In the room.
Kakuzu stared intently at Naruto; he wanted to know what Naruto meant by 'making money'.
Kakuzu could be said to be very sensitive to money.
As long as it wasn't life-threatening, money was his top priority.
And Naruto, on his part, began to elaborate on his grand money-making scheme.
"Kakuzu, all this time you've only been making small change!"
"If you follow me, I will definitely lead you to make big money, let you sleep on piles of cash, and count money until your hands cramp every day."
Kakuzu was unmoved by Naruto's grand promises.
He was a centenarian, having experienced everything.
Seeing that mere promises were ineffective, Naruto then produced something tangible: the virtual helmet!
After explaining how to use the virtual helmet to Kakuzu, Naruto also took him into the virtual world for an experience.
After touring the virtual world, Kakuzu had a look of surprise on his face.
"When did such a miraculous thing appear in the Ninja World?"
Kakuzu asked, somewhat incredulously.
Naruto smiled and said, "This helmet hasn't been on the market for long. Currently, it's only sold within the Land of Fire, so it's normal that you haven't seen it!"
"How about if we sell the virtual helmet throughout the entire Ninja World..."
Before Naruto could finish his sentence, Kakuzu asked, "How much does this helmet cost? And what's the production cost?"
Naruto nodded, hearing Kakuzu ask this, knowing that he had a bit of business acumen.
"Five hundred thousand per set, as for the cost, it's no more than one hundred thousand!"
Upon hearing the profit, Kakuzu was shocked again.
In truth, Naruto hadn't told the whole truth. If he had told Kakuzu that the actual cost was zero, he would probably have been even more astonished.
"This business... I can help you! But... but it's only a collaboration. The virtual helmet business alone isn't enough for me to betray that man!"
The man Kakuzu referred to was, of course, Pain!
Kakuzu had witnessed Pain's strength, and it was precisely because of this that he willingly worked for Akatsuki.
Even if all the money went to a certain spendthrift woman, he never voiced any complaints.
"Hehe... it's naturally more than that!"
"Later, I have even bigger plans, plans that can control the economic lifelines of all countries in the entire Ninja World!"
Naruto's words immediately made Kakuzu swallow hard.
He felt Naruto was spouting nonsense, but seeing Naruto's confident demeanor, it didn't seem like he was bragging.
"Once the virtual helmets are sold all over the world, we will start selling various virtual products!"
"As you just saw, there aren't too many people in the virtual world yet, but the various guilds are already constantly competing!"
"What if we add people from the other four Great Nations and many smaller countries?"
Kakuzu frowned and said, "It might directly spark a war in the virtual world!"
"Exactly... the competition will be even more intense then! That will also be our opportunity to make money!"
"At that time, I will create a 'pay-to-win' system: paying makes people stronger! If you don't pay, you can't play! That will be our game's motto!"
Before Kakuzu could ask, Naruto continued to paint a grand picture.
"Once we've made enough money in the virtual world, we can buy land in the real world!"
At this point, Kakuzu finally interjected.
"That's not right! Countries are very particular about land; how could they sell it to outsiders?"
Naruto waved his hand, signaling Kakuzu not to interrupt.
"Of course, we won't buy useful land or farmland. What we want to buy is the deserts of the Land of Wind, the Gobi and rocky mountains of the Land of Earth and Land of Lightning, and the sea areas of the Land of Water."
Hearing that Naruto wanted to buy these lands, Kakuzu was even more confused, because these lands were considered wasteland by the Four Great Nations, and buying them would be useless!
Kakuzu also knew that Naruto would provide an explanation next, so he didn't interrupt Naruto this time.
"These lands are useless to the Four Great Nations! So they won't feel bad about selling them!"
"And I can maximize the profit from these lands."
"We can build sand factories in the desert. In these sand factories, we can produce glass and various building materials. In the desert, sand is practically inexhaustible!"
"The Gobi of the Land of Earth can be cultivated. Although there's a lack of water, we can completely excavate and build water conservancy facilities, or have Water Release Ninja irrigate it periodically!"
As for why the Land of Earth's own people don't irrigate or build water conservancy facilities!
The reason is simple: the Land of Earth might have very few Water Release Ninja due to geographical environment and other factors, and also... the Land of Earth does not possess the technology to repair water conservancy facilities.
Therefore, the Gobi of the Land of Earth has always been a desolate and uninhabited area.
After finishing with the Land of Earth, Naruto began to talk about the Land of Lightning.
"We can completely carry out mining operations in the rocky areas of the Land of Lightning."
"However, with the desert, even if the Land of Lightning doesn't sell land, it's not a problem."
"Finally, there are the sea areas of the Land of Water. In the sea, there are not only rich marine resources but also various solid minerals like coal, iron, gold, and silver!"
"The reason the Land of Water doesn't mine them is also due to inadequate technology!"
Naruto's 'pie in the sky' was so grand that Kakuzu was utterly stunned!
But this wasn't over yet; what Naruto said next truly made Kakuzu admire him.
"Of course... do you think I'm going to buy all those lands with money? Of course not, I'm going to buy them all with IOUs!"
"I will issue IOUs of various denominations to the Four Great Nations."
"After a long time, as long as I personally don't go bankrupt, then these IOUs will become the currency for transactions among the various nations!"
"Once the IOUs become true currency..."
Before Naruto could finish his last sentence, Kakuzu directly interrupted, saying, "Then we will acquire the wealth of the entire Ninja World!"
Kakuzu was truly shocked by Naruto's wild ideas and schemes!
Although Kakuzu didn't understand many parts, he just felt it was incredibly awesome!
Kakuzu at this moment was like an old man who had just entered a pyramid scheme.
And Naruto had transformed into a master of pyramid schemes, instilling in him unrealistic ideas for making money.
Indeed, Naruto actually also thought his ideas were a bit unreliable, except for selling the virtual helmet worldwide.
But as the saying goes, one must always have dreams!
And Naruto felt that Kakuzu was a very dreamy young man.
So... Naruto handed over the rice, flour, and oil to Kakuzu, letting him bake the 'pie' he had planned!
In fact, this was just like Naruto making Shisui and Itachi take the 'red' route, only now it was making Kakuzu take the economic route!
Seeing Kakuzu's expression at this moment, Naruto knew that he was truly tempted!