Naruto: From Capturing the Main Clan to Becoming the Mastermind

Chapter 103 The Daimyo Shows His Attitude

"Yu, I'm going to be a father!"

"This is the third time I've heard this news."

"Huh?"

At the Hokage Building, Minato, who had been beaming with excitement, froze in place. "Who told you all this?"

Hyuga Yu pointed behind him, and Uchiha Fugaku, Nara Shikaku, and Tsunade entered the room one after the other.

Upon seeing this, Minato scratched his head and chuckled awkwardly.

I was so excited today that I had to tell everyone I knew, and now everyone knows.

"Ahem, let's not talk about this anymore."

Minato coughed twice, took out several wanted posters from a drawer, and changed the subject, "You all know about the underground black market, right?"

"Yes, of course." Fugaku nodded seriously, took one of the notices, and looked at the huge bounty on it. "The exchange had just raised our bounty when it was destroyed. To outsiders, it will probably look like Konoha did it."

Just as the bounties on the Hokage and other high-ranking officials were increased, the underground black market of the Land of Fire was immediately reduced to ruins by retaliation from unknown individuals.

Who does this?

Konoha, of course!

"The timing is really too coincidental." Shikaku also frowned. "So far, only the underground money exchange within the Land of Fire has been cleaned up. Some staff members managed to escape, and those we caught all believe that Konoha was behind it. It's really..."

He paused for a moment before continuing, "A shameless frame-up!"

"Does Class President Shikaku think the Gold Exchange staged this whole thing?" Tsunade sat on the sofa, yawning wearily. "Do you have any evidence?"

She's been working so much lately, she's so tired... She doesn't want to work!

"There's no evidence, but I sent someone to check the exchange, and all the money had disappeared."

Shikaku's expression was serious. "There are six money exchange offices in the Land of Fire, and they have a total of two billion in reserve funds! However, the locations where these funds are stored have not been damaged, and the keys have not been lost, but the money has disappeared."

Logically speaking, this is impossible.

The underground money exchange may have a powerful background, but in this war-torn world, there are always fearless ninjas.

To counter these people, the vaults of underground money exchange offices are built to be very sturdy and even have self-destruct capabilities.

Violently destroying the gate will turn the money inside to ashes.

Without a staff member's key, the vault cannot be safely opened.

However, the staff they captured, under the illusion, revealed the location of the key, and there was no trace of anyone using it.

Shikaku continued:

"Moreover, they all say that it was people wearing Konoha ninja headbands who attacked the gold exchange. But if it really was a Konoha operation, how could they have escaped? The staff are fine, and the 2 billion yen seems to have been transferred in advance, which doesn't seem like something an outside ninja would do, so I suspect it was orchestrated by the people behind the underground black market."

"Two billion?" Tsunade's sleepiness vanished completely. Hearing this number twice in a row, her eyes lit up. "Why don't we go and raid the gold exchange in that country? We'll definitely make a fortune!"

"..."

The others looked at her silently, but Tsunade didn't care. "Anyway, according to Shikaku, they've all framed us. We can't overturn the verdict anytime soon. Why not just go with the flow and make it a reality, and get some benefits in return?"

"That's a good suggestion," Minato smiled and said, "but we need to identify the culprit first. Yu, what do you think?"

Ignoring Tsunade's expectant expression, Hyuga Yu glanced at the bounty in front of Minato, his eyes flashing slightly, "Your bounty is very high, twice mine."

Upon hearing this, Shikaku frowned, roughly understanding what Hinata Yu was about to say. He wanted to interrupt her, but remembering his private conversation with Minato, he stopped himself.

It's alright, the fourth generation doesn't have those kinds of thoughts.

Hinata Yu's calm voice echoed in the conference room, "Including the increased share for us, this is not the wealth that an ordinary nobleman would possess."

"……I see."

Minato sighed, his gaze sweeping over the group, and said in a deep voice:

"But we can't be sure who raised the bounty, and even if the underground black market is related to them, there's nothing we can do."

Hearing Minato's words, which could be considered a statement of support, Shikaku was completely relieved, while Fugaku frowned slightly but didn't say anything.

Upon hearing this, Hinata Yu remained calm and smoothly changed the subject, "In that case, the only way to investigate is to start with the black market. Let's leave it to Root."

"Root... alright, I'll have the Anbu assist them." Minato nodded, thinking of Orochimaru who had been unusually quiet lately.

……

"Hey, Yu-kun, do you really think it has anything to do with the Daimyo?"

After leaving the meeting room, Tsunade quickly approached Hyuga Yu and whispered, "I understand that the bounty increase is related to the Daimyo, but what's the point of destroying the underground black market?"

Of all the high-ranking officials in Konoha, only her bounty remained unchanged. The problem was too obvious. Even though she didn't usually participate in politics, she knew that the daimyo had made a move.

What could a destroyable underground black market possibly have to do with a daimyo?

Hinata Yu gave her a strange look. "Why are you asking me?"

"I don't think Shikaku will tell me his attitude. You're a bit rebellious, you don't treat me like an elder, you just order me around every day, so you don't seem to care much about the daimyo."

As Tsunade spoke, she subtly expressed her dissatisfaction with Hyuga Hare.

Why are they constantly giving her different kinds of work?

She's not the Hokage!

Does a consultant have that much work?

We agreed that she only needed to work hard during the few days the Kazekage was visiting, but now the Kazekage has been gone for several days, so why does she still have work to do?!

Hinata Yu looked speechless. He wanted to say that Tsunade had secretly gone to the casino and delayed her work, but he knew that she must understand this and was just venting, so he ignored her and started talking about the daimyo and the underground black market.

"This is an attitude. The daimyo raising our bounty is a warning to us, and also a demonstration of his strength."

Tsunade nodded upon hearing this.

She understood that.

The daimyo clearly doesn't want to completely break ties with Konoha right now, but there are calls within Konoha for Minato to become daimyo, so he definitely needs to express his stance.

Raising the bounty is a subtle way to demonstrate one's economic power and show that one holds the lifeline of Konoha without appearing to be using excessive methods.

After all, the bounties for the Five Kage have always been there, and very few people have been able to complete them.

Hyuga Yu: "The Daimyo has made his stance clear, so naturally we need to see Konoha's attitude. If the underground black market incident was orchestrated by the Daimyo and myself, it means he wants to see the Fourth Hokage's reaction."

"I see." Tsunade instantly understood. "No wonder Minato said that after sending Root, he immediately sent Anbu to investigate as well."

Watergate is demonstrating its stance.

The joint investigation by Konoha's two major organizations was bound to be a massive undertaking, yet they ultimately failed to find the Daimyo, the mastermind behind it all, thus not exacerbating the conflict between the two sides. This already demonstrates Minato's unwavering resolve.

(End of this chapter)