Chapter 256: Setting Things Right
Donald's "Fast and Strong Act," although dozens of pages long, was filled with four big characters: robbing the poor to feed the rich.
In this act, Donald made drastic reforms to the current way ninjutsu was acquired in the Cloud Village.
First, although he lowered the price of C-rank and lower ninjutsu in the village by 25%, he placed even greater restrictions on the acquisition of B-rank and higher ninjutsu. Although the direct exchange price in the mission hall remained unchanged, anyone who had been a ninja knew that among the ways to obtain B-rank and higher ninjutsu, which could greatly enhance a genin's strength, especially when exchanging for the first B-rank ninjutsu in one's life, direct exchange from the village was the least cost-effective method.
Generally speaking, a genin with the talent to be promoted to Chunin, after their strength reached a bottleneck, would find a Jonin in the village with a similar combat system to learn ninjutsu from, and most Jonin would not be stingy in teaching.
After all, a Chunin could already be considered a mainstay in a ninja village, barely able to be called a strong person. Being able to leave such a favor was also a great help for a Jonin.
And after a genin became a Chunin, with a Chunin's salary level, it would naturally be much easier to exchange for ninjutsu of this level. In other words, the prices of B-rank and higher ninjutsu in most ninja villages were basically set based on a Chunin's salary level. And finding a Jonin from the same village to learn the first high-level ninjutsu was basically an unspoken rule in all major ninja villages.
Even Uchiha Douhuan, after taking office as the Fifth Hokage, had no plans to reform this aspect, as it was beneficial to both sides.
But Donald's "Fast and Strong Act" directly defined this behavior in writing as the act of a thief stealing the village's income and explicitly banned it!
And he also demanded in the act that if there was any act of teaching ninjutsu between ninjas in the village who were not direct blood relatives, then the recipient must pay tuition to the provider, and this tuition was also subject to a tax paid to the village!
Moreover, this tax was not collected based on the money received by the provider, but was collected based on the clearly marked price of the ninjutsu in the mission hall, with a tax rate as high as 80%. This channel was basically completely blocked by this act.
After this act was promulgated, the difficulty for genin in the village to be promoted to Chunin could be said to have increased by several times. After all, according to a genin's income level, it would take at least three years to exchange for a B-rank ninjutsu.
What was even more outrageous was that if Donald hadn't added the supplementary clause in the act that the mutual teaching of ninjutsu by direct blood relatives was not within the scope of jurisdiction, it could still be explained as him trying to limit the growth of the ninja clans in the village. But with this supplementary clause, it could be said that this guy wasn't even pretending anymore.
And this was just one of the less outrageous clauses in this "Fast and Strong Act."
It could be said that after this act was promulgated, it was basically impossible for any genin in the Cloud Village to be promoted to Chunin in a short period of time. On the contrary, the major ninja clans and Jonin in the village could make a fortune from this act.
However, the truly patriotic Jonin in the Cloud Village all expressed their dissatisfaction with this act of Donald's, which could be said to be stuffing benefits into their pockets. Elon, who had spent no less than one billion ryō during Donald's campaign for Fifth Raikage, even bluntly said that he was digging at the foundation of the Cloud.
After all, for a ninja village to prosper for a long time, new blood is a particularly important part. But Donald's current act was taking the resources for cultivating new strength to fill the pockets of the village's high-level officials.
So, as soon as this act was promulgated, the Cloud Village was instantly filled with a tide of scolding.
What was even funnier was that just a little while after Elon cut ties with Donald, his ninja tool business suffered a huge blow.
After all, the genin in the village had always been the major consumers of ninja tools. Now with Donald's move, who would still be willing to go to the ninja tool shop of Elon, who had pushed him up, to spend money?
So, in the business circles of the entire ninja world, the people of the Elon family also became a laughingstock.
And Kado, who had already been on the verge of becoming the richest man in the ninja world, even used Elon as a topic of conversation after a few drinks at a certain banquet.
After all, anyone who heard the story of a man who spent nearly 1 billion ryō to sponsor a Raikage who, in less than a month after taking office, caused his assets to shrink by nearly 3 billion, would find it hard not to laugh out loud.
And the White Zetsus lurking in the Cloud Village took the opportunity to stir up another wave of trouble.
If the previous Cloud was just a conflict of skin color, which had an impact but was not yet large enough to cause the Cloud Village to be chaotic to the point of being unable to operate normally, then after Donald took office, the conflict between the Chunin and higher-level ninjas and the lower-level genin in the Cloud Village was directly ignited by this "Fast and Strong Act."
The genin had no voting rights in the matter of deciding the Kage.
And the White Zetsus lurking in the Cloud to cause trouble, under the leadership of Tobi, directly shouted the slogan that Donald was pushed out by the village's Jonin to harvest their property.
For a time, responders gathered like clouds, and a massive protest directly broke out in the Cloud Village. Even some of the white genin who had previously worn red-banded forehead protectors and supported Donald also joined in.
At the beginning, the genin only expressed their dissatisfaction by refusing missions. But as Donald showed a clear attitude of refusing to withdraw the act, under the incitement of White Zetsu, the genin in the Cloud Village directly started a violent riot.
The trend of "zero-dollar shopping" in the Lightning Capital finally blew into the Cloud Village at this moment.
After the Cloud Village fell into chaos, Mabui, who had failed in the competition for the Fifth Raikage, felt some anxiety upon seeing this, but more so, joy. With Donald acting like this, at this time, as long as the Fourth Raikage, who had already recovered, stood up and raised his arm, it would be enough to set things right.
However, A, who had already recovered his strength with Amado's help, and even had his strength improved to a higher level with the help of this high-tech prosthesis, remained silent about the chaos in the village.
"Lord Raikage, are you still not going to act now?" Mabui couldn't help but ask.
"Mabui, now is not the time to act," at this time, Shee, who had just returned from Konoha's prisoner of war camp a while ago, stood out and said.
Subsequently, seeing the confusion in Mabui's eyes, Shee continued to explain for her, "That fellow Donald is making such a mess in the village. According to the clues gathered by our people lurking in the village, the benefits this fellow has gained during his time as Raikage have already exceeded two hundred million ryō. However, nearly half of this two hundred million in funds has flowed into the Lightning Capital, and most of it has flowed into the hands of those civil officials in the Lightning Capital."
"So now, just getting rid of Donald is useless," Shee said. "Only by finding evidence and then catching all those civil officials who have always wanted to drive a wedge between the Raikage and the Daimyō to seize more power and benefits in one fell swoop, can we fundamentally prevent this kind of thing from happening again."
"That's right. In the past, I tolerated these civil officials for the Daimyō's sake. However, I underestimated their greed," A said with a blank expression, then touched his own prosthetic arm that glinted coldly. "On this point, I have to admire that fellow Uchiha Douhuan. At least that fellow understands the nature of this group of civil officials and how to deal with them better than I do."
"Shee," after A finished speaking, he turned his head to look at Shee. "When you have the evidence, I will personally lead a team to arrest Donald. At the same time, I need you to lead a team to the Lightning Capital and arrest all the civil officials who have interests related to Donald."
"Including that newly appointed Grand Minister?" Shee said after taking a deep breath.
"Of course. On what grounds did that fellow become the Grand Minister?" A said with a cold laugh. "Just because he disregarded the interests of the country for power?"
"But if that's the case, we'll be staging a violent coup," Shee said with a frown.
"Heh heh, I once heard that the Fifth Hokage of Konoha, Uchiha Douhuan, said something: it's only a coup if you fail. If you succeed, it's a revolution," at this time, a figure slowly walked over from behind the crowd.
"Who are you?" Shee frowned upon seeing the person.
"Shee, this is Mr. Amado. This arm of mine was also able to recover because of him," A introduced to everyone at this time. "He has a common goal with us. After this, I plan to appoint him as the Raikage's advisor."
"Greetings, Mr. Amado," Shee, upon hearing this, also put away his doubts and bowed to Amado.
"Mr. Shee, there is no need for such formalities. I am just an ordinary scientist. I don't have the strength of you all. To achieve our common goal of defeating Uchiha Douhuan, I will still need to rely on you all," Amado said with a smile.
"Amado is right. Although Uchiha Douhuan is a bastard, in this aspect, he can be considered our senior. The reason Konoha can have its current development speed is inseparable from his plan to integrate the military and government from the very beginning," A said in a low voice.
"So, in order to catch up in this era of great change, it's time for our Land of Lightning to clean up these civil officials who only get in the way, just like him," A's voice held no warmth.
"Understood!" Shee nodded forcefully. "Then, so that they don't get wind of this, I think we need to go to the Lightning Capital in advance to lay a trap."
"That's right," A nodded. "Then I'll leave it to you. You can take all the Anbu from the Cloud-Thunder Gorge to the Lightning Capital."
"I'll take them all? Then what about you, Lord Raikage?" Shee said, somewhat afraid to carry out the order.
"On my side, I alone am enough," A said. "I don't believe that the people in the village would attack me for a Raikage who only knows how to make a mess. As for Donald and Flagg, this pair who stole the AB combo, I can suppress them with one hand."
"I understand," Shee nodded.
Although he had suffered a huge setback in the Land of Fire, it seemed that A had not been defeated by this failure.
On the contrary, after summarizing the experience, he began to learn from Uchiha Douhuan.
...
The next day, the genin in the Cloud Village continued to launch their "zero-dollar shopping" activities in the riot, while the Jonin in the village, at Donald's repeated requests, had to be deployed.
Just as the two sides were about to break into a physical conflict, a voice that was extremely familiar to the villagers resounded throughout the entire Cloud Village.
"All of you, stop!"
Hearing this voice, the two opposing sides all followed the sound and looked. They saw a flash of lightning, and a figure like an iron tower appeared in the center of the crowd.
"Lord... Lord Fourth?" At this moment, both the rioting genin and the Jonin who were about to suppress the riot all fell silent, looking at this Raikage who had once led them forward.
"I've only been recuperating for this short period, and the village can become this chaotic? Who taught you that you can draw your blades on your comrades! Answer me!" A slowly opened his mouth, and his mountain-like aura instantly intimidated everyone.
"Lord Fourth, you are no longer the Raikage. And we are just following the orders of Lord Fifth Raikage to suppress the riot," at this time, a trusted Jonin of Donald's said, steeling himself.
"Fifth?" A said with a cold laugh. "Since when did the village have a Fifth, I don't recall."
"This was the collective opinion of the village's Jonin council during the time you were unconscious," this Jonin said with some difficulty, facing A's pressure.
"And since you have already woken up, you should hurry to see the Fifth. You still need to take responsibility for the failure of the previous war. The Fifth needs you to give an account."
"I will naturally take responsibility for the previous failure! However, this account is not to be given to this traitor who has thrown the village into chaos!" A said, turning his head to look at the two opposing groups.
"All of you, listen! If you still recognize me as your Raikage, then put down your weapons and follow me to the Raikage Tower!"
After hearing A's words, the two opposing groups looked at me, and I looked at you, then they all put down their weapons and gathered together.
"You... what do you think you're doing? Do you intend to defy Lord Fifth's orders?" The Jonin who had just spoken up to try and stop A hurriedly said upon seeing this.
"I think, compared to the Fifth, the Fourth is a Raikage more worthy of our following," a white Jonin said at this time.
Although after Donald came to power, he had given him, a white Jonin, preferential treatment, this white Jonin still loved his village. After seeing Donald make a mess of the village, he also began to doubt whether supporting Donald was the right decision in the first place.
(End of chapter)
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