Oguri Hayashi formed a hand seal, and a mass of earth rose before him. This earthen platform, about a meter across and roughly a square meter in area, clearly displayed a topographical map of everything within a one-kilometer radius of Takigakure.
It was a 1,000:1 compressed geographical map of Takigakure.
It even showed the elevation differences of the waterfalls and mountains.
Even the forests were included.
It was safe to say that they had never seen such an exquisite model before.
Honestly, Oguri Hayashi had never considered making this kind of military map during all his time in the Naruto world. He was not a professional military man, so even after spending so many years in Konoha, he had never thought of making a sand-table model like this.
However, after he got his hands on that Vietnamese man's night-vision goggles, everything they saw was recorded within them, forming familiar terrain as though the map's fog of war had been cleared. That genius-like idea gave Oguri Hayashi inspiration.
After becoming Takigakure's leader, the first thing he did was thoroughly scout all the terrain within a kilometer of the village.
Was that why he made a Shadow Clone every morning to handle things?
Tsunade looked at Oguri Hayashi's sand table and silently marveled at what she had learned. The Hokage's office—or a war room—should have something like this.
If they truly wanted to make one, this kind of sand table could be built at a scale of 10,000:1. Even with Konoha's vast territory, it was possible.
Moreover, several generations of Hokage and ninja could gradually improve the sand table.
Just imagining all of Konoha's territory displayed in every minute detail on this sand table made Tsunade's blood run hot.
As a ninja from a distinguished lineage, she instantly thought of several ninjutsu that could be developed from this sand table.
—If it could be done, they could even use ninjutsu to project the people and ninja in a certain area onto the sand table. After the projection, they would be able to clearly see the enemy's shadows and appearance.
Of course, it might require combining it with ninjutsu such as Barrier Ninjutsu, but Tsunade already had her own ideas and hypotheses.
The Third Hokage's crystal-ball Telescope Technique, for example, relied on Konoha's barrier to clearly observe Naruto's movements. Otherwise, there was no way to explain why, in the countless wars that followed, no one ever used the Telescope Technique again.
With a sand table...
Tsunade could already see the future, where every movement of Konoha's villagers was vividly displayed upon it.
Oguri Hayashi pointed to one area and said, "This is where we are now—the location of Takigakure."
Takigakure's location was rather unusual. There were many waterfalls, and the waterways were complicated. More waterfalls meant less farmland. Takigakure had little arable land and underdeveloped transportation, so it was no wonder its population was only forty or fifty people. It simply could not develop.
No one wanted to come to such a remote, impoverished place, and it could not afford to support ninja. That was perfectly normal.
Takigakure had only seven Jonin and around twelve Genin. Together, that made nineteen people. In a village of just over fifty people, those nineteen were Takigakure's entire fighting force.
In the future, Takigakure would have only one ninja left—the leader's child. The other ninja would either retire to farm or defect to other ninja villages.
It could only be described as utterly miserable.
But now that Oguri Hayashi was here, he naturally would not allow that to happen.
"The first thing we need to do is improve the villagers' standard of living." After living here for three days, he had already gained some understanding of Takigakure's situation.
Takigakure lay behind a massive waterfall, but there was also a lake behind it. The villagers lived beside that lake.
The villagers did not have many material goods. They mainly gathered wild vegetables, hunted, and caught fish from the lake. Still, they were not desperately poor, because resources were abundant. Whether it was wild vegetables, fish, or game, they could obtain enough nutrients, vitamins, and protein.
But Oguri Hayashi knew this was unstable.
All civilizations based on gathering, hunting, and fishing were unstable.
Without a stable source of food, they would never be able to grow their population. Without population growth, they would fall behind in the competition between civilizations.
Takigakure was the most typical example of backwardness. By Naruto's era, its population had shrunk even further, leaving it with only one ninja.
To increase the population, they first needed farmland and rice.
All animal husbandry depended on stable food production.
Only once people had enough to eat would there be food for pigs, sheep, and horses.
Only then could they continue progressing.
"So, what we need to do is this."
Oguri Hayashi drew a circle downstream. "Here, we'll use Earth Release to alter the terrain and turn this place into a lake."
"Then we'll divert the upstream water to both sides, splitting the waterfall into two channels."
"Finally, we'll turn this entire area into a vast stretch of farmland."
As Oguri Hayashi explained, he lightly formed hand seals, and the terrain slowly began to change. The waterfall no longer flowed through Takigakure, instead splitting to either side. This would leave the lake in the middle of Takigakure without a source.
Then they could release the water, use Earth Release to raise the lakebed, and drain it dry. It would become an enormous, fertile field.
Meanwhile, Oguri Hayashi had practically created a new lake beneath the largest waterfall downstream.
Oguri Hayashi had other plans as well, but these were the first things that needed to be completed.
"With these fields, we can support a larger population. No one will have to worry about not being able to afford food, and no one will need to worry about newborn children." Oguri Hayashi stretched and spoke.
The Waterfall Ninja exchanged glances. They felt Oguri Hayashi's method was highly feasible, practically a plan tailor-made for Takigakure.
Takigakure's problems were real and unavoidable, so Oguri Hayashi's plan immediately won everyone's approval.
Seeing that all the Waterfall Ninja agreed with his idea, Oguri Hayashi nodded. This was the first step in transforming them.
First, when there were no missions, they would do things for ordinary people.
"Any ninja who knows Earth Release, come with me. The rest of you, use ninjutsu to cut down those trees. I need logs thick enough that three people can wrap their arms around them. As many as possible!"
"Tsunade, go with them!"
Tsunade glanced at Oguri Hayashi. She neither spoke nor agreed, but that generally counted as tacit consent. She also wanted to see Oguri Hayashi's ideas and methods.
She had already obtained quite a bit of information and useful knowledge from Oguri Hayashi, such as the sand table and his methods of training himself.
Now, she wanted even more to see how capable Oguri Hayashi was at governing a village.
Before you continue