Shimura Danzo bragged at the table, spouting a cascade of jargon he'd "learned" in the tulip exchange.
Term after term rolled out. Sarutobi Hiruzen understood only half of it, but he was deeply shaken and, in the end, accepted Danzo's plan as a matter of course.
"Danzo, will this really work?"
"It's seventy million ryō."
"Stop babbling."
Hiruzen invested seventy million in one go. At first he was so nervous he couldn't sleep, but after a few days—seeing the terrifying returns—his initial fear vanished. Like Danzo, he regretted not putting in more.
…
Palace of the Land of Fire.
"Kazuma, the price says it's time. After all this promotion, half the great merchants and nobles in the shinobi world have poured massive cash into tulips. Let's kick off the real feast."
Seated, Uchiha Makoto watched price curves, fund flows, and the reports from the Daimyo's analysts. It was time to roll out a brand-new play: contract trading.
"Yes, Lord Makoto."
Kazuma nodded.
The name "tulip" now echoed through noble circles, and prices climbed step by step with the tide of money. Next would be the frenzy. Physical supply was shrinking, soon to the point of having nothing left to trade. That was the perfect moment to introduce contracts.
If mere spot trading was already this wild, switching to contracts would send turnover soaring. Not only great merchants but high nobles would be tempted by the profits and plunge in.
According to their intel, even shinobi—who usually kept their heads down on missions—had waded in. It was a small group, mostly rogue ninja. The big clans wouldn't touch it; they weren't inclined or skilled at commerce. For them, taking pay as soldiers was the natural order; thinking beyond that felt like a crime.
All the more reason for Kazuma to feel lucky: his boss might be thick-skinned and black-hearted, but he still kept a bottom line—he hadn't dragged the shinobi clans into it.
After the feast would come wreckage. Who knew how many nobles and tycoons would be ruined by tulips and step off a ledge. They were only rich and powerful; before real power, wealth and status were nothing. Few ninja realized that.
This time the victims would be merchants and nobles—people who couldn't shake the balance of the shinobi world. If the clans were wiped out instead, the powder keg would blow. Stripped-bare clans, especially in a trade where reaching forty was rarer than a panda, and full of hot-blooded young fighters—would do anything.
…
Very soon, under Uchiha Makoto's direction and with prices raging higher, contract trading quietly appeared in tulip markets across the Land of Fire.
Everyone was stunned.
So tulips could be traded like this.
Inevitably, the madness intensified. Before, you had to own tulips to speculate. Now a sheet of paper was enough.
It made managing and tracking prices easier too. With unmatched advantages over spot trades—sky-high turnover and intoxicating profits—more and more nobles and merchants piled in.
Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo among them.
They had lost all sense, drunk on the market's glamour, throwing the procurement mission out of mind.
"Hiruzen, this market is insane!"
"I just tallied it up—we've made over three hundred million. No one in our clans is richer than us."
"Yeah, Danzo."
Overjoyed, they even considered throwing the rest of their procurement budget into tulip contracts. A market like this stoked envy. Not going all-in felt shameful.
"Hiruzen, let's go all-in. Going all-in is wisdom. It's time."
Danzo felt they hadn't made enough. They had to score one more huge win. When they returned, they could bury Lord Tobirama under money alone and force him to accept the two of them—the Crouching Dragon and Young Phoenix.
"Uh… that might not be wise…"
"What's unwise?"
"Even the rice-ball sellers in the Land of Fire know tulips make money. What are you afraid of?"
Danzo swore up and down. Hiruzen, his head already turned by profits, was quickly convinced. With a grand flourish they pushed in everything, dreaming of another windfall.
But tulip prices were already at the heights. Contracts had only poured fuel on the fire—one last brief flare before the end. Uchiha Makoto and the Daimyo were already dumping.
For first-time "chives" like Danzo and Hiruzen, a veteran rule was unknown: when even the street vendors know which stock wins, it's time to run.
The madness didn't last.
On the third day after they went all-in, a country ninja who'd never seen the world publicly peeled an exorbitant tulip and ate it like an onion. The owner raged and demanded compensation.
The little ninja spread his hands. "It's just a flower. How is this worth money?"
And then—
As if those words struck the market like a hammer, tulips reeled. (In truth, prices had simply topped and begun to break.)
Overnight, tulip prices plunged three times in a row.
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