Year fifty-three of the Hokage era.
The ninja world welcomed another transformation.
The Sand Village officially launched its gene-modifying medicines onto the market. Similar to the previous pharmaceutical releases, this opened an enormous new market and the medicines were immediately sought after with fierce competition by nations and hidden villages across the ninja world.
The medicines came in two types.
The first was bone cell medicine. Even ordinary people, after receiving an injection, would have their bones strengthened and their physical capabilities improved. For many forces in the ninja world this was simply a valuable resource for cultivating combat manpower. With this medicine, even civilians could possess a certain baseline level of fighting ability.
Though incomparable to trained ninja, if available in sufficient quantities it could form the foundation of a large-scale army.
The second type was the vitality enhancement medicine. As the name suggested, when administered this injection could to a certain degree elevate the cellular activity within the body, thereby increasing immunity and self-healing capacity. It also helped restore physical and mental stamina, and accelerated recovery speed.
The vitality medicine was naturally more expensive than the bone cell medicine. Furthermore, only one of the two types could be administered to any given person. They could not be combined.
Even so, when the Sand Village's gene-modifying medicines arrived on the market, they triggered an unprecedented wave of demand. This time it was not only smaller nations and hidden villages competing for supply. Even the other four great hidden villages actively sought to purchase them, including the Hidden Cloud Village, which had maintained a diplomatically distant relationship with the Sand Village throughout.
The reason was straightforward. Both medicines helped increase the strength of ninja. The effects were less dramatic for ninja than for ordinary people, but bone cell medicine could modestly strengthen taijutsu while the vitality medicine could slightly elevate a person's chakra levels and battlefield survivability.
From the perspective of individual ninja focused on skill development, the benefits might seem modest. But if these two medicines were distributed broadly throughout an entire hidden village, the cumulative improvement to the village's overall fighting strength, viewed from either a civilian or ninja perspective, would be significant.
Elevating the village's baseline to an entirely new level.
Without exaggeration, these were treasures capable of enhancing national power.
However, producing gene-modifying medicines was far from simple. Even with the Sand Village's mass production capacity, the village would naturally prioritize supplying its own ninja and civilians first. Only the remainder would be released onto the open market for everyone to compete for.
The release of gene-modifying medicines also conveniently resolved the Sand Village's pressing financial concerns.
In recent years the Sand Village had been expanding its ninja corps while simultaneously sending numerous teams to neighboring countries to clear mountain ranges and overcome climate barriers, as well as cooperating with the Daimyo's office to encourage vegetation cultivation throughout the Land of Wind. All of this had been extraordinarily costly.
Meanwhile the pharmaceutical revenue, while still substantial and maintaining the Sand Village's top position in the industry, was no longer growing as quickly as expenditures. Internal ninja training subsidies, fixed capital for various agencies and departments, and the village's various welfare guarantees for its civilian population all required continuous financial outflow.
The launch of the gene-modifying medicines would ensure the Sand Village's financial health could be maintained comfortably for a long period.
"Kazekage. Let us proceed on these terms then. I hope the Sand Village will deliver our goods on time without any unexpected incidents."
One day at the Sand Village's main gate, Yuji personally came to see off a distinguished guest.
The Land of Lightning's Daimyo.
The other party had come using the Daimyo's personal identity to purchase a batch of medicines, having already negotiated the price with Yuji and signed a contract. Furthermore, it had been paid in full upfront, even before seeing the goods, because he understood that the Sand Village's medicines were among the most sought-after commodities in the current ninja world.
"Rest assured. We will increase production on our end," Yuji said with a calm smile.
"Very well," the other man said with a nod, then mounted his palanquin and, accompanied by a team of elite Hidden Cloud warriors and guards, slowly departed.
"The Fourth Raikage," Yuji said quietly to himself.
"He still refuses to meet you in person even now," Chiyo said from beside him.
During the Third Great Ninja War, the situation in the Land of Lightning had grown dire. To ease pressure on the front lines, the Land of Lightning's Daimyo had stepped forward to arrange medicine purchases at that time. The same approach was being used now.
"The Fourth Raikage has not appeared from beginning to end," Yuji noted.
"Understandable. After all, there is the matter of his father's death. And having Sasori turn the Third Raikage into a puppet in front of him, he naturally cannot let that go," Chiyo said.
"We have already agreed to such a large quantity of goods and collected the payment in advance. What if we cannot deliver on time?" Chiyo said with a sigh.
Lately the Sand Village's gates had practically been trampled down by visitors from every faction imaginable.
Previously when the Sand Village's pharmaceuticals first entered the market, Yuji had personally led people outside the village, going out to meet potential clients one by one, forcefully carving a path into the market through direct effort.
But now with the gene-modifying medicines, the situation had completely reversed. The existing channels had been leveraged and directly expanded. Compared to the early days, now Yuji barely needed to step outside his own building before countless clients came flocking to him on their own initiative.
The Land of Lightning's Daimyo had actually been among the slower ones to arrive. The quickest to recognize the opportunity had been Konoha and the Hidden Stone Village.
Konoha had sent a delegation, and the Hidden Stone Village's Kitsuchi had personally led a group to visit and discuss purchasing arrangements, having only departed a few days earlier.
And these were just the major clients. Smaller clients, Daimyo and nobles from various countries, had been rushing over in a continuous stream. Some days the Sand Village was entertaining representatives from multiple different countries or hidden villages simultaneously. Official diplomatic correspondence and documents arrived every day, filling up desks throughout the administrative offices.
There were likely still quite a few more on their way.
Beyond the major figures of the ninja world, even ordinary trade caravans and merchants were swarming into the Sand Village in extraordinary numbers. With the gene-modifying medicines released onto the market, the daily foot traffic in the Sand Village had reached an entirely new peak.
Fortunately the village had been rebuilt on a large scale with enough space to accommodate this. If the old Sand Village had been subjected to this level of traffic, people would barely have been able to move through the streets.
"Collect the money first. It would be wasteful not to take the profit while it is there. The production and manufacturing of gene-modifying medicines is considerably more difficult than standard pharmaceuticals. In other words, it is unlikely that any other force in the ninja world will be able to replicate this in the near term."
Yuji picked up a small crystal bottle of medicine and examined it in the sunlight. Under the light, the liquid inside appeared a milky white color.
This was the bone cell medicine developed using samples taken from the Kaguya clan.
To be honest, the medicine's actual effects were somewhat less than he had originally anticipated. But the key advantage he could not overlook was that based on his research, the medicine's compatibility was such that even ordinary people could process and benefit from it. That single quality alone was enough to elevate its value enormously.
"Even if we cannot deliver precisely on time, these people will not say anything serious about it. At worst they will be a little annoyed. As for the money, they almost certainly will not ask for it back. Because what they care about is not the money itself but the goods. We are the sole producers, just as with the original pharmaceuticals at the beginning. We hold a monopoly."
"For the sake of a relatively small sum of money, arguing with us is not something they can afford to do, and certainly not something they want to do."
He continued, putting the medicine bottle away.
Then he turned to look at Chiyo with a grin.
"In short, let us make the money first."
Chiyo said nothing.