"That is, cutting someone through an object."
"It can cut one thing while passing through another."
Rasa looked at the desk in front of him.
Inside the drawer were several gold bars.
Rasa raised the blade in his hand and slashed toward the desk.
A metallic collision rang out.
Then Rasa withdrew the blade.
The desk was completely unharmed.
The drawer was completely unharmed.
But the gold bars inside the drawer had been neatly cut apart.
"This ability is too bizarre. If the enemy doesn't know its intelligence beforehand, the chances of getting caught by it are very high."
Under normal circumstances, when a shinobi faced an enemy's slash, they would either dodge or raise a kunai to block.
But Anubis could ignore blocking.
It could cut through the kunai and strike the enemy's flesh.
"Besides that, it can also control anyone who touches the blade or the hilt."
"In other words, during battle, I can deliberately let this blade fall and have an enemy pick it up."
"Whoever picks it up will turn and attack their own allies."
"The value of this is absolutely worthy of S-rank."
When he first realized it was a Stand, Rasa had felt somewhat regretful that it was not a powerful Stand like Star Platinum.
In JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Anubis did not have a particularly strong presence.
But for a Sand Substitution Technique to become Anubis after being upgraded to S-rank, Rasa was already satisfied enough.
It was not inferior to any of the S-rank ninjutsu he had obtained before.
A figure entered the Kazekage's office.
"Kazekage-sama."
"Hyena, is there something?"
Rasa looked up at Akayama Hyena, a gentle smile appearing on his face.
As someone who had made a choice similar to Uchiha Itachi, if Rasa were a member of the Akayama clan, he would naturally hate Akayama Hyena deeply.
But Rasa represented Sunagakure.
Akayama Hyena's betrayal of the Akayama clan had allowed Sunagakure to avoid even greater losses.
"Kazekage-sama, I have completed construction of the mechanical sand ship."
"Truly?"
"I have already tested it. It can be used normally."
Joy appeared on Rasa's face.
"Let's go. We'll take a look now."
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
The two quickly arrived in the desert.
Akayama Hyena took out a scroll and opened it.
Immediately afterward—
A mechanical sand ship appeared in their line of sight.
It was somewhat different from a sea vessel, but that did not matter.
As long as it could carry people and goods and possessed decent transport capacity, that was enough.
Its appearance was completely unimportant.
"It can use chakra as power, and it can also be operated by human strength."
"But if human strength is used, the speed will be much slower."
Rasa nodded.
"Test it."
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
The two flashed forward.
The next instant, they were already standing on the deck of the mechanical sand ship.
Akayama Hyena activated the mechanism and placed one hand into a recessed section that fit a palm perfectly.
A wave of chakra flowed in.
Rasa immediately felt the deck beneath his feet begin to shake.
Then he saw the sand on both sides moving backward.
In other words, the mechanical sand ship was advancing.
Gradually, its speed increased.
Then it became even faster.
Before long, Rasa could already feel the wind blowing against him.
"Enough. Test human power next."
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
Akayama Hyena raised his hand and closed the mechanism before moving to another section.
To Rasa, its shape looked somewhat similar to the pedals of a bicycle.
Akayama Hyena sat down and began stepping with both legs.
But compared to chakra, it was much slower.
And that was under the condition that Akayama Hyena was a shinobi with physical ability far superior to an ordinary person.
If it were an ordinary person, one person would not be able to move the mechanical sand ship at all. Dozens would be needed.
Rasa watched both methods of propulsion.
When powered by chakra, the speed was fast, but sustaining it was difficult. Chakra was consumed quickly, and many shinobi would need to take turns providing energy to the ship.
But in that case, the use of the mechanical sand ship would be heavily restricted.
The number of shinobi was limited.
And not every shinobi would be willing to perform such a task.
When powered by human labor, the speed was much slower.
People would also grow tired.
Both methods of propulsion would restrict the wider adoption of the mechanical sand ship.
If the mechanical sand ship could not be widely adopted, Sunagakure's transport power would not improve.
If transport power could not improve, commerce was destined to remain stagnant.
"Right."
"I still have the Sun Disks."
Rasa looked in the direction of the Sun Disks.
The Sun Disks had three modules.
One was the energy absorption module.
One was the energy storage module.
One was the attack module.
"We can create a lightweight copy of the energy storage module, transfer the energy absorbed by the Sun Disks into the copied energy storage unit, and use that storage module as the power supply for the mechanical sand ships."
"That would be better than both shinobi chakra and human labor."
"And I can charge another fee here."
"Additionally, Sunagakure now has two Tailed Beasts. One is the One-Tail, Shukaku. The other is the Six-Tails. Tailed Beasts are existences with enormous quantities of chakra. After their chakra is used, it can recover again."
"As long as usage is limited, they are an endless source of clean energy."
"Three Sun Disks and two Tailed Beasts should be enough to supply at least several hundred mechanical sand ships."
After returning to Sunagakure, Rasa quickly put his idea into action.
A brand-new department was established.
It was named the Mechanical Sand Ship Management Department.
Inside, it was divided into two squads.
Akayama Hyena was placed in charge of the manufacturing squad, specializing in the production of mechanical sand ships.
The other squad was named the energy squad.
During the early phase, the energy squad would need Chiyo to lead the work.
"But before that…"
Rasa looked toward Akayama Hyena.
"Hyena, produce ten mechanical sand ships as quickly as possible. In the early stage, power them with shinobi chakra and display the ships to those people. Draw the attention of those merchants over."
"Yes, Kazekage-sama."
Rasa believed that once the mechanical sand ship route was successfully opened, it would inevitably bring a massive improvement to Sunagakure's commerce.
It would also greatly improve commerce across the entire Land of Wind.
However, the greatest benefit would naturally still fall into Sunagakure's hands.
Watching Akayama Hyena leave, Rasa went to the rooftop of the Kazekage Building and looked down from above.
"The village's situation is getting better and better."
Before long, Rasa withdrew his gaze.
"Next, I should think about how to push the popularity of the Konoha White Fang rumor up another wave."
"Unfortunately, I didn't draw a suitable forged suicide note."
"If I could forge the suicide note of one of Konoha's White Fang's teammates from that mission back then and publish it in Ninja World Weekly, it would create a huge storm of public opinion."
Suddenly, a thought surfaced in Rasa's mind.
"Right now, Kakashi's status in the ninja world is disappearance, but Konoha has denied it."
"What if I post a high-priced bounty in Ninja World Weekly for Kakashi's whereabouts, but not a single Konoha person can find any trace of Kakashi? Would they start questioning it?"
Join my Patreon to read public release chapters and get 1 chapter ahead for free. Paid members can read more advanced chapters.
Continue reading here
patreon.com/Inkveil_