The capital of the Land of Wind was shrouded in swirling yellow sand.
Rasa, clad in the Kazekage's ceremonial robe with dark circles under his eyes, followed an attendant through the winding corridors of the Daimyo's palace.
Soon, he arrived at a courtyard filled with the songs of birds and the fragrance of flowers.
Amidst this city surrounded by desert, there lay a hidden paradise that rivaled the scenic beauty of the Land of Fire.
At the center of the courtyard, inside a pavilion with gently swaying bamboo curtains, the opulently dressed daimyo of the Land of Wind casually tossed feed into a pond. Golden-scaled fish churned the water, sending up glistening splashes.
"Daimyo-sama!" Rasa stood outside the pavilion and greeted him.
However, after a long wait, the Daimyo behind the bamboo curtains neither turned around nor spoke. Only the sounds of the pond's fish remained audible. It wasn't until the feed was completely scattered that the Daimyo of the Land of Wind slowly turned his head, feigning surprise as he said, "Oh, Kazekage, you've arrived! Why didn't you say so earlier? Come in, come in. Look at you, covered in dust from your journey."
The Daimyo flicked open his folding fan with a snap, covering half of his faintly smiling face.
This deliberate act of toying with Rasa naturally irritated him, but Rasa could only suppress his displeasure and enter the pavilion, taking a seat across from the Daimyo.
The Daimyo, however, acted as if nothing had happened. He called over two maids to pour Rasa a cup of tea.
Speaking of which, the political structure of the Ninja World was rather peculiar. Ninja possessed supernatural powers yet acted like mercenaries, accepting contracts from nations.
Moreover, the appointment of a Kage or Ninja Village's leader required the Daimyo's approval.
For instance, after Hiruzen's death, both Danzo and Tsunade sought the Daimyo's support in the capital of the Land of Fire when competing for the position of Fifth Hokage.
The Daimyo of the Land of Wind had an even tighter grip on Sunagakure's finances, frequently cutting funds and forcing Rasa to use his Magnet Release to extract gold from the desert to supplement the village's economy.
The relationship between the leader of the Ninja Village, and even the Kage, and the Daimyo is subtle, somewhere between subordinate and ally.
Since the Warring States Period, various Ninja Clans have been employed by nations and Daimyo, and this strange dynamic had become deeply ingrained in people's minds.
Even a Ninja with immense power rarely dared to cross this line.
But now, this boundary between nation and village, between Daimyo and Ninja, had been ruthlessly trampled upon!
"Kazekage, are you aware of the situation in the Land of Bears?" The Daimyo of the Land of Wind took a sip of tea.
"I've already dispatched a squad led by a Jonin from the village to investigate…" Rasa was not good at lying, so he just told the recent situation truthfully: "But we haven't received any updates for a while."
"See this tea? It's premium tea from the Land of Demons. With the rebellion in the Land of Bears, even the price of tea has risen significantly." The Daimyo's words carried a hidden meaning.
Rasa didn't quite grasp the implication and remained silent.
Seeing this, the daimyo sighed inwardly at Rasa's stubbornness. Playing with his fan, he slowly revealed the true purpose of summoning Rasa.
"How many Ninjas will be needed to suppress the rebellion of Hoshigakure?"
The news about the rebellion in Hoshigakure and the Land of Bears had already spread throughout the Ninja World. Neighboring small nations were on edge, and the Daimyo and nobles of the Land of Earth and the Land of Wind feared this 'trend' would spread to them.
Rasa analyzed the situation: "If we were to wage war against Hoshigakure in the Land of Bears, we'd have to prepare for the possibility of Iwagakure from the Land of Earth intervening. Our Sunagakure, however, hasn't fully recovered from the last war. It would be difficult-"
The last Great Ninja War had been triggered by the disappearance of the Third Kazekage and the subsequent invasion by Iwagakure.
When Rasa mentioned the possibility of the intervention of the Iwagakure, the Daimyo couldn't help but feel pain.
He remembered that in the last war, the Land of Wind had lost badly. To secure peace treaties with neighboring nations, the Land of Wind had paid hefty sums, and all this money came from the Daimyo's own coffers.
"Can't we just send a few elite Ninjas to capture the rebel's leader?" The Daimyo snapped his fan open and shut.
Rasa shook his head: "I'm sorry, Daimyo-sama. Without sufficient intelligence, we don't even know who the leader of these rebels is."
The team led by Pakura had lost contact several days ago, and the chances of their survival were slim. Sunagakure was severely lacking in both intelligence and top-tier combat power, so Rasa truly had no desire to wage this war.
Most importantly, the Daimyo of the Land of Wind hadn't mentioned any financial support for Sunagakure from start to finish!
This was what frustrated Rasa the most.
'He's expecting Sunagakure to fight a war, but he didn't want to provide any funding?!'
The Daimyo of the Land of Wind was in dilemma.
Though the Daimyo of the Land of Bears had been killed and many nobles were slaughtered, it had little to do with him personally.
It was just that as fellow Daimyo, he instinctively hated Hoshigakure's rebellion.
But to actually spend his own money to quell the rebellion in the Land of Bears? The stingy Daimyo of the Land of Wind would never open his purse for that.
Moreover, if the Land of Wind sent Ninjas to intervene in the Land of Bears, it would undoubtedly provoke a reaction from the Land of Earth.
The Third Great Ninja War had just ended, and they had barely begun to recover. Did they really have to go to war again so soon?
The Daimyo of the Land of Wind cherished his wealth too much for that.
In the end, the meeting concluded without any resolution. The Daimyo merely instructed Sunagakure to monitor the situation in the Land of Bears.
Those rebels could wreak havoc in the Land of Bears all they wanted… just as long as they didn't bring trouble to the Land of Wind.
A similar scenario unfolded in the Land of Earth.
The Daimyo of the Land of Earth summoned the Third Tsuchikage, Onoki, to discuss how to handle Hoshigakure's rebellion.
Likewise, with the dispatched team long overdue and no updates, Onoki had no intention of getting entangled in the Land of Bears' mess, lest Sunagakure from the Land of Wind seize the opportunity to strike.
During the last war, ten thousand Iwagakure's Ninjas had besieged the Third Raikage, paying a heavy price just to exhaust that reckless brute's Chakra.
Iwagakure also had no interest in fighting a war with so little intelligence.
With neither the Land of Earth nor the Land of Wind, both bordering the Land of Bears, willing to go to war, the two nations simply sealed off their borders.
The two Great Ninja Villages stationed small numbers of Ninjas along the shared border with the Land of Bears, strengthening patrols and occasionally clashing with Hoshigakure in minor skirmishes.
Thus, under the appeasement policies of the two major nations, time gradually passed until the Year 55 of the Konoha Calendar.
The Ninja World remained restless.
…
Konoha Village.
At the start of the new year, Menma sat listlessly on the engawa, gazing up at the night sky.
Occasionally, fireworks streaked across the darkness, bursting into brilliant colors that adorned the heavens.
Beside Menma lay a fruit platter filled with candies, fruits, and other snacks.
Little Nine-Tails, crouching next to the platter, clutched a large cookie in her tiny paws, just about to take a bite, when she suddenly sensed something and immediately dove into Menma's scarf.
"Come out, I see you." Menma said softly, tilting his head slightly toward a shadowy spot along the garden wall.
Naruto grinned as he emerged from the shadows, hopping down from the wall into the yard.
Though he was only four years old now, Naruto's physical abilities already surpassed those of an ordinary person. He could leap several stories high and had even mastered basic throwing techniques and Ninjutsu.
"Menma, it's just… since it's New Year's, I wanted to say-" Standing in the yard, Naruto scratched the back of his head, his words stumbling slightly.
Seeing the barely contained excitement and slight nervousness in the young boy's demeanor, Menma smiled.
"Happy New Year, Naruto."
He patted the spot beside him, inviting Naruto to sit.
For the first time in his life, Naruto, who had always spent New Year's alone, grinned widely as he settled onto the engawa. Watching the fireworks glitter across the night sky, he felt a warmth he had never known before.