Thick, yellowish-black smoke billowed into the office through the half-open window.
Like a muddy loach.
Kakuzu was laughing wildly with his mouth wide open when a puff of smoke went straight down his throat.
The laughter stopped abruptly.
He suddenly bent over, covering his mouth tightly with both hands. "Cough! Cough cough cough!"
Kakuzu coughed so hard it was excruciating. Tears streamed down his face, dripping onto his gray vest.
His knees buckled, and he knelt directly on the carpet.
The abacus fell out of the vest pocket and crashed onto the table leg with a clatter, scattering its beads all over the floor.
"Cough... Ugh!" Kakuzu vomited a mouthful of sour water tinged with blood.
Shu Shiraishi stood up and took a few steps to the window.
Reach out and grab the brass handle. Pull hard.
"Bang." The two glass windows slammed shut, locked tight.
In just a few seconds, the windowpane was covered with a layer of greasy black ash.
Shu Shiraishi extended his index finger and wiped it on the glass. His fingertip was covered in sticky coal ash and heavy oil.
He twirled his fingers and turned around.
The door was pushed open.
Orochimaru strode in, carrying a military-green pig-snout gas mask.
He casually tossed the mask onto the sofa.
The collar of his white lab coat was completely black. He opened his mouth and took two deep breaths of the relatively clean air in the office.
"Half of the villagers are queuing up at the hospital."
Orochimaru picked up the teacup, poured himself a cup of water, and gulped it down. The water flowed down his chin and down his neck.
"The dust from the No. 2 blast furnace is too heavy. When it falls on people and gets mixed with sweat, it causes red spots."
Orochimaru slammed his teacup heavily onto the table.
"It oozes yellow fluid when scratched. Extensive peeling. The Medical Team has run out of gauze."
Shu Shiraishi didn't reply. He wiped his fingers, which were covered in black ash, on a scrap of paper on the corner of the table.
Several dark marks were left behind.
Orochimaru looked at him. "The water in the Nanhe River turned fluorescent green this morning."
"Dead fish floated for three miles. A vast expanse of white."
"A stray dog at the village entrance drank some river water, immediately foamed at the mouth, convulsed twice, and died."
He pulled out a chair and sat down. His bones made a soft cracking sound.
" Lord Shu, the sewage system is overloaded."
Orochimaru proposed a plan.
"I suggest shutting down two blast furnaces. The production lines at the chemical plant should also be reduced to half capacity."
"Let it rest for three days. Wait for the monsoon to disperse the smoke and for the heavy metals in the water to settle."
The office fell silent.
Only Kakuzu lay on the ground, still gasping for breath.
Shu Shiraishi looked at the pile of gold-embossed ledgers on the table.
Suddenly, he raised his right hand.
It was slammed firmly onto the mahogany table.
"Bang!"
The table shook violently.
The rough porcelain teacup jumped half an inch high. Half a cup of cold water spilled out, flowing over the Kakuzu the just-calculated total bill.
The ink spread instantly.
Kakuzu lay on the ground, his heart aching with pain. He frantically tried to protect the account books.
"Stop work?" Shu Shiraishi's voice was as cold and hard as iron.
"A minute's machine downtime results in a loss of millions of taels of silver and a delay in the production of tens of thousands of bullets."
He stared into Orochimaru's eyes.
"Once this war machine is started, there's no reverse gear."
Orochimaru frowned. "But the poison gas is trapped in the village. Ninjas can withstand it, but civilians can't."
"If all the civilians are dead, who will push the carts? Who will move the goods?"
If it can't be drained out, dig a road to drain it out.
Shu Shiraishi opened the drawer and picked up the red and blue pencil.
The pen tip touched the Shinobi World map on the wall.
"Find the Sarutobi Clan. Don't they love to kick up dust?"
"Dig from beneath Chemical Plant No. 1. Drill a ten-meter-thick underground pipeline for me."
Orochimaru walked up to the map.
"Where to go? The borders of the Land of Fire are all primeval forests."
"If the trees over a hundred miles are poisoned, Daming Prefecture will send people to investigate. It'll be a lot of trouble with all the disputes then."
Shu Shiraishi twisted his wrist.
The pencil drew a long red line on the map.
Passing through the Land of Fire, passing through the Land of Rivers. Red ink heavily presses down on the mountains and rivers.
Finally, the pen tip was stuck on the left side of the map.
The lead core pierced through the paper and embedded itself in the wall plaster, making a crisp "click" sound.
"Here," Shu Shiraishi said.
Orochimaru followed the tip of the pen.
The Land of Wind.
"That area is all sand. Not a blade of grass grows there."
Shu Shiraishi threw down the pencil. The pencil rolled twice on the table and fell onto the carpet.
"This will help improve their soil composition."
Orochimaru gasped.
They directly discharged Konoha's industrial waste gas and toxic waste into other countries' territories.
They didn't even bother to say hello. They treat their neighboring country like their own sewer.
This is even more unreasonable than starting a war.
But he liked the crazy idea.
"I'll call up the Earth Release Team right away." Orochimaru turned and walked out, his pace twice as fast as when he came.
The speed at which Konoha is building its infrastructure is terrifying.
That night.
Fifty meters underground at Chemical Plant No. 1, the lights were still on.
Hundreds of the Sarutobi Clan ninjas were shirtless, their muscles covered in mud and sweat.
Their eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep, and their hands were frantically Hand Seals.
Earth Release: Earth Release: Earth Flow River!
" Earth Release Technique: Moving Earth Core!"
The soil was forcibly pushed aside. The hard rock layers were shattered into dust.
A giant tunnel with a diameter of ten meters has taken shape underground.
Immediately afterwards, dozens of Uchiha ninjas rushed in.
Their eyes gleamed with Sharingan, their hands pressed against the earthen wall.
Fire Style: Great Dragon Fire!
High-temperature flames rolled across the tunnel walls.
The silicates in the soil melt instantly. After cooling, they become a hard, smooth, ceramic-like inner wall.
Pressure resistant and corrosion resistant.
The giant pipeline is extending westward at a frantic pace of tens of kilometers per day.
They traversed mountains and Sarutobi Clan rivers, exhausting themselves to the point of vomiting blood, yet they managed to forge a border.
Behind the pipeline. The source of Konoha.
The fat members of the Akimichi Clan carried enormous fan blades, ten meters in diameter, so heavy that their backs were bent.
The blades were stuck firmly in the vent.
More than a hundred Wind Release ninjas stood behind the fan, arranged in three rows.
His cheeks puffed out, and his face turned bright red.
" Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!"
The wind whips the blades.
The fan whirred with a piercing shriek. A powerful suction created a vortex at the duct opening.
Yellowish-black toxic fumes swirling above the Konoha, and green acidic water discharged from chemical plants.
Like being sucked in by a giant beast, they surged wildly into the underground megapipe.
Propelled by the high-pressure Wind Release, it raced westward along the smooth ceramic inner wall.
The Land of Wind, Sunagakure.
noon.
The Third Kazekage stood atop the Kazekage Building's dome.
He wore a white robe and a blue Kazekage hat on his head.
Hands behind the back.
"A rare fine day." The Third Kazekage looked up.
There was no sandstorm today.
The sky was blue. The sun was blazing, but visibility was excellent.
In the Land of Wind, such bright and clear days are rare throughout the year.
Grandma Chiyo stood beside her, leaning on her cane.
"It's been very quiet in Konoha lately. Our spies can't even get past the border."
Chiyo coughed twice. The wrinkles on her old face were squeezed together, like crumpled parchment.
"That madman, Shu Shiraishi, who knows what kind of wicked scheme he's plotting."
The Third Kazekage sneered.
"Who cares what he's doing? Our Sunagakure is so poor we only have sand left. What makes you think he can steal our sand?"
He straightened his collar, which had been ruffled by the wind.
"If their Konoha army dares to come in because of this natural barrier, I'll use Magnet Release to bury them all in the sand dunes. They'll never return."
The words had barely left his mouth.
A strange, muffled sound suddenly came from the sand dunes on the eastern outskirts of the village.
"Rumble, rumble, rumble."
The sound was muffled, like a giant train running underground.
The yellow sand on the surface of the dunes began to vibrate violently. The sand flowed down the slope, forming small eddies.
The Third Kazekage frowned.
"Earthquake?"
"Boom!"
A deafening roar shook the heavens and the earth.
A sand dune tens of meters high suddenly exploded open from the middle.
The yellow sand was blasted hundreds of meters into the air.
A huge, dark hole, ten meters in diameter, jutted out diagonally from the ground.
The pipe opening was still covered with charred, glassy sand particles, emitting bluish smoke.
The Third Kazekage was stunned.
What is that?
Before he could react...
"Call--!"
A terrifying gust of air erupted from the black hole.
Accompanied by airflow.
It was a thick, yellowish-black smoke that blotted out the sky.
Like a giant venomous dragon breaking free of its cage, it roared and charged out of the pipe.
Thick smoke billowed and spread instantly.
The speed was astonishing.
The once clear blue sky was swallowed up by black smoke in the blink of an eye.
The sun has disappeared.
The Sunagakure was plunged into a suffocating darkness.
Immediately afterwards.
"Splash!"
A thick, green, viscous liquid, mixed with white, pungent Utakata.
It gushed out of the pipe.
It crashed onto the sand dunes like a waterfall.
Greenish sewage flowed down the sand dune, billowing out large plumes of corrosive white smoke.
The golden sand was instantly dyed a disgusting blackish-green.