At the conference room door, Rinjin beckoned over a middle-aged man and casually instructed:
"Ikehagomaru, make sure to treat the Wind Daimyō well!
Remember—the best food, drinks, and entertainment. Put it all on my tab."
Heh~
Last time you dragged Lord Kagami out drinking, he had to pay, didn't he...
Cursing inwardly but smiling on the surface, Ikehagomaru nodded politely and led the Wind Daimyō and his officials out of the Amegakure building.
Meanwhile, on the top floor in the Amegakure office, Rinjin appeared in a flash and flopped onto the sofa.
"Rii, send someone to negotiate the purchase price for Wind Country's goods.
Remember—push the price down as low as you can!"
Hearing this, a flicker of doubt crossed Rii's eyes as she spoke slowly:
"Big bro, if we squeeze too hard, won't Wind Country start resenting us?"
In the past, she would've just wrapped up her headscarf and robbed them outright.
But now, as Amegakure's First Leader, she couldn't act on pure impulse anymore.
Instead, she had to consider how crushing prices might backfire on Amegakure later.
On the sofa, Rinjin just shrugged indifferently:
"Don't worry about it. I'm planning to visit Sunagakure soon anyway!
Oh, and don't put me on the gate guard schedule. Otherwise, Sakumo will complain I'm skipping duty again!"
...
Two weeks later, Amegakure's forces withdrew from Sunagakure, leaving chaos in their wake.
In Sunagakure, Rinjin—now masked and dressed like an Akatsuki member—wandered the streets casually.
The blazing sun hung overhead. Dry, vicious winds whipped up yellow sand, battering everyone outside. Tan-colored houses lined the streets, each with tiny windows.
This was Sunagakure—the harshest place to live, bar none.
Walking along, Rinjin glanced around, clicking his tongue in amazement.
"This place is something else!"
The sun and wind both raged, sucking every drop of moisture from the air and ground.
But honestly, the wind was worse.
You could tell just by watching the locals—headscarves, masks, long robes.
They'd rather sweat buckets and risk heat rash wrapped in layers than face that wind with bare skin.
Wandering aimlessly, Rinjin gathered intel on Sunagakure while mulling over his plans.
If you wanted to turn desert resources into piles of cash, Sunagakure made the perfect tool and sheriff.
But how do you make these people relatively harmless?
That required a bit of wisdom.
First, a village's character doesn't appear from nothing—it's shaped by environment, neighboring powers, and most importantly, political structure.
And political structure mostly depends on the leadership's governing policies and approach.
In plain terms: a village's upper leadership actually influences the behavioral tendencies of all its villagers.
Uh... that's still a bit abstract. Let me give an example:
The Ugly Nation and the Sun-Setting Empire.
Both are basically democracies.
The Ugly Nation has voters elect a president directly.
The Sun-Setting Empire has voters elect a ruling party, and that party's leader becomes prime minister.
The difference? The Beautiful Country's president serves four years, maximum two terms.
But in the Sun-Setting Empire, as long as the ruling party stays dominant and the prime minister doesn't screw up, they can stay in power for many years.
The gap lies in how long power is held and policy continuity.
Sun-Setting Empire citizens don't really mind capable leaders staying longer.
But the Ugly Nation is different—their attitude toward excellent leaders is more... complicated.
Simply put: one side leans toward freedom, the other toward conservatism.
Freedom taken to extremes becomes chaos—and chaos breeds evils like zero-dollar shopping.
Conservatism taken to extremes becomes rigid order—which is why some say:
Devils and certain lawyers aren't so different;
both are lawful evil.
Just the length of governing time can push two nations' behavioral logic in completely different directions.
Sure, this is all pretty surface-level analysis,
But! For Rinjin, this level of understanding was more than enough!
Next, he was ready to demonstrate to Sunagakure's rough villagers: "Why His Majesty Rebels."
The plan was simple.
Become Kazekage (or replace the Kazekage), use policy and propaganda to change grassroots attitudes toward Rain Country, then exit gracefully...
As long as Sunagakure's common folk harbored no hostility toward Rain Country—and felt mostly grateful—
then the future Fifth Kazekage Gaara, under Naruto's talk-no-jutsu influence, would probably become a good boy.
Rinjin liked good boys~
Soon, Rinjin arrived at a particularly run-down little house.
It covered less than thirty square meters—just a simple two-story with sand-colored walls covered in stains and a creaky wooden door.
This was Rinjin's home under his current identity.
With massive war reparations flowing into Amegakure's accounts, the Sunagakure prisoners in the underground jail had all been released.
Rinjin used this opportunity to replace a Sunagakure ninja and slip into the village.
Pulling out a key, he unlocked the rusty chain, pushed open the worm-eaten wooden door, and entered the guy's home.
Casually dropping his luggage, Rinjin plopped onto a greasy burlap sofa whose original color was anyone's guess, carefully considering the details of his mission.
Currently, Rasa was still the most likely candidate for Fourth Kazekage.
Even though he'd lost the command of the Amegakure surprise attack and been captured by Rinjin himself,
he remained Sunagakure's only real choice.
After all, this guy could literally dig Gold Dust out of the ground—
that alone was enough to make dirt-poor Sunagakure swoon.
In Sunagakure, his support for becoming Fourth Kazekage was virtually unmatched.
With this in mind, Rinjin slowly closed his eyes, sensing the Flying Thunder God formula he'd left on Rasa.
Very far away—extremely far.
His current location was on Sunagakure's edge, while Rasa's home was right in the village center.
From the second-floor window, he could just make out the distant, chamber-pot-shaped Sunagakure building.
Thinking this, Rinjin immediately shed his disguise, changed into black robes, and prepared to scout Rasa's situation under cover of night.
...
Night fell, and all of Sunagakure sank into silence.
At night, even on the streets, you might encounter giant scorpions and similar creatures.
Using the Nurarihyon Technique for cover, Rinjin—dressed in black—easily slipped past the ANBU patrolling the rooftops and arrived at a three-story house with a pristine exterior.
The Flying Thunder God formula's location was on the third floor—barging in would definitely alert the guy.
But this couldn't stump Rinjin.
Gray mist from the Nurarihyon Technique spread out, quickly shrouding the front door.
Raising his hand, black iron sand rapidly gathered and snaked into the door lock.
Instantly, the door opened silently.
Rinjin lifted his feet lightly, slowly entering this well-decorated house.
...
Third-floor study:
Rasa, just released from Amegakure, had just finished bathing—his wet hair still dripping water.
In the study, a withered old man with wrinkles deep as ravines sat on the sofa, his half-closed eyes never leaving Rasa.
"Rasa, the family needs an explanation. Why did you suddenly change targets and attack Amegakure?"
Hearing this, the exhausted Rasa slumped in the leather chair behind his desk, replying impatiently:
"That wasn't my decision!
Granny Chiyo strongly demanded we attack Amegakure. As a newly appointed commander, could I really stop them?"
On the other sofa, hearing this, the old man's eyes snapped open as he said sternly:
"That's no excuse!
Before departure, the family warned you to execute the established plan and pressure Konoha.
Right now, Iwagakure and Amegakure have already achieved partial victories—their forces have restricted Konoha ninja activities to within Fire Country's borders.
This was the perfect time to deploy troops for a fatal blow against Konoha!"
Hearing this, Rasa shook his head dismissively.
True, he hadn't stopped Granny Chiyo's suggestion to attack Amegakure, but he had his reasons.
In his view, Konoha was just too weird—
every crisis moment, some impossibly strong guy would suddenly appear and turn the tide.
Rather than gnaw on that hard bone and break your teeth, better to pick soft targets.
However, when making that decision, how could he have known Amegakure had a terrifying existence with "HARD" tattooed on his shoulder?
Still, he didn't regret it now.
He believed his decision wasn't wrong—just unlucky.
After all, back then Amegakure really seemed like the perfect target:
Geographic position bordering three countries,
three bridges spanning the massive inland sea,
occupy Amegakure and Wind Country would immediately gain absolute military and economic trade advantages.
Plus, inexhaustible precious water would flow continuously into Wind Country's heartland, instead of paying thousands of ryō just to take a bath like now.
On the other side, seeing through Rasa's thoughts, the old man sighed in disappointment.
"Enough, I don't want to hear your twisted logic.
And let me advise you—don't even think about targeting Amegakure again.
After the Daimyō returned this time, he was furious, declaring that if Sunagakure starts another war with Rain Country, he'll cut off the village's financial support!
The Daimyō and Amegakure's leader are old acquaintances—this incident has already put our family in a very awkward position!
Chiyo and Ebizō have already voluntarily resigned. You'd better think things through!"
With that, the withered old man leaned on his cane and stood, walking to the study door.
The moment his hand gripped the doorknob, the old man, with his back to Rasa, spoke again:
"By the way, the family has arranged a marriage for you. The woman's name is Karura—go meet her tomorrow.
Rasa, remember—don't embarrass our bloodline again!"
~~~~❃❃~~~~~~~~❃❃~~~~
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