Roaring Twenties

T/N: the title was translated to "Coolidge Boom", which refers to the 'Roaring Twenties', when the United States experienced a period of rapid economic growth

In the afternoon, Land of Stone.

After running around for a small amount of time, Uchiha Obito adjusted his breathing and stopped in front of a tea stall that had a relatively slow business.

Seeing that a guest had come to his door, the tea stall owner, who was frowning sadly, hurriedly squeezed out a smile.

"Guest, would you like to take a break?"

Uchiha Obitoy looked at the owner seriously for a few moments.

He looked to be over fifty years old, and probably due to working outside for years, his entire skin looked a little rough and a little dark.

On his hands, there were a lot of calluses, but looking at their distribution position and form, it was not caused by using as well as manipulating weapons for years... This person was not a ninja.

Uchiha Obito made this judgment.

He was very confident in his own hands, but after all, when going out, the caution that should be there must still be there.

"A newspaper, a pack of cigarettes, and give me three dango sticks."

"Okay, please wait."

At this time, although Uchiha Obito had changed his face, he was still dressed as a ninja. The commoners traditionally didn't dare to mess with ninjas, and now that he heard Uchiha Obito's request, he immediately went to prepare.

Not long after, the boss served what Uchiha Obito ordered.

The newspaper was from two consecutive days, the dough looked fine, the cigarettes had the Konoha logo on them, and the boss even included a box of matches... that were surprisingly from Land of Water.

Gathering intelligence and utilizing it is the foundation of the ninja. Now the Akatsuki organization is based on the island of extreme happiness, he is not responsible for intelligence, rarely have the opportunity to come out.

This time, the opportunity is rare, Uchiha Obito in addition to take the opportunity to collect some powerful equipment and props similar to the six paths of ninjutsu, but also to collect some information from all angles.

Nowadays, this situation, Uchiha Obito is more and more unable to understand.

With the end of the Fourth Ninja War, the conflict between the Five Great Hidden Villages was getting deeper and deeper, and the Five Kage building quarreled almost every day.

But the odd thing was that the connection between them was also getting closer and closer.

Uchiha Obito even had a strange feeling that the five ninja villages even had a tendency to unite... although this was really counter-intuitive

Why this was so, Uchiha Obito did not know, but that was precisely why he had to be more and more cautious.

Even a small newspaper might contain important information.

And this cigarettes... in many special locations, good quality cigarettes can be used as hard currency.

He does not know what he will encounter next, it is always right to prepare first.

As for this match...

No, this is the Land of Stone, and if you count the political spectrum, this is the sphere of influence of the Land of Lightning.

Land of Water is very far away from here, even separated by a sea, how come the people of Land of Stone use matches from Land of Water?

Is it an isolated case that this owner purchased occasionally?

Uchiha Obito thought.

But instead of searching around in his head and giving himself a reason like is it an illusion or something like that, he tracked down this strange thought.

So, while eating dango, Uchiha Obito called the owner.

"Boss, come over here."

"Coming coming."

The boss obliged attentively and came in front of Uchiha Obito.

"Guest, is there anything else you need?"

Uchiha Obito raised his eyes, and a demonic light instantly enveloped the boss.

He had used a genjutsu technique.

Although it looked mediocre, Obito was confident in his genjutsu technique. Not to mention a little old man, even a powerful ninja couldn't escape his control.

For example... the previous Mizukage Yakura.

The expression of the tea stall owner, who had been hit by the genjutsu, stiffened for a moment, and his eyes became lifeless. But Uchiha Obito knew that what he said next would all be true.

"Why do you use matches from the Land of Water?"

"Guest... because it's cheap..."

To Uchiha Obito's surprise, the owner's answer was simple.

Simple over the top.

"... Because of that?"

"Yes... Although it's only a little bit per box, after the quantity comes up, you can save a lot every year too... Now, with this situation in the Land of Stone, a little bit of saving is a little bit of saving..."

Land of Water is at war right now.

In this state, it's still cheaper than the Land of Stone's own?

Uchiha Obito's was puzzled, he pursued the question, but the boss began to stammer, unable to say a reason.

...This is really don't know.

Just, maybe he is too sensitive.

Uchiha Obito thought, and did not unlock the genjutsu, but continued to read the newspaper.

It was a local newspaper of the Land of Stone, and most of what was written on it was also content from the Land of Stone's own country. But unusually, the headline of this newspaper yesterday was not about the content of Land of Water and Land of Lightning.

More accurately, it was the dispute between the underwater tunnels between the Land of Water and the Land of Lightning.

"I didn't realize that even ordinary people in the Land of Stone had begun to care about this matter..."

Uchiha Obito could be said to be the one who knew the most about the inner workings of it, after all, he had even taken up Pain's assignment to disguise himself as Kiri and kill some of the people of the Takumi Village before.

The Takumi Ninja and Kiri are not fools, this kind of simple disassociation does not allow the two sides to really play life fighting.

After all, Kiri had a domestic war to juggle.

But hearts are always fragile, and Uchiha Obito's simple provocation was enough to destroy the already fragile trust between the two sides.

Both sides together disputes, this matter is very difficult to become.

Of course, the matter itself was not that simple.

This is only the thoughts of Uchiha Obito alone, even he knows, now this underwater tunnel, but attracted the attention of countless people.

To a certain extent, how the underwater tunnel is no longer important, it is even just a trigger.

What was really scary was the great powers and ninja villages that wanted to use the underwater tunnel to compete for power and profit.

They are always like that.

No, humans are always like that.

Always repeating the same mistakes over and over again, and never repenting!

The more you wish for them to change, the more you get, the more you get hurt and hurt again.

Instead of suffering forever, it would be better to curl up in the eternal dream world and enjoy the endless peace and happiness.

People were not born to endure pain.

"But this is also good for me, taking advantage of the underwater tunnel attracting everyone's attention... that guy definitely wants a piece of this big event as well. -

"Relatively speaking, he will also relax his focus on other things. -

"In the end, I'm still in the shadows... Should I take this opportunity to widen the conflict between those countries and the great hidden villages..."

Uchiha Obito seriously pondered the possibilities, the newspaper in his hand slowly turning the pages.

It was fine if he didn't flip it, but once he did, he really found a surprise.

It was the headline of today's newspaper.

"Some experts claim that the Land of Fire is recklessly releasing water and invading the economy of the Land of Lightning. By the time the Land of Fire starts withdrawing its capital due to the interest rate hike, it will deal a heavy blow to the economy of the Land of Lightning and its affiliated smaller countries that are just starting to recover..."

"It's simply nonsense, but when you think about it seriously... it seems like it really does make some sense..."

Uchiha Obito used to not believe in what this kind of person said, but this time, this expert really had something to say.

How to say it... Anyway, it is to have data to have data, to have principles to have principles, to have arguments to have arguments, and the chain of logic is extremely clear, even if you put a dog there, you can easily understand.

It is as if the experts have experienced it personally.

Even Uchiha Obito felt that this guy might have a point.

Rightfully so, such an important... can simply be said to be a thesis, attracting the attention of many people both inside and outside the Land of Lightning.

How about the four major Land of is not to be mentioned first, anyway, in the Land of Lightning's domestic, it can be said that it is a stone that stirred up a thousand waves.

Experts and scholars were confused.

Financial practitioners were confused.

Even ordinary workers were in a state of confusion.

-Because it wasn't until this time that people realized that the Land of Fire's central bank was indeed raising interest rates, and with the continued war of interest rate hikes, all sorts of evils had gradually begun to manifest themselves.

Some scholars are even glad that fortunately that economics big brother found out in advance, otherwise... no, even if found out in advance, things are still extremely dangerous!

The temperamental Land of Lightning Daimyo immediately telephoned the Land of Fire Daimyo and inquired with him about this matter. Rightfully so, the Land of Fire Daimyo denied it.

Uchiha Obito wondered if the Land of Fire Daimyo really didn't know, or if he was just pretending not to know.

It didn't really matter.

Because the entire market centered around the Land of Lightning had begun to shake like crazy.

"When I was still in Konoha, that guy told me something about how the Daimyo is the most cowardly thing in the world. Throwing a random rock in the water can scare ten of them to death."

"Now the market centered on the Land of Lightning is the same... or even worse."

In the newspaper, the awesome economics bigwig declared that the influence of the Land of Fire was not likely to have a devastating effect on the Land of Lightning right now. As long as they bit the bullet, they could certainly resist this storm.

But the problem is... even if the Land of Fire does not make a move, what about the other three big countries?

Makoto had been making investments all over the place all these years, allowing capital to flow smoothly all over the market. Land of Lightning, as one of the big countries, was naturally filled with these accomplices of Makoto...

Now, they all moved.

Of course Konoha alone couldn't do it, but the four major countries had the power.

What Makoto thought of, they did.

What Makoto hadn't thought of, they did as well.

For a time, the Land of Lightning was abuzz and became extremely lively. All kinds of powerful merchants are like a great white shark that has seen blood, and have come forward, wanting to tear a piece off from the Land of Thunder's magnificent body.

With Uchiha Obito's barren economic knowledge, it was really hard to describe the current situation. If you have to describe it...

"When the prices of food begin to rise, they will surely rise until the poorest of the poor all starve to death, allowing the market and demand to return to equilibrium again... Perhaps, this will be even worse than the underwater tunnel."

The underwater tunnel communicates with the Land of Water, and right now the Land of Water is weak, and it's the time when the Four Great Countries are playing hard to get to embezzle it.

But now the Land of Fire is raising interest rates...

"Can't see it."

Uchiha Obito finally made this judgment.

He instinctively felt that this was a way to continue to increase the conflict between the five great nations, and he might be able to use it to make it less difficult to acquire all bijus.

But he really didn't have the slightest clue as to what exactly to do.

"In that case, it's better to give up for now. -

"First only doing what can be accomplished, and then if there's still leisure, then raiding those tasks that can possibly be accomplished, that's the rational ninja... -

"This has nothing to do with me anyway."

Uchiha Obito was already used to seeing the ugliness of human nature, and since this matter had nothing to do with him, he put it aside for the time being.

After thinking this way, Uchiha Obito continued to read the other news.

But compared to the previous two big news, the other news is more or less a little bit of light, did not attract too much interest in the Uchiha Obito.

...Even if he said he wouldn't think about it, there was always something in his heart, and he wasn't as interested in other things.

For example, Land of Water's navy left the military harbor.

...Now the Land of Water can be said to be in internal and external trouble, the remnants of the army must have something to show, even if it is just in case.

For example, several members of Akatsuki organization also broke out of the ninja army's encirclement, not knowing where they went.

Pain did not talk to him about this matter, but the Akatsuki organization was originally loose, and the members not only had poor personalities, but were also very independent of each other. Pain must have felt the need to do so before... Zetsu did not contact him privately about this matter, the problem is not big...

For example, the small actions between the major ninja villages are constantly... to target the actions of Akatsuki organization, right?

Uchiha Obito used the only information at hand, trying to find answers for all the things in front of him, and tried to trace the role played by someone through these things - he did not believe that, encountering such a good opportunity, Makoto would not move.

He had always been the type to create his own opportunities when there were none.

Now that the world was in a mess around the Land of Fire and the Land of Lightning, he was bound to do something as well.

Unfortunately, he hadn't found the other side's footing.

After a long time, Uchiha Obito finished reading the newspaper.

At this time, he had already finished eating the gnocchi, but before leaving, he still asked the tea stall owner.

"Why do you... have so few people here?"

It was an odd thing to ask, but it was really something that Uchiha Obito wanted to know.

Admittedly, it was because there were so few people here that he had come over to rest and gain information.

But the tea stall owner wasn't a fool who would purposely open a tea stall in a place where no one was around.

Moreover, this was next to the road, and now that the snow had melted away everywhere and the merchants and travelers had started moving again, it didn't make sense that he had been sitting here for most of the day and no other customers had come over.

As soon as he talked about this problem, even in a controlled state, the tea stall owner had a bitter look on his face.

"Now in the entire Land of Stone, whoever wants to do business is making trouble."

"...Making trouble?"

Land of Stone had not been a poor place since ancient times.

Because it didn't just produce stones, it also produced the best stonemasons.

In ancient times, blacksmiths and stonemasons were skilled laborers, and as long as they were down-to-earth and willing to work, they wouldn't be too poor.

Even into the modern era, Land of Stone, because of its past heritage and holding on to a big leg like Land of Lightning, had a good little life.

At least it was much better than other small countries.

"Yeah... there's a lot of fuss everywhere, just because the Land of Fire is pulling out... who has the heart to do business now... the whole market has been shaking. Everyone is worried... -

"But you still don't tell me why it's a big deal."

"Because..."

Listening to the tea stall owner's narration, Obito narrowed his eyes.

...The matter, it seemed, was more serious than he had imagined.