Futures Exchange Building
Kakuzu arrived in front of a small three-story building. This had originally been a restaurant, but under some irresistible outside pressure, it had been sold overnight and renamed Ninja World Finance. The name was simple and direct.
There was also a leaf logo behind the signboard, though Kakuzu paid it no attention.
He pushed open the door. The first thing that came into view was a huge screen showing the rise and fall of pig iron prices over the last two years. The most recent line was a steep downward slope, perfectly matching the timing of the peace agreement between Konoha and Kumogakure.
The first-floor hall was crowded with people coming and going, almost all merchants making deals. Both spot trading and futures trading were being handled there. Spot traders only needed to pay the staff according to that day's listed price, and dedicated personnel would handle the actual pig iron delivery afterward.
Everything had become extremely convenient. There was no longer any need to go around visiting pig iron merchants one by one. Pig iron prices in the Land of Fire had always been broadly similar, but there were still small differences from place to place.
Now, with Konoha and the Fire Daimyo working together to control production and unify distribution, prices had begun to turn transparent. There was even such a thing as an official quoted price.
Haru was delighted by this development. It was exactly the effect he wanted.
Kakuzu had no interest in the spot trade. He was a ninja, a top-tier bounty hunter. He worked three hundred and sixty-five days a year without missing a shift, and his efficiency at making money was extremely high. Business could always lose money. His own line of work, on the other hand, was a pure profit trade.
The real reason Kakuzu had spent his valuable working time coming here today was to see this so-called futures business for himself. If it really could make money, then he did not mind giving it a try.
"Please come again..."
Kakuzu watched a richly dressed merchant hand several boxes stuffed with cash to the staff and receive a few beautifully made slips of paper in return.
Those slips were the certificates for futures trading. They had been produced by special means and included anti-counterfeit markings, using a manufacturing method personally invented in an overnight rush by the ninja world's great researcher, Tobirama Senju. They were extremely difficult to forge.
Several boxes of money, exchanged for just a few cards?
The sight shook Kakuzu's worldview. He strode over to the attendants to ask what exactly was going on. After they gave him a full explanation, contempt appeared in his eyes.
So that's all it is?
He had thought futures must be something deep and mysterious. In the end, it was just gambling on the future price of pig iron.
But who could know the future? What if he bought in now and pig iron prices fell later? Then all the hard-earned money he had made risking his life would just disappear.
A waste of time.
If this thing can really make money, then I, Kakuzu, will jump off the building right now!
Especially since pig iron prices were still slowly falling at the moment. After all, years of war had previously driven them up quite a bit.
Boring.
Kakuzu shook his head and turned to leave the trading hall, planning to continue working on bounty jobs instead.
Just then, a white-haired young man walked in from the entrance. He was dressed in luxurious clothing and at a glance looked like the pampered son of some wealthy family. Behind him followed four or five bodyguards wearing Konoha forehead protectors, each carrying boxes stuffed full of money.
"Buy where no one cares. Sell where the crowd is roaring!"
The future White Fang spoke that catchy line as soon as he appeared, instantly drawing the attention of the whole hall. Hiring Konoha ninja as bodyguards so openly, this young man must belong to some noble family in the Land of Fire.
The people in the trading hall silently speculated about his identity.
"Buy it all in!"
Seeing White Fang's move, another phrase popped into everyone's minds.
The landlord's foolish son.
Ever since pig iron futures had first appeared, speculators had already been buying and selling them. One by one they were losing money miserably, and pig iron prices in the Land of Fire had fallen by another sixty thousand ryo over the last stretch of time.
The trading hall had even posted rankings showing the nicknames of the top one hundred futures buyers and their profit rates. Anyone who had bought heavily was sitting on losses.
Even so, there were still stubborn fools continuing to add to their positions, and people laughed at them as idiots throwing good money after bad.
The mobilization plans of Kirigakure and Iwagakure were top secret, and they were still far from the Land of Fire, so pig iron prices there had continued drifting downward. Haru, meanwhile, had been slowly increasing his position. By now he had already bought in for three or four hundred million ryo and was still adding more.
The Daimyo, on the other hand, had grown impatient and bought in ten hundred million ryo all at once, nearly pushing the price upward by himself. Haru had specifically written him a letter telling him to buy gradually and to split the purchases across multiple accounts.
If one of the major names on the ranking later dumped everything at once, it would cause panic.
"What are you staring at? You people with no eye for investment! I'm investing in the future!"
Noticing the looks people were giving him, White Fang immediately put on an arrogant expression and shouted at everyone present. Inside, however, he could only smile bitterly.
This was just another assignment from the Hokage.
In order to make futures soar later on, Haru had decided to build a pig riding the wind, a genius investor in the futures world, an expert whose success story would attract countless new suckers into the market.
Stories of overnight riches always sparked boundless fantasies. Gamblers loved nothing more than that sort of tale.
Of course, considering that the whole setup was meant to bait people in, pull up pig iron prices, and lure more buyers into chasing the rise, then when the price eventually collapsed, the Land of Fire would probably see countless people taking the express route out of tall buildings. The "expert" leading them in would almost certainly die a miserable death too.
This glorious and difficult mission Haru had assigned to the genius of the Hatake clan, White Fang, who was about the same age as Haru yet already frighteningly strong. He had already reached the level of an elite jonin, and with a little more tempering, he could fight Kage-level opponents.
Of course, it was not unpaid work. Haru had given White Fang a startup fund of ten million ryo, and any profits he made from it would belong entirely to him.
"Nothing special. He was just lucky enough to be born well."
Kakuzu had no interest in the identity of some wealthy young master. As he walked away, he spoke with obvious disdain.
So what if you were born rich? Did that make you impressive?
The kind of person Kakuzu despised most in his life was exactly this type.
His voice was not loud, but everyone present could hear it clearly.
"What did you say?!"
"You'll regret this in the future. Pig iron prices are definitely going to soar!"
"According to the reversal of the economic cycle, the control of macro policy in the Land of Fire, the official side will definitely..."
..."
White Fang began reciting the speech that the Fire Daimyo's finance minister had prepared for him. For someone used to handling state affairs and cooking the books, writing up an argument for why pig iron prices would rise was ridiculously easy.
White Fang analyzed matters from great-power rivalry to ninja wars, and from market sentiment to small-scale civilian economics, sounding confident and methodical all the way through. He actually left Kakuzu stunned.
The general education level of ninja was not high. Most of them had not even finished primary school before going out to kill people. As long as they could read mission orders, that was enough. Did studying more somehow make you a jonin?
White Fang's entire line of analysis sounded complicated and convincing, but at its core it was mostly nonsense. Still, since the speech came from professionals, it was polished enough to pass as real.
Even though no one fully understood what he was saying, the flood of professional terms like economic cycle and state regulation was enough to make them believe at least thirty percent of it.
Professional.
Could pig iron really rise after all?
"Hmph. I have no idea what you're talking about!"
Kakuzu felt the discrimination of the educated class. He could not understand a single one of White Fang's arguments, though deep down he did feel that the man sounded very professional. Even so, Kakuzu had no intention of getting involved in futures right now.
He firmly believed that pies never fell from the sky. If there was truly a way to make easy money, then people would do it in secret. Anyone who had a path to vast riches yet did not even bring his own brother along, and instead loudly advertised it to the world, was not to be trusted.
"We'll see. You'll regret this."
"Hmph. I'll be watching you go completely bankrupt."
Still, Kakuzu had no intention of losing verbally. After throwing those words out, he left the hall and went back to his bounty work.
White Fang curled his lip, then was led upstairs by the staff to the third floor, the area reserved for major clients.
Yet despite White Fang's brilliant-sounding analysis, only a tiny handful of people actually went to buy pig iron futures. Everyone else still chose to wait and watch.
When prices are low, people shrink back in fear.
When prices rise, they suddenly discover they have infinite bullets.
That was the same in every world.
(End of Chapter)
[Check Out My P@treon For +20 Extra Chapters On All My Fanfics!!][[email protected]/euridome]
[+500 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter]
[Thank You For Your Support!]