Shu Shiraishi threw the electricity bill away.
The paper slid across the large mahogany table, knocking over a half-empty glass of cold water.
The water flowed out, blurring the red ink markings on the report, leaving a large, messy red patch.
Orochimaru stood across the table.
His white lab coat had two black oil stains on it.
He raised his hand and vigorously rubbed his bluish dark circles under his eyes with his greasy knuckles.
He opened his mouth wide and let out a completely unladylike yawn. Two drops of physiological tears squeezed from the corners of his eyes.
" Lord Shu." Orochimaru's voice was hoarse, dry from working non-stop for three days.
"The power is running low."
Shu Shiraishi leaned back in his leather chair. "Be more specific."
"The underground testing ground for the second phase of the mecha project tripped four times last night."
Orochimaru put his hands into the pockets of his white coat, groping for something.
"The heavy-duty hydraulic press in the stamping workshop has lost half its speed. The steel plates it produces are not of the required thickness."
He took out a rusty nut and fiddled with it in his hand.
"The entire village's high-voltage power grid is now operating on a time-limited basis. The residential area to the north has been without power for two days."
Shu Shiraishi took out his cigarette case, pulled out a cigarette, and put it in his mouth.
Light the match. Bring the flame close to the cigarette butt.
"Didn't I bring back a big battery? Where's the Raikage?"
He took a drag and exhaled a grayish-white smoke.
Orochimaru gave a wry smile.
I lost my grip on the nut and it fell. It hit the wooden floor and rolled under the table.
"It's almost drained."
Orochimaru braced his hands on the edge of the table.
"That big black guy is really tough. We punched eighty Chakra holes in his back, and filled them all with drainage tubes."
"At first, he was still cursing in the insulated water tank. His voice was so loud that the glass in the monitoring room rattled."
Orochimaru shook his head.
"But in the past two days, the arsenal's production capacity has doubled. The power output has been increased by three levels."
"He's foaming at the mouth every day now, and he can't even lift his eyelids."
Orochimaru sighed.
"Last night, the logistics staff went to administer his high-protein nutrient solution. They found that his dark skin had turned white from being soaked in the electrolyte. His muscles had atrophied considerably."
"After all, it's made of flesh and blood."
Orochimaru looked at Shu Shiraishi.
"If they keep squeezing him like this, he'll be a dried-up corpse in less than three days."
Shu Shiraishi tapped his fingers, which were holding a cigarette, on the table. "Tap. Tap."
"The limits of individual strength are indeed insufficient to handle the demands of industrial-scale operations."
He stubbed out the remaining half of his cigarette in the ceramic ashtray and crushed it out forcefully.
"Ordinary ninjas won't do. Neither will the Raikage."
Shu Shiraishi raised his head.
"Then let's use the Tailed Beast."
Orochimaru was stunned.
Just as he was about to continue reporting on production capacity, the words caught in his throat.
Tailed Beast?
In the consensus of the Shinobi World, the Tailed Beast are natural disasters, strategic weapons used by various ninja villages to deter each other.
Like Hashirama Senju, capture them and give them away as gifts.
Or like the Kumogakure Village, countless lives were lost just to seal them within Jinchūriki, to be used as a nuclear weapon.
"Capture the Tailed Beast... to use as weapons?" Orochimaru asked tentatively.
"What a load of crap, a weapon!"
Shu Shiraishi stood up and pulled open the blinds behind him.
Outside the window, the Konoha industrial area roared. Towering red-brick chimneys were belching out thick black smoke.
"Throw them onto the battlefield to smash stones. That's a primitive game."
Shu Shiraishi pointed to the newly built Chakra water tower in the distance.
" The Nine Tailed Beasts are like nine inexhaustible natural nuclear reactors."
"Bring him back. Build him an extra-large, enclosed boiler."
"Put them in. Plug in the insulating tubes. Use them as our all-weather generator."
Orochimaru's mouth opened slightly.
Are we going to bring back natural disasters to power boilers and generate electricity?
This violent logic of trampling gods underfoot and using them as fuel directly struck Orochimaru's nerves.
An unnatural flush rose on his pale face, and his breathing became rapid.
"Yes... yes!"
Orochimaru frantically rubbed his hands on his white coat, wiping away the cold sweat from his palms.
" The Chakra reserves of Tailed Beast are thousands upon thousands of times greater than those of humans, and they can regenerate infinitely!"
He turned and ran to the metal filing cabinet next to him.
He yanked open the drawer, the papers rustling as he rummaged through it.
He pulled out a yellowed parchment map and jogged back to his desk.
With a wave of his hands, the map was spread out on the mahogany table.
"Distribution map of Tailed Beast in the Shinobi World." Orochimaru pressed his finger on the map.
He excitedly licked his chapped lips.
" The Nine-Tails is inside Lady Mito's body. It's currently the backup power source for Base One. It cannot be moved."
" The Two-Tails and Eight-Tails are in the Land of Lightning. The Kumogakure was just crippled by us; they're good targets."
Orochimaru frowned.
"But the Land of Lightning is mountainous and too far away. Transporting generator sets over long distances would be too costly."
He looked up at Shu Shiraishi.
" Lord Shu, which one do you fancy?"
Shu Shiraishi walked back to the table.
His gaze swept across the parchment map.
Extend your index finger and press your fingernail against the large yellow area in the lower left corner of the map.
The Land of Wind, Sunagakure.
" One-Tail Shukaku ".
Shu Shiraishi tapped the area twice with his finger, producing a dull "thump, thump" sound.
"It's closest to the Land of Fire. The entire route is flat, with no difficult swamps."
Orochimaru looked in the direction the finger was pointing.
" Sunagakure..." He smacked his lips.
"That place is all sand. It's dirt poor."
"It's because we're poor."
Shu Shiraishi pulled over a chair and sat down again.
"I've disliked that poor village of Sunagakure for a long time."
" The Daimyo of the Land of Wind just cut their military budget. The village doesn't even have a full set of standard ninja tools."
Shu Shiraishi leaned back in his chair.
"The blacksmith shop barely opens once every six months. The ninjas eat sandy rations Tenten."
"They're perfect targets."
Orochimaru straightened up.
"I'll go assemble the First Mecha Battalion right away. Bring those three hundred heavy machine guns with me too."
He clenched his fists so tightly his knuckles turned white.
"Push it across. Pull that raccoon out of the sand."
Use your brain.
Shu Shiraishi Osamu slammed his hand on the table, interrupting Orochimaru's frenzy.
"A massive army is pressing in? How much Chakra fuel will a mecha unit burn in a single day?"
"When the machine gun fired, it fired nothing but high-purity Chakra crystals."
Shu Shiraishi looked at him coldly.
"War is about money. Dealing with a poor place like Sunagakure isn't worth our military spending."
Orochimaru was stunned.
Without sending a large army or deploying mechs, how are they going to capture the Tailed Beast?
"If we don't send our main force, how can we fight?" Orochimaru asked.
Shu Shiraishi drew a circle on the border of the map with his finger.
"Go to the Aviation Department and bring out those newly completed rigid airships."
An airship. A flying machine that Orochimaru recently built according to blueprints. It has a huge cargo pod hanging from its belly.
"We won't fight a positional war. We'll fight an economic war."
Shu Shiraishi stared at the Sunagakure symbol.
"The cost of machine-made ninja tools in Konoha has been reduced to one-tenth of that of handcrafted ones. Grain yields per acre have tripled due to the use of biochemical agents."
He tugged at his collar.
"Airdrop leaflets. Open a border trade market."
"They're dumping our high-quality steel ninja tools and food at rock-bottom prices."
"Merchants and commoners from Sunagakure will swarm like flies to blood, offering their last remaining gold dust and ore in exchange."
Orochimaru's mind works extremely fast.
Although he was a research fanatic, just thinking about it for a little while would make him break out in a cold sweat.
"In less than half a month, the blacksmiths and grain merchants of Sunagakure will be completely bankrupt."
Orochimaru gasped.
"Yes. Drain their economy completely."
Shu Shiraishi interlaced his fingers and placed them under his chin.
When they can't even afford food, their prized Puppet Technique are nothing more than a pile of unwanted, broken wood.
Shu Shiraishi stood up.
He pointed to the half-eaten glass test tube sticking out of Orochimaru's white coat pocket.
"Besides."
"Don't hide those half-finished biochemical agents you and Tsunade made."
"Load it into the airship's dispenser. Give them some, following the wind."
Shu Shiraishi turned around and looked out the window.
"Economic sanctions combined with a biological and chemical attack."
"I want the Sunagakure to tie up their own One-Tail and bring it to me in exchange for steamed buns."
Orochimaru abruptly lowered his head. "Understood! I'll go prepare the airship force right away!"
The scene changes.
The Land of Wind, Sunagakure.
A fierce wind whipped up a sky full of yellow sand, pounding against the dilapidated earthen walls surrounding Sunagakure.
It made a piercing hissing sound.
The entire village was shrouded in a hazy, yellowish sandstorm, with visibility less than ten meters.
Kazekage Building.
A sandstone building with a domed roof. The walls are pitted and uneven from wind and sand erosion.
In the top-floor office, the windows were tightly closed, but a layer of fine sand still seeped in through the cracks.
The stone slabs crunched underfoot.
The Third Kazekage sat behind the stone table.
He was wearing a heavy, Kazekage robe, with the hood pulled back over his head.
His brows furrowed into a tight knot.
He looked at the pitiful financial statement on the table.
The edges of the paper were curled. The numbers on it were pitifully few.
The daimyo has cut its military budget by another 30%.
The village's food reserves are only enough to last for two months.
The puppeteers at the front lines can't even get the oil needed to maintain their puppets.
Kazekage took a deep breath, inhaling a bit of sand and dust into his lungs.
He turned his head away and coughed violently, his face turning completely red.
I can't take it anymore.