"Hey, hey, Temari, are you alright? You've had a cold for a few days now."
"I'm fine. Cough, cough. It's strange, though. It seems like a lot of people in the village have colds lately. When I went to the hospital, I saw several others buying medicine for the same thing."
"Be careful. The temperature difference between day and night has been pretty big recently."
Temari and Kankuro were practicing at a training ground, but they had to stop because of Temari's sudden coughing fit.
Sunagakure had adopted Konoha's system, establishing medical ninja and a hospital, although their medical standards were not as advanced as Konoha's.
The Land of Wind was situated in a desert region. In the minds of ordinary people, deserts were always hot, with daytime temperatures soaring so high that a drop of water would evaporate before it even hit the ground.
In reality, it was hot during the day and cold at night. The temperature difference between morning and evening was immense, especially in winter, when it could be frighteningly extreme.
At first, Temari had just thought it was a cold. But when she went to the hospital, she realized that many people had recently come down with the same illness.
Still, she didn't think much of it, simply getting some medicine and leaving. Ninja had strong bodies and rarely got sick. Even if they did catch a cold, it was usually a mild case that would heal on its own with a little medicine.
But—
More and more people started getting sick. Finally, when the first ninja became critically ill, Sunagakure's doctors began to take the situation seriously.
"This is…?!"
Under a microscope, a medical ninja stared in shock. He was analyzing a blood sample taken from a deceased ninja, and the results were horrifying.
A type of nano-sized venomous insect, as small as a nanometer, was frantically multiplying inside the ninja's body, devouring his chakra, gnawing on his flesh and blood, and then reproducing further.
Conversely, while ordinary people were also infected, they lacked chakra. Without the energy source to allow the nano-insects to reproduce rapidly, they only experienced a persistent cold that developed into a fever. Their rate of death was actually slower than that of the ninja.
"Inform the Kazekage-sama. Something terrible has appeared in the village…" the doctor muttered to himself.
An Anbu was quickly dispatched to notify the Fourth Kazekage, who naturally convened a meeting with the village's major clans and elders.
"This is definitely not a naturally occurring venomous insect," Elder Chiyo stated with grim certainty.
"It somewhat resembles the insect-controlling clan of Konoha…" Chiyo's brother, Ebizo, said with a frown.
"The Aburame clan? But I've never heard of insects this small. The ones they've always controlled are of a normal size," the Fourth Kazekage said, frowning in confusion.
The Aburame clan were insect users, but for hundreds of years, the size of their insects had never changed much. They were all bugs, and none, big or small, were beyond the range of human perception. This was the first time they had ever seen insects of this nanoscopic size, smaller than an ant. How could they even be controlled?
"Whether they are from the Aburame clan or not, this is definitely man-made. It was specifically created to target ninja. As long as there is chakra, its reproduction rate is incredibly fast. Ordinary people, who lack chakra, die much more slowly…"
A doctor began to explain the characteristics of the insects to the Kazekage and the others. As the bugs devoured the ninja's chakra and multiplied, they also released a toxin.
What made the situation even more difficult was that these nano-insects were too small to be seen with the naked eye. By the time they were discovered, they had already spread throughout Sunagakure's large population. The water sources, the ground—everything was covered with a massive number of them.
Even more terrifying was the fact that these chakra-devouring insects could survive in the air for a long time. They could withstand the forty-degree Celsius heat of a Land of Wind day without dying, surviving for many days.
"Everyone, prepare for war. This must be the prelude to an attack from Konoha. These venomous insects must have been meticulously developed by Konoha's Aburame clan."
"But, the Land of Wind is nothing but sand. It's not worth Konoha launching a war over."
"It's been less than ten years of peace. Are we going to war again?"
"Who knows? Maybe they want to weaken our strength in advance."
"Alright, everyone." The Fourth Kazekage raised a hand to quiet the discussion. "First, contact Konoha and lodge a protest. Let's see their reaction. If it really is their doing…"
"Then we will have no choice but to declare war."
But with so many of their ninja infected with these parasites, could they even wage a war?
Elder Chiyo didn't know. But what she did know was that if they didn't find a way to solve this nano-insect plague quickly, Sunagakure's losses would be no less than those of a Great Ninja War.
"Sensei, is this my future master's wife?" little Kimimaro asked curiously.
"Don't talk nonsense. She's not even an adult yet. Sensei just rescued her," Uchiha Nagi said with a dark expression.
"But I'm not that young anymore. Otherwise, my daimyo father wouldn't be planning to marry me off," Yukihime said, biting her finger.
"Alright, enough nonsense. Let's go, before they lock down the city."
But then an awkward problem arose. Yukihime didn't know how to ride a horse, and as an ordinary person, her walking speed was slow.
So as not to slow them down, Uchiha Nagi had no choice but to resignedly carry her again. Once they were outside the daimyo's city, he put her down.
"Alright, tell me. How did you manage to evade my senses? I've already helped you escape. It's time for you to fulfill your promise."
"Uh, actually, I don't know either…" Yukihime said, scratching her head embarrassedly.
Seeing Uchiha Nagi's face grow darker by the second, she quickly continued, "But, it might be because I read the Buddhist sutras so often…"
"I read in the history books that the land of the Land of Wind wasn't always a desert. It used to be a forest as lush as the Land of Fire. But then, I think because of a great tree, the land's energy was exhausted, and it turned into a desert."
"The land was devastated, and natural and man-made disasters were constant. There was a religion called Ninshu that constantly guided the people, saving them from their suffering. They left behind a large number of scriptures."
"Later, as time went on, all the small and large countries were wiped out by desertification, and eventually, it became the Land of Wind. Because my father is the daimyo of the Land of Wind, my family has preserved some of these records for generations. Plus, I like to read whenever I have free time."
At this, Yukihime bit her index finger and blinked at Uchiha Nagi.
"I think it's because of those scriptures."
Uchiha Nagi was stunned for a moment. What Yukihime had just said was—
Scriptures left behind by Ninshu…
As for what she had said, Nagi combined it with the memories from his previous life and roughly understood. The reason for the vast desertification of the Land of Wind was that the land's energy had been drained by the God Tree.