The small talk ended.
Seeing the mood was set, Uchiha Makoto decided to get straight to the point.
Today the shinobi world is full of rising warlords, and the other four great nations have already established their own hidden villages.
On the surface this is thanks to Senju Hashirama.
For a while the shinobi world will enter a rare period of peace, but it will be very short, a flower that blooms and withers in an instant.
Once Senju Hashirama falls out with Uchiha Madara, the earth-shaking battle at the Valley of the End will follow. One of the two will die and the other be grievously wounded, yet not long after that battle Hashirama will pass away from illness.
When the jade pillar propping up peace in the shinobi world collapses, the First Shinobi World War will arrive with unimaginable ferocity. It is no exaggeration to say war is imminent.
Only a few years remain.
Uchiha Makoto does not have much time, so he must hurry and strengthen the village as much as possible.
A weak Akatsuki Village is doomed to a miserable fate, especially being located in the Land of Fire. Akatsuki will inevitably be among the targets of the other four great villages, and Makoto has no intention of pinning his hopes on Konoha.
Konoha is famous for being immovable when its allies are in trouble. No one understands better than Uchiha Makoto how the Uzumaki clan was exterminated.
While Hashirama lived, the aid treaties he signed could still deter all sides. Once he dies, the Second Hokage of Konoha will be Senju Tobirama, who is evil by nature.
Counting on his helping hand. Hmph.
Fair weather he lends an umbrella, rainy days he takes it back. When the time comes, it will be good enough if he does not kick you when you are down. Of course, kicking others when they are down is sometimes necessary, and Makoto is no exception. As long as Konoha remains so strong, how can Akatsuki Village ever rise.
The two sides are Schrödinger allies, nothing more.
To ensure the village's safety, I will form a covert assassination and tactical special forces unit. They will answer directly to me. Its personnel will be selected from the outstanding members of your clans. I hope the clan heads present will support my decision.
Every member who joins the Black Ops will enjoy special treatment from the village, with unlimited personal training resources and a full suite of logistical support.
Uchiha Makoto decided to follow Senju Tobirama's example and first establish Black Ops. To have an armed force of his own. Without a clan to back him, he can only rely on the shinobi clans before him.
This first step would be extremely difficult.
Clan shinobi are the private armed forces of their clans. What Makoto proposes will undoubtedly weaken the power of those clans.
The clan heads wore troubled looks. Fortunately Makoto's funds were abundant. He had already coordinated with bloodline clans such as the Kaguya clan, the Yuki clan, and the Kurama clan, completing a round of interest-swapping.
The power of money.
As long as the pay is good, whom does one serve. Not serving, exactly. Everyone has joined Akatsuki Village and will have to make their way in the village from now on. It would not do to slap Uchiha Makoto in the face on the very first day. Once several great clan heads nodded their agreement, the remaining small and medium clans began raising hands one after another.
Makoto looked around and nodded. The outcome was not bad.
He remembered clearly who raised a hand and who did not.
The second issue was education.
Uchiha Makoto still did not have a team of his own. The only people he could trust and who could actually get things done seemed to be Kazuma the Degenerate and Aqua.
A shinobi academy is therefore indispensable. Relying on the clans now in front of him is not a long-term plan. A talent-cultivation system unique to the village must be built.
Flush with cash, Makoto planned to pour a huge sum into education, putting up five billion as an initial education fund.
A one-time enrollment of three thousand students.
Isn't that too many.
That is three thousand people.
Murmurs broke out below.
What does three thousand mean.
Konoha uses a one person one number registration system. Uzumaki Naruto's ninja number is 012607. In other words, judging by the official registry, from Konoha's founding up to Uzumaki Naruto, the number of registered ninjas is only a little over ten thousand.
Of course this figure is not accurate. Every clan in Konoha always has a lot of ninja appearing out of nowhere. As for where they came from, do not ask. Ask and you die.
Tuition will be free. All expenses will be covered by Akatsuki Village's Finance Department. Kazuma, we will discuss the exact figures after the meeting, but you will personally oversee this budget. Every last coin must be spent on the students' training.
Kazuma, serving as the Akatsuki leader's secretary and Makoto's trusted aide, answered at once.
The clans' disputes vanished. The reason was simple. Free.
Every clan has some unpromising children with little talent for ninjutsu who are not worth the clan's precious resources. All of them can be sent to the academy.
Lord Akatsuki will pick up the bill.
They realized Akatsuki Village was truly rich, its funds like a bottomless well. No matter what, Lord Akatsuki spending lavishly was undeniably impressive.
The third agenda item was constructing Akatsuki Village's medical system.
Up through the Second Shinobi World War, Konoha's medical system existed only on slides. Because of this, many shinobi who could have survived with timely treatment died instead.
Even Tsunade, a top medical ninja of the shinobi world, was flatly rejected when she personally proposed the plan at the jonin council.
Of course.
The old Sarutobi Hiruzen was not ignorant of its benefits.
But ever since Hashirama's death, the First Shinobi World War, the Second Shinobi World War, and countless open and secret struggles have never stopped. Such brutal and frequent fighting kept the villages in debt most of the time. If not for the daimyo offering a lifeline at key moments, the villages would have collapsed long ago.
Everyone wanted to stop.
Yet for various reasons, no one could.
Now that the shinobi world can finally breathe for a while and Makoto holds enormous funds, he will seize this once-in-a-lifetime window to build Akatsuki's medical system.
If they wait until the First Shinobi World War, they will not even have the chance to build it.
No amount of funding poured into a war budget is ever enough. When the cannons fire, gold vanishes by the ten-thousand. That is no joke, and wartime inflation must also be considered.
In the village era, any proper war costs at least tens of billions of ryo.
Aqua, stop dozing. This is your responsibility. You will teach medical ninjutsu.
Everyone's eyes turned to the drowsy Aqua. Though she did not look very bright to be nodding off at such an important occasion, no one showed displeasure. There is a saying that has long circulated in the shinobi world. Never offend blacksmiths or medical ninja.
By this point in the meeting, the clans had tasted the flavor of it. Every decision Lord Akatsuki made today seemed aimed at preparing for a war. Their hearts turned cold with fear.
And that was indeed the case.
There are only a few years left before the First Shinobi World War. Forgot the beginning, forgot the middle, forgot the end. In short, let the shinobi world burn once more.
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