I founded the "Bragging Cult" in Naruto.

Chapter 684 No matter what profession you're in, the path to advancement always involves experiencing a dirty side.

"Father, didn't you say this was a conspiracy by Konoha? Why don't we recall the troops fighting against the Cloud Ninja? Let the Cloud Ninja return to the Land of Lightning and let them deal with the Sand Ninja and the Mist Ninja. Wouldn't that weaken those two villages?"

"But our current battle with the Cloud Ninja is a lose-lose situation, which won't help us at all, will it?"

Inside the Tsuchikage's office, Huang Tu asked in confusion. Ōnoki, reading through the battle reports, replied, "We can understand them, and of course the Hidden Cloud Village, Hidden Sun Village, and Hidden Mist Village can understand them too."

It seems that the attrition of the Cloud Ninja, Sand Ninja, and Mist Ninja is beneficial to our Iwagakure, but once the Cloud Ninja returns and defeats the Sand Ninja and Mist Ninja, will they come back to fight us again?

Given the current war situation, it is absolutely impossible to dethrone Konoha from its position as the strongest ninja village. What we need to strive for is to surpass the other three ninja villages.

Once the Cloud Ninja return and cease their battles with us, it will be extremely difficult to compete for second place remotely.

"Didn't you say that economic warfare also counts as war?"

"That's the problem. Take a look at these documents."

Onoki pulled out a few documents from the side and handed them to Huang Tu, saying, "The Hidden Cloud Village has been empty and chaotic during this time, which has allowed our spies to operate more effectively. These documents are what they just sent back."

I must say, even I was deceived by the burly appearance of the Cloud Ninja. I originally thought that with my judgment and the strength of the Iwa Ninja, I could easily defeat the Cloud Village in an economic war.

However, these seemingly reckless Cloud Ninja have secretly developed a lot of technology, especially in electrification projects, which are not much inferior to those of Konoha.

If given a period of peace to commercialize these technologies, it would be a huge blow to other ninja villages besides Konoha, and they might even lose a significant portion of their market share.

Huang Tu then began reading the materials. Looking at the technological products listed, Huang Tu himself was even a little tempted, wishing that they could be found in his own life.

He quickly shook his head, realizing the threat that these technological products from Hidden Cloud Village could pose.

Due to years of war, the technological development of the five major powers is actually quite distorted. Most of their technological funding is used for research on military preparedness, with very little for civilian applications.

Although the technological foundation of the five major countries allows them to transform those products into convenient technological products for civilian use in a short period of time, it still takes time.

But what about Cloud Village? It's already on the agenda, and there's even a concrete product line concept. The materials even contain an idea for iterative development of the same product.

In other words, Kumogakure already has the ability to turn these technologies into commercial applications. Perhaps all it needs to do is set up a few production lines to put them into the market immediately.

Although it's a bit slower than Konoha, which has already started selling its technological products throughout the ninja world, it's much faster than other villages, and at least much faster than Iwagakure.

At the current pace of Iwagakure, it will probably take another three years before the first batch of civilian and commercial products are available. If Kumogakure is left to its own devices, its market share will likely be completely eroded by then.

Therefore, peace is absolutely out of the question. We must use war to hold back Kumogakure and prevent them from cashing out. Otherwise, in the economic war, Iwagakure will be no match for Kumogakure.

If it were just Kumogakure, they might not have been able to do it, but now that Sunagakure and Kirigakure have joined in, Iwagakure only needs to hold off the main force of Kumogakure.

Once the Sand Ninja and Mist Ninja wreak havoc in the Land of Water, and ideally destroy the research bases cultivated by the Hidden Cloud Village, then we can consider it a victory.

Seeing the look of sudden understanding on Huang Tu's face, Onoki finally nodded in satisfaction and said, "Do you understand now?"

Huang Tu nodded vigorously and said, "Our focus now should be on controlling the eastern coast and the southern border, and preventing the Yunren from retreating along these two routes."

Unless the Hidden Cloud Village can come up with a more complete Heavenly Delivery Technique, we will definitely be able to trap the Cloud Ninja.

"If our goal is to trap the Cloud Ninja, your idea is indeed very good, but trapping the Cloud Ninja would also be extremely harmful to us."

The Sand Village and the Mist Village can destroy the hard work of the Hidden Cloud Village, and the Hidden Cloud Village can destroy our hard work in the same way. Therefore, what we need is not to block them, but to guide them and give the Hidden Cloud Village a way out.

Onoki shook his head and said, "The eastern coast needs to be blocked, and we can even destroy it if necessary, but the southern border should be opened appropriately."

"Think about it, what would happen if the Cloud Ninja left from the south?"

Huang Tu thought for a moment and said, "Several small countries between the Land of Waterfall and the Land of Iron will be 'passed through' by the Cloud Ninja. This will inevitably lead to conflicts among them, and could even result in clashes with Konoha."

"Well, other small countries are fine, but the Land of Iron is a neutral third country recognized by our five great nations and five great ninja villages. If the Hidden Cloud Village forcibly passes through, it will violate the treaty jointly signed by the ninja world after the Second Shinobi World War."

Even if we do nothing, Konoha and other ninja villages will definitely use this as an excuse to accuse Kumogakure of a whole host of crimes.

This would even further bolster the legitimacy of the Sand and Mist ninja's campaign against the Hidden Cloud Village. If Konoha were to intervene and, under pressure from public opinion across the entire ninja world, the Sand and Mist ninja could potentially escape unscathed.

Onoki said with a smile, "You'll see then whether Kumogakure, which has become the enemy of countless small countries among the five great nations of the ninja world, can still develop its economy as it wishes."

It's likely that all the funding they receive from the daimyo will have to be paid back to other countries, and their notoriety will be so great that their future technological products will likely not be accepted by the consumer market.

"By then, Cloud Village won't have the money to wage an economic war, and Sand Village and Kirigakure Village won't have the scientific research foundation to form a market cycle. Wouldn't that leave only Iwagakure in the ninja world, besides Konoha?"

Upon hearing this, Huang Tu also became excited and said, "Then should we hurry up and improve our past research for civilian and commercial use?"

"No."

Onoki shook his head, pointed to the documents in Huang Tu's hand, and said, "What we need to do now is reverse engineer these mature technology projects of Kumogakure and release them first!"

As long as we release our products earlier than Yunyin Village, then we are the original creators of these products. In terms of recognition, what can Yunyin Village use to compete with us?

"At that point, they'll only be able to develop new products, while we can transform our other research projects. With the combined scientific research resources of both villages, how can we not gain an advantage in the future economic war?"

"Dad, I didn't know you were so knowledgeable about business."

"That's right. If I hadn't been chosen by the Second Hokage and inherited his ninja way, I might be the richest man in the ninja world now, and you would be the richest man's son."

Hehe~ Hehe~

Huang Tu scratched the back of his head and grinned sheepishly. That didn't seem so bad, at least he wouldn't have to get involved in those dirty, violent things. No, wait.

It seems that when my dad talks about these business competitions, the ideas and methods he mentions are even dirtier! Sure enough, no matter what industry my dad is in, he will be a dirty person.

"So, are we going to relocate the Cloud Ninja to the southern border now?"

Huang Tu snapped out of his daze and asked, but Onoki continued to shake his head and said, "It's not urgent to give the Cloud Ninja hope after we've cornered them. The most important thing right now is to push them to the brink."

This was meant to give the young Fourth Raikage a small taste of the Iwagakure's iron-fisted power!

(End of this chapter)