Naruto: Tango with Death

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The rest of the week went by rather quietly for me, but I doubt the same thing can be said about Sendai and its people.

Since the destruction of that sorry excuse of a prison, two big things happened: the construction of the new prison, and the take over of the hospital by Tsunade.

Both of these were not just done on a whim by me, they were well calculated moves on my part after I read those reports on the city.

The construction of the new prison would not only give me a place to put my prisoners in, it also drastically affected the city, and the lives of those within and around it.

Sendai was rotting in corruption, which was the main reason was Konoha was so much more important and politically involved in the matters of the nations compared to the army, as Konoha was a separate entity that wouldn't get affected by this corruption, unlike the army.

Anyway, the army wasn't the only one affected, a good part of the city was hit by it, with ever increasing taxes, and jobs becoming scarcer as nepotism ran rampant.

This resulted in a painfully avoidable schism, which started as societal, but gradually evolved into a geographical one. The city had split into different sections, with the Daimyo's Palace at the center.

Then, there was a first ring around the palace, that was where the nobles and rich merchants lived. The second ring beyond that was the main industrial area, where every factory resided. It was controlled by the first ring's lackeys.

Finally, came the third ring, where most of the population lived. In an area barely any bigger than the first ring, a hundred times as many people lived, almost stacked on top of each other.

People lived in misery, and were surrounded by it.

Now, what exactly did this have with the construction of the prison?

Well, quite simply, to build a prison, you need people, and people there are. I didn't even have to take a single ryo within the national reserve either as Lord Hirahisa proved to have quite the precious holdings within the city, and his domain, which I already had raided by my men.

He was rich enough to build more than ten of the prisons I had in mind, but for now, a single one would do. Of course, chakra or not, it would take several months to build the prison, but that was even better.

For the people, the prison meant a job, as they not only had to construct it, but there would also be the need of various people to run the prison.

As for the hospital, the changes were equally as great. While it may have seemed to only be a change in direction, things changed quite a lot.

Well, one thing mainly, but a significant one. The hospital fees went from grotesquely expensive to completely free.

Now, that may seem to be an impossible change, but the only real problem I found myself with was the lack of doctors, but I had already requested a transfer from Konoha's two hospitals.

As for the money part, it wasn't that hard. The doctors themselves weren't really paid that good, they had a little more than what you would expect a doctor to have, but it was still in the realm of the reasonable.

Instead, all that extra went into the pockets of those who made the decisions, that is a few precise members of the council. The hospital's board, if you will.

Well, they got the privilege to become the beta testers of my still building prison, along with Hirahisa! How exciting!

I got a few cells to be built as fast as possible, and got them to test them. As for the money, not only did I get some from them, but I also used one of the many taxes forced onto the population by the Council and used it to pay for all the medical care the people in Sendai need.

Speaking of these taxes, although I wish I could just erase them all overnight, it was a little more complicated than that. That wasn't a matter that only affected the corrupted part of the city, the entire socio-economical scene was built around these, so I had to be careful in their removal, or the entire thing would collapse.

That is not something I want.

However, redirecting some of that money wasn't much of a problem, and so in under a week I managed to build a healthcare system that looks free!

I know, miracle person.

Well, I do have to admit that being the sole decision maker does make things a lot easier. That was actually a power not even the Daimyo ever had.

Before the Council, although the Daimyo was the undisputed, supreme ruler of the country, he also had a plethora of ministers who would advise him, and to whom various tasks would be delegated.

But since those very same ministers had risen up to take over the executive power by creating the Council, there wasn't anyone left after I dismissed the Council.

Normally, it wouldn't be very lawful to have one sole leader, but since this is war time, and there is a budding civil war, we were under a state of martial law, sort of, which gave me, the Shogun, the right to enforce the will of the Daimyo.

And the Daimyo being a useless wuss, I get to enforce my will. So yeah, it's easier to move things around without having to face endless confrontation.

Finally, the last point of interest, my reputation. With Hirahisa's coming execution, and the arrest of several other members of the past Council, the nobles has been getting on edge, and have tried pushing things into their favour.

Well, they shot themselves in the foot.

They passed on the word that the Shogun, Yours Truly, was a dangerous, manipulative witch (yes I heard them use that specific word) whose goal was to tear apart this country for my own benefits. Among other things.

Thing is, they have the same problem as many people in power do: they underestimate the people below them. They believe themselves to be loved, to be so superior to the common mass that they will follow their words like a pack of sheep.

But they aren't.

Even before the start of the construction of the prison and the changed policy over the hospital, I found quite the support coming from the third ring of the city. People liked me, believe it or not.

After some digging, I found that the reason wasn't simply that I had Hirahisa incarcerated or the Council removed. It was something much simpler.

I was moving things. The people were tired of their situation, and as soon as I arrived, I did not show any care towards the established power. I did what I believe was right for this country.

Until now, the only choices the common people had was to continue living under the tyrannical rule of the nobles, or to turn towards the elusive rebellion.

Indeed, they may have been a problem to us, but that was because the rebellion was actually mainly spreading through the higher circles of the country, and the army. For the common people, all they heard of the rebellion was words.

So I represented the change, and so when they started hearing shit about me in the second ring, where they went to work… well, let's just say that a few people got fired for disobeying orders, to put it mildly.

And of course, the news of not only the creations of hundreds of jobs, but also free healthcare, I officially won the heart of the people of Sendai.

Oh, and somehow the rumours of me being Takayama back in the Land of Forests had spread around here. I wonder who did this, wink wink.

So I got a new title.

The Queen of Flowers.