Land of Wind.
Sunagakure.
Kazekage Building.
Rasa sat on the desk with his down, motionless, exuding a decadent aura all over his body.
Just four days ago, his wife, Karura... died.
The cause of death was dystocia caused by premature birth.
The reason for the premature birth is that Chiyo was clamoring all day long to make the child in Karura's stomach become Jinchuriki. This made Karura, the mother, fearful and worried all day long, which eventually led to premature birth, then, dystocia, and finally die!
Knock~ knock~!
There was a knock on the door outside.
"Yondaime, I know you are inside, come out quickly!"
Chiyo's voice came from outside the door, filled with a disgusting aura, "How long are you going to hide? Karura is dead, and you, as the Kage of the village, has to get out of the sadness as soon as possible!"
Rasa cleaned his teeth when he heard this, 'If not for this dead old woman, clamoring all day long, Karura would never have given birth prematurely!'
"Yondaime, the Daimyo has sent a letter, because we have lost the war against Iwagakure, this year's village funding will be reduced by another 30%!"
Chiyo's voice kept coming from outside the door like a devil, "Do you know what this means? Konoha and Iwagakure will grow stronger day by day, but we, who lack funds, will decline day by day! must prevent this from happening! Yondaime, please take up your responsibility as a Kage!!"
Rasa went to open the door expressionlessly, and behind the door was Chiyo's increasingly old face.
"Elder Chiyo, you… are getting older." Rasa spoke slowly, his voice was somewhat hoarse after four days of silence.
Chiyo's eyelids trembled slightly: "Are you thinking I'm long-winded, or do you think I should retire?"
"All of them!"
Rasa stared at her with bloodshot eyes, "If it wasn't for you clamoring in Karura's ears all day long, how could she have given birth prematurely?"
"Yondaime, premature birth is not her cause of death!"
Chiyo said sternly, "The cause of Karura's death was dystocia!"
"You mean Gaara killed Karura?" Rasa gritted his teeth.
"I'm just stating objective facts!"
Chiyo snorted, then changed the topic back, "Yondaime, I don't care what you think in your heart, but the Ichibi, Shukaku must seal into Gaara's body, so that he can become an important weapon to protect the village!"
Rasa sneered: "What if I refuse?"
Chiyo slow lowered her eyes and said: "The hero of the village, Pakura has been missing for many days. It's time to find out her whereabouts."
"What do you mean?" Rasa's expression darkened.
"You should understand what I mean." Chiyo looked at him expressionlessly, "If Pakura was framed by the villagers using crafty plots and machinations, then no matter who this person is or where he is, they must be severely punished!!!"
Creak creak creak…
Rasa began to grind his teeth, and at this moment, he wished he could swallow this old woman in one gulp!
Chiyo has no fear on her face, and calmly speaks: "Yondaime, when this matter is over, I will retire with Ebizo, and then the village will be handed over to you."
Rasa suppressed his anger, and nodded with difficulty after a while, "Remember your promise!"
At night.
Rasa officially put Shukaku into Gaara's body. And the next day, Chiyo and Ebizo, who are high-level advisors, announced their retirement at the same time!
...
Land of Fire.
Konoha.
After a day and night of investigation, Kakashi has successfully figured out the bottom of those small gambling halls.
At noon the next day, Kakashi went to Minato to report the mission.
"Hokage-sama."
During the mission, Kakashi did not call Minato sensei. He handed over a scroll with one hand and said, "This is the information I got from my investigation. Everything is inside."
Minato took a look, and his face slowly becoming serious.
The small gambling halls, that have sprung up in the village recently, have the same boss behind them, a Shinobi named Miyauchi Jiro!
According to the Anbu's information, this Shinobi named Miyauchi Jiro is from the Root!
'Shimura Danzo?!'
Minato understood a lot in an instant, then raised his head and said: "Kakashi, you can go and rest first."
"Yes." Kakashi disappeared instantly.
Minato put the scroll on the desk and continued to look down.
According to Kakashi's investigation, the capital flow of these small gambling halls is not large individually, but when added up, it became nine figures per month, but in terms of tax payment, they only pay a little bit!
Minato's face became heavy: "Using these small gambling halls to raise funds quickly… Is it because I cut the Root's funding?"
'Although there are policies and countermeasures, it seems that you don't take my position as a Kage seriously anymore!'
Thinking of this, Minato immediately called: "Genma!"
"Yes!" Genma immediately pushed the door open and entered.
"At three o'clock, I will hold an emergency high-level meeting, notify the four advisors immediately." Minato ordered.
"Received!" Genma answered and went out quietly.
Soon, Hiruzen, Koharu, Homura and Danzo received the information.
The former three people were a little puzzled because they just had a meeting yesterday. As for Danzo, hehehe.
At 2:50 in the afternoon, Minato rushed to the Conference Hall to wait early. After a while, Hiruzen and other three advisors arrived one after another.
After everyone take a seat, Hiruzen took the lead to speak: "Yondaime, is there a major event that you called such an urgent meeting?"
Minato nodded: "It's a major event."
After saying that, he took out the scroll that Kakashi gave him, and then handed it to Hiruzen, and said, "Sandaime, please."
Hiruzen solemnly took the scroll, and after reading it, his eyes glanced at Danzo intentionally or unintentionally.
Danzo instantly felt a deep malice assaults his senses.
Next, Hiruzen handed the scroll to Koharu, then Homura, and finally to Danzo.
After a short glance, Danzo knew that the target of this meeting was him.
"Yondaime, what do you mean by this?"
Danzo closed the scroll, looked at Minato with his one eye, and said with a snort, "It's just some small gambling halls, is there a need to call us for urgent meeting like this?"
Minato raised a finger and said: "First, gambling is very harmful. Once someone indulge in it, they will lose their mind and damage their physical and mental health. Damage to physical and mental health, and at worst, they will go bankrupt and embark on the road of crime, which will seriously affect the development of the village!"
Minato raised his second finger, "Secondly, the capital flow of these gambling halls reaches nine figures, but the tax they paid is only over mere a hundred thousand! It seriously damages the interests of the village!"
"Third!"
Minato raised his third finger and stared solemnly at Danzo, "Advisor Danzo, the funds of these small gambling halls ended up in your pocket, right?"
Danzo sat there calmly, and said neither fast nor slow: "No, the funds went into the Root, and I didn't even take even 1 ryo of it."
"Danzo, why did you do this?" Koharu looked at him with puzzled expression.
"Because Yondaime has cut the Root's funding by half, so I did it as a last resort." Danzo said.
"The decision to cut the Root and Anbu's funding is the first decision made by Yondaime after he become the Hokage, and it is reasonable in every circumstance, so we shouldn't object it."
Hiruzen calmly countered Danzo's words, and said in a light tone, "Besides, the war has ended, and the village's entrusted commissions have also grown with each passing day. It is reasonable to cut down the Anbu and Root's funding, and let the Shinobi of the two departments come out to take care of the village's entrusted commissions. Danzo, I really don't understand why you would do such a thing."
"Everything I do is for Konoha!"
Danzo's eye glanced at the few people present, and said with a sneer, "You all think the war is over, but since the death of Shodaime Hokage, there have been Three Shinobi World Wars. Who can guarantee that the Fourth Shinobi World War will not happen?"
Hiruzen frowned, and was about to interrupt, but Danzo didn't give him a chance.
"Yondaime! I have nothing to say if you naively cut the Anbu's funding, but you can't do such thing to the Root!"
Danzo argued with convictions, "If Anbu and Root's funding were cut at the same time, it will inevitably affect the collection of intelligence. What if war breaks out again at this time? Iwagakure has defeated Sunagakure and it is entirely possible for them to invade Konoha. Kumogakure's army is still hovering outside the border, and the shadow of war will fall again at any time, so no matter what, I…"
"I understand what you mean."
Minato interrupted him, "What you mean is that, I can't cut Anbu and Root's funding at the same time?"
Danzo frowned, he did say this, but…
Without waiting for him to refute, Minato continued: "Then I decided to increase the Anbu's funding, so Advisor Danzo, stop doing these things in the future."
"You..."
Danzo stood up in surprise and anger, and glared at Minato with a livid face, "You! You!!"
"This is the first thing, the second thing, I just said about the harm of gambling halls, so in the future, Konoha will not allow it any more gambling halls to exist in the village!"
Minato smiled slightly and asked, "Advisor Danzo, what do you think?"
Danzo's face twitched slightly, and he just glared at Minato without saying a word.
Minato was not angry by Danzo's glare, and continued: "The third thing is, I want to ask Advisor Danzo to make up for the underpaid taxes of these small gambling halls."
Danzo was already furious with Minato, so when he heard Minato's next words, he finally couldn't help but explode: "I said, I didn't take the money from those gambling halls!!!"
"But the money went to the Root, didn't it?"
Minato smiled brightly and said, "If Advisor Danzo has no power to control the Root and can't get the tax back, I can send someone…"
"I got it!!"
Danzo's face darkened again and again, he gritted his teeth and interrupted Minato, "I will… make up the tax!!"
"This is for the best."
Minato nodded "Then, the next thing is about tax collection. From this gambling hall incident…"
"I'm feeling a little uncomfortable, so I'm leaving first." Danzo really didn't want to see Minato's face anymore, so with a sullen face, he got up and left.
Hiruzen, who is on the side, was a little dazed when he saw this. His mood was extremely complicated at this moment, and he finally heaved a long sigh.
He is a little pleased with Minato's growth, and a little sad for Danzo, but all of this has nothing to do with him.
As for Koharu and Homura, both of them looked at each other and were shocked by Minato's methods. They didn't expect that such a trivial matter would directly cause Danzo to be in a dilemma, so terrifying!