Tobacco

- Calm! Keep calm! - Hiruzen repeated, trying to calm everyone present.

Even before the council had a chance to begin, many disputes and conflicts had already flared up.

- Konoha has not yet recovered from the war and now you are saying that we should be at war with the whole world?! Are you all out of your mind?! - said the representative of the Uzumaki Clan, and this time it was not Higune, since her connection with Danzō had long become a kind of "open secret".

- The Senju clan suffered significant losses among their Jounin and Chunin. We cannot afford another war, especially such a large-scale one! shouted the elder of the Senju Clan.

Here Danzo could not stand it and shouted:

- SHUT YOUR MOUTH! THE HOKAGE SPEAKS!

At the same time, Danzō activated the Second Gate and unleashed the full power of his Chakra, putting tremendous pressure on everyone present.

This was enough to cause everyone present to briefly freeze and fall silent, concentrating on fighting the pressure of Danzō's raging Chakra.

- Thank you Danzo, but try not to be so harsh in the future. - Politically correct Hiruzen thanked, not wanting to offend everyone present. - So, apparently, everyone present already understood the seriousness of the situation. We have good reason to believe that the Villages of Hidden Stone, Fog, and Sand are planning an attack on the Land of Fire and Konoha in particular...

Danzō hurried to remove the pressure of his Chakra as Hiruzen's speech began.

The reason why he was not afraid to offend those present in any way was that they were nothing more than representatives of their clans. Only the Heads of the Clans have real power, and such an incident is unlikely to affect their opinion about the financing of the Root.

And even more so, Danzo himself received no small amount of support from the budget of Konoha and the Daimyo himself, so he did not have to complain about the lack of funds.

It is very possible that the Root was the largest organization in terms of budget, after the Shinobi Villages. Unfortunately, in this world, having money didn't mean having power, not even close.

Danzō was already thinking about hiring the Nunekins, but at the moment their numbers and strength were very low, with the exception of Kakuzu. But he wouldn't work for Konoha under any circumstances.

- …We simply don't have a choice but to act first, otherwise we simply won't be able to cope with the attack on all our fronts. - Hiruzen finished his speech.

- But who will fight? We have a total of 526 genin, 223 chunin, 49 jonin and 15 elite jonin, one of which has still not recovered from internal injuries! - asked the representative of the Nara Clan.

Suddenly, an Elite Jonin who came out of civilians intervened in the conversation.

- Thanks to the esteemed Lord Danzō, his work and the work of our Iryōnin, this problem should be solved in the near future.

- Well, if that's the case. The Nara Clan elder replied in a sharp tone.

Hiruzen sighed loudly, and his Councilors were silent, as they did not even know what to say.

- Danzo, what are your suggestions? - sincerely asked the Hokage the opinion of his friend.

Danzō thought for a moment before speaking slowly.

- First of all, we can't go at all at the same time. It is a fact. But we can focus all our forces on eliminating one of our enemies, which is quite possible. And we must by all means delay the war. Time plays into our hands.

While everyone present was pondering Danzō's words, a grandiose idea came to his mind when he saw Hiruzen smoking tobacco from a smoking pipe.

- Hiruzen, as far as I remember, it is your Sarutobi Clan that grows tobacco? How big is your production volume?

The Hokage did not quite understand why Danzō needed this information, but nevertheless said:

- Right now, we barely have enough to keep up with the demand of wealthy citizens in the Fire Nation, but no more.

- If you threw all your efforts into the production of tobacco, how much would it be possible to increase the volume of production? - Danzo asked again.

Here Councilor Koharu could not stand it.

- Danzo, now is not the time to discuss this, we have a war on our nose!