Spurred on by Teizawa's encouragement, the young shinobi clenched his teeth and spoke.
"Kazekage-sama, I have an idea…"
He was nervous.
With everyone looking at him, he could only steel himself and push on.
"Our Sand Village is desperately short on water… but in the southeast of the Land of Wind, there's an ocean."
"Could we find a way to bring some seawater over…"
As he spoke, he seemed to realize his topic sounded a little too wild.
He lowered his head, embarrassed.
Sure enough, the moment his words fell—
The entire hall burst into laughter.
"Hahaha! Seawater? Did water get into his brain?"
"Newborn calf isn't afraid of the tiger, huh. He'll say anything…"
Laughter rolled in like a tide.
The young shinobi's face burned red.
He wanted nothing more than to crawl into a crack in the floor.
It was over.
He thought bitterly.
It really was too absurd, too daydreamy…
"Enough."
A voice cut through.
Not heavy. Not angry. If anything, it was light.
But those two quiet words made the entire hall fall dead silent.
Everyone's hearts tightened.
Instinctively, they looked toward the figure at the center of the podium.
Teizawa stood there, expression blank.
No anger, no displeasure.
Not even deliberate intimidation…
And yet it was that gaze.
That made every person who'd been laughing drop their heads.
Teizawa withdrew his eyes and looked at the young shinobi, who was trembling so hard he was about to shake apart.
"Keep going."
His voice remained calm, but it settled over people like reassurance.
The young shinobi raised his head and drew a deep breath.
"Seawater… obviously can't be drunk. I know that."
He swallowed and continued.
"But if you heat seawater until it evaporates, then collect the steam and condense it back into water… distilled water should be drinkable, right?"
The hall went quiet for an instant.
Then—
"Huh?"
Someone voiced their confusion.
"That… kind of makes sense?"
A chūnin scratched his head.
"Distilled water… I remember once, on a mission, we got stranded at sea. Someone really did use that method to get water…"
"Right!" Another genin's eyes lit up. "You can't drink seawater because there's too much salt, but during evaporation the salt doesn't come up, so distilled water is clean!"
"So… it's actually doable?"
Whispers spread through the hall.
Completely different from the earlier laughter.
This was serious discussion, thought being put to work.
A faint, almost invisible smile touched Teizawa's face.
Good. Took the bait.
He tilted his head slightly.
"This proposal has value. Desalination… if it can truly be done, Sand Village's water shortage won't be an unsolvable problem anymore."
The young shinobi looked as if he'd completed a mission. He finally let out a breath of relief.
"Kazekage-sama!"
Another voice rose.
This time it was a middle-aged shinobi in an ordinary vest, looking like he'd come from some standard duty post.
He stood, excitement on his face.
"I… I've got an idea too!"
Teizawa's gaze shifted to him.
"Speak."
"The coast really is far from the village, but if we build a pipeline, running from the shore all the way here…"
"Wouldn't we be able to transport treated water directly?"
He paused, scratching his head, embarrassed.
"I know it might be difficult, but… but if we had pipes, we wouldn't have to haul it back and forth trip after trip…"
"That's reasonable."
Teizawa nodded again.
"A long-distance water pipeline would require solving materials, maintenance, leakage prevention, and a whole series of issues. But the direction is correct."
The middle-aged shinobi's eyes brightened.
He'd thought he was just fantasizing.
He hadn't expected Kazekage-sama to actually… actually consider it seriously.
"Kazekage-sama!"
Another representative stood.
This time it was a young puppeteer.
His face was flushed from nerves, but his eyes were steady.
"I have an idea about flying puppets!"
"If we can develop large puppets that can carry people, then we… we could form aerial units!"
The moment the words "aerial units" came out, the hall went quiet again.
Aerial units?
That was something even Konoha didn't have!
"Wind Release shinobi can hover briefly, but the cost is too high."
The puppeteer's words started to flow faster, smoother.
"If puppets can fly in place of shinobi, then whether it's reconnaissance or surprise attacks, we'll have an absolute advantage!"
Teizawa's gaze settled on him. He nodded slightly.
"Flying puppets… that's a strong idea. We can establish a dedicated project for it."
The puppeteer exhaled hard, as if his lungs had been clenched shut until now.
"Kazekage-sama!"
"I have an idea too!"
"And me!"
The atmosphere in the hall changed completely.
People who'd just been mocking others for "wild fantasies" were now racking their brains to think of proposals of their own.
Those who'd only been thinking about "money to fix my house" and "issue me a wife"—
Seeing those "ridiculous" ideas treated seriously—
Couldn't help but start thinking farther ahead, thinking of matters with real value.
"Kazekage-sama! Could we switch puppet materials to steel? The wood we use now is too fragile!"
"Kazekage-sama! Could the village rebuild all the dangerous houses as a unified project? A lot of the civilian districts are about to collapse!"
"K-Kazekage-sama! Could we learn from Konoha and train medical shinobi?"
Voices rose one after another.
Each one more concrete, more useful than the last.
Teizawa stood at the podium, listening seriously to every speaker.
Sometimes he nodded. Sometimes he asked follow-up questions. Sometimes he offered brief comments.
His eyes swept over those excited faces…
And more than that—
Over ordinary people who had truly been set on fire.
They might lack experience, but they charged forward anyway.
And that passion, that desire from the heart to contribute to the village…
That was real.
On the side benches, Granny Chiyo's expression changed at some point without anyone noticing.
That face that had been stamped with "I told you so"—
Was now filled with stunned disbelief.
A moment ago, this had clearly been a farce.
So how, all of a sudden…
"These proposals…"
She murmured, so softly only she could hear it.
"They… actually make some sense?"
Ebizo's hand, which had been stroking his beard, had stopped without him realizing.
He stared at the representatives who were leaping up to speak, competing with each other.
In his cloudy eyes, a complicated light flashed.
Plants.
He could tell.
The first one who brought up desalination, the one who followed with the pipeline, the one who proposed aerial units…
They'd clearly been arranged.
But…
His gaze fell on the ordinary people whose passion had truly been ignited.
This atmosphere…
This feeling of an entire village thinking about its future together…
Suddenly, he remembered decades ago.
When he was still young.
Sand Village had once had moments like this too.
Back when the First Kazekage had just founded the village.
Everyone worked toward the same goal.
Everyone contributed what they could.
And then what?
Then the village grew bigger, the rules grew heavier, the hierarchy grew sharper.
"Ordinary people" became "people who follow orders."
"Villagers" became "executors."
How many years had it been…
Since anyone had asked them, "What do you think?"
(End of Chapter)
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