Naruto: Rebuilding the Hidden Sand Village

Don't be fooled by how poor Sunagakure is—it lacks water, trees, and just about everything else.

But… harsh conditions have forged the unyielding will and thick-skinned resilience of the Sand shinobi.

In that sense, Sunagakure's ninja are still remarkably capable. Children from struggling households grow up fast. Among the Five Great Nations, the quality of young ninja in the Hidden Sand ranks surprisingly high. Sadly, the village just doesn't have the resources to provide them with proper, high-quality training.

And then there's Sunagakure's signature jutsu—Puppet Technique.

Rasa had never understood why the Second Kazekage insisted on developing such a technique, which heavily relied on wood—something almost non-existent in the Land of Wind.

After all, just look at those puppeteers—they're like collectors of high-end figurines. Their families usually have to be pretty well-off. It's like that saying from his past life's otaku circles: "A wall of anime figures could buy you a house in Beijing."

Playing with puppets… is expensive.

Because of the severe lack of wood within the Land of Wind, puppet users often had to sneak across borders to chop down a few trees—or spend a fortune buying lumber from other nations.

Especially rare, high-quality woods—those couldn't just be stolen. You had to shell out a lot of money to get them.

So why didn't the Second Kazekage just invent puppets made of sand?

Wood… is simply too damn expensive.

Even now, as Rasa looked at the scroll in his hands—one containing the village's forbidden jutsu—he couldn't help but sigh. Sure, the Hidden Sand didn't have as many forbidden techniques as Konoha, but this scroll still represented the depth of their legacy.

Too bad their Second Kazekage just wasn't as creatively gifted as Konoha's Second Hokage.

According to the records, the original Puppet Technique… was designed to use enemy ninja corpses—just like Sasori's secret weapon. These human puppets could retain the jutsu they had mastered in life, making them incredibly powerful tools of war. A forbidden art in every sense.

However, as time passed, the rise of ethical standards and the fall of the original human experimentation pioneers led to a shift in policy. Under Konoha's leadership—the village once most notorious for conducting human experiments—the shinobi world began to publicly reject such inhumane practices.

Of course… some villages still kept these practices alive in the shadows. They just had to stay discreet.

That's why, when Orochimaru was caught performing twisted human experiments inside the village, the Third Hokage chose to make a harsh, public example of him—even though they were practically family. After all, Konoha had led the world in this dark craft. If they didn't come down hard, they'd lose all moral high ground, and face backlash from every corner of the ninja world.

Who knows how long such a scandal would have dragged on?

So in order to prove that Sunagakure, thick-skinned though it may be, was still a village of morals, values, and progressive ideals, the higher-ups decided to revise the Puppet Technique.

Otherwise, if every ninja had a human puppet in their arsenal, the entire shinobi world would've turned against them.

That's why the "Puppet Technique 1.0" was deliberately buried by the village elders. Over time, the Puppet Technique evolved into what it is today—still a core legacy of the village, but far more acceptable.

Originally, Rasa had hoped to find a forbidden jutsu he could actually use, but… none of them suited him. Most were morally questionable, and as the noble, righteous Kazekage, he couldn't afford to taint his heroic image.

So, he had no choice but to give up.

However, while combing through the records, Rasa discovered something surprising: Sunagakure's technological prowess wasn't as primitive as he'd assumed—especially when it came to carpentry. Some puppet masters even moonlighted for nobles, secretly crafting luxury furniture to earn extra cash to buy wood.

It was easy work, paid well, and if there happened to be any leftover wood... well, nobody had to know.

Why hadn't they industrialized the furniture business?

Simple. No trees.

Even with top-tier craftsmanship, Sunagakure's growth remained shackled by its lack of resources. Still, their technical skills weren't just limited to puppets and furniture.

Their expertise in cold weapons like bows and crossbows far exceeded that of other ninja villages.

No wonder that, in the future, when his youngest son disappeared, his elder children would lead the Hidden Sand's forces with crossbows against Konoha's firearms and other thermal weapons.

Seriously… after all these years, why are they still clinging to wood?

Stagnation is a death sentence!

Stretching, Rasa picked up a pen and placed a checkmark on the document before him. The newly developed artificial farmland would be prioritized for cultivating medicinal herbs for the village's medical division.

That meant the shabby old medical building would need to be demolished and rebuilt. Elder Ebizō would personally oversee the construction, ensuring the new facility met the requirements of the artificial farmland.

So long as Rasa gave his approval and coughed up some funds, he wouldn't have to worry about a thing.

As for the gold refinery... its profits had taken a hit recently. Water shortages were one reason, but more importantly, the price of gold had leveled out after the war. These days, they were mostly just processing low-grade sand gold and dumping it onto the market in bulk as fast as possible.

But reform was overdue. More and more ninja were now researching ways to extract useful metals from impure sand gold.

After all, metals had been outrageously expensive not long ago.

Looking over the final report, Rasa hesitated for a moment, then signed off. He wasn't very familiar with metallurgy anyway, and since the puppet masters were the ones proposing these changes—most of whom had solid engineering backgrounds—he figured they probably had it figured out already.

As for desert reclamation...

He remembered reading that some countries used cement and plastic to stabilize sand and retain water in desert areas. Supposedly, it worked pretty well, but he had no idea how to implement it.

They'd have to figure it out themselves. If nothing else, there was no shortage of sand—might as well experiment all they wanted.

He grabbed a nearby sheet of paper and jotted the idea down—didn't want to forget it later.

Besides, Ebizō seemed quite passionate about desert treatment. Good. Maybe with a project to focus on, he'd stop scheming up new things to sell every damn day.

Honestly, Rasa was getting fed up. If it weren't for his deeply ingrained respect for the elderly, he might've already laid into him. Seriously, if not for that moral code...

As for Advisor Chiyo, she hadn't been seen for a while—possibly out of guilt over what happened during the Battle of Kikyō Pass.

After making a few more adjustments to the First Five-Year Plan, Rasa figured it was about time.

He stood up and stretched.

"Now then… time to go see that Ōtsutsuki Kaguya summoner."