Naruto: Starting from Eating the Gold Fruit

Chapter 40 Uchiha: What about my huge water plant?

In the end, Tobirama Senju decided to teach Yua a life-saving skill—the Soul Imprisonment Technique.

Simply put, this ninjutsu means that even if your body dies, your soul will be imprisoned in your body for a period of time. During this time, restoring your body's vitality can revive you.

In the original storyline, during the Fourth Shinobi World War, Tobirama, who was reanimated, used this ninjutsu to save Sasuke's life.

Of course, at this point in time, Tobirama Senju taught Yua this ninjutsu purely so that Yua could use it to protect herself.

Yua's fighting power is far superior to that of his peers; the geniuses of the Uchiha and Hyuga clans are nothing but weaklings, easily defeated.

However, it's not enough if it's a Kage-level fighter.

Yua is considered by Tobirama Senju to be the best successor to the Third Hokage, and he will definitely be a role model for Kage-level figures in the future.

Youya will definitely encounter all sorts of assassinations and attacks in the future.

Having an extra skill to save your life is always a good thing.

……

Let's return to the Uchiha clan.

The Uchiha clan was furious because the entire village now knew about the plan they had obtained from Yua.

The ordinary civilians in Konoha Village didn't have much to say about building a water plant inside the Uchiha clan's territory. After all, they had to go to work every day, so where would they find the time to worry about such things?

But other ninja clans are different.

In their minds, there was nothing wrong with Konoha's decision to build a water plant for the Uchiha clan.

After all, the Uchiha clan's territory is near the Naka River, and the natural geographical advantage means that these clans have no objection to building the water plant there.

But the problem is, the Uchiha have a water plant... what about us?

Why don't we have anything?

We're all from Konoha ninja clans, we can't show favoritism, can we?

Besides, each clan has people working for you, Hokage-sama! You can't just ignore your own people, can you?!

Tobirama Senju was furious.

What is the purpose of building a water plant?

Do you really think this is some low-level operation like filling a bottle with water and selling it?

This is to facilitate the second phase of Yuya's renovation, laying water pipes to every household in Konoha. Then, it won't be so troublesome for everyone to fetch water, and they won't have to buy water from water vendors who charge exorbitant prices.

Isn't it great to turn on the tap at home and have water flowing out?

You families aren't without your share of benefits! It's not like the water pipes don't run to your house! What are you all making a scene for?!

While Tobirama Senju didn't understand, Yua did.

He directly instructed Tobirama Senju to ask these families if they wanted compensation.

Sure enough, several families expressed their desire to receive a share of the steel mill's profits.

Although steel mills are engaged in the work of refining raw materials into molten iron and then shaping it, which is not technically high-end, they are very profitable.

After all, the cost of mining iron ore in the presence of ninjas is almost just the explosive tags and the ninjas' chakra. Many times, explosive tags are not even needed. A fire jutsu can burn the rocks until they are red-hot, and a water jutsu can make the rocks crack naturally. It's that simple. What cost is that?

But if you take a stroll through the ironworks, what comes out are finished products, and these sell for quite a high price.

A kitchen knife costs at least 500 taels, and it's normal for a better one to cost twice as much.

The silver-white, patterned kitchen knives that You Ya ordered from several high-end restaurants cost tens of thousands of taels each.

Not to mention the tableware.

Of course, this is the market price. If it were up to You Ya himself, he could just issue a receipt and have the ironworks make it, and the restaurant could send someone to pick it up.

This is not an abuse of power for private gain; strictly speaking, the restaurants that Youya opened are all under the name of the Hokage's office.

These restaurants can cover the monthly salaries of the clerical staff and other ordinary people in the Hokage's office.

It doesn't count as Youya using his private privileges at all.

To be honest, the bulk of the income in Konoha comes from the monthly salaries of the Jonin.

Basically, a Jonin can earn 50 ryo a month.

(Kakashi's rank can earn over 80 ryo a month, but that's for elite Jonin. Ordinary Jonin definitely don't get that kind of treatment.)

Although there aren't many Jonin, their monthly salary is still nearly ten million ryo.

This is a fixed expense that cannot be deducted, and Yuya is not planning to deduct it either.

However, considering that he is only acting as a representative of government affairs, directly ordering Jonin to do things might lead to confusion of authority, so Yua usually makes secondary arrangements through Tobirama Senju.

Although Tobirama Senju expressed his trust in Yua, Yua continued to maintain the form of secondary reporting and dispatch.

You Ya is thinking about the future; the saying "the instigator will have no descendants" means just that.

If You Ya sets a precedent, others will definitely take him as an example.

Having finally made it to the Naruto world, Yuya knew that in the history books of this world, he could never surpass Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi who ended centuries of war on the ninja continent and created a new era of rules.

But Youya doesn't want to have any stain on her reputation.

If I really have to say something, well... when the time comes, I'll just say that the decisions I made to harvest the wealth of other countries to replenish Konoha were taught by Tobirama Senju.

I cannot have any stain on my reputation!

This is the stubbornness of a future Hokage who wants to leave his mark on history.

Tobirama Senju, unaware that he would be dragged out by Yua to take the blame time and time again after his death, is currently sulking.

These families are really going too far. They didn't cooperate when Yuya came to recruit them before, but now that Konoha is going to give benefits to the Uchiha, they're jumping out and shouting that they want some too.

They've really lost all sense of shame when it comes to profit.

You Ya, however, was completely unaffected.

People die for wealth, just as birds die for food.

Yuya scoffed at the saying from Konoha Village: "Where the leaves dance, the fire will never cease."

This kind of brainwashing talk can only fool kids. Once they grow up, see who still believes this stuff.

You Ya is a staunch realist who believes that nothing and no one can survive in the long run by relying on nihilism, slogans, and brainwashing.

Simply put, if faced with the choice between spiritual satisfaction and a piece of bread, Yuya would choose bread without the slightest hesitation.

Yuya never believed that anyone could maintain their integrity in the face of profit, let alone these clans that were home to many ninjas.

When Tobirama Senju asked Yua what to do, Yua simply shrugged and said, "Whatever. Those ironworks were built two years ago by you, Shishu, with ten million dollars to bring in Konoha's merchants. Why should they be given to these families?"

However, we cannot ignore their opposition, so let's give up building the water plant.

Oh, of course, this isn't something we can be the only ones to know.

Konoha belongs to everyone, and this should be told to the entire village.

Tobirama Senju was taken aback, then squinted at Yua: "You kid, you're ruthless... But I don't think there's anything wrong with it, these ninja clans really need to be taught a lesson."

So, Tobirama Senju instructed his secretary to arrange a notification, informing everyone that due to the actions of the Sarutobi, Shimura, and other clans, the Uchiha water plant could not be built, and everyone would likely have to continue buying water from water vendors.

The news caused an uproar among ordinary residents of Konoha.

On this day in the eighteenth year of Konoha, several clans in Konoha Village experienced for the first time what a propaganda offensive was like.

Of course, this matter was recorded in later history books as being decided solely by Tobirama Senju. At that time, the future Third Hokage, Yua Kin, who was studying under the Second Hokage, did not participate in this incident.

Those who read history books in later generations can only sigh helplessly—the Third Hokage, Kin-Yoo, was such a good person, wholeheartedly devoted to the people. It was just that his master died young, and he spent the best time learning from a wicked and corrupt senior apprentice, which is why he learned so many insidious schemes.

Tobirama Senju, the Second Hokage, was truly a sinner in history.

It's such a pity that the righteous and upright Third Hokage was chosen; he was unlucky in his choice of advisors.

...Of course, that's a story for another time.

Now...

The Uchiha clan was completely dumbfounded:

Where is my water plant?

My water plant is so big!

Why are you stopping the repairs before we've even finished discussing them?!

When Naruto appeared, his family had a refrigerator and running water, indicating that Konoha's infrastructure wasn't bad at that time. And although the milk was expired, that was Naruto's own problem, meaning Konoha's infrastructure was complete and had everything it needed. The fact that someone like Naruto, who received a meager monthly allowance—which the Third Hokage didn't give much—could survive suggests that Konoha was actually quite wealthy. This makes it seem like the Third Hokage was quite adept at managing the economy… Of course, it's possible that other people in the Hokage's office were responsible for this.

(End of this chapter)