This was how Yorin roasted Fugaku:
"If you won't be a back-stabbing condottiere like the Italians, at least learn from Wallenstein of the Germanies."
And the next night, he said the exact same thing to NamikazebMinato.
Minato: "…"
Uchiha Fugaku: "…"
Uzumaki Kushina, who'd come to catch a cheater: "…"
Everyone was stunned by Yorin's shameless scheming.
Dude… we're ninja—are we really allowed to play it like this?
That can't be right, can it?
He's the daimyo, our sovereign and our bankroll—doing that to him is… kinda not okay, no?
…
Uchiha Yorin, the transmigrator, thinks in pure "political power grows out of the barrel of a gun" mode—if you've got the guns, you're the king.
In his view, since Konoha holds the Land of Fire's strongest military, it should take the biggest slice of the pie—not wag its tail for the daimyo like it does now.
Tobacco, sugar, tea, salt, iron—those trades should all belong to Konoha.
If the daimyo wants to play hardball, flip the table, draw the blade—show them what "untamed" means.
Obviously, neither Minato nor even Fugaku would back Yorin's dangerous ideas. They don't have that tradition—or that way of thinking.
Yorin was having grandiose ideas, but to their ears it boiled down to: treason.
"So… this 'money-making path' you promised is that?" Minato felt hard done by.
Earlier that day, after hearing about Obito, he'd been uneasy. He set up a late-night meeting with Yorin to discuss it.
Obito can't be rushed—you need patience. Right now the key issue is the massive fiscal hole from the Third Ninja War. Big blocks of shinobi death benefits are unpaid; ninja bled and wept and now stare dead-eyed like fish.
He hadn't known any of this before taking office; once he saw the books, his hair started falling out fast.
He finally got to midnight—skipping cuddling his wife to meet Yorin—and then Kushina spotted him slipping out, assuming this punk was sneaking off to a tryst.
Who'd have thought? Honest, thick-browed Minato, becoming Hokage and immediately trying to keep a mistress? Absolutely not!
So she tailed him, planning a caught-in-the-act.
Then she saw Minato quietly enter Yorin's place.
Even angrier.
"Oh, so it's a man you're seeing!"
Kushina: "Fair point."
The Red Hot Habanero thought for a moment and found Yorin's logic… not unreasonable. She sat and listened with Minato.
Minato, for his part, was uneasy. A jinchūriki's status is sensitive; Konoha loves to preach the Will of Fire, but its treatment of jinchūriki isn't half as generous as Kumo's. Is it really fine to have Kushina in statecraft?
Yorin had no such qualms. He'd been wondering how to build a bridge to Kushina; now the sister-in-law delivered herself—talk about timing.
And so, the Hokage couple, like Fugaku earlier, took a full mental broadside.
Kushina kneaded her temples, at a loss for words; Minato hesitated, words on the tip of his tongue.
He'd hoped for a solid plan. Instead Yorin handed him this heresy.
But… that's the daimyo, the legendary daimyo—and the nobles. The rules of the ninja world don't work like this. If they really did this, then…
"Then Konoha gets rich. The budget headaches disappear. Shinobi benefits and salaries double. Everyone lives better." Yorin said it flatly.
"The ninja world's eternal problem is 'lack of resources.' Iwa, Kiri, Suna, Kumo—their casus belli is always 'lack of resources.'
But the resources are right there. To me it's not lack—it's allocation.
Some hog far too much while contributing nothing to this country, this world. That is why the tragedies keep coming, Minato—and Kushina-sama."
Kushina kept frowning, thinking hard; Minato had cooled.
Minato: "Yes—but in the same breath, we'd earn the daimyo's hatred—and the same from other lords and nobles.
Konoha would become the target of all. Other villages wouldn't miss the chance—they'd form a coalition, inside-out us, and wipe Konoha out."
Silence.
Credit to the Fourth: for all his honest looks, he quickly grasped Yorin's pitch, kept up, and pointed straight to the fatal flaw.
Yorin: "Right. That's why you build consensus. If Konoha acts alone, it's doomed. But what if all five great villages move together?"
Minato: "…We don't have that much trust between us."
Yorin: "Then build it. The Five Kage Summit is a great channel—why not shift it from ad-hoc to standing?"
He went on, "Money and power—combine them. Make Konoha lush and strong, and in the end, sweep the ninja world clean.
Then you, Namikaze Minato, become the first Emperor of Shinobi. And I, Uchiha Yorin, will be your right hand."
…
"Let's not talk that far ahead."
After a pause, Minato said:
"More importantly—you said you had quick ways to make money. Let's hear those."
"No problem."
What surprised Minato was that once he said "drop it," Yorin really did.
He felt relieved—and oddly disappointed.
For all its heresy, why did Yorin's pitch feel so… compelling?
He forced the feeling down, but the flicker of hesitation didn't escape Yorin.
In Minato's eyes, a flame had caught—ambition stoked by Yorin.
—A vow for world peace, and a fierce drive for Konoha's prosperity.
To Yorin, it all amounted to the same thing.