Naruto: Starting from Eating the Gold Fruit

Chapter 77 Two Things

In the summer of Konoha Year 20, Tobirama Senju returned to the front lines of the battlefield.

After careful consideration, Tobirama Senju decided to sell the 100,000 explosive tags that the Hidden Cloud Village wanted to purchase.

While there's a possibility that those bastards from Kumogakure might use those explosive tags on Konoha, the likelihood is slim.

not to mention……

It's not like if I sell you 100,000 copies, Konoha will just disappear.

When it comes to logistics, Youya's approach can be summed up in one word: hoarding.

Whether you need it or not, I'll build it first.

This is also why Yuya has stockpiled a lot of kunai, shuriken, and ninja swords.

Whether or not the Konoha front line needs them is another matter, but I'll build these things first, so that I won't run out when I need them.

Because Tobirama Senju had been primarily focused on reconnaissance and deployment on the front lines of Konoha and Kumogakure for over a year and hadn't engaged in any direct combat with the Kumogakure forces, he accumulated a considerable amount of these items.

Fortunately, the three nations of Earth, Water, and Wind inexplicably started fighting with those smaller nations, giving Yuya's stockpiled ninja tools a place to go.

Of course, it would be foolish for Youya to sell everything at once.

If the Hidden Cloud Village were to receive 100,000 explosive tags now, the Hidden Leaf Village would surely already have a million tags in its own hands.

Its main selling point is the hoarding of hamsters.

However, even though Konoha has its own, it's still best to be wary of explosive tags, since they can really kill people.

So Tobirama Senju went to the front lines anyway.

More than a month later, news spread from Kumogakure that the Gold and Silver Brothers had been ambushed by the current Eight-Tails Jinchuriki of Kumogakure—who was also the good brother of the Second Raikage, whom the Gold and Silver Brothers had killed—leading a team that dropped 100,000 explosive tags in batches, 10,000 tags exploding every minute for a full ten minutes, severely injuring the attackers.

(Xiao Nan, take note: you only want to use a billion explosive tags for ten minutes? If you used them for an hour, Naruto would be over!)

Upon hearing this news, Tobirama Senju was satisfied.

They're fried perfectly!

Regardless of who wins or loses, it's an acceptable outcome for both Tobirama Senju and Konoha.

Upon receiving this news, You Ya's first reaction was to frown.

A village like Kumogakure, still embroiled in internal strife, is not a suitable partner...

Stroking his chin, Yuya finally gave the order, instructing Uchiha Kagami to find someone to contact the person who came from Kumogakure last time.

You Ya is preparing to secretly support her.

There's no way around it, the Hidden Cloud Village has been in turmoil for a year. Do you know what a year means?

That year, all the beef cattle and sheep consumed in Konoha were meat stored in Konoha's cold storage.

And it's almost all used up.

Konoha is now required to restrict the purchase of beef, mutton, and other meats.

If the fighting continues for another year, Konoha's various poultry will truly only be available from Konoha's own ranches.

However, the northern ranch of Konoha only has a little over 10,000 cattle and sheep of various kinds, while the people of the Land of Fire raise a lot of chicken.

Because chickens eat insects, most farmers raise a few. (Isn't that amazing, bro chicken?)

Speaking of which, there's a type of poultry among the meats served in Konoha that's quite...

Camel meat sent by Sunagakure...

To be honest, Youya prefers camel milk to camel meat.

After all, killing for meat is a one-off transaction, but camel milk is different.

Unfortunately, there is no one in Konoha who raises camels full-time, nor is there any land available for them.

If the Hidden Cloud Village continues its fighting, then Yuya will have to sign a cooperation agreement with the Hidden Sun Village for camel meat next year.

It's impossible not to buy it; you can't really stop the villagers of Konoha from eating meat, can you?

Rather than doing that, why not go for something fancy?

……

Late summer and early autumn of the 20th year of Konoha.

Konoha Village was peaceful and quiet. Since the Sarutobi clan was targeted by Yua, other clans were also urgently investigating their own clans.

But it would have been better if we hadn't investigated; once we did, it led to utter despair.

How did Yua manage to get the Sarutobi family into trouble?

Yuya, along with those other bastard merchants, cut off the Sarutobi family's food and water supplies.

As a result, the Sarutobi clan has to go out of their territory to buy food if they want to eat, otherwise the merchants will no longer deliver food to their territory as before.

Every family does indeed have the habit of storing grain to some extent, after all, everyone came from that chaotic era twenty years ago.

But no matter how much food you have stored, you can't sustain it without replenishing it.

Therefore, after seeing that the Sarutobi clan had been targeted, the Hyuga, Shimura, and other clans immediately conducted an internal investigation.

As for the Uchiha...

Oh, their clan doesn't have any big merchants in Konoha; their main business is to avoid competing with other clans.

Of course, outside of Konoha, the Uchiha clan still maintained partnerships with major merchants.

For example, the place where Sasuke bought ninja tools before fighting the Eight-Tails was outside Konoha.

Well, those are businessmen operating in the gray area, the kind who can't be brought into the open.

Compared to merchants like Yua who directly treat people like dirt and force them to fight against the Sarutobi clan, it's better to stay out of the light.

After all, with Yua doing this, how could the Hyuga, Shimura, and other clans possibly feel comfortable cooperating with Konoha merchants in the future?

This was exactly the effect Yuya wanted. He couldn't let Shimura, Sarutobi, and the others mingle with the merchants from Konoha. Whether by coercion or bribery, he had to separate them.

Such incidents will happen from time to time, serving as a reminder to these families that merchants are not trustworthy.

Only in this way can Youya keep these merchants in his hands.

When the Shimura, Hyuga, and other families looked at their own homes, they realized, "Oh no, we're doomed!" They hadn't paid attention to the fact that their families were buying rice, flour, oil, and all sorts of daily necessities before, but now that they did, it was too late.

Compared to buying rice in small quantities, such as a few kilograms, big merchants sell rice to these families by the ton.

The same applies to other low-profit but essential consumer goods.

Therefore, at this point in time, when the competition for the Third Hokage should have been brought into the open because Sarutobi was forced to back down by Yua, each clan, after investigating their own internal affairs, decisively chose to bow their heads first.

Solve your internal problems first, then talk about other things.

Time passed just like that.

In the autumn of the twentieth year of Konoha, Tobirama Senju had some doubts.

Why are we hearing the sound of exploding tags coming from the Hidden Cloud Village every now and then?

Do they have that many of these things?

……

In the autumn of the 20th year of Konoha, the Land of Rivers sent an envoy to Konoha seeking help. After careful consideration, Yua notified Tobirama Senju and agreed to provide assistance to the Land of Rivers in their fight against Sunagakure.

At the same time, Yua extended an invitation to Sunagakure to send someone to Konoha to discuss the peace talks and post-war developments.

This was originally a very normal invitation.

However, with the Second Kazekage agreeing and stating that he would come in person...

What was originally an ordinary peace negotiation instantly became one that would go down in history...

(End of this chapter)