Danzo, who had been searching everywhere for Rinjin, finally found him at the Konoha ninja cemetery.
Before the memorial stone, Danzo watched Sakumo's figure slowly disappearing in the distance and asked helplessly:
"That was Sakumo, right?"
Hearing this, Rinjin nodded without any attempt to hide it.
"Of course. Just think about it—how could I possibly let Sakumo kill himself?"
"Will he ever come back to the village?" Danzo asked again.
"Definitely not!"
Rinjin rolled his eyes and retorted matter-of-factly:
"I finally managed to trick this guy into being a gatekeeper at Rain Village!
Come back for what?
To get persecuted again?"
Faced with the completely shameless Rinjin, Danzo was utterly speechless.
Rinjin's relationship with the village was too special—he could openly say such things and nobody could do anything about it.
To be precise, as long as Rinjin didn't openly declare war on Konoha, the two sides could never truly break ties.
The entire village leadership had already—whether actively or passively—elevated his political status to that of the Five Great Nations.
Just look at how Cloud Village loved kidnapping Konoha girls for no reason.
From Tsunade at first, to Kushina Uzumaki later, to Hinata Hyuga in the end—didn't they all just fizzle out?
To put it simply:
At first, Konoha was like a cold goddess who looked down on Rinjin, this nobody.
Later, Rinjin got into wholesale business, made some money, and helped the goddess earn some too. Though Konoha looked at him with slightly more respect, she still looked down on him deep down.
Then Rinjin fought with the goddess's former domineering CEO ex-boyfriend, and only then did the goddess realize Rinjin had become super powerful.
Now, Rinjin had entered the goddess's business empire and become one of the major shareholders.
The once unattainable goddess, in Rinjin's eyes, was now no different from any ordinary woman.
So,
Men! You still gotta work hard to make money~
Goddesses and all that are just fleeting clouds~
Looking at the brazenly shameless Rinjin, Danzo sighed and said helplessly:
"Come on, let's go to the Hokage's office and discuss the next steps."
Hearing this, Rinjin nodded honestly and then said:
"Let's be clear upfront—I'm only willing to sit down and talk because I'm giving face to my bro Danzo. Anyone else? Don't even think about it!"
Look at that!
What's called having vision!
Though this was one thousand percent bullshit, why did it sound so damn good?
Unable to suppress the corners of his mouth from lifting, Danzo pretended to nod calmly while secretly feeling quite pleased.
Soon, the two quickly arrived at the Hokage's office.
In the office, Hiruzen Sarutobi was still handling official business while Shikajika Nara bustled around helping.
"Yo~ Uncle Hiruzen!"
"You're here. Sit, wait a moment. Let me finish this bit of work."
In the midst of his busy schedule, Hiruzen Sarutobi looked up to greet them, his smiling face like a fox spirit that had cultivated for centuries.
Rinjin returned the same smile.
Hiruzen Sarutobi couldn't afford to break ties, and Rinjin was counting on Konoha to keep making him money.
Both sides smiled with this unspoken understanding.
After a good while, Hiruzen Sarutobi finally temporarily extracted himself from the mountain of documents.
"Rinjin, it's been a while since you came to see this old man. What have you been busy with lately?"
"Hehe, just messing around~
Making small money to support the family!"
Hearing this, Hiruzen Sarutobi nodded kindly with a smile.
"Being this busy isn't sustainable. Next time you have good ideas, come straight to me.
For cooperation, both sides need similar scale to make money!"
Hiruzen Sarutobi's implication was that the Hyuga clan and Rinjin's status weren't equal—equivalent to indirectly elevating Rinjin.
Reading between the lines, Rinjin smiled and nodded in agreement.
Seeing this, a flash of joy passed through Hiruzen Sarutobi's eyes before he continued:
"So I think the insurance matter should be handled by the village as a whole for overall distribution.
Of course, what belongs to the Hatake clan, no one can touch!"
This old fox! His words were flowery and watertight!
However, this wasn't bad news for Rinjin.
The prettier Hiruzen Sarutobi's words, the more willing he was to make concessions.
After all, the dominant party has no need to rack their brains saying subtle, pretty words to show weakness.
In negotiations, often the side that talks more is the weaker party.
Of course, except for annoying clients who keep changing requirements~
While Rinjin was pondering, Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke again:
"I personally think all major authority related to this insurance should be centralized under the village, with profits distributed uniformly by the village!
What do you think, Rinjin?"
"I think it's feasible."
Rinjin nodded.
Hiruzen Sarutobi's meaning was already very clear.
Konoha would uniformly control the soon-to-be-established insurance company, with each clan as shareholders.
Property insurance profits would still belong to the Hatake clan—that is, Rinjin.
This approach had many benefits, the main one being that the major clans would have nothing to complain about.
Just tell them the property insurance profits were taken by the village, and they couldn't raise any objections.
Of course, Rinjin could also firmly insist on doing it himself, but that was completely unnecessary.
He just wanted to mess with people's mentality.
Once the news became public, these major clans would definitely be both happy and disgusted—happy because they could make money lying down,
disgusted because most of this money would go to Rinjin.
The villagers would also feel sick, having to hand their money to the Hatake clan they hated most.
Many emotions can make people feel pleasure—
anger, sadness, self-pity... many emotions can give people a vague sense of twisted delight.
Only disgust doesn't work...
Disgust is a physiological reaction that only makes people dizzy and want to vomit...
...
Seeing Rinjin agree, Hiruzen Sarutobi felt a long sigh of relief in his heart.
To be honest, if there was even the slightest possibility, he wouldn't want Rinjin involved.
This guy was the culprit behind the village's chaos, and now not only did he have to clean up after him, he also had to subsidize him with the villagers' hard-earned money.
It was disgusting to the extreme...
It could only be said that however happy they were when Sakumo "committed suicide," that's how disgusted they felt now!
Soon, the four discussed the insurance profit distribution thoroughly.
Rinjin also took this opportunity to deliberately cause trouble for the Hyuga clan~
The specific operation was introducing the Uchiha, cutting the Hyuga clan's shares in half, and giving half to the Uchiha.
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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