Hinata brushed a strand of hair from the side of her neck with a faintly displeased gesture, making no effort to hide that mood from her voice.
"My time outside is limited, you know. Or does Lord Pain have something more important to discuss?"
This was unmistakably one of Akatsuki's gathering points. Still along the Land of Fire's border, though the location had changed from last time—the old trick of keeping multiple boltholes was elementary for any shinobi.
And by what seemed like sheer coincidence, every Akatsuki member present today had shown up in person. Even Pain was here in the flesh. None of which changed the fact that Hinata had been kept waiting for a solid ten minutes after arriving.
"Now, now—no need for impatience. I'm confident that whatever time you've lost can be recouped through Akatsuki's efficiency."
Pain showed no displeasure at her tone. Among shinobi, those who didn't bother putting on a false front were sometimes the ones most worth dealing with.
"Hey hey, little Suigintou~ I hear those tasteless bastards who wouldn't know art if it bit them have been a real pain in the ass lately, hmm~"
Deidara was the first to greet her. The blond missing-nin looked a bit run ragged himself—on top of his figure-making work, he'd been running around nonstop shutting down bootleg figure operations. Even for an S-rank criminal, it was getting to be a stretch.
"Mmm~ After all, the rights to Fox Tales are back under Konoha's control now. Even villages that might want to weaken the Leaf wouldn't just sit by and let that slide, right? So~ things have gotten a bit rougher for you lately, haven't they?"
Kisame chimed in with a grin. His words sounded flippant, but the logic behind them was crystal clear—the kind you could see through at a single glance.
"Which is exactly why money is the only thing worth trusting. No matter how friendly those ninja villages act on the surface, they'll bare their fangs and tear at each other the moment it suits them."
Kakuzu spoke up with his arms folded, equally unsurprised. He couldn't care less about the geopolitical situation. What he cared about was what kind of moneymaking scheme Hinata would bring to the table this time.
"Oh, come on. I didn't come all the way out here to listen to your analysis. I couldn't care less what those other villages think. All we need to do is submit escort-convoy mission requests through those countries' official channels. No matter how much they hate Konoha, they'll have to grit their teeth and switch from sabotaging the convoys to guarding them. A problem solvable with money isn't worth wasting our time discussing here."
Narrowing her eyes impatiently, Hinata made no effort to mask the arrogance dripping from every word. And that arrogance genuinely silenced every member of Akatsuki for a few seconds.
"Bwahahaha~! I'm with her!! 'A problem solvable with money isn't worth wasting our time discussing~' Now that's cool~!"
Hidan, scythe slung over his shoulder, was the first to burst out laughing, one hand pressed to his forehead. Clearly, he was a fan of Hinata's brand of overbearing confidence.
"This is really..."
Even Kakuzu's eyes went wide as he studied the girl in front of him. Then he murmured: "I think I'm starting to understand why money has such an affinity for you."
"Heh heh. Quite so. Then may I ask—what business brings you here today?"
Pain allowed himself the faintest upturn of his lips. The Hinata standing before him barely qualified as Chūnin-level in terms of combat ability, yet her words and her thinking carried a weight as solid as physical force. Simply conversing and cooperating with someone this formidable felt like it could fill you with confidence and pride by osmosis.
For Akatsuki, an organization that prided itself on overwhelming power, this was the very first time they'd encountered a partner who could make them feel that way.
"Hm hm hm hm. Then~ I'll get straight to the point. I'd originally planned to wait a bit longer, but those idiots went and pushed the opportunity right into our laps ahead of schedule. So I've decided to begin expanding the business now. Specifically: a pivot into a new industry—the production and distribution of television sets and videotapes."
Raising her right hand, Hinata swept her gaze across the assembled Akatsuki members. "This isn't some small-time operation like the figure business. If we're going to do this, it means committing significantly more capital and labor up front. So—are you prepared for that?"
Asking Akatsuki "Are you prepared?" was something vanishingly few people would dare do, because that kind of top-down phrasing demanded a position of superiority over a roomful of S-rank missing-nin. And the number of people in the entire shinobi world who could actually back that up with raw power could be counted on one hand.
"Hmm~ So you're saying Fox Tales is going to be adapted into a TV series?"
Tilting his head slightly, Kakuzu—the sharpest among them when it came to business matters—was the first to respond. "I believe you're the kind of person who was born to make money, but unless you spell it out, we can't simply agree on faith."
"Yeah, exactly. Isn't it enough to just keep doing art books and figures?"
Hidan scratched the back of his head, looking bored, and waved dismissively. "Personally, I've got zero interest in watching some feudal lord's saggy face on TV, or whatever—knife ads and furniture commercials, no thanks~"
"Heh heh heh heh. And that's precisely why I'm saying—the opportunity in front of us right now is enormous."
Spreading her hands wide, Hinata's smile didn't reach her eyes. "Listen. After looking into the current state of television programming, I feel like I'm standing neck-deep in gold and barely able to contain myself. You're right—I hate watching what's on TV right now too. But... what if we put Fox Tales on the screen?"
"Wha~?! You mean the author is planning to turn Fox Tales into a television show?! Hmm?!"
Deidara's eyes went wide with genuine shock, and from the look on his face, he was already daydreaming about what that might look like.
"Exactly. Moving images, characters brought to life, crisp sound and lighting—all of it goes beyond what static art books can offer. Humans will always chase higher pleasures. Superior visual experiences will inevitably replace inferior ones. This kind of evolution is the natural upward trajectory."
Hinata opened her palms, her tone brimming with barely concealed ambition and satisfaction.
And for good reason. According to her research, only fifteen percent of Konoha households currently owned a television set. The portion who regularly tuned in to watch programming was under ten percent. For an era where television already existed, those numbers were almost unthinkable. And this was Konoha—a rare pocket of peacetime prosperity where civilian development and material comforts were already relatively advanced.
If not for the shinobi world wars that had warped this world's trajectory and stunted its 2D media industry, Hinata would never have found herself staring down such a wide-open opportunity.
Against that backdrop, she could leverage Fox Tales' massive popularity to cross-promote the TV sets and videotapes she wanted to sell. But keeping all of that inside Konoha would be too crowded. She had no intention of concentrating every venture in one place. Not putting all your eggs in one basket—that was common sense.
"Hmm~~ But what does any of that have to do with producing and selling TVs and tapes?"
Just then, an absurdly goofy voice cut into the conversation. Hinata's brow furrowed slightly, and her fingers clenched by reflex. She knew exactly who this was.
Wearing a full set of shinobi armor and a swirl-patterned mask, Tobi struck an exaggeratedly playful one-legged pose behind the other Akatsuki members. When Hinata's gaze landed on him, the clown scratched his head with a goofy chuckle. "Ara? Did I say something wrong?"
"Who's this masked clown? Does Akatsuki keep a comic-relief prop on staff?"
Hinata turned back to Pain, her expression flat, her tone dripping with undisguised contempt. At a moment like this, she had to project exactly this kind of attitude. Anything less would invite suspicion.
"Pay him no mind. Just a nonessential backup member. Now then—let us continue our discussion."
Pain lifted his chin slightly. By now, he'd more or less figured out why Hinata was here: to persuade Akatsuki to follow her blueprint and get into the TV and videotape manufacturing business.
Pain understood perfectly well that letting someone else lead you by the nose was a basic mistake for any shinobi. But Akatsuki genuinely needed to grow, and Hinata had already proven herself exceptional at the one thing that mattered here—making money. So he decided to keep listening.
"It's simple. I want you to put up the capital to build a factory dedicated to manufacturing televisions and videotapes, and get it producing finished goods as quickly as possible. Once Fox Tales goes to television, I guarantee the number of people who want to watch TV will skyrocket. When that happens—will you really be worried about finding buyers?"
Hinata's proposal made Pain's eyebrows rise just slightly. The previous figure-factory proposal had been manageable—he'd used his own jutsu to temporarily create production-line workers for Sasori and Deidara, so there'd been no need for a full-scale factory build. That could wait until after the launch event a month from now.
But this second pitch—getting Akatsuki to build an actual electronics factory—clearly couldn't be faked with ninjutsu. Electronic components were inherently fragile. You absolutely needed an established assembly line and skilled technicians.
Not that Pain lacked the manpower or the location. Amegakure itself was a perfect site, personnel could be summoned at will, and as for technicians—well, between theft, kidnapping, and coercion, recruitment was never a problem. But if Akatsuki actually committed to building this factory, a significant chunk of their resources and attention would inevitably be tied up in the project going forward.
"However—one moment, please. As I understand it, there's no shortage of TV factories out there. Between the Five Great Nations, there are at least a dozen. How can you guarantee people will buy ours?"
Kisame tilted his head, puzzled. He had a point. While television manufacturers weren't exactly abundant, the existing ones were sufficient to meet current demand—or rather, the shinobi world simply hadn't reached the era of explosive consumer-electronics demand yet.
Hinata slowly turned her head. In the dim cave, her pale eyes glowed with a cold, white luminescence. Fixing Kisame with that gaze, she spoke one deliberate word at a time.
"Then... we make every last one of those factories shut down."
The air in the cavern seemed to freeze for an instant. Looking at the girl before him, Kisame gave a small, unreadable nod. "Right~ If everyone suddenly needs a TV and we're the only factory left standing... that's exclusive business and exclusive revenue—all ours."
"If it were anyone else, I might have to worry about their safety. But you lot—I don't think that's necessary, is it?"
She twirled a strand of hair around her finger and turned to Pain. "So then—what is your answer, Lord Pain?"
"Take one step forward, and all the wealth of this world will be within reach~~"