Sunagakure saw an unprecedented pace of improvement in their quality of lifestyle. The problem with water that has been plaguing Sunagakure ever since its establishment was solved even before the treaty with Konohagakure was signed, and niether is the fifth Kazekage inagurated. The electricity fee was reduced to half of the original rate. This is mainly from desalination facilities (a project made possible through Yggdrasil) in the bay area near the Land of Ships while the electricity is simply just offered by the provider (which is also the Kazekage) at production cost.
Fresh food produce such as fruits, meats, veggies, as well as processed foods like cheese, milk, dried fish etc are now available and are also made affordable to the common people. Thanks to the teleportation seal made with reference to the 'flying raijin' the transportation cost for all these produce from farm to market had zero lag time.
The most advanced tech in the market also became a special avenue to spend money on in Suna. The introduction of the internet and smartphones is slowly being spread to the greater masses. There are oppositions here and there at the beginning due to the strategic value of such advanced technology just to be made available to civilians but they became silent when the Kazekage showed them how to properly spy by spreading these advanced technologies everywhere.
The military of Sunagakure was also bolstered with the introduction of chakra guns. Although the said guns are less versatile compared to nifty tools such as kunai or shuriken, these guns have more powerful output and are easier to master than bladed tools. This is not to say that the use of bladed tools has been discarded, in fact one of the major basis of rank in the new millitary is still based on how much one has progressed in their training of the eight gates and body activation jutsu.
Many people in the army are cautious of this combination because it gave them incredible physical prowess in a short amount of time, the technique is not without repercussions. The payment for the fast progress is a shorter lifespan due to the body's cellular replication also known as 'cell replication limit' in this world. (Hayflick limit) This however did not mean that there are no one who trained in the techniques like madmen in order to accomplish something that they have been keeping in their hearts for a very long time.
These people who had grudges against others or those who had vengeance to claim became simly unstoppable monsters who tore their enemies limb from limb while tears of utter madness flowed down their cheeks. Most of the crimes are against the scum of society so the Kazekage turned a blind eye to these and they are let off with light punishments and a strict warning. Those that are made on a whim are prevented through the cursed mark that one recieves upon admission into the army.
These marks are basically Yggdrasil's membership marks but in order to keep things a secret the mark was altered in its outside form. From the tree marking of Yggdrasil, Sunagakure had the word LOVE in kanji as its outside form. Of course the Fifth Kazekage having a similar mark on his left forehead made it so that the shinobi of Sunagakure not only willing to wear it but also proud of their mark. Some even immitated the Kazekage and put their marks on their left forehead.
Aside from the standardized gun, the chakra armor has also been made available to chunin rank shinobi and onwards. Each rank have a drastic increase in specs and aesthetic presentation. The chunin level chakra armor has the chakra absorpsion ability and chakra barrier capabilities while the armor looked like a cyberpunk snake eyes. It also is equipped with the helmet of the same theme which features AI assistance, communication, record, air filtration, gill function, heat vision, infrared vision, and many others.
Of course these are not given for free and one either had to have enough merit to exchange for it or directly just pay for it if they had the money to spare. The higher the specs also meant an increase in price, this is also true for everything in the world. You get what you pay for.
The establishment of General Temari's Air Force, Kankuro's Infantry, and Zabuza's Navy has been the greatest accomplishment in Gaara's first year in the seat of Kazekage. Although these units are trained with utmost secrecy and attention some news still spread into the other great nations who mostly disregarded it as groundless rumors spread around by the young Kazekage in order to build a better public image. They sent people to investigate but didn't really care if these canon fodders returned or not from these 'silly' missions.
Sunagakure at the moment has a total of 16,969 capable soldiers. Two thousand five hundred forty five(2,545) of which are jonin, two thousand six hundred (2,600) are special jonin, seven thousand six hundred thirty six (7,636) are chunin, and the rest are genin. This number is still low compared to those of the other village but by ensuring the quality of their shinobi did not drop, the army of Sunagakure can go toe to toe and even trump against these major villages.
In terms of influence Sunagakure has grown considerably stronger by a huge margin due to Yggdrasil's grasp on the economy of many surrounding villages. Tanigakure is one of the very first to fall in the hands of Yggdrasil. This is followed by Ishigakure, Jomae village, and most recently Amegakure. Although this influence is largely economic in nature, it is not something that could easily underestimated because this directly held the interest of these villages.
It did not end there as Yggdrasil has already started to expand into the major villages of the shinobi world. This caused the spotlight to be cast on this tech giant that is assumed to be based near the Amegakure-Sunagakure border. The area is also known as the place where the ruins of the ancient city of Roran used to lie.
This speculation, which isn't entirely wrong is in fact the reason why the spread of Yggdrasil was slightly stunted in the past. Iwagakure and Konoha feared that the one behind this tech giant is in fact Sunagakure and had some reservations towards its entry to their markets. This however could not stand, because when the people saw how the many home appliances and various gizmos improved the lifestyle of their neighbor they grew envious and wanted those for themselves. When the requests came in droves the ruling parties had to reconsider and even relent to the populance while posing strict regulations and technogy assessment on said company's operations and products.
Yggdrasil simply waved it off as trivial matter. Not like the monkeys of Konoha can figure out and reverse engineer their core technologies in the next few decades, and even if they did manage to figure out then so what? While these monkeys are playing puppet to Madara's arrangements Yggdrasil is already preparing to launch off-planet operations in the next three years, the development of supercomputers hastened the completion of the many projects Yggdrasil had for the Shinobi World.
As the first step of artificial satelites are already realized, the next step is now aimed at the moon where Hagoromo Otsutsuki's brother Hamura stationed himself as the leader of the dying (if not dead) clan after sealing their mother. Since the said clan is already considering the mutual destruction of the world and the moon, Gaara did not see any need for them to exist any longer than necessary. Now that he had chakra infusion in addition to the kinjutsus he chanced upon in a fortuitious encounter (stole) then he believed its just a matter of time before the moonbase became a reality.