Hanzo's sudden appearance, along with the two Ame shinobi beside him—startled everyone in the office.
No one had sensed a thing, yet the two had simply appeared before them out of nowhere.
Hanzo sat down unhurriedly at the center of the table, his amber eyes fixed on the Konoha shinobi in front of him.
"No one comes to the temple without a reason."
"Konoha, what business do you have here this time?"
No matter how brightly the man smiled, there was still something cold and sinister beneath it. That kind of false smile... only Root could produce people like that.
"Hanzo-sama, it is an honor beyond words to meet you," the Konoha shinobi said. "Though I have come as part of this mission, I am not the one in charge."
"The Great Ninja War is full of danger. My role is merely to provide protection and deliver this letter."
He presented a scroll marked with a chakra seal.
After reading it for a moment, killing intent flashed in Hanzo's eyes.
So Konoha was trying to drag him onto their ship...
"If I remember correctly, the Land of Rain has already made its position public. We are an absolutely neutral nation in this war and will not enter into any alliance."
"If that is what you came here for, then you may leave now."
"No, Hanzo-sama. I am only here to deliver the message. The person meant to negotiate with you is someone else," the Konoha shinobi replied.
Hanzo snorted.
"As expected of Konoha, always so long-winded."
He closed the scroll.
"Let the real mastermind come in. It should be the one waiting outside the door, yes?"
With a creak, the door opened, and a somewhat plump middle-aged man walked in.
"My task here is complete. The rest of the negotiations will be handled by him," the Konoha shinobi said, stepping back and yielding the floor.
"It is my first time meeting you, Hanzo-sama," the newcomer said. "I am a merchant of the Land of Fire, and also an official under the Fire Daimyō—Morishita."
"You may have misunderstood our intentions. We have absolutely no wish to undermine the Land of Rain's status as an absolutely neutral country. What we seek is cooperation, not alliance."
"And what difference is there?" Hanzo narrowed his eyes and leaned back. "You simply want others to see Amegakure and Konoha as having ties, so that Sunagakure and Iwagakure will think twice."
"No, no, Hanzo-sama, you misunderstand," Morishita said with a smile. "We are legitimate merchants."
"The Daimyō and merchants do not take part in the wars between shinobi. That is something all nations of the ninja world understand."
Not take part in shinobi wars?
Hanzo had already turned the Earth Daimyō into cash, captured the Wind Daimyō once, and personally sent off the former Rain Daimyō. The idea amused him.
He looked at Morishita with interest, waiting for him to continue.
"Our Daimyō has invested in the construction of an iron refinery. Business had been flourishing. Unfortunately, the Great Ninja War has cut off our material supply lines, and even our own mining operations have come to a halt due to the war."
Morishita rubbed his hands with a merchant's smile.
"We could once import ore from the Land of Iron and the Land of Craftsmen, but that is no longer possible."
"So we have turned our eyes toward your country."
"We have heard that the Land of Earth ceded a great deal of territory—territory rich in mineral deposits—and that your country has already begun developing it."
Still smiling like a calculating businessman, he continued, "This has nothing to do with shinobi warfare. It is purely a matter for Daimyō-level negotiation. The other hidden villages have no reason to interfere."
"The former Daimyō of the Land of Rain transferred all authority to Amegakure, so naturally, matters like this must be brought to you personally."
"So, Hanzo-sama, you truly misunderstand. We are only here to do business."
His reasoning was airtight. He had clearly come prepared.
"Very well said," Hanzo replied, gesturing outside toward Amegakure. "But there's a problem. You've seen the village yourself. Amegakure is still undergoing major reconstruction. We barely have enough steel for our own use. No matter how much iron comes in, it gets swallowed whole. We don't even have enough for ourselves—how could we possibly export any?"
"It is a fine proposal, but at the moment, we simply lack the capacity."
"Hanzo-sama, I have seen the state of Amegakure," Morishita replied, still rubbing his hands. "A reconstruction effort on this scale is something I have never seen before. It is astonishing."
"And that is precisely why we must cooperate."
"Such a massive undertaking naturally requires financial support. Even though your village has obtained considerable funds through war agreements, that is still a finite resource—it will not last forever."
"We have already estimated Amegakure's income from its recent wars. Our conclusion is that this level of reconstruction can only be sustained for three years."
"But in three years, the reconstruction of Amegakure should be complete. What remains afterward is maintenance."
"By then, even if your expenses drop significantly, I doubt your village will have much money left. Maintaining all of this will still be costly. Would it not be a great pity if the fruits of three years of labor were abandoned simply because you lacked the money to maintain them?"
"Oh?" Hanzo folded his hands and watched him with obvious interest. "And what do you suggest?"
"Hanzo-sama, that is exactly why you need to work with us," Morishita said.
"I have seen that your country is developing its mining regions on a large scale to support Amegakure's reconstruction. Many refugees have also flowed into your country and taken up work as miners just to survive. Ore production has risen sharply, but the processing industry has not kept pace. What you have now is a growing surplus of raw ore."
"Meanwhile, our factories sit idle for lack of materials. We could purchase the ore your country extracts, process it, and then sell the finished products back to your country for use in village construction."
"Of course, we would offer favorable prices."
"That way, your country would solve the problem of stockpiled ore, gain income from it, and accelerate the village's reconstruction—all three at once."
"And for us, it would mean restarting our factories and making a modest profit. A true win-win."
Hanzo picked up a pen and began writing.
"You people from the Land of Fire would definitely profit from this. I refuse to believe processed goods would cost less than raw materials."
After a few calculations, he reached a conclusion.
"At current prices, your profit margin would be three hundred percent."
Morishita's face instantly broke into a sweat.
Hanzo had a reputation for greed. For squeezing every feather from a passing goose—but this level of math... wasn't shinobi training supposed to avoid things like this?
Looking at the paper under Hanzo's hand—formulas, numbers, deductions, Morishita was sure even the Fire Daimyō's accountants couldn't calculate that quickly.
Had this man spent his previous life doing nothing but arithmetic?
"Hanzo-sama... this..." Morishita stammered. For the first time, he felt the situation slipping out of his control. He had never anticipated this at all.
Since when did shinobi understand commerce? This was supposed to have been a chance to turn a bloody profit from Amegakure.
"After deducting the raw material cost, we can reduce the price by... thirty percent. No—forty percent. No more than that."
"Ask anywhere else you like, Hanzo-sama. No one will offer you a better price than we can."
"I think you should reconsider."
Hanzo smiled at him.
"You've reminded me of something. This is commercial cooperation. It has nothing to do with shinobi."
"We may not have many factories, but the Land of Wind also has plenty of idle factories right now. If the price is right, why wouldn't they be a better partner than you?"
That finally made Morishita panic. If that became a real option, the Daimyō would skin him alive.
"H-Hanzo-sama, we merchants value trust above all else. We would never let you suffer a loss. But we have to make a living too."
"How about this, I'll go back and think it over tonight. Tomorrow morning, I will absolutely give you a satisfactory answer."
Hanzo nodded.
"I, Hanzo, am also a man of my word. Anyone who comes here in good faith will be welcomed. Since the Land of Fire was the first to come, then so long as you show sincerity, I will not treat you unfairly."
He gestured to the Ame shinobi behind him to escort the guests out. The Konoha shinobi immediately understood and led Morishita from the office.
Watching the two men leave the building through the framed glass, Hanzo's amber eyes turned serious.
"What's going on? From what Uzumaki Mito said, and from what happened on the Mist battlefield, Danzō should have been completely cut off from Konoha by the Third Hokage—left in the dark. There's no way he should be able to send Root here."
"Hanzo-sama," Hattori Murakami said from the side, stepping closer.
Hanzo glanced at him.
"So, you noticed it too?"
"Yes," Murakami replied. "Aside from that merchant, who is just an ordinary man, there are seven shinobi escorting him. Judging by their chakra signatures, three are jōnin and four are chūnin. That lineup is far too extravagant."
"In wartime, how could they possibly send three jōnin for a mission like this?"
Hanzo gave him an approving look.
"Looks like your sensory ability has improved a great deal. You probably haven't even noticed it yourself. Is it because of Sage Art? It naturally enhances perception, after all."
"That Konoha shinobi in front of you earlier disguised his chakra fluctuations to appear at chūnin level. Without very careful observation, there would have been no way to detect it. I suspect the other two jōnin did the same."
"They simply didn't expect our senses to be this sharp."
Only then did Murakami realize it.
Without noticing it himself, his sensory abilities had grown significantly.
"Still, I haven't mastered Sage Art yet. I can't even reliably sense natural energy, let alone absorb it."
"That training wasn't for nothing. Progress always leaves a mark."
Murakami thought for a moment, then nodded.
"My sensory range has definitely improved. But it also helped that I was close enough to them. I personally greeted them when they entered Amegakure. I had brief contact with each one."
"If they'd been even a little farther away, I probably wouldn't have noticed the difference."
"Then what do you think they're planning now?" Hanzo asked. "I want to hear your thoughts."
"I've already posted people around the inn where they're staying," Murakami replied. "I don't know what they're planning, but behavior like this can't possibly mean anything good."
Hanzo nodded. Root never moved without some malicious purpose. Even if he didn't know Danzō's exact goal, stopping Root was never the wrong choice.
"Don't alert them. Tonight, I'll go personally."
"I want to see for myself what they're really after."
---
Inside the inn, the three jōnin from Konoha had gathered in one room. Beside them, Morishita lay asleep under a genjutsu.
"Aburame, what did you find?" asked the man in the lead.
Tiny kikaichū insects flew back one after another into the body of the sunglasses-wearing shinobi.
"They didn't notice my kikaichū. I've already gathered the basic layout and conditions of Amegakure."
"And the target?"
"I've narrowed down the general direction, but not precisely," the Aburame shinobi replied. "There's a faint chakra signature coming from that direction. It terrifies my insects. That should be the target."
"Prepare to move."
---------------------------------///
Advance Chapters on Patreon!
p(a)treon(.)com/HudaLin
-Remove the parenthesis to access patreon normally