"I, in the name of the Hokage, solemnly call upon all ninja villages to exercise restraint and reason, to cherish this hard-won peace, and not to recklessly take up arms, lest innocent lives once again be plunged into the flames of war. We are all brother nations—let us not bring disaster upon the people for the sake of petty profit..."
"What is this garbage? Is this really the best speechwriting Hiruzen Sarutobi’s team can do? If it were me, I’d have fired them on the spot."
Jinghang tossed the copied draft onto his desk with a sneer.
"Uh, rumor has it that Hiruzen Sarutobi wrote it himself..." explained Yamashita Tetsu.
"Oh, that explains it. No wonder it’s so full of empty posturing." Jinghang nodded, unimpressed.
"According to intel passed on by Zenmō, this peace declaration from Hiruzen Sarutobi is definitely tied to Amegakure. Konoha’s Homura Mitokado just visited the Land of Craftsmen. No one knows what they discussed, but the result is obvious."
"So, it’s related to Amegakure again?" Jinghang caught on immediately.
"Exactly. The Land of Craftsmen just canceled Amegakure’s two-million-ton iron ore order." Yamashita Tetsu gave a sly smile.
"Iron ore?" Jinghang frowned, drumming his fingers on the desk. "What’s the current market price?"
"Three hundred thirty-six ryō per ton—down ten percent from last month!"
"Danzō is still in Amegakure, right?"
"Ha!" Jinghang sprang to his feet.
"Konoha’s going to crash the market!"
"Looks that way. Iron ore is Amegakure’s main pillar industry now—this move is going to hit them hard," replied Yamashita Tetsu.
Jinghang fell silent, deep in thought. Konoha’s move was both unexpected and aggressive. Clearly, they were determined to get their hands on Amegakure.
Sure, Amegakure’s strategic position was important, but in Jinghang’s eyes, it wasn’t critical enough to warrant all this. He saw through Konoha’s logic: by controlling Amegakure, they’d have a forward base to threaten the Moon Lake New District. But Moon Lake was now protected not only by natural desert barriers, but also by a sophisticated puppet defense system. Beyond that, the Black Prince Desert was patrolled by at least four regiments of guerrilla forces.
If Konoha tried a sudden assault, Moon Lake’s garrison could hold out for at least ten days. Meanwhile, over ten thousand Sunagakure field troops could reach the battlefield in just three days via the Sha-Yue Expressway, with four more regiments ready to harass enemy supply lines.
As Commander Karuke of Moon Lake liked to boast, "If Konoha sends ten thousand, I’ll hold them off for Lord Kazekage. If they send five thousand, I’ll swallow them whole." That swagger was almost on par with Wei Wenchang.
Konoha wants to take Amegakure? Let them. By the time they’re done, Nagato will have become Pain—and then things will really get interesting.
Still, this "market crashing" operation from Konoha was too good an opportunity for Jinghang to pass up.
Of course, he wasn’t about to throw money away to save the market. No, he just wanted to use this chance to make a killing.
Back on Earth, when Jinghang had just started working, a friend who played the futures market talked him into opening an account. He put in his hard-earned 100,000 yuan. At first, he made a little money, but in just three months, he lost everything. It took years to recover. Now, it was time to turn that lesson around—let Konoha and Amegakure be the ones to pay.
With Sunagakure’s current financial strength, they could absolutely play this game!
After all, market makers and retail investors were on different playing fields entirely.
With that, Jinghang grabbed the phone.
"Hakura! Notify all section chiefs and above from the Finance Department, Resources Department, Minerals Bureau, and Equipment Division—meeting in the conference room in one hour!"
"Meeting? What kind of meeting?" Yamashita Tetsu asked, puzzled.
"Economic warfare meeting! This time, we’re going to rake in a fortune while keeping our heads down. Heh, I want Konoha to lose so much, they won’t even know where it hurts!"
"What the hell! How did iron ore prices drop so much, so fast?" Yahiko stared in disbelief at the report Kijima handed him.
"I don’t know either. Since the start of the month, iron ore prices have just kept falling." Kijima looked miserable.
It wasn’t really his fault—Kijima was a streetwise operator, not a financial mastermind. He couldn’t see through all the twists and turns.
"The reason’s simple—Konoha’s behind this!" Aotu Tailuo cut straight to the heart of it.
"What?!" Yahiko was stunned.
"At the beginning of the month, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, publicly issued a peace declaration, urging all ninja villages to abandon hostilities and show restraint. The very next day, iron ore prices dropped by ten percent. Then, a flood of iron ore hit the market. I did some digging—turns out it was all being sold by wealthy merchants from the Land of Fire, most with Konoha ties. As of today, iron ore prices have been cut in half. It’s obvious—Konoha’s sending us a message."
"Despicable! They think they can force us to submit ? Dream on! Not in a million years!" Yahiko exploded with rage.
"Then we need to dump our inventory fast, or we’ll lose even more," Kijima said urgently.
"Dump it? Heh, if only it were that easy. There’s so much iron ore on the market now, it’s a disaster—no one would take it, even if we paid the shipping," said Aotu Tailuo.
"So what do you suggest? We’ve got over twenty thousand workers counting on the Sada and Sumu mines."
Aotu Tailuo thought for a moment. "Honestly? Shut down operations for now."
"What? Shut down?!" Yahiko and Kijima were both shocked.
"We’re not making any money mining anyway. Better to suspend work and keep the workers on basic wages. They’ve been worked to the bone lately—this is a good chance to let them rest."
"No, no, if we just sit around, our finances will collapse," Kijima protested.
"It won’t happen that quickly. I’ve run the numbers—we’ve got a billion ryō in liquid funds. Paying basic wages, we can last at least a year."
"Iron ore prices can’t stay this low for a whole year. Even Konoha doesn’t have that kind of money. The arms race is still on—prices will rise again. We’re small-time, short on cash. If I had two billion, I’d love to go toe-to-toe with Konoha."
"So the workers just sit around?"
"Yeah, let them rest for a while. We’ll resume production in a month, back to normal output. We should also build up some stockpiles and get the steel mill’s furnaces going. Selling raw materials isn’t a long-term plan—we need to start making finished ninja tools ourselves. Otherwise, we’ll always be at someone else’s mercy."
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