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He hadn't deliberately made things difficult for them, not even using his Sharingan. These students were indeed decent in practical combat, but they were certainly far behind Shisui.
As someone who had long finished the exam phase and was enjoying his 'vacation', Hatake Kuroshi said with a straight face.
"How could that be—? I think it's very suitable!"
"They weren't good at this sort of thing anyway. A teacher who tailors their approach to the student is a good teacher."
Shisui was greatly motivated by these words; the difficulty of the makeup exam questions instantly spiked.
The makeup exams went progressively worse, almost convincing a group to quit being ninjas and go home to farm.
With things settling into place in Kirigakure, Hatake Kuroshi finally, somewhat belatedly, remembered the people back in Konoha and Itachi, who had joined Akatsuki.
Well, who knows what those guys have been up to lately.
Kirigakure had always been famous for taking on various assassination missions, and the village mysteriously shrouded itself in dense, concealing fog daily.
Simply put, to prevent invasion from other countries, Kirigakure had always maintained a closed-door policy.
Coupled with the frequent emergence of missing-nin and high-level ninjas from this place, everyone avoided it whenever possible.
Aside from wealthy individuals hiring Kirigakure ninjas for assassinations, the village had little contact with other villages.
There were only so many people in the world, and it wasn't wartime, so there weren't that many battles to fight or people to kill.
So, Kirigakure wasn't exactly thriving these days.
Having not fully delved into Kirigakure's finances before, Hatake Kuroshi hadn't thought much about it.
At most, he felt their equipment wasn't great, but considering these guys killed each other all day, good equipment wouldn't have been much use anyway.
Looking at it now, the place was indeed quite poor. While not exactly destitute, it wasn't far off.
Hatake Kuroshi looked at the islands on the map and the overall environment of the Land of Water, thoughtfully rubbing his chin.
He planned to use this place as a base of sorts later on. This income level made even self-development seem difficult; it simply wasn't enough.
Moreover, relying solely on assassination missions meant the money earned would be partially skimmed by the Land of Water Daimyo.
The Land of Water was surrounded by sea, with deep mountains inland.
The entire country was damp and humid, boasting rivers, lakes, and even hot springs—it had practically everything.
There were also many small islands nearby, which, due to poor contact with the outside world, retained their original indigenous culture and customs.
Simply put, to make this place fare better during peacetime, developing tourism was necessary.
In fact, if this place could genuinely develop, it might even become quite popular.
Hatake Kuroshi briefly outlined this idea to Shisui.
"Developing tourism in the assassination holy ground."
Shisui repeated, looking at Hatake Kuroshi's face.
"It's hard to refute that description... but the situation this year is much better. It hardly qualifies as a holy ground anymore~"
"Besides, didn't all the students graduating this year survive?"
Hatake Kuroshi sat at the desk, resting his cheek on his hand, looking at Shisui. Compared to Kirigakure's death rate in previous years, this year's count was extremely low.
"That's not the issue. Hasn't everyone already formed a fixed image of Kirigakure?"
"Thinking of this place brings to mind dense fog, assassination, missing-nin—synonyms for bloody and brutal."
"If you want to develop tourism here, you definitely need to change the outsiders' impression first."
Shisui scratched his head. Although it sounded absurd, he was still seriously considering its feasibility.
"Yosh! Then we need to find some people to experience it first."
"If they make it out alive, that should do it!"
Hatake Kuroshi slapped one hand onto his palm, looking at Shisui with an expression of sudden enlightenment.
Seeing his expression gave Shisui an ominous premonition.
Shisui faintly conceived a bad feeling, but felt this guy surely wouldn't go that far.
For the next month or so, Mangetsu Hozuki declared it peacetime; necessary missions were handled by the ANBU.
Most personnel were assigned to construction near the hot springs.
All expenses and salaries were covered by the Mizukage (i.e., the village funds under his control).
When Genji heard about this, he almost fainted from anger.
"The finances are already nearing a deficit! Income during this period has been pitifully low, and you're still doing some hot spring construction?"
"Absolutely no one will come here!"
What kind of lunatic would specifically come to the 'Village of the Bloody Mist' to soak in hot springs? Do they think they have too many lives and want to die twice?
Although Mangetsu Hozuki ended the Fourth Mizukage's tyranny promptly after taking power... and promptly reopened to the outside world, relaxing conditions considerably during entry and exit checks. Situations like 'entering means certain death' no longer occurred.
However, so far, traffic wasn't heavy. Most visitors acted like fugitives, coming once, finishing their business, and rushing to leave.
This situation was a historical legacy issue; there were many similar problems.
How could a village's external reputation be repaired in just a few short months?
"We'll talk about it when we're actually in deficit!"
Mangetsu Hozuki had been dealing with Genji for several months now. He had basically gotten used to the old man's rhetoric, and opposing him had become second nature.
After all, most of Hatake Kuroshi's arrangements and plans somewhat displeased this stubborn old traditionalist.
Although Mangetsu Hozuki wasn't old, he understood the danger of a financial deficit.
However, Kuroshi-sensei's arrangements had basically never gone wrong, so Mangetsu Hozuki naturally supported his decisions wholeheartedly.
Genji could only anxiously poke the ground with his cane alone, watching this group mess around.
Since the Academy was on break, not only ninjas but also students, and even various random people, pitched in with the construction.
Therefore, the construction near the hot springs progressed quite rapidly.
Meanwhile, Hatake Kuroshi took the opportunity to take many photos in Kirigakure and mass-printed some promotional flyers.
After Shisui returned to the dormitory, he somewhat curiously picked up a promotional flyer.
At a glance, both the photos and the layout were quite artistic.
"This guy really is quite perfect in every aspect, aside from his nasty personality."
"Climate damp and warm, far from dryness and noise, surrounded by the sea, natural fishing, experience a slow-paced life."
"Pilgrimage site for assassins: feel the joy of surviving each morning, cleanse your soul and gain rebirth..."
"Why would you write the assassination part in? It looks like no one will come!?"
Upon seeing these lines of copy, Shisui immediately frowned.
How could anyone write something like this? He could even picture Hatake Kuroshi's innocent face woodenly reading the ad copy.
"Willing to pay heavily for a pair of eyes that haven't seen this flyer."
"I figure there will always be people bored and looking for excitement, so I wrote it—!"
"Besides, there's no problem! Even if there's a dark history, you have to make good use of it!"
Hatake Kuroshi nodded, seeing no problem at all, then paused as if remembering something and said.
"Ah, since you've seen it, I have another plan that can quickly solve Kirigakure's bad reputation problem."
Hatake Kuroshi leaned close to Shisui's ear and whispered a few sentences. Shisui's eyebrows rose as he listened.
"Isn't this basically strong-arming people...?"
A cunning smile flashed across Hatake Kuroshi's face as he spread his hands cheerfully.
"What does it matter~? Anyway, as long as they come and leave alive, it solves the problem most efficiently."
Late at night, when all was quiet, a dark figure flashed across the rooftop of the Land of Water Daimyo's residence.
The tip of a blade pointed straight at the sleeping Daimyo in the room, chilling killing intent rushing forth.
The Daimyo opened his eyes in terror, the sharp blade stopping just inches from his face.
Looking up, he saw a face completely wrapped in black cloth.
"Come to this address tomorrow. Bring as many people as possible. But do not speak of tonight's events."
"Otherwise, whether you live to see tomorrow night is another question."
Immediately, the dark figure leaped down through the wide-open window and vanished into the night.
The Land of Water Daimyo, still shaken, climbed out of bed, fumbling to turn on the light and examine the paper that had fallen.
He had initially thought it was some kind of blackmail demanding money, but upon closer inspection, the thing was simply a promotional flyer.
Kirigakure? Hot spring trip?
Not only the Land of Water Daimyo, but even Gato, who was unscrupulously accumulating wealth through nefarious means in the Land of Waves, received this ambiguous flyer in the middle of the night.
Although everyone was reluctant, the fact that these unknown dark figures could bypass their layers of security and threaten them directly clearly indicated they possessed considerable means.
Despite tracking them overnight, no one could discover where these dark figures came from or where they went.
Left with no alternative, and fearing assassination there... these wealthy and powerful individuals hired numerous ordinary people and some ninjas from other countries to accompany them to Kirigakure.
These people spent a day and night in Kirigakure as if sitting on pins and needles. Hot spring and accommodation fees were calculated per person.
Although the prices weren't exorbitant, they had brought quite a large entourage.
Hatake Kuroshi basically recouped the relevant construction costs in one night.
That evening, Hatake Kuroshi and Mangetsu Hozuki held discussions with the Land of Water Daimyo.
Hatake Kuroshi enthusiastically discussed future development plans for Kirigakure, transformation methods, and attracting investment with them.
Although the Land of Water Daimyo was initially reluctant, Hatake Kuroshi painted a grandiose picture with his various ideas.
Ultimately, the Daimyo agreed and promised to provide a certain amount of investment for infrastructure development.
Hatake Kuroshi even shamelessly guaranteed.
"Well~ Although Kirigakure is famous for assassination, if you come for a vacation, we can guarantee guest safety 100% here~!"
"So, not only can you come for a vacation, but it's also a good choice for avoiding assassination!"
Shisui, holding a cup nearby, almost sprayed water out. Hatake Kuroshi lied with such righteous confidence, even though he himself was the one who threatened these people.
He actually managed to turn this directly into a selling point.
Simply put, Hatake Kuroshi's plan was to first attract investment from the wealthy to solve the financial deficit left by the previous Mizukage regime.
These wealthy individuals also wield greater influence.
This way, they could accelerate cleansing the negative image of the 'Village of the Bloody Mist' and replace it with features like tourism and hot springs.
It could even transform the 'assassination holy ground' into a sanctuary against assassination.
Making the target audience of this place ordinary people rather than ninjas.
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