[A/N : Bonus Chapter for reaching 3224 Power Stones last week. We managed to cross 3k once again after 3 weeks! Keep it up everyone :-)]
Hiruzen stayed silent for a minute. The silence made the Nobles from the Land of Tea nervous. Fujin noticed it and thought, 'I remember that in my previous world, some politicians used to have long silences in their speeches. Looks like it is quite an effective tool here as well.'
Finally, Hiruzen said, "It isn't a matter of money. However, I can't ignore the suffering of the people here. I'll deploy an Elite Jounin along with 4 dozen ninjas at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Tea on the coast.
You can issue your missions to them. That will reduce the journey time from a week to one or two days which wouldn't be much longer than deploying ninjas in this or any other city. However, you will have to pay an appropriate cost for this."
Jirochi asked, "What is the cost, Lord Hokage?"
Kyuroku snickered in his mind as he thought, 'Great! Take all the fool's money away!'
Hiruzen maintained another few seconds of silence and said, "I'll need 400 Fire Crystals and 400 Wind Crystals every year that we deploy the ninjas here."
Hiruzen's request surprised all the people from the Land of Tea. Choza and Homura already knew that Hiruzen would ask this. It was the main reason why they accompanied him. However, Fujin was surprised.
He quickly looked at Hiruzen as his left eye twitched and thought, 'Don't tell me! He brought me all the way here to tell me that he knows I'm using the Wind Crystals and he wants me to decrease the rate of using them because Konoha is running out of them?'
Hiruzen noticed Fujin's gaze but didn't look back at him. He thought, 'Though this isn't the main purpose of bringing him here, it is a nice bonus. He should be smart enough to notice the hidden message. It'd be great for the village if he doesn't consume them at such a ferocious speed!'
Fujin's initial consumption speed was already giving Hiruzen headaches. However, in the last month, Fujin focused a lot on meditating there. Due to this, his rate of consumption increased several times! In the last month alone, he had consumed the energy in around eighty Wind Crystals by himself.
Fujin immediately removed that thought from his head and analyzed, 'No, how can the Great Grand Hokage ask a young and promising ninja to reduce using Wind Crystals? I feel ashamed of thinking so little of the leader of my village!
I'm sure that he brought me here to tell me that no matter how many Wind Crystals I use, he has my back. Even if Konoha runs out of Wind Crystals, he will visit smaller neighbouring countries and ask them for Wind Crystals.
This way, I can keep absorbing their energy without worrying that the village might run out of them. Sigh, he is such a great guy. Going up to such lengths to reassure the younger Generation. I'll work hard and absorb energy from more and more crystals to repay his faith in me. It's a shame that Shadow Clones can't absorb this energy. Otherwise, I'd have repaid all faith.'
Fujin looked at Hiruzen again with a smile on his face as he concluded, 'It doesn't matter what anyone says. The Third Hokage is the most magnanimous person in the world!'
Hiruzen would have noticed Fujin's smile normally and sensed that something was wrong. However, his attention was gained by Kyuroku who spoke loudly, "How can we do that, Lord Hokage? Those crystals are meant for training our own ninjas! If we give them away, the strength of our ninjas would drop!"
Kyuroku was enraged. He didn't mind Jirochi wasting his wealth. But the Elemental Crystals were important to him. He was buying as many as he could by bribing the Ministers.
Homura retorted, "No amount of elemental crystals can help you train an Elite Jounin. The cost is far lesser than what the Kiri rogues will inflict upon you."
Homura's words caused silence to spread among the Nobles. However, Kyuroku was unresigned. He said, "That isn't the same. There is no way we ca…"
He was interrupted by the Tea Daimyo, "Kyuroku, stay quiet."
Kyuroku immediately went quiet. Though he was influential, his influence was nothing when compared to the Tea Daimyo's power.
The Tea Daimyo looked at Hiruzen and requested, "Please understand our difficulties."
Hiruzen replied, "I understand your difficulties, Lord Daimyo. However, Homura's words are right. Still, I don't want to reduce the strength of your ninjas. So in order to compensate for the loss, I'll allow some of your ninjas to visit the base Konoha will establish at our border and receive training from our experienced ninjas. This would be far more beneficial for your ninjas."
Hiruzen's proposal excited all the officials. If they could have ninjas from their families or factions train under capable ninjas from Konoha, their standings and influence would improve substantially in the Land of Tea.
Many Nobles immediately said that it would be a good thing for the country. Kyuroku frowned as he thought, 'If Konoha gives preference to training ninjas from the Wasabi family, then we will be at a disadvantage. But, everyone should have the same worry. I'll use it to suppress him later.'
Kyuroku decided against opposing the idea as most of the Nobles were in favor of it.
The Daimyo had the same worry. Though he had good relations with Konoha, it could be dangerous to his position if the Wasabi family's influence rose without any restraints. He asked, "How will you decide which ninjas to train?"
Hiruzen replied, "You can choose which ninjas to send. The number of ninjas and the duration of training will be decided by the Elite Jounin we send to the new post."
The Tea Daimyo was relieved. He nodded and said, "Alright, but I still have one issue. I can pay you 400 Fire and Wind Crystals each for the first year as we have some stock. But, I can't sustain it for every year after that. I can only pay 100 Fire and Wind Crystals each."
Hiruzen already knew that they wouldn't be able to do that. He said, "That's too low. But understanding your difficulties, how about you pay me 200 Fire and Wind Crystals each from the 2nd year?"
The Tea Daimyo thought for a bit and said, "That's reasonable. Let's do this deal, Lord Hokage."
The Tea Daimyo's limit was 230 crystals. He willingly agreed.
Choza said, "In addition, we would also like to discuss additional imports of herbs from your country and some discounts on the tea you sell."
Jirochi smiled and said, "Alright, but our population needs additional meat and some other food items."
They immediately began negotiating for discounts on both sides. Fujin watched with interest as both sides negotiated for benefits nonstop shamelessly.
The officials from the Land of Tea were unwilling to offer discounts on Tea until Homura pointed out that they have eliminated almost all bandit groups from the Land of Fire and that the new post could slowly bring the same change in the Land of Tea. So their business won't be as risky anymore.
Fujin was especially impressed by Homura's expertise at negotiating without any shame. He thought, 'Looks like all of Hiruzen's friends are as shameless as him. No wonder they never fight. Why bother fighting and risking your life when the younger generation is willing to do that enthusiastically? I wonder if this is why Jiraiya doesn't want to be the Hokage.
Still, negotiating seems fun. Never thought I'd enjoy seeing it. It's kinda the way I kept bugging Hiruzen and Renjiro for stronger jutsus. I wonder if Hiruzen brought me along to show that my shamelessness is still not enough and for me to take inspiration from Homura and these Nobles and Ministers. That said, I wonder if the legendary Talk-no-jutsu would work during negotiation between shameless politicians.'
After a long discussion, the Land of Tea agreed to export multiple rare herbs to Konoha. They even agreed to a 5% discount on it as Konoha would buy them in bulk. In addition, they agreed to an 18% discount on their Tea exports.
As for Konoha, they agreed to a 7% discount on the meat and food items exported to the Land of Tea and agreed to increase it to 12% after the bandit groups in the Land of Tea were eliminated.
After some more discussion about smaller matters, the meeting finally ended. Hiruzen and Homura exchanged glances. Both were satisfied with the outcome. As usual, Homura acted as an aggressive negotiator while Hiruzen acted as a peaceful and empathic negotiator. The officials from the Land of Tea were also satisfied with the results.
The meeting concluded with a toast, a symbol of unity and cooperation between the Land of Tea and Konoha. After exchanging pleasantries and bidding farewells, the Konoha group left as quickly as they came. However, the discussions in the grand hall weren't over. Instead, they were just about to get very intense. And unlike the discussion so far, it would be extremely unfair to one person!
[A/N: Though I had the idea of making Fujin a negotiator quite early on, I didn't have much idea on how the negotiations happen behind closed doors. Researched and thought quite a bit to come up with this. Would love to hear feedback (both positive and critical). Hiruzen didn't make Fujin participate in this one as this was his first meeting. He will slowly demonstrate more such negotiations to Fujin before allowing him to participate when he feels that Fujin is ready (though I won't be showing them as they will be quite similar to this).]
[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]
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