Chapter 233
Land of Snow, Daimyo's Office.
In the office, two figures suddenly appeared outside the main hall's door.
A man and a woman, one handsome, the other delicate, both with an extraordinary presence. It was Haruno Sakura and Sasuke.
However, under the effect of Sasuke's crimson Sharingan, the presence of the two, who were originally quite eye-catching, was drastically reduced. The other people in the Daimyo's office acted as if they didn't see the two who had suddenly barged in.
—Sasuke's genjutsu was, at least, very effective against ordinary people.
Knock, knock.
Out of politeness, Sakura did not directly burst into the main hall of the Daimyo's office, but knocked on the door from the outside.
"Who is it? Didn't I say that after three in the afternoon is my afternoon tea time, and not to disturb me unless it's urgent?" Koyuki's lazy and charming voice came from inside the hall, her words drawn out, making her sound even sweeter. "If it's not urgent, come back at five!"
The two outside the door looked at each other.
Sasuke patted a piece of paper pasted next to the door, on which was written in large characters:
Daimyo's Office Hours: 9:30 AM - 11:00 AM, 2:30 PM - 5:15 PM.
In other words, excluding the afternoon tea time, she only worked for forty-five minutes the entire afternoon?
A drop of cold sweat trickled down Sakura's forehead.
Sure enough, I knew Kazahana Koyuki couldn't possibly become that kind of diligent daimyo... Sakura shook her head, dragging the imaginary picture of Kazahana Koyuki wearing glasses, draped in candlelight in the dead of night, to the recycle bin in her mind, right-clicked, and permanently deleted it!
She pushed the door open directly—and by the way, announced that the Daimyo's office would have to get a new lock again.
Kazahana Koyuki's image was exactly as she had imagined: she was half-sitting, half-lying on the sofa as if boneless, the heater turned up to the maximum, eating snacks out of boredom while watching a movie.
"Oh, you're here," Kazahana Koyuki only glanced over lazily when she heard the door open. Seeing that it was the two from Team 7, she said, "Welcome, welcome," but her body was too lazy to even move, lounging on the sofa like a water snake, let alone getting up to greet them.
"How extravagant! The common people at the bottom are still eating dirt, yet you are here, eating, drinking, and having fun, living a life of luxury and dissipation!" Haruno Sakura said, walking into the hall with great heartache.
"What people are eating dirt? I haven't heard anything about that," Koyuki rolled her eyes, expressing her disdain for Sakura's shameless slander. "And these are all things left by my dad and Kazahana Dotō. It would be a waste not to use them."
Seeing the two of them approach, she stretched, sat up properly, and cleared a space on the sofa for them to sit.
"There's electricity here. It's amazing, isn't it?" she said with a smile, pointing at the television in front of her with some pride. "This is the geothermal generator my dad invented, another precious relic he left behind!"
Although the climate of the Land of Snow was extremely cold, it had rich geothermal resources... As a mechanical genius, for Kazahana Sōsetsu to have thought of using geothermal energy for heating, he naturally wouldn't have forgotten that it could also be used for power generation.
In his plan, the whole country was to be heated first, and then a geothermal power station would be built. So he had just developed the geothermal generator and then set it aside.
To say it was "developed" was an exaggeration. There was actually no technical content to it. To be able to extract geothermal energy for heating, then to use the boiling hot water in the pipes to generate electricity was as easy as flipping one's hand. From her previous life's Earth to the current ninja world, the people of both worlds still used the same old methods. From thermal power to nuclear power to geothermal power, it was nothing more than changing the way they boiled water...
After a few sentences of idle chat, the topic turned to the construction of the Land of Snow.
First came the good news.
"There are no problems in other aspects. Everyone is very enthusiastic about building their homes. The Land of Snow has been completely renewed. You should have seen it when you came over. After being straightened out by you, Sakura-chan, the Land of Snow is basically under my complete control. No one dares to play any tricks. It can be considered that the government is effective and the people are harmonious, the rivers are clear and the seas are calm," Kazahana Koyuki said with some pride.
And then came the complaints.
"However, the biggest problem is the slow progress of laying the heating system. It's stuck on funding," Kazahana Koyuki said with some helplessness. "The country's current industrial capacity is almost zero. When my dad was around, we could still make various parts for the heating system, but they were all completely destroyed by Kazahana Dotō. So we can only import from your Land of Fire..."
She scratched her hair in frustration. "We're too short of money! I originally had a plan to rebuild my dad's industrial system, but now I've completely given up. If I were to forcefully push that plan, the people of the Land of Snow would probably really have to eat dirt!"
Sakura shrugged, noncommittal. On Earth in her previous life, for a country to become big and strong, they had to endure hardship and smash their pots and sell their iron to build up their industry. But her Land of Snow had its own national conditions... In the world of ninja, the power of mechanical industry was not that great. The most advanced productive force should be the chakra industry. And the size and natural environment of the Land of Snow also couldn't support much industry. It was not impossible for a small country with a small population to take the "small but certain happiness" route.
She had no comment on Kazahana Koyuki's national governance route.
Chakra and ninjutsu were better than machinery in all aspects, so if it were up to her, establishing a ninja academy and popularizing chakra for the entire population would be the path to a strong nation... and if she did that, she would be killed the next day.
That's right. Any daimyo who dared to do that, not to mention where he would get the teaching staff to establish a ninja academy, just by showing the idea of doing such a thing, the five great ninja villages would be the first to jump out and kill him.
Unless she was Hashirama Senju. Like him, using unquestionable military force to forcefully end the chaotic and hellish Warring States period, and establish the orderly era of the five great nations, pushing the history of human civilization forward by a step with his own power. However, history was, in the end, still created by the people. As strong as the First Hokage was, the reason he could rebuild order was also because everyone was already tired of the era of war. His actions were just following the tide of the times.
But let's get back to the topic.
The matter of the Land of Snow, let Koyuki have a headache over it. As an outsider, she couldn't say much.
However, the fact that there was electricity here was an unexpected joy.
She had a lot of equipment that needed electricity. She had been worried about the power supply problem, but now it was solved.
In addition, for the next stage of the Yin Seal, she planned to try to store external energy with it. With the Land of Snow's geothermal power plant, she would not have to worry about where to find an energy source.
"The matters here have basically stabilized. I plan to continue filming movies starting from this year to earn money to support the country!" Koyuki said.
This matter had already been decided during the last Land of Snow mission. Before, when she had dared to make such a decision, her reliance was still just the military power of Team 7. Even if something happened, she could still take back the Land of Snow. But now, she already had prestige among the people of the Land of Snow, and had gained the recognition and respect of the entire country, so she was even more confident.
It was just that in other people's homes, it was the men who earned money to support the family. But in the Land of Snow, it was the female daimyo who earned money to support the country...
The Land of Snow was actually poorer than Haruno Sakura.
"Since you don't think it's a problem, then go for it," Sakura said, and at the same time, she took out a bankbook from her Tokujō vest. "This is a small token of my personal feelings for the people of the Land of Snow."
This was her gain from the bounty station mission...
Of course! She hadn't privately hidden the seizures. This was her spoils of war!
Who told that person in charge to be so afraid of death, shouting "Don't kill me, don't kill me! I'll give you all my money!", and then obediently offered up his bankbook and password...
Sakura, of course, had not killed him—she had been supposed to capture these people alive in the first place, so she had taken this spoil of war with a clear conscience.
Haruno Sakura solemnly reiterated that when the Anbu carried out a mission, they had the right to dispose of the spoils of war. This was an unwritten rule of the Anbu, their small perk!
In short, although the string of zeros on the bankbook was a drop in the ocean compared to the real seizures, for a poor young girl, it was already an astronomical figure.
The first time she held a huge sum of money in her hands, she felt a sense of being lost after drawing her sword and looking around. From being dirt poor to a nouveau riche who would order two bowls of soy milk, drink one and pour one out, Sakura herself was a little bewildered.
After setting aside her share for experiments, she didn't know what to do with the remaining half.
For personal enjoyment? No, no, no. She had neither the habit nor the time for extravagance, and she didn't care for the pleasures of the ninja world.
Lend it to Tsunade to pay off her gambling debts? That was even more unnecessary. A debt she had racked up with her own skill, why should she pay it back? If you have the guts, have the casino manager come to Konoha to collect the debt! As for the casino not welcoming Tsunade anymore... wouldn't that be even better! It would be a perfect way to help her master quit gambling.
Hand it over to the state? What does this have to do with the Land of Fire... Handing it over would just be enriching the Daimyo. She had no real feelings for the Land of Fire. Sakura was the typical type who loved her village but not her country.
It just so happened that there was an extreme lack of funds for building a home here. For this money to be used to benefit the poor people could also be considered a meaningful thing. She would just treat it as an advance payment to the Land of Snow for opening a base and for the future use of the geothermal power plant!
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