[The Land of Wind]
Along the sandy coastline, a row of houses had already been built, and ten massive machines had been installed nearby.
Pipelines and supporting facilities had already been connected around each machine.
Beside every machine stood a huge triangular windmill, slowly turning.
"Dust Release: Dust Explosion Technique!"
Deidara gave a low shout.
With a wave of both hands, a large amount of dust scattered into the enormous pit in front of him.
His hands remained in a seal as he practiced delayed detonation.
After all, it was extremely difficult to sense the chakra in these tiny dust particles.
Once he mastered delayed explosions, his Dust Explosion Technique would have far more possibilities.
The pit before him had already been blasted to a depth of more than three hundred meters.
Just waiting for the dust particles to fall to the bottom took quite a while.
If Onoki's Dust Release pursued overwhelming destructive power, then Deidara's Dust Release pursued absolute control.
After all the dust had reached the bottom, he changed his hand seals, and the dust particles floated into the air as if blown upward by the wind, arranging themselves into formation.
Then...
"Art is an explosion! Ha!"
Buzz!
Each cluster of Dust Release condensed into a white sphere of light about one meter in diameter.
In an instant, the bottom of the pit was blasted even deeper.
Cold sweat covered Deidara's forehead.
Dust Release itself didn't consume much chakra, but controlling it to this degree required an enormous amount.
Standing beside him, Kurotsuchi thoughtfully wiped the sweat from his forehead before handing him a water bottle.
Deidara took it and gulped down several mouthfuls.
"Whew... The depth is about enough. Kurotsuchi, have everyone straighten up the walls of the pit."
"Got it, Deidara-nii!"
Kurotsuchi's leadership ability was quite good. After all, she had the qualifications to become Tsuchikage.
But in front of Deidara, she would always be the little sister who followed him around.
While Deidara dug the pit, the other Iwagakure shinobi nearby repeated the work they'd been doing before.
They solidified the sand and turned the underground into perforated rock slabs.
Among them, two teams stood out because the people in them were rather unusual.
Originally, each team had ten people, but these two had been expanded to twenty-five, and everyone in each team looked exactly the same.
That's right. They were Rengoku's shadow clones.
He had been planning to start learning Earth Release anyway, and now the Land of Wind happened to need the extra manpower.
So he sent all his shadow clones here. There was no point wasting chakra.
Since he was in the Land of Wind, Rengoku had used the Transformation Technique.
Although all fifty people looked identical, everyone wore cloaks in the windy desert. Unless someone got close, it was hard to notice.
"Petrification Technique!"
"Petrification Technique!"
Under the blazing sun, a large group of Rengoku's shadow clones continuously transformed the sandy ground into rock slabs.
Naturally, the chakra in the shadow clones wasn't anywhere near as abundant as in the original body.
And in the scorching desert, they burned through it even faster.
So naturally, some of them went on strike.
One of the clones couldn't stand the heat anymore. The moment he finished casting his technique, he flopped onto the ground.
"I can't do it anymore. Someone else take over!"
With a poof, the shadow clone disappeared.
The nearest dojutsu clone shook his head helplessly. That really was just how he was.
The weather here was too hot and the environment too harsh. The shadow clones simply couldn't last long.
Rengoku's dojutsu could transmit chakra over, so he immediately created another shadow clone.
As a result, Rengoku was creating more than fifty shadow clones every day, leaving his original body mentally exhausted and tired all the time.
Still, this was a necessary part of his training, so he could only grit his teeth and endure it.
With his chakra being consumed so heavily, Rengoku also stopped having Kyokotsu fight the Raikage in the Land of Water.
Instead, Kyokotsu simply chased the Raikage's group around every day.
The Raikage believed they were tying down a large number of Kirigakure forces, and he and Yagura started playing hide-and-seek with them.
Just like that, a month passed in the blink of an eye.
———
[The Land of Wind]
For an entire month, neither Konoha nor Iwagakure's forces advanced another step.
With large numbers of Hyuga clan members patrolling the surrounding area, Sunagakure's scouts were completely cut off.
Sunagakure only knew that Konoha's second force had reached the coast.
They had no idea what they were actually doing there.
Rengoku's shadow clones had worked day and night in the desert for an entire month, practically model workers.
They had finally achieved their goal and mastered the Earth chakra nature transformation.
Everything along the coast had also been fully prepared.
Rengoku's original body specially rode Minato's Flying Thunder God express with Karin to the coast of the Land of Wind.
"Rengoku, your turn."
Tsunade patted a large lever beside her.
Behind her was a seawater desalination unit that was already operating, along with a completed floodgate.
Rengoku leaped over, landed beside Tsunade, and pulled the lever down.
The loud rumble of machinery echoed as the floodgate rose.
Crash!
A huge volume of fresh water surged out, flowing into the massive canal that had been built with Earth Release.
The spray filled the air with cool mist, bringing relief to everyone standing nearby.
Scooping up a handful of water, Tsunade took a sip.
It had been completely desalinated.
"Nawaki, it's your turn to get to work."
They had been preparing the water supply all along, and Nawaki had been transferred here half a month earlier.
After getting plenty of rest, Nawaki had fully recovered his energy.
Seeing that the water problem had been solved, he immediately answered, "Yes, Sis!"
He jumped beside the canal, scattered seeds throughout the designated areas, then gathered chakra and clapped his hands together.
"Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence!"
Crack! Crack! Crack!
As the rock slabs beneath the ground shifted, countless trees began sprouting once more.
The master of greening the land was back at work.
Rengoku and Karin watched from nearby.
Seeing a desert transform into a lush forest was a rare sight.
Karin stared without even blinking.
"Shishou, why are we planting forests in the Land of Wind?"
She didn't really understand what Rengoku was trying to accomplish.
After seeing him spend so much money and effort on all this, she couldn't help but be curious.
Rengoku smiled lightly, "Just come with me."
He waved for Karin to follow.
The two of them followed one of the branches splitting off from the canal until they reached a small village.
Dozens of dark-skinned, thin villagers surrounded the stream, filling containers with water.
Several Iwagakure shinobi were adjusting the channels so the water would flow into nearby vegetable fields.
Beside them, a villager dressed a little more neatly stood there with a broad smile, saying something to them.
"Are these people villagers from the Land of Wind?", Karin asked curiously.
Rengoku smiled, "They're citizens of the Land of Fire now."