Yakura stepped out of the meeting hall with a blank face.The desert wind whipped across the courtyard hard enough to make her eyes narrow.Ever since the founding of the Five Great Nations, Sunagakure had fought all three rival villages: Konoha, Iwa, and Kiri.Konoha conflicts were the most frequent, Iwa the second, Kiri the third.Least conflict with Kirigakure didn't mean least hatred.And today… the village was going to bleed yet again.
Passing the mission counter, she spotted a familiar figure hunched over paperwork.
She froze.
Then marched straight to him.
"Tobika. What are you doing here?"
"Posting a mission," he said without looking up. "Your village shops won't rent to me. So I'm hiring people."
"…Hiring?" Yakura leaned in.
The mission sheet read:
D-Rank Mission — Sales AssistantReward: 1,000 ryo/day + commission
Commission.On a D-rank.Her brow twitched.
"What's 'commission'?"
Tobika handed his form to the staffer, then turned to her.
"It means I hire a few genin to sell goods for me. They earn more the more they sell."
"…You're doing business in Sunagakure now?" Yakura asked suspiciously. "What are you even selling?"
Poof.
Two items appeared in his hands.One smelled like fried chicken.The other smelled like an unholy crime scene.
"What are these?" she asked.
Tobika lifted them like precious artifacts.
"This is Uchiha Honey-Mustard Fried Chicken. Legend says Uchiha Madara created it for his younger brother. I rediscovered the recipe through years of trial and error."
He held up the second bowl.
"And this is Uchiha Luosifen. Madara invented it after reflecting that our clan feels love deeper than anyone else… and suffers more tragedy than anyone else. This dish lets us remember 'the taste of love.' Sour. Tearful. Unforgettable."
Yakura stared.
Her brain rejected every word.Madara… frying chicken?Madara… inventing stinky noodles about love?
She wanted to believe none of this.She failed.
Tobika clicked his tongue privately.
If the Senju weren't still alive—and still terrifying—he would've dragged Hashirama's name into the story too.Shame.
"Anyway," Yakura shook her head to clear the image of Madara in an apron. "I need to ask you something."
She dragged him into a quiet corner.
"Do you know anything about pregnant women?"
Tobika blinked.
He did.But only because he'd once run a "prenatal education experiment."He remembered spending four years trying to see if playing music to a fetus made it smarter.It didn't.
Yakura missed the strange expression on his face.Her gaze swept the area carefully.Her voice dropped.
"What do you do… if a pregnant woman can't give birth?"
"Oh, that's easy," Tobika replied immediately. "Just pull the baby out. If that doesn't work, cut her open. Modern medical ninjutsu can handle it. No one dies from childbirth anymore. Why? You have a friend struggling?"
She shot him a glare.
So—no, she did not know about C-sections.Her lips tightened.
"…No. I'm just thinking ahead. In case someone close to me ever faces it."
"Then cut." Tobika shrugged. "Not a big deal."
To him, childbirth was somewhere between a sprain and a mild fever.When you've seen medics resurrect dead shinobi, childbirth barely qualifies as a medical event.
Four Nights Later
The moon floated above drifting clouds.A windless night—rare for the desert.That stillness felt wrong.
Outside a Sunagakure safehouse, several elite shinobi stood guard, tense as bowstrings.
Inside, something massive was happening.
A Suna shinobi rushed across the sand and grabbed Rasa by the collar.
"Why wasn't I told earlier!?Why didn't anyone tell me!?"
Rasa exhaled slowly, eyes fixed on the sealed safehouse.
"Iwa's movements have been increasingly suspicious. To protect the village, this decision had to be made quickly. And it is classified. Your rank doesn't qualify."
He paused.
"Yashamaru, I'm only telling you now… because your sister may die tonight. There is nothing left to hide."
Yashamaru stumbled back.
"...Sister…? My sister… is dying?"
His tears hit the ground instantly.
"Why!? She is your wife! How could you put that thing inside her!? Did you even ask how she felt!?"
Pain flickered in Rasa's eyes before he smothered it.
"For the village's sake, she agreed. I sealed the One-Tail into Karura myself.If you must hate someone, hate me—never the village."
"But—she's my sister…"
"She is also my wife. And the child in her womb is my son.I sealed the Tailed Beast into my own son.You know what happened to the last three Jinchuriki."
Yashamaru knew.Everyone knew.
Their ashes had blown into the desert long ago.
He stared at Rasa, shattered.
The man who had once sworn to protect his sister was gone—swallowed by the weight of the Kazekage's throne.
At that same moment
Sunagakure's winds stopped.
On Yakura's sofa, Tobika jolted awake.His Sharingan spun wildly.
He scanned his surroundings.
Same room. Same sofa.No dimensional travel. No ambush.Then—
A suffocating chakra pulse hit him like a sand avalanche.
Tobika cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted upstairs:
"Yakura! Your village is in deep trouble!"
Pause.
"The tanuki is about to tear your whole place apart!"
Silence.
No answer.
He sprinted upstairs—empty.
"…She definitely hid something from me."
He immediately packed his own belongings.
Then, because he was Tobika, he also packed every valuable item in Yakura's house.
The Tailed Beast's chakra was leaking.
That meant only one thing.
A Jinchuriki was about to go berserk.
And that was the prelude…to a disaster.