The old village chief was somewhat startled by these words. "What?"
Yukimichi Uchiha immediately grew a little impatient. Uchiha Takashi coughed twice, and Yukimichi promptly reined himself in.
"Sir, the Uchiha Clan always keeps its word. You needn't worry at all about us doing anything to you.
"You don't have anything we would want, either. As long as you come to our village, we will definitely allot you land, guaranteed to be exactly the same as what you have now!
"We'll also lend you farming tools. As for taxes, we'll... collect thirty percent. After all, we need to eat too."
Yukimichi was a little embarrassed when he mentioned collecting grain.
After all, the Uchiha Clan generally collected only ten percent internally, leaving most of the grain for the Uchiha commoners to use as they pleased.
Yukimichi really did feel rather embarrassed to ask outsiders for thirty percent.
"Thirty percent!" At that figure, even the old village chief's breathing grew a little rapid.
Yukimichi thought he considered it too much and scratched the back of his head. "That's the clan's rule. There's nothing I can do... we can't go any lower."
The old village chief immediately clasped Yukimichi's hand in excitement. "This is wonderful! You're actually only collecting thirty percent in taxes! Wonderful!
"I'll go tell the villagers right away. My lords, please come with me."
Yukimichi said, "...? Ah, this... what's going on? The previous villagers were like this too. Is it too much?"
Takashi helplessly pressed a hand to his forehead. "Have you considered the possibility that we're collecting too little?"
Yukimichi looked at Takashi in shock. "Third Elder, surely you're joking?
"When have we ever collected thirty percent of the grain? Haven't we always collected just ten percent? Even twenty percent would be too much, let alone thirty."
Takashi stepped forward. "Yukimichi, you're still too young. You don't know anything about the Land of Fire's tax policies.
"The clan's tax policies are one thing, and the Land of Fire's are another. You need to understand that the Land of Fire's tax policies aren't meant to leave these commoners anything.
"They're nothing like our clan, which collects only ten percent. They're lucky if those people don't leave them with only ten percent."
Yukimichi sucked in a cold breath. "Leave them only ten percent? How are people supposed to live? Can they really survive that? Isn't that driving them to their deaths?"
Takashi said earnestly, "That's why villages often perish the moment a man-made or natural disaster strikes. Yukimichi, you still need to learn more."
Yukimichi said, "..." Be that as it may, aren't you younger than me? Why are you acting like you're much older and have seen so much more of life?
Yukimichi was eighteen that year, while Takashi was only ten...
Soon, the village chief gathered the villagers, announced that they would accept the Uchiha Clan's rule, and told everyone to move to Uchiha Village together.
The villagers immediately grew restless at this. Move? They wouldn't move even if it killed them.
"Why should we move? Why should we leave? We've lived here for generations! We're not moving!"
The villagers clamored, but the chief merely stroked his beard calmly and said one thing. "The lords will only collect thirty percent in taxes."
Silence. Everything immediately fell silent. Even the villagers who had been clamoring stopped shouting. For a moment, only breathing could be heard.
"Thirty percent? Really only thirty percent?" one villager asked in disbelief.
Listening from the side, Yukimichi said unhappily, "Are you questioning our Uchiha Clan's reputation?
"Would the Uchiha Clan need to deceive you? You're nothing but a bunch of commoners. Even deceiving you would sully our clan's honor.
"Go ask around. Who doesn't know that the Uchiha Clan keeps its word?"
The villagers said, "..."
But there was also a dissenting voice. "Tch, thirty percent? If you ask me, since they're begging us to go, they shouldn't collect even ten percent!"
Yukimichi immediately looked over. The villager who had spoken was a sleazy-looking middle-aged man.
The man saw Yukimichi looking at him, but still spoke defiantly. "Am... am I wrong? Your clan is forcing us to move! Why should we?
"We've lived here for generations. You think you can get us to leave just by saying you'll collect thirty percent in taxes and allot us farmland? You're going too far!
"Do you think being Uchiha means you can do whatever you want? I don't care. Either give me more farmland and charge no taxes, or don't expect us to move!"
Yukimichi couldn't help clenching his fists at those words, but remembering Takashi's instructions, he held himself back.
What he hadn't expected, however, was that before the villager had even finished speaking, Takashi had already sent him flying with a kick.
The villagers stared in shock at Takashi, who had suddenly appeared among them, and swallowed in fear.
Takashi slowly lowered his leg. Looking at the villager wailing in the distance, he said icily, "The Uchiha Clan isn't running a charity.
"Just because we're speaking to you calmly, you really think you're somebody? I spoke nicely, and you wouldn't listen. Then I'll speak in a way you can understand."
Takashi had no fondness for greedy, insatiable villagers who kept pushing their luck. Taking in villagers like this would only corrupt their village's atmosphere!
Moreover, he saw shades of Konoha's future insolent peasants in this villager. Since he already hated Konoha's insolent peasants, he found it even more intolerable.
He wouldn't allow ungrateful, greedy, insatiable scoundrels who only kept pushing their luck to appear in his village!
Watching the villager from the side, Yukimichi immediately felt a rush of satisfaction. That's right. Is there any need to speak so nicely to these commoners?
Takashi looked at the villagers around him, their eyes filled with fear, and said coldly, "We Uchiha have always kept our word.
"But if anyone pushes their luck, we won't spare them either. We've made ourselves very clear.
"It's only a matter of time before your village falls into ruin. Rather than wait here to die, you might as well follow us Uchiha and live.
"In the Uchiha village, you can have a good life and enjoy days you could never enjoy here.
"But if anyone is insatiably greedy and ungrateful, the Uchiha Clan won't mind letting him know why we bear the Uchiha name."
Hearing those words, the surrounding villagers all swallowed.
Takashi surveyed the villagers once more, then swept his sleeve and said to Yukimichi, "I'll leave the rest to you. Remember what I told you.
"But I'm giving you authorization. If anyone else pushes their luck like him, kill them without mercy!" As Takashi spoke that last sentence, his eyes brimmed with killing intent.
At those words, Yukimichi immediately curled his lips upward. "Understood, Third Elder!"
With that, Yukimichi looked at the Uchiha clansmen beside him and immediately ordered, "What are you standing around for? Go haul that man up!
"String him up on the wall and let every commoner see what happens to the insatiably greedy!"
At the order, the Uchiha clansmen immediately stepped forward and hauled up the middle-aged man who had been kicked to the ground.
The middle-aged man immediately began wailing. "You're breaking the law! I'll tell the daimyo! I'll tell the officials! Then the daimyo will bring troops to wipe you out!"
Hearing that, Yukimichi cautiously glanced at Takashi, who merely waved a hand and turned his face away.
Having received the signal, Yukimichi curled his lips. "What are you still standing around for? Hurry up and gag him! All that racket is annoying!"
Takashi suddenly said, "Don't bother gagging him. Dispose of him. Since he refuses to submit to us Uchiha, there's no need to keep him around.
"We came here out of kindness. Since he not only refuses to accept that kindness but wants to make enemies of us, let him see what the Uchiha Clan can do."
The Uchiha Clan wouldn't stoop to squabbling with commoners, because they looked down equally on everyone who wasn't an Uchiha. That was a lie-they looked down on weak Uchiha too.
But that didn't mean they wouldn't settle the score if you provoked them. After all, no one in the Shinobi World held grudges like the Uchiha.