311. An Irresistible Offer

The construction of Konoha was now in full swing.

With the assistance of shinobi, new-style buildings were springing up everywhere.

Roads that were once narrow streets were expanded into wide avenues capable of accommodating six carriages side by side!

The entire village was transforming day by day.

Not only that, but the first railway in the Land of Fire—the *Konoha-Rain Railway*—had completed its survey and design work and officially began construction.

However, such large-scale construction also brought a problem to Konoha’s leadership: a shortage of manpower!

Due to the limitations of current technology, many tasks still required shinobi to complete, such as digging tunnels and building bridges.

If there were enough shinobi, the efficiency of the construction teams would be greatly improved.


In other words, Konoha was in desperate need of shinobi—especially earth-style shinobi!

In Danzō’s eyes, these earth-style shinobi were natural-born construction experts.

They were the jack-of-all-trades on construction sites, capable of handling any project!

Therefore, if Konoha wanted to speed up its construction, the top priority was to recruit more earth-style shinobi.

Thinking of this, Danzō suddenly looked up.

"How’s the task I assigned you going?" he asked, turning to Shikaku, who was standing nearby.

"I’ve issued a large number of missions on behalf of the village to the outside world. So far, a total of seven rogue shinobi have reported for duty. Among them, three are earth-style shinobi, all at the genin level. I’ll have the Anbu investigate them, and if they meet the criteria, we’ll retain them in the village through the talent recruitment program," Shikaku replied without looking up, continuously processing the documents in his hands.


If one looked closely, they could even see the dark circles under Shikaku’s eyes!

This was because the village’s affairs had become overwhelming recently.

Even with Danzō and Minato working tirelessly, they couldn’t handle everything alone, so Shikaku, the strategist, had been pulled into the mix.

After hearing Shikaku’s report, Minato, who had been processing documents beside him, stopped and frowned. "That number is still far too small."

The manpower shortage in Konoha was enormous, and a few shinobi like this were just a drop in the bucket.

Shikaku shook his head. "There’s no other way. Major villages have always cracked down on rogue shinobi, squeezing their living space. As a result, they lack trust in us. Even if we offer high prices, it won’t help much."

Faced with this situation, even Minato, the Hokage, could only sigh helplessly.

But Danzō raised an eyebrow, clearly having thought of a solution.

"Perhaps we can use a large sum of money to hire these rogue shinobi who took on the missions first. For example, reward each of them with 300,000 ryō."

Hearing this, Minato was stunned and quickly reminded Danzō, "Elder Danzō, they’re just genin."

300,000 ryō was the reward for an A-rank mission, something typically reserved for jōnin-level shinobi.


And now Danzō was planning to give this amount to a few genin?

Unlike the confused Minato, Shikaku immediately understood Danzō’s intention and stopped what he was doing, looking up.

"Elder Danzō, are you planning to use this as a way to attract more talent?"

Seeing that Shikaku had grasped his idea, Danzō smiled faintly.

"Exactly. If rogue shinobi learn that even genin can receive such generous rewards from Konoha, what do you think they’ll do?"

They’ll come flocking!

This was almost a certainty.

For rogue shinobi, their primary goal was to earn money.

While coming to Konoha might carry risks, the rewards were simply too good to ignore.

In the face of such lucrative profits, any risks could be overlooked.

However, Minato still had concerns.

"But if we give every shinobi such high rewards, Konoha’s finances might not be able to handle it."

Danzō smiled again and calmly explained, "The initial reward is just bait to lure these rogue shinobi to Konoha. Once they arrive and see how safe it is to work with Konoha, they’ll accept even if we lower the mission rewards to a reasonable range."

Hearing this, Minato finally understood.

The 300,000 ryō was just bait to attract rogue shinobi to Konoha.

The real goal was to change their perception of Konoha and draw them into cooperation with the village.

Eventually, through the talent recruitment program, they could be fully integrated into Konoha.

"Additionally, we can have these rogue shinobi recommend each other. As long as they bring in companions to work for Konoha, they can receive a corresponding reward. The more people they bring, the higher the reward," Danzō added with a smile, proposing another new idea.

Originally, he had considered imitating a certain marketing strategy, where rogue shinobi would only receive their reward after recruiting a certain number of people.

But after some thought, he decided to save that trick for later.

Even so, this referral-based approach left Minato and Shikaku utterly shocked, calling Danzō a genius.

"Even if Elder Danzō weren’t a shinobi, he could still become an outstanding merchant," Shikaku remarked, shaking his head.

He had never seen anyone like Danzō before.

To be precise, with Danzō’s mind and methods, he would excel at anything he did.

In response to Shikaku’s praise, Danzō simply chuckled and continued, "Also, issue a mission in the name of the Konoha Commerce Guild to Iwagakure. The mission content will be: assist the Land of Fire in railway construction."

——————

As Danzō’s orders were carried out, the few rogue shinobi soon received their rewards of 300,000 ryō.

These genin-level rogue shinobi were stunned when they saw such a large sum of money.

After all, they had only come to Konoha out of desperation, having struggled to survive outside.

And now they were being told that they could earn 300,000 ryō just for showing up?

If they had known it was real, they would have come sooner!

After they received their rewards, news of this spread like wildfire across the shinobi world.

Soon, every shinobi knew that Konoha had spent 300,000 ryō to hire a few genin-level rogue shinobi!

They couldn’t help but wonder: if even a few rogue genin could earn 300,000 ryō, what about rogue shinobi stronger than them?

Could they earn even more?

With this thought, not only were rogue shinobi tempted, but even shinobi from smaller villages—and even some from major villages—were intrigued!