"Lord Kazekage, the search team found no trace of those people in the desert..."
The voice of the ninja responsible for reporting this result was filled with helplessness and frustration. Upon hearing this, Rasa slowly closed his eyes. He knew exactly what this outcome implied. In a sense, he was more furious and dejected than any other ninja in the Hidden Sand Village. However, he was the Kazekage; at least in front of the other shinobi, he could never show his weakness or disappointment.
He reopened his eyes and commanded, "The mission to retrieve the Tailed Beast is officially declared over. All participating ninja are to return to their posts. For those injured or killed, immediately offer condolences to their families and issue pension payments."
Despite his extreme reluctance, Rasa swiftly issued this supreme order for the Hidden Sand Village. After all, the search mission for Shukaku had already lasted for a month. During this month, the investment from the village had been terrifyingly high.
Committing so much manpower to a search meant a vast number of corresponding mission requests went unfulfilled by the Hidden Sand Village. This was a massive blow to the village's reputation. It might even affect the volume of missions the village received for a long time to come. Furthermore, it would indirectly impact the village's income and the training of its ninja.
Consequently, Rasa chose to cut his losses. He would rather give up on retrieving Shukaku than continue this drain. The main reason was that the Hidden Sand Village truly could not find a single trace of those mysterious individuals. The enemy was far too cunning. The only clue discovered was that they had a member who used Gold Dust as a weapon. As for their specific abilities or appearances, they remained completely unknown.
Every Hidden Sand ninja who had seen the faces of those mysterious people was dead, without exception. The village had even lost over a dozen Jonin. Even for the powerful Hidden Sand Village, this was a severe blow to its vitality.
Hearing Rasa's command, the reporting ninja felt a tinge of disappointment, but also a sense of relief. Rasa could sense the man's emotions, but as the Kazekage, there was nothing he could say. Soon, the order spread throughout the entire Hidden Sand Village. Everyone knew what this meant.
The Hidden Sand Village, one of the strongest villages in the Shinobi World, had suffered a massive defeat. In this failure, nearly one-tenth of their village had been damaged, resulting in enormous property losses. Over a hundred ninja were either dead or permanently disabled. The cancellation of numerous missions due to the pursuit had also caused significant financial damage. Most importantly, they had lost the village's only strategic weapon, the Tailed Beast Shukaku!
Above all, this incident caused other powers in the Shinobi World to view the Hidden Sand's strength differently. The village faced unprecedented questioning.
If even a mere Jashin Religion can steal your Tailed Beast and you can't do anything about it, then the so-called Hidden Sand Village is nothing special.
Unfortunately, this was news the Hidden Sand Village could not suppress. The commotion that night had been far too great, and the subsequent large-scale personnel shifts were impossible to hide. These events had been transmitted to other hidden villages by spies within the village at the first opportunity.
The other hidden villages, receiving this news, didn't care about the Hidden Sand's survival. Naturally, they added "oil and vinegar" to the story before releasing it to the market. For instance, they went to great lengths to downplay the strength of the Jashin Religion to highlight the incompetence of the Hidden Sand Village, even if they had never encountered the religion themselves. This was quite normal, even expected.
After all, the Hidden Sand Village and other hidden villages were essentially competitors in the Shinobi World market. Whoever displayed greater capability would secure a larger share of missions. Mission shares symbolized the village's funding, and funding determined how much could be invested in training ninja and whether equipment was sophisticated. This indirectly decided a village's comprehensive strength. Therefore, it was inevitable that other villages would amplify the impact of this incident to damage the Hidden Sand's reputation.
Rasa had anticipated this, yet when the Hidden Sand's prestige in the international market plummeted, he still felt an unavoidable sense of anxiety.
"Lord Kazekage, the current priority is to quickly restore the market's confidence in the Hidden Sand Village," Baki offered his thoughts.
Rasa looked at Baki and asked seriously, "Is there a result regarding the matter I entrusted to you?"
The decline of the Hidden Sand's reputation was now a fact. They had to find another breakthrough. This breakthrough lay with Baki, an elite Jonin of the village. Hearing Rasa's question, Baki was well-prepared. His primary reason for coming today was this very matter.
"With the village's support, we successfully dealt with the Wind Scorpion swarm and captured a large number of them..."
"Most importantly, we successfully captured the commander of these Wind Scorpions—"
"The Broodmother!"
Baki emphasized his tone specifically when mentioning the Broodmother.
"According to the records in the ruins where the swarm was found, the Broodmother is a type of super-ancient creature. Because it can continuously produce Wind Scorpions and possesses immense destructive power, the ancient people sealed it within the ruins over a thousand years ago."
"We indeed found residual sealing arrays in the ruins. It is confirmed to be a very ancient sealing jutsu."
"The Broodmother has now been transported to the biological laboratory for research and analysis by Special Jonin Kawanishi."
After listening to Baki's report, Rasa's mood instantly grew heated. His previous dejection improved significantly. This report meant the Wind Scorpions were not the work of an enemy, but rather a door opened by the heavens for the Land of Wind. Furthermore, they might gain the ability to control the swarm through this creature called the Broodmother!
"Let's go. We'll go take a look."
Once the report ended, Rasa impatiently led Baki into the biological laboratory.
"Lord Kazekage."
Kawanishi was currently wearing a white lab coat and glasses, looking every bit the scientist. Having survived the turmoil, several of Kawanishi's predecessors had accidentally died in the attackers' self-destruction. Only Kawanishi had struggled to survive while carrying a vast amount of precious experimental data, even suffering heavy injuries in the process.
Because of this, in just a few short months, Kawanishi had become the most authoritative person in this special department. Even Rasa, despite being the Kazekage, needed to consult Kawanishi's opinion on research matters.
Seeing Kawanishi, a smile tugged at Rasa's face. "Kawanishi, how is the research on the Broodmother progressing?"
Kawanishi instinctively nudged his glasses and replied, "It has basically been confirmed that the Broodmother is the producer and commander of the Wind Scorpion swarm. Moreover, it possesses a certain degree of intelligence, equivalent to a human child of five or six. It meets the conditions for domestication."
Hearing this, Rasa was overjoyed. If it could be domesticated, it meant they would have a continuous army of Wind Scorpions and a massive supply of materials harvested from them!
Rasa immediately decided, "Kawanishi, you will be in charge of the research concerning the Broodmother. You must accelerate the progress and ensure Scorpion Jade can be popularized among every ninja as soon as possible."
"Any problems you encounter in your research, whether regarding funding or materials, you can tell me directly."
"Kawanishi, the research of the Scorpion Jade Project concerns the future of the entire Hidden Sand Village. I hope you can work hard."
Seeing this, Kawanishi naturally put on an act of being willing to work himself to death for the village. He answered loudly, "I will certainly not fail Lord Kazekage's trust!"