The water bill—still unpaid.
Sunagakure's middle class was wealthy, but they weren't ninja, and they had no intention of giving that money to the village.
As the old saying goes: those who only care about money are mostly ungrateful wolves.
And Rinjin had raised a whole pack of them.
Late at night, sporting massive dark circles under his eyes, Rasa returned to his home next to the Kazekage Tower.
He shed his robes, removed the Kazekage's hat, and collapsed wearily onto the sofa.
"What's wrong? The village situation isn't improving?" Karura gently handed him a cup of hot water.
Hearing this, Rasa shook his head weakly.
"Those Amegakure bastards are nothing but shameless, filthy parasites! Every day the water bill is late, the total price jumps by ten percent!
And they're driving the gold dust prices down to rock bottom—damn them!
Then there's that Yura—I told him to smoothly take over the Municipal Ministry, but he fired everyone, then had the balls to swear those people were all parasites!
Now look what we've got—the damn Municipal Ministry's back to being the empty shell it was years ago!
Those cursed old fossils are definitely laughing their asses off at me behind my back!"
A flash of worry crossed Karura's eyes before she steeled herself:
"Then couldn't we use force to seize—"
She'd almost said the Eighteen Seats, but her husband had been flying into rages at those three words lately, so she changed course:
"Use force to reclaim the resources?"
Rasa took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then shook his head:
"We could, but the backlash would be too severe.
There are already people in the village selling off property and preparing to flee.
Those money-grubbing dogs have zero loyalty.
Plus the civilians are causing too much trouble—food prices have shot up so high people can barely scrape by."
Just as the political novice Rasa was about to explode from his splitting headache, his front door suddenly rang.
Outside, a familiar ANBU voice called out:
"Fourth-sama, Yura is dead!"
"What?!" Rasa roared, instantly leaping to his feet and charging to the door, yanking it open.
"Where? How did he die?"
The kneeling ANBU kept his head down, speaking gravely:
"We just discovered the body in the Municipal Ministry office. The body... the body..."
"What about the body?!"
"The body was blown to smithereens. On the office wall, written in blood: 'A stray dog can't beat a pack of wolves.'
We caught one of the attackers, but he detonated the explosive tags on his body and killed himself.
The clues... the clues point to the Eighteen Seats."
Hearing this, Rasa's entire body began trembling violently.
He wasn't afraid—he was furious.
These brazen bastards! They dared ruthlessly murder even the Fourth Kazekage's confidant—what wouldn't they dare do?!
"Betrayal! Those damn cowards! This is betrayal!"
His hysterical roar echoed through the night.
Rasa's eyes were bloodshot as he charged toward the crime scene like a maddened bull, ignoring the ANBU behind him.
Even now, he couldn't understand how these people dared act so brazenly.
Perhaps it really was true: cutting off someone's livelihood is like killing their parents.
And now Rasa wasn't the so-called Fourth Kazekage—he was the mortal enemy of everyone whose rice bowl he'd smashed.
The web of interests Rinjin had cultivated over three years was finally showing its true power.
Without him lifting a finger or even asking questions, these people, driven by money, had Rasa completely figured out.
The next morning, after a sleepless night, Rasa returned to the Kazekage's office.
Looking at his other confidant Baki before him, the stubborn Rasa forced himself to rally:
"Baki, you'll take over Yura's work.
Remember—first rebuild the Eighteen Seats using the original members.
Then restore the entire Municipal Ministry and bring back everyone who was fired!
One week. I'm giving you exactly one week!
After one week, I want to see a fully restored Municipal Ministry!"
"Yes, Fourth-sama!" Baki knelt and nodded emphatically.
Three days later, the entire Municipal Ministry was back, everyone restored to their original positions—only that original office remained nowhere to be found.
However, without the head chef, what good did having the Eighteen Seats back do?
Put on a show of huskies wrecking the house?
In Kubo's mansion, all Eighteen Seats had gathered.
After clearing his throat twice, meeting convener Kubo spoke up:
"Everyone, I've called you here today on behalf of the former Grain Party to give you advance warning:
We're planning to leave the Eighteen Seats and go independent.
In the past, whenever we completed a deal, we'd consciously hand over twenty percent of total profits to the village as a show of loyalty.
Now there's no one left to lead us in business.
And while Baki isn't as radical as Yura, he's still the Fourth's man.
If we keep cooperating with them, I'm worried that instead of us handing over twenty percent profits to the village, the village will just toss us twenty percent and keep the rest.
So the three of us have decided to leave the Eighteen Seats.
Since we're all battle-tested friends here, I'm giving you advance notice to avoid any accusations of sneak attacks later."
As soon as he finished, the white-bearded Old Sandworm suddenly let out a sly chuckle:
"Kubo, you're not planning to go solo—you're planning to team up with Lord Kaza, aren't you!
Out of all of us, you're the best at ass-kissing.
Spill it! Where exactly is Lord Kaza?
Even if you go solo, if you don't count me in, I absolutely won't accept it.
We agreed on Eighteen Seats, so it's Eighteen Seats. You want to hog all the profits now—think we'll all just agree?!
When the time comes, don't blame me for playing dirty tricks!"
Seeing this, Kubo's wrinkled face twitched violently twice.
These bastards had noses sharper than dogs—nothing could be hidden from them.
Glaring fiercely at Old Sandworm, Kubo snarled:
"This time Lord Kaza's idea is a tea factory.
That's clearly Grain Party business—what's it got to do with you people?"
No sooner had Kubo finished than everyone erupted in angry curses:
"Shove your grandma's chrysanthemum-scented fart! What do you mean it's your Grain Party's business—I want to join the Grain Party too!"
"Get lost! Is tea even a grain? It's clearly a daily necessity! Old Sandworm, let's form a Daily Necessities Party and take them down!"
Instantly, everyone returned to that familiar noisy, chaotic state.
To them, whether the Municipal Ministry existed was completely irrelevant. Except for strategic industries like electricity that had to be under village control, without village interference they could claim bigger shares.
They weren't serving the Municipal Ministry—they only recognized Kaza's golden reputation as head chef!
After a long, noisy argument, everyone finally went their separate ways.
The Electricity Party led by Old Sandworm, despite making the biggest fuss, was also the most worried.
Everyone knew electricity was a strategic resource that couldn't be separated from village control.
For them, making money under the Municipal Ministry's banner was the best approach.
But the damn Fourth Kazekage had ruined everything!
Most critically, Kubo and his crew were preparing to go solo. Once they flew away, would the Eighteen Seats still be the Eighteen Seats?
Who would bake their cakes?!
Thinking this, Old Sandworm panicked.
Everyone fighting bloody battles was fine, but if there was no money and they had to sit idle, nobody could accept that.
With this thought, he hurriedly called together the other Electricity Party members and shared what was really on his mind.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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