Naruto: Starting from Eating the Gold Fruit

Chapter 153 Konoha Year 34 and Tobirama Senju's Funeral

What Yua and Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't do, Tobirama Senju could.

And it's not difficult.

All that was needed was for Tobirama Senju to swallow his pride.

This is something that Tobirama Senju would never have made in the past.

However, whether it was due to his impending death or a sudden realization, the fact remains that Tobirama Senju made this choice.

You Ya expressed his deep gratitude for this.

It seems that the only way Yuya can repay Yuya is by doing his best.

In November of the 33rd year of Konoha, the Hidden Stone Village sent a delegation to Konoha to express their apologies to Yua.

After all, the defection of their own Iwagakure ninjas caused Konoha's goods to be stockpiled for nearly three months, which undoubtedly dealt a blow to business.

Onoki wasn't stupid; he knew that the best way to salvage this business reputation was to consult with Yua.

If both parties agree on the fundamental premise of cooperation, then even if business dealings are affected, they will return to normal in a few years.

You Ya naturally welcomes this.

Not to mention that the people killed in this ridiculous Iwagakure rebellion were from Iwagakure, besides the fact that the Konoha caravan was initially cheated out of its goods, Onoki from Iwagakure later returned the stolen supplies for a re-trade, and even gave them a slightly higher price.

Strictly speaking, Konoha Village did not actually suffer any losses.

Of course, three months is enough time for the caravan to make another trip, but that's another story.

However, it's unrealistic to expect to always be safe and sound when running a trade route. Of course, there have been some daring traders who have made a fortune in Konoha over the past ten years.

However, there are also cases where being robbed can lead to the loss of all one's wealth.

People who are okay can come to Youya to complain. Usually, as long as someone complains, Youya will take care of them.

Another possibility is that the entire family was wiped out, and no one returned to Konoha to deliver the message. It would be impossible for Yuya to search through various transaction records to find cases where the entire family disappeared.

Someone reported it to the police, and the Yau family took charge. In this situation, the entire family was wiped out…

You Ya could only say, "Can't you guys find some odd jobs or something to replace your relatives and friends?"

Does the whole family have to go together?

There's really nothing we can do about that; it's impossible for Youya to send a large number of people to investigate this matter just because of this situation.

It's impossible for him to investigate personally, is it?

Yuya cannot leave Konoha.

Therefore, these merchants in Iwagakure were quite lucky this time.

Merchants whose goods were destroyed because of the Eight-Tails' disturbance in Kumogakure have nowhere to seek justice.

They claimed to have lost so many goods, but the Third Raikage of Kumogakure said that this was taking advantage of their misfortune and that a symbolic compensation of a few hundred thousand to a million taels would be enough. He told them not to go too far.

With both sides sticking to their own versions of events, who can guarantee that what they are saying is true? And who can guarantee that what the other side is saying is true?

In the end, it was still a mess.

Fortunately, after ten years of development, most of these merchants from Konoha have accumulated savings, so it's impossible for them to go back to more than ten years ago in one trip.

It just means I'll have to repay the bank loan later.

Although the attitude of the Hidden Cloud Village this time is much more outrageous than that of the Hidden Stone Village.

However, the abundant livestock and mineral resources within the Hidden Cloud Village mean that merchants from Konoha can earn far more money there than from the Hidden Stone Village.

Of course, if we only consider importance, Kumogakure is not as important as Iwagakure.

After all, without minerals and livestock, at worst society will regress.

But without food, people would really starve to death!

But after all, food is a precious commodity...

Unless there is a monopoly, it is impossible for prices to rise too drastically.

Therefore, Iwagakure does not hold a dominant position in transactions with Konoha.

Just because Iwagakure has food doesn't mean other countries don't.

It's just that Iwagakure's grain exports account for a relatively large proportion.

This country is somewhat similar to a major South American country from Yuya's previous life.

Even though the country has enough food to feed twice the population, people still starve because oligarchs, capital, land, and food are in their hands.

However, the difference between the daimyo of Iwagakure or the Land of Earth is that they will ensure that the people of their own country do not starve to death first, and then export them in exchange for various resources.

Putting aside other things, the ironworks in Iwagakure was acquired in exchange for hundreds of thousands of tons of grain.

The remaining 20% ​​of the shares are held by Konoha and will receive dividends annually.

The Hidden Stone Village is envious, but there's nothing they can do.

One step ahead leads to another. Konoha is now transitioning to power infrastructure, while Iwagakure hasn't even finished laying its power lines yet. At most, they'll just run one power line and each household will have a light, and that's it.

What kind of electrical wiring is this?

In the summer, there are no power outlets available even if you want to use a fan.

Oh, most people in Iwagakure can't afford this thing anyway.

At most, only the ninja clans of Iwagakure (Hidden Stone Village) could use it and afford it.

For ordinary people...

The Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, was helpless. The most important means of livelihood for ordinary people in Iwagakure was farming, so almost everyone owned a piece of land.

The price of food was indeed not high, but ordinary people in Iwagakure Village still needed to buy clothes, daily necessities, firewood, rice, oil, salt, soy sauce, vinegar, and tea. They needed money for all aspects of life.

Ohnoki really had no choice.

Of course, Onoki had no choice. If Yua were to manage Iwagakure, he would definitely implement the household responsibility system directly, regardless of fairness, just to ensure that everyone would not starve. Then, any surplus manpower and resources would be used for scientific research, even if it meant selling everything.

Even if we can't do scientific research, we still have to develop the Chakra Cannon.

Once we've developed this, we can go find a partner and start free trade.

The Land of Earth is vast and fertile, producing approximately 40% of the grain needed for the ninja world.

This proportion is not low.

Yuya could even find an excuse to have the Land of Earth export a small portion of its grain each year to raise rice prices. They might suffer losses for a few years, but once rice prices rise, the Land of Earth could slowly dump this grain. Even if other countries wanted to protect their own interests, they wouldn't allow rice prices to fall back down.

Then we should vigorously develop scientific research. Putting aside everything else, although the Land of Earth has few domestic resources, it has abundant natural resources.

If you can develop clean energy, that's a guaranteed job, a secure job for the country, and you won't be poor much even if you're poor.

Of course, this is the ideal situation, and it would require Youya to take charge of the operation.

Otherwise, if other countries join forces against them, the Land of Earth will never be able to rise up. The problem is still how to adjust the relationship with other villages.

This is the only constant theme.

At least……

This theme will not change until Konoha's population surpasses 100 million and it has the ability to colonize other villages.

However, it was probably impossible while Yua was alive.

Getting back to the main point, the situation in both Kumogakure and Iwagakure is gradually stabilizing, and the money that Konoha Bank lent out has begun to be collected.

Even if not all the loans have been collected, there's no rush. It's not year-end accounting time yet, so Youya isn't in a hurry at all.

Although the end of the year is the peak time for Konoha villagers to spend money, it is also the peak time for shops to deposit money.

There aren't that many fancy financial products yet. When shops make money during the Chinese New Year, their first reaction is definitely not to spend it all. Even if they do spend it all, they will eventually use it to buy products developed by research institutes. Strictly speaking, it is still a return of funds.

Therefore, in a sense, the financial products are in You Ya's hands.

For example, a Walkman with an official price of 100,000 taels of silver cannot be bought on the black market for less than 150,000 taels of silver.

There's no way around it. Like I said, the factory's production capacity is limited, and Youya can't just dismantle all its other factories to make this.

and……

It's just a Walkman, is it worth it?

If this were an Apple 5 production line, then there would be room for negotiation.

Unfortunately, not only did it not get an iPhone 5, it didn't even get a Nokia one.

At the end of November in Konoha Year 33, just as Yuya was preparing for the year-end accounting, good news came from the research institute.

The electromagnetic conversion experiment is complete.

With the sound-to-magnetic conversion of the Walkman, the telephone could be invented.

Unfortunately, they had to run a telephone line between each other; there was nothing they could do without it.

Therefore, it can only be used within the same city at most.

They want to fight their way from Konoha to Iwagakure...

That's almost impossible.

Even so, when Yua had Hiruzen Sarutobi film the scene and broadcast it on television, the villagers of Konoha were still in an uproar when they saw the two people several buildings apart holding a receiver and talking to each other, accurately reciting what the other was saying.

It's normal to be a little excited since it's the first time you've seen this scene.

At the end of the year in Konoha 33, the village's annual accounting was completed. This year, due to the addition of charges for Walkmans and TV GG, as well as the inclusion of related investments and outputs to the Land of Whirlpools in the gross domestic product, the village's total gross domestic product exceeded 200 billion ryo at the end of Konoha 33.

Tobirama Senju was very satisfied with this number.

Tobirama Senju, who already needed to lie by the fireplace day and night to keep warm, patted Yua's hand with great satisfaction, indicating that he had not misjudged her.

In fact, Tobirama Senju's life had reached its final critical point, a fact that his disciples were also aware of.

However, Tobirama Senju smiled and told Yua, "You won't die until I see your second child."

You Ya could only offer words of comfort, saying things like "good people are always blessed" and "my uncle won't die so young"—utter nonsense.

Then he got a scolding from Tobirama Senju.

Yu Ya responded that he wouldn't care if people criticized him.

As long as Tobirama Senju doesn't die, many things can be easily resolved.

The New Year's Eve celebration in Konoha in 33 was much better under Hiruzen Sarutobi's guidance.

Although it was still a song and dance performance, at least it went through professional selection, making it much better than the previous amateur troupes.

That night, Yuya accompanied Tobirama Senju to watch the entire show, and only left after Tobirama fell asleep.

Then I went home to spend the New Year with Tsunade, whose belly was now clearly showing.

Tsunade felt a pang of sadness for her second grandfather, whose life was nearing its end.

If Tobirama Senju hadn't been so worried that Tsunade would be too heartbroken and harm her health if she saw him in that state, and hadn't insisted on not letting her see him, Tsunade would have gone there long ago.

Tsunade, who hasn't seen her great-uncle for over a month, can only imagine his situation through Yua's descriptions.

As for Yuya, she could only relay Tobirama Senju's words to Tsunade, indicating that her uncle was waiting for her to come see him with the child.

Tsunade could only agree through tears.

On the first day of Konoha Year 34, every household in Konoha Village put up new couplets for the New Year, hoping for a happier year ahead.

Yuya led Tsunade to Konoha Hospital for hospitalization, where she would wait until she officially gave birth to the child.

As for names, Youya has already thought of one: his son will be named Youlu, and together with his eldest son, they will record his existence in this world.

The daughter's name is Youlu. Although many people dislike the pun, the name itself is not bad.

Youji can already crawl on the ground, and he can actually stand up on his own, but he prefers crawling to standing. For a child who is almost two years old, this is pretty much enough. Youya won't force her son to be a super genius; being good enough is fine.

Tsunade stayed at Konoha Hospital for half a month, and one day at the end of January, she suddenly felt pain.

This is a little life that can't wait to see the world.

After abandoning his official duties and wandering around the hospital for more than three hours during a meeting, You Ya finally received the message.

Mother and daughter are safe; Tsunade gave birth to a baby princess.

Upon hearing this news, Youya burst into tears of joy.

God really loves me! I had a daughter!

Daughter! Princess!

After learning the news, Yuya spent some time cuddling with Tsunade, who had just given birth, before Tsunade pushed her to tell her second grandfather the news.

You Adam immediately agreed.

That evening, upon hearing the news, the emaciated and lifeless Tobirama Senju suddenly struggled to rise from his sickbed.

Afterwards, her complexion actually became much rosier.

It's obvious that they were extremely happy about this news.

Then, on January 29th of Konoha Year 34, Tsunade, carrying Yuru, Yua, carrying Yuki, along with Uchiha Kagami, Hiruzen Sarutobi, Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado who had returned from the Land of Whirlpools, Koharu Utatane who had come from the Daimyo's residence, Torifu Akimichi, and others, arrived at Tobirama Senju's residence...

They knew that today would be the last day they saw Tobirama Senju...

Starting with Xiaochun, one by one, people went in and came out with tears in their eyes.

Only at the very end did Tobirama Senju call Hiruzen Sarutobi, Yua, and Tsunade, along with the child, inside.

When Tsunade saw her second grandfather again after more than two months, she almost broke down, but fortunately Yua caught her in time.

Tobirama Senju's face had an unusual rosy hue, as if his internal organs were squeezing out the last bit of energy to prolong his life.

Tobirama Senju forced a smile: "Tsunade... this is the first time I've seen you like this..."

Tsunade didn't answer, she just cried.

Tobirama Senju sighed, then waved his hand: "I should have talked to you more in the final moments of my life..."

But instead of chatting with you about trivial family matters, I have more important things to say to the two of them…”

After saying that, Tobirama Senju looked down at Yuru in Tsunade's arms.

Yuru wasn't asleep either, her big eyes darting around as she stared at Tobirama Senju.

The stiffness on Tobirama Senju's face softened instantly: "What a pity... I really wanted to hold your daughter more..."

Tsunade quickly stepped forward and handed it to Tobirama Senju.

Tobirama Senju simply raised his hand and gently touched Yuru's cheek before pushing her into Tsunade's arms.

Tobirama Senju shook his head: "That's enough."

Then he looked at Hiruzen Sarutobi: "Monkey...did you ever hate me for passing the position of Third Hokage to Yua?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi was taken aback. He was kneeling and about to bow his head in worship when he heard Tobirama Senju speak up, "You know I don't like it when you lie to me."

Hiruzen Sarutobi paused, then looked up at Tobirama Senju with a wry smile, remained silent for a few seconds, and softly said, "Yes..."

Hiruzen Sarutobi shook his head and added, "But that was only in the first two years of his tenure."

Now...

I have to admit... it was only because he became the Third Hokage that Konoha became so powerful.

Tobirama Senju laughed, a very happy laugh.

After laughing for a while, he looked up at the two of them and said, "I've asked this question to other people as well... and most of their answers didn't really come from me."

But they didn't dare lie to me...

that is……"

Tobirama Senju calmly looked at the two of them: "Danzo still harbors some resentment."

Yua and Hiruzen Sarutobi both fell silent.

They all know that.

After all, Danzo's attitude of never speaking to Yua speaks volumes.

Tobirama Senju: "I know Danzo well; he's rather petty."

He might not necessarily resent Yua becoming Hokage; it's possible he simply felt humiliated by what happened that time.

Yuya knew that Tobirama Senju was referring to the fact that he had set a trap for Danzo Shimura, who couldn't even manage a factory properly.

"Regarding him..." Tobirama Senju was silent for a moment, then coldly raised his head to look at the two of them, "If he doesn't make any moves, then ignore him."

If... he dares to do anything bad for Konoha...

Monkeys, swimming...

You two, don't hold back when the time comes.

You know what I mean, right?

Yua and Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a sudden jolt in their hearts.

Even on his deathbed, even as one of his own disciples, could he issue such a heartless order?!

Tobirama Senju...

For Konoha, you really... went to this extent...?

Yua and Hiruzen Sarutobi both fell silent.

Half a minute passed before Yua and Hiruzen Sarutobi both sighed, then knelt down again, pressing their foreheads to the floor.

"I will obey your...last wishes..."

Tobirama Senju smiled.

Then a series of scenes flashed before his eyes, a revolving lantern display of his short yet long life...

Tobirama Senju rubbed his head. He didn't want to die like this. He still had so many things he wanted to tell his loved ones, so many more...

There are so many trivial things I want to remind you of...

Tobirama Senju knew his time was running out, so he tried his best to filter out the useless information. In the end, he could only think of one person who was important, yet not so important...

Then, Tobirama Senju frowned and looked at Yua: "There's one more person..."

Inside the research institute, there's a researcher named Orochimaru...

Youya...you have to...you have to keep a close eye on him...he's talented, but..."

Seeing that Tobirama Senju was acting strangely, Yuya quickly said, "I've increased the number of patrol teams at the research institute to six, and the number of secret surveillance units has also increased to four. Orochimaru is on my designated S-rank surveillance list. If anything happens to him, I will do everything in my power to bring him to justice!"

Tobirama Senju covered his head, feeling drowsy, but he still forced himself to nod, "That's good, that's good..."

And...the Valley of the End..."

Yuya quickly interjected, "A scenic area has already been designated over there. When Konoha expands westward in the future, that area will be used as a scenic spot, and the three main roads there will be developed as scenic roads. It's kind of like a roadblock!"

"And...and the Uchiha clan...they can't be completely trusted..."

Yuya: "The commoners and ninjas within the Uchiha clan have stopped interacting with each other! Next, I will continue to divide the Uchiha upper and lower classes! I will gradually force their genin to break away from the Uchiha clan! The same will apply to other clans!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Yua with a puzzled expression. This guy...

Did this reveal some incredible information?!

However, after glancing at Tobirama Senju, Hiruzen Sarutobi lowered his head.

I didn't hear anything, I didn't hear anything at all.

"Oh, I see... It's good that you understand..."

And there's more...

and also……

There are many more...

There are still so many things to do...

Tobirama Senju's gaze gradually became unfocused, the light in his eyes slowly fading away. In the end, he remained seated, still in a state of deep thought, and breathed his last.

Tsunade was the first to find her; after a desperate cry, she collapsed into Yua's arms...

On January 29, 1945, Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage of Konoha, died at home at the age of 62.

Yuya took full responsibility for his funeral arrangements, burying his coffin in the Konoha Village cemetery...

The following day, the Konoha ninja clan announced that they would open their clan cemetery, allowing their deceased ancestors to be buried alongside Tobirama Senju in the same cemetery...

(End of this chapter)