Naruto: The Tavern Speech Begins to Make the Land of Rain Great

"So you mean, we only provided Hanzo with two weeks' worth of supplies, and Hanzo, in gratitude for your aid, killed all those who were smuggling the supplies?"

Watanabe Toru exclaimed in surprise.

Nishimura, standing opposite Watanabe Tetsu, nodded in affirmation.

"That's right. According to my intelligence, most of the smugglers in the Land of Rain have been eliminated, but quite a few still ran away as soon as they got the information."

Watanabe Toru nodded.

This is a good thing for Xiaoguang Association.

Or rather, he didn't expect Hanzo to be so decisive.

Smugglers nowadays dare not set foot in the Land of Rain.

Watanabe Toru felt that if he were Hanzo, he would never have done such a thing.

The issue of food needs to be seriously considered. Previously, Amegakure Village relied solely on smugglers for its food supply.

But now that the Akatsuki has joined the fray, it's like having two forces that can provide food for Amegakure.

At this point, the focus should be on maneuvering between the two forces to secure the greatest possible benefit for Amegakure, rather than unilaterally eliminating one force.

This would return Amegakure to a state where a single force supplies food, increasing the risk of monopoly.

Moreover, after Hanzo's actions, who would dare to do business with Amegakure in the future?

However, this also gives us a glimpse into how Hanzo himself has developed an extremely high level of goodwill towards those grain smugglers.

They executed his entire family without even thinking.

But thinking about it, it makes sense. There's always a group of businessmen sucking your blood. They made hundreds of millions during the war. Anyone would be angry in that situation.

Now, another big merchant has emerged who claims to have a long-term supply and appears to have a background in the Land of Fire.

It's not surprising that Hanzo would do such a thing.

"So, it seems that Amegakure's food supply is now entirely provided by us?"

"That's right."

Nishimura nodded in affirmation, which made Watanabe Tetsuya fall into thought.

From this perspective, Amegakure's food supply is entirely in the hands of the Akatsuki.

In a critical moment, Xiaoguang could use the cessation of food supplies to give Hanzo a hard time.

Furthermore, given Hanzo's relentless defense of the smugglers, it's highly likely that once Xiaoguang stops supplying food, Hanzo won't be able to find anyone else to provide him with food.

In this way, Xiaoguang would undoubtedly have completely overwhelmed Amegakure in terms of logistics.

"Very good, Nishimura, you did a good job."

Upon hearing this, Nishimura's eyes lit up.

He bowed slightly, his tone full of respect.

"This is what I should do."

"You handled this very well. I remember you have a child, don't you?"

Nishimura nodded. These words would be a threat if spoken by someone else, but to Watanabe Tetsu, they were simply a gesture of concern.

Thinking of his child, a smile appeared on his lips, revealing the tenderness in his heart.

"Yes, my daughter is six years old now, and thanks to your food, she is very healthy."

Thinking about this, Nishimura's admiration for Watanabe Tetsuya grew even stronger.

After the food problem was resolved, Watanabe Tetsu distributed enough food to all members of the Akatsuki-kai for six months.

This made the veteran members who followed him even more devoted to him.

"Really? It's good that you're full. It's just a pity that we still rely on imports for meat."

Watanabe Toru sighed; there was nothing he could do about it.

Meat production is highly dependent on the farming environment and grain production.

The Land of Rain doesn't even have enough food, let alone enough to feed the livestock.

"Alright, enough with the small talk. Now that your daughter is six, I wonder if you've considered sending her to school?"

"School?"

Nishimura was somewhat surprised. After thinking it over, he came to a conclusion and then asked.

"Are you planning to set up a school?"

"That's right."

Nishimura's eyes widened, and he immediately responded.

"If it is a school you established, then I would like my daughter to attend."

But Watanabe Tetsu shook his head with a smile.

"This is just an idea. I'll let you know once the project is finalized, but I don't expect it will take long."

At this point, Watanabe Toru took out the employee badge, stamp, and registration form that he had prepared in advance from the drawer and handed them to Nishimura.

"You did a great job this time, this is your reward."

Nishimura slowly took the employee badge, on which two lines of large characters were clearly written.

【西村】

[Head of Logistics Department]

Then I opened the registration form again, which was filled with a dense list of various benefits.

Including but not limited to 1 million ryo of Fire Country currency per month, the authority to dispatch and review any member within the Logistics Department, the opportunity to learn one S-rank or lower ninjutsu per month, reimbursement for all ninja tool wear and tear expenses, and 30 medical ninjutsu scrolls per month...

There are probably two or three in total.

They were even allocated three small villas in Amatsu Town.

In short, the benefits are much greater than what I received as a team leader.

More importantly, he became the Minister of Logistics, a position that had been vacant for a long time.

This gave him more power and influence, making him second only to Watanabe Toru.

Of course, if we have to be honest, he might not be as senior as the other three ministers.

"Fill out the form, sign your name at the bottom, and the promotion process is complete."

Nishimura looked at Watanabe Tetsuya in surprise; he hadn't expected the reward to be so generous.

He originally thought that getting his daughter into the soon-to-be-opened school would already be the reward for his actions.

Unexpectedly, the real reward was a promotion, making him a minister!

He was grateful for Watanabe Tetsu's trust in him, which strengthened his resolve not to let Watanabe Tetsu down.

Watanabe Tetsuya was not promoted for nothing. In the Xiaoguang Society, if you don't have the ability, you won't be able to hold this position for long.

Rin, Hayakawa Hitomi, and Furukawa—aren't they all capable?

If Nishimura takes office, but Watanabe Tetsu discovers that he doesn't have the ability to be a minister, then it's best to remove him.

The future of Xiaoguang Society is more important than saving face.

Making Nishimura the head of the logistics department is also a test.

Anyway, there's no real loss.

This time, Watanabe Tetsu wanted Nishimura to give it a try and see if he could reform the economy of the Rain Country.

"So, our Minister Nishimura, I heard you had some knowledge of economics when you were young?"

Watanabe Tetsu's teasing prompted Nishimura to wave his hand and explain.

"Those were just small things I studied when I was young, only a little bit."

"Excessive modesty is not good. I have something I need you to do."

"I would like to hear the details."

Watanabe Tetsu nodded and continued.

"I plan to reform the economy of the Rain Kingdom. Currently, the Rain Kingdom's currency is completely unusable. What are your thoughts?"

Nishimura frowned when he heard the question.

He spoke after thinking for about ten minutes.

"In my view, currency is linked to national credit, and the fact that the currency of the Rain Country is unusable is undoubtedly because the Rain Country is not trusted."

Watanabe Toru raised his eyebrows, signaling Nishimura to continue.

"Then, as long as we can make the Rain Country trust people and have everyone use the Rain Country's currency for settlement, we can restore its value."

Nishimura paused for a moment, and seeing that Watanabe was alright, he continued.

"Our Akatsuki has achieved a major success that no other ninja in the entire ninja world has yet: medical ninjutsu scrolls. As long as we change the currency for settling medical ninjutsu scrolls to the new currency of the Land of Rain, we can naturally make them circulate and prevent them from being devalued."

"However, relying solely on medical ninjutsu scrolls is not enough to give the new currency value."

"You mean, research more high-tech technologies and switch their settlement methods to the currency we launch?"

"That's right. In addition, we need to control the liquidity of money and keep the total amount of money in the market at an appropriate level, neither too much nor too little. For example, when the economy stagnates, we can lower interest rates and expand the balance sheet to increase the total amount of money in the market. This is the only way to prevent economic collapse."

"Alright, Nishimura, everything you've said has made me realize one thing."

"Huh? What is it?"

"I made the right choice in electing you as the head of the logistics department."