It Happened!

"The weather's getting colder, so it's time to start preparing for winter." Kusana looked at the map on the table and frowned slightly. "Food, coal, cotton quilts, and housing all need to be prepared."

After the Land of Grass had been destroyed during the First Great Ninja War, it had gone through a period of chaos.

So, during this reconstruction... Kusana intended to redesign the Land of Grass entirely!

He would first divide the various areas into living districts, residential districts, commercial districts, and so on, making later construction more convenient.

However.

There were simply too few ninja in the Land of Grass!

"Forget it. Have the idle ninja help out too. The Land of Grass belongs to all of us! Building the Land of Grass depends on everyone!"

As soon as he finished speaking.

Everyone immediately nodded in agreement.

Autumn, Year 37 of Konoha.

Konoha's ninja rapidly advanced into the Land of Rain. Left with no choice... the Rain Ninja Village Leader, the Half-God of the Ninja World—Hanzo of the Salamander—personally took the field.

With poison, ninjutsu, and taijutsu, he was unstoppable on the battlefield, slaughtering countless Konoha ninja.

Everyone could only marvel...

Worthy of the Half-God of the Ninja World!

Terrifying indeed!

To avoid suffering excessive casualties, Konoha sent out the Strongest Hokage's students—Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru—to jointly resist the Rain Ninja Village Leader.

In the end, though they were defeated, they earned the Land of Rain leader's recognition and gained the title of Konoha's Sannin.

The war between the Land of Rain and Konoha was declared over!

That same year, while Konoha was fighting Amegakure, Sunagakure launched a surprise assault on the Land of Fire's border. Konoha's commander, Dan Katō, died in battle, while Sunagakure's ninja advanced wildly as though no one stood in their way. For a time, Konoha actually fell into a disadvantage.

That was until the ninja known as the Konoha White Fang appeared and assassinated Sunagakure's frontline governor. The situation instantly reversed, allowing Konoha to claim victory in one stroke...

The fighting outside was incredibly fierce, and the war continued. Of course, none of that had anything to do with the Land of Grass.

The Land of Grass only wanted to quietly farm and develop itself now. It had no intention of meddling in anything else.

"Make sure the foundations are solid! Don't let the place collapse when the time comes! I've said it already! I said it already! Have the Earth Release ninja lay the foundations first!"

Kusana looked at the bustling construction site before him, feeling gratified.

Although Kusagakure's ninja were... shameless, opportunistic, and utterly lacking in dignity, they were fairly obedient overall.

They carried out the orders he gave them seriously!

Everything was moving in a good direction!

"Leader Mang, over at Kannabi Bridge..."

"Stop!" Hearing Mujie's words, Kusana's face immediately darkened. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "Don't worry about that place. Skip it! Skip it!"

"???"

What was wrong?

Wasn't Kannabi Bridge also within the Land of Grass?

It was part of the Land of Grass!

"Ahem! That place is a bridge between the Land of Earth and the Land of Fire! It holds extremely important strategic significance for both countries!" Seemingly noticing Mujie's confusion, Kusana coughed twice and said solemnly, "I have a feeling... peace will come, but it won't last long. War will eventually break out again, and it will be even more intense than this one! The Land of Earth and the Land of Fire will certainly take part. When that happens..."

"We join Iwagakure first and lead Iwagakure into the Land of Fire, then join the Land of Fire?"

"..."

Kusana looked speechlessly at the suddenly excited Mujie.

What wonderful fantasy was this guy having?

Come to think of it, during the Third Shinobi World War, Kusagakure really had seemed to watch the show from beside Kannabi Bridge!

After that, the country had remained at war, suffering even worse than the Land of Rain did now.

If not for Kana and her daughter, the country would have nearly been steamrolled into extinction by the Kaguya Clan!

Could it be that this fence-sitting incident had provoked everyone's outrage?!

Kusana suddenly had something he did not know whether he should say.

Just then.

"Amang, dinner's ready!"

A gentle voice drifted over. It was Fusang.

Amang immediately waved his hand. "Forget it. Let's rebuild the Land of Grass first! And that place is the academy! Make the foundations solid for me—don't let it collapse later!"

With that, he ignored Mujie and happily ran off to eat.

There was too much to do in the Land of Grass, and Kana had become busy as well, so Fusang was temporarily handling the cooking at home.

As for the three children... they had already been sent to learn the basics of being ninja.

Thus, Fusang was the only ordinary person at home with nothing much to do. Feeling too embarrassed to simply sit around, she cooked for them.

Seeing the fragrant dishes, Kusana's stomach growled after a busy day. And honestly... Fusang's cooking was quite good.

"Where's Kana?"

"I already sent hers over. After you finish eating, Amang, I'll go over and bring the things back to clean up."

"What about Konan and the others?"

"Nagato, Konan, and Yahiko are all studying diligently!"

"Sorry to trouble you!"

"It's no trouble." Fusang smiled softly. "I can only do these insignificant things."

As she spoke, her face reddened slightly.

Life in the Land of Grass had gradually calmed her heart, but she still felt a little embarrassed.

After all, she had once doubted...

Everything Amang had said that night was slowly coming true.

However.

Looking at Amang, Fusang said with a smile, "Please eat slowly, Mr. Amang!"

Elsewhere.

After seeing the leader leave to eat, Mujie could not help shaking his head with a sigh.

Come to think of it, his wife brought him meals too!

And that brat Wu Wei had still been walking around with a sour face lately. Mujie had thought that bringing Yahiko back, with such an optimistic fellow to keep him company... might make Wu Wei happier. Yet that brat was still the same as ever.

Come to think of it...

Once the academy was completed in a while, all the children of the Land of Grass would come here to study, just like they did in Konoha.

However.

How could the Land of Grass possibly have such conditions?

Their ninjutsu had been copied, and incompletely at that. They also did not have enough ninja teachers, so they could not teach that many students at all.

But since the leader had said so, they could only carry it out.

Mujie turned around and shouted at the people working nearby, "Take this seriously! Make the foundations solid! If they aren't solid, I'll stuff you into them!"

As soon as he finished speaking.

"Did you hear that? Did you hear that? The leader said to make them solid!"

"Keep hammering, damn it! Make them as solid as possible!"

"Use a thicker one!"

The entire Land of Grass fell into a chorus of "bang, bang, bang."

However.

Underground.

Was there no end to this?!

It was bang! Bang! Bang! all day long! Were they trying to disturb the neighbors?!

They started before dawn.

Were those people laying foundations or digging holes?

Black Zetsu's face was black... though it was impossible to tell, his expression was utterly grim as he looked up at the ceiling of the cave.

Countless chunks of gray stone came raining down. If the cave had not been sturdy enough, it would probably have collapsed by now!

Why weren't those grass ninja properly carrying out missions? What were they doing building houses here?!

Was this the kind of work ninja were supposed to do?

Just as Black Zetsu was growing increasingly irritated.

Then.

"Why is it so noisy?"

A low, aged voice rang out.

"Ptooey, ptooey! Why is there so much dust? Where's Black Zetsu? What's going on? Is the cave collapsing? Don't you know this is a base I specifically chose?"

Apparently awakened by the noise, the speaker sounded extremely angry. "You, what's-your-name? That's right, you idiot! The one who paints poop faces! I have no idea how Hashirama's cells produced a fellow like you. Hurry over and tell me what's going on."

The moment his voice fell.

"Lord Madara, up above..."

Before the spiral-faced White Zetsu could finish speaking.

Suddenly.

Bang!

A beam of light appeared overhead, followed by a voice.

"Huh? It seems like we broke through something. Could there be a cave underneath?"

"..."

The cave instantly fell silent.

Broke through?

They'd been exposed?

After hiding for so many years, were they about to be discovered?!