Back in the village

The road back to Sunagakure was smooth. To hasten up the process, I thought of carrying everyone on my sand at night, as they slept. Thanks to this, we reached the village in half the time.

There was only one entrance to the village. It was blocked off by enormous staircases with a ravine in the middle, through which one had to go through to enter.

Recognizing us, the guards smiled.

"Baki-sama, welcome back!"

"Hello, nice to see you all."

Baki walked up to the guards and started conversating with them. They were all curious as to what had happened in the exams.

"In the month that you were gone, nice things happened to the village. Recently, some of our men have come back with large quantities of fresh food, putting us on track to stop the incoming famine."

Hearing this, I couldn't help but smile. It seemed like Rasa and the honored siblings were able to strike a good deal with the hidden leaf. If I had to guess, they probably got a bunch of fertile land along with monetary compensation.

'I'll have to talk to Rasa in order to find out... Well, once I'm done with my plan, we won't be needing fertile land anyway.'

After catching up with the guards, we made our way into the village. Immediately, we noticed a few changes.

The streets were not bustling, but compared to before, more and more people walked out. Their complexions were fresher, and they didn't look famished any longer.

'In one month, we managed to turn around our situation for the better... I have to admit, Rasa isn't the most capable of leaders since this was all my doing.'

Well, until I become Kazekage, there's not much I can do. I'll have to try and veer him on the right path from time to time.

Once we reached the Kaqzekage's tower, Baki stopped and looked at us.

"Alright, now all we have to do is report. Once we're done, you can all head back home."

Everyone nodded and we walked in the building. After walking up some stairs, we finally made it to Kage's main office.

Rasa was sitting on his chair, studying some kind of scroll. I immediately recognized it as one of my own.

Noticing us, he placed it on the table and greeted us with a small smile.

"Welcome back, I'm glad to see none of you died."

"Yondaime-dono, we have come to report!"

Clearing his throat, Baki explained everything that happened during our stay in Konoha, and the results of the exams.

In the end, Rasa looked satisfied.

"Well done. Gaara, Kankurō. Although both of you have been promoted, you will remain under your designated Jōnin for now."

"Yes, father."

Placing his elbows on the desk and resting his chin on his hands, Rasa smiled.

"We are sure to receive more and more missions in the months to come... And that is all thanks to you. I shall remember this."

Hearing his words, everyone apart from me trembled with excitement. They must feel amazing after getting the usually cold-hearted Kazekage's approval.

"Alright, disperse. Gaara, you stay."

"Hai!"

Once everyone left, Rasa got up and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Son, I must thank you for what you have done for the village. Thanks to you, our situation has seen a lot of improvement in the past few months!"

"Tell me, is there anything you need?"

Hearing his question, I placed a hand on my chin as I fell in deep thought... There were indeed a few things I needed right now.

"Alright. I need a lab... I've been thinking of doing some experiments, but I have nowhere to do them."

Rasa looked at me with a curious expression but did not pry.

"No problem. I'll let you use one of our most advanced scientific research labs, used only by our best medical-nin. Anything else?"

"Also, could you get me an eye-transplant surgery? My eyes can't see very well, and I'd rather have better vision, to not be at a disadvantage.

This was a lie... I needed my own eyes for another purpose, but I couldn't just remove them myself.

"Eye-transplant? I guess I could arrange that... But are you sure?"

"Definitely"

"... Okay... Head to the hospital in a few hours, I'll arrange everything."

Thanking Rasa, I headed out of the tower, leaving him confused. After walking for a few minutes, I made it back to my apartment.

Inside, Yashamaru was reading a book, as usual.

"I'm home."

"Welcome back, Gaara!"

Sitting down on the couch, we spoke about everything that happened in the past month. Apparently, Yashamaru had been busy with what I asked him to do.

"The pipes were completed a while ago, so I got the village's main construction company to make the warehouses in the blueprint you gave me. Even so, they struggled a lot."

"It's not a warehouse... Its called a greenhouse, Yashamaru."

Using the system's calculating ability, I managed to create the most optimal greenhouse for crop production in the desert. It really was an architectural masterpiece ahead of its time in the Naruto world.

Yashamaru then took me over to the greenhouses. They were located in an enormous plot of land that I had previously purchased. It measured around four-hundred meters square, and the greenhouses were all fifty by sixty meters in size, boasting a six-meter roof height.

In total, there were about forty greenhouses that were optimally designed for crop production. The funny thing was that the construction company in question had no idea what they were for.

The greenhouses were all made of iron beams that held massive chakra-imbued glass-planes. It was a sight to behold.

"So, what do you think?"

"Perfect."

"Glad that you like it... Let's head over to the main reservoir."

Yashamaru smiled and guided me to the middle of all the greenhouses. There, an enormous water tank was connected to a series of pipes that entered the greenhouses.

The water would have to be re-filled every month, but that was an easy task, using my seals.

"Have you planted the seeds?"

"Yeah, we have. As you specified, the greenhouses have been split into four areas, Northeast, Northwest, Southeast and Southwest. Every area has its own crop, namely Potatoes, Rice, Wheat, and Corn."

"Really... You did a phenomenal job here, Yashamaru. How're the new hires?"

"They're doing well. Every greenhouse has a guard and a supervisor. The supervisor makes sure everything works correctly, and the guard keeps them safe. Everything works perfectly,"

Smiling, I scratched my chin.

"Alright, the next step is to sell them at market price to Suna, and Suna alone. We'll monopolize the agricultural sector."

Although Sunagakure could grow its own food, its methods were slow and outdated. Using drip irrigation, we would be capable of producing more crops in less time.

"Alright, this is perfect, Yashamaru... Good job. I have somewhere to be now, so I'll leave management up to you!"

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(AN: There are currently THREE advanced chapters available!

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