Yahiko had never imagined that a simple visit to Sunagakure would end with Rasa placing such a difficult dilemma in his hands. At that moment, the flaw in the idealism shared by Yahiko, Konan, and Nagato became painfully clear. Faced with a decision of enormous weight, none of them could abandon their emotions and ideals to make the most pragmatic choice in terms of benefit and consequence.
But it was hard to fault them for it. They were still young, and despite everything they had been through, they still carried within them a trace of hope, hope that the world could be changed without resorting to the same cycle of violence they had sworn to escape. Perhaps it would only be when Hanzō himself turned on them that they would truly awaken to how brutal the world could be.
Yahiko didn't remain in Sunagakure for long. After barely half a day, he quietly departed under the cover of night. Rasa wasn't offended. He calmly resumed his original agenda, pushing forward Sunagakure's development and attending to the issues related to the Four-Tails and the Six-Tails.
Time passed in silence.
Roughly a week later, Sunagakure began to recover from the devastation inflicted by the rampaging tailed beasts. Bit by bit, the village returned to normal. With the formal announcement of Sunagakure's Five-Year Development Plan, the atmosphere grew steadily more vibrant. If not for the still-visible cracks in buildings and the radically reshaped landscape encircling the village, one might never have guessed that just two weeks earlier, Sunagakure had teetered on the brink of destruction.
While Sunagakure pressed forward on its path of recovery and expansion, the machinery of fate across the shinobi world began turning in earnest.
The first tremor came from Kirigakure. Before Sunagakure even had the chance to settle its score with the Mist Village, news arrived that Kirigakure had already spiraled into chaos. Unlike Sunagakure, which openly embraced external alliances to fuel its development, Kirigakure had long adhered to a policy of rigid isolationism. As a result, information from the village was often tightly suppressed, but even so, Rasa received crucial updates through his ANBU agents embedded in the Land of Water.
One such report claimed that the Third Mizukage had suddenly committed suicide.
For a Kage, a figure of immense strength and authority, to take his own life seemed improbable. In fact, that wasn't what happened. Though no definitive intelligence confirmed it, ANBU operatives in Kirigakure discovered that on the night news of the Six-Tails' appearance in Sunagakure reached them, a rebellion ignited within the Hidden Mist.
At the center of the uprising was the Hōzuki clan.
On the third day of the revolt, the Third Mizukage was found dead, officially ruled a suicide. Taking his place was a shinobi named Yagura, who was swiftly declared the Fourth Mizukage. It was clearly a compromise between various powerful factions. For example, Mangetsu Hōzuki, a prodigious shinobi from the Hōzuki clan, was named the new leader of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Once a squad personally formed and led by the Third Mizukage, the group was now under Mangetsu's control. He not only wielded the powerful twin swords Hiramekarei but was also granted command over all seven of the legendary blades.
Next came news from Konohagakure. Just three days ago, the Hidden Leaf held a grand inauguration ceremony for its Fourth Hokage. Minato Namikaze, who had risen to fame as a hero during the last Great Ninja War, received formal recognition from the Fire Daimyō and officially took up the mantle of Hokage, inheriting the position from Hiruzen Sarutobi.
Then there was Iwagakure and Kumogakure. Upon learning of the tailed beast crisis that had rocked Sunagakure, it was Iwagakure who acted first. They immediately recalled all shinobi stationed outside their borders, including those operating within Konohagakure, and publicly declared that they were closing their borders and withdrawing from all ongoing conflicts.
Anyone with a discerning eye could immediately understand the reason behind these shifts. Iwagakure feared Sunagakure's retaliation. A village that had stood its ground against three tailed beasts without external aid, such strength was something Iwagakure no longer had the power to challenge. The show of force was enough to shake their confidence, and so they chose to retreat.
Following Iwagakure's withdrawal, Kumogakure acted quickly, also recalling its shinobi from foreign deployments. However, unlike Iwagakure, Kumogakure did not shut its borders completely. Instead, they adopted a cautious wait-and-see stance toward global affairs. This was largely because Kumogakure had suffered minimal damage in the recent chaos and still retained enough strength to take part in conflict if the situation demanded it.
And just like that, the shinobi world slipped once again into an eerie silence.
No one could count how many times this cycle had repeated, brief moments of calm, always preceded by catastrophe and followed inevitably by more war. But this time, there was one thing everyone could agree on. This current peace had been made possible by the Kazekage of Sunagakure.
It was his unmatched strength and strategic brilliance that had, for the moment, stabilized the entire shinobi world. A feat so great that only mythical figures like the God of Shinobi, Hashirama Senju, or the Demon of the Shinobi World, Madara Uchiha, had ever achieved anything comparable.
And now, with Sunagakure announcing its massive Five-Year Development Plan, particularly the ambitious excavation of a canal linking Sunagakure to the sea and to the Land of Demons, the attention of the entire shinobi world had shifted toward the desert village.
Ordinary civilians might not have grasped the significance of it all. But shrewd merchants were already moving in anticipation, their eyes fixed on a future overflowing with profit. They saw three key reasons for Sunagakure's potential.
First, with such a powerful Kazekage at the helm, long-term peace and security in the Land of Wind were practically guaranteed.
Second, unlike other hidden villages that remained closed-off or overly cautious, Sunagakure welcomed outsiders and fostered a highly favorable environment for trade and business.
And third, prosperity was no longer a vague dream, it was reality. In just the past year alone, numerous merchants had made fortunes by doing business in Sunagakure.
The only thing that had ever limited the village's growth was the harsh desert terrain that acted as a natural barrier. But now, with the canal officially approved as part of the Five-Year Plan, that final obstacle was about to be swept away.
Across the continent, caravans were already being assembled. Warehouses were being stocked to capacity. Everyone was waiting for the canal to open, ready to flood the Land of Wind with commerce.
Meanwhile, within Sunagakure itself, the route of the canal had been finalized after a week of intense planning and engineering surveys. It would be called the River of Flowing Sand, Ryūsa-gawa. Construction began immediately.
As for the lake from which the river would begin and into which it would feed, the village had named it Lake Reto, in honor of Reto, the First Kazekage. It was a gesture wrapped in national pride and symbolism, a tribute to the village's origins as it charged toward a new future.
Since this project was deeply tied to Sunagakure's destiny, the village treated it with the highest level of importance. Ceremonies had been planned in meticulous detail. And so, at dawn, the edge of the massive pit, now transformed into a basin lined with reinforced earthen walls and steel railings, was teeming with people.
Not just Sunagakure residents, but merchants and nobles from every corner of the continent had made their way here to witness what many expected to be a miracle.
The village had made a stunning announcement: the River of Flowing Sand would be completed within a single month.
To many, that seemed completely impossible through normal means.
But according to the official announcement, the river would consist of two major branches. One branch would stretch west across the Land of Wind and connect Sunagakure directly to the sea. The second would run southeast through both the Land of Wind and the Land of Demons, creating a direct inland route into the latter's heartland.
Construction would begin with the western branch.
Thanks to the sparse population and lack of mountains along the planned path, there were no major relocation or demolition obstacles. Still, the distance alone was staggering, the first branch would extend over 1300 kilometers. That meant Sunagakure would need to deploy a large number of shinobi, including the Kazekage himself.
And this Kazekage, already hailed by many as a demigod, even referred to by some as a god, had become a symbol of awe throughout the shinobi world. Not everyone had seen his power firsthand, but those who had would never pass up a second chance.
And so, beneath the crisp light of morning and the excited chatter of thousands, the work began.
"Sage Art: Limit Release, Wood Style: All Things Bloom Anew!"
"Earth Style: Willed Transformation!"