"Looks proper enough." Tsunade flipped through the planning document in her hand. "Once the old men have reviewed it, we can try implementing it."
Immediately after, she added, "Danzo agreed to retire."
Shuji stood before the desk, unsurprised by this news. "How much did he hand over?"
Retirement was most likely just a front. Shuji could figure that out, and Tsunade naturally understood it even better.
The purpose was simply to escape his current state of constant ANBU surveillance.
But as long as he was willing to step down from his position as advisor elder and hand over sufficiently valuable things, Tsunade really couldn't keep making things difficult for him.
Sarutobi Hiruzen and the other two advisors wouldn't continue standing by either.
If you strictly compared contributions to Konoha over the decades, Tsunade, who had slacked off for so long, versus Shimura Danzo—it was hard to say whose achievements were greater.
"One list of spies Root has planted externally." Tsunade's tone was flat. "Plus the address of a secret warehouse storing years of intelligence documents."
"As for whether that's everything," she paused slightly, "we can't confirm right now, but we can only stop here for now."
"Without his advisor elder status, at least on the surface he can no longer interfere with matters between the village and the Uchiha."
"Also, there's the matter of Kirigakure Village."
Tsunade changed topics, her brow furrowing imperceptibly. But the intelligence obtained from Uchiha Enblade clearly showed Kirigakure Village had connections to 'Madara.'
However, she felt uncertain about how to respond specifically.
Shuji watched her without voicing his opinion directly. Instead, he raised his hand and lightly tapped his own eye with his finger.
Tsunade froze for a moment. "Karatachi Yagura is a jinchūriki capable of using tailed beast power..."
The reason for suspecting the Mizukage was being controlled was precisely because Kirigakure's previous illogical harassment attacks couldn't have continued without the village leader's approval.
Then she muttered, "But since it's 'Madara,' I suppose it's not impossible."
"The peace intentions they showed last year didn't seem fake," Shuji finally spoke. "Their actions before and after are so contradictory. It's possible that Kirigakure internally detected something wrong with the Mizukage and made adjustments accordingly."
Obito's existence had already been indirectly confirmed through Enblade's confession. Shuji had no need to continue hiding his speculation about the whole situation.
"In that case, how to deal with them is also troublesome."
"After all, if the Mizukage was controlled by Sharingan, even if they chose peace out of a desire to recover, who knows what will happen later."
The more she thought about it, the more troublesome it seemed. She couldn't help but curse under her breath. "That detestable bastard keeps causing problems for Konoha..."
Complaining aside, problems still needed to be handled.
"Uchiha Takehbi and those others—according to the interrogation results, they knew nothing about 'Madara.' All their actions, including using genjutsu on the daimyo, can be classified as internal village matters."
"After a few years of imprisonment, as long as there are no new problems during that time, the village can consider transferring them to Police Force prison custody."
This was a reward for Fugaku's proactive cooperation. With another Uchiha wielding a Mangekyō existing outside the village, they couldn't let him completely lose his standing within the clan.
"You go inform Fugaku about this matter."
"As for Uchiha Enblade," her tone hardened, "his disposal must be handled by ANBU. There's no room for negotiation."
Shuji acknowledged and left the Hokage's office, heading directly to the Police Force.
Uchiha Fugaku received Shuji in his office. For some reason, learning that Shuji had returned to the village, he actually felt a subtle sense of relief.
At least when this person was in the village, Police Force reforms had never experienced such serious internal loss of control.
After hearing Tsunade's handling decision regarding Uchiha Takehbi and the others, Fugaku's hands resting on his knees relaxed almost imperceptibly.
This result was considerably better than the bottom line Itachi had previously conveyed. At least it preserved the possibility of these people returning to the clan in the future.
As for Uchiha Enblade—after being informed about 'Madara' as well, Fugaku had already given up on this clan member in his heart. After all, Uchiha Enblade had plotted not only a coup against the village but also planned to overthrow him as clan head within the clan itself.
Iwagakure Village, Tsuchikage's office.
"How many? Eight thousand people?"
Ōnoki looked at the intelligence report in his hand, his voice carrying a hint of barely concealed surprise.
"According to estimates, the average ticket price was around twenty thousand ryō. Ticket sales alone brought in tremendous income. This doesn't even include the additional revenue from selling team competition and individual competition tickets separately, or the money spent at surrounding inns and restaurants..." The jōnin responsible for intelligence analysis reported cautiously.
Ōnoki set down the scroll. "Eight thousand people. Even at twenty thousand ryō each, that's one hundred sixty million ryō... That Raikage brat made quite a profit this time."
Iwagakure Village's financial situation had never been particularly comfortable. The number of mission commissions they could accept from outside was limited.
For a long time, they had relied heavily on direct financial appropriations from the Land of Earth's daimyo, as well as continuously issuing border skirmishes and small-scale conflict type war missions to keep their shinobi forces operational.
With the relationship he and the Land of Earth's daimyo had cultivated over many years, maintaining the current scale of funding wasn't a problem for now.
As for Sunagakure, while they seemed somewhat moved by the provocations Setsusuke brought, they still hadn't taken any concrete action.
Overall, the shinobi world would most likely maintain a relatively peaceful situation for some time to come.
At a time like this, planning ahead and finding new, stable sources of income for Iwagakure became quite necessary.
What Cloud Village could do, there was no reason Iwagakure couldn't do as well.
Build a dedicated competition venue? For Iwagakure shinobi skilled in Earth Release techniques, this really wasn't much of a challenge.
As for participants—Iwagakure Village had influence in the surrounding regions as well. They could even pressure Konoha's traditional allies like Kusagakure Village and Takigakure Village, forcibly requiring them to send teams to compete.
They wouldn't dare refuse. Between facing Iwagakure's direct pressure and sending a few squads to compete, these small shinobi villages knew how to choose.
"Konoha's Chūnin Exam is in September."
"Then Iwagakure will also hold ours in September."
Ōnoki didn't expect to match Cloud Village's scale on the first try. After all, Cloud Village had prepared for a long time and had Konoha's participation, plus they had spread publicity early.
But he was more interested in seeing how Konoha would react.
Once Konoha couldn't sit still and also started heavily investing in commercial operations like Cloud Village, what would Cloud Village think when they saw the difference in crowds and attention between Konoha's and Iwagakure's simultaneous competitions? Cloud Village was also remotely located and hoping to profit from this.
Taking a step back, even if Konoha remained unmoved and simply held the Chūnin Exam as usual for political purposes.
Then when facing the situation created by Iwagakure's concurrent joint exam—where allies would have to send people to participate in both exams simultaneously—how would Konoha handle it? Would they apply pressure forcefully, or tacitly allow it?
Now, they could observe Princess Tsunade's methods for handling these matters.