Don't let the Sand Village's poverty fool you. It has no water when it needs water and no trees when it needs trees.
But... the harsh environment had also tempered the Sand Ninja's unyielding will and thick skin impervious to swords and spears.
So, in a sense, the Sand Ninja were still very capable ninjas. Children from poor families matured early, and the quality of the young ninjas in the Sand Village was quite high compared with the other Four Great Ninja Villages. Unfortunately, the village lacked sufficient resources... and couldn't provide them with a more complete, high-quality education.
Then there was the Sand Village's signature ninjutsu—the Puppet Technique.
Rasa originally hadn't understood why the Second Wind Shadow had developed a technique like the Puppet Technique, which had such extreme requirements for timber?!
After all, just look at that bunch of puppeteers... Those guys who played with dolls generally had quite substantial family fortunes. It was just like the saying that circulated among the otaku of his previous life: one wall of a nerd's collectibles was worth a house in Beijing.
Playing with puppets... burned money!
The Land of Wind had an extreme shortage of trees. So whenever puppeteers needed timber, they would usually sneak across the borders of other countries and cut down a few trees, or... spend money to purchase them from other nations.
Especially when it came to rare and precious wood... it was generally impossible to steal-cut it. They could only pay for it—and pay a great deal!
So why hadn't the Second Wind Shadow simply researched how to make puppets out of sand?
Timber...
It cost too much.
Now, as he looked at the scroll recording the Sand Village's Forbidden Techniques, he realized that although the scroll contained fewer techniques than Konoha's, it still represented