[The Land of Wind]
Konoha's second contingent finally passed through the Land of Rivers.
They arrived at the southern coast of the Land of Wind.
Since the First Greening Corps from the Land of Fire had temporarily halted its operations, Tsunade and Nawaki had been reassigned here. They had already built a large number of houses along the beach to accommodate the Second Greening Corps when they arrived.
"You've had a long journey, Sasori."
As the two groups met up, Tsunade greeted Sasori with a smile.
Sasori smiled and nodded, "Let's get the equipment set up first."
There was a reason Tsunade was being so courteous. Sasori's inventions had spread across the entire ninja world and were even being exported to countries beyond it.
The money they brought in was practically on the level of a printing press.
Aside from spending some on making puppets himself, Sasori poured all of his earnings into Konoha Hospital.
The money was used entirely for developing new medical techniques.
Whoever led the development of a medical technique controlled that funding.
And naturally, the person in charge also decided how much money the project would spend.
To Tsunade, seeing Sasori was like seeing the God of Wealth.
But these days, Tsunade had too much on her plate. With Nawaki and Kato Dan around as well, gambling had become nothing more than an occasional pastime.
Sasori himself didn't care about any of that. Money wasn't particularly useful to him.
As long as his parents could come back to life, nothing else mattered.
Now that they had already been resurrected, Sasori wore a smile almost all the time.
At that moment, a figure rose from the shadow beneath Sasori's feet.
It was Rengoku's dojutsu clone.
"No need to stand on ceremony. Let's take a look at the site first," Rengoku said before heading toward the shore.
The beach had already been completely cleared.
A little farther inland from the sand, the ground had been covered with smooth wooden flooring.
Every hundred meters, a canal stretched away behind them.
"Hmm! This is a good spot for drawing seawater."
Rengoku contacted his clan through his dojutsu. A short while later, Minato arrived, bringing over massive pieces of equipment one by one with the Flying Thunder God Technique.
These were solar-powered seawater distillation and desalination units. Each one was as large as a basketball court.
Even Minato could only transport them one at a time.
He used Flying Thunder God ten times in a row before all the equipment had been delivered.
"Thanks, Minato."
Minato flashed a bright smile, "Should I bring the wind power components over now?"
Rengoku shook his head, "No rush. Let's get everything here running first."
"All right. I'll head back then. Call me if you need anything."
There was still plenty of work to do in Konoha every day, so Minato immediately teleported back with Flying Thunder God.
Looking at the enormous desalination units, Rengoku couldn't help but sigh.
These machines represented the pinnacle of the ninja world's current technology.
Powered by solar energy alone, each machine could purify ten to thirty tons of seawater.
With the addition of wind power modules, each machine could purify another ten tons.
At maximum output, these ten machines could produce up to four hundred tons of fresh water every day.
The fresh water could be used for both drinking and irrigation.
Several kilometers behind the machines was a sunken area.
The plan was to blast out the ground there and use it to store the concentrated brine.
Brine had many uses. The simplest was evaporating it further to crystallize salt.
It could also be processed to extract other minerals and elements, such as magnesium, lithium, and bromine, so there would be no shortage of buyers.
At that moment, the sound of flapping wings came from above.
Deidara flew over on one of his clay birds.
Kurotsuchi was with him.
When Deidara landed, his forehead was covered in sweat. It was daytime, and the heat was intense.
"Couldn't you do this at night? If I had to fly much longer, I'd be getting heatstroke."
As soon as he got down, Deidara pulled out his canteen and gulped down several mouthfuls of water before handing it to Kurotsuchi.
She was just as thirsty. Without even greeting anyone, she grabbed the canteen and started drinking.
Sasori walked over, "These machines need to run during the day so we can measure their efficiency. This part really can't be done without you."
"Sasori-nii, you're here."
Deidara had been complaining a moment ago, but the instant he saw Sasori, his expression completely changed.
He looked genuinely happy.
By then, Rengoku had finished arranging the machines and their piping and walked over.
"Use Dust Release to hollow out this area for me. I've already marked the boundaries. Make it about three hundred meters deep."
He gave Deidara the order without the slightest hesitation.
"Rengoku? What are you doing here? Hollowing out such a huge area with Dust Release? You've really come up with something."
Deidara was a little surprised. The work here was so demanding, so why had Rengoku come all the way here to suffer through it?
Rengoku smiled, "I came because I have my own work to do."
"And precise cutting like this is perfect practice for improving your control over Dust Release, isn't it?"
Deidara wasn't too happy about it.
This was hard labor. Digging out a pit that deep wasn't something a single jutsu or two could accomplish.
But since this alliance between Iwagakure and Konoha required Iwagakure to help reshape the terrain, Deidara had no choice but to do it.
Kurotsuchi looked at Deidara, then at Rengoku, a thoughtful look flashing through her eyes.
She had come along as Deidara's assistant.
At the same time, she had been ordered by Onoki to gather any useful intelligence she could.
Especially anything related to Deidara and Rengoku.
It wasn't that Onoki didn't trust Deidara.
He was worried that Uchiha Rengoku might influence Deidara's way of thinking.
Kurotsuchi wasn't afraid of Rengoku.
But she was very wary of him.
After all, Konoha was also Iwagakure's hidden rival.
They might be allies this time.
But that didn't mean they would be next time.
———
[Snow Country, Royal Capital]
At the center of the capital stood an enormous palace.
Large numbers of soldiers patrolled it every day.
After all, Kazahana Doto had seized the throne through a coup, so there had always been a resistance force loyal to the former ruler, Kazahana Sosetsu.
Moreover, Doto had ruled the Land of Snow with tyranny for years.
He had not only raised taxes but also pursued aggressive militarization.
As a result, many citizens of the Land of Snow secretly joined the resistance.
That was why Doto had been pushing the development of Chakra Armor, to strengthen his grip on power.
Inside a watchtower near the palace, someone was observing through a telescope.
Though wrapped in thick winter clothing, the figure was small. It was obviously a child.
His name was Asama Shiro. He was a member of the resistance.
More precisely, he was a descendant of Asama Sandayu, a retainer of the former ruler Kazahana Sosetsu, and his duty was to monitor activity around Kazahana Doto's palace.
It was normally a tedious job.
After all, useful intelligence didn't come in every day.
But today seemed to be his lucky day.
Because through his telescope, he saw a group of five people walking straight toward the palace.
They quickly knocked out the guards.
Then openly forced their way inside.
Seeing this, Asama Shiro hurriedly rushed down from the tower.
"Princess, come quickly and look!"