Mosa was still haggling over the price. This was the first time he had ever heard of selling chakra, but no matter what, he absolutely could not let the village sell its chakra at a loss.
This concerned the village's economic lifeline, so he had to be cautious. He had truly been poor for too long. Ever since Mosa became the Kazekage of the Sand Village, he wished he could split every coin into ten before spending it.
"Kazekage, don't worry. The Leaf has a professional business team. We'll have dedicated personnel negotiate the price with you."
"It will definitely be fair and reasonable. This deal will be a win-win!"
Haru spoke in a righteous tone, every word full of conviction.
Haru planned to hand this matter over to Kakuzu. Kakuzu could already handle things on his own. He was now thriving in the Leaf's Finance Department, where he was specifically responsible for the Leaf's business cooperation projects.
Whenever the Leaf had a major deal, Kakuzu was always the first to sneak into the other party's home base and steal their account books. Costs, profits, consumer profiles, everything would be investigated until it was crystal clear. Then he would slash the price like a madman until the other side's scalp went numb.
He often held a portable calculator in his hand, tapping away at the numbers before proving that although his offer was low, they would still make a profit. They would just earn a tiny bit less.
The Leaf also had advantages in technology, capital, and channels. If the other side wanted to survive and continue doing business with the Leaf, they had no choice but to accept Kakuzu's price.
Thick-skinned, cold-hearted, unmoved by sentiment, unmoved by women, devoted only to making money, willing to work overtime on his own initiative. All kinds of excellent worker traits were fully displayed in Kakuzu.
Now, with the Leaf's resources backing him, he had already closed several major deals. Kakuzu's contract was commission-based, so he received a cut every time he successfully negotiated a deal. He had already become the Leaf's gold-medal salesman.
He was simply terrifying!
Haru felt completely at ease leaving this matter to Kakuzu. The Sand Village might make a small profit, but the Leaf would always make a huge one.
As for a so-called win-win, naturally, that meant the Leaf won twice.
Before each chakra extraction, it would be reasonable to record names, ages, genders, and all kinds of other information, right? Otherwise, how were they supposed to distribute payments?
As long as the Sand Village and the Leaf started doing business in chakra sales, the Leaf could indirectly figure out the Sand Village's internal number of ninja, its male-to-female ratio, and all kinds of data about the chakra inside its ninja.
"All right, then."
Mosa nodded helplessly. It seemed impossible to settle the exact price of chakra sales right now.
However, adding another source of income for the Sand Village was already a decent achievement. There were many ninja in the Sand Village who had lost arms or legs, whose combat strength had sharply declined, and who no longer had the ability to carry out high-level missions. They could only be demoted to low-level D-rank missions.
Those D-rank missions were nothing more than finding cats and dogs or cleaning up trash. Some ordinary people could do them, and they did not require much chakra at all. The pay was barely enough for one person to survive. Now that they could directly sell chakra, their income would definitely increase.
Once this was implemented, it would be a real political achievement.
"Kazekage, aside from this, the Leaf also hopes to sell products manufactured by the Leaf to the Sand Village. Since we are already allies, naturally, we should have some business dealings."
"For example, grain, pig iron, medicine, and all kinds of daily necessities. You don't need to worry about the price. They will absolutely be good quality at a low price."
"If possible, the Leaf also hopes to recruit a group of villagers from your village to work in Leaf factories. Right now, the Leaf is short on labor. Originally, we planned to recruit displaced people from the Land of Fire, but since the Sand Village is our ally, the Leaf can give you priority."
"..."
Haru skillfully recited a long list of clauses. The core goal was very simple: tightly bind the Leaf's economy to the Sand Village's economy. The closer their relationship became, the more the Sand Village would be unable to leave the Leaf.
He could make slight concessions on price and give the Sand Village a little taste of sweetness first. For example, protein blocks. That thing had extremely low production costs and very high output. Recently, the Leaf had already greatly increased production on a large scale. Expanding the scale even further would not be difficult at all. They could absolutely sell them to the Sand Village as one of the staple foods for the Sand villagers.
The Leaf would also help the Sand Village solve part of its employment problem. Now that the Leaf had embarked on the path of industrialization, the more tireless workers it had, the better. If the Sand Village's laborers came to work in the Leaf, that counted as moving up in the world. At the very least, they could drink enough water!
As long as Mosa agreed to this condition, Haru was confident that within a few years, he could completely infiltrate every part of the Sand Village's daily life. The food they ate would be supplied by the Leaf. The houses they lived in would be new-style Leaf buildings. Even the daily necessities around them would have to be Leaf brands.
What decent merchants could those poor Sand Village ghosts possibly have inside their village? With the Leaf's capital, scale, and industrial production capacity, they could completely crush them.
It was even possible that all the Sand villagers would end up working in factories opened by the Leaf. When that time came, whether Mosa, the Third Kazekage, still had the final say in the Sand Village would become a big question mark.
"Hokage, allow me to think about it."
Mosa was a little dazed by Haru's speech. Was the Leaf really kind enough to sell so many survival resources to the Sand Village?
He knew his own situation best. Because the Sand Village was located in the desert, it had long been infected with an illness called poverty. The great merchants of the ninja world were not very willing to travel to the Sand Village. Not only were profits low, there was even danger to their lives. Crossing the desert to do business was no easy task.
There was wind and sand everywhere, along with a harsh climate. Once someone lost their way, they would die in the desert.
And that was not even the end of it. There were man-made disasters too.
The saying that harsh lands breed tough people was not a joke. The Sand Village had the Kazekage acting as a gold miner, so its standard of living was already considered high-end.
The Land of Wind was an entire country, and small villages were everywhere. Those people were the real tough ones. Usually, they were harmless villagers.
But when a caravan arrived, they could also moonlight as desert bandits.
Even the officials of the Land of Wind turned a blind eye to it. The villagers were very sensible in this regard. Not a single coin that needed to be paid would be missing.
Due to all kinds of ridiculous reasons, the Sand Village had an extreme shortage of survival resources. Houses and furniture could be made of sand, but if a major merchant took the initiative to come to the Sand Village to do business and provide these precious supplies, even he, the Kazekage, would personally accompany them.
Now that the Leaf was willing to come, the Kazekage could not have asked for more.
Not to mention, Haru also wanted to solve part of the Sand Village's employment problem. This was practically heaven showing mercy. Intelligence personnel had already reported the treatment of workers inside Haru's factories in clear detail. Three meals a day, enough water, and even wages. The Sand Village still had many villagers struggling just to get three meals a day, sometimes eating, sometimes starving.
They might get one mouthful of food today, but whether they could eat tomorrow was uncertain.
The price Haru offered hit every single one of Mosa's weak spots. Right now, it was as if little people were shouting wildly above Mosa's head.
Mosa, are you damn mute?
Agree! Hurry up and agree!
However, what little reason Mosa had left was still struggling.
There was no free lunch in this world. Haru was being this kind, so he definitely had some scheme. Could it really be because of the word "ally"?
Don't joke around!
Could such a righteous person really become Hokage?
The First Hokage did not count. He was not stupid, just naive.
"Hmph, think about it?"
"Mosa, I sincerely want to do something good for the villagers of the Sand Village. This isn't for some so-called alliance benefit. The First Hokage's Will of Fire has always been the path I pursue as a ninja. I fight to bring peace to the ninja world. As long as every village's people can eat their fill and live good lives, true peace should finally arrive, right?"
"..."
"I make money hand over fist doing business in the Land of Fire. Going to the Sand Village to do business is basically poverty relief. I'm not even thinking about making money. Breaking even is enough!"
"Kazekage, you don't want the villagers of the Sand Village to live miserable lives, do you?"
"..."
Haru's emotional and vivid speech actually moved Mosa. Was there truly such a righteous person in the ninja world?
The Leaf was truly blessed with outstanding people. First, there was that overly generous First Hokage, and now another one had appeared. This was simply heaven blessing the Sand Village!
"Hokage, I'm convinced. Your character has won me over. You are worthy of being the Hokage of the Leaf. On behalf of the villagers of the Sand Village, I thank you."
Mosa stood up and bowed to Haru. This was already an enormous show of respect. As leaders of villages of the same level, in terms of individual strength alone, who was truly inferior to whom?
Senju Hashirama was excluded from that comparison as well.
Mosa gave this bow willingly. As long as the villagers of the Sand Village could live good lives, what did one mere bow matter?
"Eh? Kazekage, what are you doing?"
"The peace of the ninja world needs people like us. We must set aside the hatred of the past between our villages and work hard together, allowing our ninja villages to exchange what they have and make up for what they lack. Only then can we achieve peace in the ninja world!"
Haru spoke a mouthful of beautiful words.
Look at that. The Third Kazekage sold his village cleanly, and he still had to thank us for it!
The long speech Haru had just given was basically all nonsense. Only one sentence was true.
Haru truly had no intention of making money from the Sand Village. Breaking even was enough. Even if he did make money, it would only be a tiny little bit.
"Kazekage, I have an idea."
"For the peace of the entire ninja world, and so that the alliance between the Leaf and the Sand Village can last longer, I have a proposal. Would you be interested in sending some Sand Village children to the Leaf to study?"
"They will become the bridge of communication between the next generation of the Leaf and the next generation of the Sand Village."
"There is no need to say much about the Leaf's educational environment. It is absolutely the strongest in the entire ninja world."
"As everyone knows, the ninja academy was first created by the Leaf. The Leaf has abundant teaching experience, teaching facilities, and even the teachers are elites I selected from the various clans of the Leaf."
Haru wanted the hearts of the people at the bottom.
He also wanted to win over the Sand Village's ninja.
These children who came to study in the Leaf would be the best tools for transmitting the Leaf's ideology and will back into the Sand Village.
Haru had to fight for some children from the Sand Village's upper ranks to come to the Leaf to study. After they returned to the Sand Village, although they would be monitored, they would eventually occupy positions among the Sand Village's higher-ups.
"This... this..."
Mosa fell silent after hearing this. This proposal was truly deadly. A child's mind was like a blank sheet of paper, something that could be painted on at will. The dazzling world of the Leaf was enough to confuse anyone. Would sugar-coated temptation cause those children to lose themselves, or even change sides?
"Of course, I know the Kazekage has concerns about this proposal. To ensure fairness, if the Kazekage agrees, the Leaf will also send some children to study at the Sand Village's ninja academy."
Haru spoke with great generosity. In order to reassure the Sand Village, Haru did not mind sending one or two clan children to the Sand Village to suffer, no, to undergo advanced training.
Haru was not worried about the Leaf's children defecting. After going to the Sand Village's desert, all they would experience were harsh days.
In the Sand Village, even daily water consumption had to be strictly regulated, let alone quality of life.
Meanwhile, in the Leaf, because of Haru's vigorous development efforts, most households already had electricity. They lived good lives where they could turn on electric lights at night and take hot baths whenever they wanted.
Because this was an anime-like world, Leaf villagers loved bathing. Every household had a bathtub. Ordinary families still used wooden ones, while wealthy families had already switched to Leaf-made specialty bathtubs with steel bottoms and ceramic sides.
Going to the Sand Village meant hardship. Compared with life in the Leaf, the difference was simply heaven and earth.
The children Haru sent to the Sand Village would definitely love the Leaf even more. Only life in the Leaf was a good life!
Mosa, the Third Kazekage, frowned deeply. Haru was so sincere that it was almost absurd. He spoke of fairness, justice, mutual benefit, and refusing to let the Sand Village take even the slightest advantage of the Leaf, but in reality, the Sand Village had been the one receiving benefits all along, while the Leaf had always been the side giving.
There was no greater gentleman than one this sincere.
At a time like this, worrying that the Sand Village's children might betray the Sand Village because of the Leaf's prosperity felt far too narrow-minded.
If Mosa rejected Haru's proposal because of that concern, he simply could not bring himself to say it.
The Third Hokage before him was truly too upright. Everything he considered was for the future of the ninja world. This proposal was for the long-lasting friendship between the Leaf and the Sand Village.
"The children of the Sand Village and the children of the Leaf will become the bridge of communication between the next generation of the two ninja villages."
Those words were so well said. His vision for the future was so far-reaching!
Looking into Haru's sincere eyes, Mosa unconsciously abandoned his concerns and agreed to Haru's proposal in one breath.
"Hokage, I accept this proposal."
"That is truly wonderful!"
Haru nodded heavily, letting out a long breath in his heart.
"When the time comes, we will decide the list of exchange students from both sides. For the future of our two villages, my Uchiha clan will send one or two children to the Sand Village to study as a show of sincerity."
Mosa's eyes widened, and his mouth opened unconsciously. The Hokage actually had such courage. He dared to send members of the Uchiha clan to the Sand Village to study. Was he not worried that the Sand Village would plot against the Uchiha clan's Sharingan?
Since the Hokage treated the Sand Village with such sincerity, even if the Sand Village did not repay kindness with kindness, it was absolutely impossible for them to repay kindness with betrayal.
Mosa made up his mind. The children Haru sent over would all be returned to the Leaf whole, safe, and sound.
"Since the Hokage is this sincere, I will definitely choose some children from the Sand Village's upper ranks to study in the Leaf."
Mosa returned sincerity with sincerity. Since Haru was being this sincere, it would be far too petty of him to hide things. No matter what, he was also a leader on the same level as Haru!
"For the peace of the ninja world, and for the friendship between the Leaf and the Sand Village, cheers!"
"Cheers!"
The two raised their cups and smiled at each other, laughing like inexperienced children.
(End of Chapter)
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