Chapter 54: The Real Hidden Sand Village
Soon.
The vehicle had already driven dozens of kilometers away from the service area.
Yakushi Nonō sat in the car, looking out through the window.
Rolling hills stretched as far as the eye could see.
Shukaku Grand Road stood amidst this endless sea of sand.
It appeared spectacular yet lonely.
Before long, Yakushi Nonou withdrew her gaze.
There was nothing left to see; the scenery was all identical.
Just as Yakushi Nonō was thinking about how to safely go undercover in the Hidden Sand Village...
A series of clashing sounds from hand seals being formed came from up ahead.
Yakushi Nonō suddenly looked up, a reflex born of her alertness as a Ninja.
She saw the Hidden Sand Village Ninja in front of the bus forming seals rapidly, his hands even starting to smoke.
Then, with a shout of 'Release!', a giant milky-white light barrier suddenly appeared on the road ahead.
Its left and right ends were distributed on both sides of the road, each extending outward for a kilometer.
The top was half a meter from the ground, the whole thing taking on an oval shape.
And Shukaku Grand Road was right in the middle of this oval.
As the bus passed through the barrier, creating a ripple, Yakushi Nonō's vision first went white, then the scenery became completely different.
While she was still in shock...
The exclamations from the back row startled Yakushi Nonō.
"Wow! Is this still Hidden Sand Village? Where have I been taken?"
"Haha, everyone, don't be nervous."
"Now, let me welcome you all once again."
"Welcome! To the real Hidden Sand Village!"
Looking out, where was there any yellow sand below the road now?
There was only an underground lake surging below.
The hundred-meter-wide lake stretched along the road, surrounded by grasslands, forests, and dense greenhouses, with unknown contents inside.
In the distance, a group of Ninjas were planting trees.
Among them, a red-haired youth was flying in the air. With a wave of his hand, a large mass of water was drawn up from the lake, and then with a flick, the water fell to the ground like rain.
Further away, at the edge of the barrier, another group of red-haired Ninjas were setting something up.
"This... this is the Hidden Sand Village?! To think... to think..."
"Then why has no intelligence ever leaked out?"
"That's because they have never seen the real Hidden Sand Village!"
Before Yakushi Nonō could figure out the key to it, the Hidden Sand Village Ninja responsible for protecting her beside her had already answered the question for her.
"What do you mean?!"
"It's simple. What the Hidden Sand Village lets everyone see is only what they want everyone to see.
The barrier you just passed through is a large-scale Genjutsu Barrier.
Only by riding in a special Hidden Sand Village vehicle and using a specific seal-forming method inside the vehicle can the real situation within the barrier be seen. Missing even one step would make it impossible to see."
"Eh!!! A barrier! You're saying such a huge light dome is a barrier!"
Before Yakushi Nonō could react, the Ninjas from various Ninja Clan sitting in the back rows had already started exclaiming.
"You've got to be kidding. How much does it cost to maintain such a large barrier for a year!"
"Hahaha, not much, not much, just over two hundred million. It's pocket change!"
"Over two hundred million!"
Seemingly enjoying the feeling of showing off, the Ninja sitting next to Yakushi Nonō became even more talkative.
"That's nothing! Do you know how much net profit the Trade City in the Land of Rain and Shukakus Strongest Service Area bring to the Hidden Sand Village every year?"
"How much!"
This time, Yakushi Nonō was the first to ask.
After all, this was important intelligence, but she hadn't expected it to be so easy to overhear.
"Supposedly over three billion!"
"What! How could there be so much!"
"Why wouldn't there be? From food to clothes—do you know how large the population of the Land of Wind alone is? How many people are in the Five Great Nations? How many in all those small nations? Just from the small countries north of the Land of Wind and west of the Land of Earth, the Hidden Sand Village makes hundreds of millions just from selling food every year!
And that's not even counting the weapons manufactured by the Hidden Sand Village. In the Land of Rain's Trade City now, how many merchants have come from the Land of Artisans? The weapons you buy from the Land of Artisans now are all wholesale from the Trade City by the Land of Artisans, and then they put their own label on them.
The reason? It's because the Hidden Sand Village relied on Puppet Technique to create machines capable of mass-producing Ninja Tools. High efficiency, good quality, and the price is cheaper than the Land of Artisans.
The Land of Artisans has now become a dumping ground for the Hidden Sand Village's weapons, and some powerful master weapon smiths have long since moved to the Hidden Sand Village."
"Eh! It can actually be like that? I was wondering why the quality of Ninja Tools bought from the Land of Artisans lately had improved, and even the weight was consistent. So that's the reason."
"Of course! Look who's in charge of the Hidden Sand Village now! Under the leadership of the Kazekage, the original mud houses have turned into reinforced concrete buildings, the barren yellow mountains have become green, the water that used to be rationed can now be drunk freely, children can go to school for free, and there are subsidies for medical care..."
That Ninja talked for a long time, and everyone listened quietly for just as long. Everyone was yearning for such a life.
Including Yakushi Nonō.
[If... if only Konoha were like this too, how wonderful that would be!]
"Anyway, life is getting more and more prestigious. You guys joining Hidden Sand Village now have really caught a good time!"
"Then how does Hidden Sand Village ensure that intelligence doesn't leak out?"
After the Sand Ninja finished speaking, Yakushi Nonō asked a very important question. Every Ninja village has spies from other villages lurking within. With such a massive change in the Hidden Sand Village, how is it that not a single spy has sent out any intelligence until now?
"That... I don't know about that..."
---
Inside the Tsuchikage's office.
Onoki, in his prime, was currently reviewing the official business of the Hidden Stone Village.
At this moment, Kitsuchi walked in.
"Fa... Lord Tsuchikage, this is intelligence sent by the spies in the Hidden Sand Village..."
"Does it say that everything has been normal in the Hidden Sand Village recently? Because the Daimyo of the Land of Wind cut off all their supplies, the Ninjas have no source of income. Although there are the two major income sources of the Trade City and the service station, they are mostly used to issue missions to subsidize the Ninjas themselves, so the Hidden Sand Village is still in its previous state, lacking water and food."
"Lord Tsuchikage is truly amazing! Not a single word is different!"
"Haha! Is that because I'm amazing? It's because the damn intelligence sent over these years has been exactly the same! Not even a punctuation mark has changed!"
"The food from the Land of Rain's Trade City is being sold like crazy; even the Land of Fire doesn't sell it as cheaply as they do. Is that lacking food?!
And as for issuing missions to subsidize Ninjas, is that for their own Ninjas?! Look at my desk, it's full of missions commissioned by the Hidden Sand Village!"
"Look here, escort missions for the Land of Waterfalls, the Land of Bears, and also the Land of Stone, the Land of Stars, the Land of Earth, and even the neighboring Land of Birds!"
"Tell the Intelligence Department there's no need to arrange more spies in the Hidden Sand Village. They must have a special method for identifying spies. No matter how many we send, it's useless."
"Then Lord Tsuchikage, shall we stop investigating the Hidden Sand Village?"
"You go down first, let me think about it..."
"..."
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