Daring to do business with Hanzō… lol!
...
Not long after, Rōshi came over carrying a pile of scrolls.
"Lord Hanzō. Everything you asked for is here."
He handed over one scroll.
"This is the Immortal's body. Since it's a forbidden technique-class item, I sealed it inside a scroll—please inspect it."
"No need."
With a flick of his wrist, Hanzō tossed the scroll behind him to Kakuzu, then stored the rest of the scrolls away.
"I trust you wouldn't do something that stupid."
Hanzō turned to Rōshi.
"Next… is the final part of our deal. About how to handle Takigakure…"
"That weapon is indeed dangerous. Once it's used, even I would be looking at certain death. But… we simply won't let them use it. I've already thought of a solution for you."
"Our Ame has an excellent scout—someone who can sense the slightest fluctuations in chakra. Even if that kind of weapon is sealed inside a scroll, it'll still leak traces of chakra. We can lock onto it immediately."
"But even if we locate it in advance, assassination is unlikely. With Iwagakure's current strength… you probably can't pull that off."
Rōshi asked, "Then… what's your method?"
"Hire people. You know the underground bounty exchange, don't you? Immortals like Kakuzu are rare, but there are still some elite jōnin in there—not many, but enough. And there are also wandering shinobi. They can be hired."
Rōshi shook his head. "Those bounty hunters? Lord Hanzō, their trustworthiness is too low—and I don't acknowledge their strength."
"They won't dare face Takigakure's force. Even assassination is unlikely. Those people cherish their lives. And once they fail, Takigakure will become alert—then it's trouble."
"You look down on bounty hunters?!" An angry voice boomed from behind—Kakuzu.
He was the most credit-conscious bounty hunter of all. Someone daring to discriminate against bounty hunters in front of him was one thing—questioning their integrity was another.
Rōshi clearly didn't understand why the Ame-nin behind Hanzō suddenly exploded. At that moment, Hanzō stood up as well.
"Rōshi… are you discriminating against me with that way of speaking?"
Rōshi, Kakuzu: "???"
Feeling Hanzō's anger pressing down, Rōshi panicked.
"Lord Hanzō… did I say something wrong?"
"Hmph."
Hanzō tossed out a bounty booklet.
"Did you forget that I'm also a bounty hunter? Your Land of Earth's daimyo—I personally delivered him to the exchange."
"Ah!"
Two invisible blades of shock slammed into Rōshi's chest.
"Fine. Since you didn't know, I'll forgive your rudeness… but—hahaha…"
Kakuzu felt that familiar chill again.
"My bounty hunter identity is real. As long as there's a bounty, and the price is high enough—I'll kill even the Five Kage."
"Forget Takigakure's weapon. If you name the price, I can wipe out that Taki force too."
The blade finally showed itself.
"Ah…!"
"Ugh…"
Nobody expected the conversation to turn like this.
"Hiring Hanzō?! That's allowed?!" The thought exploded in Rōshi's mind.
"Does Hanzō… love money that much?"
"So you've been counting this in all along…?" Rōshi swallowed. "You mean… Iwagakure hires you, Lord Hanzō?"
"No."
Hanzō waved a hand.
"Not hiring Ame. Hiring me."
"I'm confident I can destroy that weapon in an instant—then conveniently wipe out Takigakure's unit along with it."
"Even if I don't finish them off, they won't be able to stir up much trouble for you. Send a small force afterward and you can clean it up."
Rōshi's face tightened. "The price won't be small. Hiring you… I don't dare."
"Iwagakure's supplies can only last half a year. We can't afford the cost of hiring you. And without a daimyo backing us, after half a year…"
Hearing that, even Hanzō found it annoying.
If he hadn't killed the daimyo, he wouldn't have been able to pressure Iwa hard enough. But now with no daimyo, Iwa was close to starving. Truly…
The problem was: Iwagakure still had value—it needed to keep existing. Hanzō's head throbbed.
'Damn it. Are you the Tsuchikage, or am I?'
"I'll give you a tip. Since you've been so… respectful, I won't charge you for it."
"What?!"
Both Rōshi and Kakuzu were stunned. Rōshi didn't expect Hanzō to help this much.
Kakuzu was shocked Hanzō wasn't charging.
"The nobles are fighting over the daimyo seat, right? Go stick your hand in."
Rōshi raised his head. "You mean… raise a puppet daimyo? Given the situation, that's… a workable approach."
"No, no, no."
Hanzō shook his head quickly.
"You misunderstand."
"Even if you prop up a puppet, once he takes the seat he'll still resist your control. Too troublesome. And right now, even a daimyo can't squeeze out much supply—won't technically solve your problem."
"What I mean is—go kill those nobles. Iwagakure will directly assume the daimyo's authority."
"There are plenty of excuses. I don't believe none of them have dirty businesses. Send a shinobi over, use genjutsu interrogation, everything will spill. Then execute them on the spot—no room for arguments—and confiscate their assets."
"If they can hire foreign shinobi and samurai to fight for the daimyo seat at a time like this, their family wealth won't be small. Some of them might be rich enough to rival a country. Raid a few households and you'll have enough funding and supplies to keep Iwagakure alive."
"Shinobi aren't great at politics—but you can learn. Taxes will all be handled by you. After that, Iwagakure won't need to fear collapse ever again."
As for the civilians' future… that wasn't his problem. Hanzō only needed Iwagakure to survive. The more chaotic the Land of Earth became, the better for him.
The two on the ground looked like their jaws were about to hit the floor.
"Insane… Hanzō is a madman," Kakuzu screamed internally.
"Lord Hanzō, that's impossible. The one country, one village system was established by Hashirama Senju—"
Rōshi hadn't finished before Hanzō cut him off:
"Let me guess what you were going to say."
"'The one country, one village system was established by Hashirama Senju. At the Five Kage Summit, it was set that villages must not touch the daimyo, or they'd face a coalition of other villages.' Right?"
Rōshi nodded.
"What a joke."
"Tell me—where is Hashirama now?"
"When he distributed the tailed beasts, didn't he also set a rule that villages couldn't go to war for twenty years? How long after he died did the First Shinobi World War break out? Huh?!"
"The strong makes the rules. The weak obey them."
"That is the truth of the shinobi world."
"You think I'm giving you a way out?"
"Wrong."
"I'm giving you a choice of how to die—except one of those deaths contains a visible path to live."
"But if you don't do it, then when your supplies run out in half a year, that will be the day Iwagakure is wiped out."
"And you—will be the last Tsuchikage, the greatest sinner."
"You still have half a year. If you act now, you can still make it. If you wait, even if you decide to move later, it'll be too late."
"I'm only telling you the possibility. Whether you do it… is your decision."
…
Rōshi was silent for a long time. At last, he stood.
"So this is how a 'Demigod' thinks… It's… impossible to resist."
In his eyes, resolve and hope flickered; even his chakra seemed to condense, sharpen.
"Carrying the hopes of every shinobi in Iwagakure, I cannot allow the village to be destroyed—even if it's Hashirama Senju's rules."
"The daimyo's authority… Iwagakure will seize it."
Rōshi looked at Hanzō.
"We will not be looked down on by the other great nations. Against Sunagakure and Kumogakure, we will show our will. The name of Iwa will not be defiled."
"But we no longer have the strength to deal with Takigakure."
"In the name of the Fourth Tsuchikage, I hire Lord Hanzo to eliminate the Takigakure force invading the Land of Earth."
"We can't pay your supplies now, but once we seize the daimyo's authority, funds will flow back quickly. We'll pay you the moment we can."
Hanzō nodded.
'Good. That's it.'
Light the fire. Fight Suna and Kumo to the bitter end.
"The commission is accepted. But we don't need to make it that troublesome."
Hanzō pulled out the map from earlier and drew a circle behind the red line.
"The payment can be substituted."
"There's an iron mine here. Give Ame the mining rights for seven years as the price for hiring me."
"Huh? Why?" Rōshi didn't understand.
"I'll explain."
"First: the location is special—close to the territory you ceded, convenient for extraction."
"Second: it's near the Sunagakure front. If we occupy it, then as long as you withdraw, there's a mountain range on the left and our worksite on the right—this becomes a bottleneck pass, impossible to force through."
"If Sunagakure understands what it costs to provoke the 'Demigod,' they won't be stupid enough to attack us."
"Simply put: you can put half your mind at ease on the Suna side."
"Third: if I mine this area, besides guard shinobi I'll hire local civilians as workers. That also helps stabilize the Land of Earth's chaos."
"Fourth: money. Leaving the mine untouched is useless. In wartime, nobody dares take such risks. If we lease it, your most direct benefit is taxes—because this is still within the Land of Earth."
"And after that, the tax collector is Iwagakure. That's your best supply line."
"Fifth: you need weapons too, right? You know how expensive weapons are in a shinobi war. Iwagakure has factories. We can provide cheaper raw materials—doesn't that reduce your costs?"
Hanzō finally asked, "Any questions?"
Rōshi looked dazed. "Why… help us like this?"
Kakuzu, however, was thinking hard. Hanzō wasn't that kind of person. There had to be another layer.
"Help you? Don't make me laugh."
Hanzō's voice was flat.
"I'm protecting Ame's interests."
"You're just catching a tailwind while we do it."
He quickly wrote on a scroll.
"This is the contract: I eliminate Takigakure's invading force in exchange for seven years of mining rights for this area."
"If you see no problem—sign."
Rōshi took the scroll, scanned it once, and signed his name.
"Lord Hanzō… Iwagakure will never forget your kindness."
He seemed to have forgotten that Hanzō was his enemy—who had just taken a tenth of the Land of Earth.
What he didn't realize was that besides Sunagakure's pressure, nearly everything Iwagakure was suffering right now… was caused by the very man he was thanking with tears in his eyes.
"Since it's settled, I'll go complete the commission."
With that, Hanzō strode out of Iwagakure.
And Kakuzu finally reflected on the earlier deal.
"Salamander Hanzō… you're even worse than those damn ninja cats."
"The cats only skimmed me once. Hanzō just directly gutted an entire mine region in the Land of Earth."
"He's taking the Land of Earth's money, making the Land of Earth's people work for him, and in the end he's still earning the Land of Earth's money."
Kakuzu looked at Rōshi.
If this weren't for the situation, that gaze looked like it could turn into grateful tears at any second.
"My body's back. Now I should run—far away from Hanzō."
Cold sweat seeped from Kakuzu's back.
"About those money I've been scammed for... "
"If you really count it up, Hanzō only charged me a reasonable price. Although its painful, he actually showed mercy if you look it hard."
"I need to find a chance and escap—"
"By the way, Kakuzu."
Hanzō's voice poured into Kakuzu's ears like a curse, making his spine freeze.
"I remember you're a missing-nin from Takigakure, aren't you?"
"I wonder how much resentment you still have toward Takigakure."
Kakuzu's back went numb.
"Help me handle it."
"When it's done, I'll split two hundred million with you."
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