"Lord Kazekage, it's Yuji."
The Third Kazekage had just returned to his residence after finishing the day's work. Sasori knocked on the door and announced the visitor. Arai had already stepped down from the Kage Guard position, having resigned on his own initiative.
"Yuji?" The Kazekage straightened slightly. "Send him in."
It was past normal hours. Whatever had brought Yuji here at this time was worth hearing regardless.
The village's situation had changed considerably over the past months. The medicine factory construction was underway, craftsmen hired from across the Land of Wind and from several small countries brought in for the specialized work.
Once the facility was operational, the industry would be running at proper scale. After half a year of promotion and the trade caravan work Yuji had led personally, the medicine revenue had been doubling consistently.
Branch stores had opened within the village itself. Merchants from other countries and villages were arriving to purchase stock, drawn by the commercial opportunity, and the Hidden Sand's streets carried a different quality of life than they had just a year before. The old desolation was lifting.
Sasori pushed the door open and entered with Yuji.
The Kazekage was sitting at the head of his bed in casual clothes, the formal robes set aside for the evening.
"Yuji. You've been working hard lately." He smiled at the boy who came in, then broke off into a fit of coughing.
The credit for what the medicines had become, both the research and the subsequent distribution work across the ninja world, belonged primarily to Yuji. That was beyond dispute.
He had also taken on direct oversight of the factory construction, which had taken meaningful pressure off the Kazekage's own plate.
"Lord Kazekage, you should be resting more," Yuji said.
"There's no time for that. The village is at a critical stage. A Kage still has much to do." The Kazekage waved it off, then coughed again.
He attributed it to overwork. Nothing more.
"What brings you here?"
He assumed it was factory-related. That was where most of the active decisions were sitting right now.
"I want to designate another site within the village and build a branch factory alongside the main facility," Yuji said.
The Kazekage considered it for a moment.
"No problem. I'll consult with the others tomorrow and give you an answer."
The sales momentum made a second production facility a reasonable call. A single factory's output was already showing signs of becoming a constraint.
"There's also the matter of funding." Yuji continued. "The current cash flow from medicine sales is being absorbed simultaneously by the factory construction, the hospital renovation and expansion, and the bulk herb purchasing we need for raw materials.
By the time all of that is covered, the balance for a branch factory is gone. If we want to move forward, we need more room in the budget."
He paused.
"I'm asking you to negotiate with the Daimyo, Lord Kazekage. For the coming period, he cannot continue taking his share of the medicine profits."
The Kazekage's expression stiffened.
Sasori, standing to the side, brought two cups of tea and set them down. The Kazekage reached for one and said nothing.
"Is it not possible?" Yuji sighed, reading the silence. He exchanged a brief glance with Sasori.
The Kazekage took a slow sip and looked at him. "If we want this industry to grow to a truly large scale, the Daimyo's involvement is indispensable."
"Is that so?"
Yuji cut across him before the sentence could finish, his voice mild but direct.
The Kazekage's expression shifted into something darker.
Under ordinary circumstances, he would not have tolerated this. It was only because it was Yuji that he was willing to offer any explanation at all. And yet here this boy was, speaking with an edge of open challenge.
"The industry is already self-sufficient. That alone proves we don't need the Daimyo's funding. The reason you won't push back on him, Lord Kazekage, isn't financial. It's because the Daimyo is the Land of Wind's political representative, and you want history to remember you as the Kage who transformed this village.
For that, you need his formal recognition. Without his affirmation, there is no legacy draped in glory. That's what's actually driving this decision."
Yuji's expression remained pleasant. His eyes did not.
The room went cold.
"Yuji." The Kazekage set his teacup down slowly. "I have always thought highly of you. I have been more patient with you than I am with most. I could even say I've indulged you."
He looked at him with eyes that had sharpened into something hard.
"But your contributions to this village are not license to question me. Whether we negotiate with the Daimyo over profits is my decision as Kage. Whatever you feel about it, your role is to obey. Do you understand?"
He stood.
"Go. You're young, I'll treat this as immaturity. Don't let it happen again. Otherwise..." He turned to Sasori. "Take him out."
"Yes," Sasori said.
"That really is your way, Lord Kazekage," Yuji said from behind him, laughter in his voice. Light, unhurried. "Completely self-centered, to the end."
A pause.
"The timing should be about right."
Sasori gave a small nod.
The Kazekage's chest tightened. Something in the exchange between the two registered before his mind caught up to it.
Then the dizziness hit.
It arrived with sudden and overwhelming force, and in the same instant the Kazekage understood. Several rotating iron cones materialized around him immediately, Iron Sand surging in response.
"You two.!"
His voice came out as raw fury, his eyes fixed on Sasori and Yuji with an expression that had passed through disbelief and arrived somewhere beyond it.
A droplet of blood-water crossed the room faster than the Iron Sand could respond, threading through the gap between the rotating cones and striking him in the face.
The clatter of falling iron filled the room.
His body locked in place. The Iron Sand scattered across the floor without direction.
Yuji rose from his seat and spoke without hurry.
"Lord Kazekage, I am not who I was when we first began. These years, learning your abilities through the sessions you provided, I came to understand them very well."
He bowed slightly toward the Kazekage, whose life was draining away by the second.
"I'm sorry. For the Hidden Sand Village to have a better tomorrow, you have to die."
He turned and walked toward the door without looking back at the expression frozen on the Kazekage's face, the ferocity, the killing intent, all of it going still.
"The rest is yours," Yuji said quietly at the threshold.
Sasori said nothing in response. He looked at the Kazekage's fading state, and something in his eyes carried both mockery and a particular quiet satisfaction.
Letting him live this long had already been generous.
He extended chakra threads toward the falling body.