"It's barely on track now."
Kin sighed as he looked at the documents piled on his desk. There was just so much to handle.
Managing a city was no easy task—especially when there was no worthwhile model to follow.
The major cities in the Land of Fire were somewhat better off. At the very least, the Land of Fire cared about appearances, so its cities had to maintain some level of development.
Oppression existed, but it wasn't as severe as in smaller nations. At most, half of a commoner's income was taken, and with enough effort, the next generation might still escape poverty.
Of course, if someone accumulated too much wealth, it could attract the greed of nobles, who would seize everything. Such incidents were commonplace in this world.
As for city governance, the nobility's methods could be categorized into three tiers.
The most common in this era was the lowest tier: leaving civilians just enough to survive while taxing away the rest.
The second tier was slightly better—taking only half of a civilian's income. Lords and daimyo who followed this were praised as benevolent.
The third tier was the rarest. These were the obscenely wealthy nobles who sometimes couldn't be bothered to tax at all, leaving their subjects to fend for themselves. Unsurprisingly, their cities thrived.
The Land of Rain had been stuck in the first tier. People were left with barely enough to eat, toiling away for the nobility year after year.
It was outright exploitation.
Kin couldn't help but think that even without the war, life in the Land of Rain would still have been miserable.
Whether slowly starving or dying quickly in battle—the difference wasn't that great.
Ha.
What a hellish joke.
Now, most of the Land of Rain's nobles had either fled or died within its borders.
As for how they died? No one knew. Shinobi from major villages rarely targeted nobles, and Rain's own shinobi had no time for such things. Their deaths remained a mystery.
Kin's approach to city management borrowed from his past life's knowledge.
Currently, public order and taxation were stable. The taxes barely covered the expenses of the two military forces. Any further expansion, and the revenue wouldn't keep up.
Moreover, the people of the Land of Rain had no money initially. Kin had to implement a work-for-relief program just to keep the city running. He'd already spent 300 million ryo of his own funds.
Because of this...
Kin glanced at Kakuzu, who stood near the desk, staring mournfully into the distance.
The recent spending had left him depressed.
If he ever found out that a certain spendthrift woman would eventually drain his entire fortune, Kin wondered what expression he'd make.
"Tsk tsk." Kin shook his head.
He wasn't even the one hurting over the money.
"Look, the revenue's been coming in steadily lately," Kin tried to console Kakuzu.
Kakuzu didn't turn to him, his face still etched with sorrow.
It wasn't the same. Money spent was money spent. Money earned was money earned.
One minus one plus one didn't always equal one. Sometimes, it was negative one.
"So, how's your Money Corps doing?" Kin changed the subject.
The name made him want to facepalm. He'd had nothing to do with it—the military members had come up with it themselves.
Somehow, everyone had accepted it.
Mostly because Kakuzu and Hanzo had tacitly approved their respective unit names.
"Training's progressing well. They're pushing themselves hard."
Kakuzu had followed Kin's training manual without issue. The only problem was that his Money Corps still hadn't reached full capacity.
So what if he'd accidentally killed a few recruits? Plenty of people signed up daily—just not for his unit.
Infuriating.
"Numbers?" Kin cut to the chase.
Kakuzu turned his head away.
Kin sighed. "Hurry up and fill the ranks. We'll need the manpower for the next phase."
Walking to the window, he could see Hanzo leading physical training on the field below.
Hanzo was single-handedly sparring against hundreds.
Since these recruits had only recently unlocked their chakra through the Basic Internal Energy technique—and lacked childhood training—their foundations were shaky. They had to work twice as hard.
Kakuzu suddenly asked, "Do you really plan to make enemies of the entire shinobi world?"
From his perspective, Kin's path would inevitably lead to conflict. A shinobi becoming a daimyo? Abolishing the shinobi system? Even selling jutsu in the future?
Any one of these would earn the hostility of other villages.
Combined?
It was a blatant declaration of war.
Kin shook his head.
"I'm not the one seeking enemies."
"They're the ones who'll oppose me."
All he wanted was to elevate the world's ninjutsu to new heights. But the shinobi world would never allow that.
Conflict was inevitable.
Unless they stood by and did nothing.
Then peaceful development might be possible.
But was that likely?
He shook his head, dispelling the thought. It was too early to dwell on such things.
His operations here were finally on track. He wondered how his main body was faring—by now, it should have reached the village.
"Finally back."
Kin stretched as he stepped out of the Hokage's office.
That mission had dragged on far too long.
"If there's nothing else, I'll take my leave," Hizure said. He had experiments to conduct—being provoked by Kin's strength, he was eager to begin preparations for the Kekkei Genkai Absorption Experiment.
"Nothing urgent," Kin replied, turning to him. "But about that experiment—don't do it alone. I have a hidden lab you can use."
Hizure frowned. He'd wanted to keep his research secret, to grow stronger unnoticed and shock everyone later.
But seeing Kin's eyes flick upward meaningfully, Hizure's expression darkened.
True.
Working alone would make it too easy for the Third Hokage to discover him.
With a huff, he brushed past Kin, then turned to glare when the other didn't follow.
"What are you waiting for? Hurry up."
The rudeness made Hyuga Kiyoshi's brow twitch. He'd never liked this man.
Kin shrugged and headed home.
Upon arriving, he was about to direct Hizure to the underground lab when a knock sounded at the door.
"Looks like you'll have to wait a bit." Kin rolled his shoulders.
Hizure's face soured.
Hyuga Kiyoshi moved to open the door.
"A Hyuga."
The visitor was unfamiliar—a man in his thirties with a scar running from his forehead to his eye. He frowned upon seeing Kiyoshi.
"I'm part of Lord Kin's team," Kiyoshi explained.
The man's expression eased. His gaze then landed on Uchiha Kin, who was watching him curiously.
"Uchiha Kagai. What brings you here?"
This was one of the Uchiha clan's jōnin.
Uchiha Kagai immediately bowed respectfully upon seeing Kin.
"Lord Kin, I've come to pledge my allegiance to you."
...
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(End of Chapter)