Rasa stood atop a mass of gold dust, rising and falling slowly in the fierce winds high above the desert.
His emotions were in turmoil, so much so that he failed to notice how much loose sand the wind had already stripped away from the platform beneath his feet.
What he couldn't understand was this:
During the First Shinobi World War, Ōnoki and the Third Raikage had already clashed fiercely as elite representatives of their villages.
During the Second Shinobi World War, the hatred between them had only deepened.
Both men had blood debts tied to the other's friends and family.
And yet now, these two had actually joined hands and lowered themselves enough to negotiate with him.
From the way Ōnoki spoke, it sounded as though another great war was about to begin.
Rasa said, "I can indeed speak for Sunagakure. There are dissenting voices in the village, but I have ways to silence them.
As for a shinobi world war, I won't hide my thoughts.
Now that my teacher, the Third Kazekage, is gone, Sunagakure will not wade into muddy waters.
I'll deal only with the affairs of the Land of Wind. As long as we don't leave the desert, even Konoha can't march deep into the sands and come after us, can they?"
Ōnoki shook his head.
"You foolish young man. You're far inferior to your teacher, both in strength and in judgment."
Rasa did not argue. He only frowned more deeply, still unable to tell what these two were really after.
Ōnoki continued, "Still, at least you understand that Konoha is strong, so you're not hopelessly stupid. What I'm telling you is this: neither you nor Sunagakure can remain uninvolved."
Rasa abruptly turned his head.
Far away, on the horizon, at least a thousand shinobi had appeared.
His heart tightened at once.
He immediately reached a conclusion: with the thousand Sand ninja he had brought, there was no way he could defeat a joint force led by the Tsuchikage and the Third Raikage.
The Third Raikage barked, "Ōnoki! Why waste words on this brat?
If he won't cooperate, then our allied army will wipe out Sunagakure first! Then we'll deal with Konoha together!"
Faced with the Third Raikage's overwhelming killing intent, the gold dust beneath Rasa swelled rapidly.
He regretted coming up into the sky.
His Gold Dust was stronger on the ground.
"Calm yourself, Raikage," Ōnoki said, stopping him, before turning back to Rasa.
"Rasa, you cannot remain uninvolved.
There's no point hiding it from you. Iwagakure and Kumogakure are preparing to join forces against Konoha.
If we lose, we will naturally suffer greatly. But we will never allow ourselves to lose to Konoha, only to have Sunagakure stab us in the back afterward.
And if we win, it will still be a costly victory. At that point, we certainly won't allow your village to profit from the chaos.
Rasa, I appreciate your talent in ninjutsu, so I'm giving you a chance to negotiate.
If you are willing to join us against Konoha, good.
If you refuse, then before the Iwa–Kumo alliance makes its move against Konoha, we will first erase Sunagakure at any cost.
This war with Konoha will not be the same kind of shinobi war as before, where villages merely fought over client states. This will be a war of mutual destruction.
Before the mantis stalks the cicada, it must first deal with the oriole."
Rasa stared blankly.
What kind of logic was that?
Because the war against Konoha would be brutal, they intended to eliminate every observer first?
Before first and second place fought, they wanted to kill off third through fifth?
Then Rasa suddenly thought of how the struggle between himself and Chiyo had begun.
At first, they had tacitly joined forces against the civilian jōnin faction.
Both he and Chiyo hated uncertainty. They had pushed all civilian jōnin who refused to side with either of them out of Sunagakure's center of power.
Thinking of it that way, Rasa could roughly understand what Ōnoki and the Raikage meant.
Rasa said, "I understand your resolve now. If you join forces with Konoha's enemy, then before the war begins, you will first eliminate every other power to prevent some third party from rising by standing on your corpses.
I knew Konoha was strong. But for the two of you—who bear such bitter hatred toward one another—to actually ally with each other... that still shocks me."
"Shocks you?" Ōnoki said.
"Rasa, your village is far too conservative in its use of Tailed Beasts, which is why you don't understand how powerful they truly are.
You only use Shukaku's sand body as a basis for developing secret techniques like Magnet Release and Sand Release. You rarely send Shukaku onto the battlefield.
But the combat power of a Tailed Beast is far beyond a few secret arts.
Iwagakure and Kumogakure are skilled at using Jinchūriki, so we know exactly how terrifying Tailed Beasts are.
And yet... the Two-Tails was killed by Konoha's Fox.
The very day the Two-Tails died, the Raikage lowered his proud head and came to discuss joining forces against Konoha.
We waited several years, and now that the Two-Tails has finally revived, we can finally act together."
Rasa nodded.
So that was it.
The fact that Fox of Konoha could kill a Tailed Beast had shaken these old monsters to the core.
Ōnoki continued, "Fox already has some of Senju Hashirama in him—perhaps even half his strength.
And that was four years ago. Who knows how much he has grown since then?
Rasa, you are too young. You don't understand just how terrifying Senju Hashirama became near the end of the Warring States Era.
That man was a monster.
A monster who could single-handedly crush every shinobi village.
At the same time, he had a powerful moral sense. He gathered all the ninja clans and shinobi in the Land of Fire into Konoha, and because he wanted Konoha to recover and thrive, he refrained from launching wars against other countries.
He even naïvely came up with a plan: let every shinobi village possess a Tailed Beast, and mutual deterrence would preserve peace.
What Senju Hashirama never understood was that the true balance of deterrence did not come from the Tailed Beasts of each village.
It came from him.
The moment he died, the First Shinobi World War erupted soon after.
We feared Senju Hashirama.
We did not fear Senju Tobirama.
And the wars that followed were even crueler than those of the Warring States Era.
Now Konoha has produced another shinobi whose strength approaches Senju Hashirama's: Fox.
Senju Hashirama had clear ideals, grand dreams, and a powerful moral compass.
The problem is... Fox has none of those things.
Fox is Konoha's ANBU commander. He honed his strength through ANBU missions, and with every extreme mission he completed, he became more and more twisted.
I have no doubt that if Sarutobi Hiruzen ordered Fox to assassinate the Fire Daimyō, then before midnight, the Daimyō's head would be sitting on Hiruzen's desk.
Fox has no grand dream of restoring peace to the shinobi world.
The feeling he gives me is that of a terrifying weapon willing to do anything for Konoha.
For the past four years, the Raikage and I have been waiting for the Two-Tails to revive, and we've spent those years on edge, wondering when Fox might decide to assassinate someone from our villages.
Fortunately, after losing his son, Sarutobi Hiruzen lost his ambition and did not assign Fox any major operations.
But peace is an illusion. There are only pauses between wars. There is no such thing as true peace.
The disappearance of your Kazekage shattered the fragile quiet of the shinobi world.
Do not doubt it—Konoha's ANBU are already gathering intelligence all across the Land of Wind, perhaps even inside Sunagakure itself.
Before Konoha makes its move, we must establish a solid alliance.
That is why I lured you away from Sunagakure to negotiate.
Fox is too strong. Konoha is too strong. We must unite against this terrifying enemy."
Rasa nodded.
He had seen records of Tailed Beast rampages. Those monsters were horrifying enough already, yet one of them had actually been killed by a single shinobi. The legend of the God of Shinobi was becoming reality once more.
No wonder Ōnoki and the Raikage were so tense.
Rasa said, "I will deal with the dissent within Sunagakure as quickly as possible, become the Fourth Kazekage, and join your alliance.
Together, we will move against Konoha."
"Good!" the Raikage said. "Though the Third Kazekage was weak, your judgment is sound. You are a qualified successor—fit to stand as the Kage of a village."
Ōnoki immediately corrected him.
"The Third Kazekage was not weak, Raikage. Don't measure the other Kage by your own standards."
Then he turned back to Rasa.
"Rasa, you must also resolve the conflict with Kirigakure as soon as possible.
I want both Sunagakure and Kirigakure to join the anti-Konoha alliance and form a Shinobi Alliance.
The Raikage and I will contact Gensui of Kirigakure as soon as possible.
Before we meet with him, I hope you will show goodwill and avoid escalating the conflict with Kirigakure."
Rasa nodded, but inwardly he had already made his decision.
Once he returned, he would send Pakura to Kirigakure as an offering to vent their anger.
That way, the dispute with Kirigakure could be settled.
Back on the ground, Rasa's expression remained grave as he watched the combined Iwa and Kumo forces withdraw into the distance.
He had never imagined that the Third Shinobi World War would begin with four great shinobi villages forming a Shinobi Alliance.