Chapter 157 Commander of the Fire Army Abroad
"What do we do next?" Black Zetsu asked.
"Keep a close eye on their movements here. Just let me know if they make any moves." Uchiha Touhuan finished speaking and immediately dispelled his clone.
Two weeks later, Miura Kazuo and Fugaku, who had represented the Land of Fire and Konoha on their visit to the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Hot Springs, returned. In the Land of Rice Fields, the Sound Village, established by Orochimaru, readily signed an alliance agreement at Uchiha Touhuan's behest.
As for the Land of Hot Springs, which had no ninja villages, their daimyo, after being persuaded by Miura Kazuo, also signed the agreement.
After their return, Uchiha Touhuan summoned Inuzuka Jacques and Shiki Aburame
Since Uchiha Touhuan took office, his two clans had completely replaced the original Utatane and Mitokado clans in the village. The legacy left by these two clans alone was enough to keep them well-fed.
After the Land of Fire moved its capital to Konoha, the Aburame clan, due to the influx of people from the Land of Fire, found their original clan territory too noisy and unsuitable for raising insects.
They voluntarily requested to relocate to a more remote area.
Uchiha Touhuan, of course, didn't treat them unfairly; they received the highest level of compensation for the relocation. Furthermore, Uchiha Touhuan specifically designated a plot of land around their new clan territory as a nature reserve to assist them in their research and development of new insect species.
As for the Inuzuka clan, they certainly made a fortune after the influx of Fire Country nobles into Konoha.
As is well known, the pets of Konoha's nobles have always been a significant source of D-rank missions for the village's genin. After these nobles entered Konoha, they quickly learned that the Inuzuka clan was exceptionally skilled in dog breeding.
Under Uchiha Touhuan's guidance, the Inuzuka clan began to train puppies that weren't yet suited to ninja dogs, while simultaneously focusing on raising them as pets.
They even opened a pet boarding business in the village, allowing members of their clan—the elderly, women, and children—who lacked ninja talent to earn money.
Furthermore, Inuzuka Jaw actively responded to Uchiha Touhuan's factory-building policy, investing in a dog food factory on the southeastern coast of the Land of Fire. Because their formulas were modified from ninja dog training recipes, the quality far surpassed similar products on the market.
Due to the Inuzuka clan's reputation, everyone trusted the quality of their dog food, allowing them to easily dominate almost the entire dog food market in the Land of Fire, making a considerable fortune.
Their families were incredibly grateful to Uchiha Touhuan for their current success, so when summoned by him, they immediately dropped everything and rushed to the Hokage's office.
Uchiha Touhuan,as usual, prepared tea for his guests before smiling and saying, "I was away from the village for a while, and I'm sure you two advisors worked very hard assisting Kakashi with his duties. I haven't had a chance to thank you yet." "Hokage-sama, you're too kind. It's what we should do," Inuzuka Jacques replied.
"I wonder what brings you here today, Hokage-sama?" Shiki Aburame asked.
"Would you two like to be promoted?" Uchiha Touhuan asked with a smile.
Inuzuka Jacques and Shiki Aburame froze upon hearing this. They were already Hokage advisors; how could they possibly be promoted? Did their brother resign as Hokage?
"Hehe, as you two probably know, Elder Fugaku recently traveled to the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Hot Springs with our Left Minister of the Land of Fire," Uchiha Touhuan chuckled.
"We signed an alliance agreement with both countries. According to the agreement, Konoha will station troops in these two countries near the Land of Lightning to help them defend their territory."
"And I intend to entrust these two garrisons to you two," Uchiha Touhuan said.
"Us?" Aburame Shiki and Inuzuka Gaku exchanged a glance after hearing what Uchiha Touhuan said, before saying in surprise,
"That's right," Uchiha Touhuan nodded, "I will allocate each of you a ninja unit of about 800 people from within the village.
Adding to that the troops currently stationed on our border with their two countries, each of you will likely command a ninja army of about 2,000 people." Uchiha Touhuan said, "At the garrison's location, you will be equivalent to the Hokage of that army. You will have the final say on all matters during peacetime."
Both of them were shocked. Uchiha Touhuan was simply entrusting them with a ninja army of 2,000 people? Even some small country ninja village leaders don't have 2,000 ninjas under their command. The number of ninjas they were taking with them was almost 30% of the village's current active ninja force.
"But if we take so many ninjas away, won't the village's finances be under too much pressure?" Shiki Aburame asked. Generally speaking, the village's ninjas, except for those in the ANBU of the Security Department, are paid by the village for their missions.
The border guards are paid by the village. Now each of them is taking away 800 people. If these people were in the village, they could complete missions and make money for the village. But after they are taken away, the village has to pay their wages. This back-and-forth financial pressure is not small.
"Don't worry, we won't have to spend a single penny on this military expenditure," Uchiha Touhuan laughed. "Don't forget, we're helping others guard the border, so naturally, they'll cover the costs."
"I see. In that case, sending troops won't increase the village's financial burden; on the contrary, it will greatly reduce the financial burden on the two troops currently stationed on the border," Aburame Shiki said. "But what about the village's missions? With so many ninja leaving at once, won't the village be short-handed for its missions?"
"Don't worry about that. The Ninja Academy is about to graduate, and the number of genin will increase again. Besides, I'm planning to gradually reduce the village's mission load," Uchiha Touhuan said.
"Reduce the mission load?" The two looked even more puzzled.
After all, during the three Shinobi World Wars, every ninja village practically fought tooth and nail for those missions, right? But Uchiha Touhuan was now saying he wanted to proactively reduce the mission load—wasn't that just proactively reducing the village's income?
"Yes," Uchiha Touhuan said, "Given the current state of the ninja world, the mercenary model of ninjas, where they are paid to do things, is no longer keeping pace with the development of the ninja world.
Therefore, I plan to reform the current ninja system soon, and reducing the current number of missions will be the first step."
Aburame Shiki and Inuzuka Jacques, although they didn't understand Uchiha Touhuan's meaning, nodded nonetheless. After all, Uchiha Touhuan hadn't made a wrong decision so far, and had already brought their two clans to their current state. Now that Uchiha Touhuan had a concrete plan, they only needed to follow his instructions.
…
Two more weeks passed, and after Aburame Shiki and Inuzuka Jacques were officially appointed by the Hokage as commanders of the ninja forces stationed in the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Hot Springs, respectively, they led the ninjas from their villages to their respective garrisons.
Upon their arrival, they were warmly welcomed by the daimyo of both countries. For the daimyo, hiring Konoha's celestial soldiers for protection with a small fee was far more cost-effective than investing their own money and effort in developing their ninja villages.
After all, their countries couldn't produce any decent ninjas anyway; wouldn't it be better to use the money for village development for leisure and entertainment?
Furthermore, the commercial cooperation stipulated in the contract would allow them to genuinely profit, and all they needed to pay was a small military expenditure—a truly advantageous deal.
Meanwhile, A, the leader of Village Hidden by Clouds in the neighboring Land of Lightning, was furious upon learning of this.
Although he had never taken these two countries allied with Konoha seriously, and the Land of Lightning was separated from the Land of Rice Fields and the Land of Hot Springs by the Land of Frost, Konoha's actions were tantamount to directly deploying troops on the Land of Lightning's border. After all, the Land of Frost, lacking its own ninja village, had always employed Village Hidden by Clouds's ninjas; in A's eyes, the Land of Frost was no different from his own territory.
So, A also planned to follow suit and transfer their Land of Lightning's border troops to the Land of Frost's border to confront Konoha's army.
However, his secretary, Nozomi, dissuaded him at a crucial moment.
"Lord Raikage, I do not recommend transferring our ninja forces to the Land of Frost," Nozomi said after hearing the Raikage's plan at the Cloud Village's high-level meeting.
"Why?" A asked with a grim face.
"Because we are not yet prepared to directly wage war against Konoha," Nozomi said. "In recent years, although the village's strength has been steadily developing, if it's just our country, we are not confident of defeating Konoha in a short time. And once the war becomes a stalemate, with the Land of Fire's abundant resources, they can easily wear us down."
"Unless we launch a simultaneous attack on Konoha with the Land of Earth and the Land of Water, like in the previous Shinobi World Wars," Xi analyzed. "But right now, Kirigakure is preoccupied with its own problems, and as for Iwagakure, based on my understanding of the Earth Shadow, if we go to war with Konoha, he'll just sit back and watch the fight, then reap the benefits."
Hearing this, A could only grit his teeth and slam his fist on the table, abandoning his plan to also station troops in the Land of Frost. He was reckless, but he wasn't stupid.
Xi was right; if they went to war with Konoha now, they might gain an advantage in the short term, but wiping out Konoha's fighting force in a short time was absolutely impossible. If the war became a stalemate, Konoha could afford to exhaust its resources, but their impoverished Land of Lightning absolutely couldn't sustain a protracted war.
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