Orochimaru rolled his neck.

He'd been at his desk for hours now, working on nonsense for his deal with Suna.

It was worth it, really—Konoha wasn't about to start examining their ally's land for him—but Orochimaru thought the idea of retrieving resources from the summoning world was stupid.

And then there was the latest plague.

They hadn't asked him yet, but he could sense them gearing up to it.

"You're from Konohagakure," they were probably thinking, "and a doctor. Can't you make a vaccine?"

It was true that Orochimaru found viruses… interesting,

But he'd only ever studied them to try to understand how better to emulate them—it was all-but-impossible for a virus to fully die off, after all.

And Orochimaru had too much to accomplish to die.

He'd studied some about what could kill off a virus (he had to), but he'd never been particularly interested in figuring out how to create those compounds, even before he'd improved his brain.

But—

He wanted to stay under the radar a bit longer.

Plan some more, make sure he didn't make any more stupid mistakes.

Make sure he had everything he needed.

So he skimmed the reports about the plague with half an eye, sent his snakes off to figure out what they could in their world, and allowed—for the moment—Suna to make requests.

He had too much to do to deal with nuisances like attacks, after all.

.

Minato drummed his finger against his desk.

The Kumo diplomat—apparently the superior to the Kumo diplomats who had come for the celebration—refused to look cowed.

When the celebration had initially been planned, Minato had known exactly what he was going to do.

He'd called his team in—they were happy for the byoki-hunting break—and then, while his clone dealt with all the 'official' matters, they got to act as a team again, hunting down kidnappers and assassins alike.

Except the first kidnapper they'd found was a Lightning diplomat.

And Minato immediately realized something he should have caught onto earlier, except that he'd really been running on no sleep for at least half a year: this was a win-win scenario for Konoha's enemies.

If they successfully managed to kill him or another target, or kidnap just about anyone, great—Konoha was notorious for its sheer number of powerful people, powerful kekkei genkai, and a little less to worry about would be more than helpful in deciding to go to war.

If, on the other hand, they were caught—

Well, then they'd deny, deny, deny, accuse Konoha of attacking an innocent diplomat, and go to war.

So he'd had Rin use some chloroform to knock him out instead, and they left him where they'd found him and moved on to the next—non-violent, completely hidden, and convincing proof of Konoha's power without a drop of bloodshed.

By the end they'd found four assassins (all posing as merchants from minor nations) and five kidnappers (one Earth merchant, one 'Wind' merchant who had definitely never been to Wind in his life—which was good, because at least their alliance hadn't fallen that far—two Kumo diplomats, and one Earth diplomat.)

And now Kumo had sent someone to whine at Minato over a mysterious assailant attacking their perfectly saintly diplomats.

Of course, since starting this meeting they'd made a mistake—one more minor than believing they could scare him, but one whose results would be far more immediate.

Minato smiled. "Are you sure those two Kumo diplomats were the ones who were assaulted?"

"Yes!"

"Really." Minato let the silence hang. The Kumo 'diplomat' had figured out, now, that he'd missed something, but he clearly didn't know what. "I was under the impression that Saki Ren was an Earth diplomat, not a Kumo diplomat."

"That's what I meant."

The two stared at each other, both knowing that answer was insufficient.

At least, Minato considered, only Kumo was stupid enough to try this. Iwa—and it was Iwa that sent the rest of them, ANBU's stakeouts confirmed it—had even done the smart thing and had their killer/kidnappers pretend to be from other places; less justification for war, sure, but also less justification on Konoha's side, and Konoha throwing a massive celebration seemed to have convinced a lot of foreign observers that Konoha wasn't nearly as unprepared for another war as they believed.

But Kumo…

Kumo had always been a bit…

Willing, let's say, to try anything.

For better or worse.

The Kumo 'diplomat' cleared his throat. "I am also speaking on behalf of Earth's Daimyo."

"Ah." Could there be a more transparent lie? Even if Minato hadn't already known, that would have been enough on its own. Five-year-olds could figure it out. But, of course, two could play at that game. "Well then, do you have a description of the assailant? It is important that everyone in Konoha is safe, and it will be important to get such a person off the streets."

The Kumo 'diplomat' stared.

Minato stared back.

Remembered finding the 'Earth diplomat' just outside the Hyuuga compound, well after dark.

Did not let his lips twitch when he remembered Kakashi testing his knock-out poison for the first time, using a wind jutsu to disperse it in the air.

(There were benefits, as it turned out, to the 'mask' style. Minato made a note to look into making it standard kit for everyone, not just for those who were fighting Kiri.

(Of course, no one would be fighting Kiri anymore.)

The Kumo-nin sighed. "Unfortunately, none of the attacked diplomats were able to get a good look at the assailant."

"That is unfortunate. Do you have any information for us to go off of?"

"No."

"Well, please let us know if that changes."

The Kumo-nin pursed his lips, but stood and bowed.

It was clear Minato was done talking about the issue.

Finally, he was alone again.

Which meant it was time to make a dint in the paperwork.

(If Minato had understood what being a Hokage was about, really truly understood it, he doubted he would have accepted the Hokage's appointment.)

.

Even after the celebration, locals remained very worried about the byoki. Oh, Uzu was full, sure, but it was full of many, many immigrants—and not just from Kiri, either, though the number of those grew every day. The 'immigrant problem' was something that a lot of elders and clan heads were worried about, but it wasn't what Inuzuka Erigami was concerned with.

They were concerned about the empty houses.

And empty apartments.

And empty storefronts.

Oh, they'd put on a good show for a week, had everything all prettied up—the empty storefronts were made into temporary art galleries and cinemas and the like; the empty apartment buildings turned into hostels and hotels; the crematories put on hold until the celebrations finished.

And it hard worked, to be fair.

Convinced everybody that Konoha was tough, was strong, wasn't likely to topple over at the slightest additional pressure.

And, to be even more fair, some of the 'temporary' changes looked like they might be permanent. Some injured shinobi artists were more than a little surprised with how much money they'd made, were pooling funds to purchase several storefronts as an artist collective. Some of the hostels and hotels were being permanently transitioned too; Minato had made it clear that tourism would be an industry Konoha would begin investing into (unlike other hidden village, the sheer amount of sealwork they had, both Uzu and Konoha-originated, made it very difficult for spies, no matter how open Konoha left its gates), so it made more sense than maintaining floor after floor of vacant housing.

But there was still the problem of no immigration.

And lots of emigration, particularly nationally, to Uzu.

And Erigami—they had to figure out what to do about that.

How to change that.

Because as bad as it had been in years past, when they'd had a housing crisis from the opposite angle—far too many people, far too few living spaces—now it just felt…

Wrong.

And Erigami hated that.

And they were, for better or worse, the Researcher in charge of working with the Land Use Department, in charge of helping them figure out how to fix it.

Why do people move?

Jobs, mostly.

That wasn't something Erigami had any control over, though, so skip that.

Family?

Not here anymore.

Economy?

Also not something he had control over.

Education?

Well, Konoha already had that.

Erigami pursed their lips.

As far as they could tell, no one moved anywhere because of the architectural regulations.

So what could they do?

Again, their mind drifted back to the economy.

The economy had become a very big thing since they'd started researching all those years ago.

Sakura had a lot of thoughts about the economy, enough to fill an entire library if you forced her to write it all down.

And, for a time, Erigami had been her deskmate, had heard all her economical theories as she tried to put them into words, figure out how they worked together.

They, more than anybody else, knew the faults in her concept, knew how slapdash many of its essential elements were.

They, more than anybody else, knew that it worked anyway.

And so—

The economy.

They had to figure out how to help the economy.

Perhaps…

Their mind raced, dismissing each idea as it came to them, each and every one done before.

Then:

Multiple levels.

That was the first thought.

And the idea of the bridges that crossed over some of Konoha's streets, how popular they were.

And then the idea of tall construction, and bridges over bridges, and an interconnectivity which allowed the civilians to emulate the shortcuts shinobi took, even though they couldn't take those exact shortcuts themselves.

Also: parks.

More jungle gyms, those were popular.

Maybe new regulations to make sure the buildings weren't built in a way that blocked sunlight from the street.

And—

Their brain stopped.

It wasn't remotely architectural.

Couldn't be considered land-use in the least.

And yet—

So many—

The possibilities nearly stunned them.

Erigami grinned.

It was wild, it would no doubt be insanely difficult to pull off—but it would be something no one else had, and nothing enticed people more than that.