But by draining money, they would literally cripple them for the time being. It was not a permanent solution. But this solution was way better than Danzo's proposition about extracting the tailed beast and putting it into his chosen Jinjuriki.
Definitely a better option.
…
Ending of the negotiation and starting of the war
"5 billion ryos ?" Onoki asked back with a tone that he would use after hearing something absurd.
In reality he was not that shocked. He was expecting a ridiculous demand the moment Sarutobi mentioned the four tails. As they say wise men think alike. In this case it was shrewd old men. But one thing was clear, Onoki was already prepared for it. This time to wage the war, The Daimyo have given them a handsome amount of funds. If they won't spend this money and other resources given by the earth Daimyo, then the hidden stone village will definitely become the richest village among all the five major hidden villages. Unfortunately that was not an option. The Daimyo wanted war because of two reasons.
The number of jounins the hidden stone had managed to raise has exceeded an unspoken threshold. That's why the Daimyo wanted to dwindle the number of shinobi so that it wouldn't threaten his rule. Onoki knew this. But despite that he had no other option but to wage war. First of all, not going to war will displease the Daimyo. And even if they try to dethrone the Daimyo from power, in a few years they will run out of funding and ultimately lose everything. Shinobi don't make money by doing businesses or collecting taxes. They make money by doing all the clean and dirty work of rich people who could afford them. And the daimyos being the richest in their respective countries it was a big no no for any Ninja village to offend them.
Secondly, Onoki himself was confident that he would be able to pull a victory against the land of Fire. And getting the territories of the land of Fire means his village will not only gain the support of the Daimyo, but also will get a lot of resources from plundering.
The third and minor reason was the grudges of the previous war. It was the most simple and straightforward reason for the war.
But now that the hidden stone village was in a disadvantageous position they will have to negotiate. Considering it was a Jinjuriki, they were dealing with the price reaching billions of ryos was not that surprising. Onoki himself was ready to pay up to two billion ryos for Roshi. Roshi was not an ordinary Jinjuriki. He had a pretty good relationship with Onoki and was a war Hero of the hidden stone from the second great shinobi war. He could also control his fully transformed tailed beast form to a certain extent and enter Lava style tailed beast Chakra cloak, giving himself a massive boost in power. In terms of strength, Roshi might even match him with his power of the tailed beast. Apart from losing the four tails, the hidden Stone will be losing one of its most loyal and the second strongest shinobi of the village. So paying a price of 2 billion ryos was fair trade for Onoki.
But 5 billion was too much. Obviously even if they signed a peace treaty, Onoki was planning to find a loophole and wage a war within a year. If they consider Kumo in the bigger picture then Onoki wouldn't even have to think about finding an excuse. The muscle brain idiots would do it for them. But the problem is if they lose too much money here then they wouldn't be able to fund the war. They could afford 5 billion ryos. But then there will be no money left to continue the war. And considering that the Daimyo had already given them an additional 3 billion ryos that year Onoki doubted that he would be able to provide any more funds for the war.
"Hokage, I think your demands are too unreasonable. Even if we empty our entire treasury, we wouldn't be able to pay you that much money. If you truly intend to give back Roshi then make your demand reasonable." Onoki argued.
"Are you saying that when you have enough resources to make more than 20000 jounin and chunin level shinobi fight in the war you don't even have 5 billion. Now that's really ironic. Even if you lower the average rate of raising a single shinobi, our calculation says that you would have spent around 5 billion ryos in the next 2 years to continue the war. Don't think I am asking you for a random number. We were just asking you the money that you would have spent to wage war." Hiruzen made his argument very clear. And to an outsider it was very calculated and fair.
"Even if your calculation is correct, we really don't have the amount of money you are asking for. We had started the war with our own fundings. The Daimyo sama had promised us to give extra funding once he saw practical results. We are already agreeing to surrender and find the peace treaty. In this case we are already facing loss because the Daimyo sama wouldn't even provide his promised funding if war doesn't continue. How could we arrange the amount you are asking for ? We can give you 500 million ryos for Roshi." Onoki argued.
"Then you will get only Roshi. We are not joking Tsuchikage. We are already being generous by allowing you to take back your Jinjuriki. According to the peace treaty signed by Hashirama sama and all the other kages, now that you have admitted Roshi is not a rogue shinobi, we can simply keep the four tails for ourselves. 4.5 billion ryos. That is the final price we can agree on. Otherwise no deal." At that moment Sarutobi Hiruzen looked more like a crooked merchant rather than the prestigious hokage.
"You can't expect us to seriously pay 4.5 billion ryos, do you ? That is twice our annual budget !
If you are not taking this peace treaty seriously then the hidden stone will continue the war. Even without our Jinjuriki, don't think we are weak." Onoki decided to threaten Hiruzen.
"You are the one who started the war. So it would make sense that you would want it to continue. I doubt that even with a peace treaty, how long will your village be going to respect it ?
4.5 billion is the final price." Hiruzen didn't budge from that amount.
He was not the old and tired kage of the future. He was the leader of the hidden leaf village. And he knew that if he didn't take away money from the hidden stone then he would not be able to secure the peace of the hidden leaf village. There is no guarantee that the hidden stone will even respect the treaty after getting back there Jinjuriki. So if the hidden stone didn't pay the amount then they would better keep the Jinjuriki to at least weaken the hidden stone village.
As neither party reached a conclusion Mifune decided to choose a middle ground and suggested a price of 4 billion ryos. Both the leaders were given a couple of hours to think about it carefully before the second round of the discussion started. But ultimately 4 billion ryos was too much for Onoki to spend on one person.
So ultimately the peace treaty was never signed. The hidden leaf which had emerged as the temporary victor lost its title. Because the hidden stone decided to restart the war once again.
It was the official declaration of the war in the land of iron. And the hokage accepted it. Mifune proposed a buffer time of 15 days for both The villages to prepare for war. And both of them agreed.
Even though the peace treaty had failed, Hiruzen was not that worried.
Compared to the hidden stone which had only three S ranked shinobi right now, the hidden leaf had a lot of hidden cards to play. Even if they excluded himself, he had his Three students, the legendary Sannins, Minato, Usagi, kushina. Then there was Danzo, who could turn the tide of the war for better or worse.
Even if the hidden stone had better manpower and numbers on their side, Hiruzen was confident that if they play their game correctly then the hidden leaf will ultimately come on the top. And now they have the perfect excuse to keep the four tailed beast for themselves.
After the end of the peace talks both the parties left the land of iron full stop thanks to the flying thunder God jutsu of Minato, the three of them I reached the village in only 5 minutes of constant teleportation.
And after Hiruzen returned to the village the war preparation started in full swing.
…
Next chapter: Return to the village
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