Uchiha's personal opinion

Uchiha Tokumitsu tapped Shisui's forehead.

"revenge!"

Shisui's expression immediately turned serious. "We must avenge ourselves against Mount Myōboku, which dared to challenge the Uchiha clan!"

Although this set of cultivation levels, which was transferred from memories of a previous life, still seemed somewhat far-fetched after being combined with the cultivation theories of the ninja world, it was more than enough to fool a young Uchiha.

"Remember! Your techniques and spells are all for the purpose of practicing your ninja way!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu immediately shouted, "Never forget your ninja way! Never forget the blood feud of your clan!"

"The Myoboku lineage must be destroyed!"

"All the toads on Mount Myōboku must die!"

The two tomoe in Shisui's eyes spun faster and faster.

"Kaleidoscope Eye Technique: Okuninushi!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu immediately revealed his Mangekyou Sharingan and activated the Supreme Dojutsu.

Under Uchiha Tokumitsu's deliberate guidance, Shisui's emotions were already fluctuating greatly. The hatred and anger that had been simmering in his heart were all brought out. In addition, through the connection and agitation of the Mangekyou Sharingan with Okuninushi, the two tomoe in Shisui's eyes spun faster and faster, and the expression on his face became more and more ferocious.

Immediately, the two tomoe, whose rotation speed was almost imperceptible, turned into a chaotic mass, and then split apart again—

"This is……"

Sensing the surge in his pupil power, Shisui's ferocious expression instantly transformed into one of disbelief and astonishment, his hands trembling as he touched his eyes.

The highest level of bloodline limit that ordinary clan members can achieve within the Uchiha clan... has awakened just like that?!

"Three tomoe!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu stood with his hands behind his back, gazing with satisfaction at his "excellent work."

Although he wasn't a second-generation descendant in his previous life, as the leader of his clan now, he understands very well the principle that "it is our responsibility to carry on the family legacy."

Moreover, the power of Uchiha Tokumitsu's Mangekyou Sharingan is closely related to the number of clan members who have awakened the Sharingan.

Perhaps due to excessive excitement, or perhaps because the initial awakening of the three tomoe had consumed too much chakra, Shisui's eyes rolled back, and he was about to faint.

Uchiha Tokumitsu grabbed him and lifted him high in the air.

From demonstrating ninjutsu to undermine his confidence to deliberately distorting the theory of ninja way to stir up his emotions, Uchiha Tokumitsu put in a lot of effort for his "excellent work".

"Don't let me down..."

"My Instantaneous Stillness!"

Chapter 328 White Paper and Village Investment Companies

After staying in Fubo Castle for a while, Uchiha Tokumitsu felt hopeless about the progress of the Uzumaki Research Institute's research on the harmless treatment of natural energy. So he simply decided to turn a blind eye and, after reiterating that the research direction should not be changed easily or that research funds should not be misappropriated for other research interests, he took the initiative to stroll back to Konoha to relax.

During this period, the counter-terrorism forces achieved remarkable results. After clearing out the occupied areas of the Land of Lightning, Uchiha Shiina immediately turned around and returned to the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Waterfalls, clearing out no fewer than thirty black market strongholds and seizing a huge amount of supplies and black money. Even when the spoils of war were valued at a discount, they could cover the initial budget for establishing this standing ninja army.

"What a pity... This kind of good thing can only be done once. It will be difficult to maintain the ninja army by relying on spoils in the future."

While reviewing the detailed counter-terrorism report, Uchiha Tokumitsu struck up a conversation with Hatake Sakumo.

"So... the black market is this rich!"

Looking at the staggering figures in the report, Hatake Sakumo could barely contain his greed, wishing he could immediately lead his troops out to find a few black market strongholds to plunder.

"Who knows which nobles or wealthy merchants are backing them up in this so-called black market!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu snorted coldly, "If such an underground organization could have survived since the Warring States period without a powerful backer, its influence would have expanded to an unknown extent!"

The Uchiha clan's contractual ally, the Ninja Cat Clan, was part of the black market and one of the core suppliers in the underground arms trade. Therefore, Uchiha Tokumitsu learned some secrets through the Ninja Cat Clan.

The so-called black market is not actually a unified organization.

For example, black market outposts scattered across various locations may have different backers; they may simply be there to better serve wealthy individuals or facilitate shady activities. Different black market outposts may share information or exchange intelligence, and may even be able to connect for black market task settlements.

But this does not mean that the black market forces are all in the same camp.

For example, according to the description in the counter-terrorism report, the black market stronghold in the Land of Rice Fields was actually privately established by the country's daimyo to make up for the lack of military power due to the absence of ninja villages. The purpose was to recruit some wandering ninjas or homeless ninja clans as their military support, and there was even a plan to turn the underground black market into a state-owned ninja village when the time was right.

However, in the face of the heavily armed and aggressive anti-terrorism forces, the efforts of generations of daimyo in the Land of Rice Fields were completely in vain. Not only were their strongholds wiped out and their assets confiscated, but even evidence of the daimyo's dealings with the black market fell into the hands of the anti-terrorism forces.

Since the Tokugawa Shogunate launched the "peacekeeping operation" and forced the Land of Lightning and the Hidden Cloud Village to sign unequal treaties, the Land of Rice Fields, which was originally a buffer state, has been incorporated into the Land of Fire's sphere of influence. Therefore, from the perspective of jurisdiction, Uchiha Tokugawa, as the governor of Konoha who wore the seals of two great nations, had the legal right to decide this matter and even use it as a pretext to dismiss the daimyo of the Land of Rice Fields.

"To dismiss the daimyo... would be a bit hasty."

Hatake Sakumo disagreed with the anti-terrorism report's suggestion to dismiss the daimyo. "Moreover, besides the Land of Fields, I'm afraid the daimyo of our country also has a lot of connections with the black market... If things go too far, the village and the daimyo's prefecture will probably become irreconcilable enemies in the future."

'Those incompetent imperial guards under the daimyo's command... even if we completely break ties, what can they do?'

Uchiha Tokumitsu said nonchalantly, "Sakumo-kun, you don't actually think we can get back to the close relationship we had with the daimyo and nobles back to the days when the upper echelons were so intimate, do you?"

"You know, the village's ninjas are no longer willing to pay blood taxes so cheaply."

"Blood tax..."

Upon hearing this, Hatake Sakumo couldn't help but sigh.

The relationship between the ninja village and the country, to put it bluntly, is one of exchanging money for blood taxes.

The daimyo and nobles provided money and supplies, while the ninjas from the ninja villages contributed their strength and lives. Furthermore, after the ninjas were brought into the ninja villages, the daimyo and nobles gained a relatively controllable superhuman force, and the area became relatively peaceful. Those nobles who considered themselves of noble blood no longer had to worry about being sneaked in by some rogue ninja in the middle of the night and beheaded. Even if any special circumstances occurred, they could pay a small amount of money to have the ninja village send elite ninjas to carry out a mission.

This is the fundamental reason why Hashirama Senju's proposal to establish a ninja village was supported by the daimyo.

For the nobles, the era of the ninja village was the best of times.

However, this period of prosperity was short-lived. Since Uchiha Tokumitsu rose to power, he has been dedicated to destroying the Senju clan's most valuable political legacy, namely the one village, one country system. Not only did he amass military power early on, but he also established joint companies and stock exchanges to seize the monopolistic commercial interests of the nobles. He even overthrew the Hokage's rule over Konoha, the strongest of the five great ninja villages, and established a system of co-governance by Konoha's Jonin. Faced with the rise of the ninja forces, the Daimyo nobles were powerless to stop it.

Now, with Konoha entering the era of Jonin co-governance, Kirigakure under the rule of the shogunate, and Sunagakure transforming itself into a state and eliminating the daimyo and nobles, coupled with Iwagakure and Kumogakure, which are inclined to uphold the one village, one country system and dare not compete with the shogunate, the ninja power in the ninja world has clearly entered its golden age.

Nowadays, Konoha's mission commission standards have been rising again and again, but it still can't stop the daimyo and nobles with real needs from sending money in continuously. The Nakagawa Stock Exchange can even push the price to the top by just making up a reason to issue a bond.

It is precisely because the ninja village economy can generate relatively high income that ninjas are increasingly unwilling to risk their lives for the filthy money of daimyo nobles—in comparison, the United Company's fixed incense is much more generous!

However, besides the daimyo's fixed allocation, the village's main source of income is mission commissions. If the village's ninjas are too lazy to take on missions, then the village's administrative expenses and public welfare will be affected.

This is also what has been giving Hatake Sakumo a particular headache lately.

How about compiling a counterterrorism report into a white paper and releasing it publicly?

"Uchiha Tokumitsu asked."

What is a white paper?

Sakumo Hatake was taken aback.

After Uchiha Tokumitsu returned to Konoha, the reason he came to meet him immediately was actually to discuss how to solve Konoha's future official financial crisis, but he had not found an opportunity to speak up.

"You can think of it as a formal announcement document that the village releases to the ninja world, in order to show its position and approach on a certain matter, so that the countries and villages of the ninja world can understand and support the village's actions. The reason it is called a white paper is because I plan to use a white cover for the document."

Uchiha Tokumitsu explained very patiently.

"Just this report..."

Sakumo Hatake was somewhat surprised.

For ninja villages, anything involving the village's ninjas' actions is generally considered confidential, only the level of confidentiality varies. No ninja village, large or small, in Konoha or even the entire ninja world has ever done this.

"We need to foster understanding and support for the fight against terrorism among all countries."

Uchiha Tokumitsu said, "In particular, the white paper will make various countries aware of the dangers posed by the Myoboku lineage, and the village's counter-terrorism operations will become a widely supported transnational operation. In this way, our burden will be greatly reduced..."

Sakumo Hatake raised an eyebrow, said nothing, and simply flipped through the table of contents of the counterterrorism report again.

I didn't see anything about the Myoboku-san lineage in this report either!

This operation to clear out the occupied territories of the Land of Lightning, as well as the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Waterfalls, didn't even catch a single toad from Mount Myōboku. So how did it end up being linked to the Mount Myōboku lineage in the White Paper?

Hatake Sakumo thought and thought, but he just couldn't figure it out.

"cough……"

Uchiha Tokumitsu cleared his throat and said seriously, "It's like this. Although the white paper we released was compiled based on Shiina-kun's counter-terrorism report, in order to achieve the purpose of releasing the white paper and to play the expected public opinion role while effectively protecting the secrets of the ninja village, it is necessary to make some appropriate wording modifications."

For example, the Myoboku lineage has been secretly interfering in the direction of the ninja world, the ninja frogs have been constantly stealing secrets from ninja villages, and they have even used the guise of prophecy to directly interfere in the affairs of ninja villages under the pretext of finding a savior. Such outliers who do not respect the independent status of ninja villages should be severely punished.

In addition, there are various claims about the medicinal value of Greninja frogs, the unique effects of Sage Chakra on longevity, and so on. These can all be fabricated at will, since the Myoboku lineage can't retaliate in terms of public opinion anyway.

Oh, "textual embellishment," I get it!

Sakumo Hatake immediately understood; it was all about creating the necessary "evidence" in a reasonable way! Why make it sound so elegant!

"That's fine then..."

Sakumo Hatake shrugged. "It's just that the white paper recommends that it be reviewed by both the House and Senate before being released to the public."

"Of course~"

Uchiha Tokumitsu naturally had no objections. "I will provide the specific information and compilation requirements to the Administrative Affairs Department. I believe that under Elder Mitomon's leadership, they will be able to complete this task very well."

Upon hearing this, Hatake Sakumo couldn't hold back any longer and burst out laughing.

I wonder who Uchiha Tokumitsu was trying to discredit with those words!

"There's one more thing, and I hope Mr. Deguang can offer some advice..."

Sakumo Hatake laughed for a while before continuing.

"Please speak~"

"According to the Ministry of Finance's calculations, if the village's share of the workload continues to decrease at the current rate, the village's fiscal revenue is expected to fall short of its expenditures by the year after next..."

Sakumo Hatake said somewhat awkwardly, "Therefore, the village urgently needs a new source of revenue..."

"Isn't that easy to handle?"

Uchiha Tokumitsu was somewhat surprised.

Are there really people begging for food while holding a golden rice bowl these days?

"So what exactly should we do?"

Sakumo Hatake immediately asked.

"Develop a new village area!"

Uchiha Tokumitsu pointed out a dead end: "The village is the number one ninja village in the ninja world. Now, wealthy merchants gather here, and all industries are thriving. The village's territory is already overcrowded. This is the perfect time to carry out large-scale infrastructure construction!"

"As long as we develop infrastructure on a large scale, we can alleviate the housing pressure in the village, accommodate more people moving in, and the income from the new district can also alleviate the village's financial difficulties. In this way, it's a win-win situation!"