Ruri and Ayane listened and nodded slightly.
"Understood, we'll be careful about it."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
◎
After spending a week, the investigation into most of the towns where the people of the Land of Waves gather was finally completed.
Ichihime's initial impression of this country hadn't changed at all since she arrived. In fact, after investigating all regions of the Land of Waves, it only reinforced her conviction about her inner judgment.
A country like this needs a fundamental transformation to have any semblance of a future.
But with piracy rampant outside the borders, and the industries of gambling, drugs, and prostitution spread throughout every populous town, along with gangs providing them support.
In the shadows, there might be even larger forces manipulating things, but they were hidden so well that ordinary people couldn't detect how deep and dark the chain of transactions behind the scenes truly was.
For the average person, discovering such secrets might mean opening the door to hell.
Even though espionage agents were dispatched, Ichihime thought it would still take some time to gather sufficient intelligence.
Right now, she just needed to prepare the prelude for the main event to begin.
What to do, where to start, when to do it, who to use to accomplish it, etc., these things need to be done step by step; nothing can be achieved in one stroke. After all, Hakushi had given her plenty of time.
Moreover, for such a meticulously extensive operation, headquarters would prefer a slower pace rather than encounter uncontrollable factors.
After all, this concerns the critical layout for the future against the Five Great Nations; being thorough and cautious is only natural.
Being cautious, once more cautious, is Ichihime's basic requirement for herself.
To this end, Ichihime used her free time to write dozens of pages of a plan book. But this is just a draft, not yet fully formed, because the plan for the Land of Waves is too important. After drafting the plan here, she would forward it to headquarters for review, and only after approval could it proceed.
"I hope I can go back home for a family reunion dinner by the end of this year."
Ichihime looked at the nearly revised plan book and expressed such a sentiment.
Only by personally experiencing all this can one understand how difficult the situation is for a small country.
Combining this with the political theories learned at the Ninja School in the Land of Demons, whether it was the Land of Demons that was pathological, her father, or the entire Ninja Realm, Ichihime had thought about this question.
But recalling so many numbed people merely surviving, she found her answer internally at that moment.
It's not because she wanted to achieve something that the world would remember, or to flaunt that her system was better than the one-country, one-village system established by the First Hokage—just simply that the new world they were striving to construct would be better than the current state.
Even if many people would die in the process.
And even if the path taken might be wrong, thereby sacrificing more.
"Go invite Mr. Tazuna over... No, forget it, I'd better visit him myself, that might appear more sincere."
She initially thought of having a subordinate invite Tazuna to the cruise ship for discussions, but, considering that being in such a foreign environment could create significant pressure on him—he might even perceive her as arrogant—it would seem counterproductive.
"Tsk..."
To be honest, this irritated Ichihime a bit.
From a young age, she had always been accustomed to doing things centered around herself, whether it was bullying and making her brother cry or teasing her half-brother, simply doing what she found amusing.
But now, she had to make some concessions for an utterly weak ordinary person, which naturally felt irksome.
Before going to Konoha and Hidden Mist to learn, she would never consider the feelings of others; she just did what was fun, based on spontaneity.
Even the feelings of her parents were rarely taken into account.
Such restrictions and responsibilities on her shoulders made Ichihime keenly feel the so-called limitations.
She could no longer consider herself a child living under the wings of her parents, nor could she do things willfully.
Seems like she still lacks maturity and life experience. Ichihime chuckled self-deprecatingly inside.
But as for the future, she was now filled with anticipation.
◎
Sitting in his house, Tazuna looked somewhat troubled.
Staring at the fragmented money in his hands, it was even less than last month; at this rate, even meeting basic needs might be challenging tomorrow.
While merely food was necessary to live, there were many expenses at home.
The women and children in his family depended on him to provide, and if his son-in-law hadn't died, perhaps the household situation would be much better.
Though the workers he was close with wanted to help him, he knew all too well that they weren't from wealthy families either, and their household incomes were not high; accepting their aid would be awkward for him.
"Dad, are you still worried about money?"
His daughter Tsunami walked in.
"Tsunami, where's Inari?"
"That kid has gone out to play with friends."
Tsunami replied.
Tazuna nodded and answered Tsunami's previous question: "You know, the seafood my friends and I salvage gets entrusted to merchants for sale in other countries, and we pay the merchants a transport and employment fee, but recently those merchants started increasing their fees, claiming that the seafood market is sluggish and not selling well, resulting in very little money even when sold. Now our income is significantly lower than last month."