Danzō was an extremely petty man.
He sneered, finally returning the sarcasm Koharu Utatane had directed at him earlier.
"Do you really think it’s that simple? Sarutobi intends to use the daimyō’s money to continuously drive up prices in Konoha. That initial wave of spending by the small clans has already pushed prices to the highest level everyone is willing to accept."
As he spoke, Danzō wrote three words on the ground:
Explosive Tags.
Behind them, he wrote:
1,000 ryō → 3,000 ryō.
Once he had finished, he pointed at the numbers.
"The product is still the same product, yet its price has multiplied several times over. That’s how you enlarge the entire market."
"Next, you make everyone believe that these prices are normal, that the goods are worth what they’re being sold for. Once that happens, people will lower their guard and start chasing prices upward themselves."
Homura nodded.
Nowadays, it wasn’t merely the prices of goods that had increased.
Even the rewards for shinobi missions had risen.
A D-Rank mission paid anywhere from 500 to 10,000 ryō.
In the past, 500 ryō had been the norm.
Now, 10,000 ryō was the norm.
"Exactly. A ceremony on this scale will last at least half a month. Half a month of frenzied spending will make the money held by the shinobi clans increasingly worthless."
"Once money loses its value, people have to spend it."
Homura understood.
And Danzō had achieved his purpose.
"Exactly. The shinobi clans will follow the trend, turning their savings into goods and even real estate."
Danzō drew the entirety of Konoha as a large circle on the ground.
"As long as that objective is achieved, Konoha’s economy will experience unprecedented prosperity. The amount of currency everyone holds will decrease. People may even go into debt to spend."
"But the amount of things they consider ’valuable’ will increase."
"Most of those things will be immovable assets that cannot be taken out of Konoha."
Danzō suddenly slashed through the entire circle with his finger and spoke sternly.
"Then Sarutobi will burst Konoha’s economic bubble."
"He’ll let prices fall, leaving the shinobi clans and merchants who bought at the peak unable to cash out and leave the market."
Danzō had merely crossed out a drawing on the ground.
But to Homura, it felt as though a blade had struck straight through his heart.
"Isn’t Sarutobi afraid of causing chaos?"
Homura was frightened.
Danzō, however, had reached the point where he had so many troubles that one more hardly mattered.
"Afraid? Is there anything more frightening than the threat of war posed by those Uchiha outside the village?"
Compared to binding everyone in Konoha together through the economy, how could that group of "madmen" who might slaughter everyone in the village not be more terrifying?
At least, that was how Konoha was portraying them.
Homura didn’t have the luxury of being so carefree.
He remained deeply worried.
"But Sarutobi can’t keep Konoha like this forever. Everyone will eventually collapse."
Danzō continued writing on the ground.
Konoha Economic Collapse Rescue Plan.
"Of course he won’t. What Sarutobi wants is to lock Konoha’s wealth inside Konoha itself—to make sure the meat rots inside the pot."
"Using outside money, he’ll drain the accumulated wealth of the shinobi clans and make them pour all their money into Konoha."
Danzō pointed at the clans.
"Once that objective is achieved, the shinobi clans will have only two choices."
"Either go bankrupt, or cling to whatever immovable assets they have left and live or die alongside Konoha."
Homura Mitokado was still uneasy.
He understood that Sarutobi couldn’t simply watch Konoha descend into chaos, but a plan on this scale sounded far too dangerous.
"But greed is human nature. Once prices start soaring, it won’t just be the shinobi clans speculating. Most people in Konoha will do the same."
"When the time comes, it won’t only be the shinobi clans going bankrupt."
"Those merchants and ordinary civilians have far less ability to withstand risk than the shinobi clans. A shinobi might still survive even after losing everything. At worst, they could migrate elsewhere."
"But those people would truly have nowhere to go."
Danzō didn’t care.
Who lived and who died had nothing to do with him.
As long as he survived, that was enough.
But Sarutobi certainly wouldn’t let things reach that point.
"Heh. At that point, Sarutobi will naturally invest the remaining funds into Konoha’s infrastructure."
"That will protect people’s livelihoods and employment, allowing the economy to continue operating and preventing the lower classes from falling into chaos."
Put simply, the plan was:
Use the daimyō’s money to make money from the shinobi clans. Then pocket the daimyō’s money while splitting the profits from the shinobi clans’ spending between the village and its people.
"Once that happens, Konoha’s finances will have completely transformed."
"The daimyō’s mission allocations will become merely one part of Konoha’s finances—perhaps not even a particularly large part."
"Sarutobi will have effectively used the wealth of the shinobi clans to move away the final mountain pressing down on Konoha’s head."
"The daimyō’s economic control."
When he reached this point, Danzō couldn’t help applauding Sarutobi in his mind.
The Shinobi Hero truly deserves his reputation.
A hero might be a scheming hero or a ruthless hero, but he certainly wasn’t the kind who fought alone like some romanticized warrior.
"Only then will Sarutobi truly have Konoha under his control."
Homura couldn’t help praising him as well.
Danzō was a strange man.
He could praise someone.
But the moment someone else agreed with his praise, he would become uncomfortable and feel compelled to add something unpleasant.
"Heh. That’s Sarutobi for you!"
"As for recalling Jiraiya, recalling Tsunade, and trying to win Orochimaru over—those are nothing more than smokescreens."
"They’re meant to make everyone believe Sarutobi is preparing for war."
As he spoke, Danzō even began waving the little stick in his hand, becoming increasingly animated.
"Don’t be so easily deceived by Sarutobi."
"He doesn’t even trust Orochimaru, whom he personally taught from childhood. At this point, who could he possibly trust?"
"He only trusts himself."
"All he wants is to use the momentum of the situation to force the Uchiha to leave."
Danzō had given his own interpretation of Sarutobi’s intentions.
Homura, however, didn’t agree.
"If Sarutobi gathers all the forces in Konoha by then, wouldn’t he be planning to wipe out the Uchiha in one stroke?"
"That can’t be right!"
Hearing this, Danzō felt that he understood Sarutobi better after all.
"Heh. After all these years, when has the Sarutobi Clan ever fought a major battle against anyone?"
"When has Sarutobi himself ever gone to the battlefield?"
"War is a method Sarutobi uses to control the population of the shinobi clans. It’s not a method for controlling the population of the Sarutobi Clan."
Danzō spoke of Sarutobi with utter disdain.
Koharu Utatane still refused to believe it.
"Sarutobi is afraid of going to war with the Uchiha? How could that be?"
Homura, however, believed it.
"Didn’t you see the phenomenon that day?"
"Who could honestly say they weren’t afraid of going to war with the Uchiha after witnessing that?"
Danzō nodded firmly.
"Exactly."
"That’s why forcing the Uchiha to leave is Sarutobi’s real objective."
"At that point, Konoha won’t welcome a clan capable of pushing the village to the brink of bankruptcy through war at any moment."
"Forcing the Uchiha out will be just like forcing the Second Hokage to his death."
"It will be presented as the decision of all Konoha."
"And everyone will have to accept it."
Homura also voiced his own theory.
"Exactly. If they force the Uchiha into the Land of Rivers, Sarutobi can keep extracting money from the daimyō of the Land of Rivers until that daimyō has nothing left."
"And the other daimyō won’t object either."
"After all, shinobi are paid to do a job."
"Sarutobi gets paid, and Sarutobi does the job."
"If the objective isn’t achieved, that’s simply because the daimyō didn’t pay enough."
"The only thing they can blame is the Uchiha for being too powerful."
Danzō continued adding fuel to the fire.
"If the daimyō don’t like it, they can pool together more money."
"It’s not as though the Five Great Nations haven’t jointly divided the Land of Whirlpools before."
"As long as the money is sufficient, wouldn’t it be easy for the Five Great Nations to deal with a single Uchiha Clan?"
At this, Homura laughed.
"So that’s why the Uchiha have no way to compete with Sarutobi."
Koharu couldn’t stand there any longer.
She turned and left.
Homura had no reason to stay either, so he followed.
Once the two had left, a strange light appeared in Danzō’s eyes.
"Compete?"
"Things aren’t that simple."
"Sarutobi wants a battle of wits."
"But the Uchiha..."
"They want a battle of force."
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