Uchiha Makoto closed the letter the First Tsuchikage had written to him.
Regarding this matter of a pie falling from the sky.
Out of caution.
Uchiha Makoto mentally reviewed the recent chain of events.
He thought it over carefully.
He tried to think from the First Tsuchikage's perspective.
"Is this a trap?"
"It shouldn't be. Provoking Akatsuki Village at this time would bring Iwagakure absolutely no benefit."
Uchiha Makoto first ruled out the possibility of it being a trap.
There was no reason for Iwagakure to try and deceive Akatsuki Village at this moment; it would do them no good.
Although the current public opinion in the ninja world was somewhat favorable to Iwagakure, the First Tsuchikage had already been put in a tight spot. Due to the great distance between Iwagakure and Kirigakure, with a sea in between, and the suddenness of the incident, Iwagakure was completely unprepared... Akatsuki Village's war against Kumogakure, on the other hand, had been meticulously planned.
Therefore, it was impossible for the First Tsuchikage to replicate a victory like Akatsuki Village's over Kumogakure. Since he already knew he couldn't achieve the desired result.
He should handle this matter with a low profile.
But the public opinion...
The First Tsuchikage probably also guessed that it was...
"The First Tsuchikage is proactively showing me goodwill... hmm... it should be a plea for mercy..."
"He wants me to step in and help cool things down..."
Uchiha Makoto pondered the First Tsuchikage's psychology and roughly came to a conclusion—the First Tsuchikage wanted Akatsuki Village to stop, to help Iwagakure suppress the current wave of public opinion in the ninja world to prevent the situation from escalating, and to use this opportunity to sell a favor to Akatsuki, to deal with Kirigakure together.
On this basis.
Uchiha Makoto began to calculate in his mind how to maximize the benefits.
Since the First Tsuchikage was asking for his help.
He had to reap sufficient benefits from Iwagakure.
Uchiha Makoto had not forgotten how the First Tsuchikage had ruined the excellent situation he had painstakingly created during the war between Akatsuki Village and Kumogakure... he had been so close to sending Kumogakure back to its pre-founding days!
Soon.
Uchiha Makoto immediately wrote a letter to Senju Tobirama. The content was simple—the plan is moving up, the benefits are huge, act on my Sharingan's cue!
The two of them didn't need to say much; a little reminder was enough.
To be able to maneuver between two great ninja villages and seize benefits.
Such an opportunity was truly rare.
Uchiha Makoto immediately summoned the wealthy merchants from under the Arasaka Corporation, as well as some influential nobles from the Land of Fire.
An emergency meeting was convened.
With the end of the war, capital was being invested everywhere in the ninja world.
Not just in the Land of Fire.
A large number of factories had already sprung up all over the ninja world.
Goods needed to find a market for consumption.
And on this basis, exchanges between nations were also becoming increasingly frequent.
The market of the Land of Fire was indeed large enough, but if they could open up the markets of other countries and expand their sales territory, no merchant would refuse such a good thing.
"Lord Light Shadow, is it Iwagakure and Kirigakure this time... You are truly a capable man!"
"To be honest, I've always liked the concept of free trade that Lord Light Shadow proposed. Tariff barriers are a real... We still have to bear the transportation losses, and on top of that, the tariffs... It's a real headache for us."
"....."
The wealthy merchants summoned by Uchiha Makoto had extremely excited expressions on their faces.
Playing the industrial game.
Especially when it involved cross-border trade.
They naturally knew the impact of transportation and trade barriers on the selling price of goods.
The former was truly difficult to solve at present.
The difficulty of infrastructure construction varied from country to country.
Even for the Land of Fire, it wasn't easy to build a modern transportation system.
It was only in recent years, with the continuous rise of the industrial faction, that for the sake of making money, they had been actively promoting national-level projects to build fast and convenient roads.
Coupled with Uchiha Makoto taking on many such missions and having Akatsuki Village ninjas participate in infrastructure and road construction, they were just barely able to manage.
Using Earth Release.
They couldn't build highways, but creating a few basic country roads was still possible.
The infrastructure of other countries was certainly not as good as the Land of Fire's, and these transportation losses had to be borne by the merchants.
If it were just that, with the Land of Fire's first-mover advantage, everyone would just earn a little less.
But if trade barriers were added.
It would be truly difficult to sell factory-produced goods in other countries.
No matter how superior your technology was, how good and cheap your products were, the wealthy merchants and great nobles of the other country were not fools. In order to make money in their own country and sell the goods produced by their own factories, they would inevitably use legal means to crush you, and might even revoke your license to do business there.
Of course, they were merchants...
As long as there was a profit in the end.
Even if it was a bit troublesome and came with certain risks, they could naturally choose to smuggle goods into other countries... but with such an act, if the officials of the other country just posted a mission in a ninja village, it would be extremely easy for things to go wrong.
The reason this group of merchants was so excited now was because they had already reaped the benefits of Akatsuki Village's powerful military strength and influence in the ninja world.
In the war against Kumogakure, Akatsuki Village had gained many privileges in Kumogakure.
All merchant groups with an Akatsuki Village background were beneficiaries.
They could easily bypass the trade barriers set up by the Land of Lightning and sell their products unimpeded there.
Even if the Land of Lightning wanted to resist, it was difficult to achieve any effective results.
Akatsuki ninjas would step in!
"This is just the beginning. Don't get any unrealistic ideas."
"Akatsuki Village is only a mediator, not a victor."
Uchiha Makoto threw a bucket of cold water on the wealthy merchants at the right time.
This time, Akatsuki Village was only mediating. It wasn't like the last time when they nearly brought Kumogakure to its knees and were able to sign a host of unequal treaties.
However, the enthusiasm of the merchant representatives did not diminish. It was already a good start.
Two heads are better than one, three are better than two.
After some discussion.
The merchant representatives quickly listed some excessive but probably acceptable confidential conditions for Iwagakure.
They hoped that Iwagakure ninjas would turn a blind eye to their activities in future missions.
Uchiha Makoto glanced at these conditions; they weren't particularly outrageous.
Considering that traditional ninjas at this stage were not well-versed in commercial affairs, the First Tsuchikage would probably agree.
By the time the Land of Earth discovered the trickery, it would probably be a year or two later... As for the future, they would cross that bridge when they came to it.
As for the Land of Water.
They would basically follow Uchiha Makoto's pace.
The first issue to be resolved was the fishing grounds. This was the most troublesome matter. Those bird dropping islands, since no one cared about them, were actually easier to handle.
The fishing ground issue not only involved the game between ninja villages.
There were also national considerations.
This meant that Uchiha Makoto would have to interfere in the internal politics of the Land of Fire again.
Monopolizing the salt market back then was actually a very serious transgression, but because it had the Daimyo's endorsement and the huge profits involved silenced many people, the matter was eventually dropped.
Now, the situation had changed.
Uchiha Makoto's slaughter of the entire family of a great noble from the Seika family last time had already aroused public outrage.
Especially since Akatsuki Village was also planning to open a bank and issue its own currency recently.
Although, for the sake of security, the currency would temporarily only circulate within the village, anyone with discerning eyes could see that Akatsuki Village's goal was definitely not just a mere ninja village... This was already very bold.
Economically.
Compared to the entire Land of Fire.
Akatsuki Village was still in a weaker position.
If the vermin were to openly play by the rules and engage in economic hedging against Akatsuki Village, sabotaging its newly established monetary system...
In that case...
Uchiha Makoto would also be in a very difficult position.
And in an open and fair competition, he couldn't easily resort to force... constantly flipping the table would ultimately lead to a loss of credibility.
In business, credibility is paramount!
He had to act with a lower profile in the Land of Fire recently.
If he continued to act willfully and interfere in the internal affairs of the Land of Fire's territory.
Who knew what kind of trouble would stir up.
Constantly slapping the faces of the Land of Fire's high-ranking officials... was a bit much... They had their pride to consider, after all.
Thus, Uchiha Makoto looked at the noble representatives attending the meeting.
—This was essentially a revolving door.
There was no special trick to getting these nobles to come to Akatsuki Village, just one pure reason—money!
In the past, because the rulers of the Land of Fire could never reach a consensus, the result was that everyone was struggling in the mud. But Akatsuki Village had broken this phenomenon.
Although Uchiha Makoto occasionally crossed the red line of a ninja village, in terms of the results he produced, he had always been a man of action.
This was a big plus.
Generally speaking.
As long as you didn't mess around and were willing to cooperate with Akatsuki Village to make money, Uchiha Makoto always welcomed everyone.
Having tasted the sweetness of cooperation, they were naturally willing to try cooperating with Akatsuki Village.
"Lord Light Shadow, leave the fishing ground issue to us... we will go and lobby the Daimyo..."
"It's just the authorization for the cannery... and the profit-sharing ratio..."
"Rest assured... we can all make money together."
"Then we have no problem."
Faced with the nobles' requests, after some discussion, the two sides quickly reached a consensus.
With everything settled.
The meeting came to an end.
Uchiha Makoto saw off these overjoyed guests.
All that was left to do now was wait.
Konoha was on standby, waiting for news from Uchiha Makoto.
And the letter Uchiha Makoto wrote to the First Tsuchikage would take some time to arrive.
The negotiations between Iwagakure and Kirigakure would also take some time.
After all, it wasn't enough for just Iwagakure to agree to let Akatsuki Village be the judge.
Kirigakure also had to agree to this.
Of course, Uchiha Makoto believed that Kirigakure would agree to Iwagakure's suggestion... if they couldn't talk... then they could only fight.
Seizing the fishing grounds by force was also an option.
However, during the preparation time before the negotiations began, Uchiha Makoto didn't plan to just wait idly.
He planned to take this opportunity to make some preparations for his future layout.
Since there were going to be negotiations, they had to be formal.
Akatsuki Village, Konoha, Iwagakure, Kirigakure—these were already the four giants of the ninja world. They could completely solve most of the problems in the ninja world.
Uchiha Makoto wanted to take this opportunity to try and build a platform for ninja discussions.
That is, the Five Kage Summit that the First Hokage had tried so hard to bring about... now it would be a Six Kage Summit.
In the original Hokage story.
The First Hokage did temporarily succeed in getting the Kage of the five great ninja villages to sit in a room, sign a peace treaty, and agree to abandon the use of force in favor of negotiations to resolve conflicts between villages.
However, after the Five Kage Summit where everyone divided up the Tailed Beasts and signed the agreement, there was no time for them to adjust and implement all of this... Senju Hashirama died not long after.
With Senju Hashirama's death.
The Five Kage Summit, which had only existed because of him, immediately fell apart.
The signed agreement also became toilet paper.
Uchiha Makoto actually didn't want this ninja world to be constantly at war. Being able to delay peace for as long as possible was beneficial to Akatsuki Village.
The current time was still a few years earlier than the Five Kage Summit in the original story.
If such a plan were to be initiated in advance, the effect should be much better than in the original story.
Once the dispute between Iwagakure and Kirigakure was successfully resolved, it should also provide a very good start for such a model.
Even if such a meeting could not truly resolve the disputes between ninjas, and was just a place for everyone to argue endlessly for their own interests...
But as long as everyone met, it was already progress.
Unlike the ninjas of the past, who could only rely on incomplete intelligence to guess the intentions of their opponents, ultimately leading to endless conflict and hatred.
If used properly, this would be a very powerful platform.
A place for arguing could become a place for doing business.
Although traditional ninjas were stubborn, they certainly wouldn't mind making a little extra money... Who hates money?
When everyone has business dealings with each other, they will be more considerate of each other, and their relationships will become closer.
Although they would still argue incessantly, the situation would be improving bit by bit.
As the village with a first-mover advantage, Akatsuki Village could totally use this opportunity to continuously inject capital into the other party's trade system, ultimately gaining a dominant position.
Even if it might not succeed, it should be enough to win over ninjas within the other villages.
When a ninja clan has financial support from outside the village, like the relationship between Akatsuki Village and the Uchiha clan... once there is a group of ninjas in a village who benefit from Akatsuki Village's capital, they will unconsciously protect Akatsuki Village's interests and speak up for it.
Paired with propaganda from the likes of Akatskywood.
Perhaps he could indirectly seize actual control of the village.
"I'm so devious... engaging in such subversive activities."
Uchiha Makoto kept writing and drawing on the paper. He planned to register Senju Hashirama's idea first.
He would build the framework for the Five Kage Summit in Akatsuki Village before him, letting Akatsuki Village lead the whole process.
This was a matter of the village's right to speak.
I'm sorry, Lord First Hokage!
Anyway, you don't care for such formalities.
Perhaps by then, you won't even have to bow your head and beg them for cooperation.
<><><><><><>
Read Advanced Chapters on : patreon.com/Kaizo247
~ Every 150 PS = Bonus Chapter!
~ Push the Story forward with your [Power Stones]