"Sunagakure, Iwagakure, and Kirigakure won't escape either."
"And the Uchiha and the Kaguya clan as well."
"Anyone with even the slightest suspicion must pay the price!"
…
…
Sunagakure.
Rasa looked at the system panel.
The number in the points column was rising quickly, which meant Ebizo's campaign was already producing results.
But the speed at which emotion points were increasing was far slower than Rasa had expected.
"This isn't right."
"This rumor involves Danzo. Danzo's emotions should definitely be affected."
"With how sensitive Danzo is, emotion points shouldn't be rising this slowly."
"So where's the problem?"
Rasa looked once more at the usage instructions for the Confrontation Points Exchange Card.
"Confrontation… confrontation…"
"I think I understand now."
A look of realization crossed Rasa's face.
"The meaning of confrontation is that Danzo has to know I'm the one attacking him."
"Last time, I provoked Danzo's emotions by putting the failure of his operation on the newspaper's front page. Danzo knew I was behind it."
"But this time, the rumor is being pushed in secret. Danzo doesn't know I'm the one doing it."
"That's the difference."
Rasa quickly made up his mind.
"In the third issue of the Shinobi World Major Events Weekly, I'll include something that humiliates Danzo."
Kirigakure's compensation still had not arrived.
There were too many things involved. It was destined to take time.
But with Pakura there, Rasa felt at ease.
That allowed him to focus his energy on something else.
The construction of the first Solar Disc.
At a single command from Rasa, the entire village sprang into action, pooling the strength of the whole of Sunagakure to gather the materials required to build the Solar Disc.
One list after another was distributed to different ninja squads.
The shinobi below did not understand.
They had no idea why Rasa was collecting these resources on such a large scale.
Nor did they understand why Sunagakure was willing to spend so many resources and pay such a steep price for this.
But it was Rasa's order.
And after Kirigakure's surrender, Rasa's prestige within Sunagakure had risen to an entirely new level.
He still was not quite what Hashirama Senju had once been to Konoha.
But he was not far from it either.
Most of Sunagakure's people believed that Rasa had saved the village.
At the moment of deepest despair, he had chosen to stand firm against Kirigakure.
By taking Pakura as his wife, he had unified Sunagakure.
When the Sunagakure army was in danger, he had suddenly produced a giant summoning beast, Yatagarasu, and inflicted devastating losses on the Kirigakure forces.
He had crushed the internal rebellion of the Hongshan clan by himself.
He had crossed a vast distance alone, fought four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, killed one of them, and rescued Baki.
He had seen through Hakusa Koichi and Danzo's plot and severed one of Danzo's arms.
Then, at the decisive battle, he had appeared alongside Pakura and utterly crushed the Kirigakure army, winning the war in one stroke.
A man like that could not be wrong.
So all they needed to do was obey.
Chiyo, meanwhile, was studying the blueprints.
Even though Rasa had told her that Sasori of the Red Sand was still alive, she was not truly hopeful.
If he were really alive, then why had he not returned?
So Chiyo's present state of mind was still the same.
She wanted to retire.
But the blueprint for the Solar Disc had stirred her interest.
As a puppeteer, she knew the Solar Disc was not a puppet.
Yet it was still a structure of remarkable complexity.
Chiyo had spent her entire life researching puppets. There was no way she could fail to be interested in something like this.
"This thing can absorb sunlight with incredible efficiency and convert it into energy?"
"How does it do that?"
"And what if I applied this technology to puppets?"
"Puppets that can move without consuming chakra?"
"Or puppets that can unleash tremendously destructive techniques while consuming only a tiny amount of chakra?"
Chiyo's interest had truly been piqued.
While Chiyo studied the blueprint and Sunagakure's people gathered materials, Rasa chose the location for the first Solar Disc.
It would be built beside the village's small oasis.
The sunlight there was scorching, the sandstorms constant, and the oasis itself had already begun to shrink.
Before this, Sunagakure had been too preoccupied with war to spare any attention for it.
Rasa's thinking was simple.
Build the Solar Disc here.
First, it could help protect the oasis against anyone who might seek to seize it.
Second, such a massive structure could block part of the wind and sand.
And beyond that, the energy generated by the Solar Disc could directly benefit the oasis itself.
For example, by helping draw water.
A map lay spread across Rasa's desk.
It was a map of the Land of Wind.
A country of enormous size, but one in which most of the land was covered in desert. Beneath the desert was barren wasteland, and only beyond that could one finally reach truly arable ground.
To the north was the Land of Rain.
A country rich in rainfall, wet all year round.
To the east was the Land of Rivers.
Its condition was somewhat better than the Land of Wind, but not by much. Water there was also scarce.
To the south, the desert connected to a great salt sea.
Part of that desert had already become completely saline and alkaline.
To the west lay an even larger desert.
In Rasa's view, there were two ways to improve the environment of the Land of Wind.
The first was to divert water from the Land of Rain into the Land of Wind, using it to irrigate the desert and turn it into land fit for cultivation. What could actually be planted there could come later. Being able to grow anything at all would already be enough.
But for Sunagakure, that would be difficult.
Sunagakure was located in the southern part of the Land of Wind.
It was too far from the Land of Rain.
And if they truly wanted to divert water, then first they would have to deal with the Land of Rain itself.
The Land of Rain was not populated by reasonable people. Hanzo and Nagato were both extremely difficult to deal with.
And secondly, even if they secured the Land of Rain, the first region to benefit would still be the Land of Wind.
Rasa was dissatisfied with the Land of Wind.
Sunagakure and the Land of Wind had not gotten along well at all during the previous period.
When Kirigakure's forces invaded and reached the territory of the Land of Wind, Sunagakure had requested reinforcements from the country—resources, ninja, tools.
But what the Land of Wind had given them was very little.
That was not what a great nation should have done for the hidden village allied to it.
Rasa had been deeply disappointed in the Land of Wind.
So he had no intention of taking a path that would benefit the Land of Wind first while also placing Sunagakure under its restrictions.
If he would not rely on the Land of Rain, then his only choice was to turn his gaze south, toward the place where the desert met the great salt sea.
Sunagakure shared an extremely long border with that region.
But the Land of Wind had no people there.
No matter what Sunagakure did in that place, the Land of Wind would be unable to stop it or restrain it.
"We can bring the water over, then use the Solar Disc's energy to desalinate it."
"I need to make a proper plan."
At Rasa's order, a ninja squad set out to survey the terrain.
Then Rasa went to the newspaper office.
"Kazekage-sama."
"Saki, has the headline for the next issue been decided yet?"
"Not yet."
"Then use this."
Rasa had decided to give Danzo a vicious shove.