"Even if you put it that way..."
Hearing Uchiha Yorin, Minato Namikaze looked a little tempted.
Why do shinobi run missions all day?
Money!
Why do the villages and their shinobi launch a shinobi world war?
Money!
Mobilize armies, burn through explosive tags, tools, ration pills—what is all that?
Money!
Minato wants to make Konoha great again and let everyone live well; what does he need most?
Money!
Strip away the flashy veneer of this whole ninja saga—the Will of Fire, "that's my nindō," Asura and Indra's fate, grudges among the Five Great Villages and the great clans—what's it all really about?
Still damn money!
...
In Yorin's view, Naruto and The Ming Dynasty 1566 are the same at the core: every problem revolves around money.
If Minato took off the ceremonial robes, slipped into a Daoist gown and recited a couple of lines, it would fit just fine, not awkward at all:
"Train till bones like a crane, no fear of Nine Tails at my throat; I ask the Way and hold no doubts—did my disciple drift to foreign boats?"
Uchiha Yorin: "Pfft... I can't..."
Minato: "???"
For some reason, the Uchiha in front of him burst out laughing, leaving Minato baffled.
But since Yorin was an Uchiha, he let it go.
After that, Minato felt that while Yorin was exaggerating, he did kind of have a point.
Allocating some high-value missions to the Uchiha had indeed brought the two sides closer and steadied the Hokage's seat a bit.
Clan head Fugaku knew how to do things. Beyond assuring that if war came the Uchiha would fully support the village, he arranged a number of Uchiha shinobi to join the Anbu under Minato's command.
But courting the Uchiha wasn't all upside.
Konoha has only so many missions. If the Uchiha eat two extra bites here, somebody else eats two fewer there.
These past few days several factions had already voiced displeasure—some slamming tables and chairs, some whining that they had no rice or firewood at home and couldn't make ends meet. If it came to it, they'd have to sell Hinata to pay their debts.
Most over the top was that old coot Danzō Shimura.
Seeing the Fourth favor the Uchiha, the longer he stewed the angrier he got, until he stormed into the Hokage's office to quarrel with Minato. He ended by snarling, "Minato, you'll regret this!" then glared without another word—leaving Minato not sure how to respond.
Minato: "Huh?"
Hiruzen Sarutobi: "Well, Minato."
Watching the inexperienced Fourth, the old Third said, "This is when you answer, 'Danzō, I am the Hokage.' Then he'll feel better."
Minato: "Really?" His look at Danzō was like looking at a masochistic weirdo.
Danzō Shimura: "Absolutely not!"
...
Anyway, that's how things stood.
Reform doesn't just meet resistance—it meets a lot of it.
Konoha is not Minato's one-man show.
If Uzushio still stood, as the son-in-law of a great house, Minato might at least have gotten his in-laws' backing.
But the noble Uzumaki had been refugees for decades.
If he kept pushing reforms that hurt vested interests, then even as Hokage he'd wind up with eight kunai in his back and a coroner's report of suicide.
"That's where we are. If you can bring more benefits to the table, great. But without prospects of returns, asking me to divert what little funding we have into some entertainment company is a bit...
If the Uchiha deliver more tangible results, that's another matter."
Reform was hard, but Minato didn't want to stop halfway. And after a few days of tests and missteps, he'd also confirmed how rare the goodwill from the Uchiha was.
That "test" target was another clan famed for eye techniques and power: the Hyūga.
Unlike the proactive Uchiha, when the Hokage extended an olive branch, the Hyūga used the classic scumbag three-step: don't initiate, don't refuse, don't commit—hoping to freeload a bit and teach the young Hokage a lesson about not being too green.
Luckily, Minato didn't bite. Otherwise he'd already have eight kunai in his back and Kushina might be a widow.
...
Yorin: "So, the village... no—Minato, what do you want me to do?"
Minato's subtext was obvious; Yorin caught it at once.
Squeezing ninja cats and selling papers wasn't going to rake in tens of millions in three days. The entertainment empire wouldn't rise overnight. Yorin's "financing" pitch wasn't truly for an entertainment company but for short-term risk capital—skimming some quick profit.
So rather than "deliver results," the smarter choice was to "show the Uchiha's sincerity."
Lowering his voice, Minato said to Yorin, "I've got a mission in the Land of Rain. High risk, decent reward. If you're willing, give it a try."
Yorin thought for a few seconds, then nodded and took the mission scroll from Minato's hand. "Then I'll try."
Minato: "Mm, give it a try."
Yorin: "Try try."
Shisui: "Try?"
Yorin: "Try."
Itachi: "Try?"
Yorin: "Sure, try."
Task: Overawe the Uchiha completed. Reward: Yang-nature chakra change, large increase to chakra reserves (Spirit +2).
Never mind that the Weasel is only six—he's still the touted prodigy of the Uchiha, isn't he?
And with that, Yorin's biggest shortcoming—Spirit 5—became Spirit 9.
He still couldn't match those human-tailed-beast chakra monsters, but he wouldn't flame out in three minutes like before.
Now, about the Land of Rain.
It's a shallow pond full of snapping turtles—a high-difficulty instance. The old guard has Hanzō of the Salamander, the so-called demigod; the new guard has a not-yet-fully-formed Akatsuki and an Uchiha Obito drowning in chūnibyō.
After trouncing Shisui and Itachi and hitting Spirit +4, Yorin might have the makings of an elite jōnin, but he wasn't dumb enough to go alone.
Shisui happened to be free, so Yorin grabbed him and happily queued for duo.
Shisui was great—powerful, loyal, and best of all, insanely fast at running away.
If the worst happened—if they ran into Six Paths Pain by chance, or loony Obito, or Hanzō—one Almighty Push, Kamui, or big salamander gulp later, Shisui could whisk Yorin out of there in a flash.
...
"The mission is intel-gathering in the Land of Rain... and escorting a shipment, huh?"
Taking the scroll and skimming it, Shisui muttered, "The situation in the Land of Rain should be worse than the Land of Fire. Why would a caravan do business there?"
"Because the rougher the seas, the pricier the fish," Yorin said evenly. "The tougher the deal, the higher the premium if you pull it off."
"I see. Those bandits really are hateful," Shisui sighed.
"That's where you're wrong," Yorin said.
"Who keeps cats without mice? Our own country's bandits are hateful, sure—but other countries' bandits are different. They're our bread and butter, our rice and grain."
Shisui opened his mouth, wanting to roast Yorin a bit.
After thinking it over for a moment, though, he decided to say nothing at all—and just smile.