After a long silence, Queen Sara slowly exhaled and asked with a complicated expression.
"Not really. I am merely stating the facts."
Rei Kaguya shook his head and sighed.
"A nameless small country like Loulan is not exactly common in the shinobi world, but it is not rare either. Aside from the people born and raised on this land, almost no one else will care about these small countries' past, present, or future.
"Whether these countries are seized by someone, destroyed by natural disaster, or occupied by wandering shinobi, it is only something related to that country's residents. Unless someone has accepted a corresponding commission, even if your territory borders the five great nations of Wind, Fire, Water, Lightning, and Earth, no one will take the initiative to care about you.
"After Loulan collapsed overnight and after these years passed, you should already have experienced this personally, Queen Sara."
"…Rebuilding our homeland is our own responsibility to begin with. What does it matter whether others care or not?"
Sara took several consecutive breaths before slowly saying,
"Rather than let people with ulterior motives set their eyes on the Dragon Vein's power again, I would rather let our lives become a little harder, and let Loulan's reconstruction proceed a little slower."
"Your health does not look like your life is only a little difficult, Queen Sara."
The white snake on Shisui Uchiha's shoulder made a very human-like motion of raising its head.
One glance was enough for others to see that the person borrowing the white snake's body to speak was probably raising his brows in doubt.
"Although I am not here in person, I can still sense through the chakra on my summon that your life is already like a candle in the wind.
"You are not long for this world. Can someone like you truly become a leader capable of guiding Loulan's remnants to rebuild their homeland?"
"…It is just a minor illness I can grit my teeth through. Stop looking down on me!"
Queen Sara tried hard to make her thin body strike a strong and healthy pose to prove that she had not been affected by illness at all.
But the result of doing so only made her next bout of coughing even more intense. There were even traces of blood that looked extremely ominous at a glance.
"If one wants to become a qualified and successful national leader, relying only on stubbornness and bravado will not do."
Rei Kaguya shook his head.
He used the white snake's head to bump Shisui Uchiha, who had been casting sympathetic glances at Queen Sara, on the head.
"Shisui, give the queen one of the Biscuits I had you bring. Although it will not cure her illness completely, it should at least ease her condition."
"Yes."
Hearing Rei Kaguya's words, Shisui Uchiha took out a specially made Biscuit from the ninja tool pouch at his waist and handed it to Queen Sara.
Then he activated his Sharingan, looked straight into her eyes, and said,
"Queen Sara, this is Kirigakure's most precious healing secret medicine. It can greatly treat various illnesses and injuries in the body. Your physical condition is truly poor. To ensure that our later conversation can proceed smoothly, please consume it now."
"Huh? Oh…"
As if infected by Shisui Uchiha's gentle attitude, Sara accepted the Biscuit he handed her without much resistance.
Then she ate it in small bites.
The excellent medicine produced by the system displayed an almost immediate effect.
Her complexion visibly turned healthier.
Her originally weak and heavy breathing also became calm and gentle.
Seeing this, Shisui Uchiha politely stepped back to his original position at the right time, while Nagato, who stood nearby, cast him a slightly teasing glance.
See? Genjutsu really is very useful for this kind of thing, isn't it?
Shisui Uchiha awkwardly turned his head away, too embarrassed to linger on this issue.
Meanwhile, Queen Sara, whose physical condition had improved at an astonishing speed, looked at her hands, which had suddenly gained some color, with a face full of surprise.
Her voice carried unconcealable excitement as she murmured to herself,
"This… this is…"
"This is a healing secret medicine I personally developed. If Queen Sara agrees to the business we are currently discussing, I can consider letting Loulan become this secret medicine's production and sales base in the inland regions… What do you think?"
Rei Kaguya unhurriedly threw out the second bargaining chip he had prepared.
However, this time, the one who suffered the greatest impact was not Queen Sara.
It was Shisui Uchiha, who had personally experienced the Biscuit's powerful effects.
He looked in astonishment at the white snake that had straightened itself on his shoulder and asked in a tone of complete incomprehension,
"Um, Lord Fourth? If I did not hear wrong… you are planning to turn this secret medicine, which can eliminate all current healing medicines in the shinobi world from competition, into something publicly sold?
"And you even want to place the production base outside Kirigakure itself!?
"Why exactly?"
Rei Kaguya directed the white snake to flick its tail, his tone light.
"The publicly sold version will not be the special version you use. The medicinal formula will be adjusted and modified. Selling a downgraded version in terms of effect will be enough.
"As for why I am choosing this time to sell it, the main reason is because Anko's experiment has already reached the stage where commercial testing should begin. We need to first bring out some convincing products to open the market and cultivate customer confidence and loyalty toward us."
"As for why the production site must be placed outside Kirigakure, mm, the main reason is that I am too lazy to argue with several Kekkei Genkai clans in the village over profit distribution.
"Second, I have my eyes on Loulan's Dragon Vein. As long as they can use puppet techniques proficiently, the production factory can remain in operation around the clock, ensuring that the commercial version of the Biscuit can completely crush the current wound medicine market in both quality and quantity.
"Finally, several special raw materials needed to produce Biscuits are specialties of the Land of Water. If the production base is placed outside the Land of Water, then even if the other side obtains the secret medicine's formula, they must still import the raw materials from the Land of Water to maintain production.
"That way, Kirigakure only needs to properly manage the export of those raw materials to firmly control the secret medicine's production scale and cycle, always ensuring that our profits along this industrial line remain unharmed…
"How about it? Did you understand?"
"…I understood a little."
Shisui Uchiha, who had spent years following Rei Kaguya and listening to his teachings, said with some embarrassment.
As for Sara, who had basically never come into contact with Rei Kaguya before, her reaction was more than just a little worse.
She frowned with a troubled expression for a long while.
Then she squeezed out a response that made others unsure whether to laugh or cry.
"Then… would Loulan not become unpaid labor for Kirigakure?"
Rei Kaguya was so angered by her lack of understanding that his vision nearly went dark.
After taking several deep breaths in succession, he finally answered with a hint of exasperation at her failure to live up to expectations.
"…Then have you ever considered this?
"If Loulan becomes the only place around the Land of Wind that sells a medicine like the Biscuit, a product powerful enough to monopolize the entire wound medicine industry, how many merchants and shinobi will deliberately make a trip to Loulan because they want to buy it?
"With so much traffic, which part of their clothing, food, lodging, and travel cannot provide Loulan with an opportunity for massive commercial prosperity?
"And this thing is a consumable that every person might need. The market demand for it is close to infinite.
"You can completely borrow the opportunity of selling Biscuits to develop Loulan into the most dazzling trade center in that region, making it thousands of times more prosperous than when that trash Anrokuzan controlled Loulan…"
"As for the possible security problems, the person beside you named Nagato is the leader of the neutral peace organization Akatsuki. He should be very willing to provide you some reasonably priced assistance.
"After this sequence of moves, Loulan gains the opportunity to rebuild and become even more prosperous. The surrounding countries' economic exchange and regional economic complementarity are accelerated. Akatsuki obtains a chance to display its neutral position to the world. And Kirigakure gains income that can be used to support internal reforms.
"I do not even know how many birds this one stone is hitting…"
"Oh… oh… So, so amazing…"
Sara looked at Rei Kaguya, who seemed to have grown tired from speaking and had lain down on Shisui Uchiha's shoulder without moving.
Her expression became hesitant as she fell into conflict.
What should she do?
Although she did not understand many of the things the other party said, what he said seemed to make a lot of sense…
Mother, when Anrokuzan offered advice to you back then, did you feel the same way?
What should I do?
Should I accept the proposal of that person who has not even shown his true face, and make use of the Dragon Vein's power again?
Or should I firmly seal the Dragon Vein underground forever in order to avoid another disaster like before?
Mother…
Naruto…
Anyone is fine.
Please give me a reason that will let me make up my mind.