple.
Crush them with force!
Once a copycat was discovered, the clan's top fighters would be sent to suppress them.
The result was simple, too. From now on, your equipment belonged to the Uchiha, the money you earned belonged to the Uchiha, and even you, a talented individual, belonged to the Uchiha.
So, although a copycat had now appeared.
The Uchiha who knew about it were all perfectly calm.
They just had to follow the original plan. They would lose nothing and even gain a talented recruit.
When Seiichi read the information and saw that the location was actually Kusagakure in the Land of Grass.
He raised an eyebrow.
If he had not suddenly seen the name Kusagakure, he would almost have forgotten that there were currently two "treasures" there.
If he remembered correctly, Karin and Sasuke were the same age. Right now, she was either a newborn baby or still in her mother's belly.
He had to hurry over before those bastards in Kusagakure damaged his "treasures."
Seiichi told the Third Elder to notify the clan. This time, Seiichi would go alone.
The Third Elder was not worried about Seiichi, either.
What a joke. Why would a decrepit old man like him worry about the clan's strongest fighter?
Time for tea, time for tea.
After Seiichi vanished in an instant, the Third Elder sat where Seiichi had been sitting, took a fresh teacup, and poured himself some tea as he watched the bustling, flourishing clan below.
"This really is comfortable!"
After an uncounted number of flickers, Seiichi finally arrived at Kusagakure.
He cast the "ordinary villager" Genjutsu he had not used in a long time.
Then Seiichi swaggered straight into Kusagakure.
Kusagakure was not large.
Before long, Seiichi discovered a concealed underground entrance beneath the Kusagakure leader's office.
"Time to open a mystery box."
Seiichi's figure flickered, and he went from outside the door to inside.
Within lay a dim underground complex.
It looked quite spacious, too.
He headed farther inside.
Seiichi faintly heard a woman's cries.
Whoosh!
Seiichi instantly appeared in the room the sound was coming from.
Found them!
Two Kusagakure shinobi were holding down a heavily pregnant, red-haired woman. They were also forcibly pulling out her arm and shoving it toward the mouth of a severely wounded patient lying on the bed, his whole body wrapped in bandages.
It looked as though Seiichi had arrived at just the right time.
At present, Karin's mother did not seem to have suffered much abuse at Kusagakure's hands yet.
Good!
"Bind!"
The two Grass Ninja instantly became completely motionless.
Only the woman and the severely wounded patient were unaffected.
The Grass Ninja on the bed was desperately opening his mouth wide, snapping his teeth as he tried to bite the woman's arm. But there were still a few centimeters between them, and those few centimeters were like an impassable gulf.
Seeing that he could not reach her with his teeth, the severely wounded Grass Ninja began desperately sticking out his tongue, wriggling it nonstop.
It seemed his desire to live was incredibly strong.
Before you continue