Chapter 358: Gaara
Inside the Kazekage Building.
As the new Kazekage, Gaara received the envoys from Konoha, Haruno Sakura and Uchiha Sasuke.
"Congratulations, Gaara," Sakura said with a smile, holding his hands tightly. "Oh no, it should be Lord Fifth Kazekage!"
Then Sasuke also stepped forward to shake hands and congratulate him.
Gaara smiled faintly: "Thank you... but don't be so formal with the title. Just call me by my name or Fifth Kazekage."
"Please sit."
"So, what business does your village have sending you here?" He also sat back at the desk, placed his hands flat on the table, and asked calmly.
"Can't we just simply observe the ceremony and congratulate you on becoming the new Kazekage?" The girl smiled gracefully.
"It's not that I don't trust you..." Gaara said in a deep voice. "It's just that right now is an eventful time. Everyone chose me because they also felt the undercurrents hidden under the calm surface of the ninja world and hoped someone could protect them."
Sakura and Sasuke looked at each other. The latter nodded, stepped forward, and handed the Chunin Exam invitation letter and Tsunade's handwritten letter to Gaara.
"The formal invitation letter for the Chunin Exams?" Gaara took the document, opened it and read it for a few moments, nodded and said, "We have already prepared the candidates for this session. They can set off next week."
He put down the invitation letter, opened another envelope and read it, frowning slightly.
"Will the Mist Village also participate in the Chunin Exams held by Konoha this time?"
"Hn, yes," the girl nodded and said, "Lord Fifth Mizukage Mei Terumī will also attend and observe the Chunin Exams this time."
"More and more allied countries... It seems everyone has realized the threat of the 'Akatsuki'." Gaara looked serious and continued reading. "Sakura, please tell the Fifth Hokage that I will go to Konoha as agreed."
Unlike Mei Terumī, Gaara read very carefully, and the expression on his face remained calm, only occasionally frowning. After a while, having read the entire letter, he looked up and said to Haruno Sakura and Sasuke, "Apart from immediately confirming the matter of going to Konoha to observe this year's Chunin Exams, we need to discuss other matters further."
The letter mentioned many things. In the past, the Sand Village was leaderless, and the Council of Elders could not reach a consensus on some issues, so they dragged on. Now finally someone could make decisions.
Piled together, it filled several long pages.
"Let's start with the trade between the Land of Wind, Sand Village, and the Land of Fire, Konoha Village."
Gaara got into character very quickly.
Although he had a good personal relationship with Haruno Sakura and others, when negotiating with Konoha envoys as the Kazekage, he always kept his responsibilities in mind and did not let private relationships affect public affairs; when encountering problematic areas, he would also argue strongly to strive for the greatest benefits for the Sand Village.
"We fully agree to restart the export of special minerals from the Sand Village. However, the price you offered is a bit low." Gaara took out a list and said, "Regarding the price increase, actually, the previous Kazekage had already agreed on a new price list with the Third Hokage, which should have been signed and implemented. It was just left unresolved because of his death. Now that I have become the new Kazekage, it is time to formally implement the new price list."
"This is the result agreed upon by the previous Kazekage and your village's Third Hokage two years ago." He handed the list over.
Haruno Sakura took the list, glanced at it, and frowned slightly: "The price is too high. This is the price agreed upon two years ago, but now both your side and ours have changed to a new Kazekage and Hokage. Moreover, this result was not finally signed."
She smiled reservedly: "Therefore, I think the previous result is still up for discussion, and negotiations should start anew."
Trade between two countries, no matter in which world, prioritizes the protection of national interests based on national strength. simply and crudely put, countries with strong national power can generally take advantage; even if they can't take advantage temporarily, they will always find a way to get it back later.
During the Third Hokage's era, Konoha experienced many incidents and was at a low point in strength, while the national power of the Sand Village and the Land of Wind had recovered a lot from the last war—otherwise they wouldn't have had evil intentions; but after the Konoha Crush incident, the Sand suffered heavy losses, while Konoha did not suffer too much. Instead, they welcomed Tsunade back, and many newcomers matured, especially Haruno Sakura's generation, which seemed to restore the grandeur of talents emerging in large numbers and experts standing in great numbers back then.
Under the ebb and flow, the comparison of strength between the two countries returned to the pattern of Konoha being strong and Sand being weak.
Therefore, Haruno Sakura said "the price is too high."
In fact, the subtext was that the comparison of strength had changed, Konoha was already much stronger than the Sand, and the price list agreed upon by the previous Kazekage and Hokage was invalid.
In the relatively simple relationship between the two sides, the rise and fall of national power would be directly reflected in these matters.
Let alone that the negotiation results back then were not finally signed, even if they were signed in black and white, the Land of Fire and Konoha Village, as powerful countries, would still have reasons to go back on their word.
What's more, tracing this matter back, it was still the fault of the Sand Village.
Why were the negotiation results not signed back then? Wasn't it because the Fourth Kazekage used the pretext of coming to Konoha to observe the ceremony and sign the contract, but was actually secretly planning a war to attack Konoha?
It was just a pity that he died before the mission was accomplished. The Fourth Kazekage was killed by Orochimaru on the way to Konoha.
In short, this could be regarded as the Sand Village effectively giving up the negotiation results, so the document Gaara took out could naturally be regarded as waste paper by the Konoha side.
The reason behind this, Gaara as the Kazekage and the Sand high-level officials beside him were also very clear.
Gaara taking out these documents nonchalantly was just an opening probe.
But Sakura was not really an inexperienced child after all. Adding up two lives, she had lived for decades. A similar situation had already been experienced once in the Mist, so she naturally wouldn't be easily bluffed.
If she really couldn't think of how to refuse, she could also say that Tsunade didn't authorize this matter and let the Kazekage discuss it again in Konoha.
"The price is not considered high anymore." Gaara said calmly. "There is a reason for the price increase. Some special metal materials, such as Gold Dust, were created by the previous Kazekage using the Magnet Release secret ninjutsu. Now that he has passed away, our village no longer has people who can use secret techniques to produce Gold Dust on a large scale. The output has shrunk greatly, and we can only manufacture a small amount."
"If we still export at the past price, we might as well not export."
As a Kage of a village, also being responsible for producing precious materials to subsidize the village's finances was unique in the ninja world.
Based on Sakura's knowledge, the last person she knew who did this was the Daimyo of the Land of Snow, Koyuki Kazahana, who relied on making movies to make money for her country.
However, this also proved that ninja themselves were a unit with great productivity, not only for combat purposes.
Especially "Kage"-level ninja, in their field of expertise, one person was more than enough to replace a large factory.
The Magnet Release of the Sand Village was not lost, just as the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God Technique could still be used jointly by the Fourth Hokage's guard platoon; it was just that using that level of Magnet Release to produce Gold Dust was a bit inefficient. The Sand side hadn't thought about cultivating specialized production-type ninja to study this kind of manufacturing ninjutsu. They could only use combat ninja to produce Gold Dust inefficiently, which was a waste.
Production ninja, or even workers possessing chakra and mastering a specific manufacturing ninjutsu, might be the next direction of change in the ninja world; according to textbooks from her previous life, a significant increase in productivity would always have a profound impact on production relations...
In the meeting, Haruno Sakura did not delve into this aspect; she focused her energy on the verbal battle with the Fifth Kazekage and other Sand high-level officials, arguing fiercely.
It was still that principle: when she couldn't out-argue them, she would say she didn't have the authority. The Sand side couldn't do anything about her either. In the end, the current Konoha was much stronger than them. If they wanted to seek their own living space in the alliance, they had to play by Konoha's rules; if they couldn't beat Konoha in war, don't think about winning against Konoha at the negotiation table.
Of course, Haruno Sakura knew that Konoha wouldn't push the Sand too hard either. Tsunade's idea was to hope for a win-win situation for both sides, so that the ally relationship could be maintained for a long time; playing a zero-sum game and taking all the advantages would easily force allies into enemies...
As allied ninja villages, Konoha and the Sand were not always harmonious. There were also many frictions, from trade imbalances to border frictions. These were all problems that the new Kazekage had to face after taking office. As Konoha's younger brother, the weaker party in the alliance, how should the Sand conduct itself? Should it be subservient or arrogant?
At least in Haruno Sakura's view, Gaara handled it well, being reasonable and restrained, neither humble nor arrogant, which was rare.
It could be seen that he was a very calm person, clear-headed, knowing what he needed to do, completely different from Naruto.
The hidden scrutiny in the eyes of the few high-level officials assisting him beside him gradually disappeared. It seemed that Gaara's outstanding performance dispelled many people's concerns.
Of course, as Konoha envoys, Haruno Sakura and Sasuke would not betray Konoha's interests because of their personal friendship. Public is public, private is private, and everyone distinguished it very clearly.
The meeting lasted until the sun was setting in the west before ending.
Because Gaara would go to Konoha in person soon, more matters were left to be resolved at that time, letting the Kage talk face to face; this meeting was just a warm-up for both sides, probing the tone first and doing some preliminary paving. Matters concerning the vital interests of the ninja villages, involving two parties, or even three parties after the Mist joined later, had complex relationships and would not be settled easily.
"Then let's stop here for this time." Gaara smiled slightly, signed the memorandum, stood up and announced the end of the meeting.
Everyone shook hands in turn, then exited in an orderly manner. Gaara led Haruno Sakura and Sasuke out of the meeting room.
"This is your second time in the Sand Village, right? How about I show you around the village?"
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