Despite raising their defense by several levels, Tanigakure would have never imagined that the culprit behind the previous massacre would still be able to infiltrate the village without alerting anyone. All the time, effort and money they spent improving the seals on their village wall was nothing impressive in Fujin's eyes. He only had to spend a couple of minutes more to be able to enter the village. If the leaders of Tanigakure knew that the culprit they were looking for in the Yamakawa town was roaming freely in their streets, who knew how much panic would spread among them?
It had been quite some time since Fujin was active in the Anbu. He needed a few minutes before he recalled the names of the most corrupt and scummiest Nobles in Tanigakure. In less than half an hour, Fujin entered their huge mansions and looted their treasuries without alerting anyone. While the Nobles were worried about what happened in the Yamakawa town spilling over to Tanigakure, they were oblivious to the fact that their treasuries had already been looted!
Fujin began moving in the direction of the Phantom Haven base while thinking, 'A little over 64 million Ryo… Not a bad howl from just 3 Nobles in a poor village like this one. If I had taken the jewellery and other ornaments, it could have been much higher. However, selling them could leave a trail. Not to mention, 64 million is plenty. I'll just loot more if more is needed. If there is one thing that no world lacks, it is corrupt scums sitting in the positions of authority. It's almost like an infinite source of money…'
Fujin chuckled while thinking how those 3 Nobles would react when they discovered that their treasuries no longer had any Ryo. Fujin continued moving while noting down the other corrupt nobles whom he had encountered during his time in the Anbu.
Other than the Land of Rain, where Nagato ruled, Fujin planned to loot Nobles from every other country, including the Land of Fire's Fire Capital if needed. Unless they made their Kage protect the scums among Nobles or hired Akatsuki for that job, Fujin didn't see any way they could stop or trace him.
This was the basic advantage that the strong enjoyed in such a world. It was also why Fujin never concerned himself much with money apart from the initial few years when he needed it for weapons and other basic necessities.
As Fujin reached closer to the Phantom Haven base, he took a slight detour and created a Shadow Clone with nearly 30% of his chakra and left the scroll containing puppets with him before continuing towards the Phantom Haven base.
Within a few hours, Fujin reached the valley. As he passed by the first Mini base, Fujin was surprised. His eyes glowed as he observed, 'Interesting. 8 people with Chunin level chakra, 1 with Jounin level and 26 with very low chakra in addition to the 3 whom I recognize. It looks like this organization has been growing well. However, it can also be because they used their contacts to recruit more. Regardless, this is good.'
Fujin was pleased. While it may seem like he put a lot of effort into the organization, in reality, he had put very little. Almost all the effort he put in was to create the philosophy of the organization. So, seeing the organization flourish without bothering him much was a good surprise.
Fujin moved past the mini base, reached the main base and entered it. The original members of the Phantom Haven Society were surprised to notice that the barrier was deactivated by itself! They immediately became very alert and relaxed only after seeing that it was Shiden. Shigeki, in particular, breathed a sigh of relief as he thought, 'Thankfully he returned quickly this time! I was worried he wouldn't show up for another couple of years!'
Fujin looked around the base. He could see that it looked much better now. In his absence, the infrastructure of the base had improved a lot. It was still very basic without any extravagant decorations, but it definitely was a major improvement.
Shigeki immediately went forward to welcome Fujin and said, "It's good to see you again, Shiden."
Fujin nodded and said, "It looks like you guys have been doing well."
Shigeki understood what he implied and asked, "Did you see the ones we recruited?"
Fujin nodded and said, "Yes. Tell me about them."
Shigeki informed Fujin about them. As Fujin had speculated, they were other ninjas from Tanigakure who had to face injustice and were close to some of the members of the Phantom Haven Society. Shigeki took advantage of the situation and recruited them.
Shigeki added, "However, after recruiting them, we don't have any leads on recruiting any more experienced ninjas. It'll be difficult to expand further in the future."
Fujin nodded. He knew that it wouldn't be easy to expand endlessly. Luckily, that wasn't his goal. He asked, "What about the kids?"
Shigeki answered, "While we were recruiting, we came across a small village that had been attacked by some rogue ninjas. Tanigakure didn't send any aid to them as they didn't have enough money to request a mission. We helped them to relocate to a nearby village and recruited 26 orphan kids."
Fujin said, "That's good. I know that we won't be able to recruit many experienced ninjas. However, we will train the kids with dedication. Ten years from now, we will have numerous capable ninjas to help us achieve our goals."
Shigeki and others who had arrived by then nodded. Having been in the Phantom Haven Society for the past few months, they understood that as long as they didn't face any external enemy, the Phantom Haven Society would soon grow very strong. Of course, once they grew to that size, they would inevitably gain the attention of some ninja villages. That's when they would be put to the test.
Fujin said, "You guys have done good work with the base. Have you been facing any difficulties?"
Hayato replied, "We have been running low on funds. Shigeki left the finances to me. I had been planning some more upgrades to the base, but we would have run out of money. In addition, we also have to take care of the kids."
Fujin asked, "How much will you be needing?"
Hayato answered, "We need another 20 million Ryo to complete the upgrades in the base. Once they are complete, the base won't have much expense. However, we had to spend nearly a couple of million Ryo while resettling the villagers. It will be better if we can have another 25 million Ryo. I will keep 5 million for any emergencies and the remaining will be used to resettle any villagers we rescue."
Fujin nodded and tossed Shigeki a couple of scrolls while saying, "These scrolls contain 50 million Ryo. Use it as you see fit. If you face a shortage while I am not present, you can take down any bandit groups and take their money. However, take care to not expose your movements to Tanigakure or any bounty hunters."
The former Tanigakure ninjas were surprised to see Fujin take out 50 million Ryo so easily. Hayato thought, 'It looks like he was planning to hand us this amount anyways. What does he do to be able to give us such a large budget? Unlike a ninja village, we don't have any businesses nor do we accept any missions or collect taxes.
Though the money is good, being entirely dependent on the funds he gathers isn't a good thing. At some point, we will need to find our own streams of income. Otherwise, the Phantom Haven Society will have a very big weakness.'
What Hayato and others didn't know was that Fujin had directly stolen the money from 3 of Tanigakure's nobles. In fact, he had 14 million Ryo more. However, Fujin decided against handing the entire 64 million Ryo as the Phantom Haven Society needed to stick to a budget. If he kept giving an unlimited amount, then it would be inevitable for there to be a lot of splurging and no amount of money would be sufficient.
Shigeki said, "Thank you. We are facing another problem."
As he spoke, Shigeki's face displayed worry. He continued, "A formidable ninja arrived in the Land of Rivers around a month ago. His acts have been too evil. Wherever he goes, he captures people and buries them alive. Tanigakure decided to ignore all his actions as they didn't have anyone strong enough to deal with him.
I wanted to attack him with our forces, but it would be a close fight and even if we won, many of us would have died. Remembering your words, I decided against it and waited for you."
Fujin was surprised. He wondered, 'Burying people alive? Which sick pervert is that?'
He asked, "Who is it?"
