Chapter 352: Agricultural Ninjutsu
Tsunade and Dan Kato stood blankly on the cliff, staring at Cloud City.
After almost five minutes, the Cloud ninja squad leader monitoring them said impatiently, "Are you planning to stare from here forever?"
Tsunade snapped back to reality, patted Dan's back, and said gently, "It is truly shocking. Let's go take a look."
The First Research Institute was in the mountains outside Cloud City, so they still had some distance to cover.
Arriving at the foot of Cloud City, Tsunade was even more amazed by its grandeur and magnificence.
Beside her, Dan remained expressionless, but his gaze never left the city for a second.
Broad, straight avenues bustled with traffic and people, yet everything was orderly.
Unlike Konoha, where wood was the primary material, the buildings here were reinforced concrete structures, looking quite modern.
Dan's red pupils darted around constantly, not missing a single detail.
"Although Granduncle said the outside world has changed greatly, I didn't expect the change to be this great..."
It was evening. Chakra streetlights lit up one by one, illuminating the entire Cloud Village. Passersby were already used to it.
Recently, these chakra streetlights had spread throughout Cloud City. Whether in commercial, residential, or park areas, streetlights guided the way at night. Only the density varied—commercial areas were as bright as day, while residential areas were dimmer to avoid disturbing sleep but still dispelled darkness for late returners.
Influenced by this, Cloud City residents' enthusiasm for nightlife increased significantly. Some shops extended their hours, and stores specifically open at night began to appear.
Gradually, the nickname "City That Never Sleeps" began to circulate.
Just walking down the main avenue took them a long time because there were too many curious things. The monitoring squad could only follow behind them patiently.
Tsunade didn't just sightsee; she chatted with Dan occasionally, trying to help him sort out his confused memories.
"Dan... do you remember Konoha also has a barbecue restaurant like this? Although not as big—it's run by the Akimichi clan. We went there before."
Dan turned a deaf ear.
Following the main avenue, they arrived at the foot of the "Will of the Cloud" statue. Tsunade marveled at the statue's height—more magnificent than the Hokage Monument. Obviously, carving a complete giant statue was harder than carving faces into a mountain.
"When you recover a bit more, we'll go back to Konoha. I heard it's been rebuilt well too. And returning to a familiar environment is better for sorting out your past memories."
Originally just habitual chatter, not expecting Dan to respond—since waking up, he had barely spoken a few sentences.
But Dan, who had been silent, reacted to this sentence.
He opened his mouth, speaking in a voice raspy and obscure from long disuse. "Tsu... Tsunade... let's stay here..."
Tsunade was naturally happy that Dan responded, but the content of his words troubled her.
She was completely unfamiliar with Cloud City and preferred to return to Konoha, which she knew better.
Seeming to sense Tsunade's hesitation, Dan spoke more fluently. "Anyway, we have no relatives in Konoha... Tsunade... let's start over here..."
This was probably the longest sentence he had spoken since waking up.
However, Tsunade looked at him with pity. "Dan, don't you remember? You still have a niece, Shizune. You used to cherish her very much..."
Dan clearly paused, falling silent for a moment before saying, "Oh... sorry... I forgot..."
Time flew by, and soon it was the end of March.
According to the planting time for early rice and spring wheat, it was time to reclaim the experimental fields.
This was a rare attempt in the ninja world—accurately speaking, the first attempt to combine ninjutsu and agriculture.
The entire plan was divided into two components. One was specifically responsible for developing "agricultural ninjutsu," aiming to use minimal manpower and the simplest jutsu to replace the most time-consuming and arduous agricultural tasks.
This part was led by Tobirama Senju.
The other part focused on research into crop selection and breeding, striving to find high-yield, robust, and stable quality varieties.
This part was undertaken by the First Research Institute, led by Mamoru Anzai.
Mainly because Yoshitoki already had many projects on his hands, and Anzai had gained the ability to work independently.
By the way, at the beginning of the year, Anzai passed three rounds of review and seven rounds of willpower assessment, successfully obtaining the qualification to cultivate the modified Earth Grudge Fear.
From then on, the Federation gained another biological expert... or monster. Dana expressed mixed feelings—happy yet worried.
Others in the First Research Institute seemed encouraged and submitted applications to learn Earth Grudge Fear too, but Dana suppressed them.
Anzai's research ability was also very strong. After in-depth communication with Dana, he understood Dana's needs: Not to develop a bio-weapon plant that can move, hide, attack actively, and reproduce rapidly, but to find a food crop that grows fast, has high yield, can be planted on a large scale, and ideally resists pests, drought, and cold with stable genetics.
Anzai expressed disappointment but promised to work hard on it.
In the last few days of March, a large number of ninja arrived at a village outside Cloud City. The terrain here was flat, convenient for observation and reference, making it perfect for experimental fields.
More than half of the village's land was rented, while the remaining part was still cultivated by local farmers as a control group.
Yotsuki Dana, Tobirama Senju, and even the Third Raikage were present, showing how much importance the Cloud-Thunder Federation attached to this attempt.
The Third Raikage and Dana stood by the field, looking at the busy figures below. "So many people..."
"This is only because we need to record every step's reaction and data in detail. In actual practice, theoretically, a Genin squad could finish all the land in front of us in a day or two."
The Third Raikage looked at the vast fields ahead. Even if unfamiliar with agriculture, he could sense that cultivating these lands by conventional methods would definitely require massive manpower.
"Not bad... Combining ninjutsu and agriculture... Dana, you always have new ideas."
Dana smiled. "Actually, since handling the orphanage matters as a child, I knew that the number of people starving to death in the ninja world each year is probably far greater than those dying in ninja battles and wars."
Hearing this, Tobirama nearby couldn't help but glance sideways, sighing before flickering down to the fields to direct the work.
Dana and the Third Raikage sat on the high ground, where chairs and tea had been prepared.
A Grand General and a Consul chatted for a while about the recent situation of the Federation, eventually returning to the topic of the fields.
Dana sipped his tea and said, "Taking grain cultivation as an example, the vast majority of physical labor pressure is on sowing and harvesting. Other times aren't heavy, sometimes even idle. For instance, an adult man can only care for about ten mu of land because he can only handle ten mu during sowing and harvest seasons. But if sowing and harvesting are excluded, leaving him only daily care and monitoring, he can manage hundreds of mu. If handled by full-time ninja, one ninja can plant thousands of mu."
The Third Raikage asked, "Is the gap that big?"
Dana continued, "It is that big. That's why we can't farm ourselves for now; that would squeeze most farmers to death. About 70% of the Cloud-Thunder Federation's population relies on agriculture as their main source of income, supplemented by other things. So I rejected the First Research Institute's proposal to use chakra to ripen crops directly."
"My idea is to deploy ninja to various villages during the sowing and harvesting seasons each year, using ninjutsu to help them complete the sowing and harvesting work. This changes their role from 'farming' to 'tending' and 'watching' the fields, allowing them to cultivate more land. Of course, a fee will be charged formally, which can be offset by the coming year's harvest. Since we handle the harvest anyway... We'll specifically target poor villages with single income sources first to change their situation."
Actually, this situation was quite similar to some methods in Dana's past life, prioritizing the solution of the two most troublesome links: sowing and harvesting. The difference was that his past life took the path of mechanization, while the Cloud-Thunder Federation took the path of "ninjutsu-ization."
Ninja were equivalent to part-time agricultural machinery, just more flexible and efficient.
The Third Raikage pondered, "Wouldn't that require mobilizing a large number of ninja every sowing and harvesting season?"
Dana laughed. "They're just Genin and Chunin, after all. Our education system will produce a ninja explosion in a few years. These trained ninja need somewhere to go. This is just the current stage. Maybe in the future, as technology matures, there will be ninja specializing in agriculture, or even people learning ninjutsu specifically to farm... Haha."
As they chatted, Dana noticed Tobirama, who was instructing ninjutsu usage in the field, suddenly frowning and looking up in a certain direction.
Following Tobirama's gaze, Dana saw two people standing on a ridge between fields.
Tsunade and Dan Kato.
Dana's eyesight was excellent; he could see clearly from hundreds of meters away. Dan's red pupils, like Sharingan without tomoe, stared intently at the movements of the ninja in the field.
Not missing a single detail.
Dan seemed to sense Dana's gaze. Across hundreds of meters, he looked up at Dana.
Then, he smiled at Yotsuki Dana.