Chapter 280: Production Capacity
Yuji returned to his office and recorded the Seven Days Breathing Method into a scroll.
This body technique was fundamentally different from ninjutsu and could not be transcribed in the form of technique notation. It could only describe in careful detail the training method for each stage. Personal instruction was still the ideal approach.
After finishing, Yuji sent someone to file the scroll in the archives.
Then he stood at the office window and looked out at the scene of the village’s thriving activity.
The Sand Village’s main streets were packed with people. Even the smaller side streets showed busy crowds moving through them.
With all the major hidden villages having fully opened their borders, and with the enormous investment poured into rebuilding the Sand Village, it had genuinely become worthy of being called the foremost hidden village. Of course, this was not a claim about combat strength but about economics. In terms of village scale, architectural quality and planning, and welfare systems, it stood at the top of all the hidden villages.
Because of this it had also become the model that many other large and small hidden villages were studying and imitating. Konoha, the Hidden Stone Village, and the Hidden Mist Village were all carefully examining the Sand Village’s reform policies and incorporating them into their own reconstruction systems, including the healthcare coverage framework Yuji had introduced, retirement provisions, labor dispatch regulations, and newborn child subsidies.
These reforms were not entirely unprecedented in the other major villages, but none had been developed with the same degree of detail.
The Sand Village was increasingly beginning to resemble what Konoha had once looked like at its height, and had become the leading target that other forces competed to emulate.
"The Konoha genin cohort has all been born," Yuji murmured to himself.
Naruto and Hinata had both been born.
On the Sand Village’s side, Ayame had given birth to Karin.
The children and young ones brought to the village years earlier were all beginning to grow.
"Going forward, as long as I do not proactively push the ninja world’s situation toward conflict, for at least the next ten years the Fourth Great Ninja War will not break out."
The thought passed through Yuji’s mind quietly.
The ninja world had suffered through war for too long.
This period of rest would be considerably longer than the interval between the Second and Third Great Ninja Wars. And for the moment there was no scent of gunpowder in the air. A latent equilibrium and balance had settled between all parties.
Uzumaki Naruto had not become a Jinchuriki. Minato and Kushina had not died. The Nine-Tails incident had not occurred.
What kind of future Konoha would have in this changed world was genuinely unknowable.
Naruto’s fate had changed. But Hinata’s fate, he suspected, would not see significant changes.
"In these ten years, there are many options for strengthening myself further. The dragon vein is one. Hashirama’s cells are another. There is also Nagato’s Rinnegan in my possession, and Obito’s spent Sharingan. All of these need to be absorbed and integrated somehow. On the system side, experience points will be harder to accumulate during the peace period."
"But fortunately this peace period is long enough. Sufficient time to find solutions, and enough time in the interim to refine my foundations. Chakra nature training, seal forming speed, Sealing Jutsu development, all of these still have room to improve."
Yuji turned these thoughts over quietly in his mind.
While thinking, something in his expression shifted slightly.
He turned around.
Black Zetsu had appeared, uninvited, having not been seen in quite some time.
"Progress report," Yuji said before it could speak.
"The pace is very slow. White Zetsu can be mass-produced by drawing on the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path’s power, but that requires experience I do not have compared to Madara or Obito in this area," Black Zetsu said.
It had been temporarily kept by Yuji at Madara’s former base.
Its assigned function was specifically to oversee the White Zetsu production work.
Yuji looked at it steadily.
The number of people within the village who knew about this arrangement, himself included, was only three.
This was also what Yuji considered Black Zetsu’s remaining value.
Watching over the White Zetsu bodies and keeping them from moving or acting without authorization.
This was also one of Yuji’s reserved cards for handling the Fourth Great Ninja War when it eventually came.
"How slow exactly?" Yuji asked.
Black Zetsu provided a number.
Yuji heard it and said nothing for a moment.
At that rate, when the Fourth Great Ninja War eventually broke out, the Sand Village would have no way of possessing the hundred thousand White Zetsu that had existed in the original story. The realistic number would be closer to fifty thousand.
That said, even at that scale, White Zetsu on an actual Great Ninja War battlefield functioned more like cannon fodder than elite combatants. But pure human wave tactics were sufficient to tie down an opponent’s energy and time.
"When the next Great Ninja War comes, how do you expect it to unfold?" Black Zetsu understood the role of these White Zetsu bodies clearly. Seeing Yuji fall into contemplation, it carefully ventured the question.
The Sand Village today was incomparable to what it had once been. It had embarked on a long-term plan to transform the Land of Wind’s environment and had seized the Land of Rain. Yuji had risen from a minor figure within the Sand Village to where he stood today, and from any outside observer’s perspective, every step he had taken was filled with ambition.
Black Zetsu believed the same.
And it understood this Fourth Kazekage better than any outsider could.
This person, like itself, had survived across many years. Neither of them quite belonged to this ninja world as native members. A figure of this kind would never be content remaining merely a Kazekage. At minimum the goal had to be unifying the ninja world.
In Black Zetsu’s assessment, the Sand Village already had enough strength to reshape the ninja world’s structure. Yuji simply did not appear to be in any hurry to do so.
He was preparing slowly and methodically.
Once the preliminary work was complete, the ninja world would face a dramatic upheaval. And the Fourth Great Ninja War, like the Third before it, would almost certainly have the Sand Village as its detonator. Continued seizure of other countries, or a direct declaration of war against the other hidden villages, both were possible.
"There is no rush," Yuji said, returning to himself with a quiet smile.
"Do not worry. Complete the work assigned to you. As long as you help me achieve my goals, I will help you resurrect Kaguya."
Black Zetsu said nothing.
"Have all the White Zetsu bodies currently active throughout the ninja world return to base for now. We do not need them collecting intelligence at this stage. It would risk exposure. If I need them, I will tell you directly."
"Understood," Black Zetsu replied.
"Will it be much longer?" it asked before leaving.
"You have already waited over a thousand years. Can you not wait a little longer?" Yuji glanced at it.
Black Zetsu heard this, accepted it without argument, and departed.
After it had gone, Yuji’s eyes went cold.
From the moment he had brought Black Zetsu under his command, the creature had maintained a fearful deference toward him on the surface, but in every conversation it was continuously probing, trying to read his intentions and plans. Trying to understand what he was actually thinking.
Yuji had never once given it a direct answer.
Black Zetsu believed the Fourth Great Ninja War would be orchestrated by Yuji, that it would see him play the role of a new Madara. But in truth, Yuji felt that he did not need to lift a finger for the Fourth Great Ninja War to break out.
Looking at the whole of ninja world history, war had always been the central constant. When a period of peace stretched too long, someone would inevitably grow restless. Furthermore, as time continued passing and the Sand Village only grew stronger, when it reached a certain level of development the balance among the Five Great Hidden Villages would naturally collapse on its own.
When that happened, war would follow as naturally as water flowing downhill.
"After some more time has passed, I will simply eliminate this traitor. Avoid any further variables it might introduce," Yuji thought briefly.
He was referring, naturally, to Black Zetsu.
The White Zetsu production rate being below projections was clearly a small scheme of Black Zetsu’s making. The creature appeared completely obedient on the surface, but who knew what kind of devious intentions it was quietly nursing behind the scenes.
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