Chapter 360: Open the Granaries and Distribute the Grain!

Perhaps Uchiha Ren’s words had been too shocking.

Perhaps they had been simply too outrageous to believe.

Whatever the reason, the moment Ren finished speaking, the entire Sunagakure fell into a deathly silence.

The civilians gathered in the plaza in front of the Kazekage Building looked at Ren with bewilderment. Even the Konoha shinobi standing around them were looking at him strangely.

“Hey, Pineapple Head, did you just hear what Lord Ren said? We’re the ‘clear sky’ of Sunagakure?”

After recovering from his shock, an Uchiha jōnin couldn’t help asking the Nara jōnin beside him, whose hair was styled like a pineapple.

He asked for two reasons.

First, he wanted to make sure he hadn’t misheard Ren.

Second, members of the Nara clan were known for being intelligent, so surely this guy understood what Ren had meant.

“He said it, so I guess that’s what it is.”

The Nara jōnin was also somewhat helpless. He spread his hands.

Of course he understood Ren’s words.

He had also figured out some of Ren’s intentions.

But could things really be done this way?

Although Ren had successfully stirred up the conflict between the civilians of Sunagakure and its leadership and nobles, provoking the civilians’ anger, that didn’t mean their hatred toward the Konoha shinobi had disappeared!

Even though Ren had previously shifted the blame for the war onto Sunagakure’s leadership and exonerated Konoha as much as possible, thereby reducing the civilians’ hatred toward Konoha, that didn’t mean they would suddenly trust Konoha’s shinobi!

And, more importantly, they had just killed more than a thousand Sunagakure shinobi at the Sand Mountain Temple defensive position outside the village!

But things had already reached this point.

Ren was their commander-in-chief.

All they could do was trust Ren, along with Tsunade, Jiraiya, Orochimaru, and the others, and let them carry on with their plan.

Meanwhile, Ren continued,

“I know you have a lot of questions right now, and that you find it difficult to trust Konoha.”

“But I don’t need your trust!”

“For the time being, all you need to do is keep your eyes open and watch carefully.”

“Konoha has come to Sunagakure for only three things.”

“Fairness, fairness, and goddamn fairness!”

He paused before continuing,

“If you really need a reason, then just consider it this way: Konoha has simply had enough. We can’t stand having a neighbor like Sunagakure that keeps starting wars all the time!”

“Konoha is a peace-loving village. What we need is peaceful development!”

“Since you people of Sunagakure don’t know how to develop peacefully, then Konoha will personally teach you how to develop, step by step!”

Ren paused.

His gaze swept across the bewildered faces of the civilians below before he spoke in a deep voice.

“Actually, after saying all this, there’s only one thing I want you to understand.”

“Our arrival will not bring you any harm!”

“You don’t need to overthink things. Even if you do, it won’t change anything! All you need to do is watch carefully.”

“Now, I will issue the first administrative order following Konoha’s takeover of Sunagakure.”

“Open the granaries and distribute the grain!”

The words were like another depth charge exploding in the crowd!

Everything Ren had said before could be set aside.

Although his words had been extremely inflammatory, most of them were still abstract promises.

But “open the granaries and distribute the grain” was as concrete as it could possibly get!

Ren continued,

“For the next period of time, we will place Sunagakure under military administration while making every effort not to disrupt your normal lives.”

“In a moment, we will distribute enough food and daily necessities to every household to last you two months.”

“Consider it compensation from Konoha for the inconvenience caused by our operation.”

“At the same time, we will negotiate with the leadership of Sunagakure and do our best to reach an agreement with them, securing even greater benefits for you.”

“Hiss…”

The moment Ren finished speaking, the crowd below erupted into another wave of sharp gasps.

The civilians instinctively ignored almost everything else Ren had said.

They had heard only one thing:

Konoha was going to give every household enough food and supplies to last two months!

That was no small amount!

Converted into money, the value of those supplies would be at least tens of thousands of ryō per person!

Tens of thousands of ryō per person might not sound like much.

But the entire Sunagakure had a population of several hundred thousand.

Added together, that meant several billion ryō!

What did several billion ryō even mean?

Even Konoha’s current Finance Department didn’t have that much liquid capital at its disposal!

No wonder the civilians of Sunagakure were reacting so strongly.

Yet Ren felt not the slightest bit reluctant about spending this “money.”

The reason was simple.

Konoha’s army had arrived so suddenly that many of Sunagakure’s resources had not yet been transferred.

There weren’t actually many supplies left in Sunagakure’s public warehouses. The village truly deserved its reputation as the poorest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages.

But the homes of Sunagakure’s nobles and wealthy families were a completely different story.

They were practically overflowing with wealth!

Sunagakure was the safest city in the Land of Wind, so many nobles and wealthy families throughout the Land of Wind had chosen to settle there.

These nobles and wealthy families could be considered some of the most cautious people in the world when it came to preserving their own lives.

As soon as they heard that the Konoha army was about to reach the village, they had fled Sunagakure.

They had even left earlier than Chiyo and the other senior shinobi abandoned the village.

But precisely because they had fled in such a hurry, most of the wealth they had accumulated over the years was still left behind in Sunagakure!

The largest portion of that wealth consisted of food and everyday necessities.

And those supplies were a headache for Ren and the others as well.

They couldn’t carry everything away.

Burning it would be an enormous waste.

Yet simply leaving it behind was equally unacceptable.

Although Konoha’s forces had brought a large number of Storage Scrolls this time, their capacity was still limited. They could only prioritize taking away the most valuable items.

After thinking it over, Ren decided to use the resources they couldn’t carry away to win over the people of Sunagakure.

Using Sunagakure’s own resources to win the hearts of Sunagakure’s people—

That was making the best possible use of what they had.

Ren continued,

“Additionally, our entry into Sunagakure caused considerable damage to the village’s infrastructure.”

“Because of that, we have decided to hire you to repair and rebuild the various facilities throughout Sunagakure.”

“Participation is voluntary.”

“Anyone who participates in the reconstruction work will receive three meals a day, and each person will also receive supplies equivalent to one thousand ryō per day!”

One thousand ryō a day.

That was thirty thousand ryō a month!

Even a genin could only earn several tens of thousands of ryō a month.

For an ordinary civilian, a monthly income of thirty thousand ryō was an extremely attractive offer.

Therefore, the moment Ren finished speaking, the civilians of Sunagakure erupted into thunderous cheers!

“Long live!”

“Long live! Long live!”

“Long live Konoha!”