manynovel Chapter 57 The Productivity of Ninjas
Chapter 57 The Productivity of Ninjas
in the afternoon.
The sky remained overcast, and the rain continued to fall.
Sosuke, holding an umbrella, arrived at the waste treatment plant.
It's muddier here than usual.
The sour smell fermented in the rainwater, becoming even more pungent.
Yuanzao did not sleep in the container.
He was wearing a tattered raincoat, standing in front of the huge mountain of garbage, directing several homeless men to clean the sewers.
Heavy rain could cause landslides from garbage dumps or sewage backflow.
This is his job.
Although he is a retired Chunin and has many skills, this is his job.
"Old man."
Sosuke walked over and held the umbrella over Genzo's head.
Yuanzao turned around, his face covered in rain and mud.
"Why are you here? Didn't we already practice today?"
"I don't practice martial arts. I want to discuss a business deal with you."
"With me?" Yuanzao wiped his face. "What business do I have to discuss? You want to buy rotten vegetable leaves to feed your pigs?"
"I want to buy this mountain."
Sosuke pointed to the mountain of garbage that was tens of meters high in front of him.
"To be precise, it's about buying metal from this mountain."
Yuanzao was stunned for a moment.
"This is all scrap metal. Rusty, rotten. What do you need this stuff for?"
"Iron smelting."
Sosuke did not hide anything.
"The Uchiha clan is short of ninja tools. The village won't provide them. They plan to smelt this junk into refined iron to forge ninja tools."
Genzo remained silent.
Then, he suddenly laughed. He laughed so loudly that he coughed.
"Ahem...Good lad. This was your idea, wasn't it?"
"You really dare to dream."
"Using Uchiha Fire Release to burn trash? How did you even think of that?"
Yuanzao spent ten years in the landfill. He knew better than anyone how many valuable things were buried there.
Broken kunai, ruined armor, and even steel bars used in construction.
These things are just dirty and old, but they are still iron at their core.
"The people in the health department are really hoping someone will do this."
Genzo spat.
"This pile of garbage has long exceeded the limit. Every year they have to spend a lot of money to hire earth-style ninjas to compact the garbage or transport it outside the village for burial."
"If you're willing to clean for them for free, or even give them some money..."
"They would be very happy to."
"Go ahead and take care of the paperwork with the health department. You can do whatever you want with this place."
"But don't expect me to do any work for you. I'll just be responsible for drinking."
"That's natural."
Sosuke took a bottle of fine wine from his pocket and stuffed it into Genzo's raincoat pocket.
"I'll go run errands for the health department."
……
Konoha Health Management Department.
This department is even quieter than the supplies department.
After all, managing garbage and sewage is not a lucrative job.
The section chief, a small old man named Tanaka, was dozing off in his office.
"Section Chief Tanaka." Sousuke tapped the table.
Tanaka woke up with a start and wiped the drool from his mouth.
"Who is it? Go to the back door to register when you take out the trash..."
"I am Sousuke from the Takaya Chamber of Commerce."
Sosuke placed a document on the table.
Application for contracting the metal waste cleanup work at the West District Waste Treatment Plant.
"ha?"
Tanaka thought he had misread it.
"You want to contract the landfill? What's so great about that place?"
"That's my hobby," Sosuke said without changing his expression. "I like old things."
"Furthermore, I am willing to pay the Health Department a management fee of 100,000 taels per year."
One hundred thousand taels.
This was a huge sum of money for the health department of a government office with little power.
Normally, they have to beg and plead to find someone to dispose of their garbage and even have to pay for it, but now someone is actually giving them money.
Tanaka instantly regained his senses.
He picked up the document and pretended to look at it.
"Hmm... It's a good thing to share the burden for the village."
"However, the ownership of that garbage dump..."
"I only want the scrap metal inside," Sosuke added. "I'll sort and compress the rest of the trash for you."
"no problem!"
Tanaka immediately picked up the official seal.
With a "snap".
Stamped, effective.
This was a hundred times smoother than being mistreated in the supplies department.
Because in everyone's eyes, this is a losing proposition, something only a fool would do.
Zongjie walked out of the health department with the contract in his hand.
The rain stopped. A crack appeared in the dark clouds, and sunlight streamed onto the wet streets.
He looked at the piece of paper in his hand.
This is the mining rights to Konoha's largest hidden mine.
Moreover, it is legal.
Even if the supplies department realizes this later, it will have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of the health department.
"Next, we need to turn this mine into refined iron to forge ninja tools. However, that's the Uchiha's job now; my work is done."
Sosuke put the contract away.
The scrap metal was quickly transported to the Uchiha clan's territory.
"Let's begin."
Uchiha Kaito spoke.
With permission from the clan's senior members, he gathered a group of young clansmen here.
"This is not just about refining iron. It's the ultimate test of control over Fire Release chakra."
"To melt rusty scrap iron, the temperature of the flame needs to be kept constant at 1,500 degrees Celsius."
Treat it as a form of spiritual practice.
Haidou set a respectable tone for the matter.
Sosuke waved his hand.
The homeless men he employed poured the sifted scrap metal—broken steel bars, scrapped armor pieces, and rusted kunai—into a specially made furnace made of firebricks.
Three Uchiha stepped forward.
They formed hand seals. Their movements were perfectly synchronized.
"Fire Release: Great Dragon Fire Technique".
Three fire dragons roared out and spiraled into the furnace.
The flames were compressed to their maximum.
The temperature inside the furnace soared instantly.
The combined chakra of the three created a temperature far exceeding that of an ordinary blacksmith's furnace.
A few minutes later.
The taphole is opened.
The golden-red molten iron flowed out and entered the mold.
That was refined iron whose impurities had been completely burned away by the flames of chakra.
Cool and shape.
The dark, heavy iron ingots radiated scorching heat.
With the raw materials in hand, the blacksmith shops on Hongshan Street became busy again.
The old blacksmith, whose eyebrow was half burned off, seemed to be on a high.
The Uchiha clan paid him double.
He was also given several Uchiha "apprentices"—actually, they were just tools responsible for using the Sharingan to observe the quenching temperature.
Ding-dong. Ding-dong.
The sound of blacksmithing never ceases, day and night.
This is no ordinary blacksmithing.
In this respect, the Sharingan is practically a cheat code.
"The temperature is too low, add more firewood."
A young Uchiha who had activated a single tomoe stared at the red-hot blade blank.
He can see extremely fine textures on the metal surface, which are microscopic changes in crystal structure.
"There are air bubbles here; it needs to be folded and forged thirty more times."
The old blacksmith was dumbfounded.
With the help of this group of human microscopes, he produced the best batch of ninja tools he had ever made.
Sharp, tough, and perfectly balanced.
The first batch of finished products consisted of one hundred kunai and fifty longswords.
They were taken away by Haidou and distributed to the guards.
In the following days, the waste treatment plant was transformed into a raw material source for the arsenal.
The homeless were hired by the Uchiha clan to rummage through scrap metal.
Deep within the garbage mountain, a clearing has been created.
Truckloads of scrap metal were hauled to the Uchiha clan's territory.
The Uchiha took turns "training in Fire Release".
The high-temperature furnace runs day and night.
Truckloads of scrap metal went in, and truckloads of refined iron came out.
Then it was transported to the blacksmith shop on Red Fan Street.
Sosuke did not participate in the actual iron smelting process.
He's the boss, not a laborer.
During the day, he devoted all his energy to practicing the "Third Sword".
In the evening, as usual, I went to learn medical ninjutsu from Nonou.