The atmosphere was unbearably oppressive.
Ōnoki pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.
"Want one?"
"Cigarettes?"
"That logo looks familiar."
"It's Konoha again…"
"Mm."
Ōnoki nodded bitterly.
Cigarettes were excellent medicine for easing a man's frustration.
Originally, Ōnoki had not smoked.
But after becoming Tsuchikage, he had been forced to face endless administrative affairs and ever-growing pressure.
Smoking gradually became part of his daily life.
"Damn it!"
"Konoha truly haunts us everywhere."
"How can we see their products no matter where we go?"
The Third Raikage cursed and accepted a cigarette from Ōnoki.
He skillfully pulled a lighter from his pocket, lit the cigarette, and inhaled deeply.
A satisfied expression appeared on his face.
"Give me a light."
Suitō searched his pockets and discovered that someone had somehow stolen his lighter.
"Here."
"Take it."
"Raikage, your lighter seems to be a Konoha brand too."
Suitō lit his cigarette, examined the lighter, and saw the familiar Konoha logo once again.
For a moment—
The atmosphere became even more oppressive.
All three men felt suffocated.
They simultaneously fell silent and stared into the distance.
Each held a cigarette between his fingers.
The glowing tips flickered in the cold wind, resembling their wavering thoughts.
Smoke curled upward, intertwined in the air, and slowly disappeared.
It was like the worries they had nowhere to place.
"Do you think Konoha genuinely earns money from the tobacco business?"
When his cigarette was nearly finished, the Third Raikage stared at the dying ember and broke the silence.
"They should be making money."
"Otherwise, Konoha wouldn't promote its cigarettes so aggressively."
"When Konoha Tobacco Company opened a branch in Iwagakure, they not only gave me several crates of premium cigarettes, but also invited me to appear in an advertisement."
"They were extremely generous."
Ōnoki finished his cigarette and immediately lit another.
The Third Raikage and Suitō had also nearly finished theirs.
Neither felt satisfied.
Konoha cigarettes truly had a powerful kick.
They could suppress the worries in one's heart.
It felt extremely comfortable.
Both men glanced meaningfully at Ōnoki.
Brother—
Give us another one.
Ōnoki stared at the two freeloaders holding out their hands.
He could only remove several more cigarettes from the pack and distribute them.
"An advertisement?"
"You accepted?"
The Third Raikage lit another cigarette.
The mention of advertisements stirred several unpleasant memories.
"I accepted."
"It took only half a day."
"I recorded one video and recited a few promotional lines."
"I earned a full seven-figure payment."
"If it were you, would you refuse?"
Ōnoki spoke calmly.
There was a faint trace of pride in his voice.
Although he did not reveal the exact amount, his status immediately seemed elevated.
"What the hell?!" the Third Raikage and Suitō exclaimed simultaneously.
"Is the tobacco business really that profitable?"
Suitō began questioning his entire life.
He suddenly felt that he had wasted half of it!
Seven figures!
That was the reward for an S-rank mission!
S-rank missions carried the highest level of danger.
Only jonin were capable of completing them.
Even then, they had to endure countless risks and could die at any moment.
Yet Ōnoki had spent only half a day indoors—
Recording a video.
Reciting a few advertising slogans.
And earned seven figures.
Suitō needed to accept such work too!
"Exactly…"
"It is merely tobacco."
The Third Raikage agreed.
Both he and Suitō were Kage.
They had seen much of the world.
However, their perspectives were still limited by the mindset of shinobi.
They knew that tobacco could earn money—
But had no understanding of just how terrifying its profits could become.
Uchiha Ren understood perfectly.
In his previous life, the tobacco industry of the Rabbit Country had paid 1.5 trillion in annual taxes.
The Industrial and Commercial Bank had earned only around 110 billion.
The gap was larger than an entire zero.
Tobacco taxes alone could fund the Rabbit Country's entire military budget!
War was frequent in the Naruto world.
Tobacco was excellent for soothing emotions.
It possessed an enormous market not only within the Land of Fire, but throughout the entire ninja world.
The greater the pressure—
The more people needed relief.
During wartime, tobacco and alcohol became genuine hard currency among the population.
Moreover, the tobacco business required little technical sophistication.
To enter tobacco—
One only needed power.
Coincidentally, Konoha possessed a tiny amount of power within the Land of Fire.
Several years earlier, Konoha had established its own tobacco company.
Uchiha Ren ordered Konoha's excellent beast of burden, Senju Tobirama, to personally upgrade the tobacco-processing techniques available on the market.
This guaranteed the quality of Konoha-brand cigarettes.
Then came acquisition and expansion.
Since they had entered the tobacco business—
They naturally needed a monopoly!
Being a warlord truly felt wonderful!
Konoha could keep all the profits from tobacco.
It did not even need to pay the portion of tax that had originally belonged to the Land of Fire.
As for the daimyo?
To hell with the daimyo!
How many jonin did the daimyo command?
How many Kage-level experts?
Originally, the Land of Fire contained more than twenty mainstream cigarette brands and over a hundred unlicensed minor brands.
Konoha forcibly acquired all of them.
The acquisition process was filled with blood and violence.
But Uchiha Ren did not care.
The Hokage of Konoha had personally dispatched Konoha jonin to visit the tobacco-company owners while carrying fruit baskets.
Yet those owners still refused to sign the acquisition contracts willingly, take the money, and leave obediently.
That could only mean they were no longer ordinary tobacco-company owners!
Those who refused loyalty—
Would receive purple explosives instead.
Konoha's First Anti-Air Division was always ready to deploy and send them to meet the Sage of Six Paths.
Facts proved—
Those tobacco-company owners truly could not bear to abandon the golden mountain of tobacco profits.
The tobacco business of the Land of Fire was far too deep.
Konoha killed for more than a month.
The killing continued until even the daimyo could no longer withstand the pressure from the forces behind the tobacco industry.
He personally traveled to Konoha to plead for mercy.
Konoha already controlled most of the tobacco market!
Lord Hokage!
Konoha had already taken enough!
Konoha could eat the meat—
But surely others should be allowed to gnaw on the bones or drink a little soup!
Therefore—
Please withdraw your divine power!
However, Uchiha Ren's attitude remained firm.
Even the soup had to be consumed entirely by Konoha!
If Konoha entered tobacco, it would either not enter at all—
Or go all the way!
Only monopoly produced extraordinary profits.
The daimyo returned after being rebuffed.
Konoha continued killing for another half month.
Heads rolled throughout the Land of Fire.
Only then did Konoha finally unify the nation's entire tobacco industry.
The Land of Fire was left with only one cigarette brand—
Konoha.
The many stages of tobacco production and distribution that had previously been eroded by nobles and officials at every level were forcibly connected by Konoha.
All cigarette brands were centralized into one unified operation.
Only then did the terrifying profitability of the Land of Fire's tobacco business truly emerge.
When Konoha's senior officials saw the numbers—
They held fistfights for two days and one night and still failed to agree on the distribution quotas.
In the end, Uchiha Ren had to intervene personally as Hokage and divide the benefits.
Only then was the matter resolved.
"Who knows?"
"In any case, that Hokage of Konoha would never conduct unprofitable business."
"It must earn quite a lot."
Ōnoki spread his hands helplessly.
He was a shinobi, not a merchant.
How could he know exactly how much money tobacco generated?
"Should we try it too?"
The Third Raikage smoked while speaking eagerly.
Kumogakure's current situation was far too desperate.
First, the village had been harvested by a Ponzi scheme.
Then he had led Kumogakure's forces to risk their lives attacking Iwagakure.
Only after that had they barely forced the Earth Daimyo and Lightning Daimyo to inject funds into Kumogakure.
The money had not even warmed in their hands—
Before their village was bombed into ruins by the Sky Village.
Reconstructing the village would require an astronomical sum.
The shinobi and civilians killed during the air raid also needed burial compensation and support for their families.
The small amount of money Kumogakure had recovered could not begin to fill such an enormous hole.
Even if every shinobi in the village accepted missions without sleeping or resting—
They could never earn enough.
Therefore, relying solely on Kumogakure was hopeless.
Shinobi and clans joined villages to support one another.
They wanted to improve their lives little by little.
They wanted their clans to grow more prosperous.
They had not joined to endure suffering and become slaves.
Kumogakure had not collapsed yet only because hatred held everyone together.
Once the Sky Village was destroyed—
What happened afterward was impossible to predict.
Who knew how many shinobi would defect and flee to Konoha?
But the Third Raikage would never allow Kumogakure to disintegrate.
Otherwise, how could he face his father after death?
He would certainly have to ask the daimyo for more money.
A single coin could defeat a hero.
And reconstructing Kumogakure would require an astronomical amount.
Without money—
There was no dignity.
The Lightning Daimyo would certainly be willing to pay for the sake of the Land of Lightning.
But he would definitely make things difficult.
There would also be countless additional conditions.
The Third Raikage would be cursed directly to his face.
For the village, he would still have to smile apologetically, lower himself at drinking tables, and behave submissively.
Money.
Money.
Kumogakure had always lacked money.
Had it not been so desperate—
Why would he have chased immediate profits and fallen for Blue Sky Project Corporation?
"It may be worth trying."
Ōnoki nodded.
He had also wanted to imitate Konoha's business ventures for a long time.
But one damned incident followed another.
Resistance inside the village was also considerable.
A group of stubborn conservatives from his uncle's generation constantly opposed him.
Conduct business?
What a lack of ambition!
Shinobi should cultivate, become stronger, accept missions, battle enemies during those missions, continuously temper themselves, and grow stronger.
Then they should accept higher-ranked missions and continue improving.
As for anything else—
Forget actually doing it.
Thinking about it for even a second was already a crime.
Resistance from his elders.
Endless internal affairs.
Pressure from every direction.
All of it prevented Ōnoki from firmly committing to reforming and transforming Iwagakure.
But now—
Ōnoki intended to gamble everything.
Let those obstructive old uncles die!
If he continued hesitating, moving slowly, and fearing every consequence—
In a few more years, Iwagakure might not even be able to see Konoha's shadow.
He should have acted decisively from the beginning!
"If Konoha can accomplish it, there is no reason Kirigakure cannot."
Suitō's eyes burned with fighting spirit.
When weak people encountered setbacks, they cowered and retreated.
They screamed and fled.
But strong people became even more excited.
Suitō had been born an ordinary person without a bloodline.
Through relentless struggle and extraordinary resilience, he had risen step by step until becoming Kirigakure's Third Mizukage.
Konoha was powerful.
But Kirigakure was not completely incapable of resisting it.
At the very least, Kirigakure was far from Konoha.
An entire sea separated them.
As long as the village survived and continued hiding—
Hope would always remain.
Before the Sage of Six Paths appeared and spread chakra across the land, humanity could never have imagined possessing such overwhelming power.
Samurai had once controlled everything.
Later, shinobi replaced them.
The world would never permanently favor one individual or one nation.
As long as one survived—
Eventually, delayed rewards would arrive.
Still—
Konoha's luck was truly outrageous!
It had produced Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara.
Those two stood at the absolute summit of the ninja world and dominated an entire era, suppressing the other four great villages until they could barely breathe.
Only after Madara and Hashirama died did the situation improve.
The four great villages immediately seized the historic opportunity created by their deaths.
They gave Konoha no time to continue developing and eagerly launched the First Shinobi World War.
The four villages took turns draining Konoha's blood.
They fought for years.
Everyone suffered enormous damage and accumulated mountains of debt.
Konoha was forced to fight four villages alone and achieved only a tragic victory.
In the end—
The four great villages finally dragged Konoha down to roughly their own level.
According to the original plan, they would recover for several years.
Once their strength returned, they would attack together again and continue consuming Konoha.
Eventually, they would suppress it completely.
But—
Konoha had now produced another monstrous Uchiha.
Within only a few years, he had led Konoha to the summit of the ninja world again!
Damn it!
All that fighting had been wasted!
Suitō felt envy, jealousy, and hatred toward Konoha.
But as a powerful man with his own pride—
And someone who had overcome countless hardships to become the Third Mizukage—
He would never admit defeat so easily.
"We should not merely establish tobacco companies."
"What we need to learn is Konoha's way of thinking and handling affairs."
"I have spent these past several days studying Konoha and its Third Hokage."
"That Hokage possesses enormous ambition."
"I am completely certain that he was the true mastermind behind the Amegakure Incident."
"Hanzō of the Salamander was merely a chess piece he pushed into the open."
"He intends to make the shinobi class the formal rulers of the world."
"He wants ninjutsu to enter every household."
"He intends to transform techniques once used for killing into tools for developing productive forces."
"I can feel the dominating will within Uchiha Ren."
"And reality is proving that he is advancing toward success step by step."
Ōnoki spoke outrageous words.
He finally expressed thoughts that had long been suppressed inside him and could never be spoken publicly.
The Third Raikage and Suitō frowned.
However, neither argued.
They merely listened silently.
The daimyō possessed deeply rooted networks of influence.
They maintained close relationships with powerful clans within the shinobi villages.
They were also the villages' greatest financial backers.
Beyond that—
The rules of the ninja world themselves restrained shinobi villages and their Kage.
Certain matters could only be considered silently.
But now—
Faced with Konoha, a monster whose strength had become overwhelming—
Thoughts that had once been buried forever in darkness were beginning to rise toward the surface.