Konoha's sky had never been so clear.
Outside the village, at the construction site for Land of Fire National Highway No. 1, earth-shaking work chants intertwined with the thunderous roar of ninjutsu.
"Ah-ha~!"
[Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!]
Scorching flames licked across the newly laid stone road, rapidly evaporating the moisture within and leaving behind a hard, level stretch of grayish-white pavement.
Uchiha Yoshihiro irritably wiped the sweat from his brow.
Behind him, a team of dark-skinned, powerfully built workers immediately stepped forward and began the finishing work with their tools.
"Lord Yoshihiro! Your Fire Release temperature control is getting more precise by the day!" The construction crew captain, a former tenant farmer named Tanaka Kenichi, beamed as he handed over a pot of chilled tea. "Give us another half month, and this section will be completed ahead of schedule. We'll get our bonus!"
"Got it." Yoshihiro took the teapot and waved him off impatiently.
He tipped back his head and gulped down a mouthful of cold tea. Only when the icy liquid slid down his throat did it barely suppress the heat in his chest.
As he looked at the bustling scene before him, his thoughts could not help drifting back to a year ago.
Back then, the Fourth Hokage Sawada Hiroki's announcement regarding the establishment of the "Land of Fire Construction Corps" had landed like a massive boulder in the Uchiha clan's placid pond.
"What kind of joke is this? You want us Uchiha to build roads?"
"This is an insult to our clan!"
"What is the Hokage trying to do? Undermine the authority of our Military Police Force?"
He still remembered the arguments at the clan meeting with perfect clarity.
His peers in the Military Police Force had been even less subtle, openly shooting him contemptuous looks