Naruto: Starting as the Third Hokage with Tears in His Eyes

"..."

The entire conference room fell into a deathly silence that lasted for more than ten seconds.

All the Hidden Mist ninjas, including Hozuki Kaigetsu and Yagura Karatachi, looked at Kakashi as if he were a madman.

Growing rice in a place soaked in blood and salted by seawater for who knows how many years? And within a month? That's even more absurd than saying he can bring the dead back to life.

Hozuki Kaigetsu opened his mouth, the words "This is impossible" rolled around in his throat three times, but he ultimately couldn't say them.

He remembered the Konoha farm with its constant-temperature barrier that allowed vegetables to grow even in winter.

In Konoha, the word "impossible" seems to have a different definition.

In the midst of this deathly silence, Hiruzen Sarutobi picked up his teacup, gently blew on the steam, and broke the silence with a smile.

He didn't explain any technical details, but simply gave Kakashi an approving look.

"As expected of Sakumo's son, I believe in you."

In short, this imbued the seemingly fantastical plan with absolute authority.

The meeting ended in a daze.

After everyone had left, Sarutobi Shinnosuke walked to his father's side, took out a sealed scroll with sealing wax from his pocket, and handed it to him.

He lowered his voice and reported in a volume that only the two of them could hear.

"Father, Lord Nara Shikazumi asked me to convey a message to you."

"Danzo has already stayed up all night to draw the exploration map for the Kirigakure station in his pancontinental railway network plan."

Hiruzen Sarutobi took the heavy scroll, his fingertips rubbing the still-warm sealing wax on it, a rubbing smile spreading across his face.

The next morning.

As soon as the sun peeked over the horizon, the docks of Wuyin Village transformed into two distinct and bustling construction sites.

On one side, the flag bearing the name of the Konoha Construction Department fluttered in the wind, and huge explosions rose and fell, making people's eardrums tingle.

Sarutobi Shinnosuke stood high above like an emotionless statue, directing everything below with the simplest gestures.

His construction team included a group of unusual figures—the Kaguya clansmen who had been shouting at the docks yesterday were now shirtless and covered in mud, carrying boulders.

The arrogance on their faces had vanished, replaced by an instinctive fear of the explosion and a deep apprehension towards the boy standing high above, whose eyes were colder than the winter sea.

"Point three, prepare for demolition!"

A ninja wearing a Konoha headband shouted.

With a downward chopping gesture from Shinnosuke, a loud crash echoed from the distant mountainside, sending rocks flying and blasting out the outline of a planned road.

Immediately afterwards, the Earth Release ninja stepped forward, clapped his hands together, and a solid rock wall rose from the ground, fixing the loose soil and rocks.

The entire process is full of simplistic and brutal industrial aesthetics, and its efficiency is outrageously high.

Yagura Karatachi and Kaigetsu Hozuki stood at a distance, watching this miracle that could be described as opening up mountains and paving roads. The former tightened his arms around his chest, while the latter held a small notebook, the pen scratching on the paper with a soft, scratching sound, unable to stop.

"That's...that's so unreasonable!"

Yagura's lips twitched. "Are they building a road, or waging war against the mountains?"

"I've seen the relevant theories in Konoha's library."

Hozuki Kaigetsu didn't even look up, his eyes shining. "This is called modular construction. First, we use explosive ninjutsu for rough processing, and then we use earth-style sculpting for fine shaping. Shinnosuke-sama's control over chakra has reached a terrifying level. You see, the range of each explosion is strictly limited to the red lines on the blueprint, without a single bit of waste."

On the other side of the construction site, the scene was completely different.

Under the banner of Muye Ecological Farm, a peaceful and serene atmosphere prevails.

A miracle is happening now in that salt flat that the Hidden Mist ninjas declared a cursed land.

Kakashi Hatake held a short sword that was almost identical to that of his father, White Fang, the blade crackling with lightning from his Lightning Release technique.

He didn't form hand seals, but moved across the land with a peculiar rhythm, each step and each swing of his sword precise and accurate.

With a flash of the knife, the hard, saline-alkali soil was evenly turned over and chopped up, with perfect precision, as if it were not tilling the land, but performing a meticulous dissection.