I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 303 While it's true that being right doesn't depend on how loud you shout, sometimes shouting can make people think you're right.

"Direct losses exceeding one billion taels? What exactly did that brat Chenma do in the Land of Wind?"

Many things were happening at the same time. The Third Kazekage of Sunagakure was leading the village's few ninjas skilled in Earth Release to carry out flood relief and rescue operations. At the same time, a letter of accountability was written and faxed to the Land of Fire.

Inside the Hokage's office, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at the first payment that Sunagakure was demanding in the documents in his hand, somewhat bewildered.

Even he found it hard to imagine what Tatsuma had done to cause the Land of Wind to lose over a billion ryo. The indirect and subsequent losses are still being tallied. Sunagakure is demanding that the Daimyo of the Land of Fire and Konoha take full responsibility for this.

Hiruzen Sarutobi had no intention of paying the compensation demanded by Sunagakure, let alone giving it much thought.

What he was still worried about was what Tatsuma had done. The key was that Tatsuma hadn't returned to the village yet, and there was no news coming from him. Moreover, according to the plan, this was only the second day since Tatsuma and the others entered the Land of Wind, right?

After much thought, Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't come up with an answer and could only consider it a slanderous extortion by Sunagakure, since 1 billion ryo was almost the cost of rebuilding a town.

No, for the impoverished Wind Kingdom, one billion taels is enough for them to rebuild a city, given their generally low level of infrastructure.

If Tatsuma truly caused so much damage, then Konoha shouldn't be receiving a letter demanding compensation, but rather a challenge.

However, this diplomatic letter could not be ignored, but a reply could not be given easily before the situation of Tatsuma and the others was confirmed.

Just as Hiruzen Sarutobi was agonizing over this, several figures appeared in the office. Tatsuma bowed and said, "Hokage-sama."

"Are you alright?"

Upon seeing the four return, Hiruzen Sarutobi was overjoyed and quickly asked, even putting down the diplomatic letter in his hand to examine the group.

Tatsuma nodded and said, "I have fulfilled my mission. I have eliminated a total of forty-six rogue ninja from various villages, five Sunagakure ANBU, and recovered the bodies of thirty-nine rogue ninja and one Sunagakure ANBU."

"good!"

Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled, not because Tatsuma and the others had killed dozens of rogue ninja, but because Tatsuma had brought back the corpse of a Sunagakure ANBU member.

Each member of the Anbu (Anbu) possesses many secrets, confidential information, and even top-secret information about the village. If an Anbu ninja betrays the village or information is leaked, the adjustments the village needs to make will be so numerous that they are difficult to count.

If something like this happened in Konoha, then the barriers, defenses, codes, ciphers, and so on would all have to be replaced, otherwise more information would be leaked, and it could even threaten the safety of the village.

Although the other villages are different, the effort and time required are similar.

Hiruzen Sarutobi wanted to praise the group, but then he looked down and saw the diplomatic letter. His smile faded slightly, and he said, "Tatsuma, did your operation leave any evidence against you this time?"

"I have cleared everything up. There is no way that Sunagakure can find any real evidence to prove that the loss suffered by the Land of Wind is related to us."

Tatsuma had excellent eyesight. Although it wasn't as good as special eye techniques like the Sharingan and Byakugan, it was still exceptionally good among ordinary ninjas. Therefore, he was able to see some of the information in the documents on Hiruzen Sarutobi's desktop.

Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded, noticing Tatsuma's gaze, but he wasn't bothered. Instead, he picked up the diplomatic letter, handed it to Tatsuma, and said:

"Take a look yourself. As the person involved, how do you think we should respond this time?"

Chenma quickly read it through, then smiled slightly and said, "This is utter nonsense. It's just the Wind Kingdom fabricating rumors and slandering us to swindle funds."

To be sick and yet demand others buy medicine for you—that's truly a serious illness. Such behavior is utterly despicable and laughable. Let the Land of Wind perform its own one-man show.

"Sizzle~"

Tianfeng almost burst out laughing when he heard Chenma's serious words, but luckily he covered his mouth with his hand in time, though the mask hit his mouth and hurt a little.

Hiruzen Sarutobi pondered Tatsuma's words carefully before asking, "Wasn't that a bit too forceful?"

"Neither Sunagakure nor the Land of Wind can hide this matter. Sunagakure's response to this incident will definitely be exposed, and then our diplomatic correspondence may also be leaked."

The tougher we act, the more other countries will think we're justified. We need to steer the whole thing in the direction of Sunagakure and the Land of Wind acting on their own.

Therefore, I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with being tough.

Tatsuma offered his opinion, and Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded in agreement, saying, "What you said makes sense. If we are too submissive, it will indeed arouse suspicion."

It might even embolden the Sand Village to take advantage of you. But...did you really do something that caused the Land of Wind more than a billion direct losses?

Not only was Hiruzen Sarutobi curious, but even Minato and Tenkazu were somewhat surprised, as they had been with Tatsuma almost the entire time, only losing contact for a dozen seconds.

If we only consider the previous battles, Sunagakure only lost five ANBU ninjas; the rest were rogue ninjas. As for the damage to the terrain...

It was an abandoned village surrounded by desert, so there was no economic loss at all. If you had to say, even if Sunagakure spent 20 million ryo on training each of their ANBU members, it would only amount to 100 million ryo at most.

The Sand Village is spending 1 billion ryo. Is this because they're treating their own ninjas too well, or do they think everyone else is a fool?

But despite their thoughts, Chenma didn't reply immediately. Even the earwig beside him nodded involuntarily.

Although he didn't see what happened in the end, the earwig could roughly guess from the strange phenomena when he left that the so-called gift that Tatsuma left for the Land of Wind was seawater.

Based on the density of the techniques used in those two bundles of sealed scrolls, the affected area is certainly not to be underestimated.

The place where they fought was indeed an abandoned village and a withered oasis, but there were indeed several similar small oases and towns around it.

If the seawater really did wash away those oases, then a direct loss of one billion taels of silver is indeed possible; no wonder.

No wonder Tatsuma, who has become ruthless towards his enemies, still hesitated before performing the technique and showed signs of inner turmoil afterward.

Just as the group was pondering their next move, Chenma nodded. He had already completed his initial calculations and said, "The direct loss is roughly ten billion taels, and the indirect and subsequent losses will likely increase by three to five times."

Of course, this is the case under the condition of restoration. If Sunagakure and the Land of Wind do not consider restoring the affected areas, it is possible that no further spending will be necessary.

Silence fell over the Hokage's office in an eerie silence. In contrast to the silence, everyone's expressions were a fascinating mix of emotions. Even Shikaku, hidden in the darkness, couldn't help but gape.

"What have you been doing?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi himself didn't realize that his voice trembled slightly when he asked the question. Billions of dollars in losses! Even if he were to cause trouble, he might not be able to inflict such terrifying losses on other major powers.

"The East-to-West Water Diversion Project".

Tatsuma tried to brush it off, but under the increasingly curious gazes of the others, he still said, "I threw about 250 million cubic meters of seawater into the Land of Wind."

Upon hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi's hand trembled violently. Two hundred and fifty million cubic meters. The largest lake in the Land of Fire has a water storage capacity of less than three billion cubic meters, which is about the same as the annual water consumption of the entire Land of Fire.

Tatsuma threw nearly a month's worth of seawater into the Land of Wind, and the key point is that it was seawater!

If a landlocked country is submerged by a large amount of seawater, the flora and fauna within the affected area will likely die out completely, and recovery will be impossible in the short term. Moreover, if this seawater pollutes the already scarce freshwater resources of the Land of Wind, it will be even more devastating.

Do you know the consequences of doing this?

Hiruzen Sarutobi asked, and to Hiruzen Sarutobi's surprise, Tatsuma nodded and took out six scrolls from his pocket, saying, "I have prepared a total of one billion tons."

However, after weighing the circumstances, I believed that the Land of Wind was capable of handling seawater up to 30,000 tons, so I released it.

Two hundred and fifty million cubic meters of water, or two hundred and fifty million tons of water, seems like a large number, but it is actually just a lake that is five kilometers long, five kilometers wide, and ten meters deep.

In addition to the desert's ability to seep water and the evaporation rate under such a hot climate, as long as Sunagakure responds in time, it is completely within a controllable range and may even increase the village's rainfall this year.

The desert terrain has almost no water retention capacity, and the spread range may be several hundred million, but based on the surrounding environment that Tatsuma has investigated, this water is not enough to cause a major blow to Sunagakure and the Land of Wind.

For at most the next month, all the elite ninjas of Sunagakure will be unable to go on missions and will have to join the flood relief efforts.

Tatsuma also told Hiruzen Sarutobi all his plans. After listening, Hiruzen Sarutobi's hands and voice stopped trembling.

As expected, Tatsuma wasn't the type to act impulsively on a whim. Hiruzen Sarutobi breathed a sigh of relief and said, "Are you sure this didn't leave any trace? After all, the impact was so widespread."

"It is precisely because of such a large scope of impact that no trace can be left."

Tatsuma responded, and Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded. With so much water washing away, any trace would vanish. In other words, Sunagakure knew that Tatsuma and the others had done it, but they couldn't produce any strong evidence.

Witness testimony is of little use in this kind of situation, especially since witness testimony is limited to those within Sunagakure.

"To bring the entire Sunagakure village to a prolonged semi-shutdown is an achievement that is extremely rare, even during wartime. You have done a great job. If you have any rewards you would like, just say the word."

Hiruzen Sarutobi smiled as he looked at the group, his gaze first landing on the earwig who was wearing sunglasses and appeared extremely calm.

But when the earwig spoke, his voice trembled as he said, "I want to retire as soon as possible."

Although Tatsuma kept talking about things being controllable and measurable, Earwig, as Tatsuma's teammate who stayed with him until the very end, knew just how crazy Tatsuma really was. He didn't want to experience that kind of heart-pounding feeling a second time.

Perhaps, as Wild Vulture said, one should retire from such a high-risk position when one reaches middle age. In fact, the work of the corpse disposal team and the clan's research are also quite good.

As soon as he finished speaking, both Tatsuma and Hiruzen Sarutobi looked embarrassed, but Hiruzen nodded and said, "We'll expedite the process. Anaguma, what about you?"

As the first Anbu member from the Uchiha clan, Hiruzen Sarutobi held Tianfeng in high regard. Tianfeng, still processing the previous information, was suddenly asked this question and, before he could process it, replied:

"I want to see it with my own eyes. Ah, no, that's not what I meant!"

No normal person would want to see such a disaster unfold, right? Won't saying this make the Hokage think he's a pervert? Or even that the Uchiha clan are all perverts?

"I want what I want."

Tianfeng tried hard to think, but he didn't know much about the village's valuable rewards. He could only say, "I want to learn other fire-style ninjutsu from the village. Although the Uchiha style's fire-style ninjutsu is powerful, I want to absorb the essence and concepts of other fire-style ninjutsu."

This real-world experience showed me many shortcomings and made me realize that the path of working in isolation is not feasible.

Upon hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded in satisfaction, looked at Tatsuma, and said, "As the squad leader, you should pay more attention to the growth of your subordinates. In terms of Fire Release, the Uchiha clan does indeed have unique skills."

You two can learn from each other and improve together, is that alright?

Tianfeng nodded without hesitation, but Chenma's eyes narrowed. This Sarutobi Hiruzen was planning to trick the Uchiha-style fire jutsu into the village's storehouse as well.

"Of course, no problem."

But Tatsuma still smiled and nodded. Compared to Sarutobi-ryu's fire release, Uchiha-ryu's fire release might be more suitable for him.

Hiruzen Sarutobi looked at Minato, whose furrowed brows relaxed at that moment, as if he already had an answer.

(End of this chapter)