Naruto: Starting from Eating the Gold Fruit

Chapter 17 Konoha Steel Union

Hashirama Senju's death did not have a significant impact on Konoha.

Because Tobirama Senju did not make it public.

Most people in the village don't know anything about Hashirama Senju.

However, for some people, Hashirama Senju is their main focus.

A merchant caravan from the Land of Lightning comes to Konoha once a month.

They came not only to do business, but also to have a more important mission.

That is to confirm the existence of Hashirama Senju.

In fact, it's not just the Land of Lightning; major powers like Earth, Water, and Wind also have merchant caravans stationed there with specific missions.

Well, okay, the Land of Wind isn't just here to gather intelligence; doing business is also important. After all, their place is just endless yellow sand, and the daimyo of the Land of Wind isn't very willing to invest in Kazegakure. So, in a sense, the caravans sent by Kazegakure to gather intelligence are actually doing business for them.

Whether or not we get the intelligence is irrelevant. As long as we can sell the Kazegakure specialties, desert fruit, cactus bonsai, and the Kazegakure puppets we brought, we'll make a fortune.

Oh, by the way, here's a side note: of the five nations of wind, fire, thunder, water, and earth, the land of wind is generally not a place that outsiders are willing to visit.

They would only go to the Land of Wind to beg for food if they were truly desperate.

However, for some ninja tool merchants, as long as the profession of ninja exists, there will still be a demand for ninja tool merchants, and they will never lack money.

Similarly, these ninja tool merchants would naturally not set their sights on the Land of Wind.

Does this godforsaken place even have money?

Perhaps some exist, but most are certainly in the hands of the Daimyo of the Land of Wind.

How poor did Kazekage become afterward? The Kazekage, one of the Five Kage, who was on par with the Hokage in terms of reputation, was forced to go to the desert to pan for gold.

Finding gold in the desert is easier than finding a needle in a haystack.

Many people say that Gaara's father is too outrageous, that he drove a child like Gaara crazy. His father is indeed outrageous, but as the Kazekage, he still has some decent qualities.

At least he panned for gold so that the village wouldn't use the gold he found for his own enjoyment, right?

Well, that seems to be the only thing worth praising.

In short, you can tell how poor this place is by how the Kazekage was forced to go gold mining in the Land of Wind.

Merchants, driven by profit, would naturally not go there.

The ninjas of Kazegakure don't fight with the same boldness as the ninjas of Konoha. They casually throw shuriken and kunai, each with an explosive tag attached. Their main strategy is to just throw it out and forget about it.

What about Kazegakure? They even have to use chakra threads to connect the ninja tools when they're thrown out, for fear of not being able to pull them back and wasting them.

Okay, that's a joke, but the importance of ninja tools to ninjas is self-evident. For many genin and chunin, ninja tools are like the samurai swords in the hands of samurai.

You Ya naturally wouldn't let this business opportunity pass him by.

Of course, he plays on a more sophisticated level.

You guys make your own ninja tools, you produce them yourselves, so I'll just play with the raw materials.

Another steel plant has opened in Konoha Village.

For example, Tenten's family used to have to go through a lot of trouble to bring back iron from other places, smelt it themselves, and manufacture it themselves. Now I can build a factory just 10 kilometers away from Konoha Village. You don't need to go to merchants to buy iron ore or ironware. You can just buy it directly from us. With so much time saved, you can accept that my raw material prices are half as much as other places, right?

As for iron ore?

There are no such things around Konoha Village. This factory was able to start up purely because it brought iron ore from elsewhere, smelted it, and then sold it to ninja tool merchants. It actually made half the money from this.

Of course, the initial investment in building a factory is a real and substantial investment.

Ten million taels disappeared in an instant.

Youya said that one was not enough and that several more should be built.

Tobirama Senju, who was still immersed in grief over the loss of his elder brother, suddenly flew into a rage.

One isn't enough, you want to build four or five?!

Impossible! Absolutely impossible!

You Ya shrugged, indicating that if you didn't want to, then he would find someone else.

Tobirama Senju frowned in thought, wondering what his nephew was up to.

And does he have any money?

No money? If you don't have money, how can you start an ironworks?

Then, Yua approached the ninja tool family under the guise of Tobirama Senju.

One of the families has a traditional Chinese cheongsam-style family dress; that's the Tian Tian family.

Although Konoha Village was poor before, that was because the village itself was poor. These merchants traveled between various countries and earned money from the Five Great Nations, so they were never poor.

Those who were truly poor would have moved away long ago.

Yuya said that the Second Hokage recently saw your steel purchase and discovered a problem.

The price of iron ore increased by half after it was transported here and smelted into iron blocks. The Second Hokage was furious, feeling that these excellent merchants had been ripped off. He insisted that the price must remain the same. If they paid half again as much as outside, wouldn't people say that Konoha was cheating merchants? Would anyone even come to Konoha after that?!

After hearing what he said, the members of the ninja tool clans were dumbfounded.

No, is the second generation an idiot? The reason we're willing to spend half the money again is because we want to save time!

A single shipment takes half a year to haul goods, and sometimes we even encounter bandits. Bringing back half of the iron is considered a success. We also have to pay for the sealing scrolls and the ninjas. Your Konoha Village building a factory is great news for us, and now you're telling me you want to lower the price?

Although they thought the Second Hokage was an idiot, these ninja families certainly wouldn't expose him. They didn't hold a grudge because of Yua's child appearance. Instead, they thought that the Second Hokage sending a child to tell them this matter clearly showed that he didn't take it seriously.

Tsk tsk, it's good that you don't take it seriously. If the price is the same as outside, how much profit will we make?

Yuya changed the subject: "So the Second Hokage thinks that we should all unite and expand the factory. We can all invest with the Second Hokage to jointly establish a chamber of commerce. The Second Hokage will invest 10 million taels in the initial stage and take half of the shares in this chamber of commerce. The others will each contribute a little. Then we can negotiate the shareholding ourselves. In the future, we can build more factories together and contribute more to the development of Konoha."

These families were all a bit stunned when they heard that it was ten million. Was the second generation leader really that powerful?

But thinking about it carefully, if these families unite together, wow, there's potential!

The second generation leader took half of it all by himself...

But upon closer reflection, they actually spent ten million taels of real gold and silver, so what's there to say?

Thus, at the end of the sixteenth year of Konoha, the first joint business association in the village and even the ninja world was established.

The Konoha Steel Joint Chamber of Commerce is a joint chamber of commerce in which Konoha Village holds 50% of the shares, and the other 50% are held by the ninja tool families.

Um, just wanted to mention that I've signed a contract. This book won't be very long; it'll be finished once I've written everything I want to write. It'll probably be around a million words. I'm not asking for recommendations, so please give me whatever you want. I'm not asking for monthly votes either. It's not available for purchase yet, and I won't ask for votes after it's released. There are countless good books on Qidian; if you like it, please vote for it. If you don't like it, please uncollect it and stop criticizing it. That's all. I'm out researching today, so my drafts are down by 1.

(End of this chapter)