Tsunade fell silent for a while.
She recalled that although the fighting on the front lines had ended, Hidden Sand and Hidden Stone had only retreated temporarily. What if they launched another invasion?
Although the Uchiha's military alliance declaration had intimidated them, without the Uchiha's actual deterrence, no one could guarantee they wouldn't invade again.
At a time like this, the Uchiha's visit could indeed serve to consolidate peace and intimidate their enemies.
She let out a sigh.
"No matter what, make preparations to receive the Uchiha."
Shizune hurriedly nodded and turned to make the arrangements.
...
One month later.
Konoha Village, Hokage Office.
Documents were piled high like mountains across the desk.
These files were all urgent postwar problems, along with historical issues left behind during Hiruzen's administration.
Tsunade sat weakly behind the desk, staring at the reports spread before her.
Her brows were tightly furrowed.
Shizune stood behind her holding Tonton, her face equally full of worry.
"Lady Tsunade, the number of commissions dropped again this month."
Shizune carefully opened one of the files.
"The number of commissions is nearly forty percent lower than before the war, and several major long-term clients have switched over to Hidden Gento Village..."
Tsunade said nothing. She merely picked up the report, her eyes sweeping over the figures written on it.
After a long while, she put the report down, leaned back in her chair, and closed her eyes.
The faces of the various clan heads surfaced in her mind.
Shikaku Nara, Inoichi Yamanaka, Choza Akimichi, Hiashi Hyuga...
Although they said nothing openly, she could see the dissatisfaction in their eyes clearly.
The war may have ended, but Konoha's true crisis had only just begun.
The feudal lords, nobles, and merchants who once trusted Konoha would now rather spend extra money to hire Hidden Gento Village than entrust missions to the repeatedly defeated Konoha.
Even worse, Konoha's finances were already on the verge of collapse.
The Feudal Lord's financial support had been drastically reduced, mission income had sharply declined, yet pensions, reconstruction expenses, and shinobi salaries could not be reduced at all.
If this continued, not to mention development, even survival would become a problem.
At that moment, there was a knock on the office door.
An Anbu member pushed the door open and knelt on one knee.
"Lady Tsunade, Lord Gento of the Land of Hot Water will be arriving today."
"The clan heads of the major shinobi clans have assembled and are waiting at the village entrance."
"It is also time for you to head there personally to receive him."
Tsunade took a deep breath, stood up, and straightened her Hokage robes.
"Let's go."
...
At the entrance to Konoha Village, a huge crowd had gathered.
Shikaku, Inoichi, Choza, Tsume, Shibi...
Nearly all the clan heads of Konoha's shinobi clans had arrived.
Dressed in formal kimono or shinobi attire, they stood lined up on both sides of the gate.
Tsunade stood at the very front, wearing the white Hokage robes of the Fifth Hokage with the Hokage hat atop her head.
Standing behind her was Jiraiya, looking as lazy as ever.
"They're here."
Jiraiya narrowed his eyes toward the distant main road.
Two figures appeared upon the road.
Only two people.
Yet no one present dared underestimate them.
Because one of them was Gento Uchiha.
And the other was Itachi Uchiha.
Those two alone were worth tens of thousands of ordinary shinobi.
Gento walked up before Tsunade.
His gaze swept across those familiar faces.
Shikaku, Inoichi, Choza...
Those clan heads who had once stood on equal footing with the Uchiha were now all looking at him with complicated expressions.
He withdrew his gaze and looked toward Tsunade, a smile rising on his lips.
"Princess Tsunade, it's been a while."
Tsunade snorted and replied expressionlessly:
"Welcome to Konoha. Come on, don't just stand at the gate."
She turned and walked toward the village.
Gento smiled and followed after her.
Walking through Konoha's streets, Gento was filled with mixed emotions.
He had walked this street countless times before.
Back then, he walked it as the Uchiha clan head, ostracized, neglected, and treated as an "unstable factor."
Now, he walked it as the Feudal Lord of the Land of Hot Water and ruler of Hidden Gento Village, welcomed by crowds lining both sides of the road.
The shops lining the streets were still the same shops, but many of the signboards had changed.
Moreover, postwar Konoha seemed far more desolate than before.
Seeing the approaching group, the pedestrians on the streets all stopped to watch and whispered among themselves.
"So that's the Uchiha clan head?"
"I heard he defeated the Raikage and the Eight-Tails Jinchuriki all by himself!"
"Haa… if only the Uchiha were still in Konoha..."
"Yeah, business in Konoha isn't doing well these days..."
Listening to the murmurs around him, the smile on Gento's lips deepened.
He glanced toward the dango shop at the street corner, the one Anko used to love visiting the most.
The owner was still standing at the entrance holding bamboo skewers, staring blankly at him.
Back then, he often brought Anko there to eat dango.
He withdrew his gaze and quickened his pace, walking side by side with Tsunade.
"Konoha's changed quite a bit."
Without turning her head, Tsunade replied:
"Has it?"
Gento smiled.
"The Hokage Rock hasn't changed, though. Hiruzen's face is still up there."
Tsunade's steps paused.
"Don't mention that old man. Even dead, he still won't let people have peace."
Without slowing down, the group followed Tsunade into the meeting room.
Everyone took their seats.
"Now that everyone's here, let's begin."
The meeting officially started, and Tsunade first delivered some formal remarks.
She thanked the various shinobi clans for their contributions during the war, thanked Hidden Gento Village for its assistance, thanked everyone for their support, and so on.
After listening, Gento smiled and spoke.
"Princess Tsunade is too polite. But now that the formalities are out of the way, shouldn't we discuss the real matter at hand?"
A slight movement appeared in Tsunade's brows.
Gento's gaze swept across everyone present as he spoke calmly and steadily.
"I assume everyone here is already well aware of Konoha's current predicament."
"Although the war has ended, Konoha's losses were far from insignificant."
"I heard that Konoha's number of mission commissions has dropped by nearly forty percent compared to before the war?"
The moment those words were spoken, the atmosphere in the meeting room froze instantly.
Tsunade's expression became somewhat unpleasant.
She hadn't expected Hidden Gento Village's intelligence network to be this formidable.
Gento continued:
"Konoha suffered consecutive defeats and lost most of its territory over the course of three years."
"Although the enemy has now retreated, all that was returned is little more than a wasteland. Even the Land of Fire's Feudal Lord has lost confidence in you."
"Those employers aren't fools. They would rather spend extra money to hire the more reliable Hidden Gento Village."
"To be honest with all of you, after the war ended, Hidden Gento Village's mission commissions skyrocketed."
"However, our current number of shinobi is limited. We have more missions than we can possibly handle, forcing us to reluctantly abandon many lower-value commissions."
"It's truly quite troublesome."
Hearing this, the expressions of everyone present became complicated.
Some eyes flashed with envy, some with unwillingness, and others with deep helplessness.
Back then, Konoha had been the number one shinobi village in the world, with a volume of commissions far exceeding the other Four Great Nations.
But now...
Tsunade took a deep breath, suppressing the emotions in her heart as she asked in a low voice:
"Gento, after saying all that, what exactly are you trying to say?"
Gento continued:
"I'm obviously not saying this just to boast."
"This time, I came to Konoha to discuss cooperation."
"Cooperation?"
Tsunade froze in surprise.
"Hidden Gento Village lacks enough shinobi, yet has more missions than it can handle."
"Konoha Village has far more shinobi than Hidden Gento Village, yet can't obtain enough missions."
"Doesn't that make the two perfectly suited for cooperation?"
"With Konoha's assistance, Hidden Gento Village would be able to take on every commission available."
Murmurs immediately spread throughout the meeting room.
The eyes of the various clan heads all lit up as they looked toward Gento.
They had long heard rumors of the terrifying volume of commissions flowing into Hidden Gento Village.
And the rewards offered for Hidden Gento Village commissions were also extremely high.
If the two sides could truly reach a partnership, Konoha's current economic crisis would immediately be resolved!
Even Tsunade straightened in her seat, hope appearing in her eyes.
Could it be... Gento intended to share missions with Konoha?
Gento nodded, seemingly seeing straight through her thoughts.
"This is how I intend to arrange it. For missions accepted by Hidden Gento Village, one Uchiha shinobi will lead a team together with three Konoha shinobi, forming a four-man squad to carry out the mission."
"After the mission is completed, the payment will be split seventy-thirty!"
Hearing this, Tsunade immediately smiled brightly.
"Lord Gento is truly generous, offering Konoha seventy percent of the payment right from the start!"
Gento looked at Tsunade with a dark expression and emphasized:
"The seventy percent belongs to the Uchiha!"
"What?!"
Shikaku couldn't help but speak out.
"That's far too harsh!"
"A four-man squad with three Konoha shinobi only gets thirty percent?"
"On average, each Konoha shinobi only gets ten percent, while the single Uchiha member takes seventy percent alone?"
"Yeah, yeah, that's way too unfair!"
"Lord Gento, could you raise it a little more?"
Everyone began speaking up one after another. Even Tsunade frowned.
"Gento, this distribution method really isn't very reasonable."
"Konoha is providing more personnel, yet only receiving such a tiny share of the payment?"
Gento waved his hand, signaling for everyone to quiet down.
"Everyone, have you ever considered that without Hidden Gento Village's name attached, these missions would never come to Konoha in the first place?"
---
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