In the mountains south of the Land of Rice Fields.
The Hyuga Clan's three thousand-plus people stopped. They had arrived.
There was a village at the foot of the mountain.
The village was deserted. No one had lived there for a long time.
More than half of the mud-walled houses had collapsed.
The grass in the courtyards stood taller than a person.
The merchant who owned the caravan came over.
He looked around and asked Shinichi, somewhat puzzled.
"Lord Shinichi, why have we stopped here?"
"Are we taking a rest?"
Shinichi looked at the barren mountains and ruined village before him.
"No more resting."
"This is our destination."
"We're going to build a Shinobi Village of our own here, a village belonging to the Hyuga Clan. Hyuga Village."
The merchant froze.
He turned to look at the few dilapidated houses that had mostly collapsed and the weeds as tall as a person.
"Build a Shinobi Village here?"
"I passed through here on a trading trip a couple of years ago. There were still quite a few families in the village then."
"Then bandits raided it several times, and before long, everyone in the village had fled."
The merchant's eyes slowly widened.
He looked at Shinichi, then at the three thousand-plus Hyuga clan members behind him.
He remembered what he had said on the road a few days earlier.
If only the Land of Rice Fields had its own Shinobi Village.
He had never expected that, in the blink of an eye, the Hyuga Clan would be building a Shinobi Village in the Land of Rice Fields.
He stood frozen, unable to close his mouth for a long while.
Only after quite some time did he come back to his senses.
The merchant's face flushed a little.
"That's wonderful."
"With the Hyuga Clan here, let's see which bandits still dare come looking for death."
He stepped back and bowed deeply to Shinichi.
"Lord Shinichi, go ahead and build your village here with peace of mind."
"Once the Hyuga village is established, I'll definitely bring my caravan back."
"I'll bring you the best goods."
Shinichi nodded.
The merchant straightened and turned to call his workers.
When the workers heard that a Shinobi Village would be built here, they kept glancing back as they hitched up the wagons.
The sound of rolling wheels rose.
The caravan set off again, heading toward the capital of the Land of Rice Fields.
The caravan gradually disappeared into the distance.
The Hyuga Clan spread out and began building their own village.
All three thousand or so people got to work.
The person-high weeds were cut down in swaths, piled on open ground, and burned.
The mostly collapsed mud houses were completely torn apart.
The elderly and the women picked out the old stones and mixed fresh mud to lay foundations.
Several hundred branch-family ninjas bounded up the tree trunks onto the mountain to the south.
Kunai swung, felling large trees and trimming away their branches.
The roads in the village, blocked by scattered rocks, were cleared little by little as well.
Everyone was working.
Scarface leaped down from halfway up the mountain with two thick logs on his shoulder.
He tossed the logs, weighing hundreds of pounds, onto the ground.
The ground gave a dull thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.
He wiped the sweat from his face and shouted up the mountain.
"Get moving!"
"Cut down a few more thick ones and bring them down!"
"Get the houses put together before dark! Don't leave the elderly and children without somewhere to rest!"
Dozens of branch-family ninjas on the mountain shouted back.
Log after log was swiftly carried down the mountain.
Shinichi walked to the bottom of the slope.
He looked at the densely packed trees above.
His clansmen held kunai, cutting them down one after another.
Shinichi raised his right hand and aimed it at the patch of woods.
An immense suction force erupted from his palm.
A large stretch of woodland on the slope shuddered violently.
Dozens of large trees were ripped out by their roots.
With dirt flying from them, the trees all hurtled down together.
With a boom, they landed neatly on the open ground.
Shinichi turned and looked toward the village entrance.
A huge boulder lay across the way.
Several clansmen were braced against it, pushing until sweat covered their heads, but the boulder did not budge.
Shinichi walked over, raised his hand, and pushed from a distance.
A blast of Repulsive Force slammed hard into the boulder.
The huge boulder flew off the ground and rumbled down the mountain.
A large stretch of ground at the village entrance and on the slope was cleared all at once.
Several hundred clansmen stopped working.
Everyone stared, stunned, at the bare slope and the cleared village entrance.
Someone let out the first cheer.
Immediately afterward, cheers rang out all over the mountain.
Scarface stood on a tree stump, shouting louder than anyone.
"Mighty clan leader! Mighty clan leader!"
Uncle walked over and shook his head at the vast stretch of cleared ground, though he was smiling.
"That alone was worth three days of chopping by hundreds of our people."
The village's old well had long since dried up.
Only chunks of cracked, dry mud remained at the bottom. Not a drop of water could be drawn.
With more than three thousand people settling here, water for drinking and daily use was the most urgent need.
Several branch-family ninjas walked to the edge of the village.
Veins bulged at the corners of their eyes as they activated their Byakugan and looked underground.
Their gazes pierced the thick layers of soil and rock.
Before long, they found an underground water vein that was not far below the surface.
A dozen or so clansmen immediately began digging with their kunai.
Soil and rocks were hauled up basket by basket.
A new well was dug that very day.
A wooden bucket was lowered, and the water drawn up was clear and cool.
Scarface was the first to gulp down a mouthful, grinning broadly. "Sweet! Even sweeter than the water from the well back at the clan grounds!"
The clansmen, who had worked for most of the day, gathered around the well and lined up to drink in great gulps.
Elsewhere.
The first few houses to be repaired had also been tidied up.
The rubble and dust on the floors had been swept completely clean.
The clan's elderly and children were settled in, becoming the first to move inside.
More than ten days passed.
The deserted village had changed completely.
All the person-high weeds had been cleared away.
The rocks blocking the roads had been moved, leaving several smooth, broad roads.
A large, clean stretch of open ground had also been leveled on the slope.
The houses had yet to be built.
Most of the clansmen had settled into temporary wooden shelters on the open ground.
At night, the clansmen took turns activating their Byakugan and guarding the village perimeter.
The bandits in the nearby mountains saw the firelight from afar, but not a single band dared approach.
Everyone worked with tremendous energy each day, waiting for the new houses to be built.
One morning.
A branch-family ninja guarding the southern side of the village stood in a treetop.
Veins bulged at the corners of his eyes as he used his Byakugan to look into the distance along the mountain path.
A figure appeared on the mountain path more than a kilometer away.
The man was walking extremely fast.
He had long black hair.
He was tall and wore red armor.
As he walked, the man raised his hand, grinned broadly toward the distant village, and waved vigorously.
The branch-family clansman guarding the village froze for a moment.
He clearly saw the immense chakra within the man.
The clansman's eyes flew wide.
He immediately leaped down from the treetop, turned, and sprinted into the village.
As he ran, he shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Clan leader!"
"Uncle!"
"Someone's coming!"
The clansmen in the village stopped working one after another and turned to look south.
Uncle stood up as well and looked south.
Shinichi set down what he was holding and raised his eyes toward the end of the mountain path.
A loud shout came from the far end of the path.
"Hyuga clan leader! I'm here to build your houses!"
The newcomer was Hashirama Senju.
Before you continue