Chapter 42: Do You Want to Be the Waterfall Shadow?

Development in the ninja world is uneven. The Five Great Shinobi Villages have developed rapidly, while small and medium-sized villages have lagged behind.

Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, Konohagakure has experienced the fastest growth.

Compared to these major villages, the economic and ninja power development of numerous small and medium-sized villages seems stagnant.

However, there are two notable exceptions.

These two villages are Amegakure and Kusagakure.

During the reign of Hanzo of the Salamander, known as the demigod of the ninja world, Amegakure adopted a policy of isolation.

In his later years, Hanzo lost his drive and enterprising spirit, caring only for comfort and self-indulgence.

Having fought wars his entire life, it was perhaps time for him to enjoy the fruits of his labor.

However, under his rule, Amegakure's ninjas and civilians never lived the lives they desired.

Under such circumstances, Hanzo certainly had no right to enjoy himself.

Later, after Nagato eliminated Hanzo, the village continued its isolationist policy.

Even the news of Hanzo's death was not immediately leaked to the outside world.

This prolonged isolation, combined with Amegakure's perpetual rain which prevented food crops from growing, meant that for a long time, the ninjas and civilians of Amegakure lived in considerable hardship.

Yet, Sisha's proposal persuaded Nagato and brought about massive changes to Amegakure.

At this moment, numerous new shops were opening up across Amegakure.

Some of these stores were even established by merchants from Kusagakure and other ninja villages.

Once Amegakure opened its gates to the outside world, the village gained countless opportunities for development.

Even the local ninjas could take on a wider variety of missions.

Laughter and cheer echoed through the streets of Amegakure far more frequently than before.

In front of a newly opened ninja tool shop, ninjas and curious civilians crowded together.

"I heard this Artisan-Kusa Ninja Tool Shop has an impressive background!"

The speaker was Nagataki, a moderately well-known ninja in Amegakure's black market.

"What's so special about this tool shop?"

His companion was clearly not as well-informed as Nagataki and knew nothing of the shop's origins.

However, this companion was not an ordinary person; his name was Tajima Sansho, a distant relative of the Sansho family.

Fortunately, he was only a distant relative with loose ties to the main clan.

Otherwise, the grass on his grave would probably be three meters high by now.

After Tajima asked, Nagataki answered with a smug look on his face.

"The name Artisan-Kusa Ninja Tool Shop means it's jointly established by the Land of Artisans and the Land of Grass."

"Ninjas from Kusagakure excel at studying, researching, and analyzing ninjutsu and ninja tools."

"Artisans from the Land of Artisans are true experts in manufacturing ninja tools."

"With their powerful combination, the ninja tools they produce are bound to be extraordinary!"

"And look, this shop doesn't just sell all kinds of ninja tools; it also sells ninjutsu scrolls."

"Heh heh! Once I save up enough money, I'm definitely going to buy the Uchiha clan's Great Fireball Technique from Konoha's prestigious family and learn it!"

At this, Nagataki's eyes filled with longing.

Currently, he only knew a few very basic ninjutsu techniques and some ordinary taijutsu.

During missions, lacking any decent ninjutsu to show off, he mostly had to rely on close-combat taijutsu.

Hearing this, Tajima Sansho said with considerable envy, "Nagataki, I really envy you for being able to save money."

"All the bounties I earn from missions get spent at the izakaya and hot spring inns."

Yet, when Nagataki finally saved enough to buy that ninjutsu scroll and actually learned the technique inside, Tajima might instead feel grateful that he hadn't wasted his money on it.

Even when used by legitimate ninjas of the Uchiha clan, that particular technique had no remarkable combat record.

The secondhand version they acquired from Kusagakure ninjas would likely be even weaker.

Nagataki, however, was still oblivious to the gravity of the situation.

A look of gratitude suddenly appeared on his face as he said,

"I heard it was Lord Uzumaki Sisha, the task reaper of the black market,"

"who proposed opening up the village to the God and the Angel, single-handedly bringing about the alliance between Amegakure and Kusagakure."

"Otherwise, the village wouldn't have improved so rapidly, and our lives wouldn't be this comfortable."

The God Nagataki referred to was Pain, and the Angel was Konan.

Tajima nodded earnestly.

"Indeed, we owe it all to Lord Uzumaki Sisha for making such a proposal."

"And we must thank Lord God and Lord Angel for adopting it."

"Otherwise, who knows how much longer our miserable days would have lasted."

In the past, when Tajima walked the streets of Amegakure, both civilians and ninjas wore gloomy expressions.

Things were different now; looking around, one could see joyous expressions on many faces.

Nagataki continued, "Come to think of it, I haven't seen Lord Uzumaki Sisha around the village for a while."

"Since he facilitated the cooperation between Amegakure and Kusagakure and brought about so many changes,"

"if the village could forge partnerships with even more ninja villages, we'd definitely have an even brighter future!"

Hearing this, Tajima immediately chimed in.

"Although I haven't seen Lord Uzumaki Sisha for a while either,"

"I did hear a piece of gossip!"

***

Sisha was unaware of the ninjas discussing him throughout the village.

He and Karin were already seated at a ramen stall.

Looking at the ramen before her, Karin couldn't help but swallow with a gulp.

This was a delicacy originating from prosperous Konoha; small villages like Amegakure had never possessed such food before.

After readying her chopsticks and taking a sniff of the food's aroma, Karin said happily,

"Well then, I'll dig in!"

Sisha, eating his noodles while speaking casually, asked,

"Manager Yoshikawa, has the village undergone any changes recently?"

"Yes!" Yoshikawa replied affirmatively.

"What kind of changes?" Sisha pressed further.

Yoshikawa thought carefully for a moment before answering,

"Lord Sisha, ever since the village allied with Kusagakure, many things have changed."

"First of all, our food and vegetable supplies have become much more abundant."

"Previously, Amegakure was isolated, and because it rains year-round, it wasn't suited for growing staple crops."

"Trapped in isolation, our food supplies were severely lacking."

"Most people in Amegakure had never even tasted ingredients from the outside world."

At this, Yoshikawa, along with Miko and Yuko, recalled the bitter days of the village's isolation.

That period had undoubtedly been difficult to endure.

Although the village transported supplies from the outside under Amegakure's name, ordinary people like them had no contact with the outside world.

Due to shortages within the village, prices had remained stubbornly high.

Life for the villagers had been extremely tough and frugal.

As ordinary citizens, they usually dared only to fill their stomachs with cheap food, never affording expensive ingredients.

The lives of ninjas were no better.

Especially during the period when Sisha swept wildly through Amegakure's black market for missions.

Things were different now, however; Amegakure had transformed from an isolated village into an open one.

Yoshikawa changed his tone and laughed heartily.

"Fortunately, those dark days of hunger and cold are completely behind us."

"Now, almost every day, merchant caravans from Kusagakure bring large quantities of vegetables, fruits, and other daily necessities into the village to sell."

"Not only that, a large number of new shops have opened up."

"Some of them were even funded and established by merchants from Kusagakure."

"Lord God and Lord Angel truly bring peace and happiness to the village!"

Sisha had been busy executing missions lately and had no idea Amegakure had undergone so many changes.

He was somewhat surprised that simply farming completion points had inadvertently brought so many benefits to the village.

"You guys are eating ramen here?"

Before long, Kakuzu arrived as well.

Sisha asked with surprise, "Weren't you supposed to be resting?"

Kakuzu inwardly cursed up a storm.

Rest my foot! He had barely slept for a day and a half, only for this dog-like bastard to announce he was taking a break from missions?

Kakuzu sighed internally.

He curled his lips and said flatly, "I couldn't sleep!"

Then he coughed a few times to change the subject.

"Not only has the lives of ordinary people changed drastically, but the lives of ninjas have also shifted significantly."

"A large number of commissions from Kusagakure have appeared in the black market."

"Though, of course, they're mostly low-paying ones."

As the ninja world's ultimate worker, Kakuzu had been laboring since the era of Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage.

His obsession with money was extraordinary; otherwise, he wouldn't have kept working until now.

However, even this ultimate worker had to throw in the towel when faced with task terrorist Uzumaki Sisha.

Kakuzu loved money and was willing to put in hard labor to earn it, but he had no intention of working himself to death.

Mentioning the black market missions made his heart skip a beat.

Although Nagato had placed restrictions on Sisha, who knew if this guy would actually listen?

Kakuzu hurriedly steered the conversation elsewhere.

"Because Kusagakure ninjas excel at researching, analyzing, and studying ninjutsu and tools from other villages,"

"Amegakure ninjas can now purchase refined ninja tools for much less money."

"Not only that, they can buy ninjutsu scrolls from other villages and learn new techniques."

Normally, ninja academies only taught the Three Basic Techniques and a few other rudimentary skills.

For a ninja wishing to learn powerful ninjutsu, it was quite difficult.

Ninjas from prestigious, prominent clans could learn things like the Uchiha clan's minor fire techniques that didn't burn people to death.

Lacking a prestigious background and stuck in a small or medium-sized village like Amegakure,

one had to work desperately for the village and win the favor of higher-ups just to earn a chance at learning advanced ninjutsu.

The integration of Kusagakure immediately enriched the variety of ninjutsu available in Amegakure.

***

After listening to Yoshikawa and Kakuzu's descriptions, Sisha realized that the path of uniting small and medium-sized ninja villages for joint development held great promise!

Sisha ruminated on the intel he had just heard while pondering inwardly.

"This is getting interesting!"

"Just the alliance between Amegakure and Kusagakure has brought about so many changes to both villages."

"There are countless small and medium-sized villages in the ninja world."

"If all these villages unite, integrate their resources, and supply each other's needs,"

"every single village could experience rapid development."

"As the villages become more prosperous, the number of generated missions will increase accordingly."

"The more missions there are, the more benefits I get from the System!"

"In short, if numerous small and medium-sized villages develop together, I can rapidly farm missions and keep growing stronger!"

At this thought, Sisha grew excited!

Though he was now an outsider dabbling in karmic seals, individuals within the Otsutsuki clan possessed seals as well.

The butterfly effect he caused in the ninja world might just trigger an early descent of those outsiders.

Therefore, he could not slack off yet; he needed to keep cultivating and growing.

He had to continue developing the potential of the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and the Karma seal.

Once he pushed both the Rumble-Rumble Fruit and Karma to their absolute limits,

when the otherworldly Otsutsuki clan arrived, he could capture all of them and feed them to the Ten-Tails—or find other uses, like developing new sources of renewable energy.

That was a matter for later, however. For now, he needed to find a way to successfully unite the various small and medium-sized villages!

"Getting numerous small and medium-sized villages to unite smoothly is definitely no easy task."

"Over in Kusagakure, Muryo and I teamed up to undermine their entire leadership."

"Other ninja villages don't necessarily provide the conditions to repeat that trick."

"It will have to come down to military coercion and economic inducement, seeing who's cooperative."

"Given the sheer number of these small and medium-sized villages, which one should I target first?"

Sisha was deeply interested in driving the collective development and alliance of these smaller villages.

Alas, it was a tricky endeavor; if villages only submitted out of fear rather than genuine agreement, chaos would easily ensue.

After pondering for a while, Sisha suddenly looked up at Kakuzu.

He knew Kakuzu's background quite well. This guy was a rogue ninja from Takigakure.

Though rumors in the ninja world claimed he was once ordered to assassinate Hashirama Senju, the First Hokage, only to throw two shuriken from eight hundred miles away and run back,

the reality was likely that he had engaged in a brief skirmish with Hashirama—or at least a Wood Release clone of Hashirama—before fleeing with injuries.

After all, no matter how incompetent he might be, he wouldn't injure himself just by throwing two distant shuriken.

Yet, because he failed the assassination mission, he suffered harsh punishment from the village.

Driven to desperation, he had no choice but to steal the Earth Grudge Fear forbidden technique and desert the village.

Given how long ago it was, those events were now a tangled mess.

Even Kakuzu himself probably couldn't fully untangle what truly happened decades ago.

Sisha felt Kakuzu was rather wronged.

Takigakure's system also harbored severe flaws.

The village leadership back then likely intended to use village rules to eliminate Kakuzu.

Sending him to assassinate Hashirama Senju was practically sending him to his death.

Even if Kakuzu survived by sheer luck, his mission would inevitably fail, and according to village rules, he still had to die.

Therefore, when Kakuzu received that mission from the village, his doom was already sealed.

If he didn't want to die, desertion was his only option for survival.

Sisha figured Kakuzu must still harbor resentment over the matter.

That made things convenient. Since he intended to play the game of alliances and political maneuvering among the small and medium-sized villages,

why not start locally and take care of Takigakure first!

With this thought, Sisha looked at Kakuzu and asked,

"Kakuzu, what are your thoughts on Takigakure?"

At the mention of Takigakure, Kakuzu's gaze instantly turned sharp.

Having dominated the ninja world for so long, he had long since seen through how utterly despicable those higher-ups were back then.

In Konoha, Hokages had changed from the First to the Fourth, and after the Fourth died, even the Third was pulled back out of retirement.

Yet, after all these years, Kakuzu had never found a single ninja in the world capable of assassinating Hashirama Senju.

Those old bastards in Takigakure back then clearly wanted his head!

Because of that incident, his temperament had completely changed; he trusted only money and nothing else.

After a brief silence, Kakuzu asked, "Why do you ask?"

Hearing this, Sisha replied nonchalantly,

"I just wanted to hear your opinion on Takigakure."

Kakuzu's expression shifted slightly.

A moment later, his tone turned cold.

"I have no opinion!"

"What's in the past is in the past."

Sisha asked without hesitation, "Kakuzu, how would you like to be the Taki-Kage?"