First, what Yubi had to do was collect the medicinal herbs of this world and conduct pharmacological analysis.
He first established a separate department in the hospital and then paid out of his own pocket to purchase some medicinal herbs.
To this end, he specifically sought out the traveling merchants in the Village... asking them to purchase some drugs for him while they were out trading.
He had saved up quite a fortune from doing missions over the years; given the Village's current economic situation, getting the Village to provide funds was basically impossible.
Next, through Saori, Yashamaru, and others, he learned about the existing pharmacological knowledge currently held by the Village and the Ninja World, conducting analysis and comparisons.
Determining the efficacy and effects of each medicinal herb.
At the same time, he invited some Ninjas in the Village who had studied pharmacology to help.
He didn't realize until he looked deeper... the direction of pharmacological research in the Hidden Sand Village was mostly geared toward poisoning or assassination, with almost no formulas for treatment.
All their focus was on fighting enemies...
However, Yubi didn't neglect research in this area; by figuring out the formulas for some toxic agents, he could also understand the value of certain drugs.
In short, his project began in such a "grand" fashion.
Making such a big scene naturally caught the attention of high-level officials like the Kazekage, but they didn't think much of it, assuming Yubi was just conducting experiments to improve the Village's medical standards.
In fact, Yubi had initially asked the Kazekage if he could apply for a sum of money to improve the hospital environment, the priority being to expand it and manufacture more medical machinery and tools according to his requirements... however, unsurprisingly, his application was ignored.
Ultimately, it came down to a lack of money.
The high-level officials' intention was for Yubi to "produce milk while eating grass," using his personal ability to advance the medical system as much as possible under limited conditions.
The premise... don't talk about money.
There was another reason, which Yubi also noticed.
He had only just become the director and entered the Village's power structure not long ago; his words didn't have that much influence yet.
Even if he revealed his plans, in the eyes of these people, they probably didn't believe he could succeed.
After all, with the Ninja World's development up to now, setting aside the efforts of several generations in the Hidden Sand Village to develop medicines, even in other Villages, there was no shortage of "Geniuses" specializing in this field... If finished medical drugs were so easy to research and produce, some hidden Village would have likely made a fortune long ago.
Yubi didn't explain this.
He understood that he had to let the results speak for themselves.
These people... lacked foresight.
...
Time passed bit by bit, and Yubi once again began his "feet-off-the-ground" work.
This time it wasn't about treating patients and saving lives, but pharmacological research.
In addition, he had to reform the hospital system... and train core members like Saori and Yashamaru.
He also had to write books to popularize some of his medical knowledge.
Occasionally, he would also give lectures at the Ninja Academy; of course... it was to popularize knowledge related to medicine, helping the educational institution screen for promising candidates to become Medical Ninjas.
Appropriately, he would also mention his experiences on the battlefield, making the little ones in the classroom yearn for it and inspiring their will to serve the Village.
This link... was indispensable.
Brainwashing... it's normal.
Yubi had gone through it too.
Of course, he didn't overly glamorize the Will of Sunagakure...
He didn't create something like the Will of Fire in Konoha, with slogans about life being endless and so on.
And so, three months later, Yubi took the initiative to find Sasori.
The two often met in private, but they only discussed intelligence about various factions and characters in the Village... nothing else.
Furthermore, Sasori's affairs were actually very busy, so they didn't meet many times.
"Lend me some money."
Looking at his friend sitting across the table picking up a teacup, Yubi coughed and shamelessly reached out his hand.
"..."
Sasori's movement of holding the teacup stopped.
"How much?"
"How much do you have?"
"..."
"I'm out of money... from this month on, I'll have to live on the Village's basic subsidies. Even Saori and Yashamaru have proactively chipped in a lot for my research," Yubi sighed, crying poor.
He had anticipated that the research project would be extremely expensive, but he hadn't expected it to burn through money so quickly.
With his small fortune... it was simply not enough.
Right now, he had only figured out one-third of the basic pharmacology and medicinal Materials of this world, and he still had to perform ratios and drug testing later. In short, it wasn't that simple.
"I have some, but not much..."
Sasori said calmly.
As a Puppeteer, his research on Puppets was also very expensive.
Not to mention people like them who have made significant achievements in their professional fields, even ordinary Ninjas, who seem to earn quite a bit, spend a lot just on daily ninja tool consumption.
It was still a relatively peaceful period; if it were during wartime, money would flow like water.
"Hand it all over... my current research is quite critical."
Yubi had no intention of being polite.
Sasori nodded.
"Also, ask Grandmother Chiyo if she can provide a little funding... I'm an outsider, so it's hard for me to ask. Help me ask; consider it a loan from me."
Yubi's tone softened slightly.
The feeling of borrowing money from someone is truly unpleasant.
There was no choice; he was really short on money now.
Very short, extremely short.
"..."
Sasori fell silent again.
Then, he abruptly changed the subject. "Yesterday, the Kazekage summoned the high-level officials for a meeting, and they had a dispute. It was mainly about the reconstruction of the Village. According to intelligence, the reconstruction of Konoha and Kumogakure has already shown significant results... only our side is relatively slow. The Daimyo finally gave the Village a sum of money, but the amount is limited. The Kazekage and Rasa's intention is to invest this money into the training and treatment of the Village's army. After all... no one knows when the flames of war will be rekindled. Sunagakure must be prepared at all times and cannot suffer setbacks like in the previous Ninja World War."
"While the thoughts of others were to invest in the construction of the Village... after all, many of the Village's houses and buildings are aging, public facilities and venues are also incomplete, and some have fallen into disrepair and are about to be abandoned.
"Improving the Village's construction can also boost public morale."
Good grief, if you won't agree, just say so, but to transition so smoothly.
Yubi took over the conversation without missing a beat, understanding implicitly, "Those who proposed building the Village are mostly Family representatives of the commoner Ninjas, right?"
"Yeah."
Sasori nodded.
"Including the Nohara and Fukushima families?"
Yubi glanced at him. "In that case, it's had some effect... Recently, the number of times people in the Village mention Nohara Murashi and Fukushima Oka has clearly increased, and the two are gradually starting to get noticed..."
"This is the irreconcilable conflict between two power blocs. For these two Family representatives, some rumors suddenly started recently, drawing attention to the next generation of heirs of their families... As commoner Ninjas, they can better understand the people's sentiments. In order to win some 'public heart,' they naturally have to 'please' the villagers more."
"While in the eyes of the Kazekage and others, their perspective is based on the realistic issue of survival... as long as the basic living conditions and configurations of the villagers are guaranteed, it is enough."
"Simply put, neither side is right or wrong; both are considering the Village... just from different angles."
"However, the Nohara and Fukushima families must have won over some other representatives of commoner forces... to fight for the investment of funds into the Village's construction. Otherwise... with the Third Kazekage's style and character, it would be difficult for their two families alone to have a say."
Yubi smiled.
The reason for this was that the trigger was Nohara Murashi and Fukushima Oka recently gaining some fame among the villagers.
This made the heads of the two families want to further use this matter to enhance their families' status and presence in the Hidden Sand Village.
Of course, the core was all for the Village.
Just different directions.
"Signs are already appearing; let's wait a bit longer..." Yubi said softly.
Afterward, he chatted with Sasori about a few more things, and the latter got up to leave.
The next day, an Anbu member came to the hospital and, following Sasori's orders, delivered money to Yubi.
After seeing the amount, Yubi knew that Sasori must have spoken to Chiyo... otherwise, there wouldn't be this much.
At least it would be enough for a while.