Chapter 256 Research

Uchiha Fugaku sat motionless on the chair, allowing the medical ninja to clumsily treat the wound on his hand. Due to the small number of medical ninjas and the fact that most of them obeyed Tsunade, they were scarce in the New Rain Country. There was only one ninja in his teens in the simple command center, who was also a full-time intelligence department ninja.

After taking great pains to heal the wound on his hand, the young medical ninja wiped the cold sweat from his face and stood up. He cautiously glanced at the famous black-faced Deputy Hokage in the village, feeling very nervous, fearing that the other party would be angry because of this.

The Black-Faced Deputy Hokage is the nickname that the Konoha ninjas privately gave to Uchiha Fugaku, because he always has a stern face and looks like he doesn't want anyone to approach him.

"Hokage-sama, your hand is healed." Based on the principle that kind words are free, the young ninja chose a more pleasant title. This was taught by her father. After all, who likes to be a deputy?

"Well done!" Uchiha Fugaku praised with a smile, and then said: "Don't call me Hokage in the future. There is only one Hokage in Konohagakure, and that is Baiyun Yeshan!"

"Yes!"

"Go and do your work. I'm counting on you!" Uchiha Fugaku smiled and sent the young ninja away. After the other party walked away, he stood up with a stern face and walked out of the door. He looked up at the sky in silence.

"Vice-Hokage, it's cold outside, be careful not to catch a cold."

Uchiha Fugaku came back to his senses and looked over. Seeing that it was a Hyuga clan ninja, he asked with an idea: "What's your name?"

"I am Hyuga Munezane!" the Hyuga ninja replied respectfully.

"Mune..." Uchiha Fugaku pondered for a moment and said, "What is your relationship with Munemori Mune?"

"It's my own brother!"

Uchiha Fugaku patted the other person on the shoulder and said, "So you are the younger brother of the heroic ninja. No wonder you look so familiar to me."

"Don't dare! The two brothers just did what they should do."

"You don't need to be cautious." Uchiha Fugaku said slowly: "After the battle of Kikyo Castle, Hokage-sama was able to come back alive, and your two brothers played a great role! Without them resolutely giving up their lives to act as bait, Ye Shan would definitely not be able to escape unscathed!"

"Every sip and bite is determined by fate. Your brother is worthy of the title of hero!"

Talking about the sad past, Hyuga Muneshi's nose was sore and he almost cried: "After my brothers died, my mother told everyone about her sons' heroic deaths and was proud of it. As their younger brother, I always set strict standards for myself, for fear of losing my reputation!"

"You are very good. Minato Namikaze specifically told me to make use of you before he left!" Uchiha Fugaku said with a smile: "The new policy of the new Rain Country is complicated. I am a newcomer and don't know much about the situation. How do you think I should break the situation?"

Hinata Muneshi lowered his head in thought for a moment, then raised his head and said, "Hokage has repeatedly emphasized at the meeting that we must do everything according to the actual situation. As the saying goes, without research, there is no right to speak. I suggest that you start by visiting every corner of the New Rain Country!"

Uchiha Fugaku leaned over to listen carefully, and praised: "Well said! Those in power should not formulate policies out of touch with reality. Every good policy comes from personal experience. I admire your spirit of hard work. You are completely free of the impetuousness that young people usually have. Not bad!"

Hinata Munezane said modestly: "Vice-Hokage, thank you for your compliment! The situation in the New Rain Country is really complicated and we cannot afford to be careless."

"Give the order to the logistics department to prepare dry food. We need to leave as soon as possible. Time waits for no one!"

"Sir," Hinata Munezane suggested, "We don't need to prepare dry food. There are collective canteens set up in villages throughout the New Rain Country. We can eat wherever we go. This will not only reduce the burden of traveling, but also allow us to conduct an investigation at the same time."

"Well! Your suggestion is very good. I will give you credit for it later!"

In this way, Uchiha Fugaku began to travel day after day. His complexion became worse and worse along the way, and he felt deeply the heavy responsibility on his shoulders.

Uchiha Fugaku stopped in front of a series of lush mountains to look at them. He saw that the mountains rose and fell, far beyond the limits of human vision, leaving sparse black lines in the distant dark sky.

"Where is this?" asked Uchiha Fugaku.

Hinata Muneshi wiped the rain off his face, took out a waterproof map from his pocket, looked at it for a few seconds and replied: "This place is called the Dividing Water Vessel. According to geological experts, the rainfall on the other side of the mountain range is one-third less!"

“How long is the mountain range?”

"It runs across the Rain Country from north to south, a full three hundred kilometers long!"

"Sigh~"

Uchiha Fugaku sucked in a breath of cold air and looked up. All he saw were jagged, exposed rocks, with only a few plants standing stubbornly in the cold wind, which was daunting.

"Hundreds of kilometers away on the other side of the mountain range is the location of the Hidden Rain Village, which is now controlled by the Akatsuki organization. Since ancient times, there has been a saying that the south is poor and the north is rich. Sixty percent of the population of the Rain Country is concentrated in the northwest. Our new Rain Country is a real waterlogged land!"

"Poor in the south, rich in the north?" Uchiha Fugaku became interested, picked up the kettle and took a sip of water, saying: "It won't be long before this eternal proverb will change. By then, it will definitely be poor in the north and rich in the south!"

"Everything in the New Rain Country is full of vitality, far from being comparable to those decadent countries in the north!" Hinata Muneshi smiled and said, "Your Excellency may not know that the Construction Corps has set up a construction team here, responsible for mining rocks and digging a tunnel, with a total of 50,000 people!"

Uchiha Fugaku nodded. He had known about this for a long time, otherwise he would not have come here specially. "It is not easy to blow up a mountain, and it is even more difficult to dig a tunnel. The production method of the New Rain Country is relatively backward. We must take a good look at it this time."

"There was a safety accident here not long ago. The Hokage was furious and punished several ninjas for it. We must not be careless!"

"Yes!"

Uchiha Fugaku raised his wrist, revealing a silver watch. He was a self-disciplined person who had received aristocratic education since childhood. He paid special attention to time. After arriving in the New Rain Country to perform his duties, he rarely wore a watch in order to save every second.

"It's a quarter past eleven now. According to the rules, the construction site will have lunch in a quarter of an hour. If we speed up, we can still have a hot meal."

"Yes!"

The group moved around the mountains like monkeys, and soon the ninja with his sharp nose smelled the fragrance of rice, proving that their destination was not far away.

Soon, several people were stopped by patrolling ninjas and taken to the construction site after their identities were verified.

At this time, it was lunchtime at the construction site, and more than a dozen long lines formed. Uchiha Fugaku declined Sakata's invitation to enter the room for dinner, and instead stood at the end of the line in the rain and quietly lined up.

Sakata reported the recent work in a low voice, looking at the Deputy Hokage's face from time to time, and seeing that he was not unhappy at all, he slowly felt relieved.

A big bowl of white rice, a small piece of pickled vegetables and a bowl of soup with some wild vegetable leaves floating in it - this is the lunch for the most tiring construction site in the entire New Rain Country.

Uchiha Fugaku swallowed his food slowly. He was a child of destiny, having been cared for by his father, the clan leader, and had a very picky taste. However, since he took office, he had developed an iron stomach that would accept anything.

"Where do the wild vegetables come from?" Uchiha Fugaku asked casually while drinking soup.

Sakata swallowed the rice and said quickly, "Your Excellency, the wild vegetables were picked by the workers' families. The mountains are humid, and wild vegetables grow one after another. There are also many mushrooms. I am worried that they are poisonous, so I forbid them to eat them."

"Has meat ever been provided?"

"This..." Sakata said in embarrassment: "Based on the current situation, we are temporarily unable to supply meat. Although there are many wild animals in the mountains, it is simply unrealistic for tens of thousands of people to eat meat."

"Workers work very hard every day. Can their bodies withstand not eating meat for a long time?"

"Look, sir," Sakata pointed at the pickles and wild vegetable soup and said, "The salt content in the pickles and soup is high, enough to meet the needs of the workers."

"Yeah!" Uchiha Fugaku nodded with satisfaction, and then asked: "How is the progress of rock mining?"

"Everything is going well, except that the demand is increasing and the workers are struggling."

“How much is mined daily?”

"Initially, it was about 100 tons. As construction in various places gradually got on track, it is now close to 1,000 tons per day!"

"Thousand tons? A few detonating talismans can solve it. Why is it so slow?"

"Your Excellency doesn't know!" Sakata said with a wry smile, "We are not only responsible for mining, but also for preliminary processing into gravel to facilitate subsequent transportation and use. Moreover, more than half of the manpower is engaged in tunneling, and less than one-third is responsible for mining."

Uchiha Fugaku put down his rough chopsticks and said, "The difficulty of the problem lies in the stone processing, right?"

"Your Majesty, please be clear!"

Uchiha Fugaku wiped his mouth and said, "In the Hidden Rock Village, there is a unique bloodline that is a combination of water and fire chakras. It can spit out lime from the mouth to attack the enemy. I encountered it in the past, and it was really powerful."

Sakata was totally confused and didn't understand what the Deputy Hokage meant, so he had to listen attentively with bated breath.

"Lime combined with water jutsu can form cement in a short period of time to block the enemy's movements. I was wondering if we can capture a few people and use them to produce cement? If successful, the pressure on you here will undoubtedly be much less."

"..."

Sakata was convinced. Is the deputy Hokage so imaginative? Not to mention whether the spitted lime can be used, do you really think that the bloodline ninjas of the Hidden Rock Village are worthless cabbages? Which bloodline ninja is not the favorite of the village? They are usually hidden like precious eggs. How can you catch them so easily?

"I'm afraid this isn't a good idea?" Sakata pretended to think about it and expressed his attitude in a tactful way.

Unexpectedly, Uchiha Fugaku's face darkened and he asked, "Then tell me why it's not a good idea. I want to hear your opinion."

Sakata was groaning in his heart, wishing he could slap himself a few times. Who in the entire Konoha Ninja Village didn't know that this master was difficult to serve? He could just agree with him, but he had to talk too much and ask for trouble.

Sakata hesitated and said, "The new policy of the New Rain Country is just beginning. If we arrest the bloodline ninjas of other villages without authorization, it will easily cause unnecessary disputes and troubles. Even if we take a step back, the amount of cement required for the construction of roads in the New Rain Country is extremely large. It is not realistic to rely solely on ninjas to use chakra to produce it."

Uchiha Fugaku nodded solemnly, and after thinking for a while, he said, "I was just in a whim, you don't have to take it to heart. But the New Rain Country is different from the Fire Country. There are countless mountains of all sizes in the territory. Since ancient times, it has been called the Three Mountains, Five Waters and Two Fields. Simply relying on people to carry cement on their shoulders is too inefficient and prone to safety accidents."

He picked up the chopsticks and swallowed a large piece of rice, then drank a mouthful of wild vegetable soup, and smiled slowly: "When we do practical things, we should not blindly copy and paste. Hokage said it well, we should be good at playing to our strengths and avoiding our weaknesses, and bring things into the field we are good at to solve them."

"Since the mountains are high and the water is long, and it is difficult for people to transport cement, why can't we produce cement on the construction site? This will not only be efficient and convenient, but also save time and labor."

"I think that capturing the Lava Release Ninja is a good idea and it's worth putting on the agenda."

Sakata suddenly realized and said, "You mean to use ordinary means on flat ground and use Lava Release Ninjutsu on dangerous ground?"

"Not bad!"

"Great!" Sakata slapped his thigh, and soon asked with a worried look on his face: "It's a good idea, but the Lava Release Ninjas are arrogant and proud, and it's probably difficult for them to cooperate with us."

Uchiha Fugaku tapped his fingers on the table rhythmically, looking at the workers who were leaving in groups outside, and said with a smile: "No matter how noble a person is, he still has to eat and has his own emotions and desires, and 99% of the desires in the world can be satisfied with money."

"Mong Shi, send an official letter to Huang Tu later and tell him that we can use the A-level mission reward to hire Lava Release Ninja to work. I don't believe he won't be tempted!"

"High, it is high!"

I have to say that Sakata's ability to flatter is not very good. At least Uchiha Fugaku didn't feel the slightest bit moved after hearing it, and even felt like laughing.

"Let the ninjas in charge of management not be idle, and go out among the people more often on weekdays. Using ninjutsu to help them with their work is secondary. The important thing is to see and listen more to their lives and living." Uchiha Fugaku emphasized.

"The victims are also human beings, and they need emotional comfort. During the break, you might as well organize some activities to get more people involved and better establish a system where the ninja and the people are like one family."

Sakata took out his notebook and wrote it down carefully, then asked, "What specific forms of activities are there? Please let Vice Hokage tell me."

"You are a smart person, but you are sometimes timid in doing things. Remember, don't be afraid to do practical things. The reforms we are carrying out are like crossing the river by feeling the stones. There is no need for you to be so cautious."

Uchiha Fugaku smiled and said, "The form of the activity is not limited. Activities like remembering the bitter past and thinking about the sweet past are all great."

"You can also organize film screenings, dance parties, game competitions, chorus competitions, etc. In short, the more the better!"

"In a word, we must not only build the infrastructure of the New Rain Country, but also focus on spiritual construction!"

“The so-called new is a brand new one that is completely new and unprecedented!”