The secret conference room beneath Hokage Rock had just adjourned. Naruto stood by the window, watching the reconstruction crews laboring through the night. Minato walked over to his side and lowered his voice. "The news about developing the Dragon Vein must be kept strictly confidential."
Naruto nodded, his expression calm. "I'll have Root lock down the information, but paper can't contain fire. Sunagakure will notice sooner or later."
"That's why Hiruzen has to make the trip himself." Minato looked into the distance. "In the name of the Third Hokage, he can at least get Gaara to sit down and talk."
Naruto said nothing. He merely stared at the still-smoking reactor ruins outside.
The Land of Whirlpools' supplies could last three months, but developing the Dragon Vein would take far longer than that.
At the same time, in an underground base three hundred kilometers away.
Kabuto Yakushi sat in a dim laboratory, with more than a dozen recording crystals laid out before him. The crystals repeatedly played footage of Konoha's battle with Madara Uchiha—the Nine-Tails Golden Body, electromagnetic railguns, and the details of the White Zetsu Mycelial Bombs. He studied every frame carefully.
"Using White Zetsu to make Scavenger shells... that's an interesting idea." Kabuto adjusted his glasses and let out a cold laugh. "But..."
He brought up another recording. In it, bluish smoke rose from the reactor dome while engineering teams rushed to repair it.
"The energy crisis—that's Konoha's weak point."
A White Zetsu emerged from the ground and reported respectfully, "Lord Kabuto, our spies around Konoha have sent word—the underground chamber beneath the Hokage Building was unsealed by the Fourth Hokage, and a batch of chakra-conducting materials left behind by the Land of Whirlpools has been deployed."
Kabuto stared at the crystal's image. "How long can the Land