Sitting down in the chair behind his desk, Kazushi grunted in frustration.
I recently thought I had the Ichihara family cornered and could take advantage of them.
After getting 100 million Ryo, of course he didn't plan to stop.
Instead, he thought about blackmailing the Ichihara family again every so often until they got tired of it.
And the moment they refuse, he will betray them to the Daimyo.
Kazushi could imagine how the Ichihara family members must be feeling at that moment and smiled with happiness every time he thought about it.
But I didn't expect things to be different.
The Ichihara family remained calm and continued with their business, selling revolutionary new medicines, while they were the ones who were stressed.
When they studied the medicines sold in SENBON TORII stores and discovered their capabilities, they knew they were in a bad situation.
There was no need to wait even a few years. In a couple of months, his family's Kawada medicine business would disappear.
Therefore, to avoid the decline of the family business, they had to obtain the prescriptions for these medications at all costs.
But the Ichihara family had a similar strength to the Kawada family, and there was also the underground ninja organization, so they wouldn't achieve their goals easily.
Initially, some elders proposed denouncing the Ichihara family so that the Daimyo would decree their annihilation.
But this way, they won't get anything.
All the properties and other belongings of the Ichihara family would be confiscated by the Daimyo and they would not get what they wanted.
The 100 million Ryo they were expecting in less than 2 weeks was the least of their worries.
In contrast, the recipes for miracle medicines were the real treasures, and the Kawada family would not obtain them.
But they knew that on their own they wouldn't easily get what they wanted from the Ichihara family.
Therefore, they decided not to betray the Ichihara family yet, and the elder Yusuke went to find other families to form an alliance.
Thus, when several influential families in the land of fire came together, the leaf village could not refuse to accept the task entrusted to them.
Unfortunately for Kazushi and his Kawada family, things were not going well.
There was a conflict between the various rich and noble families over the ownership of the loot obtained.
They all had their sights set on various things related to the Ichihara family, especially the prescriptions for the medicines, and they couldn't agree on how to act.
This conflict delayed the next part of their plan, and the Kawada family's losses increased.
In just one week, the entire Land of Fire knew about the miracle medicines sold by the SENBON TORII stores, and no one wanted to buy from the Kawada family anymore.
The same applies to the other families involved in the medicinal business, but they preferred these losses if it meant they would obtain the largest number of prescriptions for the medicines sold by SENBON TORII stores.
Although furious, Kazushi could do nothing for now and hoped that old man Yusuke would soon convince the other families.
All he could do was wait.
Fortunately, in a few days they will receive 100 million Ryo from the Ichihara family, and that will alleviate the family's financial burden.
What if the Ichihara family doesn't pay?
If the Ichihara family did not hand over Ryo's 100 million, Kazushi could wait for the other families sought by old Yusuke to come to an agreement soon.
But if the loot for his Kawada family did not satisfy him, he would no longer expect to get anything and preferred to denounce the Ichihara family directly.
Even though his Kawada family wouldn't gain anything that way, he was furious with the other families for taking so long.
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While Kazushi Kawada complained about the indecisiveness of these merchant and noble families, they were not idle.
The medicines sold in SENBON TORII stores attracted the attention of the entire Land of Fire and other nearby countries, so logically they would also be interested.
But because they wanted to find out more about these SENBON TORII shops that appeared out of nowhere, they were delaying the call from the Kawada family.
The Kawada family might have been eager to act, but they didn't want to get involved in a campaign without information about the enemy.
Especially when the Kawada family looked for them.
After all, if only the Ichihara family was behind these shops, the Kawada family should have acted on their own and wouldn't have gone looking for them.
The fact that the Kawada family was seeking an alliance among so many families showed that there was something hidden.
Therefore, they would first take their time before acting.
Meanwhile, they were not the only ones interested in the SENBON TORII stores.
The Daimyo was the same.
Although the fat man left most of the running of the country to his loyal men while he enjoyed his harem, the impact of the drugs that suddenly appeared brought the news to his ears.
At first the man wasn't very interested.
Although these medications were excellent and did their job, he didn't attach much importance to them.
If he or someone in his family got sick, couldn't he just buy these medications?
But things changed when the Grand Counselor informed him of the approximate amount of money they could earn with these drugs.
The fat man tried to stand up with difficulty and had to receive help from his maids to do so.
But when he did, he snatched the documents from the Grand Counselor's hands and read them carefully.
The fat man's eyes lit up as he counted the numbers and he imagined what he could do with it.
Did you consider building more roads?
Hospitals?
Schools?
Or even recruit and upgrade the equipment of your samurai army?
Not at all.
The first and only thing that came to the fat man's mind was that he could increase the size of his harem.
Besides eating, what the Daimyo of the land of fire liked most were women.
His fondness for women had reached the point where the number of consorts and concubines he had had reached 50 before the age of 40.
Unfortunately for the man, money was a major factor and he had to stop… partially.
Although the number of his harem had not grown in recent years, the number of illegitimate children had not.
If an ordinary woman caught his attention, who dared to stand in his way?
But even so, he couldn't take as many concubines as he would have liked. Keeping so many women was expensive.
But seeing the number on the document in his hands, the lustful man could already imagine how the number of women in the palace where his harem lived would grow.
Excited that he would enjoy more women in the future, the man continued reading the document.
The Ichihara family?
A family of merchants who grew up with his support because his best friend was from this family.
So, wouldn't it be appropriate to return the favor now?
Of course, it would not be appropriate for him to directly request prescriptions for these medications. This would be seen as tyranny by his most important subjects.
Although he was useless in the administration of his country, he was not an idiot.
Therefore, he planned to get what he wanted in secret.
Ninjas were well-suited for this job, and conveniently, the strongest village in the world worked for him.
The fat man paused for a moment to consider the details of these shops and their connection to Kozue Ichihara, the son of his recently deceased best friend.
But he quickly moved on and after reading the document, he immediately ordered that the Leaf ninjas be hired to obtain the recipes for these medicines.
While the Grand Councilor was going to hire the ninjas from the Leaf Village, the Daimyo remembered his recently deceased friend.
Did he feel bad about stealing from his best friend's son?
Not at all.
Faced with the prospect of making huge profits, nothing else mattered.
The only thing he was interested in doing now was getting the prescriptions for the medicines sold by the SENBON TORII stores.
I just hoped the mission would be completed quickly.
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Before the Kawada family and other merchant and noble families could come to an agreement, the mission scroll to obtain the recipes for the medicines sold by the SENBON TORII stores had appeared on the Hokage's desk.
But this was not a regular mission scroll.
This was a secret mission scroll that only the ANBU department was qualified to complete.
ANBU had its own building where they reviewed their own missions and was mostly autonomous, with the Hokage checking their work every so often.
But what if the client who sent the mission is the same Daimyo?
That type of mission is qualified to appear directly on the village leader's desktop.