"Madara, how much do you think Renya stole from the exchange house?"
Senju Hashirama curiously leaned toward his best friend and asked.
The white cat had only said that the money Renya robbed from the exchange house was "immeasurable," but never mentioned exactly how much it was.
Was it a hundred million? Three hundred million? Five hundred million? Or even a billion?
That kind of money could get his head sold several times over—though no bounty hunter would dare to try.
In the shinobi world, ninja were merely tools. Their personal worth was far less than the value they created.
Even an elite jōnin like Sarutobi Asuma only had a bounty of thirty million ryō.
That was already considered quite high—after all, his value alive far exceeded his bounty dead.
Unless someone truly threatened certain people's interests, a bounty would never exceed the market standard.
For example, a certain feudal lord once offered a five-hundred-million-ryō bounty for the head of a Hokage.
In the exchange houses, anyone posting a bounty had to deposit the full amount in advance.
If a bounty hunter succeeded, the exchange house would take its cut as a handling fee and hand over the rest to the hunter.
The bounty would stay posted until the target's death.
Of course, employers could choose to cancel their posted bounties—but doing so meant forfeiting half of the deposit to keep the exchange house running.
That was why the exchange houses' vaults held such massive wealth.
"This kid…"
Uchiha Madara raised an eyebrow, a flicker of astonishment flashing through his eyes.
Why hadn't he and Hashirama ever thought about robbing those bounty hunters back when they were building the village?
When they had first founded the village, every part of it demanded enormous funding.
Even the combined wealth of the Uchiha and Senju clans had been a mere drop in the bucket.
With no other choice, they had gone to the Fire Country's daimyō to request financial support.
But the daimyō had been extremely displeased with Hashirama's decision to create a village.
For generations, every clan in the Land of Fire had its own direct channels for taking missions.
Even if the ninja fought and killed each other over resources, no clan had ever dared to turn on their employers.
That was a matter of reputation.
The source of a ninja's livelihood came from mission payments.
If they started assassinating their own employers, who would ever dare to hire them again?
One-off betrayals like that simply couldn't happen.
During the Warring States era, ninja clans slaughtered each other endlessly, while the daimyō and other employers sat comfortably on the sidelines.
Even if rivers of blood were spilled, those wealthy nobles still lived their peaceful, privileged lives.
Especially the daimyō of each nation.
To them, ninja were nothing but tools for completing tasks—spend some money, and they'd risk their lives for you.
Hashirama and Madara had stopped that endless bloodshed among shinobi and created a village that united all clans.
But in the eyes of the daimyō, wasn't that basically rebellion?
First, you build a ninja village. What comes next? You march on the capital?
The daimyōs had wealth and power—but not strength.
And yet here were Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara, two men of overwhelming might, building a unified force.
Their actions were an undeniable threat to the Fire Country's ruler.
At least, from the daimyō's perspective…
So when Hashirama requested funding, the daimyō rejected him without hesitation.
What a joke!
If he allowed them to build their village freely, his throne might not last long.
Even though Hashirama swore his loyalty to both the Fire Country and the daimyō, the latter didn't believe a word of it.
Wanting to stay loyal and actually being trusted to do so were two entirely different things.
Even if Hashirama never rebelled, the daimyō wouldn't risk his own life on that gamble.
During that time, without government support, the village had struggled to survive.
Other clans refused to join Konoha, no matter how sincerely Hashirama begged them—even kneeling at their doors made no difference.
After all, every clan already had their own steady mission channels.
Why would they join a broke and starving Konoha?
...
In the end, Hashirama and Madara had to find other ways to earn money—but with little success.
Even when both of them took on S-rank missions back to back, the income was still not enough to sustain the village.
Eventually, it was Senju Tobirama who personally went to the daimyō's mansion to negotiate, using both threats and persuasion to force the daimyō into compromise.
Only then did the daimyō agree to fund Konoha.
If they'd thought of robbing the exchange houses back then, maybe things would've been much easier.
"Madara, how much do you think Renya stole?"
Madara came back to his senses and shook his head.
"Not sure—but it's definitely no less than several billion ryō."
Even Scar had said the value was immeasurable. That could only mean one thing—the money was beyond counting.
"Several billion ryō, huh!"
Hashirama's eyes gleamed.
With that much money, the village could develop at an incredible pace!
He just didn't know if Renya would be willing to invest that money in Konoha's construction.
But even if he wasn't, Hashirama wouldn't force him.
After all, it was Renya's hard-earned fortune.
How he spent it was his own choice.
Hashirama knew his younger brother Tobirama's personality all too well.
If Tobirama ever found out about that enormous sum, Renya might not get to keep much of it at all.
The key point was whether or not Renya would tell him.
If he did, Hashirama could only hope Tobirama would at least let Renya keep a small "bonus" for his effort.
"Hashirama, let's go find that kid," Madara suddenly said.
Renya hadn't visited once since leaving last time.
The two of them had been holed up in that cave for days—it was bound to drive them both crazy if they stayed any longer.
It was time to get out for a while.
And while they were at it, they could track down Renya and have him cook for them.
Yes, that sounded like a perfect plan.
...
"Go see Renya?"
Hashirama's expression turned conflicted.
If he was being honest with himself, he didn't really want Madara getting too close to Renya.
If Renya ever got talked into joining Madara's "Eye of the Moon" plan, that would be a disaster!
But faced with his friend's suggestion, he couldn't find a reason to refuse.
Besides, it had indeed been a while since they last saw Renya… and he was starting to miss that boy's cooking.
"Alright…"
After a moment's hesitation, Hashirama finally agreed.
Madara, of course, saw right through his friend's worries, but he didn't bother explaining.
He had no intention of inviting Renya into the Eye of the Moon plan—not yet, anyway.
This time, he just wanted to enjoy some good food.
Taking advantage of the night, the two men left their cave and headed toward where Renya was staying.
...
Within the forests of the Land of Rivers.
"Where are we heading next, meow?"
Scar lay by the campfire, watching Renya roast fish.
"We're near the border of the Land of Wind," Renya replied, glancing at the ninja world map.
"We'll head to the Land of Wind once the sun's up."
It had been quite some time since he'd last been there.
He wondered how much Sunagakure had developed over the years.
"Got it, meow," Scar nodded.
The Land of Wind's environment was harsh too, but it was still better than the Land of Rain.
At least his fur wouldn't get drenched all the time…
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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