Chapter 407: Haku Minazuki
On the way out of the hospital, Haruno Sakura was still chattering endlessly with Haku.
"The parasitic disease prevalent in the northwest is actually not hard to cure at all!" The pink-haired girl explained at a rapid pace, "Organize a medical team, ideally led by Master Hokage herself. It wouldn't take more than a month or two for us to develop a specific drug that kills the pathogen in the water of the epidemic area and completely eradicates this epidemic!"
"Then send a few Chunin squads, or even Genin squads would do. In at most half a year, we can completely solve this problem. For ninja, this is basically not a difficult issue!"
She had seen Haku's report just now. This disease looked quite like Schistosomiasis on Earth in her past life. In the early days of the founding of Country C, it was extremely prevalent in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, infecting and killing over ten million people. It took more than fifty years to basically eliminate it. Perhaps after sixty or seventy years, the new generation no longer felt its threat, but if a family had members who died from it, they would surely have a deep impression of it. However, in the Naruto world, with extremely convenient ninjutsu, it shouldn't take such a long time.
Haku Minazuki walked side by side with her. Low-level medical ninja they met on the way stopped to greet her upon seeing her: "Minazuki-sama." She would nod and smile in response while looking at Sakura with a smile: "But the Land of Fire government didn't issue this mission to us!"
—No mission meant no mission payment. The Fifth Hokage wouldn't do such a losing business.
Speaking of which, the kind-hearted and gentle Haku had high compatibility with the medical ninja profession. having transferred to this class only a few years ago, she had been promoted to Jonin relying on superb medical ninjutsu and served as a Squadron Leader in the Medical Corps, making her quite a significant figure. Coupled with her gentle and graceful personality and clear, exquisite face, her popularity among the doctors in Konoha Hospital (regardless of gender) was extremely high.
"You didn't understand what I meant!" Sakura waved her hand and said repeatedly, "Didn't I just say, first of all, our ninja village actually doesn't need something like the Land of Fire government. Or rather, it's best if we form the government ourselves, without the need for Daimyo or nobles! This way, we have the qualification and obligation to manage such things!"
"But," Haku was still unhurried, her tone melodious and soft, "These things you said haven't happened yet!"
"Right, just as Master said, neither the ninja nor the ninja village are ready, so we have to let the status quo continue and cannot easily change it," The pink-haired girl snapped her fingers, her spirits still high, "But that doesn't mean we should do nothing. Quite the opposite! If we do nothing, we will forever be in the stage of not being ready! So your report is actually a very good opportunity!"
"Hm?" Haku tilted her head, raising a question at just the right moment.
"It's simple. That place is a poor backwater that even dogs despise. Ninja villages and great nations never pay attention to such places! So no matter what we do there, it won't be easily leaked. In fact, in my opinion, what we can do is far more than just treating patients and curing the source of the disease. On the contrary, many things that would easily arouse the suspicion of the Daimyo or the vigilance of foreign countries can be carried out in that natural experimental field."
"We can call it—Re, vo, lu, tion."
Haruno Sakura said word by word.
When she said this, she suddenly thought of the Land of Rain—where the Akatsuki's base was located. That rainy country, adjacent to the northwest of the Land of Fire, was actually also an epidemic area for parasitic diseases. Being a similarly poor and remote mountainous area, the Land of Rain had a similarly depressed economy and difficult livelihood, with no profit to be made, and thus was not valued by various countries. That was why the Akatsuki took root in such a place, making it impossible for Jiraiya to find them even after searching for several years (perhaps a more important reason was that Jiraiya was used to collecting intelligence in towns with entertainment, ignoring these poor mountain valleys).
Orochimaru's base was the same.
Is this probably the Naruto version of "surrounding the cities from the countryside"? Thinking of this, Haruno Sakura also sneered. It was a pity that such a good strategy was used by a frenzied terrorist organization to plague the world, and by a mad scientist who broke through ethical bottom lines to plague civilians...
After Haruno Sakura finished speaking, Haku Minazuki looked at her seriously several times before saying solemnly: "Sakura, it seems you really want to save those people's fate. You... I've known you for so many years, only now do I realize you are this kind of person. Maybe I can use 'kind' or even 'great' to describe you?"
Sakura didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Are you... saying this to mock me?"
"Not mockery." Haku shook her head. "It's just... I feel your thoughts are different from many people. Many medical ninja in the hospital are also very kind people. When they see patients and the injured, they will actively treat them. But they are different from you. They treat Konoha ninja or residents who are very close to us, while you are considering people thousands of miles away who have nothing to do with us, and hundreds of thousands, even millions of them. This... is different."
"I'm no great person, nor am I as noble as you say. I just feel... if we can save many people, thousands, tens of thousands, with just a lifting of a hand, then why not do it?" The pink-haired girl chuckled lightly and said, "As for the latter content, you can treat it as a kind of, well, boring political fantasy. Besides, even for such a simple matter, I didn't argue strongly for it. Wasn't I persuaded by Master Tsunade in the end?"
"That's because as the Hokage, she needs to think from the overall situation, right... Hasn't she been saying we need to unite various countries to deal with the threat of the Akatsuki? At this critical juncture, we cannot disperse our strength. Perhaps, this is also a necessary sacrifice, right?" Haku said calmly.
"Sacrifice?"
Haruno Sakura glanced sideways at the black-haired girl beside her. The expression on Haku's face was faint, revealing nothing. Back then, she sacrificed almost everything for Zabuza's ambition; she probably had more right to speak on this heavy word.
At this moment, the two were walking through a long corridor. The conversation stopped suddenly, and the walkway became abruptly quiet.
Only the sound of the girls' light walking remained, the crisp clack, clack, clack of sandal heels on the floor.
In the silence, Haruno Sakura suddenly recalled the occasional discussions she had with Master Tsunade about these things in the past. Of course, that kind of private chat was much deeper than what was said in front of her friends. Unfortunately, Sakura was more keen on science and engineering than humanities back then. She was recommended for postgraduate studies directly, and never memorized postgraduate political texts. Many times she just played with vocabulary without the level of great theorists. Let alone fully convincing Tsunade, she was confused about many points herself.
The key was that the theories from her previous life couldn't be applied in many places.
The exploiting class refers to landlords and capitalists. Do ninja count? Not really, right? Ninja can also engage in production. The productivity of ninja is significantly higher than that of civilians overall! For example, if she were in charge of irrigation, one person could manage the farmland of half the Land of Fire! If they really went for an industrial version of the Naruto world with a distorted style, Sakura, who learned Water Style, could engage in hydraulic engineering; Hinata could go prospecting or do non-destructive mechanical testing (much more powerful than ultrasound); Sasuke could be an eighth-grade fitter or machinist, proficient in turning, planing, milling, drilling, and grinding—just find ten or eight old masters for him to copy; Choji could serve as a ten-thousand-ton press or a gantry crane; and Naruto would be even more useful, just plug him in wherever manpower is needed.
Thinking about it is quite exciting.
Pity, it's limited to thinking.
Reality! Reality... is not like this at all.
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