Bab 66: Chapter 65
Chapter 65
As a Hokage, there comes a time when one would hit a wall. That wall was called the budget. And Kaen just hit it. Money always runs out sooner than later, so add a few classes and teachers at the academy, plan for a few more hospitals, and strengthen the village's defenses in the same week, and everybody without exception will hit the cap of the budget.
Kaen has already spent enormous amounts of money to support Kirigakure. Yet he still had a lot of plans for the academy. He wanted to buy better equipment and training facilities, but then he wouldn't have enough to expand hospitals for shinobi and retirement homes for disabled shinobi. Lastly, he wanted to build better shelters for civilians.
To achieve all he wanted as a Hokage, money was needed. So, he had to stop thinking of how to spend it and look for a way to get more of it. There was only one way to do it, and that was to be an asshole. And so the taxes for land property possessed by the clans went up by twenty percent overnight. Satisfied with the solution, Kaen enjoyed a long puff of the smoking pipe.
It's too bad Kaen knew it was only a temporary solution. Once the taxes were paid, he would spend the money on the countless projects he had lined up. The money the village received from the Daimyo was substantial but not enough. He would have to send Hiruzen to the capital of the Land of Fire to negotiate for more.
But not everything was terrible. The range of missions could be extended with official and not-so-official peace with Suna, Kiri, and Kaen. Protection missions would be more extended as now they didn't possess that much of a risk of agitating those villages by entering into their countries. The fees would go up accordingly, too. But it was still not enough. Kaen wanted more.
The clans should have plenty of money hiding under their bed, so Kaen needed to force them to dig it up for him. Even if he knew he would get backlash from these new reforms, he didn't feel too bad for the clans and started increasing academy entrance fees while also increasing the scholarships for gifted and poor students.
Then he got pissed off at the Hyuga clan for no reason and started looking for ways how to fuck them over. It didn't take long to find a loophole the Hyuga were using by using the curse sealing on their branch members and using them as servants. Within minutes and with a manic smirk, Kaen went through all the legal shit to make the branch member fully employed by the main family and so taxing them even more.
Then came the reckoning time for other clans. Akimchi restaurants would be taxed on the amount of food they buy and produce. The Nara forest will be taxed for the preservation of wildlife and timber. The Aburame would find themselves with new taxes to pay for being able to grow their insects. Kaen spent days working with legal proceedings to make up bullshit taxes to raise funds for his projects.
"Hey, Kaen," Anko had to stop when she came to give her report to the Fifth Hokage. "How are you doing?"
"Leave the report at the table," Kaen replied, not looking up from his work.
"What table?" Anko asked as the table and piles of documents covered the floor around it. "Hey Kaen, why don't we play a game?"
"What kind of a game?" Kaen asked, still not looking up.
"Truth or dare," Anko suggested. "Let's start with you, truth or dare, Kaen?"
"Ugh, fine," Kaen replied between writing and reading documents. "I choose truth."
"How many hours have you slept this week?"
"Dare," Kaen replied, knowing the answer wouldn't make Anko happy.
"Go to sleep!"
"You know," Kaen looked up from the desk for the first and looked at Anko with bloodshed eyes. "I don't like this game."
"And I don't like that ever since we returned from the Land of the Water, you were swarmed with more paperwork than ever. And with each day, the number of piles goes up."
"It goes along with the job," Kaen tried to explain, but one look from Anko and he gave up. "Fine, I promise I will take a day off after I finish with this."
"That's the best I will get, won't I?" Anko asked. "Never mind, I better not know the answer. Anyway, I managed to crack our little red-haired girl. She is willing to work with us if we promise not to kill her and if she gets to go free after Orochimaru is gone."
"It matters how valuable her information is," Kaen replied. "But she doesn't pose much danger to the village, so I don't see why I can't honor such a deal."
"Then I will start organizing the information," Anko nodded and left Kaen alone.
With Ash scratching his ear while still lying on Kaen's lap, Kaen returned to work. He needed to finish all the legal proceedings before he started milking the clans out of their money. No matter how much they complain, as long as the law is on his side, they will have no choice but to follow it. He would admit that it was a scummy plan, but it would also be ironclad plan.
…
When Hokage's office was finally free from endless piles of documents, Kaen could relax and smoke from the smoking pipe without a worry in the world. What would usually be done in a year, Kaen finished in more than a week. Sharingan and sleepless nights came in a clutch, but Kaen only had an hour to enjoy himself. As soon as the messages arrive to the clan heads, all hell will break free.
The first to barge into the office was Huyga clan elder, followed by Hiashi Hyuga, who was calmer. Instead of saying anything, Kaen motioned them to take a chair already prepared for them. The rest of the clans didn't take long to come in afterward. Choza Akimichi came with Shikaku Nara. Shibi Aburame came in last, and Kaen could tell he wasn't very comfortable with the rest.
"Can we get over this and be done?" Shikaku Nara asked, taking a seat with others. "I have other troublesome things to do."
"We will begin with the angriest one first," Kaen said as he motioned for the Hyuga clan elder.
"I don't know what grudge you have against my Hyuga clan, but this is absurd," His forehead veins were popping off as he tried to contain his anger before throwing the documents sent to the Hyuga clan at Kaen's face. "We will never accept this kind of shakedown!"
"The new taxes are a bit too much," Choza Akimichi tried to agree but didn't want to be associated with the Hyuga Clan.
"Why such a sudden increase all of a sudden?" Shibi Aburame asked, not trying to side with the Hokage or the other clan heads.
"It is straightforward," Kaen said. "Because you guys are rich and can afford it."
"What blatant way to extort money from us," The Hyuga clan elder commented while grinding his teeth.
"Blatant or not, it is what it is," Kaen replied with a smirk. "Everything is legal and within the law."
"I don't care about law. You, Uchiha, were constantly coming for the Hyuga! Well, I won't allow it anymore. What will you do if we refuse to pay these exorbitant taxes? We won't be let to be bullied blatantly."
"Does everyone think the same way?" Kaen calmly turned to the other clans and asked.
"What will the money be used for?" Shikaku Nara, probably knowing Kaen the best, asked.
"Various things, from improving the academy to building more hospitals and training doctors," Kaen answered truthfully.
"Then it is fine with me. I came to pay it up anyway," Shikaku Nara replied.
"Me too," Choza Akimichi said. "But can we pay in part? The taxes fell on us too fast, and gathering that money so quickly is quite difficult."
"I can divide it into quarters, so you can make four payments in a year to pay it off," Kaen said as he produced a document from a drawer.
"Oh, then there isn't any problem." Choza looked highly relieved, and Kaen felt bad for stressing this guy.
"Don't touch our insects, and Aburame will be satisfied," Shibi Aburame told Kaen in a severe manner, which would be considered a threat.
"I will not go anywhere near your bugs," Kaen replied.
The Hyuga clan elder was left looking like a fool as the other three clans left, agreeing quickly with the taxes. Kaen couldn't blame the elder. He was surprised, too. Apart from Shikaku Nara, he thought the others would be extremely bothered by it and would fight tooth and nail against it. But unlike what he thought, the clan heads weren't bothered by it.
"The Hyuga clan would like to ask their payment to be divided into quarters," Hiashi Hyuga tried to face his elder's face.
"No, we will not," The elder was about to go into another tantrum when the office doors opened again.
"What is this?" Tsunade Senju entered the office, surprised to see Kaen having a company. "The secretary didn't say anything about a meeting."
"Lady Tsunade," The elder of the Hyuga clan, was surprised to see her.
"Is this going to take any longer?" Tsunade asked, crossing her arms under her chest and tapping the floor impatiently. "I want to get to work as soon as possible."
"We just finished," Hiashi replied, taking and signing the document Kaen produced for him before taking his clan elder and leaving the office.
"What is this about?" Tsunade asked before shaking her head. "Don't answer. I don't care. The better question is, why do you look like you are one step closer to the grave?"
"Money," Kaen replied. "I needed money, so I raised some taxes. It seemed that the elder of the Hyuga clan didn't like it."
"I am not surprised these old stubborn bastards with a stick in their ass can't accept any changes," Tsunade sneered. "It's not like the clans care about money. The clans have shared treasury, and clans like Hyuga, who are extremely hard to hire, have more than they will need in hundreds of centuries."
"Was it the same with the Senju?" Kaen asked. "Even losing every day for the past two decades in gambling, it doesn't seem you are running out of funds."
"The Senju clan was the most sought out shinobi in history, you brat. So, yes, the Senju treasury has countless amounts of money. But I ever used only my own money."
"It's good to see, sensei," Kaen smiled. "But you took your sweet time returning, didn't you?"
"You are asking for a smack in the head, brat," Tsunade replied by lifting her fist. "But I better not. Otherwise, by the way you look, I might kill you."
"I am assuming you came to me after checking on the Third. How is he doing?"
"The old man is not eating what he is supposed to, and he is still smoking," Tsunade was furious about it. "I have to straighten him up for once and all."
"I will leave it to you," Kaen smiled. "Anyway, I have a few things you could do since you are here."
"Don't push it, brat," Tsunade knew very well what Kaen's tone indicated. "I might have agreed to return, but there was no deal about me working."
"It is just a few things," Kaen smiled wickedly. "Like preparing medical curriculum for the academy. With your knowledge and experience, it wouldn't be too much trouble, wouldn't it?"
"Fine," Tsunade didn't see anything wrong with that. Too bad she had fallen into Kaen's trap.
"And while you are at that, why don't you look into this?"
While producing the documents for the academy to Tsunade, he quickly added five others on top of it. Like hell, Kaen would let the most proficient medical-nin go without piling up her workload. With the new hospitals and medical-nin he wanted in the village, Tsunade will be buried under the work for years to come to make it possible. And now, he had to keep a promise to Anko and take a day off.
A.N. As always, If you want more, up to seven advanced chapters, you can support me on pa treon. com \ ironwolf852. And if you have any requests for stories, I will only take them on my pa treon.
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