While Yuji walked the senior officials through the pharmaceutical industry frawork, part of his attention stayed on the Third Kazekage.
Sasori had been introducing the poison gradually for so ti now. On the surface the Kazekage showed nothing, his behavior, his speech, his presence in the room all appeared completely normal.
But Yuji’s eyes found the back of the man’s hand and noted the faint dark blue tint along the veins, barely visible, the kind of thing an ordinary person would never register.
It was progressing.
The discussion continued at length. Everyone had sothing to contribute, and the energy in the room was high.
The scale of what was being described made the implications obvious to people of their experience, the current hospital departnt and the small group of researchers were nowhere near sufficient for what this would require.
A dedicated production facility inside the village was the first necessity. Political outreach to friendly small countries and villages could expand the distribution network. The ideas ca quickly and enthusiastically.
Then they converged on the sa obstacle.
The Daimyo of the Land of Wind.
Factory construction, diplomatic outreach, initial inventory, all of it required either the Daimyo’s direct involvent or his funding.
The room’s energy shifted perceptibly when the subject arose. The Daimyo’s current disposition toward the village was not favorable, and word of the recent internal tensions had reached him, which would only have deepened his dissatisfaction with the village’s leadership.
"I’ll go see him myself," the Third Kazekage said after a mont.
"I’ll go with you," Chiyo said.
The Kazekage going alone might not be enough to convey the necessary seriousness. Two of the village’s most senior figures together sent a different ssage.
Yuji offered appropriate support and left it there. He kept his private assessnt to himself. He knew with reasonable certainty that before actual profit figures existed, no amount of personal persuasion or live demonstration of the dicine’s effects would produce investnt from this particular Daimyo.
The sa person who had drastically cut the village’s budget and ninja numbers imdiately after the Third Ninja World War ended was not soone who responded to potential. He responded to money already in hand.
Yuji’s gaze moved around the table to the newer faces, the recently promoted officials, people drawn up from various institutions to fill the gaps the past year had created.
Several of them were still finding their footing within the existing senior structure. They weren’t the old guard. They were still in the process of becoming sothing.
And now Yuji was one of them.
The village’s internal tensions, without further interference from him and Sasori, had settled to a level that was tense but manageable. The open friction had receded. Underlying resentnts hadn’t disappeared, but the economic changes coming would give the civilian faction sothing concrete to feel the difference in.
Money and resources could address a significant portion of what had produced the discontent.
Then, as Yuji had anticipated, the Kazekage turned to him directly and asked for all research materials to be handed over to the village imdiately.
Even now. Even from the person who had built this from nothing.
The Kazekage’s character was exactly this, he trusted himself above everyone else, and no amount of demonstrated loyalty or contribution fully dissolved that instinct toward control.
Yuji didn’t push back and he didn’t simply comply.
"I understand your concern, Lord Kazekage, and I have no objection to the village holding this material," he said. "However, the dicinal data we’ve compiled is the foundation of everything. If it’s leaked, the pharmaceutical advantage disappears entirely."
"My proposal is that the data itself be held exclusively by Grandma Chiyo, and the formulas be kept by you directly, sealed and accessible only to the Kage."
He frad it as a protective asure rather than a concession.
For soone like the Kazekage, holding a portion of the docunts and feeling that control was real was sufficient. He didn’t need everything. He needed to believe the most important things were in his hands.
That was easy enough to arrange.
"You’re right to consider that."
The Kazekage nodded.
He had been sowhat impatient, but the impatience ca from a genuine place, with sothing this significant on the line, any gap in how the data was stored and protected was a risk he couldn’t accept.
And beyond the practical concern, there was sothing else. If the Hidden Sand Village achieved unprecedented prosperity under his watch, his place in the village’s history would surpass every Kazekage who had co before him.
He might be rembered as the one who established the village’s new foundation. He was not indifferent to that.
"I also spent so ti reading materials on economics," Yuji said, smiling. "And as you predicted, Lord Kazekage, I’m genuinely not suited for the role of Economic Advisor.
So I thought it over and decided to stay in my original field. I hope I haven’t disappointed you."
The Kazekage paused.
He rembered it now, Yuji, early in his appointnt, expressing interest in joining the Council of Advisors to contribute to the village’s economic situation. The Kazekage had not taken it seriously at the ti. He had expected the ambition to run into reality and fade.
He had not expected this.
"You little brat," the Kazekage said.
He could hear the teasing clearly enough. But with good news in the air and the room full of excitent, and with the scale of what Yuji had actually delivered sitting on the table in front of him, the only dignified response was to concede the point.
At the far end of the table, one person had said nothing throughout.
Rasa.
He understood the weight of what Yuji had accomplished and genuinely felt the hope it represented for the village.
But his emotions in this mont were not simply joyful. They were complicated in a way that was difficult to resolve neatly.
He had never regarded Yuji as a real threat. The age gap was significant. Their generations were different. Military achievent and battlefield record were the traditional asures of a Kage candidate, and by those asures Rasa’s position was secure.
But looking at what was unfolding now, and projecting forward, once the pharmaceutical industry took hold and Sunagakure began drawing wealth from across the ninja world, Yuji’s standing would reach a level that was difficult to compare to anything asured in battle records.
He was already genuinely popular at the grassroots level. The senior officials in this room were looking at him with open admiration. The contribution he had just laid before them existed in a different category from anything normally used to evaluate a shinobi’s value to a village.
If Yuji chose to compete for the Kazekage position, the thought surfaced clearly in Rasa’s mind before he could dismiss it.
The Third wouldn’t step down for a long ti yet. By the ti that question beca real, Yuji would be an adult, and every concern about age would have resolved itself. His resu and his contributions and his reputation would all have continued growing.
The Fourth Kazekage might not be Rasa.
Sothing contracted in his chest.
The person he had been watching most carefully had always been Sasori. Sasori’s promotions had been exceptions, the village bending its own rules because his ability was undeniable.
The Kazekage had co to trust and rely on him heavily over the past year, which Rasa had observed with his own kind of wariness. Sasori was from Chiyo’s lineage. He shared the strong-willed character that the Kazekage respected most in people. He was a genuine candidate.
Rasa looked at Yuji, still smiling easily at the table, and let the thought complete itself.
Even if Yuji had no personal ambition for the Kage position, his relationship with Sasori was known to everyone. The two had been connected since their earliest years in the village, and that connection had never weakened.
’If I want to beco Kazekage, I need Yuji on my side.’
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