Chapter 12: The Bitter Taste of Charity
"Tell me, Captain. What exactly did you see when you looked at my file?"
I didn't blink as I stared at Oto Kaze. The flickering campfire cast long, dancing shadows across his face, making his expression unreadable. Outside, the sandstorm screamed, but inside this stone bubble, the air was heavy with unspoken truths.
Oto Kaze didn't answer immediately. He poked at the embers, the orange light reflecting in his eyes.
"Your former captain, Satetsu, and I are old friends," he said finally. "The Hidden Sand is a small village. Jonin talk. When I heard you were assigned to my squad, Satetsu told me I'd just inherited a gold mine."
I let out a dry, hollow laugh. "A gold mine? That bald old man must have been hit by one too many Earth Style jutsus. He kicked me out of his squad, remember?"
"He didn't kick you out because you were weak, Daimaru," Oto Kaze countered, his voice dropping an octave. "He kicked you out because he couldn't handle what you were becoming."
(Internal Monologue: Satetsu... that old man saw through me? I thought I was being careful. I thought the 'troublemaker' act was enough to hide the changes. If a meathead like him noticed, how many others are watching?)
"And what about you, Captain?" I leaned forward, my heart hammering against my ribs. "Have you found whatever 'merit' Satetsu was raving about?"
Oto Kaze nodded slowly, then shook his head.
"You're eye-catching, Daimaru. But I don't know if I value the same things he did. Your words and actions are erratic—you play the fool, you act arrogant—but you aren't actually hiding your nature. You just haven't found anyone worth trusting with your real thoughts."
He paused, his eyes narrowing.
"Your strength is far beyond what your rank suggests. If Satetsu hadn't warned me, I might have missed it too. I reviewed your mission records. The way you escape death... it isn't normal."
My pulse quickened. "Luck is a skill in this business, Captain."
"Luck?" Oto Kaze smirked. "Three months ago, you were buried in a sea of thick quicksand. You survived for over half a month before they dug you out. No water. No air. Just a coffin of sand. How?"
"I'm a survivor. Simple as that."
"Every ninja has secrets," Oto Kaze said, waving off my excuse. "I don't care about the 'how.' But I see the 'what.' Those Sand Clay Puppets you used earlier... you think I'm as blind as Chiyo and Yome? Those things are low-quality junk, but the sheer volume you controlled simultaneously? An average Puppet Master would have had a stroke trying to manage that many threads."
(Internal Monologue: Damn. He noticed the multitasking. I was trying to keep the chakra output low, but the sheer complexity of the web gave me away. I need to be more careful.)
"It's just multitasking, Captain," I said, keeping my voice flat. "And as you said, they aren't even combat-ready. What's the point?"
"The point," Oto Kaze said, "is that you have the talent to be a Master, yet you haven't built a single real puppet. Why? Because you don't intend to follow that path. You have a different direction in mind—something you think has a greater future."
I sighed, the tension leaving my shoulders as I slumped back against the cave wall.
"Captain, are you trying to strip me bare? A guy needs a little mystery."
"Confidence. Arrogance. Conceit," Oto Kaze listed, ignoring my joke. "In most Genin, those are fatal flaws. In you? They're fuel. You know exactly what you want, and you're working for it. I'm just curious... why does a mere Genin think his choices are so infallible?"
I looked at my calloused hands, the hands of someone who had died once and refused to do it again.
"If the path is wrong, I'll carve a new one," I said, my voice laced with a cold, natural arrogance. "If others could do it, why can't I? I'm not here to follow. I'm here to win."
Oto Kaze stared at me for a long time. The silence was broken only by the roar of the storm outside. Then, he laughed—a genuine, deep rumble.
"Well said! Then work hard, boy. But tell me... will you accept my offer? I can still move you to a stronger squad. Why stay with Chiyo and Yome? They won't help you reach the top."
I grinned, a sharp, predatory look that finally matched the atmosphere in the cave.
"Captain, even if I swapped them for the 'best' Genin in the village, they'd still just be Genin. Yome and Chiyo aren't useless. And as for the future? Who can say? I'd rather build my own throne than sit on one someone else lent me."
Oto Kaze was stunned. He blinked, then burst into a roar of laughter that echoed off the stone walls.
"How much stronger can they really be? Hah! I like that. Fine. Keep your team. Take care of yourself, Daimaru."
He patted my shoulder—a heavy, meaningful gesture—and turned to rest.
Two days later, the Oto-kaze Squad trudged through the gates of Sunagakure, caked in dust and smelling of the waste-lands. The mission was a success. The bandits were gone.
Oto Kaze headed to the administrative building to file the report, leaving the three of us at the village square.
I turned to Chiyo and Yome. I knew they had been awake in the cave. I knew they had heard every word of my conversation with the Captain.
"I apologize again for being rough during training," I said, my voice formal. "Get some rest. We have a lot of work to do before the Exams."
I didn't wait for an answer. I turned and walked away, disappearing into the crowded alleys of the Sand.
Chiyo and Yome stood frozen, watching his back.
"Hey, Yome," Chiyo whispered, her voice trembling. "You were awake... weren't you?"
"Yeah," Yome replied, her head down. "You too."
"We weren't abandoned," Chiyo said, clenching her fists until her knuckles turned white. "He chose to keep us."
"Yeah. He's... reliable now. More than I thought."
"But," Chiyo's voice broke, a bitter edge creeping in. "We were pitied, Yome. We were charity. He kept us because he thinks it doesn't matter who his teammates are. He thinks he's strong enough to carry anyone."
Yome didn't look back, but a tear tracked through the dust on her cheek.
"It's humiliating," Yome whispered. "It's not that he needs us. It's that we're not even worth replacing in his eyes. He bullied us until we cried, and then he gave us alms."
"We have to work hard," Chiyo said, her fingernails digging into her palms until blood started to bead. "The Chunin Exams... that's our chance. I don't want to be 'charity' anymore. I want him to look at us and see a threat."
"Next time," Yome vowed, wiping her eyes with a fierce motion. "Next time, we're the ones who will do the choosing."
Deep within the heart of the Kazekage's office, the air was still and cold.
Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, sat cross-legged on the tatami mat. Before him lay a scroll bearing the seal of Otogakure—the Village Hidden in the Sound.
Sunagakure and Konoha were allies on paper, but the paper was burning. The Land of Fire's greed was suffocating the Sand. Rasa had been looking for a crack in the wall, a way to tear down the system that was starving his people.
And here it was. A secret alliance. An invitation to chaos.
"Orochimaru, huh?" Rasa murmured, his eyes scanning the proposal for the 'Chunin Exam' joint operation.
The man who had led Konoha's forces at Kikyo Mountain Castle—the butcher of the Sand—was now a rogue ninja offering a hand in the dark.
"It's been over a decade," Rasa said, his voice a low, dangerous rumble. "The 'peace' of the Leaf has lasted long enough. If we must burn to survive, then let the fire start in Konoha."
He picked up a brush and began to write his reply.
The wheels of fate were turning. The Chunin Exams were no longer just a test for Genin—they were the fuse for a world-ending explosion.
And in the middle of it all, a boy named Daimaru was carving a bone into the shape of a puppet's heart, unaware that the shadow of the Kazekage was already reaching for him.
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Will Daimaru survive the summons of the Golden Shadow? Or will his arrogance finally meet its match? Find out in the next chapter!
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