"You two, I have a question for you."
Garp didn't bother with Rasa at all. Instead, he looked at Chiyo and Ebizo standing beside him.
"Is your current Kazekage always this brave?"
His tone wasn't harsh, if anything, it carried a hint of curiosity and joking.
But the moment those words left Garp's mouth, Chiyo and Ebizo felt as if they had been plunged into an icy abyss.
They were standing on the scorching desert sands, yet their hands and feet were frozen stiff.
"..."
Chiyo and Ebizo exchanged glances. In each other's eyes, they saw the same bitterness and helplessness.
They also wanted to know when the Rasa who used to treat them with respect started becoming… bold beyond measure.
It was one thing for him to push them aside within the village.
But now, standing before this monster, he actually dared to speak arrogantly, demanding that Garp make way for him.
"Lord Garp, this is not what our Kazekage means."
Chiyo was just as bewildered as anyone about Rasa's sudden bravery, but as a Sunagakure elder, she had no choice but to step forward now.
"I believe what Kazekage-sama is trying to express is that he hopes you can grant Sunagakure safe passage, allowing us to travel across the Land of Rain."
Ebizo hurried to add.
"Since when has Sunagakure fallen so low that we must seek this man's permission just to walk a road?"
Rasa's expression didn't change, but the fist hidden in his pocket tightened, fingers turning pale from how hard he clenched.
Even though Chiyo and Ebizo were setting aside their grudges to help him, as the Kazekage, all he felt was humiliation and shame.
"And what if I say no?"
Garp glanced at Rasa, then asked casually.
"Then…"
"Then Sunagakure will take a detour."
Rasa was about to explode, but Chiyo grabbed him and pulled him behind her with lightning-fast reflexes, cutting him off.
"What?"
Rasa's face twisted in fury.
The elders' were repeatedly bowing and scraping, which he found infuriating and unacceptable.
"If you do not want us crossing through the Land of Rain, then we will choose another route. We will not get in your way.."
Chiyo ignored Rasa entirely, ignored his darkened face, ignored the anger burning in his eyes.
She simply continued speaking to Garp.
"We just want you to be a little understanding."
Ebizo took a deep breath. Under Rasa's murderous glare, he stepped forward, cupped his hands, and bowed deeply.
"Humiliating… This is simply a disgrace to Sunagakure.
It's because we have timid, overcautious elders like you two that Sunagakure remains trapped in the desert, unable to step beyond the Land of Wind."
Watching this, Rasa's anger surged wildly.
In his eyes, Chiyo and Ebizo weren't helping him, they were repeatedly placing his dignity, Sunagakure's dignity, at Garp's feet for this man to stomp on at will.
His rage burned so hot that he even began considering removing Chiyo and Ebizo from their elder positions.
And once that thought appeared, it clung to him stubbornly like a deep parasite.
"Learn from them, Kazekage. This is how you properly talk to someone."
The moment Garp said that, if Chiyo and Ebizo hadn't both secretly pressed down on Rasa's shoulders, the "bravest Kazekage in history" would've charged forward on the spot.
"Does this mean you agree?"
Chiyo let out a tiny, relieved breath.
"When did I ever say that I agreed?"
Garp looked at her with a teasing smile.
"Why?"
"And may we know your reason?"
Chiyo and Ebizo's expressions stiffened.
Rasa stayed silent, watching the siblings coldly.
In his eyes, Chiyo and Ebizo were humiliating themselves.
If he were handling this, Sunagakure might not come out unscathed, but at least they wouldn't be shamed like this.
"Do I need to explain myself to you? Don't think that just because I speak politely with you all, you can treat me as your equal.
Make way? Explain myself? Even Reto wouldn't attempt to say that to me, yet you think you can?"
Garp's voice wasn't loud, but his tone grew heavier.
At the same time, Chiyo and the others felt the air around them thicken, no longer invisible and weightless, but dense like water… or even mercury, pressing down from all directions.
"..."
Hearing Garp speak with such open disdain, not only Rasa, but even Chiyo and Ebizo, the dignified elder siblings, had extremely ugly expressions.
Did they want to bow and yield?
No.
It was because the monster looming over them was too terrifying.
A man who single-handedly ended the Warring States Period, whose fists forced an entire generation of shinobi and samurai to bow their heads, his presence was overwhelmingly terrifying.
Especially since, unlike Rasa, Chiyo and Ebizo had grown up in the transitional period between the old era and the new, just like Onoki.
They could feel the pressure of the old veteran in a way Rasa never could.
But fear and caution didn't mean they had no pride.
As Sunagakure elders and Kage-level shinobis who had fought in multiple wars, they had their own pride, their own backbone.
Now that negotiations had failed… They also had the resolve, and the courage, to fight if necessary.
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