Naruto: Starting from Eating the Gold Fruit

Chapter 94 Konoha Post-War Subsidy Plan

In December of the 22nd year of Konoha, Tobirama Senju led the villagers of Konoha to build a mausoleum. Beneath the mausoleums, however, were not the corpses of the ninjas who died on the battlefield.

These are tombs that only have names.

Tsunade looked up and glanced around somewhat timidly. She was standing in the second row, excluding Tobirama Senju who was standing alone in his own row.

In the first row, which is the row after Tobirama Senju, Yua stood in the very center of the row, with the clan heads of Shimura, Sarutobi, and Hyuga standing beside him.

Tsunade was diagonally behind Yua.

Beside her were a new generation of Konoha ninja clans who had retired from the battlefield, including Uchiha Kagami, Sarutobi Hiruzen, Akimichi Torifu, and Shimura Danzo.

Tobirama Senju was giving a speech, which was roughly about how these dead ninjas had perfectly embodied the Will of Fire of Konoha, that their sacrifice was worthwhile, and that their sacrifice meant that the new generation of Konoha wouldn't have to fight desperately on the battlefield, and so on.

Tsunade looked up and saw that everyone else was listening intently to Tobirama Senju's speech.

Tsunade shrank back and quickly lowered her head. She didn't understand why her second grandfather was saying such obscure and difficult words. She only knew that the serious atmosphere around her made her afraid to even breathe.

"...Finally, let the acting Hokage's secretary, Yua Kamikane, explain to everyone the specifics of how to handle the affairs of the families of these deceased ninjas." Tobirama Senju deliberately paused in the middle and reversed the words "secretary" and "acting secretary" in order to see some people's reactions.

The result was pretty much as he expected, and many people frowned.

After Tobirama Senju finished speaking, he stepped aside. Everyone present in this cemetery today was a ninja.

Ordinary people, commoners of Konoha, can come here to pay their respects in the future, but not today.

Yua wasn't intimidated. She took a few steps forward and stood where Tobirama Senju had just stepped forward. Although Tobirama Senju wouldn't notice these details, Yua knew she had better think in terms of what he might notice.

Yuya took out a scroll from his pocket and said softly, "A total of 3,192 ninjas died in this war, and 10,187 Konoha families were affected."

In order to take care of the families and relatives of these households and enable them to live better lives, I hereby announce that Konoha will establish a special post-war relief task force.

The group's responsibility is to care for these more than 10,000 families, enabling them to survive better in Konoha after losing their breadwinner.

As he spoke, You Ya unfurled the scroll in his hand and read aloud softly: "These more than 10,000 households will receive an annual subsidy of 200,000 taels of silver from the government."

Meanwhile, the direct descendants of deceased ninjas who lack direct family support can enter Konoha's official orphanage. Konoha will support these children until they reach the age of sixteen. Furthermore, when they are sixteen and eligible to work, Konoha's official shops, factories, and other businesses will give priority to employing these direct descendants.

Yuya only mentioned a simple subsidy plan, and some ninjas couldn't help but whisper among themselves.

If each of the more than 10,000 families receives a subsidy of 200,000 yen, that's 2 billion yen. Does Konoha... have that much money?

After all, he hasn't been back to Konoha for five years, so it's normal for him to have these thoughts since his mindset is still stuck five years ago.

Of course, they didn't think that Yuya was lying, especially since there were so many people around.

Yua then stated that she would hang a plaque for the families of these deceased ninjas as the House of the Will of Fire, a title of honor.

However, if the wife or husband of a deceased ninja remarries, the title will be revoked.

Strictly speaking, encouraging these people's wives or husbands to remarry would be more beneficial to Konoha's development.

However, if the surviving ninjas are encouraged, some of them will inevitably think, "What if I die in this war? Will my husband (wife) remarry?"

This is detrimental to the ninjas' sense of belonging to the village.

Yuya then explained in detail the specific benefits for these deceased ninjas. In short, the central idea was that since these people fought and died for Konoha, Konoha would take care of their children and elderly relatives.

"...That concludes my description of my role in the Post-War Relief Group."

Finally, I want to say that these benefits... are what they deserve. The Will of Fire of Konoha is not just about making everyone selflessly give to Konoha. The Will of Fire of Konoha is about everyone fighting to the death for Konoha on the front lines, while Konoha takes care of everyone's families back home, so that everyone has no worries.

This is the Hokage's Will of Fire.

Finally, Yua attributed the real credit for working for the benefit of the deceased ninja to Tobirama Senju. It is foreseeable that when the newspaper is published tomorrow, Tobirama Senju's reputation in Konoha will rise to a new level.

More than 8,000 ninjas came to the cemetery to pay their respects today. Those who did not come are patrolling various parts of Konoha and the Land of Fire.

However, they will find out about today's events later. Although these eight thousand ninjas look like a large group standing here, if you break them down, there are more than a thousand ninjas from the Sarutobi clan, several hundred ninjas from the Shimura, Hyuga, Inuzuka and other ninja clans, and several thousand commoner ninjas from Konoha.

In fact, these commoner ninjas are the largest force in Konoha Village. However, because they are commoners and do not know how to elect representatives to compete with other clans, they have no say in the matter.

But in reality, these people are the true backbone of Konoha.

To put it more bluntly, in the war between Konoha and Kumogakure, it was these civilian ninjas who were sent to their deaths as cannon fodder on the battlefield.

Other major clans suffered losses, but most of the more than three thousand ninjas who died were ordinary civilians.

What these civilian ninjas feared most was what would happen to their relatives and children after their deaths.

Now that Yuya has made a promise, the last worries of these civilian ninjas are gone.

After the final worship ceremony, Tobirama Senju announced that the meeting could be adjourned.

Tsunade breathed a sigh of relief and instinctively wanted to run away as fast as she could. After running a few steps, she remembered something and looked up at Tobirama Senju.

There they saw Yua whispering something to Tobirama Senju. Tobirama nodded and then beckoned to Kagami Uchiha, seemingly giving him instructions.

Tsunade pouted, somewhat displeased...

Youya is always like this, extremely busy.

The conversation I overheard last time has also gone unresolved, even though...

"Hey! Tsunade~" Jiraiya patted Tsunade on the shoulder, "Do you want to come with me to that orphanage? I'll probably be living there from now on. The environment there is pretty nice~ and the director is a really pretty old lady."

Orochimaru will be going too~

Orochimaru shook his head helplessly: "I just went for a walk with you, I didn't say where I'd stay..."

And... I need to take some time in the next few days to transfer the house title to myself.

Jiraiya and Tsunade looked at Orochimaru, who looked depressed, and didn't know how to comfort him.

Jiraiya thought for a moment and then grabbed Orochimaru's hand: "Let's go! Let's go see the rooms in the orphanage!"

"Ugh, hey, slow down!" Orochimaru stumbled and almost fell over...

Tsunade sighed helplessly as she watched the two figures disappear. She then turned to look at the other side, where Yua was giving instructions to Uchiha Kagami...

Tsunade stood there helplessly, hands on her hips. This was truly...

Forget it, let's go find out what's going on with that orphanage first.

I hope I'll feel better on Sunday; I want to watch Ah B's New Year's Eve show...

(End of this chapter)