Time passed slowly. After Minato met privately with the senior leadership in Konoha, he was already prepared to return at any moment.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Ninja World was far from peaceful over the past year.
With Mizuki Ember, hailed as the strongest person in the Ninja World, stationed in Kirigakure, the entire village, including the Land of Water, underwent sweeping reforms and development.
With the help of Oyakiro Homura, the underground dark king of the Ninja World, Kirigakure developed at an astonishing pace over the past year!
Even the Land of Water became more prosperous than it had ever been.
It could be said that, aside from manpower, present-day Kirigakure had surpassed Kumogakure, Iwagakure, and Sunagakure in every other respect, second only to Konoha!
But population was truly Kirigakure's weakness, and there was no way to accelerate that.
After all, the Land of Water was located overseas. When it came to population, it really could not compare to the other four great nations.
As a result, Kirigakure had always had the smallest population among the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
On top of that, the early Bloody Mist Policy had claimed a great many lives in Kirigakure.
Even though Kirigakure was now working hard to develop and recuperate, it was impossible for its population to catch up with those of the other four great shinobi villages overnight.
As the Fifth Mizukage, Soji had considered relocating some villagers from elsewhere in the Land of Water to live in Kirigakure, but after thinking it over, he abandoned the idea.
For one thing, without some great disaster, villagers elsewhere would be unlikely to abandon their old way of life and move to Kirigakure.
For another, rashly relocating outsiders into Kirigakure could easily create conflicts with the village's original residents.
After careful consideration,