Naruto: Konoha Spring of the Uchiha Prodigies

"Line up in the front row!"

……

After receiving this series of orders, even these troublemakers were thoroughly exhausted.

Naoki Sanada looked at the troublemakers who had become obedient with satisfaction, and was about to nod in approval when he suddenly heard a discordant burst of laughter.

Naoki Sanada looked in the direction of the voice and saw that it was one of the people in the line. Although he was standing straight, he had a strangely bright smile on his face.

"Is this interesting?" Sanada Naoki approached the man, looked up at the man standing ramrod straight on the bunk, and asked.

“Interesting!” the person being asked replied loudly.

Seeing this, Sanada Naoki really wanted to give him a couple of slaps with a police baton, but since the man had completed every move so meticulously, he couldn't find a reason to give him a couple of slaps now.

"Is it really interesting?" Naoki Sanada asked again.

“That’s really interesting!” the person being asked replied with a smile again.

This person left Sanada Naoki speechless. He even began to wonder if he had hit the man too hard and damaged his brain.

Naoki Sanada looked around blankly, his lips twitching for a moment before he finally managed to stammer out, "Great, training is so much fun!"

Just then, someone else moved their foot, and Sanada Naoki, eager to ease the awkwardness, grabbed the person and gave them a foot massage package.

Everyone in the dormitory fell silent. Although they could usually swagger around among the ordinary villagers with their fighting skills, they finally realized their weakness and foolishness when facing the ninjas who truly possessed power.

"Listen carefully, all of you," Hideaki Sakurai said. "For the next six months, I'm here to reform the mental state of all of you. Will you obey my orders?"

"Yes!" the people in the dormitory quickly replied.

"Your voice is too soft, I can't hear you! Can you obey my orders?" Hideaki Sakurai emphasized.

"Yes!" the crowd quickly raised their voices and shouted.

“Very good.” Hideaki Sakurai nodded.

At that moment, the dormitory door opened, and Yamamoto Ryota, who had been dragged in like a dead dog, was brought in and thrown in front of everyone like a rag doll.

Hideaki Sakurai also turned and left.

……

A few days later, Guy, who had been specially promoted by Uchiha Touko to become the captain of the Jonin team, returned to the village after completing the task assigned to him by Kakashi to inspect the border troops.

However, as soon as he returned, he saw a large group of members of the Sanqing Education Team, dressed in green bodysuits, running past him on the edge of the village, shouting slogans.

Seeing such a youthful scene in the village brought tears to his eyes.

Although he didn't know exactly what happened, he, who was always carefree, simply shouted "Youth!" and joined in.

This was even more of a torment for the members of the Sanqing Education Team.

It's one thing to train myself to the bone, but every morning when I'm running, there's always some crazy guy in a green bodysuit who shouts about youth as he walks past the group.

The instructors from the garrison also gave face to the new commander's close friend. Every time Kai passed by, they would stop to educate the disloyal members.

……

On this day, after leaving the Hokage Building, Uchiha Touko had a small get-together with Kakashi, Inuzuka Aka Aburame, and others.

During this period, the Inuzuka and Aburame clans have divided up the assets of the Utatane and Mitomon clans in the village, completely replacing their original ecological positions in the village. They have become the largest ninja clans in the village, second only to the Uchiha, Hyuga, and Sarutobi clans in terms of assets. Their original positions have been taken over by smaller ninja clans such as Gekko, who played a significant role in the coup that day.

Sometimes, even Inuzuka Jaws couldn't help but sigh that Elder Bones was right. Being cautious in daily life was to have the capital to go all in when opportunities arose, and choices were often more important than hard work.

With the ample resources available now, it won't be long before the Inuzuka clan has a large number of Jonin.

The Aburame clan was riding high. With more financial support, they were able to cultivate more and stronger insects. With resources, their clan's strength increased even faster than that of the Inuzuka clan.

After a few rounds of drinks, the middle-aged people at the table, in high spirits, couldn't help but start to care about the marriage and love issues of the young people.

Uchiha Touko was only seventeen. Although both the ninja clans in the village and the nobles from the Land of Fire who had recently moved to the village had their eyes on this hot commodity, Uchiha Touko's age could be used as a shield. On the other hand, Kakashi was 21 years old this year, which was the age for marriage. In addition, his Hatake clan was not very prosperous, so he became the protagonist of this private banquet.

Kakashi was also somewhat troubled by this, and could only quickly change the subject:

"Speaking of which, the Sanqing Education Team has a good reputation in the village. We've wiped out all the local criminal gangs, and the villagers are full of praise for us," Kakashi remarked.

Isn't that right? Those troublemakers who usually cause trouble have basically been caught in one fell swoop this time. A few who escaped last time have also been caught by the police and sent to jail. As for the remaining villagers, they are either people with ninjas in their families or kind people like Teda who are content to live their own lives. So, how could they not get good reviews?

“If you ask me, this should have been done a long time ago!” Raido Namiashi chimed in, “Those reckless guys dare to bully even the orphan of the Fourth Hokage. If it weren’t for the previous rules, I would have arrested them and given them a good lesson long ago.”

"Speaking of which, how's Naruto doing lately?" Uchiha Touko asked curiously.

“Hey, this kid’s getting more and more mischievous lately. He and Sasuke started some kind of Seven Stars Society at the Ninja Academy. He doesn’t do anything serious all day but skip school and play pranks.” Kakashi sighed and said, “Iruka has been running to my house and Fugaku’s house quite often lately.”

Uchiha Touko: ...

"Hehe, kids are all the same, it's good for them to have some energy." Uchiha Touko chuckled dryly, he hadn't expected Sasuke to be involved.

Chapter 129 Competing with the people for profit?

Recently, Sasuke and Naruto's little clique has been making a lot of noise at the Ninja Academy.

They called themselves the Seven Stars Society, a small group of seven people led by Sasuke and Naruto, plus Kiba, Chino, and Choji. They also included Shikamaru and Neji, who probably didn't want to be called such a chuunibyou (a Japanese term for someone with delusions of grandeur) but were forcibly dragged in by Naruto. The group quickly accomplished the feat of dominating the Ninja Academy, and even many senior students who were about to graduate from the Ninja Academy became their defeated opponents.

This is not surprising, as the brothers all belong to ninja clans with a long tradition of martial arts training. Even Naruto, despite having the worst grades in theory at the ninja academy, became quite formidable after learning simple taijutsu techniques taught by Kakashi, thanks to his body's regenerative abilities and a massive amount of chakra far exceeding that of his peers.

Ordinary upperclassmen are really no match for them.

If it were just a normal challenge and sparring, the teachers at the Ninja Academy wouldn't care. After all, the Ninja Academy is ultimately a place to train ninjas. But it's a big problem that these guys are skipping class and going out to play all the time. Iruka has been having a lot of headaches lately, since six of the Seven Stars are from his class.

However, the parents of these children don't seem to care much about this. Most of the children from these ninja clans who are sent to ninja academies for training are important members of their clans. The purpose of going to ninja academies is more important than studying, as they want to make friends and forge lifelong bonds.

These guys are playing together all the time now, and their parents are more than happy to see it this way.

As for Fugaku, after Itachi Uchiha's death, he reflected on his past parenting methods and stopped demanding that Sasuke be a genius. Now that Sasuke behaves like a normal, playful child, he only feels gratified.

So, the parents at the dinner table all burst into laughter after hearing this.

……

Days passed by, and half a year flew by in the blink of an eye. Uchiha Tokō's Eternal Eye was successfully born in the summer of Konoha 57.

In the past six months, the village has also developed tremendously. In just six months, Konoha Village has already taken on the appearance of the capital of the Land of Fire. All of this is thanks to Yamato, the master architect of Konoha. In these six months, he has made a fortune just by building mansions for the village's nobles.

However, this guy is quite sensible. He clearly understands why he has the life he has today, so after catching the money, he voluntarily handed over 70% of his income to the village as part of the village's financial planning.

In addition, the entire village has been transformed under the Sanqing Education program. The villagers who have completed their reforms and been released have fully realized whose village this is and dare not cause trouble anymore. The long-standing problem of street vendors occupying the roads has been greatly improved. More importantly, the troublemakers in the village have gradually given up their bad habit of spreading rumors. This is mainly because the prices in the village are indeed becoming more and more outrageous. In the past, working four or five hours was enough to feed the whole family for a day, but now these villagers have to work hard every day to earn money for food, so they naturally don't have time to do such nonsense.

However, this situation is not a solution. Protests about the excessively high prices in the village have appeared on Hokage Uchiha Tokkou's desk several times, which means that not only the villagers but also some of the ninjas can no longer afford the prices in the village.

In response, Uchiha Tokō raised this issue specifically during the court assembly in his capacity as Grand Minister of State.

However, the civil officials in the court assembly disagreed.

“Grand Minister, you are mistaken,” said Kazuo Miura. “Where are the prices high? Prices in the capital have always been like this. As the new capital of my Land of Fire, it is normal for prices in Konoha to be a little higher.”

"Is that so?" Uchiha Touko looked at Miura Kazuo expressionlessly. This old guy had been riding high for the past six months. His biggest political enemy was dead, and Uchiha Touko had promoted him to the position of Minister of the Left to recognize his contributions to the relocation of the capital. When Uchiha Touko was not at court, he was the head of the civil officials.

During this period, the merchants who flocked to Konoha showered him with all sorts of gifts.

It's just that this old guy still has some sense of propriety, knowing that there are some things that shouldn't be touched, and he's been restraining his subordinates from interfering with the village's ninja teams. Otherwise, Uchiha Tokō would have dealt with him long ago.

However, in the past six months, Uchiha Touko's main focus has not been on the court, which has given the old man a misconception that he and Uchiha Touko have some kind of tacit understanding. The trivial matters of the court are his task, while Uchiha Touko is in charge of military and political affairs.

“Yes, Your Excellency, this is a normal economic phenomenon; the market will regulate itself,” said one of Miura Kazuo’s civil officials.

"So this is a normal economic phenomenon?" Uchiha Touko nodded with a half-smile. "Then it seems I was overthinking it. But shouldn't those businessmen give back to the country after making money? For example, by investing in industries and providing jobs for the people?"

“Grand Minister, you are mistaken,” said Kazuo Miura. “These merchants pay a considerable amount of taxes every year. They have made an indispensable contribution to the development of our Land of Fire.”

"I understand." Uchiha Touko nodded with a cold smile. It was clear that these old geezers had received quite a bit of benefits, otherwise they wouldn't be cheering for these businessmen so enthusiastically.

“However, I think they pay too little tax,” Uchiha Touko said coldly. “The country gave them the opportunity to make money, so they are able to make money. Therefore, I think it is their duty to give back to the country.”

Uchiha Touko's cold voice reminded the ministers of that night in the Fire City six months ago.

Miura Kazuo swallowed hard, and said tremblingly, "Then, I wonder how much the Grand Minister of State thinks they should pay?"

"I think 70% is a good figure, don't you agree?" Uchiha Touko said calmly.

"Seventy percent?" Uchiha Touko's words caused a huge uproar in the court.

“Grand Minister of State, the commercial tax in the Land of Fire has always been only one-tenth. If you suddenly take seventy percent, most of the merchants in Konoha will not be able to survive,” a civil official said at this moment.

"Am I talking about merchants?" Uchiha Touko turned and glared at the person who spoke. These civil officials were best at playing the trick of changing the subject. However, Uchiha Touko, who now had a knife in his hand, had no intention of playing this kind of political game with them. If they didn't obey, he would just kill them and make room for his next ninja transformation plan.

“The existing tax policies will continue to apply to shops and vendors that are operating normally. This new tax law is mainly aimed at big businessmen,” Uchiha Touko said.

“This…this is competing with the people for profit,” another civil official stepped forward and said.

"Competing with the people for profit?" Uchiha Touka chuckled and looked at the person who spoke. "Murayama Takuyu, a native of the Fire Capital, entered the court as an official ten years ago. In the past ten years, he has accepted bribes totaling 1.343964 billion taels by taking advantage of his position. Just yesterday, one of your paintings was bought by a grain merchant for a high price of 30 million taels."

Uchiha Touko spoke expressionlessly, while taking out a scroll from the sealing scroll on his body.

"I am a rough man and do not know the way of calligraphy. I wonder which minister can help me appraise this painting and calligraphy and why it is worth 30 million?" Uchiha Touka shook his hand and opened a scroll of calligraphy with the four characters "Integrity and Public Service" written on it.

“Grand Minister of State…I…” Murayama Takuyu’s forehead was covered in cold sweat.

"Competing with the people for profit?" Uchiha Touko said with a sneer. "I think it's competing with you gentlemen for profit, isn't it?"

An eerie silence fell over the court. No one dared to step forward and be the first to speak out. After Abe Taiichi's faction was wiped out, none of those currently standing in the court had clean hands.

"Kazuo Miura." Touko Uchiha suddenly began calling out names.

"Your subject is here." Miura Kazuo stepped forward, covered in sweat. At most, Murayama Takuyu's crime would only result in his death, but if Uchiha Touko uncovered what he had done, his entire clan could be sent to join Abe Taiichi in death.

"Don't be nervous, I'm just asking." Uchiha Touko's face showed a warm smile. "I'm not very familiar with the laws of my Land of Fire. I don't know how to handle Murayama Takumi's matter. Can the Minister of the Left enlighten me?"

“Murayama Takuyu… is corrupt… corrupt and lawless, according to the law… should be executed,” Miura Kazuo said, trembling.

"Then what are we waiting for? Do you expect me, the Hokage, to personally mobilize the village's ninjas to take action?" Uchiha Touko's expression turned cold. "Guards!"

Two samurai who were guarding outside the palace came in and grabbed Murayama Takuyu, who was trembling like a leaf.

"Your Excellency, Grand Minister of State, spare my life! Your Excellency, Grand Minister of State, spare my life!" Murayama Takuyu cried out hurriedly.

However, Uchiha Tokō simply waved his hand expressionlessly, and two samurai dragged him away.

"Do any of you gentlemen have any opinions on my new tax law?" After a while, Uchiha Touko asked slowly.

"Your Excellency, the Grand Minister of State, has taken a wise and virtuous policy that benefits the country and its people," said Kazuo Miura, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“Yes, yes, Your Excellency is right. It was the country that gave them the opportunity to make money, and they should naturally give back to the country after they have made money. This is their duty,” another civil official stepped forward and said.

"But what about the commercial tax practices of my Land of Fire?" Uchiha Touko raised an eyebrow.