315. The New Drug

What followed was relatively straightforward.

Under the combined suppression of the Sharingan, Wood Release, and Uzumaki sealing techniques, the Seven-Tails had no chance to resist and was swiftly sealed into Ryoma's body.

With this, the number of jinchūriki in Konoha officially rose to three!

Among them, the Nine-Tails was a well-known entity across the entire shinobi world.

As for the Seven-Tails, since it had caused significant damage to Konoha, it was only natural for the village to "imprison" it.

The fact that Konoha didn't demand compensation from Takigakure was already a display of great magnanimity.

Did they really expect to get the Seven-Tails back?

Impossible.

In the context of Konoha's victory over Kumogakure and the death of the Raikage, none of the other four major villages dared to provoke Konoha lightly, let alone a small village like Takigakure.

It could only be said that weak nations have no place in diplomacy.

That left only the Five-Tails, which had yet to be revealed publicly.

Although Ryoma had used the Five-Tails' power to engage in a fierce battle with Yugito, the Two-Tails' jinchūriki from Kumogakure, he had never fully unleashed the Tailed Beast's power.

Yugito only had her suspicions, and even if she came forward to accuse Konoha of possessing the Five-Tails, Ōnoki of Iwagakure would never risk a major conflict with Konoha based on mere speculation without evidence.

Even if Ōnoki did discover that the Five-Tails was in Konoha's hands, so what?

At most, they'd just have to fight again…

Konoha wasn't afraid before, and they were even less afraid now.

"For the next period of time, focus on mastering the power of the Tailed Beasts," Danzo said, looking at Ryoma and Kakashi with anticipation.

"Once you've gained some control, I'll arrange for you to train on the Island Turtle of Kumogakure, with the goal of becoming perfect jinchūriki."

Of course, Kakashi and Ryoma had no objections to Danzo's arrangements.

They exchanged glances and solemnly agreed.

After resolving the matters concerning the two Tailed Beasts, Danzo immediately returned to the Hokage's office.

The village was in the midst of reconstruction, and there was no time for idleness.

Not just him, but even Minato, the Hokage, had the ANBU clean up the scene before promptly returning to his desk.

Joining them was Nara Shikaku, the clan head who had recently been entrusted with significant responsibilities.

As a transmigrator, Danzo was well aware of how sharp Shikaku's mind was.

He had even been praised as being worth an entire army by himself!

His capabilities were undeniable.

If Shikaku's son, Shikamaru, hadn't still been in his infancy, Danzo would have wanted to recruit him to serve the village as well…

As it turned out, Danzo's trust was not misplaced.

Nara Shikaku had handled every task and assignment given to him with impeccable organization.

His presence now was to report on the progress of his work.

"Lord Hokage, Elder Danzo," Shikaku began, "the Konoha Commerce Association has officially begun operations, and the construction of the railway is progressing smoothly.

to the plan, we should aggressively attract merchants from the Land of Fire and establish branches in various regions. We also need to gradually clear any potential threats along the way, but…"

"The merchants don't seem very willing to cooperate with our efforts."

At this point, Shikaku rubbed his temples in frustration.

This was indeed a challenging issue.

The reason was that there were many local merchants within the Land of Fire.

Most of them were representatives of local nobles or even the nobles themselves engaging in commerce.

These nobles tightly controlled the pricing, enforcement, and even taxation of goods in their respective regions.

They were essentially both the referees and the players.

In such a commercial environment, goods in each region were monopolized by the local nobles.

Even if Konoha wanted to sell something, they had to first sell it to the merchants under these nobles, who would then resell it at marked-up prices.

By the time the goods reached the common people, the prices had skyrocketed several times over.

Therefore, when Konoha attempted to establish direct branches to sell goods to the people, they naturally encountered strong opposition from these local merchants and nobles.

After all, these nobles and merchants were used to skimming off a significant portion of the profits and setting prices as they pleased.

Now, with the Konoha Commerce Association cutting out the middlemen, how could they possibly agree?

As for the tax revenue and economic benefits that a smooth commercial route would bring to the region, these short-sighted nobles couldn't care less.

They only cared about their immediate gains…

Danzo wasn't particularly surprised by this issue.

Throughout history, similar problems had arisen time and again.

In fact, a significant part of his motivation for establishing the Konoha Commerce Association was to reform the current commercial environment.

This stagnant pool of water was long overdue for a stir…

"Don't worry, I have a plan for this," Danzo said calmly, his tone almost unsettlingly composed.

"Shikaku, just continue negotiating with these merchants and push forward with the establishment of branches in various regions. I'll handle the rest."

His calmness was almost…

Terrifying!

Yes, terrifying.

Because both Minato and Shikaku knew that Danzo generally had two ways of solving problems.

One was through the village's normal channels, such as assigning Shikaku to negotiate with the merchants or issuing new policies and directives.

The other was through non-conventional means—namely, Root.

If the problem couldn't be solved, Danzo had no qualms about solving the people causing the problem…

In any case, when Danzo said this, Shikaku and Minato couldn't help but silently mourn for those merchants and nobles.

After leaving the Hokage's office, Danzo headed straight to the Root-affiliated research institute.

When he arrived, he saw two figures in white lab coats studying something at an experimental table.

These two were undoubtedly [Snake] Hiruko and his young disciple, Kabuto.

After completing the medical tasks assigned by Tsunade, Kabuto spent most of his remaining time in the laboratory.

Danzo didn't disturb their experiment but quietly activated his Byakugan to observe the changes in the lab.

He saw several white mice, after being injected with a red liquid by Hiruko, immediately develop crimson eyes.


Their blood vessels bulged, their muscles swelled, and they became highly aggressive.

Soon, they began a chaotic brawl, tearing at each other until they were on the verge of death. Several of them died outright…

Seeing this, Hiruko and Kabuto quickly recorded detailed data on their tablets.

Then, they injected a blue liquid into the nearly dead mice.

With this injection, the severely injured mice, on the brink of death, seemed to experience a sudden resurgence.

Their wounds began to heal, and before long, they were lively and active again!

"It seems your research is progressing well," Danzo said suddenly, drawing the attention of the two.

"Lord Danzo!"

"Teacher!"

Hiruko greeted Danzo with respect, while Kabuto remained composed.

He grabbed Danzo's hand and pointed to the red and blue liquids on the experimental table, explaining:

"Teacher, the new drug that Lord Hiruko and I have been working on is a great success!"