Naruto: Uchiha Youngjo's Konoha Spring

Chapter 184 The Twelve Little Strongmen Graduate
In the past two years, although Takagi Seiwan suffered repeated defeats against the armies of Mei and Kumogaku, and could only rely on his adoptive father, Fugaku Uchiha, to fight the enemy, his ruthlessness in dealing with internal threats was so great that even Fugaku Uchiha had to admit it.

Fugaku Uchiha once thought that Danzo was the most shameless insect he had ever seen, but compared to the actions that Takagi Seijin had taken in Kirigakure, Danzo's methods were simply moral exemplars.

Since Takagi Seiman ascended to the position of Mizukage, the purge within his team has never stopped. One of the two elite Jonin who had previously been a contender for the position was arrested and imprisoned by him on charges of colluding with the north, and then executed on a fabricated list of charges. The other, seeing that things were not going well, went directly to the north.

Furthermore, Takagi Seiman strictly controls speech internally, and any statement expressing dissatisfaction with him or the Konoha garrison will be punished by him.

Furthermore, when distributing the four ninja swords that were still in Kirigakure, Takagi Seiman also demonstrated an astonishing mathematical talent to Uchiha Fugaku.

Besides the Mizukage, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist are the most respected members of Kirigakure. Therefore, after taking over, Takagi Seiman naturally wanted to assign these four ninja swords to his confidants. However, according to Kirigakure's rules, to officially inherit the position of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, one needs the approval of more than half of the village's Jonin.

At that time, Takagi Seiman's control over the internal affairs was not as strong as it is now. The confidant who received the most votes only got 46% of the votes, but Takagi Seiman waved his hand and decided the ownership of these ninja swords directly, citing that it had already exceeded half after rounding.

As for Uchiha Fugaku, who was personally awarded the title of Konoha's Five-Star General by Uchiha Tokō, Takagi Seiman went to great lengths to flatter him. First, he spent a lot of manpower and resources to build him a residence in Kirigakure that was even more luxurious than the Mizukage's building. Furthermore, he never missed a morning and evening greeting to him. Fugaku felt that this guy was even more filial than his own two sons.

Furthermore, Takagi Seiman had subtly expressed to Uchiha Fugaku his desire to become Fugaku's adopted son, but Fugaku rejected this idea as soon as it came to mind. He was joking; to actually adopt this guy as a son would be to bring shame to the Uchiha clan's honor.

The situation in Southern Mist Village was like this, and Northern Mist Village wasn't much better in the past two years. In order to maintain the sovereignty of Mist Village while gaining the help of Kumogakure, Mei Terumi incurred a huge debt to Kumogakure. As a result, both villagers and ninjas in Northern Mist Village were struggling to make ends meet. Meanwhile, the economic development in the south, with the strong support of Konoha, naturally made the people of Northern Mist Village restless. Compared to the few who left Southern Mist Village for the peaches, there were far more people in Northern Mist Village who couldn't bear the poverty and left for the peaches.

Mei Terumi had no solution to this, since Touko Uchiha hadn't shown her how to handle such a situation.

However, after learning about the predicament of his half-disciple, Uchiha Touko had the White Zetsu, who was hiding in Northern Mist Village, intervene and point out a clear path for Terumi Mei.

An article titled "Lady Terumi Mei shattered Fugaku Uchiha's Susanoo with a kunai" circulated in Kita-giri Village almost overnight.

Under White Zetsu's manipulation, a wave of personality cult swept through Northern Kirigakure. Before Mei Terumi could even react, she was already being hailed as Kirigakure's Great Sun, the only hope to lead Kirigakure out of chaos.

While Mei Terumi herself was unaware of exactly what had happened, it was an undeniable fact that the number of Peach Seekers in Kitagiri Village was decreasing under this trend.

Over the past two years, there have been constant frictions between the two sides in Kirigakure at the border, but neither side has the determination to go to war directly, and the situation has remained stable.

As for the Land of Lightning, after Uchiha Touko planted the seeds of division, the rift grew wider and wider over two years thanks to the relentless efforts of White Zetsu.

Especially after a white Zetsu, disguised as a white warrior from the Land of Lightning, killed another white Zetsu, disguised as Haki, a massive riot broke out in the Land of Lightning.

Countless Haki haters from the Land of Lightning took to the streets, chanting the slogan "Haki haters' lives matter too," and started a new round of zero-dollar purchases.

The white people of the Land of Lightning were also unhappy with this situation. They said, "You Haki people have done a lot of illegal and criminal things. Even the Haki person who was killed by kneeling was a criminal who violently resisted the law. And now you say that we, the law-abiding white people, are discriminating against you?"

The Land of Lightning has always been known for its martial spirit. The initial demonstrations quickly turned into violent protests, with civilians in the Land of Lightning taking to the streets and engaging in fierce battles with people of different skin colors.

In the end, it was only after the Hidden Cloud Village dispatched a large battalion of ninjas that order was restored to the Land of Lightning.

However, although the riot in the Land of Lightning was suppressed by the ninjas dispatched by the Hidden Cloud Village, the fire also managed to reach the Raikage, A.

The white people of the Land of Lightning believe that the Raikage is biased towards the Haki, but the Haki in the Land of Lightning accuse the Raikage of not standing on their side as a member of the Haki.

Although A himself didn't care much about these rumors, they did affect the morale of the Cloud Village ninjas. Now, the Cloud Village's Haki Black has started to refuse to carry out missions with the white people.

Ai saw this situation and was very anxious, but there was nothing she could do.

As for the Land of Earth, having just experienced a great war but only reaping some barren land that is difficult to cultivate, it will take them a long time to heal their wounds.

Of the five great ninja nations, only the poorest, the Land of Wind, besides Konoha, has remained unaffected.

However, the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, was clearly not one to stay put. In the past two years, he had considered joining the battlefield of the Land of Waterfall in order to get a share of the Land of Waterfall's mineral resources.

For the Kingdom of Wind, they absolutely do not want to miss any opportunity to gain even the slightest advantage.

However, Uchiha Tokō only needed one move to subdue the Land of Wind.

Just as Rasa had assembled his army and made contact with Iwata Sawaki, Uchiha Touko, in his capacity as Grand Minister of State, passed a bill to protect the interests of the mining industries within the Land of Fire and its allies. In short, it imposed a 20% tariff on the metal resources of the Land of Wind.

This dealt a severe blow to the economic lifeline of the Land of Wind. It should be noted that the Land of Wind's largest source of income is the various minerals in the desert, and the largest buyers of these minerals are the Land of Fire and the surrounding small countries. Uchiha Tokō added tariffs and, in his capacity as Grand Minister of State, warned the Daimyo of the Land of Wind not to interfere in the wars of other countries.

At first, the daimyo of the Land of Wind was quite assertive, and he immediately imposed tariffs on the Land of Fire as well.

Seeing this situation, Uchiha Touko immediately changed the tariff to 300%. The 20% tariff was the result of careful calculations by Gato, which would put immense pressure on the Land of Wind, but wouldn't cause their complete collapse. However, after the Land of Wind retaliated, Uchiha Touko essentially just blindly pressed 0 when setting the new tariff. After all, once it exceeded that threshold, 300% or 3000% made no difference.

Sometimes, Uchiha Tokō really wanted to understand the thought process of the Daimyo of the Land of Wind. When Uchiha Tokō first imposed tariffs, it was just a small warning. He didn't really intend to do anything to the Land of Wind. After all, after imposing these tariffs, the economic development of the Land of Fire would also have some impact.

But the daimyo of the Land of Wind actually dared to raise tariffs against him, which was different from the trade war between the two great powers in Uchiha Tokō's previous life.

In trade between the Land of Wind and the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind was at a disadvantage. The Land of Fire did not rely on the Land of Wind's mineral resources, especially after Uchiha Tokō acquired several large mines in the Land of Waterfall. On the contrary, without the various goods produced and the food grown by the Land of Fire, the Land of Wind could hardly maintain its daily needs. After the two sides completely broke down, the daimyo of the Land of Wind had no choice but to surrender in less than two months.

After speaking with Uchiha Touko, the Daimyo of the Land of Wind returned to his country and warned Rasa, threatening to cut off funding and ordering Rasa not to act rashly.

Even if Luo Sha wanted to do something, he had no choice but to immediately behave himself.

After all, so far, among the major powers of the ninja world, only Sunagakure in the Land of Wind still relies entirely on the daimyo's funding for survival.

……

After the war between the Land of Earth and the Land of Waterfall ended, the ninja world entered a period of peace for a short time. Apart from Onoki pressuring the Land of Rain to return the tailed beasts from the Akatsuki organization within their territory, nothing particularly significant happened.

The Akatsuki organization did not respond to Onoki's pressure. Only Hanzo, who was controlled by Nagato, responded that there were no terrorist organizations in their Land of Rain, and then continued to close their country off.

Since suffering a great loss at the hands of Uchiha Touko last time, Nagato led the Akatsuki into hiding, and they have not been seen in the underground gold exchange of the ninja world for a long time.

However, when Jiraiya returned to the village, he learned that Nagato was still alive and decided to volunteer to go to the Land of Rain. Uchiha Touko did not stop him, after all, under his intimidation, he believed that Nagato would not dare to kill Jiraiya.

……

A year has passed in the blink of an eye, and Naruto and Sasuke's generation, possibly the most talented ninja academy students in Konoha in the last decade, are graduating.

As agreed, Kakashi went to the clan territory of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio on graduation day to become a witness to the Ino-Shika-Cho Potara Oath of Shikamaru, Choji, and Ino. He would also personally serve as their mentor.

Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame, and Hinata Hyuga, who was confirmed not to inherit the Hyuga clan's main branch, formed a reconnaissance team as originally planned. Their instructor was Shisui Uchiha, whom Touko Uchiha had forcibly pulled out of the clan's territory.

Neither the Inuzuka nor the Aburame clan had any objections to Shisui becoming Kiba and Shino's mentor. After all, Shisui was currently the strongest member of the Uchiha clan, apart from Uchiha Tokō and Uchiha Fugaku, who was the de facto ruler of Kirigakure in the Land of Water. Furthermore, Shisui's ninja skills were absolutely top-notch, and with him as their mentor, their safety was definitely guaranteed.

As for the undisputed strongest twin stars of this generation, Naruto and Sasuke, the brave star and crown star of the Seven Stars Society, Uchiha Touko assigned them to a team with Neji, who had been training in the Anbu for a year, and Uchiha Touko personally served as their team leader.

No one in this year's class was surprised by this result. After all, the two had stopped participating in class sparring since the fifth grade. In their duel, the teachers of the Ninja Academy could not even get involved as referees, let alone be seriously injured.

Sasuke's current fighting style is exactly the same as Uchiha Touko's wide-open style. After Naruto gradually improved his relationship with Kurama in the past few years, he was also able to start to borrow some of the tailed beast's power. In addition, with the Multi Shadow Clone Technique, which can create hundreds of clones at a time, his fighting style is not much less disruptive than Sasuke's.

In the Hokage's office, after Uchiha Touko personally put headbands on the two of them, he looked at them with a smile and said, "Time flies. You two are now official ninjas."

"Hehe! I've been waiting for this day for so long!" Naruto said excitedly. "Sensei, what's our first mission?"

“Generally speaking, newly graduated genin can only perform D-rank missions in the village, such as finding cats and dogs and picking up trash. In recent years, they’ve also taken on some other missions, such as helping out at construction sites,” Uchiha Touko said with a smile.

"Huh? Is that all?" Naruto's face immediately showed a look of disbelief upon hearing this. "Do ninjas have tasks like picking up trash?"

Upon hearing this, Sasuke sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. Over the years, although Naruto had been able to fight him to a standstill and even gain the upper hand with his animal-like physique, in terms of ninja etiquette, Naruto was truly appalling. As a ninja, did he not even know the most basic intelligence gathering before taking action?
“Of course, this is the path that every genin must take.” Neji said from the side.

"But Neji, you've been out of school for a year now, haven't you? I've never seen you pick up trash," Naruto asked curiously.

"I spent a year training in the Anbu under the teacher's arrangement so that I could wait for you two to graduate," Neji said.

"Hehe, want to skip picking up trash and go straight to high-level missions?" At this moment, Uchiha Touko smiled and looked at Naruto.

"Really?" Naruto's eyes lit up upon hearing this.

“Of course, with your abilities, it’s a bit of a waste for you to do this kind of D-rank mission,” Uchiha Touko laughed. “However, if you want to bypass this step, you have to prove to me that you have the ability.”

"Meet at Training Ground No. 3 at 8 a.m. tomorrow. Remember to eat a hearty breakfast," Uchiha Touko said meaningfully.

(End of this chapter)