A single stock exchange established by Hiruko had managed to suck in the wealth these people had accumulated over decades of bloodshed.
During those ten-plus years of war, countless people had lost their fortunes and ended up saddled with astronomical debt. If opportunities like this had existed earlier, they would have all been living like wealthy retirees long ago. And it wasn't just the ninjas enjoying this rush; the merchants were ecstatic as well.
In the beginning, Hiruko hadn't actually intended to bring so many people along. But in this world, who doesn't have a relative? The little girl Maki had personally pleaded with Hiruko. When a child is willing to risk her life for her village, he could hardly deny her a chance to make a little money.
Because every move Konoha made was airtight, Rasa could only vent his futile rage in his office. He had no idea that Hiruko was the true culprit behind his misery.
The Daimyo of the Land of Wind had commissioned Konoha ninjas with two primary considerations:
To protect the hard-won oases and prevent desertification, citizens were forbidden from using large-scale destructive ninjutsu in non-desert areas to avoid environmental "pollution."To protect desert vegetation, illegal logging was strictly banned, and destructive development of non-desert terrain was prohibited.
These bans struck directly at Suna's strongest weapon—the One-Tails, Shukaku. Large-scale AOE jutsu like Sand Waterfall Funeral or Wind Style techniques that could slice through forests would now be under strict regulation. This dealt a crushing blow to the already shrinking and declining Puppet Brigade. In the future, even the wood needed to craft puppets might have to be imported.
As for Hiruko's Mecha units, the technology would never be leaked to the Sand. The core of these units was chip technology. Though Rasa had managed to get his hands on a few chips, he couldn't fathom how they performed the high-intensity calculations that allowed ordinary people to pilot Mecha.
While Suna ninjas maintained their signature advantage in desert terrain, that advantage vanished the moment they stepped into an oasis. Worst of all, those oases were exactly where Konoha ninjas were most active. As time passed, the green vegetation was bound to spread, swallowing the yellow sands. In other words, Suna's living space was being systematically squeezed out by Konoha.
When Rasa learned of these mandates, he smashed several desks in a fit of rage. "This is too much! It's pure bullying! Minato Namikaze, you've gone too far!" he roared, his eyes bloodshot and veins bulging as his chakra surged uncontrollably, causing sand and golden energy to swirl violently around him.
Meanwhile, in the Land of Sky, Shinno finally finished the restoration of the Zero-Tails. He looked at the massive-headed monster, wreathed in dark chakra and inscribed with the character for "Zero," and let out a long sigh.
"Whew... finally, success."
"It took a lot of time, and the Zero-Tails is still weak and needs to absorb massive amounts of chakra. But as long as it's revived, returning to its peak is only a matter of time."
Strictly speaking, the Zero-Tails was an artificial creation. It was far inferior to the true Tailed Beasts, but because it was weaker, it was much easier to control. Controlling a true Tailed Beast required a Jinchuriki and years of synchronization—and creating one meant sacrificing a potential genius. Perfect Jinchuriki were rare miracles.
The Zero-Tails could absorb dark chakra, allowing it to recover quickly after battle and serve as a persistent energy core for massive fortresses. Years ago, realizing they couldn't face the Great Hidden Villages head-on, the Sky workers took a different path, creating the Zero-Tails and the Floating Fortress. This was no simple feat; they had developed low-cost individual flight devices. In the shinobi world, air superiority was a game-changer that even the Great Villages struggled to master. Most ninjas simply couldn't fly, and flying summons were rare and vulnerable.
With the Floating Fortress, the Land of Sky held an inherent advantage. Their devices didn't even require high-level jutsu to operate; a bit of mechanical force and chakra allowed them to stay high above and rain down destruction with paper bombs. They even developed specialized mechanisms, like containers packed with senbon that accelerated to lethal speeds due to gravity.
Years ago, at their peak, the Sky army was invincible against standard villages. Why fight on the ground? They could fly to a village, bomb it into rubble, and leave. Without a base, even the strongest ninja group would vanish. Despite lacking top-tier masters, their tactical superiority gave them the confidence to dream of unifying the five nations.
However, reality hit them hard when Konoha defeated them. Using a cunning ruse, the Leaf launched a strike before the Sky ninjas could take off, wiping them out on the ground. The Land of Sky was ruined, and the Zero-Tails shattered. As a survivor, Shinno had dedicated his life to their restoration.
Under his lead, the remnants survived by taking advantage of wars, using neutral identities as mercenaries. They followed their predecessors' vision, refining their equipment until they successfully completed a massive project: the "Aircraft Carrier."
Back in Konoha, Hiruko's friends were lining up to join the "wealth game." Even the calculating Orochimaru came to pay a visit. The price of millet had skyrocketed thirty-fold—an incentive no one could resist. Everyone knew Hiruko's stock market was a gold mine.
Orochimaru's research funds were always tight, so Hiruko reluctantly agreed to let him in. After all, Tsunade had been the first to ask him; she wanted more money to gamble with. Just as that settled, Mabui and Samui arrived, pleading for Hiruko to throw a bone to the Hidden Cloud.
Hiruko looked at the two young women's curvaceous figures and, after a moment's thought, agreed. In this world, who doesn't have a distant "poor relative"? The Great Nations were all interconnected through political marriages. If you trace the family trees far enough, everyone is related to someone. Even the once-mighty Kurama clan of Konoha had powerful relatives who kept their lands safe even after the clan's decline. If you're making a fortune and don't bring your "family" along, it's a hard pill to swallow. Plus, if he didn't set the board now, the truth would eventually leak out.
Hiruko's maneuver wasn't exactly futuristic; he was simply leveraging the intelligence advantage of the shinobi world. Even if other merchant houses were slow to react, rumors of a massive drought across the continent were spreading like wildfire. Crops were failing everywhere.
Seeing the opportunity, the great merchants flocked to Hiruko to start hoarding grain and its derivatives, planning to drive prices up and make a killing. When the merchant guilds of the major nations found out, they didn't oppose Hiruko—they joined him. His strength was legendary; opposing him was a shortcut to a mysterious assassination. So, everyone gave him "face" and came to get rich.
The wealthier the merchant, the more they realized this was a once-in-a-century chance. In the face of massive profit, old grudges were discarded. In the shinobi world, millet wasn't the main ingredient for alcohol—sorghum was. Because grain yields were low, people relied on high-yield crops for brewing. The disaster hit sorghum hard too, and alcohol production plummeted.
Hiruko seized the moment to launch "Liquor Concept Stocks." To the observers, the path ahead was paved with gold.
However, Hiruko found himself unable to truly celebrate. It wasn't that he didn't like money, or that the merchants and diplomats weren't treating him with enough respect. It was a lingering feeling that he had played with fire. If this speculation continued, the common people of the shinobi world wouldn't be able to afford a single meal.
Initially, he wanted to put on a "show"—a trade embargo to lure the hidden Sky ninjas into the open. Then the merchants and ninjas heard about his "wealth game" and begged to join. Thinking the circle would stay small and help build relationships, he agreed.
But he had opened Pandora's Box. The merchants brought friends, who brought more friends. The ninjas did the same. By the time Hiruko emerged from his lab, the situation was a runaway horse charging toward an unpredictable cliff. The ambitious giants of the Five Nations and powerful Jonin were all there. Like a pack of greedy hyenas, they conspired to inflate their appetites.
What started as the exploitation of a few unlucky small nations had expanded. Now, they were reaching for the Five Great Nations and the entire world. It wasn't just a few small countries suffering; the whole world was beginning to wail in distress. Food—the very foundation of survival—had become a speculative tool. These people were driving prices to insane heights, and countless innocent lives were destined to be lost to hunger this year.
The citizens of the Five Great Nations, largely kept in the dark by controlled information and the nations' ability to temporarily stabilize domestic prices, had not yet realized the severity of the crisis.
However...
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