After my burger party with Kabuto was over, I put on a depressing lab coat that hid my cheerful mood and went to see Orochimaru working in his cave.
If I'm too cheerful, Orochimaru might decide to put me on the table and open me up.
Well, it's Orochimaru.
When I reached the outer entrance of the cave, I took a deep breath and looked around.
There was no one around because Orochimaru was not a person who liked noise.
Orochimaru didn't come up for air while I was waiting, so I sighed and stepped forward.
The eerie silence and the ominous cold air hitting my face tried to block my steps, but in vain. This is not my first time here.
After walking for a while inside the cave, when I came to the crossroads leading to Orochimaru's laboratory, I stopped and thought about my future plan once more.
For people like Orochimaru, money is very important because laboratory research has always been very costly. Just to earn enough money, Orochimaru spends most of his time as part of the Akatsuki.
If I get more serious about making money and add the Orochimaru advantage to the grand plan, Orochimaru will probably cooperate with me to rapidly increase the recognition of his village and make more money than he makes with Akatsuki.
Well, I think I'm thinking too much about him rejecting my plan and tying me to the bed again.
Besides, if he really ties me to the bed and Kabuto somehow finds out, Orochimaru might lose a trusted disciple.
First of all, Orochimaru is a smart man and I'm not trying to deceive him. There's no reason for anything to go wrong. Maybe Orochimaru would accuse me of manipulating his student if I asked Kabuto to ask for forgiveness for me, but I will come and make the offer myself. Everything is in Orochimaru's interest.
Looking at the white smoke as I blew out the polluted air from my lungs, I decided that this was the time I had been waiting for.
Walking quickly through the cave, I reached Orochimaru's laboratory.
Orochimaru was sitting quietly in a corner, scribbling in his notebook. When I turned my head and examined the giant laboratory, I realized that one of the capsules containing a human body had been emptied.
Probably Orochimaru had just finished one of his experiments and was writing down the results.
I looked around a little more and saw what I was looking for. I asked Kabuto to bring Orochimaru at least three hamburgers.
I looked at the empty plate lying on a counter covered in blood, probably Orochimaru enjoying his burgers while he cuts someone to pieces. Sounds like Orochimaru.
"Did you get out of bed to watch me, Eren?"
It seems Orochimaru wasn't working as focused as I thought. Although, considering he's one of the sannin, it's possible that he sensed me before I even walked in.
"Actually, I'm here for permission."
"No."
That was fast.
"Why?"
"Why?"
You can't project my question onto me.
"I have a counter-offer. An offer that might be of more use to you than my dying body or my farming knowledge."
"Speak."
Huff. I hate this guy.
"When I was in Konoha before, I opened a store, collecting products from many small countries around the world that no other store had and selling them. Of course, I had normal products, but unlike everyone else, the people who delivered milk to me didn't come from the capital, but from small villages. I was not the cheapest, but I sold the most diverse products."
What I had said so far was obviously not interesting to Orochimaru. He didn't even bother to look at me and just answered me as he continued to fiddle with the paper in front of him.
"You can go. If you had sent Kabuto to get permission for you, you would have been the next test subject, but because of your courage, I will let you go. Besides, I want to see how you take revenge on Konoha from the future."
Wait. WHAT?
That was a lot easier than I expected. It's strange that a narcissist like Orochimaru would leave me with just that. And I was very serious about my plan.
Should I keep my mouth shut and leave, or should I be a free person and offer Orochimaru my business cooperation. Both options make my heart sick.
The road to riches is through valor.
I'll play big.
"Thank you, but... I'm not done."
Orochimaru must have been really surprised this time because he frowned, put down the pen and paper and turned to me.
The moment I locked eyes with him, I doubted myself for a moment.
"Uhm. As I said, when I set up that store in Konoha, I had a lot of contacts, and while I was here, I came up with a plan. First of all, let me say that even though you've gathered almost all the scattered nijja clans in the land of rice fields, I noticed that they don't take missions very often."
"It is now the land of sound. The land of rice paddies was the old name for this place."
"I have a plan. I plan to use the connections I have made to bring together many merchants to build a huge trade caravan, and I will need a large number of trusted ninja to protect it."
"Bringing people together, especially merchants, won't be that easy."
"I know, but that's not the hard part. This trade caravan will visit every country in this hemisphere, including the five major villages, and it will do it again every two years. The challenge is to get permission from Daimyos."
"No Daimyo wants to receive an army of ninja coming into his country with such a large caravan. And with the ninja army waiting at the gates of the country, the caravan is left defenseless and the end is easy to predict."
"Actually, they will if I get the proper permission. First, I will send a letter to the Daimyo of the Fire country. I have fulfilled his special requests many times before, so there is a friendship between us. If I agree to pay a tax on trade in his country, even if it is less than normal, he will not be too hard on me. I will use his permission to start sending letters to the Daimyos of small countries. If they hear that we are willing to cooperate with the fire country's Daimyo and voluntarily pay a small amount of tax, they will be like fish on a hook."
"And?"
"Then I will send letters to medium-sized countries. If it were just the Fire country, they would hesitate to cooperate, but with the names of dozens of small countries, they will agree. Even if not, there will be those who do. Once enough medium-sized countries are on board, other medium-sized countries will want to be part of it. In the same way, I'm going to go to the last four big countries, and they will probably accept this agreement except for the Water country ofcourse... After all, they all need this kind of income to heal the wounds of the wars. And the size of the deal will give them the security they need. And knowing that the guards are all from a new ninja village known as the sound village will give them some relief."
Orochimaru started to review my plan without saying anything when I stopped talking. And this silence continued for a while.
"How much profit will I make?"
"I can't give you an exact number because the first caravan that sets out may not be as big as I expect. But in the future I will need all the chunin and above ninja you have. Maybe in the future even they will be insufficient and I will hire people from Akatsuki. In any case, you are the main character in the protection part. You are the only one who can make sure that such a large number of ninja do not cause disturbances in other countries. They only fear and obey you. You don't need personal involvement, you just need to keep them in line."
"Interesting. Don't you trust your kidnapper too much?"
"I saw what you did, Orochimaru. I think someone who searches for eternity can be seduced by a stable income, not momentary gains. Am I wrong? If my plan succeeds, even if I die, this will remain a money-making business for you."
Orochimaru stood up and came over to me. As usual, he smelled strongly of medicine. When he looked into my eyes with his snake eyes, for the first time I didn't feel powerless. I looked directly into his eyes.
And I think that was the first time I got his real appreciation.
"You remind me of a former student of mine. He used to look at me with the same stubborn eyes and say that in the future he would become a Hokage like his grandfather. Do you know what happened to him?"
"He died, didn't he?"
"Uh, you know."
"Yes. I'm different than him. I value my own life, and I do everything I do for me. If I were him, I wouldn't run for the front lines to become Hokage, I'd stay in the back and eliminate my rivals. I'm sorry, Orochimaru, but I'm not him."