The Country of Wind, Sand Hidden Village.

The vast expanse of yellow sand lies on the ground as far as the eye can see.

In this endless ocean of sand and dust, the Sunagakure Ninja Village was built in such a harsh environment.

Apart from the color of the sand, there are basically no other bright colors visible near Sand Hidden Village.

The village is surrounded by steep sandstone, and the medium-low and high-periphery terrain provides sufficient security for Sand Hidden Village and is also conducive to the dredging of underground water veins.

Taking advantage of this natural geographical advantage, the village was tightly surrounded. The Sunagakure ninjas standing guard there could command a commanding view of the environment below.

There is only a narrow passage at the main entrance that connects the inside and outside of the village, which is called the "One Line of Sky".

Unless it is an invasion from the air, it is difficult for outsiders to attack from the front without permission.

The dangerous environment in the sky will scare off intruders.

Based on such a favorable environment, Sand Hidden Village has been surviving in the desert very comfortably for decades.

Amidst the sky full of yellow sand, the spherical sandstone building is the landmark building of Sand Hidden Village. From the residential houses to the wind shadow building, they basically adopt this kind of smooth-looking building structure, which is helpful to prevent sand and dust in the desert.

environment.

At this moment, in the conference room of the Kazekage Building, the senior management of Sunagakure, headed by the Fourth Kazekage Rasa, were holding a large-scale meeting once a month.

Twelve chairs surround the huge stone round table in the center. Apart from this, there are cactus pots placed in the conference room, making the environment quiet and empty.

This is also related to the geographical environment of the Kingdom of Wind.

Most of the country's environment is a desert with no resource utilization and lack of plants. For Sunagakure Village, wooden furniture is very expensive.

The land suitable for growing herbal medicines is also very scarce in the village. Although Sunagakure Village has first-class medical technology, it is difficult to expand its scale. This is the fundamental reason.

However, for this, Luo Sha, as a contemporary figure, had no choice but to give in. The environment in Sunagakure Village is so bad.

And many times, most of the funds that Sunagakure Village takes from the daimyo of the Land of Wind are used for military development.

For example, research on tailed beast technology, expand the scale of ninjas, and develop sophisticated ninja tools to ensure that during wartime, combat power will not be insufficient.

The twelve seats were filled with people. Except for Kazekage Rasa, the other eleven people were elders of Sunagakure Village or jounin who were very influential in the village and held important management positions.

"...As for the above, regarding the planning and training of the younger generation of ninjas in the next few years, we will continue to implement the previous policies. In the next few years, I also hope that you can cooperate more."

Luo Sha gave a brief summary of the ninja training plan of Sunagakure Village and hoped to work together with all Sunagakure elders.

"You're welcome, Kazekage-sama. In the past few years, outstanding juniors have been emerging in our village, and Kazekage-sama's leading role is indispensable."

An elder said with a smile.

The other elders also nodded frequently. Not to mention their strength, Kazekage Rasa's sand gold technique has solved many problems in Sand Hidden Village.

Their village's current considerable military funds were all earned by using Luo Sha's ability to mine placer gold, not just from the daimyo of the Kingdom of Wind.

In view of this, Sunagakure Village has already recovered from the period of decline after the Third Ninja War in recent years, and is even stronger than during the Third Ninja War.

"Without the concerted efforts of all the elders, I would not have been able to achieve this. In short, let's encourage each other to move forward."

Luo Sha responded with a smile.

The Kingdom of Wind is originally the country with the most scarce resources among the five major countries, and most of its land area is desert that cannot be cultivated.

Food and water sources are both major problems, and we rely heavily on imports.

The food mainly comes from the surrounding small countries such as the Bear Country, the Quiet Country, and the Bird Country, and the water source mainly comes from the Rain Country, which has rainfall all year round.

Just in case, there is a storage space inside Sand Hidden Village, where a large amount of food and water are stored for emergencies.

"Let's end the village planning issues here. Regarding the content of the next meeting, there are issues related to the Kingdom of Ghosts, which need to be discussed and resolved with everyone."

Luo Sha looked quite embarrassed when she said this.

"Ghost Country? Are they coming again? It's really troublesome."

When Luo Sha mentioned the name of this country, the elders present here all mentioned God.

Since the Third Ninja War, the Kingdom of Demons has achieved an economic boom that has attracted the attention of the five major nations.

Countless big businessmen gathered in Ziyuan City to do business, turning it into the most prosperous commercial metropolis in the shinobi world. According to statistics from professionals, the tax revenue of the Demon Country in the past three years has been close to that of the Fire Country, the leader of the five major countries.

His strength ranks among the best in the ninja world.

The developed pharmaceutical industry, entertainment industry, shipbuilding industry, machinery industrialization production capacity, etc. are all capitals that many businessmen are flocking to.

As a result, the Aster Flower Chamber of Commerce has developed into the number one chamber of commerce in the ninja world. In terms of business status, it has surpassed the Fire Nation Chamber of Commerce Alliance and has become truly wealthy.

Logically speaking, there would not be much connection between this country and Sunagakure Village.

The crux of the problem is that during the Third Ninja War, due to the tight financial resources of Sunagakure Village at that time, diplomats from the Country of Wind negotiated with the managers of the Aster Flower Chamber of Commerce in the Country of Oni to provide guarantee for Sunagakure Village.

, I hope that the Shion Flower Merchant Association will open a huge loan to Sunagakure Village.

At that time, the Aster Flower Merchant Association's loan business had just started. Faced with such a big customer as Sunagakure Village, and with official personnel from the Country of Wind as a guarantee, they readily approved Sunagakure Village a large amount of military expenditure for the war.

Sunagakure Village also promised to repay the loan within the specified time.

After calculating the time, it was actually more than two years ago that Sunagakure Village was due to pay off the loan. However, due to diplomatic intervention, the Shion Flower Merchant Association was asked to continue to extend the period for some more days.

Bringing it up at this time proves that the grace date more than two years ago has also arrived.

The elders of Sunagakure sitting in the conference room, like Luo Sha, felt a little embarrassed.

The reason is very simple. The amount of the loan is huge. In order to develop its military strength in the past few years, Sand Hidden Village has already spent 7788% of the funds approved by the above. How can it still have the ability to repay the loan from the Ziyuan Flower Chamber of Commerce?

Luo Sha also saw the embarrassment of the elders, so he coughed and said: "Just in the morning, diplomats from the Kingdom of Ghosts have arrived here. We hope that Sunagakure will repay the loan as soon as possible to avoid breach of trust.

No second loan is available.”

"The Kingdom of Ghosts does not lack development funds. Can't they extend it for a while?"

The Aster Flower Chamber of Commerce is not a private chamber of commerce of the Kingdom of Demons, but is officially owned by the Kingdom of Demons. It is a government official of the Kingdom of Demons and holds the real power in the back. It is said that it is also inextricably linked to the military of the Kingdom of Demons.

It basically represents the official financial department of the Kingdom of Ghosts.

The reason why it is still named after the Chamber of Commerce is because the Aster Flower Chamber of Commerce was originally a private chamber of commerce and was later integrated into the government system of the Kingdom of Demons.

"It can't be said that we should have repaid the loan more than two years ago. For the sake of our Sunagakure Village, the Ziyuan Flower Merchant Association continued to extend the grace period for more than two years. It has done its best. I think it should be possible.

We should appropriately reduce military expenditures, collect a full share of the debt, and return it to the Aster Flower Chamber of Commerce as soon as possible to avoid breaking trust."

An elder shook his head.

"But, in that case, how can we develop the village? The military expenses given to us by the daimyo are fixed every year. It's not that we don't want to repay it, but that we really don't have the ability to repay it."

"It's okay to squeeze in a bit, right?"

"The village needs funds for development."

Another elder blocked the conversation directly, and most of the elders quite agreed with this point of view.

Although this matter was caused by Sunagakure Village's loss, the amount of the loan to the Shion Flower Chamber of Commerce was too large at that time. If it were made up at this time, it would probably affect the development plan of Sunagakure Village in the next few years, which would mean that Sunagakure Village would be in trouble in the future.

Several years of doing nothing.

Such a thing must never happen.

The peace era is one of the few important transitional periods in which they can accelerate the development of military strength. At this time, they must have a racing spirit and be fully prepared for the next ninja war.

If the loan is repaid, Sunagakure Village will lose to the rest of the Ninja Village in the race. Such a thing is impossible no matter how you think about it.

"Master Kazekage, what are your thoughts?"

The debate over this matter actually only revolved around the issue of whether to repay or not, but in the end it was up to the Kazekage himself to make the final decision.

After looking around the conference room, Luo Sha said to the elders of Sunagakure: "Actually, I think that our Sunagakure Village alone cannot make the decision on this matter. As we all know, our Sunagakure Village belongs to the military of the Kingdom of Wind.

Even if an institution borrows money from other countries, it stands to reason that it should ask for it from the Daming Mansion. After all, when the loan was originally borrowed, there was an official next to the Daiming as a guarantee."

"Master Kazekage means..."

The elders of Sunagakure present were not fools, and they immediately understood Sunagakure's intention.

"What Mr. Kazekage said makes sense. Since the daimyo sent officials as guarantee at that time, the repayment of the loan should be left to the daimyo. We, Sunagakure, have no right to interfere in this kind of thing."

"Yes, the Daimyo is the top manager of the Kingdom of Wind. It is really against the rules for people from the Ziyuan Flower Merchant Association to come to us to ask for debts."

The direction of the wind changed immediately, and everyone knew that this was a good idea.

Anyway, Sunagakure Village cannot be allowed to spend this money, otherwise the development of Sunagakure Village will stop in the next few years, and the gap with powerful ninja villages such as Konoha will become wider and wider.

"Since the elders have agreed, this is how I will respond to the diplomats of the Kingdom of Ghosts."

Luo Sha breathed a sigh of relief.

In fact, he had already negotiated with the Dai Ming of the Kingdom of Wind before this, and his decision was actually approved by the Dai Ming of the Kingdom of Wind.

As long as both of them continue to shirk each other's repayment responsibilities, it will be fine to extend the repayment date indefinitely.

With the military strength of the Kingdom of Wind, the Kingdom of Ghosts, as a small country, would not dare to make military threats.

As for the economic threat, let the Sunagakure ninja troops take a tour around the Kingdom of Demons, and the matter can be resolved satisfactorily.

From Luo Sha's point of view, this matter finally passed satisfactorily.

He didn't believe that the Kingdom of Ghosts had dared to hold on to this matter and provoke the Kazekage and the Daimyo of the Kingdom of Wind at the same time.
To be continued...