Rasa's voice was no more than a thread of breath.
The vine tightened slightly, drawing his failing body closer.
"It's precisely because you still care about Sunagakure," Roshi said quietly, "that I'm hesitating."
He did not often waste patience on the dying.
"I bear you no personal hatred. Even though you've made things difficult for me from the very beginning."
"If our positions were reversed… if I were the one offered the power of the Dragon Vein and the Sky Ninja's technology…" He paused faintly. "I can't promise I wouldn't have taken a risk."
The wind moved through the towering trees, carrying the scent of pollen and iron.
"But as things stand," Roshi continued, "an ambitious Kazekage is no longer good for the balance of the Ninja World. Nor is it good for Sunagakure."
"In recent years, I've cultivated many plant strains. They weren't meant for the Land of Wind… but most of them are extremely resilient."
"If Sunagakure's people are willing, they may yet carve an oasis out of the desert with their own hands."
For the first time, a faint smile touched Rasa's lips.
"The people… of the Land of Wind… will be willing."
"And I won't be stingy with certain byproducts of my experiments," Roshi replied.
Rasa coughed, blood staining the gold dust beneath him.
"Ebizo… Baki… they will cooperate…"
"Then peace will be achieved."
It was not a threat.
It was a promise.
Rasa closed his eyes.
The vines that had pierced and bound him withdrew slowly, dissolving back into the earth as the Dragon Vein's excess chakra faded. The colossal forest, born of chakra and force of will, began to recede.
Green retreated.
Sand returned.
Within minutes, the desert reclaimed its dominion, as though nothing had happened.
Only the body of the Kazekage remained.
Yakushi Nonō and Kabuto stood in stunned silence.
Kabuto had already heard of Roshi's feats on the Land of Rivers front, but witnessing the Fourth Kazekage fall so decisively still felt unreal. A Kage… defeated in what seemed like moments.
As for Nonō—
"Wood Release… Advent of a World of Flowering Trees…" she murmured.
Sara knelt quietly, pressing her palm against the sand. She had seen the rise and fall of a kingdom, had watched countless lives fade beneath the Dragon Vein's glow.
Yet the death of a Kage still felt distant, almost surreal.
Only that forest…
That overwhelming green.
"The vegetation from Advent of a World of Flowering Trees isn't suited to this land," Roshi explained calmly, noticing her gaze. "It survives here only because of the chakra sustaining it."
He had already turned back toward the sealing array.
His real objective had never been Rasa.
It was the seal.
The technique left behind by Minato Namikaze.
Roshi crouched beside the Flying Thunder God kunai embedded at the core node. The seal was intricate—layer upon layer interlocked, the Flying Thunder God formula serving as the anchor point. It formed a closed system.
Not just energetically.
But spatially.
Tampering with it directly would trigger its defensive response. In the past, a rogue Sunagakure ninja had been flung backward through time after recklessly interfering with it. It wasn't the Dragon Vein that had done so—it was the seal, fueled by Dragon Vein energy, forcibly returning the anomaly to a point where the seal's completion was ensured.
A self-correcting loop.
Orochimaru had been clever. Rather than disturb the core seal, he had merely opened an auxiliary output channel—bleeding off energy without triggering the spatial defense.
Roshi did not intend to repeat that mistake.
The Dragon Vein itself lay far too deep to relocate. For now, the only practical solution was reinforcement.
He began layering additional sealing arrays over Minato's original structure.
Another Four Symbols Seal.
Interwoven.
Then, at the convergence point, he inscribed a secondary Flying Thunder God formula, forming a dual-layered configuration akin to an Eight Trigrams Seal.
Two spatial locks.
Two energy circuits.
If no record of the structure was left behind, anyone attempting to break it in the future would face not one—but two time–space mechanisms.
As for the surface energy that had already overflowed—
That could be harvested.
He condensed it carefully and transferred it into a Wood Release clone prepared in advance, binding it with the Four Symbols Seal. The clone, once dormant, would not drain his own stamina.
A flexible reservoir.
Wood Release truly was convenient.
When everything was finally stabilized, the purple glow beneath the earth dimmed to a steady pulse.
Roshi rose.
His gaze shifted to Rasa's body, lying still upon the sand.
The death of a Kazekage would shake the deserts.
On the fourth day of total silence from the Land of Rivers, an oppressive gloom settled over Sunagakure.
At first, the villagers reassured themselves.
The Kazekage had gone personally.
Surely that meant control.
Surely that meant stability.
But when the first reconnaissance unit staggered back through the desert in visible panic—faces pale beneath the sand—the illusion shattered.
The Land of Rivers stronghold was gone.
Not withdrawn.
Not abandoned.
Gone.
The rugged ruins had been flattened as if crushed by the hand of a god. The Sealing Team… annihilated. The puppet battalions… obliterated. Dragon Vein puppets painstakingly constructed over weeks lay scattered in twisted fragments, unrecognizable heaps of metal and chakra-conducting debris.
And the Kazekage—
Missing.
No trace.
Ebizo personally led a search team toward the Land of Rivers.
His elder sister, Chiyo, assumed command of Sunagakure's main forces and deployed them within the narrow chokepoint known as Sky Canyon.
Explosive tags were buried in layered formations along both canyon walls.
A single detonation order would turn the pass into a collapsing grave.
Chiyo stood atop a high ridge overlooking the canyon, her aged face devoid of expression. The wind tugged at her robes, but she did not move.
She was waiting.
She did not know whether news from Ebizo would reach her first—
Or whether Konoha's vanguard would.
Sunagakure's improvised aerial corps had already scattered across the border, circling like restless hawks, awaiting orders that did not come.
Konoha's front line, meanwhile, remained eerily still.
No advance.
No provocation.
The silence was suffocating.
Until a messenger broke through the sandstorm.
He knelt, breath ragged.
"The Kazekage remains missing. The Dragon Vein… has been resealed. The same technique."
The same technique.
Chiyo's fingers tightened imperceptibly.
The seal of Minato Namikaze.
And standing behind the messenger—
Baki.
After confirming the devastation in the Land of Rivers, Ebizo had dispatched two teams.
One—to Konoha.
The other—to Onoki of Iwagakure.
Insurance.
Or desperation.
Chiyo said nothing. She simply watched as Baki's team departed toward Konoha's forward command.
This time, Baki was given a seat.
The meeting took place within a command chamber carved directly into the mountainside. The stone walls were cool and solid—an unspoken reminder of Konoha's current control of the terrain.
Baki bowed formally.
Following diplomatic protocol, he once again emphasized Sunagakure's "limited objective"—that they had merely accepted a commission from the Land of Rivers' Daimyō to provide temporary national defense.
That any clashes had been misunderstandings of mission scope.
That such misunderstandings should not damage the long-standing alliance between Konoha and Sunagakure.
This time, Roshi did not interrupt him.
He listened.
He even nodded once or twice.
"…Therefore," Baki concluded carefully, choosing each word as if stepping through a minefield, "Sunagakure is willing to assume responsibility for any issues that arose during this period and seek a mutually acceptable resolution."
A heavy silence followed.
Then Roshi spoke.
"Agreed."
Baki's shoulders tensed almost imperceptibly.
"Until Konoha completes a full investigation into the Land of Rivers incident, Sunagakure is prohibited from accepting any further official commissions from the Land of Rivers."
"Secondly, Sunagakure will compensate Konoha for all losses incurred due to this unilateral military action. The form and amount will be negotiated by diplomatic envoys."
The conditions were firm.
But they were not annihilating.
Baki listened carefully.
For a failed aggressive campaign… this level of consequence was within acceptable limits.
After a moment, he lifted his head.
His voice dropped, no longer that of a diplomat—but of a subordinate.
"Roshi-san…"
A pause.
"…Is the Kazekage… still alive?"
Roshi met Baki's eyes without flinching.
There was no triumph in his expression. No mockery. No pity.
"Kazekage-dono is dead."
The words fell cleanly, without embellishment.
Then Roshi turned slightly and gestured.
Two Konoha shinobi stepped forward, carrying a body draped in white cloth. They laid it carefully beside Baki.
"We preserved his remains out of respect for Sunagakure," Roshi said evenly. "We did not know when your people would arrive in the Land of Rivers."
"Now that you are here… take him home."
For a moment, Baki did not move.
Then he knelt and lifted one corner of the cloth.
The familiar robes.
The unmistakable hair.
The stillness.
His fingers tightened slightly before he lowered the cloth again.
"…Thank you, Roshi."
No accusations. No outburst.
Only restraint.
He signaled the accompanying shinobi, who stepped forward to lift the Kazekage's body.
"I will relay your conditions to the village in full," Baki said quietly. "Sunagakure will deliberate internally before further communication."
Roshi inclined his head once.
The meeting ended there.
No threats.
No declarations.
—
Far away, in Kumogakure, the Fourth Raikage, A, had already formed his judgment the moment he heard Rasa had stationed forces in the Land of Rivers.
A meaningless gamble.
Ever since the Five Great Ninja Villages had stabilized into their current structure, none possessed the overwhelming dominance necessary to crush another outright.
The Land of Rivers existed as a buffer for a reason.
If Sunagakure tried to swallow it, they would only choke.
The barren Land of Wind could barely sustain itself—how could it finance a prolonged war with Konoha?
Perhaps Rasa might secure a short-term advantage.
One year.
Maybe less.
But what then?
If the frontline faltered, Konoha would discard restraint entirely. They could cripple supply lines, sabotage trade routes, manipulate merchant guilds—just as Root once quietly crushed merchants who dared sell grain to Kumogakure during times of tension.
When Konoha's geopolitical security was threatened, mercy was not guaranteed.
Even if Sunagakure had gold, they would find nothing to buy.
And unlike other borders, there was no buffer between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Fire. Konoha would never concede that territory willingly—not even if it meant reducing the Land of Rivers to scorched earth.
Sunagakure could not endure such attrition.
That was A's conclusion.
What he had not expected—was how quickly Rasa would fall.
Even with Onoki tying down part of Konoha's forces, Konoha still crushed Sunagakure's advance.
And at the center of it—
Roshi.
A Wood Release user.
The same young man who, despite appearing refined, had suppressed Darui's brute strength and high-level Ninjutsu.
The same one Tsunade had treated with unmistakable confidence.
"That man… is a Senju."
Another Wood Release wielder had emerged in Konoha.
Another symbol.
Another deterrent.
The era of large-scale territorial wars was fading. Profit no longer lay in attrition. It lay in trade, mission systems, and increasingly, in grand tournaments that showcased power without igniting full-scale war.
The Chūnin Exams.
Regional competitions.
Diplomatic spectacle disguised as meritocracy.
Given the situation, A had predicted a prolonged standoff between Konoha and Sunagakure—perhaps stretching into the next year. Sunagakure would bleed resources slowly. Konoha would maintain pressure until Rasa was forced into submission, ensuring no second attempt to seize the Land of Rivers.
And eventually—like Kumogakure once had—Sunagakure would yield.
Structural weakness allowed no alternative.
Which meant Kumogakure could leverage this moment.
If Konoha was overextended, they would make concessions elsewhere—particularly in tournament structures and diplomatic positioning.
A had already begun drafting negotiation strategies.
Then—
New intelligence arrived.
Like thunder splitting clear skies.
"What?"
"Rasa… was killed by Roshi?!"
"Sunagakure initiated peace talks—and Konoha accepted?!"
"And Sunagakure will still participate in this year's Chūnin Exams as scheduled?!"
The Raikage stood abruptly, the wooden floor cracking faintly beneath his step.
Dead.
The Kazekage was dead.
And yet—
Peace?
Participation?
The board had been overturned.
Not by prolonged attrition. Not by economic strangulation. But by a single decisive strike.
A's eyes narrowed.
Roshi.
This was no longer a simple variable.
This was a destabilizing constant.
And the era ahead… had just become far more interesting.
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