In the futures trading hall,
"It dropped again."
"It's been sliding for three straight days now."
"Brothers, I can't hold on anymore. I'm getting out first."
"..."
The hall was still as crowded as ever, but the atmosphere had become unbelievably oppressive.
The true major players, the Leaf and the daimyo, had already pulled out almost all of their money. That slow upward movement from before had only been the final afterglow of this wave of pig iron futures.
In the high-roller room,
Kakuzu stared at three consecutive days of green losses with his dark green pupils, his heart filled with panic.
The current pig iron price had already fallen back to where it had been during White Fang's last speech.
That was the very day Kakuzu had shoved in all the money he had left.
If he cut his losses now, he would still walk away with a huge profit.
But Kakuzu refused to accept it.
Using his own intelligence channels, Kakuzu had already confirmed that the Mist had landed in the Land of Fire, exchanged blows with the Leaf, and that there were even rumors the Mist had moved north to attack the Stone.
As for that rumor, Kakuzu had only smiled.
Fake news.
The port where the Mist could land was separated from the Stone forces by more than half the Land of Fire. It was far too absurd. Kakuzu had not taken it seriously at all.
War was like that. Too many reports were half true and half false.
But the news that the war was expanding across the ninja world was real.
The Leaf, the Stone, and the Mist had all entered the war. Even the possibility of the Sand and the Cloud joining again in the future was not impossible.
By all logic, pig iron prices should have continued soaring.
There was no reason for them to keep falling for three straight days.
Something was wrong.
Kakuzu had every reason to suspect that this drop was organized price suppression by futures buyers.
They wanted to smash the market first, then buy the dip.
I won't fall for it.
Hold onto my position and wait quietly for the moment it shoots up again.
Running now would be sucker behavior.
Kakuzu kept comforting himself. Then his gaze drifted toward White Fang's room. Through the window, he could vaguely see White Fang still sitting in his chair, calmly reading, not looking worried in the slightest.
If Master White Fang was not panicking, then why should he be worried?
White Fang, the spiritual pillar of the suckers, still had not spoken. So the suckers downstairs all wanted to run, yet did not dare run. They were all waiting for White Fang to come out and show them the way.
And so another three or four days passed.
At last, the nobles and major merchants of the Land of Fire got the latest news from the battlefield.
The Mizukage and the Tsuchikage had both died together. After the Stone and Mist forces clashed with each other, both began withdrawing from the battlefield on a large scale, while the Leaf's ninja army advanced like a tide, relentlessly beating the enemy as they retreated and recovering lost territory all the way.
A war that had seemed ready to sweep across the entire ninja world again had gone silent in less than two months.
It was over just like that.
The vermin were so scared by the news that they held an emergency meeting overnight.
The core issue was simple.
Everyone needed to exit in an orderly manner.
If they all sold their futures at once, the entire market would be smashed to pieces.
The meeting turned into endless arguing and cursing. Everyone wanted to be in the first batch to flee. These vermin had all increased their positions near the peak. If they ran now, they could still salvage some profit. But if the news reached those common rabble, then escaping would become impossible.
The nobles had power. Even if they lost money, they could slowly squeeze it back out of the people later.
The merchants had it much worse.
Their businesses were all tied to physical goods. Once their cash flow snapped, the chain reaction could drive them straight into bankruptcy.
But it was already too late.
While they were still dragging their feet and bickering, the Leaf had already completed the withdrawal of its last remaining funds. Haru then gave the order to begin wildly spreading news of the Leaf's great victory across the Land of Fire.
The Leaf had won.
The First Great Ninja War was over.
The Tsuchikage and the Mizukage had perished together.
The Hokage would soon convene a Five Kage Summit to discuss how to shape the postwar ninja world.
All kinds of news spread like wildfire across the Land of Fire. Since the futures hall was entirely Leaf property, these messages naturally reached the suckers' ears as fast as possible.
While the vermin were still busy arguing, pig iron futures began crashing at an unbelievable pace, burying them alive inside the market.
A single green downward line stabbed straight into the suckers' eyes. One after another, they rushed toward the trading windows, desperate to dump the contracts in their hands.
But the market was full of sellers and had no buyers.
The suckers could only keep lowering their prices again and again, revising them over and over.
But the more they did that, the less they could sell.
Panic had already spread through the entire market.
In just two short days, the price had nearly fallen all the way back to the original starting point.
Pig iron: 630,000 ryo per ton.
The insane rise of the past month and more had been erased in just two days, as if it had all been a dream.
Crying, cursing, and the sounds of bitter regret filled the entire futures hall.
Fortunately, Haru had prepared in advance, dispatching a large number of Leaf ninja along with the daimyo's soldiers to jointly suppress the unrest.
Still, Haru could only keep order inside the futures hall.
What happened outside it was no longer under his control.
The spectacular sight of people jumping from high buildings swept across the Land of Fire like a storm. In the capital alone, hundreds of people were throwing themselves off buildings every single day. These were true gamblers, lunatics who had mortgaged their family property, and some had even borrowed from loan sharks.
As for people like that, Haru only had one thing to say.
Good riddance.
In the high-roller room,
Kakuzu had not slept for two days and two nights. His eyes were bloodshot, and his whole body lay limp against the sofa, looking completely broken.
"It's over. It's all over..."
"All my savings from all these years are gone..."
Kakuzu felt like all five of his hearts had died.
For more than a decade, he had run through wind and rain, working diligently mission after mission to earn bounties.
Now all of it had turned into bubbles and vanished into smoke.
Smack. Smack. Smack.
Kakuzu slapped himself hard several times, trying to force himself awake.
A pile of futures cards sat on the table before him.
He had once loved them.
Now he hated them just as deeply.
Pig iron prices were still falling nonstop. There were only sell orders and no buyers at all. No one even knew when the drop would stop.
If the futures could not be sold, then to Kakuzu, they were nothing but worthless junk cards.
They were too stiff even to use as toilet paper.
With the dead eyes of a man drowning in despair, Kakuzu unconsciously glanced once more toward White Fang's room.
Master White Fang was still reading in there!
The violent collapse over the last two days had completely smashed Kakuzu's mind to pieces, to the point that he had forgotten White Fang was still in the next high-roller room.
Could there still be a turning point?
A tiny spark flared inside Kakuzu's heart, which had already been reduced to ashes.
After going hungry for two days, his body was unbelievably weak. The double torment of his mind and body made him stagger unsteadily to his feet as he headed toward White Fang's room to see what was going on.
Creak.
Kakuzu pushed the door open.
Inside, there was only a puppet that vaguely resembled White Fang, sitting there with a book in its hands.
White Fang had fled two days ago.
If he had still stayed here, it would only mean he had a death wish.
"Suckers, remember one final sentence."
"If you don't sell, you don't lose. :)"
A sheet of white paper was pasted over the puppet's face. Those mocking words paired with the grinning smiley instantly shattered Kakuzu's mental defenses.
Damn it.
White Fang was in league with the people manipulating the market from behind the scenes!
Despair, resentment, unwillingness, all of it burst out at once and transformed into pure rage.
"White Fang! For the rest of my life, it's you or me!"
Kakuzu roared in fury, swearing to tear White Fang to pieces. The shout echoed through the entire futures hall.
The name White Fang immediately caught the suckers' attention downstairs, and they all rushed upstairs to investigate.
At that moment, Sakumo had already returned to the Leaf.
At home, where he was happily counting his money, Sakumo suddenly shivered all over. Somewhere deep inside, he sensed that a wave of malice had locked onto him.
This time, Sakumo had made roughly one small goal.
If he lived a little frugally, he would never need to worry about food or clothing again for the rest of his life.
"As expected, I really shouldn't have left that note behind. The Hokage-sama's taste is way too twisted."
"Killing people wasn't enough. He had to crush their hearts too. Terrifying."
Sakumo had already put his mask back on.
He swore he would never take it off again for the rest of his life.
In the Hokage's office,
"Hokage-sama truly sees farther than anyone else. My admiration for you is like a mighty river, endless and unceasing!"
Shikato's smile had narrowed his eyes into slits as he shamelessly flattered Haru. This futures plan could no longer be described as merely profitable.
It had made them absurdly rich.
"And like a flood breaking its banks, impossible to stop..."
Hyuga Takuma smoothly picked up the next line, joining in as he piled on more praise for Haru.
"Shikato, Takuma, you're too polite. This was only a tiny display of my insignificant ability."
Haru made a token show of modesty, though he clearly enjoyed every word of their shameless flattery. After all, who did not enjoy hearing compliments?
And the profits this time had truly been outrageous.
"In this futures plan, the two of you made tremendous contributions. The organization will not forget your merits."
"You two are my twin prodigies."
"Hahahaha..."
"You're too kind, Hokage-sama, hahaha..."
"..."
The mood in Haru's office was lively. The three of them laughed freely together.
Then the door suddenly opened.
An uninvited guest shattered the cheerful atmosphere.
"Nara Shikato, Hyuga Takuma, so you two finally came back!"
Mito shoved the door open angrily.
Ever since Haru had sent the two of them to the Land of Fire to carry out that damned futures plan, they had practically vanished off the face of the earth. They had only stayed in direct contact with Haru, and no one else could find them.
For that damned futures plan alone, Haru had directly mobilized ten billion ryo in funds, acting entirely on the authority of the Hokage and forcing it through by himself.
Now that the war had ended, the results of that futures plan should also be made public.
The moment Shikato and Takuma returned, Mito had rushed over at once to block the door.
"Uchiha Haru, that pig iron futures plan of yours burned through ten billion ryo. You should be giving an explanation now."
Mito immediately pressed the issue.
From the bottom of her heart, she had never believed in Haru's plan.
Ninja should be doing ninja work.
"Oh, so Mito-sama has arrived. Your timing is perfect. It really is time to give the Leaf's ninja clans an explanation."
The smile at the corner of Haru's mouth was becoming impossible to suppress.
He could hardly wait to use money to slap Mito in the face.
But how could something as satisfying as face-slapping happen with only this handful of witnesses?
No, he had to hold a meeting.
He had to gather all the Leaf's ninja clans and let them witness it together.
Not long afterward, in the conference room,
The Leaf's ninja clans were all gathered in one place.
The Hokage had said there was something major to announce today. The results of the earlier pig iron futures plan had finally come out.
According to Lady Mito, it had cost a full ten billion ryo, practically consuming all the blood and sweat money of the clans from before. No one knew what the result would be.
The Leaf's ninja clans were already so poor they were about ready to start selling off ancestral property.
Earlier, they had still hoped to recover by taking the Land of Fire daimyo's wartime funding, only to be cut up by Haru and forced to feed the Leaf instead.
Then over this past month, the Leaf had fought another war, and a brutal war of attrition at that. Another batch of ninja had died, and money had been burning away in huge piles.
If this damned futures plan had not only failed to make money but had actually lost money, then Haru could forget about staying Hokage.
Even if it cost them everything, they would join forces with the Senju Clan to drag him down and replace him with a more reliable Hokage who could represent the interests of the ninja clans.
"Uchiha Haru, spare us the nonsense. Just announce the result."
Mito sat in her chair, openly disdainful of Haru's little display. He could have just told her the result directly, yet he insisted on calling a meeting to announce it.
From the look of things, they had probably made money.
Mito had already formed that guess.
But how much could a mere futures business really make?
The Leaf did not own any of those great iron mines. Those merchants would never just hand profits over to the Leaf for free. At most, they might toss the Leaf a few hundred million ryo out of respect for the Leaf's strength.
Using that much capital just to earn that little profit would have been far less worthwhile than spending the money directly on the ninja and reducing Leaf casualties.
"Since Mito-sama is so eager, then let's get straight to the point."
"Big Brain, tell her how much we made this time."
Haru crossed one leg over the other with shameless confidence and shot Shikato a look, signaling him to read out the profits so the clans could hear them clearly.
"Yes, Hokage-sama."
Shikato suddenly felt a little depressed inside.
Just a moment ago, Haru had called him one of his twin prodigies.
So why had he suddenly switched to calling him Big Brain this time?
It was simple and direct, sure, but something about it felt off. Twin prodigy had sounded much better.
One day he really needed to give Hokage-sama some feedback on that.
"This time, the futures plan invested ten billion ryo from the Leaf, three hundred million ryo from the Hyuga Clan, five hundred million ryo from Ino-Shika-Cho, and one billion ryo from the Uchiha Clan."
Before Shikato had even finished speaking, the clans in attendance were already clicking their tongues in disbelief.
Haru had not only used the Leaf's money for the futures plan, he had also pulled the Hyuga and the Ino-Shika-Cho clans into the investment.
The clans were all poor now.
These families had probably invested to the point of selling pots and pans just to follow Haru into this scheme. Weren't they afraid of losing everything?
"The Leaf's return this time was just over 100.5 billion ryo. After deducting the principal, the net profit was just over 90.5 billion ryo. The Hyuga Clan's return was just over 1.5 billion ryo. After deducting principal, Ino-Shika-Cho's return was just over 2.5 billion ryo... The Uchiha Clan's return was just over 10.2 billion ryo..."
Shikato continued reading out the profits, and those exaggerated numbers left every ninja clan present completely numb.
They had struck it rich.
Struck it unimaginably rich.
Futures were this profitable?
We never got on board.
We never got on board!!
Even Mito was so shocked by the absurd numbers that she could not speak.
She seriously suspected Haru had used that ten billion ryo as funding to send Leaf ninja out to rob every noble and major merchant across the Land of Fire.
Otherwise how could a mere futures market make this much money?
Her suspicion was not entirely wrong.
Haru really had looted those vermin's money.
He had just done it in a much gentler way.
Still, while the loss was painful for those vermin, it was not enough to cripple them once divided among all their households. They had been greedy for too many years. Their family foundations were still quite thick.
Besides, gamblers in the Land of Fire, wandering rogue ninja, bounty hunters, and others had taken on nearly a quarter of the burden too.
Mito then thought of the Senju Clan, which was still so poor it could barely keep itself standing.
If she had supported Haru back then, if the Senju Clan had joined in too...
Her thoughts drifted farther and farther.
Even farther into the future.
And so Mito wore a face full of misery.
"Mito-sama, are you feeling unwell?"
"Would you like me to call one of the clan's medical ninja to take a look?"
Faced with Haru's openly malicious mockery, Mito's face turned even darker.
(End of Chapter)
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