Time entered the winter of the Year 58 of Konoha Calendar.
With the first snowflake drifting down, the landscape of the Ninja World had already undergone earth-shaking changes.
The Land of Stars' war against the Land of Wind and the Land of Earth had achieved an overwhelming victory, not only completely annexing the Land of Wind and its hidden village Sunagakure, but also forcing the Land of Earth to cede territory and pay reparations, reducing it to a vassal state.
This newly risen nation, with its suddenly expanded vast territory, astonishing resource output, and the terrifying combat power displayed by the Star Ninja Army, had boldly stepped into the ranks of the Five Great Nations. Its momentum was so fierce that it even showed signs of surpassing the veteran power, the Land of Fire.
However, since the two countries had not directly clashed, they superficially maintained a fragile peace. Therefore, the title of the number one great nation and number one Ninja Village in the Ninja World was still temporarily attributed to the Land of Fire and Konoha.
But beneath this thin ice, turbulent undercurrents surged.
Whether it was Hiruzen in the Hokage's office, the Fourth Raikage far away in the Kumogakure, or the Fourth Mizukage and Elder Genji deep within the Mizukage Building, all clearly realized that given the Land of Stars' displayed momentum of swallowing whole, the outbreak of the Fourth Great Ninja War was almost inevitable.
The only question was time.
For a time, the Great Ninja Villages rushed to expand their ninja forces and stockpile military supplies. The entire Ninja World was permeated with a tense atmosphere, like a storm about to break.
Within the Land of Stars, a period of tense and orderly development and digestion had begun.
The annexation of the Land of Wind, designated as the Wind County, and the reception of the five provinces ceded by the Land of Earth, brought vast new territories and an additional population exceeding ten million, pushing the Land of Stars' total population past the fifty million mark.
Such a massive territory and population required a huge amount of administrative talent to manage… the long border lines and newly emerging cities needed Ninja patrols for protection and police stationed to maintain order.
The entire nation operated like a highly efficient, precise machine, with every gear turning at full capacity to consolidate the newborn, colossal body.
East of the Sea of Death, on a trade route connecting the old and new territories, a special team was advancing.
The core of the team was over a dozen children ranging in age from seven or eight to twelve or thirteen years old. Most of them wore clothes that, while not luxurious, were of decent material, their brows still carrying traces of a gloom and unease unbefitting their age.
The most conspicuous among them were the ten-year-old Temari, with her golden ponytail and four strands of bangs hanging down the left side of her forehead, and her nine-year-old brother Kankuro beside her, with purple markings on his face and a small puppet strapped to his back.
These children were all the sons and daughters of former Sunagakure's high-ranking figures.
Escorting this team were four young Ninjas wearing Star Ninja headbands: Otsutsuki Toneri, Suzuhara Ai, Saionji Sato, and the calm and composed Hyuga Neji.
Their mission was to safely escort these children from the former Sunagakure to the Star City.
These children would enter the Star Ninja Academy for a three-year boarding education.
There, they would receive systematic Ninja Skill training and unified [Will of Star] ideological education alongside the Land of Stars' newly recruited batch of students.
This was the Land of Stars's established strategy for digesting and absorbing the new generation of power from the defeated side and nurturing loyal Ninjas for the future.
As descendants of the defeated, Temari, Kankuro, and the others had long accepted their fate.
Along the way, they showed no obvious resistance or hostility. Instead, they actively tried to communicate and show goodwill towards Toneri, Ai, and the other escorts.
And Toneri and the others also remembered their superiors' instructions… these children were future comrades, not prisoners.
Therefore, while maintaining necessary vigilance, they also showed considerable care for these children who had lost their homeland, always ensuring they received priority for food and water rations.
When the team arrived at an oasis on the edge of the desert to rest, they were drawn to the scene before them.
The open ground beside the oasis was crowded with people.
Not only were there Ninjas wearing Star Ninja's forehead protectors, clad in dark blue Chakra Armor with solemn expressions, but also many workers in uniform overalls operating various large-scale construction machinery, and engineers wearing white hard hats, constantly discussing with blueprints in hand.
Not far away, on the originally flat desert edge, there now rose undulating, yellowish-brown hill-like formations stretching into the distance, like the arms of a giant trying to block the endless yellow sand.
"What's going on here?" Temari couldn't help her curiosity, looking up to ask Ai beside her.
This bustling construction scene was completely different from the desolate, dead desert in her memory.
Ai followed her gaze and explained softly, "Judging by their attire and equipment, they should be an engineering team belonging to the [First Construction Group]."
"Hey! It really is!" Sato exclaimed noisily, scrambling up a tall poplar tree nearby. He shaded his eyes with his hand and peered into the distance, shouting excitedly, "I see the banner! It's a [Desert Control Project]."
Neji didn't speak, but simply activated his Byakugan. His vision instantly penetrated the distance, clearly seeing the giant slogan hanging at the edge of the construction site: [Land of Stars First Construction Group Wind County Desert Control Project Department].
He nodded slightly, confirming Sato's judgment.
"That person over there... is it Gotta-san?" Toneri's gaze locked onto a burly figure in the distance who was assigning tasks to several Star Ninja's squad leaders.
That person seemed to sense the attention from this direction. He turned to look, then gave a few more instructions to his subordinates before walking over with steady steps.
"Toneri, it's you guys!" Gotta's voice was loud, carrying his characteristic boldness. As he approached, his eyes swept over Toneri's team and the curious Suna children behind them, greeting them with a laugh.
Toneri stepped forward and asked respectfully, "Gotta-san, is a new national project being carried out here?"
Gotta laughed heartily, clapping his hands together, which were slightly dusty. "It's not much of a secret anymore. Experts from the National Land and Environment Department have long calculated that if this desert from the former Land of Wind… oh, now it should be called the Wind County, is not controlled, it would advance towards our Land of Stars's Yuga River plains at a rate of nearly nine meters per year. These past few years, the Yuga River plains have often been shrouded in yellow sand storms, and the source is here."
He pointed a thumb towards the boundless sea of sand behind him.
Temari, Kankuro, and the other children from Sunagakure were stunned by this.
"Desert... control?" Kankuro murmured to himself. This concept was too foreign to them.
In their understanding, the desert was an eternal existence, the backdrop of the environment. How could it be 'controlled'?
Seeing their confusion, Gotta crouched down, his burly figure appearing very reliable.
He extended a rough finger, mobilized Chakra, and controlled the sand grains on the ground to quickly gather and shape. Soon, before everyone, he formed a series of miniature, winding, undulating mountain range models.
"You see," Gotta explained, pointing at the sand model. "The main monsoon winds in the Wind County come from the ocean to the southwest. In theory, they should bring precipitation. But because of the special terrain here, the hot climate, and... reportedly the effects of a cataclysmic war from a very long time ago, the land turned to desert, becoming what it is now."
His voice carried a trace of emotion.
"Our plan is to use Earth Release Ninjutsu, combined with large-scale construction machinery, to construct a series of hill chains of varying sizes and specific orientations here." His finger traced lines of raised terrain on the sand model.
"These hills act like a series of barriers, effectively obstructing and lifting the moist monsoon winds coming from the southwest. When the wind is blocked and slows down, the water vapor it carries is more likely to condense into rain, falling in the valleys between these hills."
He paused, continuing to depict the grand blueprint. "Then, we will combine Wood Release, Water Release, and Earth Release Ninjutsu, and invest a large amount of manpower in artificial afforestation and irrigation, gradually improving the ecological environment of these valleys, forming patches of new oases. These oases will connect into lines, then merge into areas, step by step pushing towards the heart of the desert, reclaiming the land occupied by the yellow sand!"
These children who were born and raised in the desert, especially Temari and Kankuro, stared intently at the model of the hill chains made of sand grains on the ground, 'advancing' deep into the desert. Imagining that scene, they were greatly shaken in their hearts.
Temari couldn't help but exclaim, "Then... then in the future, the Land... Wind County, there will be no desert anymore?!"
She found it hard to imagine that the yellow sea she had seen since childhood, representing hardship and desolation, could one day be replaced by lush green.
Neji, though not old, was meticulous in his thinking. With a grave expression, he said, "Such a massive project... even with Ninja participation, it would probably take decades, right?"
Gotta gave Neji an approving look and nodded. "It is indeed a long-term project. Currently, within the country, only Yukimi is proficient in large-scale Wood Release, and there are many other foundational constructions that need to proceed simultaneously. So the preliminary plan is: within five years, push this [Oasis Lifeline] to the area where the former Sunagakure was located… within ten years, complete the encirclement of the main desert areas of the Wind County… within twenty years, basically curb the expansion trend of the desert and gradually restore the ecology of some areas."
"Curb?" Temari keenly caught this word. "Not completely eliminate the desert?"
Gotta smiled, his smile carrying a deep consideration that didn't match his rough appearance. "The desert itself is also a unique natural environment, home to many animals and plants adapted to it. Completely eliminating the desert, perhaps possible with the power of Ninjutsu, would destroy ecological diversity and is not advisable."
"Preserving a portion of the desert area can both protect these unique lives and serve as a warning, reminding future generations to cherish the hard-won green and remember the difficulty of transforming nature."
This grand vision of desert control gave Temari and the other children born and raised in the desert an immense shock.