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  Raikage A, based on his simple emotional values, made a judgment, only to be met with another rebuttal from his adoptive father, the elder.

  “Wrong, wrong, wrong! I see you simply don't uand, A!”

  “I always tell you to read more, but you never listen! Have you ever heard the story that came out of the Land of Fire a few years ago?”

  “A story? I never bother with such frivolous things.”

  “Fine, let me tell you.”

  “Once upon a time, there was a feudal lord in the Land of Fire who loved pying with shuriken. He wao acquire the highest quality shuriken and offered a thousand ryō as a reward. Three years passed, aill had nothing. Then, a low-ranking guard at the lord's mansion stepped forward and volunteered, ‘Please entrust this task to me!’ The feudal lreed. Ihan three months, the guard mao find a shuriken of excellent quality. However, just as he was about to purchase it, he discovered that the shuriken had rusted. He pondered for a moment, then still spent five huhousand ryō to buy the rusty shuriken.”

  “Wheuro the mansion with the rusty shuriken, the feudal lord was furious. He yelled, ‘I wahe fi, most exquisite shuriken! What use is this rusty one? Haven't you wasted five huhousand ryō?!’”

  “The guard smiled. ‘Please calm down, my lord. The money wasn't wasted. The fact that you were willing to pay a high price for even a rusty shuriken will spread. The ninjas will believe that you are a lord who truly loves shuriken, has a dising eye, and keeps his word. Then, someone will surely e forward to offer you their shuriken.’”

  “Indeed, within a year, the feudal lord of the Land of Fire received three top-quality shuriken, voluntarily offered by elite Jonin-level ninjas.”

  The elder, lost iory, smacked his lips with relish.

  What a profound little story from the Land of Fire! He had glea least eight, no, a full ten life lessons from it!

  The Land of Fire was truly a nd of wisdom, and Konoha was a vilge of deep thought. He still had much to learn.

  The pn to aid Kumogakure was based on the principles he had derived from this story.

  G a rge vilge was like simmering a delicate broth. The elder felt that he was a te bloomer, finally dispying his remarkable political prowess at this age.

  “So, what do you think, A?”

  Raikage A: “Uh-huh.....”

  “I fot the beginning, the middle, and the end. You're right, but what does a shuriken have to do with giving Kumogakure a billion ryō?”

  “’t you apply the formu?!”

  The elder was utterly disappointed. “The aid isn't for nothing. The fact that we, Kumogakure, are willing to support even a weak vilge like Kumogakure will spread. Other vilges will believe that you genuinely respect the weak and keep your word. This way, more and more weak vilges will choose to align themselves with Kumogakure.”

  “Our strength already ranks among the top three in the ninja world! With these small vilges voluntarily joining us…”

  “After we establish Kumogakure’s prestige, we will create an order tered around us.”

  “Kirigakure and Sunagakure are both potential didates to be incorporated into our order.”

  “Simply put, it's a strategy of generous giviablishing a Kumogakure-tric military and eic alliance, creating a Greater Kumogakure Co-Prosperity Sphere. First, we uhe small vilges, then we colborate with the rger ones, gradually eroding Konoha’s influen the ninja world, and finally repg them!”

  “Do you uand now, A?!”

  Oh… so that’s what it was about?

  Raikage A, with a vague uanding, nodded his muscur head.

  The entig vision painted by the elder had peed his muscur defenses and unched a genjutsu assault on his brain.

  However, A still thought of a crucial question. “Then, how are we going to raise the funds for buying the shuriken… I mean, for aiding the small vilges? Kumogakure’s finances really ha?”

  “That…” The elder was displeased, his instinctive rea seemingly bming the vilge for hindering his perfe of generous giving.

  After a long pause, he sighed. “We’ll just have to ask our hardw and resilient Kumogakure ninja to endure some hardship.”

  “We’ll reduce mission bonuses, increase issioions, lower the saries of Kumogakure officials, and raise our demands to the feudal lord…”

  “Also, since we’re implementing this strategy, we’ll have to temporarily halt the colle of prote fees from smaller vilges.”

  The elder picked up his teacup and took a long sip. “A, the life of a ninja is like this cup of tea. It won’t be bitter forever, but there will always be periods of hardship.”

  “As long as we persevere through hardship, we overe any obstacle. If the wive up’ ever enters your mind, firmly tell yourself that we are enduring this for the future geions of Kumogakure ninja…”

  “I agree with the elder’s proposal.”

  “Seded.”

  “Me too.”

  The voices of agreement from the cil of elders drowned out the Raikage’s stalled brain.

  “…”

  A didn’t know when he had left the Raikage building.

  However, the sensation of the red ink stamp on his thumb was real. In the end, he had approved the “generous giving” strategy proposed by his adoptive father.

  A rubbed his blond hair, muttering, “Why were we sending ninja takure again? To make money?”

  “But why is the vilge preparing to spend a billion ryō before the blood-sug operation against Konoha has even begun?”

  Walking dowreets of Kumogakure, the usually carefree A felt inexplicably uneasy.

  The reason for his uemmed from the subtle ge in the gazes of the idle Kumogakure ninja lining the streets.

  How could he describe that ge?

  Distrust? Inprehension? Doubt?

  In the past, A might have fronted each of these questioning gazes, flexing his muscles to make his point.

  But now… it was difficult to do so!

  Making his own vilge’s ninjas suffer, tighten their belts, and use the funds geed to provide unditional aid to weaker vilges? All for the sake of establishing a Kumogakure-tric alliance? What was the logic behind that?

  To be ho, to be objective, rather than this polipoverishing his own vilge to enrich others, A preferred Konoha’s approach.

  That was the attitude a great Shinobi Vilge should have!

  He had trained his muscles all this time, yet he couldn’t even exercise the privileges of a great vilge over a small one like Kumogakure? Had all his training been in vain?

  The more he thought about it, the more frustrated Raikage A became. He let out a long sigh, cracked his knuckles, and decided to give up thinking.

  “Anyway, acc to my adoptive father, Konoha’s situation is even worse than ours. At the very least, Minato Namikaze’s prestige is not as high as mine. He ’t even push through a simple headband ge.”

  “If I ’t figure it out, I won’t think about it.”

  “If I don’t think about anything, there won’t be any trouble.”

  ...

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