Land of Fire.
Kakuzu had put on a mask and arrived at the residence of a noble.
“You’re Kakuzu, correct?
I heard you have something that can turn water into ice?”
“That’s right, my lord.
You only need to connect it to electricity.”
“What is electricity?”
The noble clearly didn’t want to look like some ignorant country bumpkin, but there was no helping it when the thing in question was completely unfamiliar to him.
Kakuzu followed the sales routine Uchiha Mu had taught him and explained everything step by step.
The noble was extremely satisfied.
“Install one for me.
Commanding lightning itself…
now that is something worthy of my status.”
Money poured into Kakuzu’s pocket as though it weren’t money at all.
Sure enough, he’d made the right decision.
The first thing he’d done after reaching the capital of the Land of Fire was present both products to the Daimyo.
And the Daimyo, naturally, had his own desire to show off.
During a meeting with the nobles, he had servants bring out ice-cold water.
In the middle of summer, it was practically heavenly.
The nobles immediately began asking about the so-called refrigerator.
Before long, getting your hands on one became absurdly difficult.
To make wealthy customers feel that they were receiving an appropriately prestigious experience—and therefore feel perfectly happy about handing over enormous sums of money—Kakuzu also followed another piece of Mu’s advice.
He brought the Daimyo and several nobles personally recommended by the Daimyo into the business.
The Daimyo only collected dividends.
The other nobles acted as distributors.
Whatever price they managed to sell the products for was their own business; Kakuzu only took the portion he wanted.
There was no need to be too greedy.
They didn’t know the actual production cost anyway.
The information gap alone was already enough to make him a fortune.
He could take the biggest share, but he still had to leave the others some bones to gnaw and broth to drink.
That way, they would become his most loyal partners.
Kakuzu found himself fascinated by this relationship.
Uchiha Mu had been right after all.
Even people who had been enemies one moment ago could become friends once profit entered the picture.
And as long as that profit continued, betrayal became extremely difficult—unless someone else offered even greater benefits.
That, however, was practically impossible here.
Kakuzu had shaved a little extra off the costs for himself, but he’d still left the nobles with more than enough profit.
The Daimyo contributed neither money nor labor, but he did contribute his name.
And with the Daimyo’s endorsement, the refrigerator became famous throughout the Land of Fire in an extremely short time.
Sharp-eyed merchants immediately smelled opportunity and rushed toward the capital.
Once they learned that electricity was also required, however, quite a few began having second thoughts.
Then Kakuzu started throwing money around.
Under the irresistible persuasion of cold, hard cash, the Daimyo personally received these merchants.
He had servants demonstrate the refrigerator and washing machine for them.
Any merchant capable of surviving in the shinobi world had at least some ability to read a situation.
More importantly, they had been personally received by the Daimyo—something most of them had never even dared imagine before.
Orders began pouring in immediately.
Electricity installation was included as well.
Kakuzu’s eyelid twitched.
He’d spent two million ryo just to get the Daimyo to receive these merchants, but the orders had already covered the expense several times over.
Even more surprisingly, he had never expected laying electrical infrastructure itself to be this profitable.
The Daimyo had originally been unwilling to personally receive lowly merchants.
Unfortunately for his dignity, Kakuzu simply paid too well.
He had spoken one sentence, ordered his servants to demonstrate two products, and earned two million ryo.
The Daimyo wasn’t short on money, but that didn’t mean he could resist money this easy to make.
Especially since he would also receive a cut from the merchants’ new orders.
Apparently, these lowly merchants were useful after all.
After making a fortune together with Kakuzu, the Daimyo and nobles had already formed a remarkably solid alliance.
Of course, there were still conflicts within the alliance itself.
At that very moment, several nobles were furiously bidding against one another for larger distribution quotas of refrigerators and washing machines.
This, too, was something Uchiha Mu had warned Kakuzu about.
Make wealthy people voluntarily disgorge more money, then cling to them and suck enough blood to strengthen yourself.
Before long, the nobles finished dividing up the quotas.
Then they activated their own networks and spread word of refrigerators, washing machines, and the ability to harness lightning directly into all Five Great Nations.
And yes, they really could do that.
Daimyo and powerful nobles rarely changed.
Although everyone spoke of the Five Great Nations as separate countries, the Daimyo all knew one another to some extent, and the noble families beneath them had even more extensive personal connections.
Using those networks, refrigerators and washing machines exploded in popularity across the Five Great Nations in less than a month.
At that moment, Kakuzu finally understood one thing completely.
Professional work really should be left to professionals.
…
After signing all the necessary contracts, Kakuzu gathered the intelligence from this period and sent Mu an urgent request to increase production capacity.
He transmitted everything back through a summoned animal.
…
Land of Earth.
“What do you mean the Daimyo is buying refrigerators and temporarily has no money to give Iwagakure?
How much can a refrigerator possibly cost?”
The First Tsuchikage was so furious he almost laughed.
They were relying on their Will of Stone to chase after Konoha, and now they had the Nation of a Hundred Clans to worry about as well.
Yet their own Daimyo was dragging them backward.
For one brief moment, he genuinely wanted to attack the man directly.
Then he thought better of it.
If such a thing became public, every other country—not merely the great nations, but every country—would unite against Iwagakure.
Uchiha Mu himself had never directly seized a Daimyo’s treasury.
If Iwagakure openly attacked its own Daimyo, how would the Daimyo of every other nation react?
To prevent that precedent from ever being established, they would spend everything necessary to erase Iwagakure from the map.
“Tsuchikage-sama, should we—”
“Mū, don’t say anything else.
I’ll personally speak with the Daimyo.
You investigate these so-called refrigerators and washing machines.”
The First Tsuchikage stood.
The money problem came first.
Everything else could wait.
“Understood.”
Mū immediately went to investigate the origins of the two products.
A nearly identical scene was unfolding in Kumogakure.
The Raikage smashed a desk apart when he learned the Daimyo was withholding money.
Their first instinct was also to simply take what they needed.
But they were reckless, not stupid.
They reached the same conclusion as the Tsuchikage.
Attack the Daimyo and the end result would be the destruction of the village.
That was unacceptable.
Compared with the Tsuchikage, however, the Raikage had one additional idea.
While he negotiated personally, he ordered ninja under him to raid smaller countries for money.
Naturally, they would conceal their identities.
Kumogakure preferred having two plans running at once.
It was safer that way.
And, of course, investigating exactly what had caused this financial disaster was mandatory.
Sunagakure was in an even more miserable position.
After witnessing Uchiha Mu personally, Chiyo’s confidence had already been shattered.
No matter how many puppets she built, she couldn’t imagine any of them accomplishing much against that man.
The younger generation’s genius had lost confidence, while the Kazekage and the rest of the leadership stared at the Daimyo’s notice with dark expressions.
Because of refrigerators and washing machines, the village’s funding for the next two years had effectively been cut off.
Several senior figures already wanted to move against the Daimyo, but the Kazekage stopped them.
He had founded the village himself.
He might not have been the strongest of the First Kage, but there was no question that he possessed political skill and judgment.
Anything the Tsuchikage and Raikage could think of, he could think of too.
After suppressing the more hotheaded members of the leadership, the Kazekage looked around the room.
“The Nation of a Hundred Clans wants to buy construction sand from us, correct?”
“Yes, Kazekage-sama.”
“Tell them we’ll sell.
As much as they want, we’ll provide.
We are offering sincerity, and I hope they will show us the same sincerity in return.”
The Kazekage began issuing orders.
The era of the Fourth Kazekage digging up gold with Magnet Release was still far away.
For now, they could only accept reality.
Construction sand was something the Land of Wind had in absurd abundance anyway.
Keeping the village alive came before everything else.
“Understood.”
One of the ninja vanished with a Body Flicker.
The Kazekage’s expression darkened again.
“Next, investigate those so-called refrigerators and washing machines.
I want to know exactly what kind of things convinced the Daimyo to stop funding us for two years.”
The other great nations were in better shape.
The Daimyo of the Land of Wind was genuinely poor.
Yet for the sake of comfort, even he had purchased large quantities of refrigerators and washing machines through nobles in the Land of Fire.
The Land of Water, on the other hand, had relatively little demand.
It wasn’t particularly hot there, and the Yuki Clan existed as well.
The local Daimyo and nobles bought only a small number of appliances, nowhere near enough to affect Kirigakure’s funding.