If there was one thing the Land of Fire had plenty of, it was food. No one had ever treated food as military supplies before.
In the past, the caravan could transport goods however they wanted, and no one ever said a word about it.
So why was today different?
"Sir, we…"
"I suspect this man is a spy sent by an enemy village, gathering intelligence along the way. Arrest him and take him to the camp for questioning!"
"Yes, Captain!!"
"Sir, I swear I'm innocent! I'm not a spy, I really am not!"
Not only was their cargo being confiscated, but now someone was getting arrested too.
Panic spread through the caravan.
Unfortunately, the ninjas of Konohagakure had no intention of reasoning with them. They handled things the rough way—seizing the goods and arresting the negotiators on suspicion of being spies.
As for the rest of the people? They were free to do whatever they wanted.
With the goods confiscated and members of the caravan captured, someone had to leak the news.
Otherwise, how would Sunagakure find out?
And this was only the beginning!
In the following days, any caravan that had deep business ties with Sunagakure or helped transport goods for them was completely blocked—none were allowed to pass.
Only caravans from other villages and nations were let through as usual.
As long as they weren't involved, there was no need to make things difficult for them.
If all trade caravans were stopped, Sunagakure wouldn't even have to react—Daimyo's office would step in first.
If things got out of hand, who would still dare to come to the Land of Fire for business?
When it came to money, Daimyo had no choice but to pay attention.
Targeting only Sunagakure was enough—there was no need to drag everyone down.
Konohagakure had already seized a good amount of goods heading to Sunagakure and had also detained several merchants. News of this spread quickly.
The affected caravans were in a panic, scrambling to contact Sunagakure as soon as possible.
But even Sunagakure was at a loss over the situation.
They would occasionally send people into the Land of Fire to scout around, and if caught, they could just claim it was a misunderstanding.
But if they stepped in now to negotiate or question Konohagakure over the confiscated goods and captured merchants, it would be seen as a provocation.
At that point, Konohagakure's ninjas wouldn't be so polite anymore.
With no other options, the ninjas at Sunagakure's border camp could only send the information back to the village and let the higher-ups deal with it.
After all, this kind of issue wasn't their concern, nor did they have the authority to handle it.
Their job was to secure the borders—to prevent enemy infiltration and protect against attacks.
That was their real responsibility.
More importantly, this wasn't a major issue for Sunagakure.
Even if the report was sent back, it wasn't something that would be handled immediately.
And sure enough, by the time Rasa got around to reading it, several days had already passed.
The war with Amegakure had cost Sunagakure dearly.
Rasa had spent years running around the desert just to help the village recover.
With a few years of stability, Sunagakure was finally regaining its strength.
This allowed Rasa—the "miner Kazekage"—to finally stay in the village and manage affairs from his office.
Instead of exhausting himself, running around the desert, and digging up resources to keep the village afloat.
Since this wasn't an urgent matter, the intelligence report had just been left in his office.
Only after finishing more important tasks did Rasa finally take the time to read it.
And now, after several days, he was finally looking at the report.
"How many caravans were detained?"
Glancing over the contents, Rasa didn't think much of it.
This kind of thing happened all the time.
Didn't Sunagakure also seize Konohagakure's caravans from time to time?
"Send someone to negotiate. If there's no real issue, tell Konohagakure to return the goods and release the merchants."
"Understood, Kazekage-sama."
A few caravans getting caught?
No big deal.
Rasa was more concerned about Gaara's condition.
Just like in the original story, Rasa was ruthless enough to turn his own son into a Jinchuriki.
As a result, Gaara became neither fully human nor beast—moody, short-tempered, and always ready to fight.
It wasn't a noble decision, but Rasa did it anyway, without hesitation.
Meanwhile, Sunagakure was taking action.
Sunagakure sent people to the border to handle negotiations.
But before they even arrived, conflicts had already started popping up at the border.
Why? Because, for the first time ever, Konoha's ninjas were casually wandering into the Land of Wind.
If they had an official mission and had reported their presence, it wouldn't have been a big deal. But they just strolled in like it was nothing.
What the hell?
Did Konoha's people think this was their backyard?
Coming and going as they pleased.
And sure enough, one of their teams got blocked.
As luck would have it, the squad leader happened to be a Jonin from the Uchiha clan—one of Yan's personal guards.
"Uchiha Yojiku, is Konoha trying to provoke Sunagakure?"
"Provoke Sunagakure? Aki Taro, do you even know how to talk properly?"
"We got lost!"
"And honestly, it's your fault. The Land of Wind is just too remote. We went out for a stroll and somehow lost our way.
There's sand everywhere, no landmarks—it's impossible to navigate!"
Uchiha Yojiku casually picked at his ear, looking completely uninterested. He even shifted the blame onto Sunagakure.
If the Land of Wind wasn't so barren, they wouldn't have gotten lost!
"You think I'm an idiot?"
Aki Taro was so angry he actually laughed.
It was obvious they had come here on purpose, and now they were claiming they were lost?
Just look at Uchiha Yojiku's smug expression and attitude. Did he really expect anyone to believe that?
"Yeah, I do think you're an idiot. Otherwise, who would buy that excuse?"
Uchiha Yojiku nodded seriously, completely agreeing with himself.
"You bastard, you—!"
Aki Taro nearly coughed up blood from rage.
Damn it, this guy is way too infuriating!!!
"Hey, hey, hey! What do you think you're doing? We just got lost, and now Sunagakure wants to escalate things between our villages?"
"Do you even realize this could turn into a full-scale war? If that happens, Aki Taro, you'll be the one responsible for bringing disaster to Sunagakure!"
Seeing the Sunagakure ninjas getting ready to attack, Uchiha Yojiku started shouting dramatically.
"Alright, alright! We're leaving right now!"
Even as he said that, his expression didn't match his words at all.
Pretending to back off, he kept leading his team in circles, driving Aki Taro absolutely mad.
Everyone else was retreating—there was no way they'd chase after them and start a fight, right?
If things really got out of hand, he'd be in big trouble.
---------------------------------------
You can read 10 chapters ahead on patre on
patr eon.com/JYouyi