Uchiha's personal opinion

Uchiha Tokumitsu smiled broadly, "After all, seeing the Land of Lightning and the Hidden Cloud Village facing such a predicament, I also feel very bad. I always want to help the Hidden Cloud Village. It would be a good thing if we could solve some difficult problems."

"Then... if our village were to issue bonds on the Nanga River Bond Exchange, how should we proceed?"

After much hesitation, the Cloud-Hidden Envoy finally mustered the courage to ask.

"It's very simple!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu immediately pulled out a copy of the still-wet ink "Nanaga River Stock Exchange Issuance Guide" and handed it to the Cloud Village envoy.

"You only need to specify the bond issuance size, the proposed annual interest rate, the collateral, and the debt term; we will handle the rest."

Uchiha Tokumitsu's smile widened. "Of course, whether the bonds can be sold depends on whether your village's underlying assets and annual interest rate are reasonable. After all, the most important thing about bonds is that the investors have to think it's profitable before they'll invest their money."

The reason why he took the initiative to help Kumogakure issue bonds was because Uchiha Tokumitsu planned to cut off Kumogakure's external funding channels by underwriting the bonds.

After controlling external funding channels, Uchiha Tokumitsu could also artificially create several overdue payment incidents to seize a portion of the tax administration power of the Land of Lightning. Then, he could create a special zone based on tax privileges to infiltrate the Land of Lightning.

If Uchiha Tokumitsu successfully seizes control of the Hidden Cloud Village's external funding channels and part of the Land of Lightning's tax revenue, he can not only stifle the Land of Lightning's domestic industries and dump goods into the country, but he can even make a loaf of bread from the Hidden Cloud Village sell for as much as 500,000 ryo!

And now is also an excellent opportunity to get started.

After Yunyin suffered repeated defeats, the bonds that had already been issued would inevitably face concentrated redemption by investors upon maturity.

Because once the contents of the ceasefire agreement are spread to the outside world, everyone will know that after paying huge reparations, the Hidden Cloud Village and the Land of Lightning will inevitably face financial difficulties, and at that time, it will be difficult to borrow new money to pay off old debts.

The Namakawa Stock Exchange is certainly not a charity; all bond issuances are subject to management fees and stamp duty.

Furthermore, even if the bonds issued by Yunyin at the Nanga River Stock Exchange cannot be sold, it only means that Yunyin's investment return settings are inadequate and unreasonable, failing to entice those multinational tycoons to purchase the bonds for asset allocation.

Thus, the Cloud Village envoy, who had received the secrets from Uchiha Tokumitsu, finally persuaded the Cloud Village's high-ranking officials and the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning. After obtaining Uchiha Tokumitsu's permission to change the method of payment for the compensation, he paid 12 billion ryo to the Tokumitsu Shogunate. The remaining 8 billion ryo was used as collateral, with paper money and the Land of Lightning's tax revenue rights as collateral, to issue relief bonds with a face value of 8 billion ryo at the Nakagawa Stock Exchange.

In addition, Kumogakure plans to issue Kumogakure Infrastructure Special Bonds with a total debt of 5 billion ryo through the guarantee of the Daimyo of the Land of Lightning—in short, it's to refinance old debts with new ones.

This also marks the first time that a stock exchange effectively controlled by the Uchiha clan has underwritten bonds from other ninja villages.

As news of the new bond listing announcement spread on the stock exchange, Konoha and even the entire ninja world learned that Kumogakure, which had recently been badly beaten by Uchiha Tokumitsu, was now raising funds by issuing bonds through the Uchiha clan's bond exchange as if nothing had happened!

The Hokage faction was naturally very dissatisfied with this, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Because Konoha simply doesn't have any regulations or responsibilities applicable to financial and securities regulation!

So even though they were full of complaints, the ninjas of the Hokage lineage could only watch the Uchiha clan feast on their ill-gotten gains, while they could only wait for Uchiha Deko to take pity on them and give them more compensation.

……

After the reparations from Kumogakure arrived, the two bonds issued were immediately put on the market. Kumogakure had fulfilled all the agreements in the ceasefire treaty without fail. So, it was time for the Tokugawa Shogunate's expeditionary force to leave.

The new plot hole prepared for Sarutobi Shinnosuke is also intended to be filled by Uchiha Tokumitsu.

"Deguang-kun, the village is extremely concerned about war reparations..."

Sensing the village's focus on the war reparations from Kumogakure, Hatake Sakumo ran over to Uchiha Tokumitsu and said, "You understand, after all, this amount is too large..."

"We fought almost all of the Cloud Village Wars, what does it have to do with the village?"

Uchiha Tokumitsu scoffed at this, "The so-called village is just a pretext, nothing more than a money-making excuse come up by those shrewd infighting guys in the Hokage Building!"

Although Uchiha Tokumitsu had already planned to distribute a portion of the compensation to the participating ninja clans, this did not mean that he would hand over the money to the Hokage's faction for distribution.

The human heart is both complex and simple.

Receiving money from different people will naturally generate different levels of centripetal force.

"What about the compensation for the other ninjas who died in battle..."

Sakumo Hatake found the situation somewhat tricky.

"Giving money is not a problem, the problem is who will give it."

Uchiha Tokumitsu said, "If the combat subsidies and wartime allowances are issued to all participating ninjas in the name of the Military Command, I have no objection at all."

"So this is how you bypass the Hokage Building..."

Sakumo Hatake sighed, "This means we'll have to completely fall out with the Hokage..."

"It's not that bad. I will give them very reasonable compensation."

Uchiha Tokumitsu stroked his chin and chuckled.

"compensate?"

Sakumo Hatake immediately sensed that something was wrong.

Given Uchiha Tokumitsu's personality, he wouldn't be satisfied until he had completely destroyed the Hokage's faction. Any talk of compensation must be for ulterior motives!

"I am very worried about the growth of Kirigakure's combat strength. If this continues, Kirigakure may threaten the special status of the southern islands of the Land of Water after the war."

Uchiha Tokumitsu didn't answer directly, but instead laid the groundwork for himself: "So, the exchange issued bonds on behalf of Kumogakure to prevent them from being overwhelmed by Kirigakure so quickly."

"The victory of Kirigakure was indeed unexpected..."

Sakumo Hatake thought for a moment, then nodded, "The Third Mizukage seems like a completely different person..."

"Therefore, I plan to withdraw the troops stationed in the southern region of the Land of Lightning to the southern islands for deployment. As for the territory..."

Uchiha Tokumitsu paused for a moment before slowly saying, "I plan to hand it over to the village for safekeeping."

"...Say that again?"

Sakumo Hatake frowned and picked at his ear.

He thought he must have misheard.

Otherwise, why would Uchiha Tokumitsu, who has such a strong desire to control land, voluntarily hand over the territory he has occupied?

"After the shogunate's ninja army withdraws, I plan to formally hand over the territory in the southern part of the Land of Lightning to the village."

Uchiha Tokumitsu repeated solemnly, "Furthermore, the Sarutobi Shogunate suffered heavy casualties on the land of the Land of Lightning. In the future, we can appoint him as the garrison commander of the occupied area, which would be a way to avenge our previous humiliation."

"This……"

Sakumo Hatake was taken aback.

It's true that the southern region of the Land of Lightning is a hot potato.

This is a consensus among Konoha ninja.

The southern region of the Land of Lightning was the most fruitful result of this war, with its vast territory and abundant mineral resources sufficient to support the rise and development of a powerful clan.

This is also a consensus among the Konoha ninja.

Both consensuses are true and not contradictory.

But the question is... would the Hokage lineage dare to swallow this deadly poison disguised as honey?

Especially the Sarutobi Shogunate. Sarutobi Shinnosuke's amazing actions in the battle to capture the tailed beasts had already caused resentment among the various ninja clans. If the southern region were to be made a new territory of the Sarutobi Shogunate, wouldn't the various ninja clans of the Hokage lineage immediately erupt in uproar?

"If the village is unwilling to take over, then I will entrust Iwagakure to manage it. I believe they will be happy to do so."

Uchiha Tokumitsu said nonchalantly.

"...Are you planning to have me issue an order to move Sarutobi Shinnosuke north to the new town?"

Sakumo Hatake said with some helplessness, "These problems are not major, but the Hokage may not approve this type of document."

"Can a monkey really change its nature of picking peaches? I really don't believe it!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu laughed heartily.

Chapter 242 Hokage Candidates

"This is a conspiracy!"

The Nara clan chief said this.

"This is a vicious conspiracy to drag us into a bloody mess!"

The Nara clan chief reiterated this point.

When Sakumo Hatake and Tokumitsu Uchiha jointly sent the plans for distributing war reparations from the Hidden Cloud Village and the plan for dealing with the occupied territories of the Land of Lightning back to the village and reported them to the Hokage Building, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, immediately noticed Tokumitsu Uchiha's sinister intentions and convened a meeting of the core members of the Hokage lineage to discuss how to deal with the conspiracy jointly planned by Sakumo Hatake's forces and the Uchiha clan.

Although Hatake Sakumo passively accepted Uchiha Tokumitsu's "advice," the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, had no intention of discerning the truth and simply attributed the matter to another attack launched by the two against the Hokage's forces.

"...but it's also a calculated move that's hard to refuse."

Mitokado Yan, who was just recovering from serious injuries, sighed.

He had been an envoy to the Land of Lightning many times, and in the later stages of this war, he also collected a lot of intelligence on the southern region of the Land of Lightning, so he had a relatively in-depth understanding of the resource distribution and profit output of the occupied areas.

Inside the Hokage's office were Koharu Utatane, Torifu Akimichi, the heads of the Ino-Shika-Cho clans, Shinnosuke Sarutobi who had returned to the village for a second treatment, and Orochimaru, whose impatience was now blatantly obvious.

As Mitokado Homura said, this is a conspiracy.

Having just suffered a crushing defeat on the battlefield, the Hokage faction found it hard to refuse the honey-covered poison offered by Uchiha Tokumitsu.

But they also knew that what the Nara clan chief said was true.

If they take over the territory occupied by the Land of Lightning, they will inevitably face bloody retaliation from the Hidden Cloud Village in the future.

If the goal is to suppress Kumogakure and control the ninja forces it cultivates, then the Hokage faction must deploy its main force to the Land of Lightning's occupied territory and create a series of incidents to provoke conflict, continuously bleeding Kumogakure dry.

However, if this were done, not only would the Hokage lineage's power to maintain order within the village be greatly weakened, but it would also incur the generational hatred of the Hidden Cloud Village.

Moreover, this is tantamount to loosening the checks and balances that restrain the Uchiha clan. Who knows if those red-eyed lunatics will take risks and do something "unspeakable"?

While controlling the occupied territories of the Land of Lightning did indeed yield substantial gains, the benefits and losses were difficult to weigh compared to completely offending the Hidden Cloud Village.

"Lord Hokage, this is a vicious scheme by Uchiha Tokumitsu!"

The Nara clan chief sighed and addressed the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was sitting in the seat of honor, deep in thought.

But the problem is, who doesn't know this is poison?

The problem is that everyone is thinking about how to eat the sugar coating of poison and throw away the poison itself, and that's the only thing that makes them feel troubled.

"If you hesitate to eat the roasted meat that's practically offered to you, you might never even have the chance to drink the soup again..."

After a moment of silence, Akimichi Torifu broke the stillness, "If we don't even have the courage to take control of the occupied territories, then we'll just be at the mercy of Uchiha Tokumitsu and Hatake Sakumo from now on..."

"And you... Hiruzen, can you bear the thought of being impeached and forced to step down?!"

Akimichi Torifu's spearhead was pointed at the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, who was puffing out smoke: "The Reform Society founded by Sakumo Hatake has the goal of creating a new Konoha!"

"Shin-chan, are you confident this time?"

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, nodded, but did not directly respond to Akimichi Torifu's words. Instead, he turned his gaze to his eldest son.