Chapter 270: Shortage of Personnel
In the capital of the Land of Lightning, Dana led his men in clearing a large estate.
This had originally been the residence of a top-tier noble family. The head of the family likely died just before Raihara Yukihiro's ascension. Afterward, the few remaining family members were sifted through like a comb by multiple upheavals. Now, not a single person could be found.
Such nobles were common in the capital.
In a place like the ninja world, possessing wealth without martial power was fine in times of peace. But once chaos broke out, they had absolutely no ability to protect themselves.
Their movable assets might have been looted, but "wealth" still remained—such as the mansion in the city and vast lands scattered across the country.
Naturally, these were confiscated by the "Daimyo's Office."
Today, Dana personally came to supervise because an important infrastructure project was to be built here.
Infrastructure belonging to Kumogakure.
The mansion was in ruins; when they arrived, only a few homeless people were living inside. The reason for choosing this location was that it happened to be the exact center of the capital.
Although the capital developed somewhat unilaterally because it was built against a mountain, it was still evident that the original owner's status was slightly higher than the current Yamazaki Family.
After leading several Cloud ninja to level the ground completely using Earth Release, restoring it to an empty lot, Dana used his golden slug to send coordinates to the village.
Next came the main event.
"Spread out a bit. Leave the rest to the professionals!"
The surrounding Cloud ninja dispersed in an orderly fashion.
Before long, several streaks of rainbow light flew in from the horizon. The people of the capital had gotten used to this over the past few days; it happened several times a day.
The lights struck the empty lot with precision. With a series of thud-thud-thud sounds, delivery pods planted themselves into the ground one by one. Immediately after, with a puff of white smoke, they disappeared, retracted into sealing scrolls by the people inside via the handle mechanism.
"Dana-sama!"
Those who landed were Dana's old acquaintances and good coworkers: two squads of Construction Ninja.
Since the village expansion, a new division for Construction Ninja had been established. About twenty people from the expansion team volunteered to transfer, and over the past six months, the number had gradually increased to over thirty.
Um... still a huge shortage, but this will have to do for now.
Dana clapped his hands. "Everyone, let's begin. Our comrades behind us are waiting in line."
Each Construction Ninja carried a gigantic backpack and had something resembling a small book hanging from their waist.
The six of them nodded and took out a blueprint from their special equipment—the "Blueprint Book." It read: "High Platform - Type IV - 200m x 200m."
It was noted in the bottom right corner of the blueprint how many units of various materials were needed.
This was the "Standardized Construction Module" equipped under Dana's suggestion.
In each of their backpacks, they carried a massive amount of construction materials—wood, steel, stone, cement—all stored in sealing scrolls. In terms of material value, every Construction Ninja was walking around with a small treasury on their back.
The special backpack allowed them to pull out the scrolls from the bottom directly. They tossed seven scrolls containing various materials onto the open ground and placed the blueprint in the center.
Dana stepped forward with interest. "Haven't done this in a while. Let me lend a hand to save you some chakra. There are many tasks today."
"Thank you very much, Dana-sama."
Dana and the other ninja spread out around the perimeter and executed the jutsu together.
"Thousand-Machine Construction Technique!"
A massive reinforced concrete platform rose from the ground. The reason for consuming materials with the Thousand-Machine Construction Technique instead of using "Earth Release: Mobile Core" was that this structure needed to be permanent. Mobile Core only lifted the earth, leaving a hollow space underground.
It was noticeable that the reinforced concrete platform wasn't solid; there were internal spaces for people to use.
Under the influence of chakra, the concrete formed rapidly. This ability to instantly modify the environment excited Dana every time.
It wasn't over yet. The lead Construction Ninja took out another blueprint. This one seemed much more important; it wasn't pulled from the book but taken out of a metal box.
The box was forbidden to open unless in use. Opening it would destroy the contents, and the blueprint would self-destruct after one use.
Specifically developed for constructing classified structures.
The group moved to the top of the platform and executed the jutsu together again.
"Thousand-Machine Construction Technique!"
This time, a complex structure formed, primarily made of metal. In the center were two iron spires reaching over ten meters into the sky, surrounded by various auxiliary structures.
This was a Heavenly Transfer Technique Launch Base.
However, right now, it was just a shell.
After another call, several more rainbow lights flew in. Ten research-type ninja landed, bowed to Dana, and began carving formula arrays, debugging the structure, and assembling the equipment they brought with them to make the shell functional.
By sunset, a fully equipped Heavenly Transfer Launch Base would likely be established in the capital.
Dana sighed again at the terrifying productivity of ninja.
Of course, the Cloud's ability to achieve this level of productivity was developed gradually; other villages couldn't copy it even if they wanted to.
If the preparatory work was done properly, the Cloud could theoretically build Heavenly Transfer bases in every city of the Land of Lightning within a single day.
Unfortunately, they didn't have enough manpower.
People, people, people. It was always people.
The Cloud had years of accumulation and didn't lack technology. having confiscated massive wealth, plus being rich enough to rival a nation on its own, it didn't lack money.
Military power went without saying; their martial virtue had always been abundant.
The only thing lacking was people. Shortages everywhere.
The current Cloud couldn't just focus on being overpowered alone; it had to carry the entire Land of Lightning to fly.
Dana had considered issuing a "Recruitment Order" to gather rogue ninja from all over the world. But considering that the high efficiency of a ninja village partly stemmed from high loyalty, they couldn't drink poison to quench thirst like that, at least not until their rule was completely solidified.
Otherwise, if they recruited 100 people, 90 of them might be spies from other villages.
"Leave one person here to assist the base personnel with checks. The rest of you, work hard a bit longer. There's still a lot to do."
The Construction Ninja nodded and quickly moved to the next location.
Another ruin, where the capital's Ninja Academy would be built.
Thinking of this, Dana got a headache again. Building the school was simple, but they would have to transfer teachers from the Cloud's Ninja Academy later. Even if they only considered basic chakra enlightenment education for now, it would still impact the village's academy significantly.
Because eight Ninja Academies were being built simultaneously.
Even fast-tracked ninja training took three years. For stability, it took six years to get a usable Genin.
The Cloud wouldn't train cannon fodder who only knew the Three Basic Jutsu.
Even if times were tight now, they had to invest heavily in education to secure the future.