After acquiring a small sample of the Loran queen's flesh and blood, Yuji returned directly to the village.
He personally performed the transplant, integrating the sample into his own body.
There was a degree of rejection response, but given his Blood Release's control over his own blood and cellular systems, he was confident he could absorb and fully integrate this bloodline's genetic properties.
The only requirement was time within his body to cultivate the integration naturally. The longer the process ran, the purer the Loran bloodline would become within him.
The reason the transplant was this manageable was that the Loran queen's cells were nowhere near as overwhelming as Hashirama's cells. Their power was comparatively gentle and balanced. By contrast, Yuji's own cellular activity was sufficiently robust that his body could serve as a suitable medium, allowing the transplanted cells to adapt and develop alongside his existing biology without conflict.
He could regulate his own cellular activity carefully enough to prevent the transplanted Loran queen cells from being overwhelmed or rejected. Anyone else attempting this without his particular capabilities would never have dared do something so casual with their own body.
Following the transplant, Yuji could already sense a subtle change. The most noticeable effect was a modest growth in his Yin Release strength and a slight elevation in his eye technique's overall depth.
Whether he would eventually be able to guide the dragon vein's power directly would depend on how thoroughly the transplanted cells integrated with his own biology over time.
As for the temporal journey itself, it had not created any meaningful disruptions to the timeline. In theory, the Loran queen's descendants still lived somewhere within the Land of Wind's borders, and if the Sand Village made a deliberate effort to find them, they almost certainly could. But since the dragon vein remained sealed, those descendants' connection to its power would be far weaker than the queen's had been in her own time.
The Sand Village. The Kazekage building.
Sasori and Rasa had returned from the Land of Rain. Shira had remained behind to garrison the second hidden village.
The situation throughout the Land of Rain was firmly under the Sand Village's control. Going forward, sustained military presence would be enough to suppress any local factions that raised their heads, until no force within the Land of Rain's borders dared to stand against the Sand Village any longer.
The reconstruction of the second hidden village had already been completed some time ago.
Today's meeting therefore had only one subject.
The inventory and development of the Land of Rain's resources.
"All mineral deposits within the Land of Rain's borders have been surveyed and assessed. The total quantities are considerable. We can begin extraction operations now."
"Beyond that, there are substantial forestry resources that we can also process and utilize."
"Additionally, since the Hidden Stone Village has been monopolizing a large portion of the medicinal herb raw material market, we can establish herb cultivation fields and open farmland in the Land of Rain. The environmental conditions there are significantly more suitable for this than the Land of Wind."
The assembled figures went through the discussion one after another, each contributing their analysis as they began allocating the Land of Rain's resource development priorities.
"There is one pressing problem," someone noted. "The Land of Rain's population is extremely sparse. Years of continuous warfare, combined with the intensity of our military campaign and pacification efforts, resulted in very significant casualties. Finding sufficient base-level labor for extraction operations will be difficult."
"We cleared the Land of Rain's internal chaos, but many of the local people still regard us with hostility. In their eyes we are simply an occupying force, and that perception will not change easily in the short term. Hiring them for labor will not be straightforward."
Yuji finally spoke.
"They are not wrong. We are the occupiers."
He acknowledged the label directly and without hesitation.
He tapped the table with his fingers.
"Looking at the Sand Village's current population growth rate, the number of people in the village will be considerably larger in the future. The second hidden village's purpose is precisely to absorb a portion of that population pressure and serve as an economic relay point. As for the resource extraction work in the Land of Rain going forward, that will have to be handled by our own people."
"The Great Ninja War has ended. What follows will be a period of peace. Therefore, all of the village's ninja will temporarily transition to a combined industrial and agricultural role. Defense industry integration means mining operations need workers, timber needs to be harvested, and agriculture, fisheries, and animal husbandry all need to be developed and maintained. All of these things will need to be done."
"Beyond the standard resource extraction, development has two priority focuses."
Yuji extended two fingers as he spoke.
"The first is using the Land of Rain's climate conditions to improve the Land of Wind's environment. The Land of Rain receives heavy rainfall year-round, and its freshwater resources are abundant. We need to find a way to channel that water into the Land of Wind through constructed waterways."
As he spoke, Baki had already hung a large map on the wall behind him.
Yuji stood and pointed to specific regions and mountain ranges marked on the map.
"The other aspect is breaking through the mountain barrier that separates the Land of Rain from the Land of Wind. Our two countries share a border, yet the climates are vastly different. A significant part of the reason is that the moisture within the Land of Rain cannot move into the Land of Wind because the mountain range cuts it off entirely."
"Compared to simple resource extraction, this is the true large-scale project that lies ahead."
"Only by opening passages through this mountain range can the Land of Wind's arid conditions begin to change meaningfully."
"The second development priority follows from the environmental changes and is the systematic management of desertification."
Yuji paused briefly.
"This is equally time-consuming and labor-intensive. The Land of Rain may now be part of our territory, but it still faces potential threats from its geographical position. Given that the entire ninja world currently views the Sand Village with criticism, and that once the other major hidden villages have recovered their strength a new Great Ninja War could begin at any time, we need to think carefully about priorities."
"Compared to simply extracting resources from the Land of Rain, the true purpose of seizing it was to give our own soil the capacity to sustain life, so that scarce resources would no longer remain the Land of Wind's fundamental weakness."
"Over these past years I have been consistently preparing plans in this direction. I have also identified methods for establishing vegetation in desert conditions, which requires not only climate changes but also ecological restoration and terrain modification working together."
"In theory, before the next Great Ninja War breaks out, the Sand Village must have produced meaningful results in changing the Land of Wind's environmental conditions."
"This is the real critical point. As long as the Land of Wind's environment changes, even if the Land of Rain were to be taken from us again someday, we would still have come out ahead."
"However," Shimizu said, looking at the map and noting where the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind actually shared a border, "simply opening the mountain passages in the Land of Rain and redirecting the moisture may not be enough to affect our entire country. The contact area between the Land of Rain and the Land of Wind is only a very small portion of our total territory."
He had a point. The Land of Wind's total land area was enormous. Relying on the Land of Rain alone would likely be insufficient to produce a comprehensive improvement.
"This is actually why we moved against the Land of Rain in the first place. Kill one to warn a hundred," Yuji said with a light smile.
"Beyond the Land of Rain, the countries neighboring the Land of Wind include the Land of Rivers and the Land of Birds among others. Their internal environments are considerably greener and more fertile. The reason their moisture never reaches the Land of Wind and we instead receive sandstorms is that the mountain ranges running through these countries have formed a natural barrier preventing external rainfall from moving into our territory."
"This has effectively made the Land of Wind into a basin, trapped and isolated from surrounding moisture."
"So going forward I will personally negotiate with these countries directly. We can offer resource exchanges, or simply pay them directly. What we need is to modify or remove the specific terrain obstacles that are blocking the climate. Given the example the Land of Rain has already set, I believe these countries will understand that compared to war or territorial loss, simply allowing us to make some terrain adjustments within their borders carries no meaningful practical harm to them."
"They will almost certainly agree."
"This can be approached as a strategic cooperation between nations at the country level."