Trading with the Hidden Mist

"Third, Mizukage, someone outside wishes to meet with you. The person is a merchant from the Land of Fire and seems to want to do business with the village."

The Mizukage's assistant respectfully reported to the Third Mizukage. Lately, the Third Mizukage's temper had become more and more unpredictable, having already dealt with two of his direct subordinates in the Anbu. Under the influence of the Third Mizukage, the atmosphere in the Kirigakure had become quite strange.

"A merchant from the Land of Fire? Let him go see Genma. Are all the other people's matters left for me, the Mizukage, to handle? What are they doing?"

The Third Mizukage coldly scolded after hearing the report. He felt that such matters shouldn't bother him, and it was time for the village to change!

However, after saying this, the Third Mizukage completely forgot that just a few days ago, he had ordered that he should be informed of all matters in the village, big or small.

"Yes, Mizukage-sama."

The Mizukage's assistant bowed and replied, suppressing the trembling in his heart, and then slowly retreated.

Since the Second Great Ninja War, the Third Mizukage's temper had not been very good. The Second Mizukage and the Second Tsuchikage had perished, the Kirigakure had been defeated by the Sand Ninja, and the internal bloodline clans were not contributing their full strength. They were openly and secretly not very supportive of him as the Mizukage.

The Kirigakure's strength was not weak, but there were too many small groups. They couldn't fully display the strength that the Hidden Mist should have on the battlefield, which led to their defeat by the Sand Ninja, who was fighting on two fronts. It was a disgrace!

'Only by using iron-fisted methods can the power of the Kirigakure be integrated.'

Subsequently, the Third Mizukage wrote down the words "Blood Mist." He wanted to use this method to weaken those disobedient bloodline clans while also improving the strength of civilian ninjas through "raising gu." Only then could he, as the Mizukage, truly wield power.

Cain did not meet with the Mizukage. Not every leader of a ninja village had exceptional vision, not even the Konoha. It was only because Tsunade, a professional, had helped Cain with his packaging that he could trade smoothly with the Konoha.

Now being sent to another person, Cain was already mentally prepared.

"Please wait here for a moment. I will inform Genma-sama."

After saying this, the Mizukage's assistant knocked on the door and went in to report to the person inside.

Hearing the name Genma, Cain suddenly remembered this person's existence. He had very few appearances in the Naruto series but held a high position. He had assisted the Second, Third, and Fourth Mizukage, and his status in Kirigakure was not low.

After a while, the Mizukage's assistant came out and said to Cain, "Please come in."

Genma was a bald, middle-aged man, a few years older than Sarutobi Hiruzen. He handled all the trivial matters in the Kirigakure, such as liaising with the Daimyo, ensuring logistics, and so on.

After Cain stated his intentions, Genma was also somewhat surprised and intrigued. The Hidden Mist had spies in the Konoha and knew that a merchant was selling convenient medicines in the village. This matter was not only discovered by the Cloud Ninja, but other ninja villages had also received news from their spies.

However, the Cloud Ninja was the most decisive, wanting to kidnap Cain and Kushina and take them back.

Genma was surprised that Cain had actually come to seek cooperation. He had originally planned to have the spy hidden in the Konoha make contact with Cain.

As for those medicines, the Kirigakure's spies in the Konoha had also bought some and sent them back to the Kirigakure. After testing, the effects were indeed good. If used on the battlefield, they would indeed be life-saving items.

After learning that Cain's intention was to sell medicine, the head of the village thought for a moment and gladly agreed; this would greatly benefit the Kirigakure. Even the Konoha felt the lack of medical ninjas, so there couldn't be many more in the Kirigakure.

Apart from the bloodline clans, ordinary ninjas who were sick or injured usually had to wait in line for treatment or rely on their own experience to endure; even ordinary doctors were hard to find, as they were only affordable by nobles and wealthy merchants.

If they had Cain's medicine, the situation of the injured in the Kirigakure would have been greatly alleviated. In addition to medicine, Cain had other businesses to trade with the Kirigakure, such as food, ironware, etc.

At this time, the Kirigakure represented the ruling power in the nearby sea area. The Rock Village had a unit of Earth Release, and the Kirigakure had a unit of Water Release on the sea. Over a dozen Water Release ninjas could easily capsize dozens of large ships.

In addition to the content of the trade, Cain also asked the Kirigakure to guarantee the safety of his shipping fleet in the Land of Waves; at least the Mist ninjas could not attack him. If an enemy attacked his fleet, the Kirigakure would be responsible for finding the culprit.

As for the money and goods used in the trade, it was basically the same as the Konoha. The Kirigakure's funding from the Daimyo was even scarcer than the Konoha's, so they could only use gold and jewels as collateral.

However, Cain also made a request, hoping that the collateral from the Kirigakure would include chakra metal, which must appear once in two or three transactions.

Upon hearing this request, the village head fell silent. For ninjas, chakra metal was a particularly valuable item that could greatly enhance their strength. Incorporating a little chakra metal could improve chakra flow when forging weapons.

The amount of chakra metal the Kirigakure could obtain each year was limited, mostly collected from the Land of Rainbows and the Land of Tea, and there were many hungry wolves within the village. Each bloodline clan wanted to get more chakra metal for themselves.

However, with the medicine, the Kirigakure could ensure the survival rate of ordinary ninjas. After much consideration, the village head agreed to Cain's request. Chakra metal could only enhance the individual strength of a ninja, while the materials traded with Cain could supply the needs of most ninjas.

The trading location was set at a port in the Land of Water. Once Cain's shipping vessels were built, they would start transporting goods from the Land of Waves. The first transaction was scheduled for two months later.

Cain planned to establish two factories in the Land of Waves first, one for pharmaceuticals and the other for fresh food processing. Being close to the Land of Waves, a major fishing nation, it would be a waste not to make good use of the resources there.

People in the ninja world were fond of rivers and seafood, but it was difficult to obtain in the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth. A sizable business could be developed if they were made into canned, fresh food and sold there.

Cain also planned to recruit more guards, with a minimum of 2,000 people, all trained according to regular army methods and equipped with assault rifles, rocket launchers, etc. He was curious to know which side would have the advantage when a modernized army with weapons and ninja forces clashed.

The Land of Waves was too small, suitable only for business development and a small number of guards, so Cain planned to develop a modernized army in the Land of Tea.

However, in that case, Cain would have to bring the production line of the military factory as well. Otherwise, he would have to transport it back and forth, and it would also be troublesome to purchase large quantities of weapons in the United States.

***

In the underground laboratory outside the Konoha in the Land of Fire.

Boom!

A violent explosion turned the death row prisoner into a cloud of blood mist, and even the iron-plated floor was slightly dented due to the explosion's impact.

Orochimaru said with great interest, "After adding the First Hokage's cells, the power of the explosion has actually decreased. A single Extremis Virus can release terrifying heat and impact, but it was in the form of flesh and blood just now. Tsunade, how is the data collection going?"

"The data has been collected, but the equipment is destroyed again, and the serum is gone too."

Tsunade scratched her golden hair and said to Orochimaru. It had been a month, and the three batches of serum had been tested, killing ten death row subjects and destroying three sets of equipment, with only a little progress made so far.

"Contact him. The experiment can't stop."

After Orochimaru finished speaking, he turned around and prepared to continue his research.

Tsunade muttered a few words in a low voice, mainly because the cost was too high, and she was a little embarrassed to ask Cain for help.