Dawn broke, and pale golden light spread across Konoha.
From the top of Hokage Rock, the entire village resembled a folding fan slowly opening.
At the center—the spine of the fan—lay the administrative district, where the Hokage Building stood tall.
Surrounding it were official institutions: the Administrative Department, the Education Department, the Medical Division, and others.
A little farther away, atop the building of the Military Police Force, the Uchiha clan's fan-shaped crest proclaimed the family's authority within Konoha.
Expanding outward from this central area in a semicircle were the territories of the various ninja clans.
The deep compounds of the Uchiha and Hyūga still preserved the architectural style of the Warring States era.
Faint barking drifted from the Inuzuka clan's territory.
In the morning mist, the Nara clan's medicinal herb gardens shone with fresh green vitality.
These scattered clan lands surrounded the administrative center like stars around the moon.
Between them were the training fields of the Ninja Academy and the courtyards of Konoha Hospital.
Further outward stretched the civilian residential districts.
Countless houses stood shoulder to shoulder, while the signboards of shops gradually became visible in the morning light.
Smoke rose from thousands of kitchens.
It mingled with the dust and smoke from early-morning ninja training.
Roads extended outward from the Hokage Building like veins across the fan, connecting every part of the village.
Mitokado Homura, surrounded by several guards, paused before the towering Konoha Gate.
Morning light stretched the gate's shadow long across the ground, like a clearly drawn boundary.
He looked back toward the village.
His gaze landed on a structure in the central district—
A building even more magnificent than the Hokage Building itself.
A massive Uchiha fan crest was carved into its dark walls.
Metallic patterns shimmered under the rising sun, forcing the corner of his eye to twitch slightly.
As long as one stood anywhere within Konoha with an unobstructed view, the first thing that caught the eye upon looking up was not the Hokage Rock.
It was always that arrogant Uchiha fan emblem.
Even from the perspective of the village gate, the first sight greeting travelers was not the stone faces of the Hokage—
But the Uchiha clan's towering commercial building, declaring wealth and power.
The massive structure had become the landmark of this settlement.
A place called a village, yet housing more than two hundred thousand residents.
In truth—
It was a city.
Hopefully Hiruzen will handle the Uchiha properly…
If only they could be restrained and domesticated, just as Teacher Tobirama once taught Uchiha Kagami…
The thought barely formed before he suppressed it, letting it dissolve into a quiet sigh.
"…In wartime, such strength simply cannot be spared."
Adjusting his glasses, Homura turned and stepped out through the village gate.
Under the watchful eyes of the gate guards and passersby, his group gradually disappeared along the forest road leading to the capital of the Land of Fire.
After resting briefly during the night, Utatane Koharu now stood by the office window.
Her heavy gaze settled on the commercial tower piercing the clouds.
As the elder advisor responsible for Konoha's logistics and finances, that building was not merely Uchiha property in her eyes.
It was also a deep pit in the village's tax revenue.
When Konoha had first been founded, every industry was still developing.
The village had been desperately poor.
Every ninja clan had entered the village with its own wealth and resources, forming the foundation of Konoha together.
Back then, no one had even conceived of taxes.
Later, during the long years of peace, more and more people were drawn to the village.
Especially after the First Hokage, Hashirama Senju, clapped his hands and generously used Wood Release to build free houses for residents.
People who could no longer survive elsewhere flocked to Konoha.
And so the village grew increasingly prosperous.
It wasn't until the rule of the Second Hokage, Tobirama Senju, that a tax system was finally established.
However, faced with resistance from all the ninja clans, Tobirama had not rushed the process.
Nor had he expected his own death to come so soon.
In the end, he placed the village's primary tax revenue on the commissions earned from ninja missions.
As for businesses run by the clans—
Only symbolic fixed taxes were collected.
Many small businesses paid nothing at all.
When Hiruzen Sarutobi succeeded him, he simply continued the old system.
The clans quietly expanded their increasingly prosperous family industries.
From forging ninja tools to trading medicinal herbs.
From real estate rentals to high-interest lending.
Wherever there was profit—
A ninja clan could be found.
At first, everyone made money peacefully together.
Koharu saw nothing wrong with it.
But then—
The Uchiha, who had once disdained commerce, suddenly rose to prominence.
They introduced products that were simply irreplaceable.
And once this commercial tower appeared—
Everything changed.
Rumor had it that a single day of revenue from the tower could surpass the monthly income of a small clan.
The dazzling building not only rewrote Konoha's skyline—
It cast a restless shadow over every ninja clan.
Watching the Uchiha earn money at astonishing speed, many clans began secretly imitating their popular products.
Some even attempted to use their clan's secret techniques to steal business secrets.
The result?
They tasted the iron fist of the Uchiha.
The current Uchiha clan was nothing like the declining state of the Fugaku era.
Under the powerful leadership of the Hawk faction, headed by Uchiha Anlan, the clan retaliated with lightning speed—and completely legitimate justification.
Using Sharingan hypnosis, they traced the chain of espionage and uncovered every thief.
All those involved were arrested and imprisoned.
Most of the culprits belonged to the Shimura and Sarutobi clans.
The rest were small clans that had followed the trend.
Major clans like Ino–Shika–Chō and the Hyūga had wisely remained cautious observers.
As tensions escalated, Hiruzen Sarutobi was forced to intervene personally.
Not only did he order the offending clans to compensate the Uchiha for massive commercial losses—
He also made an exception and granted the Uchiha a prime location in the center of the village.
Thus the towering complex was built—
A massive commercial tower overlooking the entire village.
A place combining daily goods, ninja equipment, restaurants, entertainment, and leisure services.
Ginza.
All Uchiha shops scattered throughout the streets were relocated there.
While drawing in Konoha's entire economic flow like a giant whirlpool, it also attracted businesses from many other clans.
Thus the Uchiha achieved two things simultaneously.
They became landlords, renting space to others.
And they used their wealth to improve clan welfare, strengthening internal unity.
At the same time, they used profit as a bond to ally with other clans.
The result was the dazzling money sink now famous across the entire Land of Fire.
Koharu tapped her fingers irritably against the accounting ledger.
Her mind was filled with only one thought—
How to squeeze money from the Uchiha.
But she also knew that openly demanding money from them would be like provoking a tiger on its own mountain.
Those Uchiha would truly dare to shut down every shop belonging to the Utatane clan.
And they could easily find countless reasons to justify it.
After all—
The Konoha Military Police Force, authorized by Tobirama Senju, possessed legislative, executive, and judicial authority.
It was an organization even more powerful than the secret police.
The Uchiha are not a unified block.
Both the clan head's faction and the Dove faction are inclined to draw closer to us.
Koharu's gaze deepened as a thought formed in her mind.
If Hiruzen approaches them as Hokage…
Appealing to reason and emotion…
That clan head surely would not refuse the olive branch offered by the Hokage.
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