Chapter 043: Renewal

Wang Bo nodded and said to Hiruzen Sarutobi, "Let's begin, Lord Hokage."

Hiruzen Sarutobi chuckled and nodded, then tossed a scroll to Wang Bo.

Wang Bo caught the scroll, opened it, and glanced over it. He found that the general terms of the contract hadn't changed much from the previous one, except for the monetary aspect, which had increased considerably.

It had increased by about half.

Wang Bo remembered that last time he had hired them to protect his hot pot restaurant, it had cost over thirty million.

This time, Hiruzen Sarutobi had directly raised the fee for hiring ninja to fifty million ryo.

That was definitely no small sum.

Wang Bo knew the other party might raise the price, but he hadn't expected such a large increase.

I never thought that you, this seemingly amiable old man, would have such a black heart.

But on second thought, the fact that this guy could let the Fourth Hokage's son grow up under the ostracism of the villagers was enough to prove that this old thing was no good.

Wang Bo rolled up the scroll and said, "Lord Hokage, I agree in principle to your other requests, but isn't the monetary aspect a bit too high?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi said with a smile, "Sir Igarashi, don't be hasty. Let me explain. Last year, your business was repeatedly attacked, and it was thanks to our Konoha ninja that you were protected. You admit that, don't you?"

Wang Bo nodded.

Hiruzen Sarutobi continued, "Then, Sir Igarashi, do you know that last year many people came to Konoha wanting to hire ninja to sabotage your store? Of course, we couldn't do such things, so we refused them all. This also caused dissatisfaction among some of our ninja, after all, these were business opportunities."

Wang Bo couldn't help but interrupt, "Lord Hokage, accepting orders to protect my store and rejecting orders to sabotage it should be a matter of course, right? Or does Lord Hokage want to make money from both sides?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi coughed and continued, "That's not the point, Sir Igarashi. I haven't gotten to the main point yet."

Wang Bo nodded and made a gesture for him to continue.

He wanted to see what Hiruzen Sarutobi could come up with.

"After we refused those merchants, they banded together and hired some rogue ninja to attack your store, trying to cause damage."

"Such behavior is, of course, unacceptable to us."

"But among those rogue ninja, there were indeed some tough characters who inflicted heavy casualties on our Konoha ninja. Some ninja, due to this mission, even lost the hope of continuing as ninja and had to retire in disgrace."

"So I had to raise the fee a bit. Sir Igarashi, I hope you can understand regarding this point."

Hiruzen Sarutobi spoke plausibly, with an expression of having no choice.

Wang Bo said calmly, "What Lord Hokage says does make sense. I agree to raise the fee. I am willing to increase it by one-third from the original, to forty million ryo. I wonder if Lord Hokage is satisfied with this price."

Hiruzen Sarutobi narrowed his eyes and shook his head. "Sir Igarashi, with this amount, it's hard for me to account to the other ninja."

Wang Bo said, "But I think this price is very reasonable."

"Fifty million ryo is my bottom line, Sir Igarashi."

"Forty million ryo is my bottom line, Lord Hokage." Wang Bo certainly wouldn't be fooled by this old man.

After a heated discussion, the two finally settled on forty-two million ryo.

Wang Bo decisively signed his name on the scroll.

After reaching the agreement, Wang Bo got up and left the Hokage building.

Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't try to keep him, as his goal had been achieved—by dispatching only a few genin each year, he could obtain tens of millions of ryo.

There was no better deal than this.

After all, this amount of money was enough to issue several S-rank missions.

And for missions of that level, even jonin could fail. Now, by only sending out some genin, he could get so much money. He was already very satisfied.

...

On the other hand, after renewing the contract, Wang Bo did not linger in Konoha. He left the village that same afternoon.

He had other things to do now, so naturally he wouldn't stay here long.

After a year of effort, Wang Bo had opened hot pot restaurants all over the Land of Fire. Next, he planned to go to the Land of Rain to open hot pot restaurants.

The Land of Rain was a small country in this world, its territory far smaller than the Land of Fire. In fact, even ten Lands of Rain combined couldn't match one Land of Fire.

Because it rained all year round, it was called the Land of Rain.

In the eyes of outsiders, knowledge of the Land of Rain was very limited. They only knew that the country was divided by civil war, with years of conflict, greatly draining the nation's strength.

But in reality, that was all in the past.

Now the Land of Rain had long been unified, and the one who unified it was none other than the big boss of the Naruto world... the Akatsuki organization.

As for the original leader of the Land of Rain, the demigod of the ninja world, Hanzo the Salamander, he had long died at the hands of the Akatsuki leader, Nagato.

But because Nagato had kept this information sealed, many people didn't know that the demigod who shook the ninja world had died.

After returning to his base where he trained the kids, Wang Bo packed up, took a few capable kids, left the base, withdrew some money along the way, and headed for the Land of Rain.

A few days later, Wang Bo and the kids arrived in the Land of Rain.

Because the Land of Rain had a small territory, after some investigation, Wang Bo purchased dozens of storefronts and started construction simultaneously. A month later, Wang Bo easily opened hot pot restaurants all over the Land of Rain.

For the first three days of opening, there was still a 50% discount.

After three days, Wang Bo restored the original prices.

Then he left a few kids to look after the stores and went alone to Amegakure.

Because he came to Amegakure as a merchant, he wasn't treated with hostility by the village's ninja. Instead, they respectfully welcomed him into the village.

When Wang Bo told the people of Amegakure his intention—that he was willing to spend several million ryo to hire their ninja to protect his hot pot restaurants—the village sent someone to contact Wang Bo who surprised him quite a bit.

Her hair was light blue-purple, her eyes light orange-yellow, with a light purple paper flower on the right side of her head, purple eyeshadow, and a lip piercing on her lower lip.

This was the founder of the Akatsuki, Konan.

In many people's eyes, Konan was an angel, and she even had the nickname 'Angel.'

Many people liked this woman quite a bit.

But Wang Bo didn't have a good feeling about her; in fact, he could even say he detested her.