I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 663 The situation of needing to buy is often accompanied by rising prices, and the same is true for needing to ask for favors.

"Interesting! Interesting!"

Inside the Tsuchikage's office, Onoki, his face flushed, touched his strawberry nose, looked at his son, Kotsuchi, and asked, "What do you think?"

Huang Tu looked puzzled and said, "How can we view this? It's just that Sunagakure has suffered consecutive defeats over the past three years and wants to cut its losses in time. Besides, a large part of the reason they participated in the war was for the Kazekage competition."

Now that the Kazekage battle is over and Pakura has emerged victorious, having consolidated Rasa's power, there's no need for her to participate in the war anymore, since they are no match for Konoha.

At most, the daimyo of the Land of Wind will stop spending money, and Sunagakure is too poor to afford the upcoming war.

"That's some progress; you can see three layers of reasons now."

Onoki nodded, a hint of satisfaction on his face. He had been nurturing Huangtu for many years, but Huangtu had never amounted to anything until he was finally enlightened by the Fourth Hokage, Tatsuma.

Several life-or-death battles have helped Huang Tu grow a lot. Although he still doesn't meet the requirements of a Shadow, at least he's no longer just someone with physical strength.

Perhaps, in his lifetime, he will truly see his son grow up to be a successful person? Now, Huang Tu has grown into the most outstanding ninja in Iwagakure, and has also inherited the unwavering will of stone.

In past wars, even he, the third Tsuchikage, had doubts about himself several times, but only Huang Tu, with his pure heart, always stood up when the village needed him most.

Although he couldn't change the situation, he could always provide the Iwa ninja with spiritual support. In this respect, Huang Tu did an even better job than his father, the Tsuchikage.

It's just that my perspective is still not broad enough.

Onoki said in a guiding tone, "The Daimyo of the Land of Wind has not given any military funds to Sunagakure during this war. Sunagakure has been overdrawing its resources for the war, and they have indeed reached a point where they cannot continue to overdraw."

But that's not the reason for the Five Kage Summit. After all, a few days ago, Sunagakure even held talks with major precious metal institutions, causing the price of gold in the Land of Wind to plummet. We took the opportunity to make a fortune, have you forgotten?

This shows that Yekura has no intention of ending the war. There are many reasons why she convened the Five Kage Summit. For example, the Daimyo of the Land of Wind not only cut off military funding but also other subsidies.

Think about it again, why? Why would the Land of Wind be willing to completely offend the Hidden Sand Village just to end the war?

"What benefit would this bring to the Daimyo of the Land of Wind?"

Huang Tu scratched his temple, and Onoki's smile widened. This son of his had already learned to think in the right direction and analyze things from the perspective of interests!

"The Daimyo of the Land of Wind shouldn't do this unless someone else offers him a huge benefit, a benefit that is more valuable to him than the entire Sand Village."

Hearing Huang Tu say this, Onoki nodded repeatedly. Seeing this, Huang Tu became more confident and continued to analyze: "This should be a game between the five major powers."

It won't be our Land of Earth, since our negotiations went very smoothly this time, and the daimyo has already agreed to allocate funds.

It wouldn't be the Land of Lightning either. The death of the Third Raikage forced the Land of Lightning to seek revenge, and besides, the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning was primarily a pro-war faction.

It shouldn't be the Land of Water either. The Hidden Mist Village suffered the most heavy losses in the final battle. This was the Mizukage Yagura's first war against foreign powers. In addition, the Land of Water also suffered heavy losses in its internal affairs due to Konoha's actions. Their daimyo should also support them.

So that leaves only the Land of Fire, but...why? Konoha is the winner; they're the last thing who should want the war to end.

"Sakamoto Tatsuma, a wolf in sheep's clothing."

Onoki stated his deduction directly, saying, "He crossed the bottom line of the Fire Country Daimyo, which made the Fire Country Daimyo willing to give up the profits in the war in order to restrain Konoha, or rather, restrain Sakamoto Tatsuma."

Huang Tu nodded thoughtfully and said, "Is it what you said before? Ninjas aren't incapable of engaging in production, but rather they are unable to engage in production?"

"That's probably it."

Onoki narrowed his eyes, looked down at the faxed letter, and said, "However, the daimyo of the Land of Fire probably won't achieve his goal so easily. Sakamoto Tatsuma must have a well-thought-out plan to do this."

"Are you saying that the Five Shadows Summit cannot bring about an end to the war?"

"No, the Five Kage Summit simply cannot be held."

Onoki shook his head and then said, "Don't rush to reply. Let's see how Konoha reacts."

Inside the palace of the Daimyo's mansion in the Land of Fire, Tatsuma, now free of his female companion, was engrossed in reading a popular ninja novel from the Daimyo's mansion.

Tan He asked cautiously, "Fourth Hokage, the Five Kage Summit is being held in Sunagakure. Don't you need to return to the village to handle this?"

"Need not."

Tatsuma waved his hand, seemingly unconcerned about the news Tan He had brought. He turned a page and said, "I've heard there's a ninja card game popular in Daimyo Prefecture, where the card characters are based on ninjas from the two most recent Shinobi World Wars?"

Tan He was taken aback, wondering why Chenma seemed unconcerned about the situation in the ninja world but was interested in this kind of children's game. Nevertheless, he replied:

"Yes, it's quite popular, and you've even been designated as the rarest limited-edition character card."

Tatsuma finally put down the novel in his hand and said, "Have the publisher go to Konoha when he has time. If he's in the Daimyo's residence, invite him to meet with me directly. We haven't authorized him to use the images of Konoha ninjas."

"this"

Tan He was somewhat speechless. What was wrong with the Fourth Hokage? He didn't care about important matters at all, but was so concerned about these trivial things? But he could only nod and say:

"I'll have someone inquire about it when I get back. I won't bother you any longer. If you need to return to the village, just let the other servants know. Kunimochi Daimyo said you are free to come and go as you please."

"Um."

Chenma nodded, picked up the novel and continued reading. Tanhe scratched his head, adjusted his glasses, and left Chenma's room.

He didn't understand what Tatsuma was trying to do. Could it be that he was going to skip the Five Kage Summit and prevent it from taking place, thus making it impossible to discuss ending the war?

But isn't this a bit too reckless? And such a clumsy plan doesn't seem like something the Fourth Hokage would do.

Or perhaps, long before leaving the village and arriving in Daimyofu, Sakamoto Tatsuma had already guessed what might happen here and made preparations in advance?

Inside the Kazekage's office in Sunagakure.

Looking at Pakura, who was covered in dust and had rushed back to Sunagakure overnight, Rasa said, "Fourth Hokage, I've sent out the proposal you gave me to convene a Five Kage Summit to all the villages, but..."

"Are we really going to cooperate with Konoha this time? If we fail, I'm afraid there will be no place for our Sunagakure to survive in the Land of Wind."

Yecang sat back in his seat, looking at the documents that Luo Sha had processed on his behalf, and said, "Do we have any other options? Today the daimyo can cut off our funding, so even if we compromise today, what about tomorrow?"

"Is it too late for us to back out now? Don't forget how much gold you had, which you've already secretly sent to the Land of Fire."

Rasa sighed and said, "Fourth Hokage, to be honest, I've even been wondering these past few days if this is a scheme you and Sakamoto Tatsuma set up against me. I'm afraid my fighting power is only half left now."

If things don't go as planned, and war breaks out again, I won't even be able to fight as part of the first echelon.

As a user of the Magnet Release: Gold Sand Kekkei Genkai, Rasa's combat power was inextricably linked to the quantity of gold sand he possessed. While the Third Kazekage was relatively inexpensive due to the low value of iron sand, his gold sand...

This time, he went all out to cooperate with Yekura and for the sake of Sunagakure. If Yekura betrays him or Konoha betrays him, then he will die a very serious death this time.

He was already inferior to Yekura, who became the Shukaku Jinchūriki. If he had teamed up with his wife Karura, they could have put up a fight, but after losing so much gold dust, he would probably only be able to protect himself.

Yekura frowned, looked out the window towards the direction of the Land of Fire, and said, "Actually, I'm scared too. I've never really understood Sakamoto Tatsuma, but in order to prevent Sunagakure from being controlled by the daimyo, we have no choice but to take a gamble."

She shook her head, rubbed her face, picked up the wooden cup she had just filled with water, took a sip, and said, "Have the Sand Ninja all retreated?"

"Yes, all the Chunin and above have returned to the village. As for the Genin, I left some in various places so they wouldn't be so conspicuous."

Rasa replied, and Yekura nodded, saying, "With Konoha's efficiency, it should only take a day or two. Either we get out of this economic predicament in one fell swoop, or we lead the Sand Village ninja away from this desert as sinners."

Upon hearing this, Luo Sha also sighed and said, "I hope everything goes well."

In Konoha, inside the Hokage Building, in the office of the Hokage's assistant, there was a map of the ninja world on Minato's desk, covered with countless markings.

That was the dark side of the ninja world, the location of the Gold Exchange Office's outpost.

Konoha had been gathering intelligence on the Gold Exchange for a long time, occasionally targeting a few of its outposts to vent their anger while simultaneously searching for deeper information and patterns of operation.

Although not all the information about the exchange shops has been uncovered, it is already sufficient. Whether it is to utilize the exchange shops or to destroy all the exchange shop outposts in the Land of Fire, it is quite easy for Konoha.

Even the gold exchange locations in other countries have been thoroughly investigated by Konoha, but Konoha does not intend to crack down on the gold exchange with all its might. After all, some things need to be done in the dark by those who lurk in the shadows.

Minato looked at Yamanaka Inoichi, who had entered his office, and asked, "Have the arrangements been made?"

"Yes, all 250 bounty targets from the five major powers have been assigned. I haven't even left yet, and people have already accepted the bounty commissions."

"Thanks to the gold from Sunagakure, the governors of the five great nations' garrison cities are now more attractive than ever before."

Hai Yi said with a mocking expression, "Wouldn't we consider this... ridding the people of a scourge?"

Minato nodded and said, "This money came from Sunagakure. We were just helping to pass on the information. It was Sunagakure that truly 'eliminated the people,' so we can't take credit for it."

Although they are all corrupt officials, people's livelihoods will likely remain unstable in the short term. We can't control other countries, but we should try our best to maintain stability within the Land of Fire.

Less than twelve hours after the invitation to the Five Kage Summit was sent out, the Land of Wind lost its first important official. As if on signal, news of assassinations of important officials from all over the five great nations soon followed.

The four kingdoms of Fire, Earth, Lightning, and Water reacted quickly, and many ninjas took action to search for the culprit. However, Sunagakure, after receiving the third notification from the Daimyo of the Land of Wind, sent back a completely unrelated letter.

"Request for Funding for the First Ten-Year Economic Development Plan of Sunagakure Village"

The contents of the reply were leaked within a few hours, and the ninja villages of the other four countries also stopped their operations. Inside the Tsuchikage Building, some specialists had even begun drafting a funding request for an economic development plan applicable to Iwagakure.

At this time, Konoha also issued a diplomatic letter to other countries, stating that during the war, in order to protect the safety of its own ninjas, it would suspend accepting commissions from other countries.

Iwagakure was the first to follow suit, directly copying the wording of Konoha's diplomatic letter, changing "Konohagakure" to "Iwagakure" before sending it to various countries. Other ninja villages followed suit shortly after, issuing the same diplomatic letters.

That night, at the palace banquet in the Land of Fire's Daimyo residence, the Fourth Hokage, Sakamoto Tatsuma, holding a ninja novel, asked the Land of Fire's Kunimochi Daimyo, Matsusetsu, for guidance:

"Matsusetsu, you know, in these ninja novels, the protagonist always unconditionally forgives the ignorant people who have offended him? That's not ninja at all."

(End of this chapter)