"Danzō… what do we do now?"
"Didn't you say the recent crashes were just pullbacks? That it was the market picking people up again?"
"Then why has it been like this for days already?!"
Sarutobi Hiruzen's eyes were bloodshot, his beard unkempt. He hadn't slept properly for a day or two. His spirit was clearly exhausted as he anxiously questioned Shimura Danzō beside him.
But—
Danzō was in no better shape.
He too had gone without sleep for days, muttering to himself over and over:
"How could this happen… it shouldn't be like this… logically, it should rebound again…"
"Danzō, say something!"
Hiruzen pushed him again.
He was truly panicking now.
At the peak, the two of them had taken over massive amounts of tulip contracts at exorbitant prices. They had bought right at the top.
Now the price had fallen back to where it had been two weeks earlier.
It was catastrophic.
All their previous profits were gone.
And on top of that—
They had lost five hundred million ryō.
Worse still, tulip prices were continuing to decline slowly, fluctuating downward in waves.
Every brief rebound was nothing more than a trap set behind the scenes—each time offering a sliver of hope, pushing prices up slightly, then cutting them down again.
Today's low was tomorrow's high.
According to the plan, this cycle could last one or even two months—repeated harvesting, squeezing out whatever remaining "leeks" still believed.
Danzō was one such victim.
Every time he saw a hint of hope, he couldn't help but fantasize, stopping Hiruzen from selling earlier.
At first, Danzō wasn't too worried.
But Hiruzen was terrified.
The losses were real and irreversible.
If the price didn't surge again the way Danzō promised—enough to fill the hole—
They were finished.
"Stop yelling!"
"Things are already like this—what do you want me to do?!"
Danzō finally snapped.
"Do you want us to dump all the contracts now and go back to face Lord Tobirama with a five-hundred-million-ryō loss?!"
His temper was explosive.
Hiruzen's frantic questioning felt like a mosquito buzzing in his ears, pushing him closer to the edge.
Making money had been all smiles.
Losing money was pure hell.
If only I'd never touched this tulip business…
Regret flooded Danzō's heart, followed closely by fear.
He was genuinely terrified now.
He had no idea how this mess could possibly be resolved.
The pride and confidence from when they were making money felt like a dream.
Now the dream had shattered.
What awaited them was a nightmare.
Five hundred million ryō was enough to buy dozens of lives.
Hiruzen swallowed hard.
"Then… what do we do?"
"I don't know."
Danzō shook his head.
He felt like dying.
He truly had no answer.
Other than hoping for a miracle—
Everything else was meaningless.
But miracles never come.
Just as Hiruzen and Danzō were panicking like ants on a hot pan—
Their fathers arrived.
Not long ago, when things were going well, Hiruzen and Danzō had written home, proudly telling Sarutobi Sasuke and Shimura Shishin that everything in the Land of Fire was going smoothly and that they had prepared a "huge surprise."
Their fathers assumed the procurement mission was proceeding without issue.
After all, the clans' relocation was nearly complete.
But days passed with no follow-up—no delivery of supplies, no handover arrangements.
With no choice, Sarutobi Sasuke and Shimura Shishin came personally to investigate.
Facing their suddenly arrived fathers, Hiruzen and Danzō were completely at a loss.
They had no supplies to show.
And no funds left for procurement.
After intense questioning—
They confessed everything.
"This is the surprise you were talking about?"
"Explain it to me."
"Explain what the hell you mean by 'surprise'!"
Sarutobi Sasuke and Shimura Shishin nearly went mad.
They had never imagined that the sons they were so proud of—on whom they had placed such high hopes—would pull something like this.
Five hundred million ryō.
Even for clans of their size, accumulating that amount would take years—often at the cost of clan members' lives during missions.
And these two prodigal fools had burned it all—
Reduced it to stacks of worthless contracts.
As for the tulips themselves?
In their fathers' eyes, they were nothing more than pretty flowers.
Naturally—
In their rage, Sarutobi Sasuke and Shimura Shishin beat Hiruzen and Danzō mercilessly.
Then, without hesitation, they liquidated all tulip contracts under their sons' names.
In the end, only a little over two hundred million ryō remained—along with a small portion of supplies.
"Let's go back," they said coldly.
"If Lord Tobirama wants to punish them—or kill them—so be it."
After venting their anger, the two fathers still had to clean up their sons' mess.
No matter how furious they were, they couldn't bring themselves to kill their own children.
After all—
Even a tiger doesn't eat its cubs.
Running away wasn't an option either.
Both the Sarutobi and Shimura clans had already relocated to Konoha.
In the end, the matter could only be handed over to Senju Tobirama.
They could only hope he would show mercy—
And spare Hiruzen and Danzō's lives.
Thus—
Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō returned to Konoha in terror.
They stood before Senju Tobirama, who was still buried in paperwork inside his office.
At that moment, Tobirama was in an excellent mood.
Konoha was thriving.
The Hyūga clan.
The Ino–Shika–Chō clans.
And many other major and minor ninja clans—
All had arrived, seeking to join Konoha.
Each one represented future support.
Tobirama was the true power behind the scenes.
Step by step, he would consolidate control over the village and form a tightening encirclement around the Uchiha.
The future was bright.
That was—
Until he heard the report.
The five hundred million ryō was gone.
The experimental equipment he'd planned to purchase—gone.
And just like that, Senju Tobirama exploded.
"Idiots!"
"Absolute idiots worthy of a museum exhibit!"
"I sent you to the Land of Fire to procure supplies—"
"Not to take my money and play merchant games!!"
After writing Sarutobi Hiruzen and Shimura Danzō for so long—
they finally earned their achievement:
"You two idiots worthy of being museum exhibits!."
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