As soon as Uchiha Tomoki finished speaking, the Cloud Ninja's expression instantly darkened.
What did he mean? Was that just an appetizer?
But all the Kumogakure Ninja, including Darui, were angry but dared not speak.
Uchiha Tomoki waved his hand again, and Mitsuba came out with a pile of documents even thicker than before.
They were then distributed to each Cloud Ninja.
As before, the first page contained the content, and the rest were all lists.
['In view of Kumogakure Village's looting activities in the Land of Fire, the following compensation is required']
1. Persuade the Land of Lightning's Daimyo to open the Land of Lightning's market, allowing merchants from the Land of Fire to freely trade in the Land of Lightning.
2. Compensate the people of the Land of Fire 20 billion Ryo for economic losses. (See list for details.)
The subsequent lists meticulously recorded the value of every ore and every piece of wood plundered by the Cloud Ninja.
Dodai naturally saw the content, which was largely consistent with his original statistics, but the prices were outrageous.
The prices for ores and grains were acceptable; although there was a premium, it generally stayed between 20% and 40%.
What was outrageous were the items from the homes of the Land of Fire's commoners.
For example, these:
Kikuichiro of the Land of Fire had his home looted by Cloud Ninja. The looted goods included: 3 bags of grain, 5 sets of clothes, 1 table, 6 chairs, 10 bowls, 30 pairs of chopsticks...
Then came the values. The beginning was fine, but when he saw '10 bowls, 1 million Ryo each,' Dodai wished he could find this Kikuichiro and ask him:
'Are your bowls really that valuable?'
Of course, a reason was given: it was said that this set of bowls was used to serve fruit at a banquet hosted by the Emperor of the Land of Ancestors when the Goddess of Rabbits descended to the world.
It has been over a thousand years, having endured wind and rain, making its value immeasurable. It was originally a priceless treasure, but considering Kumogakure Village's economic strength, a symbolic 1 million Ryo is being charged as compensation.
Dodai had countless 'MMPs' he couldn't express. Find a more plausible excuse!
Can such mythical legends, conjured by people's imaginations, be used as reasons?!
Throughout the entire list, such items were countless.
What about chopsticks used by the Six Paths Sage!
What about a chair sat on by an otherworldly demon god!
What about a teacup used by an ancient emperor!
Tell me, what is this ancient emperor?! Has such a term ever existed in the Ninja World!?
And didn't all these things end up in your hands anyway?
....
All in all, there were countless such items. Every household had one or two divine artifacts with astonishing origins, truly a widespread distribution!
The Cloud Ninja read through all the content with extremely pained expressions.
After exchanging glances and silent communication, Darui spoke again.
'Lord Tomoki, Kumogakure Village is willing to provide this compensation, but aren't the prices a bit unreasonable?'
Uchiha Tomoki shook his head and said, 'Lord Raikage, the prices are already very fair. Many items are only symbolically charged, and the Military Police Force is already operating at a loss!'
Darui muttered inwardly.
It's those symbolically charged items that are the most unreasonable! Have you ever seen a teacup worth 100 million Ryo? And an ancient emperor, what is that? Is it very powerful?
Suppressing his thoughts, Darui said seriously, 'Lord Tomoki, Kumogakure certainly cannot produce 20 billion Ryo. This is meaningless!'
Uchiha Tomoki also knew that Kumogakure couldn't produce it, so he made a pained expression and said, 'Ah, the Land of Fire has indeed suffered heavy losses. However, I sense Lord Raikage's desire for peace. How about this, Lord Raikage, name a figure you can afford!'
Darui blurted out without hesitation, '1 billion Ryo!'
Uchiha Tomoki looked at Darui with disbelief.
1 billion Ryo?! You Kumogakure are truly ruthless. 1 billion Ryo won't even cover the principal. You really dared to cut the price!
Uchiha Tomoki then shook his head and said, 'Lord Raikage, 1 billion Ryo is far from enough. Everyone has it tough, but I, Uchiha Tomoki, will give you face today.'
Uchiha Tomoki then generously held up five fingers and said, 'The Military Police Force won't ask for much more, 19.5 billion Ryo!'
Then followed a long process of bargaining, and eventually, the two reached an agreement: 2.5 billion Ryo.
Uchiha Tomoki quickly calculated in his head, 'Hmm, a small profit of 1 billion Ryo, not too much of a loss!'
As for the fact that everything was in Uchiha Tomoki's hands, that was also a profit. Uchiha Tomoki stated that these were his own things, and what did they have to do with Kumogakure!
After all, Uchiha Tomoki still had to give a portion of the money to the commoners of the Land of Fire.
Uchiha Tomoki, having made a small profit, was in a very joyful mood, loudly praising Kumogakure Village as a great Ninja Village of the Ninja World, rich and powerful.
He also repeatedly spoke of the Fifth Raikage's strength, saying he was the strongest Raikage he had ever seen, and his power was very close to their Konoha's First Hokage.
As long as Darui continued to work hard, he would soon become the new Ninja God of the Ninja World, and Kumogakure Village would reach new heights under Darui's leadership.
As Uchiha Tomoki incessantly praised all the Kumogakure Ninja as terrifyingly powerful, Mitsuba brought two more documents.
These were what Darui truly wanted. Uchiha Tomoki, in the name of the Military Police Force, reached an agreement with Kumogakure Village, stating that past events were all misunderstandings.
In the coming days, both sides would surely be like one family, working hand in hand!
To put it plainly, this was just a piece of paper, a piece of paper that could be renounced at any time!
But Kumogakure Village had no choice. For this paper, whose actual use was uncertain, they had to pay for the right to use Turtle Island, the right to trade in the Land of Lightning, and 3 billion Ryo!
This is the attitude that the weak must have when facing the strong in the Ninja World, after all, it is already a gain that the strong are willing to sign an agreement with you instead of killing you.
With the official signing of the agreement between the two sides, Kumogakure finally breathed a sigh of relief. Although it was a huge drain, at least they had one less powerful enemy.
'Lord Tomoki, when will the Cloud Ninja who disturbed your side be returned?'
Upon hearing this, Uchiha Tomoki's face once again broke into a brilliant smile.
'Lord Raikage, now we can discuss the ransom for your Ninja!'
What the hell, is there no end to this?! Again!!!
At this moment, all the Cloud Ninja, including Darui, looked at Uchiha Tomoki's face, radiating a sunny and gentle smile, as if they were seeing a demon who would suck the marrow from their bones!
Indeed, there are only wrong names, not wrong titles.
Mitsuba once again brought out a pile of documents, comparable in thickness to the first, and distributed them one by one in front of each Cloud Ninja.
All the Cloud Ninja exchanged glances for a moment, then reluctantly opened the documents in front of them.
It was still the familiar format, content at the front, list at the back.
The ransom amounts were quite normal.
For example, Yugito's ransom was calculated at 20 million Ryo, according to the black market price. Considering the Jinchuriki's special nature, plus the Two-Tails within her, the package price was 50 million Ryo.
The remaining Cloud Ninja were almost all Kumogakure's elite, many of whom were listed on the black market, so their ransoms were calculated at black market prices.
Ninja not listed were uniformly calculated at 1 million Ryo.
All these combined amounted to less than 200 million Ryo, with Yugito alone accounting for the largest share.
But it was still reasonable. After all, if the Military Police Force didn't return them, killing them and selling them on the black market would still fetch that much money, not to mention they were all alive.
However, the total price was a bit outrageous. The ransom for over a hundred people, totaling less than 200 million Ryo, had a full redemption price of over 12 billion Ryo!
Over 10 billion Ryo of that was all living expenses!
Then, going through item by item, all their daily necessities consumed were astonishingly priced.
For example, Yugito's:
On a certain month, certain day, morning: one glass of orange juice, cost price, with cup, 1,032 Ryo. The cost price alone was more than twenty times inflated.
The most outrageous was the delivery fee, 1.51 million Ryo, with details listed below:
Mission: Deliver one glass of room-temperature orange juice with half sugar and milk.
Mission Issuer: Yugito, Two-Tails Jinchuriki of Kumogakure Village.
Mission Receiver: Uchiha Shinichi, Konoha Jonin, Military Police Force Squad Leader.
Mission Rank: C-rank.
Mission Reward: 10,000 Ryo.
Special Circumstance: Mission issuer is a Ninja from a hostile Ninja Village, and is the Two-Tails Jinchuriki. Mission is extremely dangerous, therefore mission is upgraded to S-rank.
Revised Reward: 1.51 million Ryo.
Total living expenses to be claimed from Kumogakure Village: 1.511032 million Ryo.
Hmm, precise to the decimal, logical and well-supported!
Such situations were countless. Besides Yugito, everyone else's requests were elevated to A-rank missions.
Darui, after reading this, looked at Uchiha Tomoki with a speechless expression.
Are you sick?! They are prisoners! You should abuse them, injure them, cripple them! Why are you fulfilling their requests? Is this how you treat prisoners?!
Darui pondered for a long time, then slowly spoke, 'Lord Tomoki, Kumogakure Village no longer wants these Ninja. Let's just leave it at that!'
Uchiha Tomoki did not object, nodding and saying, 'In that case, don't pay the ransom, just pay the living expenses!'
Darui roared in his heart at this moment.
I don't want them not because I can't afford the ransom, but because I can't afford such outrageous living expenses!
Finally, after another fierce battle of negotiation, Darui finally got the living expenses reduced, and took the prisoners for a package deal of 2 billion Ryo, including ransom.
It wasn't that Darui valued those people so much, but rather that when the bargaining reached a later stage, Uchiha Tomoki stated that if Kumogakure Village did not pay the living expenses, no one would leave.
In total, Kumogakure had to pay 5 billion Ryo in money alone for this trip. Darui finally agreed under Uchiha Tomoki's coercion.
However, he stated that for Kumogakure Village to continue operating, it was impossible to produce such a large sum.
Uchiha Tomoki thoughtfully suggested installment payments. If there was no cash, Kumogakure Ninja could do more missions, or even directly do missions for their Military Police Force.
Ultimately, Darui signed for installment payments and using Ninja missions as a deduction for payment.
The Ninja World's first unequal treaty was thus born. Kumogakure Village would be in debt for the next few years.
Uchiha Tomoki once again acquired a batch of high-quality laborers. Congratulations!
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The story doesn't end here 😉 The next chapter is already up on Patreon, you can read it here: [patreon.com/TripleCrown07]