After hearing Uchiha Hikaru speak with such confidence, Tazuna finally relaxed. His tangled worries seemed to melt away.
"Alright, alright… as long as Konoha sent someone, everything will be fine."
He said this while grabbing Hikaru's hand and shaking it vigorously. But suddenly, his motion stopped, and the joyful expression on his face froze mid-smile.
"Wait… what's your name? And the names of the two next to you?"
He released his grip, staring at Hikaru and Hashirama with widening eyes.
Hikaru smiled. "Old man, my name is Uchiha Hikaru."
Hashirama gave a friendly grin. "Uncle, I'm Senju Hashirama. You can just call me Hashirama."
Both of them tried to look as gentle and harmless as possible.
Then Tazuna's whole body locked up. He stammered, stood stiffly at attention, and raised his right hand in a perfect salute.
"R-R-Report, Lord Hikaru, Lord Hashirama! I am Tazuna, chief engineer of this entire cross-sea bridge project!"
My god… The legendary God of Shinobi… and the strongest man in the world today… and they look so young!?
And Hashirama—wasn't he dead!? How is he here, moving, speaking, looking like he's barely in his thirties!?
How is any of this possible!?
These two titans… actually came to help build a bridge!?
I must be dreaming. Oh shit—
Hashirama let out a helpless sigh. He had seen this too many times. People inside the village acted the same way whenever they learned who he was. They'd freeze up instantly and become painfully formal.
It left him with basically no one to casually chat with in the entire village (｡•́︿•̀｡)
But worse than the reverence… was the fear.
Hashirama simply didn't realize how terrifying he looked to ordinary civilians: a dead man walking, Edo Tensei cracks across his skin, dark sclera, chakra stitches in his flesh. Even seasoned shinobi felt uneasy around him unless they were weirdos like Orochimaru.
If Tazuna hadn't recognized Hikaru standing beside Hashirama, he would have run away screaming long ago.
Hikaru laughed softly. "Relax, old man. No need to be so stiff. The three of us are here to build the bridge."
"This bridge will connect the Land of Water and the Land of Fire. It's the hope of both nations."
"Our identities don't matter right now. Today, we're all just workers striving toward the same goal."
"You and your crew deserve respect. Now, tell us the full situation so we can begin."
More than an hour later, Tazuna, Uchiha Hikaru, Hashirama, and Chōza Akimichi laid out and reviewed the construction plans for the entire cross-sea bridge.
The bridge would stretch 300 kilometers, with a 50-kilometer deep-sea section where the ocean depth exceeded 60 meters. According to calculations, they needed 224 bridge pillars, with the deepest reaching 200 meters into the seabed.
Even if every pillar could be installed without issue, the entire project was estimated to take ten years.
Five years longer than Hikaru initially estimated.
And that was only the bridge between Konoha and Kirigakure.
If Kirigakure also wanted bridges to Kumogakure…
That would take twenty years easily.
By then, it'd probably be the Boruto era.
No—Boruto might not even exist. Maybe Sarada's era instead? (｡•́︿•̀｡)
They'd have to bring in more labor. And Itachi and Fugaku needed Hashirama Cell transplants to proceed quickly…
Hikaru, Hashirama, and Tazuna boarded a small boat and set out to the marked deep-sea coordinates. Bright red water buoys floated across the surface.
"Lord Hikaru, the red buoys mark where we need the bridge pillars," Tazuna explained nervously. "May I ask… how the three of you plan to construct this?"
"With the skills of our craftsmen, it's impossible to transport pillars hundreds of meters tall across the sea. And building foundations underwater…" He clutched his head. "It's just not possible."
To him, only a god could attempt such a thing.
Hikaru and Hashirama calmly stepped off the boat, standing on the ocean surface with chakra.
Chōza didn't join yet—his turn would come later.
Hashirama and Hikaru approached two red buoys, roughly two hundred meters apart.
Dark markings formed under Hashirama's eyes as Sage Mode activated.
Hikaru's chakra flared, pulling natural energy from the air.
They clasped their hands together.
"Sage Mode!"
"Earth Style: Rock Pillar!"
Two identical jutsu.
At first, Tazuna felt only a stronger breeze. But a few seconds later, the sea trembled with deep, thunderous booming. Tazuna's eyes widened in terror and he threw himself flat onto the deck.
"Come back! Hurry! We're in a seaquake!"
But Chōza remained calm, munching dried meat.
"Relax, Tazuna. It's just these two using Earth-Style to form the bridge pillars."
The boat rocked gently beneath them.
"Just watch."
Tazuna peeked over the edge despite shaking violently. Blue chakra shockwaves rippled visibly across the sea around the two sages. The sound of collapsing earth, shifting stone, and roaring waves grew louder and louder.
After more than a minute, two massive shapes—each over ten meters wide and fifty meters long—burst out of the ocean.
And they weren't done. The pillars grew upward like mountains rising from the seafloor, climbing thirty meters above the surface before stopping.
Hashirama and Hikaru returned to the deck.
"How is it?" Hashirama asked cheerfully. "Size good enough?"
"I made mine a bit longer than the blueprint," Hikaru added. "Controlling chakra precisely at this scale takes too long."
"You'll need your craftsmen and ninjas to adjust the height and surface."
Tazuna stared at the monolithic pillars with his jaw hanging open.
"You… you can actually build bridge pillars directly from the seafloor… using ninjutsu…?"
"Oh my god… humans can do this…?"
Chōza simply chewed jerky.
"What's the big deal? These two start their jutsu at over a hundred meters. This is nothing."
For the next several days, all coastal work stopped.
Waves surged every time Hikaru and Hashirama used Earth Style, making construction impossible. Craftsmen and shinobi gathered at the shoreline, drawn by the spectacle.
They watched miracles take shape before their eyes.
"The God of Shinobi… and the strongest shinobi alive… they can reshape the environment with their power…"
Some craftsmen cried openly.
"Konoha's heart is so big… Even legends like them don't bully ordinary people. They're working to give us a better life."
"Yeah! They even doubled our pay! Why shouldn't we work twice as hard!? Brothers—elbows!"
"Back to work! Waves? Who cares! We're not losing to two guys! Overtime, everyone!"
"You're right! Who needs holidays!? Only people useless to the future need holidays! I'll work nonstop if it means building a better world!"
"Overtime! Overtime!! OVERTIME!!!"
Hashirama became overwhelmed by the praise.
"My name is Senju Hashirama!"
"The God of Bridge-Building!!"
"Aaaaaahhhh!!!"
"Earth Style: Rock Pillar! Rock Pillar! Rock Pillar!!!"
Rock pillars erupted everywhere.
Hikaru gave him a side-eye (´･ω･`).
"Sensei… you really do have the constitution of a divine ox…"
"I can't keep up. I'm alive—my chakra needs time to recover. But you…"
"You're dead. Your chakra restores automatically and never runs out. Who can compete with an undead workhorse?"
In just two days, Hashirama built 184 pillars.
Hikaru, being alive, only managed 40.
Years later, after Hashirama was resurrected as a living human, he thought back to the time he built 184 pillars in two days… and silently wept.
Being dead really is better… Infinite chakra… Why did I have to be revived…?
After the deep-sea pillars were completed, Hikaru and Hashirama returned to Konoha, leaving Chōza behind to assist.
Using his Multi-Size Jutsu, Chōza moved massive pillars and bridge segments daily. He grew thinner and thinner.
And now he finally understood why Hikaru and Hashirama forcibly dragged him along.
If they hadn't… he absolutely would have run away.
… …
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Bonus Chapter at 150 Power Stone
Second Bonus Chapter - 300 Power Stones
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