Gaara was running a fever.
He dreamed of many terrifying things.
Shukaku the One-Tail, war, Rasa, death, blood, Rasa, falling…
His father's stern face flickered between the nightmares. Instead of making Gaara feel safe, it only made him shiver even harder.
"Dad…"
Rasa heard his son's weak call. Sitting beside him, he reached out and gently touched Gaara's forehead, whispering, "I'm here."
But right after he said that, Gaara murmured again, "Don't come near me. Stay away."
Rasa froze on the spot.
"Pfft."
A chuckle came from behind. Rasa turned around and saw that at some point, Chiyo had wandered to the doorway, nibbling on sweet beans.
"He's just delirious from the fever," Rasa said in defense.
Chiyo smiled. "Hehe."
Rasa explained, "You're old, maybe you don't know, 'hehe' isn't exactly a good thing among young people nowadays."
Chiyo shot him a sideways glance. "I know."
Rasa, "…"
Chiyo, "Hehe."
Rasa shook his head, placed a hand again on Gaara's burning forehead, hesitated for a moment, and then lifted him into his arms.
"I'm going to find Ryosuke. Gaara's condition isn't right, his tailed beast chakra is in complete chaos. They say the Uchiha can control tailed beasts, right? I'll have him try, see if he can suppress Shukaku's power."
Chiyo nodded. "Right, right, tailed beast matters should go to the Uchiha."
The courtyard wasn't far from the daimyo's mansion. For a ninja, it would take less than ten minutes to get there.
But just as Rasa carried Gaara and was about to head out, all the lights in the courtyard went out.
Not just the courtyard, everywhere his eyes could see was swallowed by darkness. Only a few candles still flickered faintly.
Under that wavering glow, a figure slowly emerged from the depths of the courtyard.
Rasa felt that the figure looked familiar. When it came closer, he realized it was a bald man.
"Faichi?"
Rasa was startled at first, but then, when he saw the biwa slung on Faichi's back, and thought of his specialty in jinchūriki-control ninjutsu, plus Gaara's strange condition, he instantly understood.
"It's you causing this?!"
The monk Faichi pressed his palms together and bowed toward Rasa and Chiyo.
"It's not causing trouble."
Faichi looked at Rasa with eyes full of monk-like compassion. "It's offering you a chance."
Rasa and Chiyo had no interest in exchanging words with him.
One controlled gold sand. The other could summon puppets.
They both wanted to see if, after they beat this bald monk half to death, he would still spout such vague nonsense.
Rasa was just about to make a move, "You don't want to kill the daimyo?"
The floating gold sand froze midair.
Rasa licked his lips. "Go on."
Faichi didn't keep him guessing. He explained the situation briefly in a few sentences.
"…The whole city is rebelling, but it's not enough."
"With Ryosuke's power, if he wants to, he could quickly crush the uprising and take control of the situation."
"We need something that can delay Ryosuke for a short time."
Faichi raised his hand and pointed at Gaara.
"If Shukaku loses control and rampages through the city, chaos will spread. Ryosuke defeats the One-Tail but can't stop the uprising in time… Then it's done."
Rasa understood his plan.
Once the chaos begins, hatred will be born. Those who believe in the Awakening Ideology will fight harder, driven by rage.
Will Ryosuke save them or not?
Will he kill the rebelling samurai or not?
And when countless innocent civilians die, when their families look up at Ryosuke with tears and hope he'll do what he did to the last daimyo of the Land of Water, cut off Tokugawa's head, will Ryosuke do it, or not?
Rasa suddenly realized something.
"Isn't this the same moral dilemma we ran into this morning at the city gate?"
But that morning, Ryosuke could throw away the blade in his hand.
Now… he couldn't.
He had to make a choice.
Because not choosing, in the eyes of many, is also a choice.
"This is the daimyo's trap?" Rasa asked.
Faichi snorted coldly. "Him? He doesn't deserve that much credit. Just a cowardly pig who's chosen to surrender."
"Rasa, give Gaara to me, and you'll achieve your dream of killing the daimyo."
Trading Gaara's life for Tokugawa Shingen's?
Rasa lowered Gaara to the ground.
Chiyo frowned tightly, calling Rasa's name softly, warning him not to do something foolish.
But Rasa stayed silent.
Seeing that, Faichi assumed his silence meant agreement. Time was short anyway. He unstrapped his biwa and sat cross-legged on the ground.
He pressed his left hand on the strings and plucked sharply with his right.
The sound was like pearls falling onto jade, crisp and rapid.
As the melody rose, the monk's robe split open at the chest, revealing countless scriptures tattooed across his skin.
From his chest surged a swarm of black chains.
This was Faichi's special sealing technique, "Sennyo Riki: The Binding of Separation."
Triggered by the sound of his music, the chains would seek out tailed beast chakra within a hundred meters, pierce the jinchūriki's body, and begin exerting control over the beast.
In this age, when ninjas still needed to weave hand signs and couldn't just clap their hands and summon power at will, jinchūriki were living weapons.
And Faichi… was truly a strategic-level asset.
That was precisely why Rasa had gradually sidelined him, after all, the jinchūriki was his own son. Who would want someone in their village specializing in controlling or suppressing their child?
Not deliberately targeting Faichi was already the limit of Rasa's tolerance.
But for Faichi, who had studied sealing arts for half his life under his master, waiting to make his mark, Rasa's behavior was the ultimate betrayal.
"Right before your eyes, I'll kill your son. That's the price you pay for rejecting me."
"This is karma."
The chains shot forward, about to pierce Gaara through, when suddenly, a rough, calloused hand grabbed them all midair.
Rasa gripped the chains and slowly lifted his head.
"In the village, you all treated me like a miner."
"Outside the village, you treat me like Ryosuke's lackey."
"But you haven't really forgotten, have you..."
Rasa's expression turned coldly arrogant, sweeping away his usual restraint.
"I am the Fourth Kazekage."
"You think I wanted to kill the daimyo just for fun? You think I follow Ryosuke for no reason?"
"I wanted my family, and my village, to stop being bullied, to stop living in poverty and misery."
"And now you're telling me, to kill some worthless daimyo, I have to trade my son's life?"
Rasa raised his hand, and countless grains of gold sand floated into the air, condensing into thousands of sharp golden needles.
He glared coldly at Faichi.
"You're dying here today."
At the same time, inside the daimyo's mansion, nobles and elites were panicking in the darkness.
Everyone was running, some trying to find safety, some barking orders to the samurai to fortify defenses.
Servants rushed to light candles, but as soon as they were lit, the wind stirred by running feet blew them out again.
Only Tokugawa Shingen stood by the window, motionless.
He pieced together what was happening outside and explained it calmly to Ryosuke.
"You're not afraid of dying?" Ryosuke asked.
Tokugawa Shingen said, "The more a man is defeated, the less he can lose his composure."
"Face and substance, you have to keep at least one."
Ryosuke sighed softly. "Yeah."
Killing the daimyo to please the public, that's face.
Suppressing the false rebellion, that's substance.
"So, Mr. Ryosuke," Tokugawa Shingen raised his cup and lightly clinked it against Ryosuke's.
"How will you choose?"
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/XenosX
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰