Naruto: Rebuilding the Hidden Sand Village

Rasa had no idea that just a few days ago, the Akatsuki had turned down the greatest scientific genius in the shinobi world who came to apply.

If he had known, he would've patted Yahiko on the shoulder with a deep sigh and said like an old man:

"Brother Yahiko, if you don't want him—how about handing him over to me instead?"

After all, that was the god of technology!

To let someone like that go to waste? Absurd.

And as for anything else… Well, it's the man's knowledge they need, not the man himself. What's there to worry about?

As long as they made sure that shady old snake Orochimaru didn't brainwash any of the kids, it should be fine.

Besides, they just happened to have a living Ōtsutsuki specimen right here. Even if it wasn't the real body, Orochimaru would no doubt be very, very interested.

Once he took the bait… Rasa would cover the entire floor with reinforced steel plates. Let's see that slippery snake drill through that!

Unfortunately… Rasa didn't know any of this right now.

He was focused on the letter Mōmu had sent that morning. In it, Mōmu explained that the first batch of refugees from the Land of Rain would soon be escorted to Sunagakure by Suna-nin.

As for the mine—recruitment had already started. However, the years of war in the Land of Rain had left the civilians deeply distrustful of ninja, so operations were encountering difficulties. Mōmu asked that Rasa allocate more funding and supplies to stabilize public sentiment and make future work easier.

At the end, he also expressed heartfelt gratitude to the benevolent, kind, approachable, handsome, and valiant Kazekage for taking care of his wife and son.

Clearly, Mōmu was very thankful. Only about 20% of the letter was about logistics—the remaining 80% was spent sincerely praising and expressing admiration for the Kazekage.

Perfect! This was the kind of dedicated, hard-working, down-to-earth ninja that Sunagakure needed!

Rasa nodded with satisfaction. A smile tugged at the corners of his lips. It felt good knowing his efforts were being understood and appreciated.

He carefully folded the letter and tucked it into a drawer. Then, turning to face Advisor Ebizō, he felt a new headache brewing.

"Didn't the caravan bring you a batch of refugees the day before yesterday? Why are you already out of people again?"

What now?

Did he start doing human experiments too?

But—

"Aiya, Kazekage-sama~" Ebizō raised his hands, helpless and aggrieved. "You know we just opened a new toy factory. It's short on hands! And the village never had a lot of people to begin with. Now, with the summer heat and a wave of sickness, we're really understaffed. What do you want me to do? That batch from two days ago? Barely twenty people! Not even enough to fill the gaps at the glass factory!"

"Keep in mind…" Rasa rubbed his temples, exasperated. "I've already allocated most of the workers in the village to your side. The other factory managers are starting to complain."

If your excuse wasn't halfway decent—and if you didn't have Chiyo, our village's top engineer, master builder, and toy inventor, covering your back—I wouldn't even be wasting my time with you.

"Give the others a chance to breathe, would you? If they can't run production, there won't be any jobs. No jobs means no income. No income means starvation. And if people start dying… Sunagakure will fall!"

"Don't worry," Ebizō said cheerfully, completely unfazed by Rasa's dire warnings. "If they go under, I'll give them jobs over here. I'm still short on people."

"A village can't survive with just a couple of factories," Rasa argued. "And the other ones are still profitable."

"Ai…" Ebizō sighed heavily. "But we really are short-staffed. The grass-grid sand stabilization method is a real success. It's a great approach. All we need is to send a few people into the Land of Fire to harvest some patches of grass. It's cheap, simple, and effective—but if we want to scale it up, we really can't do it without more hands!"

"What about tools? Can't we invent something to reduce the workload?"

"It hasn't been tested yet. I'm worried something could go wrong. If the tool's not strong enough, it's useless—but if it's too strong, it could damage everything. And the control's tricky. This is the first time Sunagakure's ever tried something like this. We can't afford failure—it has to work. If we succeed, people will finally believe in it. But if we screw this up... they'll just say I wasted time, people, and resources."

"..."

Rasa could feel the pressure on Ebizō. The man had stepped down from the village elder and moved into logistics and research. He'd spent his days buried in either sand or scrap, draining people and funds. It was natural that some villagers were starting to lose patience.

Even if they still publicly respected him for past contributions, it was only a matter of time before complaints surfaced behind his back.

Rasa furrowed his brow, thinking hard. After a moment, he sighed and said, "There'll be a large group coming from the Land of Rain soon. Plenty of people. If you really want more workers—fine, go wait outside the village gates yourself and grab them before anyone else does. But don't take them all, got it? If someone buries you in a sand pit afterward, I'm not bailing you out."

"Hehehe, I knew you'd have a plan, Kazekage-sama!"

"Yeah, yeah. Just remember—this was all your idea. Nothing to do with me."

"Absolutely! I just happened to overhear some news and made a personal decision, all on my own!"

"Good." Rasa nodded approvingly, watching the ever-grinning Ebizō. "In that case… don't come bothering me again for the next few days."

"Understood! Understood!"

"This damn old man…"

Rasa chuckled, watching Ebizō's back as he walked off. Then, he shook his head and got back to paperwork.

With the population growing, more housing would be needed. Not a big issue—Suna buildings were simple to construct. They were just… kind of ugly.

As for food and water—

"Those are the real problems…"

Meanwhile…

In a dark and dreary forest somewhere in the Land of Rain—

"Tobi, they even rejected Orochimaru," muttered Black and White Zetsu, voice laced with frustration. They stared at the masked man lying on a tree branch, swinging his legs idly. "Calling themselves a 'righteous' organization, defenders of justice… Looks like our plan has failed."

How's Mother supposed to be saved now?

Trapped alone in the darkness, cold and forgotten—how pitiful.

She's still waiting… waiting for me to bring her back!

"This can't go on. According to Madara-sama's plan—"

Before they could finish...

"It's fine. We still have time~" Tobi murmured, lying on the branch with his legs dangling, eyes fixed on the gray afternoon sky of the Land of Rain. After a brief silence, he added, "Ignore them for now. I've got something else I need to take care of."

"?? Huh?"

Aren't you just eating, sleeping, and staring at poop all day?

Oh—right. Recently, Obito's body had almost fully recovered. Tobi had already separated from him, and was now wearing a new mask.

But really, there wasn't much difference. The two of them spent most of their time daydreaming or cloud-gazing. One just didn't stare at poop anymore.

"What kind of business are you talking about?"

"Me?" Tobi didn't move, still watching the sky as he swayed his legs. He replied nonchalantly, "I want to go back and take a look. Sensei's child is about to be born. As a student, I should give a gift."

"I even brought a present when the guy I hate most became a jōnin. So of course I'm giving something to Sensei's baby. A big one. A huge, huge gift~."

"..."

Black and White Zetsu paused, stunned by the words.

After a moment…

They shook his head in disbelief.

"This… might be the most you've spoken since that day, Tobi."