"Cash: 5,375,339,422 ryō!"
"Various jewelry, precious stones, and other rare treasures, estimated at around 6.5 billion ryō!"
"Various gold products, including gold bars, gold ingots, and gold beads, estimated at around 2.3 billion ryō!"
"Various silver products, including silver bars, silver ingots, and silver bullion, estimated at around 3.6 billion ryō!"
"Various mineral resources, including gold ore, silver ore, copper ore, iron ore, and chakra metal ore, estimated at around 8.5 billion ryō!"
"Various miscellaneous goods, estimated at around 1 billion ryō!"
"The total value of all these resources is approximately 27 billion ryō. In addition, we obtained various ninjutsu scrolls, ninja-tool scrolls, and other items from Sunagakure that cannot be accurately valued in money!"
Inside the Hokage's office, as Shikaku Nara listed the spoils from Uchiha Ren and the others' operation one by one, both Minato Namikaze and Ren himself couldn't help widening their eyes.
The results of this operation had truly exceeded their expectations!
Even Ren himself hadn't expected them to obtain so much.
Shikaku's hands trembled slightly as he struggled to calm himself before continuing.
"Nearly half of these spoils came from the nobles and wealthy families of the Wind Daimyō's court. Shisui and the others brought them back from there!"
"Actually, if they hadn't been pressed for time, and if Shisui and the others had brought more storage scrolls with them, they would have been able to carry away many more things."
"The total spoils could easily have been several times greater!"
By the end, even Shikaku's voice was trembling!
There was nothing he could do about it.
Uchiha Ren's audacity had genuinely shocked him.
That was the Daimyō's court!
Even though it was only the Wind Daimyō's court, it wasn't a place that ordinary people would dare to touch!
Of course, those were two separate matters.
The enormous haul Shisui and the others had obtained from the Wind Daimyō's court had left Shikaku both extremely excited and deeply regretful.
The deed had already been done. If he had known beforehand that the rewards would be this enormous, he would have done everything in his power to prepare more storage scrolls for the expeditionary force!
Unfortunately, there was no such thing as medicine for regret in this world.
"Twenty-seven billion ryō... Tsk, tsk. I finally understand why Kumogakure likes starting wars so much. So there really is profit to be made!"
Even now, Minato hadn't completely recovered from his shock. He spoke with considerable emotion.
Kumogakure's reputation for warmongering was well known throughout the shinobi world.
Most people in Kumogakure belonged to the militant faction—and not merely ordinary militants, either. They were the sort of militants who even dared to launch coups!
There was practically no room for conservatives to survive in Kumogakure.
And the wars Kumogakure launched were basically wars of plunder!
They would invade other countries' territories without even giving them warning and seize their resources!
Iwagakure had been attacked by Kumogakure.
Konoha had been attacked by Kumogakure.
Sunagakure had also been attacked by Kumogakure.
The only exception was the isolated Kirigakure, which had avoided Kumogakure's attacks because its location across the sea made it difficult to reach.
Now it seemed that those hotheaded brutes of Kumogakure weren't simply reckless.
They had gone so crazy with launching wars because they had genuinely tasted the benefits of doing so!
Shikaku nodded in agreement.
"Exactly. In the past, all we ever heard was that Kumogakure had launched a war against this village or that country, invaded someone's territory, and then been driven back by someone else. They made war seem almost like child's play!"
"Now it seems the reason Kumogakure was so willing to retreat was because they had already seized enough benefits!"
"No wonder Kumogakure has become more and more like a bandit organization, going around the shinobi world robbing everyone. It turns out they really were profiting from it!"
Ren shook his head.
"Although Kumogakure has tasted the benefits, their methods are far too conspicuous. Not only are their costs much higher than ours, but the benefits they can obtain are also much smaller."
"The risks they take are far greater than ours as well. Didn't they lose their Third Raikage in the Land of Earth not long ago? And afterward, they lost two Tailed Beasts and several thousand troops here in the Land of Fire?"
Minato nodded in agreement.
"This isn't something that's easy to do. This time, we simply seized the opportunity created by Sunagakure's internal weakness. Otherwise, we wouldn't have achieved such tremendous results."
After a pause, Minato added,
"Besides, although our gains this time are enormous, many of these things can't be used immediately."
"For example, the jewelry and other valuables we seized from the homes of the nobles and wealthy families in the Wind Daimyō's court can't simply be converted into cash right away."
"Although everyone knows who was responsible for this, without evidence, no one can do anything to us."
"But if Konoha itself starts converting these 'stolen goods' into cash, we'd effectively be confirming that Konoha was responsible. That would create a great deal of unnecessary trouble!"
Ren smiled.
"It's fine. All those things combined are only worth a few billion ryō. Even without them, we still have various assets worth around 20 billion ryō that we can actually use. That's more than enough."
"After some time has passed, we can have those jewels and other valuables circulate through Gato's shipping company a few times. Then they'll be clean."
"That's good."
Minato nodded.
"At least Konoha's finances can finally become prosperous."
Hearing this, Ren suddenly thought of something. He immediately turned toward Shikaku.
"Shikaku, don't transfer this money directly into the Finance Department. Keep it separately for the time being."
Shikaku was stunned.
"Wouldn't that violate regulations? The Finance Department is responsible for the village's finances. They're already desperately short of money. They probably won't let this money slip through their fingers."
Ren spoke seriously.
"If they need money, they can come to Minato for an authorized expenditure order. As long as their request is reasonable, I don't think Minato will deliberately make things difficult for them."
"But this money is different!"
"The bulk of this money consists of gold and silver products and mineral resources. There are simply too many opportunities for manipulation. I don't trust them to handle the liquidation."
After a pause, Ren continued,
"There's another reason. This money actually has another purpose."
"Konoha is about to cooperate with Sunagakure and Amegakure on a major project. Even if we use every bit of this money as project funding, it may not be enough."
"We absolutely cannot afford to let anything happen to it!"
"A major project?"
Shikaku frowned slightly, clearly puzzled.
"What kind of project would require so much money?"
"And it requires Konoha, Sunagakure, and Amegakure to work on it together?"
"Besides, Sunagakure has just suffered such a huge loss at our hands. Will they really be willing to cooperate with us?"
Question after question came one after another.
Shikaku was utterly bewildered.
Ren didn't answer immediately.
Instead, he looked toward Minato and nodded.
Minato understood.
The smile disappeared from his face, and he looked at Shikaku with an extremely serious expression.
"Senior Shikaku, can we trust you?"
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