Kazekage Ninja: The Rise of the Hidden Sand

"Impressive."

Kiyohara Ichirō bowed deeply to Higashi Yoshihide, plucking two white stones from the go jar and placing them gently on the board.

"You're too kind."

For once, Higashi Yoshihide returned the bow with proper etiquette, then turned to Jinghang with a rare smile.

"Thanks for actually bringing Master Kiyohara here. Well, I've had my fun—time to get to work."

And with that, he walked off, stiff as ever.

Hirai Kangsaburo hurriedly motioned for his people to follow, treating Higashi Yoshihide like royalty, while quickly apologizing to Master Kiyohara.

"Please don't mind him, Master Kiyohara. Yoshihide, he's just..."

"No need to worry," Kiyohara Ichirō replied, his tone warm and thoughtful. "Mr. Higashi is refreshingly direct, and he's not wrong—Go is entertainment, after all. With that mindset, you can face anything without fear."

In the days that followed, Higashi Yoshihide led Hirai Kangsaburo's team of actuaries, calculating Konoha's every move day and night. He was like a human supercomputer, filling blackboard after blackboard with real-time market data and projections.

For the first time, Jinghang witnessed the terrifying power of the human mind. Trend charts, financial analyses—these reports seemed to materialize out of thin air, all computed by sheer brainpower. It almost felt like he was standing in the middle of a high-stakes trading floor, except all the data came from one man's calculations.

Neither Jinghang nor Hirai Kangsaburo could do much to help; all they could do was provide the best possible support.

First, the intelligence department arranged a secure, luxurious villa inside Sunagakure, with guards posted around the clock.

Craving something to eat? Want to drink? Play a game? Whatever it was, it was arranged immediately.

Take Higashi Yoshihide for example—he loved steamed buns, so Hirai Kangsaburo had people go all the way to Dragonfly City and buy out the most famous old-school steamed bun shop, bringing both the chef and his whole setup to Sunagakure for fresh, on-site steaming.

He loved black tea? Jinghang pulled diplomatic strings, securing half a pound of top-tier "Blood Mist Red" tea from the Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, in Kirigakure. That tea was so rare, money alone couldn't buy it—on par with the legendary Da Hong Pao from Earth.

And playing Go with Kiyohara Ichirō? No problem. Only after the fact did they learn that Kiyohara was the current "Go Saint" of the Land of Fire. It took everything Jinghang and Hirai Kangsaburo had—every connection, every favor—but they finally managed to bring him over.

As long as Higashi Yoshihide's team could win this iron ore war, all these expenses were nothing—just pocket change.

"Master Kiyohara," Jinghang asked, "I don't really know Go, but you resigned in the middle game—why so soon?"

Truth be told, Jinghang was worried that Kiyohara hadn't played seriously. He didn't want Yoshihide to lose interest or get in a bad mood.

"Sigh, we may have reached the middle game, but there was no point in playing further. Mr. Higashi is a once-in-a-generation genius—his calculation skills are simply terrifying. I can't match him."

"Calculation skills? But this is Go! You think he's AlphaGo or something?" Jinghang blurted out, incredulous.

Kiyohara Ichirō just smiled, pointing at the board.

"After move 150, I noticed he started taking long pauses before each move. By move 200, his play was smooth as water."

"And what does that mean?" Jinghang pressed.

"It means I was already completely inside his web. I paid attention during those long pauses—he'd mumble to himself. Do you know what he was doing?"

"What?"

"He was running through point-by-point layouts. To do that in the middle game means his calculation skills are off the charts. In just a few deep thoughts, he'd already worked out all my possible responses and variations. What chance did I have?"

Now Jinghang understood. Go has nineteen vertical and horizontal lines—361 points in total. The possible variations are astronomical. Usually, you only start running point-by-point endgame calculations when the match is nearly over, mentally trying out different moves and eliminating the bad ones. But Higashi Yoshihide started in the middle game, and in just fifty moves, he'd mapped out every possible future. Kiyohara Ichirō could only resign.

Jinghang couldn't help but suck in a breath. This guy was terrifying. For Higashi Yoshihide, such complex calculations were nothing more than casual brain teasers. If he got serious...

Suddenly, Jinghang felt a surge of confidence. With this man on their side, there was no way they could lose this war!

He immediately pleaded with Hirai Kangsaburo to let Higashi Yoshihide take a post at Sunagakure's command headquarters.

Hirai Kangsaburo explained, "It's not that I'm reluctant, but Yoshihide has some... issues. When he acts up, he's hard to control, and he can't take care of himself at all."

Pfft, what's the big deal? Just a bit of childishness and maybe a manic episode or two? No problem—our village has medicine. As for not being able to take care of himself, that's even easier—I'll assign a personal caretaker.

After much persuasion, Hirai Kangsaburo finally relented, but made it clear this was just a temporary assignment—personnel authority still remained with him.

Jinghang just laughed and nodded. "As long as he's here, that's all that matters."

"I've finished the calculations. The Land of Fire's Fire Eight Pillars Commerce Guild and Konoha together can actually commit 7.584 billion ryō. Their bottom price is 125 ryō per ton! That's the absolute limit—if they push it any lower, they'll lose control."

The Fire Eight Pillars Commerce Guild might be wealthy enough to rival a nation, but there's no way they'd throw all their capital into a single iron ore deal.

Don't underestimate those two numbers Higashi Yoshihide produced. He deduced them from nothing but existing market data. It's like seeing a single pig's trotter and figuring out the whole pig's size, weight, and fat content from just that. That's the real genius.

"If we go in with 10 billion, is that enough to counter them?" Jinghang asked.

"As long as we time it right, that's more than enough." Higashi Yoshihide pushed his glasses up, brimming with confidence.

"Perfect! I'll follow your lead!" Jinghang said, delighted.

"No need for any action yet. Until iron ore drops below 150 ryō, we don't lift a finger. Let them show off a bit longer. Oh, and we should quietly buy up some coal—the price is tied to iron ore, so we can make a tidy profit on the side."

Higashi Yoshihide flashed a rare smile.

~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~ 

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