Chapter 341: Reappearing in the Jianghu
"The soil must be broken up completely. No stones, no clods. Whether a field is fertile or barren mainly depends on the looseness and fertility of the soil..."
In a small village near Cloud City, a dozen figures followed an old farmer, listening to his farming experience.
Although they had heard similar explanations from many people, which were mostly the same, no one interrupted.
Leading the group were two individuals. One was over two meters tall with an exceptionally robust back—Yotsuki Dana.
The other wore a helmet with a fur collar, his face stern and marked with cracks—Tobirama Senju.
Behind them followed village chiefs, scribes, and further back, a three-person squad of young ninjas acting as guards.
It was still winter. Aside from a blanket of snow, nothing could be seen in the fields.
Dana asked, "I've heard the saying 'A heavy snow means a good harvest next year.' Is that true?"
"Pretty much... Because with snow, the ground won't freeze too hard. When the snow melts next year, the fields will have basic moisture and be softer. Otherwise, if the ground freezes solid, spring plowing will be suffering."
Tobirama asked, "In your opinion, what is the most tiring work in farming?"
The farmer scratched his head. "Probably land reclamation, spring plowing, and autumn harvest..."
Dana nodded. Although there was nothing new, he still thanked the man. "Thank you for bringing us here."
The farmer waved his hands repeatedly. "Not at all, not at all. It's surprising that big shots like you are interested in farming. I'm glad I could help."
Initially, Dana had people invite famous farmers to the Cloud Spire for discussions. But although he had memories from his past life, his knowledge was superficial. Farming matters had to be learned in the fields; knowledge from books was always shallow. Eventually, he and Tobirama led people to visit many villages and collected a lot of data.
For example, the ratio of rice to wheat planting in the ninja world was about 7:3. The Land of Lightning had a colder climate and harvested once a year.
Tobirama approached problems from a ninjutsu perspective—how to develop a composite ninjutsu to loosen soil, remove stones and weeds, and ideally kill underground insect eggs all at once.
Dana approached from the perspective of his past life's knowledge—what was the yield per year? How much was sold? What was the income? What kind of fertilizer was used? How were seeds selected and bred?
Cross-referencing their ideas, they formed a basic framework for applying ninjutsu to agriculture.
"Without chemical fertilizers and with primitive seed selection methods, although I don't know the exact gap compared to my past life, there's definitely huge room for increasing yield."
After walking in the fields for most of the day, the group found a roadside shop and sat around the fire pit.
Dana waved to the guard squad outside. "Come in and sit."
The three brats entered. The diligent Might Guy even took the initiative to pour tea for everyone.
Tobirama took a sip of hot tea and said:
"Running around the fields with us every day... is the Cloud Spire okay?"
As an Edo Tensei, he didn't need to eat and couldn't taste food, but drinking tea was fine, becoming his only indulgence.
Dana laughed. "I haven't ignored things there; I still work overtime every night. But this matter is almost wrapping up; we have a direction now."
Tobirama nodded. "Developing the ninjutsu isn't hard. I already have a few prototypes in mind. But to make it masterable by Genin as you said will require some brainstorming. I've never been good at developing simple ninjutsu."
The master of forbidden jutsu was now trying to develop Genin-level ninjutsu, racking his brain to lower the difficulty.
"Ninjutsu alone isn't enough; we need system support. I'll think about solving the fertilizer problem later. Do you think it's possible to create fertilizer directly using ninjutsu?"
Chakra could transform into five elements. Condensing physical matter out of thin air wasn't hard, so theoretically, it was possible. With mature ninjutsu, they wouldn't need to build factories for chemical fertilizer.
The ninja world needed its own characteristics, and magical chakra was that characteristic.
"There's also the seed selection issue. We might need Grandpa Yoshitoki's help. So many problems... This place looks nice, but as a village near the Cloud, it's already relatively wealthy. There are plenty of villages in the Federation where people don't have enough clothes or food."
Tobirama thought for a moment. "Aren't you worried? The higher the yield from our methods, the poorer those destitute villages might become?"
The three brats were confused, not understanding why Tobirama said that. If the Federation found a way to increase yield and reduce the burden on farmers, how could villages become poorer?
But Tobirama believed Yotsuki Dana understood.
"That is the Consul's duty... Any reform will leave some people behind, even if those people were already lagging. But I will try to make the process smooth and benefit as many people as possible."
"But that's for later. This year, we'll start with a few pilot projects to accumulate experience. Large-scale promotion is still far off!"
Returning to Cloud City, the white jade-like Cloud Spire was visible from afar, and the streets were bustling with traffic.
Several ninja cordoned off an area on the main road. Experienced locals knew Construction Ninja were about to work, and many men gathered around, curious to see what would be built.
It seems men across all worlds are interested in construction sites.
Including Dana... he stopped too.
A Construction Ninja pulled a sheet from the "Standard Blueprint Book" and placed it in the center. Several ninja formed seals simultaneously to cast "Thousand-Machine Construction Technique." Lightning flashed, and there was a bang.
Then nothing happened.
"Eh? Doesn't seem like anything changed?"
"Am I seeing things? Did the jutsu fail?"
"Did the color of the floor tiles change? ...No?"
While the onlookers were confused, the Construction Ninja had already moved to the next location.
Dana smiled. Only he knew they were laying cables.
After that action, a "Bionic Metal" cable has appeared underground, pulled from the base of the Cloud Spire.
Yoshitoki's progress was fast; they were already preparing to build chakra lines under all main roads in Cloud City.
Using Bionic Metal derived from Samehada for transmission and storage, and Tailed Beasts for energy, chakra would soon flow continuously through underground lines to supply the entire city.
The first application would be public facilities like streetlights. Later, with more civilian products, a hundred flowers would bloom.
Land of Rivers, On a Cliff.
A wooden arm fumbled for a moment, found a switch, and pressed it lightly. A small opening cracked in the cliff face, revealing a hidden cave.
Sasori crawled in, handing collected food to Pakura.
The two had been hiding here, at the border of the Land of Rivers and Land of Fire, for many days.
Originally, their mission was to wait for an opportunity to infiltrate the Land of Fire and create panic.
Or rather, engage in sabotage, arson, killing, and looting.
But neither Sasori nor Pakura had any intention of seriously executing this mission.
Sunagakure was currently engaged in "total guerrilla warfare." Not only were the people scattered like loose sand, but their hearts were too. The Third Kazekage's bizarre policies caused widespread complaints in Suna. Sasori and Pakura were among the few who realized the problem.
Both felt that if this continued, Suna would be ruined by the Third Kazekage.
However, they couldn't influence others for now. A large number of Suna ninja were still following orders, scattered along the long borders, waiting for chances to infiltrate and sabotage, engaging in a tug-of-war with the Cloud-Thunder Federation.
Sasori adjusted his puppet arm.
"Recently, there are a lot more Byakugan users at the border. I heard six or seven squads in the south were discovered by Byakugan and eliminated."
Pakura took a bite of the fruit Sasori brought. "In two more days, we'll return to the Land of Wind. We'll say we couldn't find an opportunity to infiltrate. Most importantly, we must find a way back to the village, meet Elders Chiyo and Ebizo, and persuade them to stop the Kazekage..."
For most Suna ninja, returning to the village was a luxury; orders forbade it!
This was why Suna's morale was wavering.
But the Third Kazekage didn't seem to care...
As they spoke, Sasori's expression suddenly changed.
"My puppet sentry was triggered!"
Pakura quickly finished the fruit in her hand.
However, before they could think of a countermeasure, a kunai with an explosive tag flew outside the cave.
BOOM!
With a violent explosion, Sasori and Pakura were forced to leap out of the cave.
Found our hiding spot so quickly? The opponent is an expert!
The two stood on the cliff face, chakra adhering to their feet.
Below, a tall ninja with green eyes laughed strangely. "The third-place winner of the Second Joint Chunin Exams, Suna's little genius, title: Sasori of the Red Sand... Bounty: 15 million ryo. And an extra surprise, Pakura of the Scorch Release, another Suna genius... Bounty: 10 million ryo. Hehehe, this old man's luck is pretty good."
Sasori looked at the newcomer gravely.
"Bounty hunter? A rogue ninja from Takigakure?"
Further away, more than ten kilometers out, several figures moved rapidly through the mountain ravines, approaching Sasori's location.
If one got closer, they would see that these people were all agile and wore Mahjong masks.