Naruto: Starting from Eating the Gold Fruit

Chapter 89 Okay, Ceasefire

In the autumn of Konoha year 21, Tobirama Senju returned from the front lines.

His official excuse was to return to arrange the harvest, but in reality, he wanted to consult with Yuya on the future direction of Konoha's development.

Over these four years, Tobirama Senju 9 has come to understand things better.

In terms of combat power, ten Yuyas couldn't beat him, but in terms of developing the village and making it more prosperous, a hundred Yuyas couldn't match him.

Everyone could see the changes in Konoha in just four short years.

The people of Konoha might not feel it, since they live in the village and can only see that there is construction going on in many places around them, with various noisy construction sites everywhere during the day.

However, in reality, Konoha Village has already developed several times over.

Doubling every year for four years is enough to increase it 16 times. Of course, because Konoha was previously developed as an agricultural country, with food being the most important thing, Konoha's GDP did indeed double during the transition from agriculture to industry.

That's an exaggeration.

It's so exaggerated that anyone who sees the data compiled at the end of each year would feel dizzy.

Of course, apart from Tobirama Senju, only Yua in the entire Hidden Leaf Village saw this data.

The other people in the Hokage's office go down to the grassroots level to calculate how much iron a factory produced in a year, how much wages were paid to the workers, and how much ore was left over.

Each factory was registered in this way, and then the data was compiled. Apart from Youya, who knows what the final total data is?

—It was Yua who sent the message to Tobirama Senju via a secret letter.

In fact, Tobirama Senju wanted to come back at the beginning of this year.

Discussing the development of Konoha with Yua is one thing, but finding Hiruzen Sarutobi is quite another.

After following Tobirama Senju's advice and giving more than half of his clan's territory to Yua, Hiruzen Sarutobi has remained silent ever since.

Tobirama Senju valued his student highly.

If he could, he didn't want to see a conflict between Hiruzen Sarutobi and Yua, because that would mean he would have to make a choice.

In reality, no matter how many times he had to choose, Tobirama Senju would only choose Yua.

……

After Tobirama Senju returned to the village, Yua wasn't the only one who was excited.

For some inexplicable reason, these ninja clans were also very excited.

Then, on the second day after Tobirama Senju and Yua discussed the future development of Konoha, a representative of the Shimura family approached Tobirama Senju.

Then he recounted Yua's situation, his tone full of complaints. Basically, he said that the Shimura clan's reputation in the village was almost ruined, and Tobirama Senju had to teach this little rascal a lesson.

Tobirama Senju's expression was strange; he hadn't expected that the Shimura clan would come specifically to see him just for this matter...

After summoning Uchiha Kagami to learn the details of the incident, Tobirama Senju's expression became even stranger.

Although he knew that Youya was likely to be able to outmaneuver these guys, he really didn't expect it to be in this way.

One method exploited the profit-driven nature of merchants to force the Sarutobi clan to back down; the other...

They actually used newspapers to stir up a media storm...

To be honest, even Tobirama Senju himself didn't know that the newspaper under Yua's control was capable of doing this.

What makes Yuya's two skills so impressive is their replicability.

Those merchants, working together, could force the Sarutobi clan to back down. But conversely, if the Sarutobi clan had been able to unite with those merchants at that time, it would have been Yua who was forced to back down.

That's the key point.

Merchants are driven by profit, and Sarutobi couldn't offer them any significant benefits. However, over the past four years, Yua had genuinely used Konoha's interests to bind these merchants to his cause, and most importantly…

These merchants are not irreplaceable; if they don't satisfy Youya, Youya will fire them and replace them with a new batch of merchants in no time.

Moreover, once this incident occurs, unless someone can offer these merchants greater benefits in the future, they will not betray Youya; otherwise, they will have no choice but to serve Youya.

After all, it's a fact that the target is Sarutobi. Sarutobi wouldn't dare offend him, nor would he have any reason to target Yua, since Yua didn't resort to underhanded tactics, even though he did use these merchants.

Therefore, Sarutobi will definitely not hold back when dealing with these merchants; he will surely give them a good beating as soon as he gets the chance.

Although Sarutobi is currently quiet, if the Sarutobi clan really breaks ties with Yua, it will cause great harm to Konoha.

But as I said before, the Hokage of Konoha is Tobirama Senju, at least for now.

The Sarutobi clan would never withdraw their ninjas from the front lines because of their conflict with Yua. That would be slapping Tobirama Senju in the face. Tobirama Senju isn't as gentle as Hiruzen Sarutobi. The Hidden Cloud Village is full of muscle-bound, brainless guys. But if the Hidden Cloud Village dares to jump, Tobirama Senju dares to take the hit. This guy's temperament doesn't seem like the easygoing, gentle, or nice guy type, does it?

As for the newspaper...

Tobirama Senju shook his head and chuckled.

I didn’t know the newspaper had this ability before, but now that I do, after doing some research, I found that Yua had already planned it all out from the beginning.

What does it mean that the newspaper is directly under the Hokage?

This means that, strictly speaking, the newspaper is currently under the control of Tobirama Senju, but will be under the control of the future Hokage. It will only lose control if a Hokage has a mental problem and gives ownership of the newspaper to someone else.

Tobirama Senju couldn't possibly be that stupid, and neither could Yua.

Therefore, Tobirama Senju was relieved after learning this news.

That leaves only one question...

The Sarutobi clan.

Or, to put it another way, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

After Tobirama Senju returned, he was very busy. On his first day back, he had a long talk with Yua, which mainly focused on the future development of Konoha and whether the supply lines in the rear could hold up under pressure.

The next day, the elders of the Shimura clan came to his door and talked for a long time, but Tobirama Senju did not make a single promise.

The Shimura clan finally understood that, just as they had initially suspected, Tobirama Senju intended to fully support and train Yua as the third generation.

Afterwards, Tobirama Senju went to the Sarutobi clan's territory. No one knows exactly what he discussed with the Sarutobi clan, but it is known that after Tobirama left, the Sarutobi clan sent 300 ninjas to the front lines. Combined with the Sarutobi ninjas who were already on the front lines, apart from a few dozen Sarutobi ninjas serving at the nexus of Konoha, the Sarutobi clan basically had no main force left in Konoha.

Years later, scholars who deciphered this history learned that Tobirama Senju had made a grand promise to the Sarutobi clan: if the Sarutobi clan, under the leadership of Hiruzen Sarutobi, could win the war against Kumogakure, Tobirama Senju would not mind Hiruzen Sarutobi taking the position of Third Hokage with his prestige.

As for Shimura Danzo, the same goes for him.

After careful consideration, the Shimura family decided to take the plunge and gamble using this method.

With the people of Konoha Village, Shimura, and Sarutobi all gone to the battlefield, and Tobirama Senju in charge of the village, Yua immediately initiated reforms.

First, the Konoha Kindergarten, which had already been completed, began enrolling students. Then, the amusement park opened, followed by the Konoha Hospital.

These three entities announced their opening on almost the same day. Subsequently, Yua announced that the savings bank's deposits would be divided into current and fixed deposits, with current deposit interest rates at 1.5% per year and fixed deposit interest rates at 2.8%. At the same time, Yua took out the gold from the savings bank and showed it off (Tobirama Senju: This is my gold, be careful not to break it) to reassure the villagers of Konoha.

In the same month, Yuya announced that the first batch of research products from the Konoha Special Research Institute would be put into trial operation in Konoha's inner city.

It includes a phonograph, an electric fan, and a phonograph set.

This is in preparation for the later conversion of radio waves into sound waves and then into light waves.

In almost a month, Konoha's inner city seemed to have been completely transformed.

You Ya instructed the merchants to cooperate with him, distributing a first batch of one thousand sets, which were then advertised in the newspaper.

Some workers who had finished get off work came over out of curiosity and were then drawn to the record playing on the gramophone.

These records don't contain high-quality music; they contain simple music and popular stories told by storytellers from Konoha.

In Youya's eyes, these three things were just experimental toys, completely useless, created only to fleece people.

However, the results were indeed unexpectedly good.

Phonographs, priced at 100,000 taels each and records at 2,000 taels each, were almost sold out the next day.

Electric fans, which are supposed to be most useful in the summer, also sold out the next day.

It's that kind of camera that can record your image like a camera, but it doesn't have a storage function and can only display one image at a time; some people buy those.

It can only be said that almost every villager in Konoha is now wealthy.

Moreover, people who have experienced war often don't even have enough to eat, so how could they have the opportunity to waste money?

Of course, everyone has beautiful aspirations for life.

Many people don't mind working hard if it can improve their lives.

What they fear is that after a lifetime of hard work, all they'll get in return is an aging body and a host of diseases.

Anyway, Yua's feat of earning over 20 million ryo in just two days after the Sarutobi and Shimura clans sent a large number of ninjas to the front lines left Tobirama Senju speechless.

Most importantly, this doesn't mean that this is the limit for Yuya.

It's not even Konoha's limit.

It's not simply a matter of Youya needing to free up production capacity to produce supplies for the front lines; we can't use all our production lines for these kinds of things.

These things do make money and do improve national happiness, but their contribution to national defense is almost zero.

It's impossible to expect the ninjas on the front lines to carry a phonograph as they charge forward.

Therefore, Yuya stopped production after producing one thousand sets in the first phase.

This really worried Tobirama Senju. Not letting him make money was worse than killing him.

However, Yu Ya's thinking was not wrong; the front line was definitely more important than the rear.

No matter how wealthy Konoha is, if its fighting strength is weak, it's just a fat pig with plenty of oil.

Tobirama Senju gritted his teeth; he now had another reason why he needed to get Kumogakure to surrender quickly.

However, there was one thing Tobirama Senju didn't understand: "Why did you do this after the Sarutobi and Shimura clans left? Weren't you prepared to take these things out even if they were still here?"

You Ya chuckled and said, "That's right, exactly."

"If they were here, and I've created so many wonderful things, they'd inevitably start thinking all sorts of nonsense."

Tobirama Senju fell silent. Indeed, selling out the phonograph and electric fan in two days, generating 20 million ryo, was a huge profit that could not be explained by normal business practices.

Not to mention Shimura and Sarutobi, he wanted to make a quick buck from it all.

Oh, he's the Hokage, so some of the money earned here is his. Never mind then.

But this wasn't the only surprise Yua brought to Tobirama Senju.

Amusement parks are places that Tobirama Senju wouldn't go to, as they don't seem to interest him at all.

But for most people in Konoha, this is the best place for entertainment.

The villagers of Konoha work five days a week and rest two days a week. Most of them choose to work one day on their day off and rest the other day because there's really nothing fun to do.

But it is different now.

This amusement park focuses on providing a great way for parents and children to spend time together.

The nearby kindergarten or childcare center not only takes care of your child, but also teaches them some simple words, saving you time and effort in educating them.

Over the past four years, with the rapid development of Konoha and the encouragement of childbirth in Yuya, most families have had two children.

The first child has undoubtedly reached the threshold of kindergarten age.

This is why Youya only opened its kindergarten this year; even though it opened last year, not many children came to attend.

What surprised Tobirama Senju the most was the hospital where Yuya was treated.

The Sarutobi clan gave up their land, and because a hospital was a necessity, Yua built one.

Although the presence of a morgue has caused some dissatisfaction among the Sarutobi clan, their opinions will gradually disappear over time.

Tobirama Senju stayed in Konoha until the end of the year. During the entire autumn, besides using his spare time to build 10,000 electric fans and 10,000 phonographs to harvest crops (which Tobirama Senju found amazing), Yuya also spent his time at the hospital.

Perhaps due to the constant warfare, many of the elderly people in Konoha have health problems to varying degrees.

This also made hospitals the biggest beneficiaries.

In the first few weeks after the hospital opened, some people may have had some fear of hospitals, after all, this hospital has its own morgue.

But once the first person entered the hospital and came out praising it enthusiastically, the hospital became incredibly busy. (Yu Ya: I don't know, this is definitely not a shill! This is definitely not a shill!)

The Uchiha clan is now crying their eyes out in the bathroom.

This hospital... originally belonged to them...

To be honest, the Uchiha clan is in a rather awkward position right now.

Kagami Uchiha has already decided to serve Yua, but the Uchiha clan is unwilling to do so.

Previously, they thought Yuya was insulting the Uchiha clan.

So this is what the hospital looks like now?

Was there a misunderstanding about who was an agent?

The clown was actually myself?

Even so, the Uchiha clan members are rather stubborn and would never actively seek out Yuya.

Yuya didn't care, so the two sides remained in an awkward stalemate.

Tobirama Senju was quite pleased with this situation.

However, he had something more important to do...

Because of the current situation in Konoha and Kumogakure, many of Yua's external plans cannot be implemented.

For example, the promised arrangements for a newspaper office in the Land of Whirlpools and the construction of roads there haven't been made.

Tobirama Senju could only sigh helplessly at this.

Okay, ceasefire, ceasefire, we'll definitely ceasefire next year.

Then, in the spring of Konoha 22, Kumogakure regrouped and once again made a demand to Konoha: hand over Shimura Danzo, or Kumogakure would fight Konoha to the death.

Tobirama Senju: "..."

Yuya, however, understood perfectly: the Third Raikage of Kumogakure was...

Are they preparing to deal with the internal forces of Kumogakure?

I've caught a cold... It's awful. I just kicked off the covers last night, and I woke up this morning feeling really dizzy. I've been trying to keep writing until now, but I can't take it anymore. I'll go take a cold medicine later... Everyone, please take care of yourselves too...

(End of this chapter)