The development of the shinobi world is uneven. The Five Great Shinobi Villages grow rapidly, while medium and small shinobi villages develop much more slowly.
Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Konoha grows the fastest. Compared to those large villages, the medium and small ones seem almost stagnant in both economy and ninja strength.
However, there are two hidden villages that are exceptions: one is Amegakure, and the other is Kusagakure.
During the reign of the "Demi-God of the Shinobi World," Hanzo of the Salamander, Amegakure adopted a policy of isolation. In Hanzo's later years, he lost his fighting spirit and had no desire for progress, caring only for ease and comfort. Although one might say he had fought wars all his life and deserved some enjoyment, under his rule, neither the village's shinobi nor the civilians achieved the life they wanted. In that sense, Hanzo himself also failed to enjoy true comfort.
Later, once Nagato killed Hanzo, he still maintained the village's isolation. Even the news of Hanzo's death did not reach the outside world immediately. Because of its long-term isolation policy, combined with Ame's perpetual rainfall that hindered crop growth, the village's shinobi and ordinary citizens had long lived in hardship.
But Senshi's proposal convinced Nagato, bringing about huge changes in Amegakure. All over Ame, many new shops have opened—some even run by merchants from Kusagakure or other shinobi villages. After the village opened its gates to the outside, numerous development opportunities arose. Even the local shinobi can now receive more missions. Compared to before, Amegakure has become livelier, with voices of joy here and there.
In front of a newly opened ninja tool shop, a crowd of shinobi and curious onlookers had gathered.
"I hear this Crafts of Grass Ninja Tools store has quite the background!"
The speaker was a ninja with a small reputation in Ame's black market, named Choutaki.
"What's so special about this shop?"
His companion, evidently less informed, had no clue about the store's origins. That companion was also no ordinary individual—his name was Salamander Tajima, a distant branch member of the Salamander clan. Fortunately for him, that distant connection meant he wasn't closely tied to the clan; otherwise, he might already have ended up buried alongside them.
After hearing the question, Choutaki said smugly:
"The name Crafts of Grass (『匠之草』) suggests it's a ninja tool store jointly established by the Land of Crafts and the Land of Grass. Shinobi from Kusagakure excel at learning, research, and analysis of ninjutsu and ninja tools, while craftsmen from the Land of Crafts are masters at actually making those tools. Working together, they're sure to produce top-quality items! Not only that, you can see they also sell ninjutsu scrolls. Heh, once I've saved enough money, I'm definitely going to buy the famed Uchiha clan's Great Fireball Technique from Konoha, so I can learn it myself!"
(Land of Crafts is Takumi Village)
As he spoke, Choutaki's eyes were full of longing. Right now, he only knew some basic jutsu and simple taijutsu; when performing missions, he typically had to rely on taijutsu because he lacked impressive jutsu of his own.
Hearing this, Salamander Tajima responded enviously:
"You're lucky, Choutaki, that you can save up any money at all. All my mission pay goes to spending in taverns and hot spring inns."
But by the time Choutaki eventually does scrape together the money to buy that scroll and masters the jutsu, Tajima might realize how lucky he was not to spend money on it—after all, even for actual Uchiha clan members, the Great Fireball Technique rarely achieves stellar results. It might be even weaker in its secondhand form obtained from Kusagakure nin. Right now, however, Choutaki remains oblivious to that.
Suddenly, Choutaki's expression took on a hint of gratitude.
"I hear it was all thanks to the 'Mission Machine' of the black market—Lord Uzumaki Senshi—who convinced 'God' and 'Angel' to open the village. He also made the alliance between Ame and Kusa possible. Otherwise, our village wouldn't have improved so quickly, and our lives wouldn't be so comfortable."
In his words, "God" refers to Pain's Deva Path, and "Angel" refers to Konan. Tajima nodded solemnly.
"Yes, it's all thanks to Lord Uzumaki Senshi's suggestion, and thanks to God and Angel for adopting it. Otherwise, who knows how long we would have remained stuck in that miserable state."
Tajima recalled walking Ame's streets in the past, seeing that almost everyone—civilians and ninjas—wore gloomy expressions. Now, though, even just looking around, one could see joy and relief on many faces.
Choutaki continued:
"Speaking of which, it's been a while since I last saw Lord Uzumaki Senshi in the village. He brought about this alliance between Ame and Kusa, ushering in all these changes. If our village could establish more partnerships with other hidden villages, our future would be even brighter!"
Tajima immediately chimed in:
"I haven't seen Lord Uzumaki Senshi for a while either, but I did hear a rumor…"
Of course, Senshi himself had no idea that so many Ame ninjas were discussing him. At the moment, he and Karin were seated at a ramen stand. Karin stared at the ramen before her, unable to help swallowing hard; this was a specialty that originally came from the prosperous Konoha, a dish Ame had never had before.
Karin picked up her chopsticks, inhaled the fragrant aroma, and happily said:
"Well then, let's eat!"
Meanwhile, Senshi sipped his noodles and asked casually:
"Manager Kikkawa, has the village changed much lately?"
Kikkawa answered firmly:
"Yes, it has!"
Senshi continued:
"In what ways?"
This time, Kikkawa thought carefully, then replied:
"Lord Senshi, ever since the village started working with Kusagakure, a lot of things have changed. For starters, we have a much greater variety of grains and vegetables. In the old days of isolation, with the village under constant rain, we couldn't grow crops easily. Food supplies were scarce, and most people had never tasted produce from outside. Back then, almost nobody could make direct contact with the outside world; we were completely locked in. Because of that, goods were in short supply, and prices remained high. Life was difficult, and people could barely make ends meet. Even the shinobi didn't have it easy—especially during the time when you, Lord Senshi, were snatching up so many missions in the black market."
"But now it's different. Ame has gone from isolation to openness. Those dark days of hunger and hardship are over. Nowadays, caravans from Kusagakure arrive almost daily, bringing large quantities of fruits, vegetables, and other goods to sell. Plus, many new shops have opened—some even funded by merchants from Kusa. Indeed, God and Angel really did bring peace and prosperity to our village."
Senshi, who had been busy with missions, had no idea Ame had changed so much. He was a bit surprised to realize that just by doing his "farming" (rapidly completing tasks), he'd ended up bringing so many benefits to the village.
Suddenly, a voice interrupted:
"So, you two are eating ramen here?"
At some point, Kakuzu arrived. Senshi, taken aback, asked:
"Weren't you going to rest?"
Kakuzu felt a wave of frustration inside. Rest? I've already slept for a full day and night, only for this jerk to say we're not going to do any missions now? He sighed inwardly, feigning indifference.
"I can't sleep."
He coughed twice, then changed the subject:
"Not only has everyday life changed drastically for civilians, but the shinobi lifestyle has also shifted quite a bit. In the black market, there's been a surge of commissions coming from Kusagakure, though most of them aren't worth much."
Kakuzu, known as the strongest hired hand in the shinobi world, had been working since the time of the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju. His obsession with money was extraordinary—but not enough to make him kill himself with overwork. Even so, when forced to team up with someone like Senshi, who was a total "mission-terrorist," he had no choice but to slow down.
Bringing the topic back, Kakuzu went on:
"Because Kusagakure's ninjas are really good at research and analysis, they've helped Ame's ninjas get high-quality ninja tools for less. They're also offering other villages' ninjutsu scrolls, which our people can purchase and learn. Normally, most ninja academies only teach the Three Basic Techniques (Transformation, Clone, and Substitution) plus a few other basics. If you're born into a famous clan, maybe you can learn a half-decent jutsu, like the Uchiha's lukewarm 'Grand Fireball.' If you're not from a prestigious clan and you live in a smaller village like Ame, you have to do your utmost for the village and earn the higher-ups' approval just to learn more advanced ninjutsu. But now that Kusa is cooperating with Ame, our range of jutsu options has greatly expanded."
After listening to both Kikkawa and Kakuzu, Senshi realized how promising this joint development among small and medium hidden villages could be. As he mulled it over, he thought to himself:
"Interesting. Just by uniting Ame and Kusa, they've already changed so much. There are plenty more small and medium hidden villages in the shinobi world. If they all formed alliances and shared their resources, each village could develop rapidly. And the more prosperous the villages become, the more missions get generated. The more missions there are, the more benefits I can get from the System! So in simple terms, if I can help the small villages unite and grow, I can keep farming missions to get stronger."
Excited by this revelation, Senshi reminded himself he couldn't slack off. Even though he now had the Kāma (Karma) seal—essentially a step into the realm of the Otsutsuki—who knew if that would trigger an early arrival of those "celestial" Otsutsuki beings? He still needed to keep improving, continually training his Rumble-Rumble Fruit and Karma to their fullest extent. By the time the Otsutsuki arrived, maybe he could take them all down and feed them to the Ten-Tails or exploit them for "new energy sources," or something else. That was all in the future, though; for now, he needed to unite as many small and medium hidden villages as possible.
"Uniting a bunch of these smaller villages won't be easy. We managed it with Kusagakure and Ame by having me and Mui take down the top brass in Kusa. But that trick won't work for every village. I'll have to rely on a mix of force and interests—see who's open to cooperation. But there are so many such villages…which one should I start with?"
Senshi found the idea of forging an alliance among the small and medium villages quite appealing, but it wouldn't be simple. If they only appeared to submit, it could cause trouble later. After thinking for a while, Senshi glanced up at Kakuzu, whose past he knew all too well—this was a missing-nin from Takigakure. Legend said he'd once been ordered to assassinate the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, and ended up fleeing with serious injuries (or possibly throwing some shuriken from 800 miles away, depending on the rumors). Regardless, Takigakure had punished him severely for failing, pushing him to steal their secret Earth Grudge Fear technique and defect.
Those events happened so long ago that it was hard to tell exactly what had transpired. Possibly, Takigakure's leadership had set Kakuzu up, sending him on an impossible mission to kill Hashirama as an excuse to get rid of him. That left Kakuzu understandably bitter, believing in nothing but money. Senshi guessed that if Kakuzu were asked how he felt about Takigakure, he'd have plenty of resentment.
That made the plan easier. If Senshi wanted to unite the smaller villages one by one, perhaps he should "start where he was," dealing first with Taki. Turning to Kakuzu, Senshi asked:
"Kakuzu, what do you think of Takigakure?"
The moment he heard "Takigakure," Kakuzu's gaze instantly sharpened. He had lived through many years and seen how the leadership back then had basically conspired to kill him. Meanwhile, Konoha had already gone from its First Hokage to its Fourth—then the Fourth had died, and they'd brought the Third back. But no one in all that time had proven capable of assassinating Hashirama. It was obvious those old geezers in Taki had set Kakuzu up to die from the start.
After a brief pause, Kakuzu's tone turned cold.
"Why do you ask?"
Senshi brushed it off casually:
"I'd like to hear your opinion of Takigakure."
Kakuzu's face changed slightly, and after another pause, he answered icily:
"I have no opinion. What's in the past is in the past."
Without hesitation, Senshi asked:
"Kakuzu, do you want to become the Taki-kage?"
~~~
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