Just as Kurahashi Min himself had said, in this ninja world, villages constantly fought each other with fortunes rising and falling. Since that was the case, it was normal for the financial groups backing ninja villages to suffer some collateral damage. Mainly, Konoha's foreign military campaigns had always performed well, so the Fire Eight Pillars Trading Group had rarely taken losses.
This time Konoha suffered a crushing defeat. Sunagakure counterattacked directly into the Land of Fire, and together with Kumogakure, they pressed Konoha so hard it couldn't lift its head. For now, there was no hope of recovery. The Fire Eight Pillars Trading Group had no choice—as they say, a defeated general cannot speak of courage. Without bleeding some to appease Sunagakure, they wouldn't get through this crisis.
By normal logic, the 20 billion ryō in cash offered by the Fire Eight Pillars Trading Group showed absolute sincerity. Kurahashi Min spoke the truth—this 20 billion was nearly all their liquid assets. Any more, and their business operations would face problems.
In his view, weren't ninja fighting and dying ultimately for money? Twenty billion was already an astronomical figure for ninja. As far as he knew, the Fire Daimyō allocated only about 600 million annually to Konoha's military budget, while the Wind Daimyō's allocation to Sunagakure seemed to be just tens of millions. Twenty billion would be enough to stun Sunagakure ninja senseless. Everyone might even have opportunities to cooperate in the future—steady streams, you know. With Fire Eight Pillars Trading Group's future support, occasionally sending some "political donations" could all be negotiated. At worst, they could just switch sides.
Not until Kakuzu's tendrils wrapped around his neck did Kurahashi Min fully understand—this black-faced demon wasn't some ordinary "protection racket" passing through, but the gravedigger of their Fire Eight Pillars Trading Group!
As for steady streams, Fire Eight Pillars Trading Group's support, political donations—he didn't care about any of it.
He wanted everything!
But why? This... this defied logic!
Could it be that Jinghang wasn't afraid of...
Just as he was about to suffocate, a yellow-haired youth in a black suit suddenly burst into the hall.
"Master."
"Sanji, what is it?"
The youth called Sanji whispered in Kakuzu's ear.
After hearing Sanji's words, Kakuzu pondered briefly, then slowly retracted his black tendrils.
The eight wealthy merchants suddenly hit the ground, greedily gulping mouthfuls of air and erupting in coughing fits.
"Thank our chairman. If he hadn't spoken up, you'd all be corpses by now."
Kakuzu slowly picked up the shirt from his chair, carefully put it on, grabbed his suit, and turned to Sanji.
"Arrange some people to take good care of these gentlemen. Can't let them die, understand?"
"Don't worry, Master. I understand."
Sanji bowed.
With that, Kakuzu walked out of the room without looking back.
Sanji grinned at the several men lying on the ground.
"Come on! Gentlemen, shall we move somewhere else to chat?"
...
Kakuzu's "money-grabbing" operation had extremely clear thinking. For his first stop, he went nowhere else, directly targeting the Fire Eight Pillars' vital point—Jade City. Half the Land of Fire's wealth lay in Jade City; taking Jade City meant half the mission was complete.
With three thousand ninja at his command, Kakuzu immediately sent two thousand Sunagakure security troops to blockade Jade City's gates and harbor routes, cutting off any escape possibilities for the eight wealthy merchant families. He personally led one thousand tax police to directly surround Jade City's largest bank—Jixin Bank.
Incidentally, Sunagakure's tax police force was no second-rate unit. Quite the opposite—these one thousand ninja were all battle-hardened veterans carefully selected from the regular army, each with at least four years of combat experience. Their pay was nearly double that of regular army ninja, and they reported directly to Sunagakure's Tax Department. Their mission was singular: punish all tax evaders. In Sunagakure's territory, whether you were an industrial magnate or farm owner in Moon Lake New District, or a gambling tycoon or entertainment boss on Yuexi Peninsula, no one dared shortchange the tax department by even one ryō. They had independent armed forces and could truly prosecute you legally.
Moreover, Kazekage Jinghang especially favored this unit, prioritizing them for the most advanced and finest equipment, making even the Intelligence Department's action teams green with envy.
Sunagakure had a saying: "You can offend Rasa, you can offend Yamashita Tetsu, but never offend the Tax Department."
For this operation, Sunagakure deployed their entire tax police force—the level of importance was clear.
In one encounter, they scattered the retainer guards that the Fire Eight Pillars Trading Group had spent heavily to maintain. Of course, it wasn't that these retainers were too weak martially, but that these tax collectors were too strong!
By the time Kakuzu reached Jixin Bank, the magnificent building already showed signs of collapse, with samurai corpses lying everywhere and wisps of black smoke rising from inside—clearly a great battle had taken place.
But Kakuzu ignored these conditions and strode swiftly through the bank's entrance.
Seeing Kakuzu arrive, the people inside hurried to greet him.
"Greetings, Master."
Two leaders bowed to Kakuzu—one was a big man with an afro, the other a handsome long-haired youth.
"Mm. Rotten Wealth, Howling Orchid, how's the situation?"
The afro-haired big man quickly said, "Everything outside the vault has been completely cleared."
"Hmm? The vault door still isn't open?"
Kakuzu was clearly displeased.
"Uh, Master, this vault door is really solid. The brothers spent tremendous effort but couldn't get it open."
The long-haired youth picked his ear.
Kakuzu checked his watch.
"It's been two hours and you still haven't opened it. Can't you use your brains?!"
"We tried! This lock mechanism is complex, made of refined steel. Without special keys and the correct password, there's no way to open it..."
Howling Orchid said embarrassedly.
"Moreover, this vault is one giant iron block cast as a whole and embedded underground, so chiseling walls is useless."
Rotten Wealth shrugged helplessly.
"Bundled explosive tags won't blast it..."
"Don't dare use Fire Release..."
"Water Release doesn't work..."
"Lightning Release can't cut it..."
As they spoke, the two looked like elementary students who'd made mistakes.
"Saying you don't use your brains—seems I really wasn't wronging you."
Kakuzu shook his head with a headache.
"Where's Dafei?"
"Robbing the Xijin family's silk shop."
"Do you know why I brought Dafei?"
The two looked at each other, then shook their heads.
"Because he's Jonin Ban no Akira's cousin! His full name is Ban no Fei! You two idiots!"
Kakuzu angrily smacked both their foreheads.
"Oh! I understand! You want to use his Boil Release technique to corrode the vault door!"
Rotten Wealth suddenly clapped his hands.
"If you're not going to use that brain, just donate it."
Kakuzu said helplessly.
"I have to teach you everything step by step."
"I'll go call Dafei over."
Seeing the situation, Howling Orchid ran out like smoke.
...
In this battle, Kakuzu's "plundering squad" subjected Jade City, the Land of Fire's economic center, to inhumane pillaging in just one month, gathering cash, gold, silver, silk, antiques, and valuables totaling 65.378 billion ryō.
Afterward, Kakuzu stationed himself in Jade City, overseeing the auction of immovable assets like shops, houses, and land. His five main disciples split into five groups along trade routes and waterways to continue plundering. Wherever they went, there were truly earth-shaking cries and widespread misery.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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