Ever since the cabinet was established, whenever an issue concerned the entire village, Fumori Masaki would consult with the advisors who were also from his master's tutelage. Although he had the final say, Fumori Masaki never directly vetoed anything. Instead, he carefully listened to the advisors' suggestions.
He would nod and adopt reasonable suggestions, and for unreasonable ones, he would explain with reason and appeal to their emotions, persuading them or most of them. That way, even if he used his final say, it wouldn't have any negative impact.
Everyone had studied under Senju Tobirama, and even after reaching high positions, they couldn't consider themselves superior to others. Fumori Masaki felt that Sarutobi Hiruzen's inability to punish Shimura Danzo before he made a grave mistake might have been due to this kind of camaraderie.
Moreover, the relationship between Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo was like that of Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, or Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke.
Fumori Masaki himself was also influenced by this. No matter how rational a person was, their judgment could be swayed by emotions. Fortunately, although the seven of them had disagreements in their daily work, these were within the scope of official business.
In their private lives, their relationships remained as good as ever, and they hadn't drifted apart.
Fumori Masaki truly hoped their relationship could continue this way, rather than ending up like Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzo, whose differing ideals led to former friends drifting apart and eventually becoming hostile.
One would accuse the other of being radical, while the other would criticize their naivety. If it were just a private matter between the two, it would be one thing, but it unfortunately affected official matters, even causing problems in the village's management.
According to past practice, Fumori Masaki would make general decisions with the advisors, and then bring them to the Jonin Council for discussion and confirmation.
So, Fumori Masaki shared the information he had obtained and expressed his wishes, then waited to hear the advisors' thoughts.
"I believe we should bring the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki candidate here as soon as possible," the always rational Mitokado Homura immediately stated.
"The Land of Whirlpools is far from the mainland. If anything happens there, the village won't be able to intervene immediately. Bringing her to the village will make it easier to protect her, and she can also be trained from a young age."
The others nodded, all agreeing with the suggestion to bring Uzumaki Kushina to the village early. Seeing this, Fumori Masaki said, "Alright, this matter is decided. Next item."
Since everyone agreed, Fumori Masaki didn't say anything more and moved directly to the next topic. The cabinet's discussions were only about the general direction; specific measures still needed to be implemented in the Jonin Council.
On one hand, many hands make light work, and on the other hand, it gave everyone time to think. It would be difficult to ask people to come up with solutions immediately in a short time.
"The medical team's results in the Land of Rain have been remarkable, effectively easing the relationship between the village and the people, just as we anticipated. The people of the Land of Rain have a very good impression of the village," Koharu Utatane said.
"However, once the medical team withdraws, we will need to use other methods to ensure those achievements are maintained."
"It was originally decided that medicines developed by the Medical Department would be sold through merchants, but now it seems the people of the Land of Rain are very poor. Can they afford to buy them?" Akimichi Torifu said, looking at the report.
"If we lower the price, merchants might not be very willing. After all, these people are ultimately driven by profit," Shimura Danzo said.
"Moreover, even if the price is lowered, the people of the Land of Rain might not be able to afford it. They are too poor!"
"Yes, they are too poor. This is a relatively big problem. Although we can exploit them, this overdraft method can only bring temporary benefits. If we push them too hard, it will also provoke rebellious sentiments among the people of the Land of Rain," Fumori Masaki nodded.
"So, Masahiko, what are your thoughts?" Shimura Danzo looked up, staring at Fumori Masaki, saying each word deliberately.
"It's just an outline. I think it's better to increase income than to cut expenses. Since the people of the Land of Rain are poor, we should find ways to help them earn money, and then they can buy medicines or other goods."
Fumori Masaki looked at each person's face and said, "No matter how good or necessary a product is, it has to sell, and the prerequisite for selling is that customers have money."
"Are you suggesting that merchants go there to expand their business?" Uchiha Kagami asked.
"Yes, whether it's their local businesses or having merchants supported by the village establish new businesses there, the first step is to allow the Land of Rain to develop.
Although their resources are lacking, their unique geographical location gives them this potential," Fumori Masaki said.
"What if we raise a tiger that turns on us, Masahiko? You know the Land of Rain is different from other small countries; they have a Hanzō among them," Shimura Danzo raised an objection again.
"The current leader, Hanzō, is a person who cares about his country, which is beneficial to us. If the Land of Rain becomes rich and powerful, it will indeed be more troublesome, as powerful countries are unwilling to have only such small land and ninja world status.
Therefore, our goal is to make the Land of Rain rich but not powerful," Fumori Masaki replied.
"Rich but not powerful?" Shimura Danzo pondered for a moment, then nodded slightly, thinking this method was good.
It could provide revenue for Konoha Village and ensure safety. If it were his past self, he might have felt it was still a threat, believing a Land of Rain that was neither rich nor powerful was best, but now his thinking had changed.
Konoha Village's economic strategy towards the Land of Wind achieved good results. The resource-poor market of the Land of Wind was easily invaded by merchants from the Land of Fire.
Aside from the unique mineral resources of the Land of Wind, the rest of the market was very dependent on the Land of Fire. Coupled with bribing the nobles of the Land of Wind with money, the Land of Wind was basically unable to pose a threat to Konoha Village.
Every time he saw this information, Shimura Danzo would feel a little incredible. As a traditional ninja, he believed in his own strength and never paid much attention to merchants.
But what he never expected was that these defenseless merchants, in a "peaceful" way, achieved what they couldn't solve even with war.
Therefore, Shimura Danzo felt that Fumori Masaki was indeed a very talented person. His good friend and rival, Sarutobi Hiruzen, might truly be inferior to him.
If it were that boy, he probably wouldn't even think of such a method, and if he did, it would likely be a naive dream.
At that time, Shimura Danzo would have said, "You will regret this, Hiruzen!" However, he didn't have the opportunity to say that to Fumori Masaki.
Shimura Danzo was shocked by such a miracle. However, once when he expressed his feelings to Fumori Masaki, Fumori Masaki said that this was not a permanent solution.
As time progressed, such actions might still arouse the suspicion of certain people in the Land of Wind, leading them to attempt to disrupt it, because this economic connection was not yet firm.
Shimura Danzo found it somewhat incomprehensible, but Fumori Masaki understood that the economic ties of a feudal society could not reach the level of globalization of his previous life, unable to penetrate every aspect.
Although it was just a guess, Fumori Masaki felt that the Konoha Crush Plan, which the Hidden Sand Village executed as a last resort to gain the support of the Daimyo in the original story, would play out here.
However, Fumori Masaki was still happy because this was the first step. As long as they didn't stop, when ninja world civilization entered the modern era, economic ties could reach a ninja-world-wide level.
As long as the Land of Fire could establish such a huge influence and have sufficient military strength to guarantee its central position, even if it couldn't unify the ninja world for various reasons, a ninja world alliance established in the form of a confederation could still play a similar role.
Of course, for people like Shimura Danzo at present, this was something completely unimaginable, because they had never witnessed such a landscape, so they couldn't even begin to imagine it.
"I just don't know if any merchants would be willing to go there. The environment there is quite bad," Akimichi Torifu said.
"Ah, indeed," Fumori Masaki glanced at Danzo, saw him give a wry smile, and nodded in understanding. The environment in the Land of Rain was indeed not very good.
"But precisely because of that, the Land of Rain has many business opportunities to explore. There must also be unique resources there, right?" Mitokado Homura said.
"It seems there are some mineral resources, not chakra metal, but another kind. Its properties haven't been studied much," Shimura Danzo replied.
"In that case, it would be best to send some samples to the village," Sarutobi Hiruzen said immediately upon hearing this.
"Perhaps the properties of this iron ore could solve some problems in the R&D department."
"Good, then everyone agrees with this plan. The remaining measures will be discussed in the Jonin Council," Fumori Masaki decided, and the others had no objections.