Chapter 383: Administrative Reform
"What kind of rice is this? It smells wonderful!"
In the Yotsuki Clan grounds, Natsu looked curiously at the crystal-clear Spirit Rice on the dining table.
Dana personally served Natsu a bowl. "Spirit Rice. It's a nourishing food we developed a while back. It's the reason I recovered so quickly after the battle. From now on, this will be the primary staple for you, Mother, and the Old Man."
Natsu couldn't wait to take a bite. The rice was sweet and fragrant, causing her eyes to crinkle into happy crescents. Nearby, Momo watched, practically drooling.
Satomi also praised it highly after her first taste.
Dana ate a small bowl himself but switched to ordinary rice afterward. For someone with his current physical power, Spirit Rice was more of a luxury for the palate than a necessity; given his massive appetite, eating it in bulk was simply impractical.
It was a rare chance to eat at home, and Dana spent as much time as he could with his family, but he still had to return to the Cloud Spire by nightfall.
Currently, all three men of the Yotsuki household—the Third Raikage, Arashi, and Dana—were perpetually busy. The Third Raikage didn't even have time to come home for dinner; his portion of Spirit Rice was delivered directly to his office in the Spire.
Arashi was in an even more miserable state, rarely even stepping out of his office.
However, the women of the household were incredibly supportive. Everyone knew that the ninja world was on the cusp of a transformation unseen in a thousand years. This was the critical hour.
Seeing Dana hesitate to leave, Satomi spoke up proactively. "If you're in a hurry, get back to the Spire. We have Natsu well-taken care of; there's no need to worry."
Natsu nodded with a blush. Her lower abdomen was beginning to swell slightly, though perhaps because she was naturally slender, the change was much less prominent than one might expect.
Dana smiled, bid his mother farewell, and flew directly toward the Cloud Spire.
A month had passed since the final battle. During this time, the Federation had been carefully controlling its pace, steadily advancing the "Great Unification" of the ninja world.
They were dealing with a living, breathing world, not just a set of symbols representing a few hidden villages. The sheer volume of work was staggering.
For example, by the Federation's standards, their original territory—consisting of the Lands of Lightning, Fire, Hot Water, and Rice—contained twenty-one large and medium-sized cities.
These cities were the vital nodes of the Federation's administrative power. Only by securing these urban centers could administrative influence radiate out to the surrounding towns and villages.
What did "securing" them mean?
Administrative rights, taxation rights, and ownership of natural resources had to be firmly grasped. Only then could they begin the long process of building a sense of shared identity and establishing government credibility.
The first to complete this transition was, naturally, the Land of Lightning. Dana had begun this work back when he was still Prince Thunder; by now, the country was a solid, monolithic block where administrative power reached every citizen.
The Land of Hot Water, which had been tied to the Cloud for years, was the second to finish. Of course, it only possessed three major cities to begin with.
The Land of Fire and the Land of Rice Fields lagged behind. In the year surrounding the Federation's founding, they hadn't fully completed the transition. While the major cities were under control, a large number of remote villages and towns had yet to be truly integrated into the system.
Geographically, they were within the Federation's borders, but mentally, they hadn't transitioned. They still managed themselves as they always had.
The Land of Fire had already seen two minor insurrections in remote villages. These hamlets had been founded a century ago by people fleeing noble taxes, settling in "no-man's-land" buffer zones. After the Land of Fire joined the Federation, these villages refused to submit to oversight—even nominally. Small riots ensued.
Of course, against ninja, such things were a joke and were resolved in minutes.
But it highlighted a harsh truth: the unification of the ninja world wasn't an achievement unlocked simply by winning a war. The logistical "tail" of the conflict was massive.
Now that Iwagakure and Sunagakure had surrendered, and the Land of Water and Land of Rain had joined, there were no more military obstacles. But how many cities did the Federation now have to govern?
Sixty-two.
The number had tripled overnight.
The three great nations—Earth, Wind, and Water—plus the nearly ten smaller nations from the former Anti-Cloud Alliance all brought their own baggage.
The number of small towns and villages was now beyond counting.
This placed a crushing burden on the Federation's already thin human resources.
"Even if we have to grit our teeth and push through the exhaustion, we must prioritize city control," Dana muttered to his staff. "If the high ground of public authority remains vacant for too long, it will breed a thousand troubles. We would have to pay a hundred times the price to reclaim order later."
With the Daimyos of the old world now "residing in the deep sea" (dead), many cities were either being run by local nobles or descending into lawlessness. The Federation had to move with the force of thunder to take over, or the lingering poison of the old era would never fade.
"Continue using the Lightning Country protocol. Deploy the Class A through D personnel triage system immediately. Once a city is cleared and categorized, send in a management team. We need this finished within two months."
A subordinate spoke up hesitantly. "Dana-sama... even with that, our manpower is nowhere near sufficient."
Dana pondered for a moment. "We'll have to activate some of the reserves. Forget it, I'll handle it myself. Summon Minato Namikaze and the two Konoha Elders to meet me tomorrow."
"Yes, sir!"
It was now deep into the night, yet the Administrative Headquarters within the Cloud Spire remained brightly lit.
Dana performed a brief burst of self-electrotherapy to sharpen his focus. He had a massive headache.
The manpower gap had appeared the moment they took over the Land of Lightning. Dana and the Third Raikage had the foresight to initiate educational reforms, building a vast number of Ninja Academies in hopes of a future population explosion of shinobi.
However, the world was unpredictable. The children couldn't grow fast enough to match the Federation's runaway expansion. Over the past few years, they had only produced a few batches of Genin, none of whom were old enough to handle administrative management.
Skills aside, an official needed to at least be an adult.
The reason for this gap, besides the speed of growth, was a fundamental Federation policy: only ninja were employed in government.
Yes, even the paper-pushers in the Cloud Spire were ninja.
General positions didn't care if you were a Genin or a Jonin, but a ninja license was a prerequisite for employment.
Because the Federation was born from a hidden village, its core personnel were naturally shinobi. In the ninja world, the only people with a formal education were either ninja or nobles. Dana certainly wasn't going to hire the old nobility.
The civilization of this world was inextricably tied to chakra—to supernatural power. Chakra was the science of this world, its natural law, and its foundation. Whether it was farming or building roads, every post in the Federation required chakra.
Bringing in non-ninja would create a divide in the system, leading to class friction and a conflict of interests.
Dana's only option was to find ways to give more people the opportunity and the desire to become ninja.
It was like any ruler's logic: you find ways to send people to school to reduce illiteracy; you don't hire the illiterate to run the country.
Thus, Dana decided to activate a large portion of the Konoha ninja.
As a "younger brother" force now thoroughly controlled by the Cloud on a structural level, the people of Konoha were relatively safe to use.
Dana planned to pull Lightning Country personnel out of non-critical positions and send them to key posts in the western cities of the continent—effectively promoting them. Then, he would take Konoha ninja and move them into the vacant roles in the Land of Lightning.
This would free up the necessary manpower while accelerating the cultural and social integration of the Federation.
Later, as the military reforms progressed, he would pull personnel from all the former villages, shuffle them, and redeploy them across the world.
Yes, while the Administrative Headquarters was working until their feet went numb, the Military Headquarters was not idling.
The very concept of a "Hidden Village" was about to undergo a world-shaking transformation.