"What do you want?" Rasa forced the words out through gritted teeth, fighting against the pain in his chest. "If you're looking for me to betray the village, forget it. Just kill me and get it over with."
Pride wouldn't let him show weakness. He was the Fourth Kazekage. He'd die before he betrayed Suna.
"I have zero interest in making you betray anyone. I just want to make a trade."
"A trade?"
Rasa's tense muscles loosened slightly. If there was room for negotiation, there was a chance to survive this.
"What kind of trade?"
"Summon Chiyo. I want to talk to her."
The iron spike pressed forward a fraction. The cold metal scraped against cartilage, sending a sharp spike of pain through Rasa's chest.
"You're my bargaining chip. Don't even think about playing games. Killing you takes less than a second."
Rasa's face darkened, but he had no real choice here. If he died in this tent, Suna would descend into chaos. The village couldn't afford to lose another Kazekage. Not so soon after losing the Third.
He took a deep breath and raised his voice toward the tent entrance.
"Send for Lady Chiyo! Tell her I need to discuss urgent matters immediately!"
"Yes, Kazekage-sama!" An ANBU's voice responded from outside.
Rasa turned his head slightly, trying to look at the intruder behind him without moving enough to worsen his injury.
"I did what you asked. Now at least tell me what your goal is."
"Wait."
That single word, delivered in the same emotionless tone, was all he got. He had no choice but to suppress his anxiety and wait.
What could this intruder want from Chiyo specifically? Intelligence? Some technique? A prisoner exchange?
Minutes crawled by.
Finally, the tent flap lifted. Chiyo stepped inside, her eyes immediately taking in the scene. Her expression flickered. But she recovered quickly. She turned back toward the entrance and addressed the ninjas waiting outside.
"I need to discuss classified matters with the Kazekage. Everyone fall back to a hundred-meter perimeter. No one approaches without my authorization."
Kenji couldn't help but feel a grudging respect. If word spread that the Kazekage had been taken hostage, Suna's front-line morale would collapse instantly. By ordering everyone back and framing this as a private conference, she was containing the damage before it could spread.
The tent flap fell closed again.
Chiyo turned to face the intruder fully.
"Speak. You called me here. What do you want?"
The puppet didn't waste time with pleasantries or build-up.
"I want a technique. The One's Own Life Reincarnation."
Chiyo's pupils contracted to pinpoints. Her face went pale. Her hands, which had been hanging loosely at her sides, suddenly clenched into fists.
"How..." She had to stop and clear her throat before trying again. "How do you even know about that? I only finished developing it recently. No one knows about it except me."
The technique was deeply personal. A forbidden jutsu she'd created in grief and desperation, born from losing too many people she cared about. The fact that this stranger knew it existed meant she'd been watched without her knowledge, or something far worse.
"How I know doesn't matter," the puppet replied, completely unmoved by her distress. "Just hand over the technique."
"And if I refuse?"
"Then I kill Rasa right now, and you can explain to Suna why they need to elect yet another Kazekage."
The spike pressed forward another millimeter. Rasa's breath hitched, a strangled sound escaping despite his attempts to stay silent. Chiyo's jaw clenched so hard her teeth should've cracked. But the puppet wasn't done.
"In exchange for the technique, I'll release him unharmed. And I'll tell you what happened to the Third Kazekage. A fair trade, wouldn't you say?"
That got her attention even more than the threat to Rasa's life.
"You know where the Third Kazekage is?"
Her breathing quickened. Her eyes dropped to the iron sand piercing through Rasa's chest, then back up to the intruder.
"Are you his student? Did he teach you Iron Sand before he disappeared?"
"I have no connection to the Third Kazekage," the puppet interrupted, sounding annoyed now. "Stop making assumptions. Yes or no. Do you accept the trade, or do I need to start measuring Rasa for a coffin?"
Chiyo's face went ashen. Every fiber of her being wanted to refuse. But she couldn't. Rasa couldn't die. The Third Kazekage's fate had been Suna's primary intelligence objective for years. And she was being offered answers to both problems in exchange for a technique she'd never planned to use anyway.
The choice wasn't really a choice at all.
She reached into her sleeve, pulled out a scroll, and tossed it toward the puppet. It sailed through the air and the puppet caught it one-handed.
"That's the scroll for the One's Own Life Reincarnation. You better not be lying to me."
Kenji was mildly surprised. He'd expected to have to wait while she wrote it out from memory, or at least went back to her quarters to retrieve it. The fact that she carried the scroll on her person suggested she'd been thinking about the technique more than she'd probably admit.
The puppet opened the scroll and scanned through the contents quickly. The technique was written out in Chiyo's precise hand, complete with detailed instructions, hand seals, and warnings about the chakra cost. Everything appeared legitimate.
After confirming the scroll's authenticity, it tucked the scroll away inside its coat. Then it spoke again, "The scroll is real. As promised, here's your information. The Third Kazekage is dead. Sasori turned him into a human puppet."
"Sasori?!"
All the color drained fromChiyo's face, leaving her looking suddenly fragile. Her hands started to shake.
"You're lying! He would never..."
"My job is to provide the information. Whether you believe it is your problem, not mine."
For a moment, Chiyo just stood there. Her mind was clearly trying to process what she'd just been told. Sasori, her grandson, had killed the Third Kazekage. He had desecrated the Third Kazekage's body by turning it into a puppet.
That moment of shock was what Rasa had been waiting for.
He moved.
The iron sand piercing his chest suddenly became coated in a thin layer of gold dust. The Gold Dust shot forward. At the same time, gold particles erupted from the ground around the tent, surging upward. Chiyo reacted on instinct. Mechanisms in her arms clicked open and dozens of senbon coated in poison launched toward the puppet's vital points. The attacks converged from three directions simultaneously.
But when the dust cleared and the gold particles settled back to the ground, the tent was empty except for Chiyo and Rasa.
The puppet had vanished.
Chiyo rushed forward, scanning the area where it had been standing.
"Space-time ninjutsu," she muttered through clenched teeth. "Who was that?"
Rasa slumped forward, finally able to relax now that the threat was gone. The iron needle and spike had disappeared along with the intruder, leaving a clean hole through his chest that was already starting to close thanks to emergency medical chakra.
"I don't know. But he had perfect control over Iron Sand. And he knew about techniques that should be secret."
Chiyo's mind was still spinning. It was too much information. But she forced herself to focus on immediate concerns. She turned toward the tent entrance as ANBU began rushing in, alerted by the sounds of combat.
"An infiltrator attempted to assassinate the Kazekage," she announced. "The threat has been repelled. Increase perimeter security immediately. And this incident is classified. Anyone who speaks about it will be executed for treason."
The ANBU saluted and dispersed to carry out her orders.
Chiyo stayed behind, helping Rasa to his feet and beginning proper medical treatment on his injury. But her mind was elsewhere.
Sasori had killed the Third Kazekage. If that was true... Then the entire war had been based on a false premise. They'd blamed Konoha for a crime that one of their own shinobi had committed.
---
Ever since infiltrating Suna's camp and obtaining the One's Own Life Reincarnation, Kenji had been waiting for retaliation. He'd expected Suna to launch some kind of revenge attack. But the front lines stayed quiet. Not even small skirmishes. Just as he was starting to wonder what game Suna was playing, news arrived.
Suna had formally proposed a ceasefire and peace negotiations with Konoha.
The sudden shift caught him off guard. But when he saw Suna forces beginning to withdraw from the border, establishing demilitarized zones and pulling back their offensive positions, he finally accepted the information as real.
His best guess was that Chiyo and Rasa had investigated his claims about the Third Kazekage. Once they'd confirmed that Sasori really had killed him and turned him into a puppet, continuing the war became pointless. The entire conflict had been launched on the suspicion that Konoha was responsible for the Third Kazekage's disappearance. Now that they knew the truth, there was no reason to keep fighting.
---
A few days later, Kenji returned to Konoha with the rest of the troops.
The moment he stepped through the village gates, he was hit by a wall of sound. Villagers packed both sides of the main street, cheering and waving banners. Children sat on their parents' shoulders to get a better view. Elderly civilians who'd survived previous wars stood with tears streaming down their faces.
The Third Great Ninja War wasn't over yet. But Suna's ceasefire meant people could finally see a light at the end of the tunnel. Hope that maybe the killing would stop soon.
Hiruzen stood on top of the Hokage Building and delivered a short speech. The usual propaganda about the Will of Fire, gratitude for everyone's sacrifices, promises of peace. Kenji tuned most of it out.
When the crowd finally began to disperse, someone called his name.
"Kenji! Welcome back!"
Honoka came jogging over, weaving through the thinning crowd. Her red hair bounced with each step, and her face was split by a huge grin. When she reached him, she gave him a friendly punch to the shoulder.
"Took you long enough to come home."
Kenji smiled. "Yeah, well, war doesn't run on a convenient schedule. Good to see you too."
"Come on," Honoka said, already turning and gesturing for him to follow. "Let's go celebrate properly. Yakiniku Q?"
"Sounds good to me."
They made their way through the village toward the restaurant. Since it was the day the troops returned, Yakiniku Q was packed. They had to wait almost twenty minutes before getting a corner table, tucked away from the main crowd. Kenji ordered enough food for three people and they dug in while catching up.
"Oh! Did you hear?" Honoka said around a mouthful of beef. She swallowed and continued. "Kakashi got promoted to jonin!"
"Really? How old is he now, twelve? That's got to be some kind of record."
"Youngest jonin in Konoha's history," Honoka confirmed, nodding enthusiastically. "Total genius. It makes the rest of us look like we're standing still."
"What about Minato? Is he in the village?" Kenji asked the question casually, like he was just making conversation. But internally, he was paying very close attention to the answer.
"Nope, he's out on a mission," Honoka said. She paused to load more meat onto the grill before continuing. "Kushina mentioned it a few days ago. He took Kakashi, Obito, and Rin out for something. Since Kakashi just made jonin, it's supposed to be their team's last mission together before they split up."
Kenji's chopsticks froze mid-motion for just a fraction of a second. There it was. The confirmation he'd been dreading.
He forced himself to keep eating normally. He looked out the window at Konoha's bright afternoon sky. The village looked peaceful. But far away, in the Land of Grass, a tragedy was unfolding that would have consequences for decades to come.