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Inside the Sand army, the remaining officers' moods were terrible to the extreme.
In terms of the ninja army, below the Mizukage were the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
Cases like Elder Genji coming to the front lines to command as the true leader were actually extremely rare.
The Mist Village had never worried about this issue before.
Under the Blood Mist policy, the Mist had quite a few talents.
Paired with the ninja swords, it could guarantee that the Mist Village would always have multiple top-tier Elite Jonin.
Even with Fuguki Suikazan fleeing, there were still six left.
Jinin Akebino died, but there were still Kushimaru Kuriarare, Raiga Kurosuki, and Hozuki Gengetsu .
But this time, the situation was different.
Four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were killed all at once, and all died at Rasa's hands.
The Sand Village would know about this situation before the Mizukage.
At that time, what decision would the Sand Village make?
What should the Mist army do?
"What should we do?"
Just at this moment, a figure stepped forward.
"From now on, I will be responsible for commanding the army."
The officers immediately looked over.
They saw a short figure, a young man with short green hair.
"Yagura Karatachi?"
Yagura took out a document.
"This is a secret letter Lord Mizukage gave me earlier. If a major problem arises on the front lines, then I will assume command of the ninja army. The whole army will obey my orders."
The officers were skeptical.
The current Yagura Karatachi indeed performed well, but compared to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, his reputation was much worse.
Moreover, Yagura Karatachi had no experience leading a large army.
However, the relationship between Yagura Karatachi and the Third Mizukage was indeed relatively close.
Yagura took out the secret letter, and the officers took turns reading it.
Then, they exchanged glances and looked at Yagura in unison.
"Greetings, Lord Commander!"
Everyone could actually tell that the so-called handwritten letter from the Third Mizukage was a bit off.
However, given the current situation of the Mist army, Yagura stepping forward proactively to claim this command meant that Yagura was shouldering this responsibility.
Once problems arose with the Mist army, the responsibility would lie with Yagura, and the blame would also lie with Yagura.
These officers didn't have that much ambition, and lacked even more courage.
Therefore, after realizing this point, even knowing Yagura might have forged it, they were willing to cooperate.
No one would refuse a scapegoat.
Compared to the potential benefits, the punishment they would receive would be much greater.
Becoming the commander of the ninja army at this time was not a good thing.
As for Yagura, it was because he wanted to gamble.
Such an opportunity was once in a lifetime.
Once successful, he would inevitably achieve fame and success.
And Yagura had this confidence in his own abilities.
In terms of personal strength, he wasn't bad.
With the Water Mirror Technique, he could go fifty-fifty against most ninja.
Yagura was also confident in his command abilities.
"Lord Commander, what should we do next?"
The officers raised questions, but their actual goal was to make Yagura quickly make the first decision.
Once Yagura made a decision, if problems arose with the Mist army, it truly wouldn't have much to do with them.
Everything would be Yagura's responsibility.
"Retreat first!"
"Retreat to the Land of Fire."
...
...
Returning to the Sand Village, Rasa first dumped Baki in the village, then returned home, fished out a single-eye patch, and covered his Byakugan.
He also put away the four ninja swords properly.
Then, he took the corpses of Jinin Akebino and the other three to where Chiyo was.
"Lord Kazekage!"
It was the same maid as before.
Seeing it was Rasa, she hurriedly bowed, opened the door, and stepped aside to make way for Rasa to enter.
Rasa nodded slightly.
Chiyo was sitting by the pond, fishing.
"Elder Chiyo."
"Lord Kazekage."
Rasa beckoned with his hand.
Immediately, a mass of gold dust originally suspended high in the air fell rapidly.
Thud!
It landed.
The gold dust dispersed, revealing four corpses.
To be precise, three and a half. Raiga Kurosuki's corpse, under the Yatagarasu's explosive egg, had already turned into charred coal and couldn't be considered a complete corpse.
Chiyo's pupils constricted violently.
"The Seven Ninja Swordsmen?"
"Lord Kazekage, what is this situation?"
Rasa said indifferently, "Not long ago, I received a distress letter from Baki saying he was being pursued by Mist ninja, so I rode the Yatagarasu to rescue him."
"Those besieging Baki were exactly these four."
"So I killed them."
"The reason I brought back their corpses is that I want you, Elder Chiyo, to use their corpses as materials to make puppets. You should be able to do that, right, Elder Chiyo?"
"These four can all be considered high-quality materials. The puppets made from them will certainly not be weak in strength."
"They can add bricks and tiles to my Sand Village."
The Sand Village lacked puppet masters, and lacked good puppet materials even more.
Chiyo was still thinking about the killing of four Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
These weren't ordinary ninja.
Even among Elite Jonin, the Mist Seven could be considered quite good, and having cooperated for a long time, there was great tacit understanding between them, allowing them to exert even stronger power.
Rasa alone against four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
Defeating them with the power of one person and killing them all.
And Rasa didn't seem to have suffered any injuries.
How did he do it?
Even with the Beni-yama clan incident before, Chiyo had a renewed understanding of Rasa's strength.
"Elder Chiyo, can you do it?"
Rasa asked again.
Chiyo snapped out of her thoughts.
"I can. However, Lord Kazekage, who do you intend to use the puppets made from these four corpses?"
"Do you have any candidates to recommend, Elder Chiyo?"
Chiyo thought for a moment.
"Among the younger generation of puppet masters in the Sand Village, only Mukade is decent."
Rasa raised an eyebrow.
Rasa had an impression of the name Mukade.
But it wasn't a good impression.
In the original plot, using the power of the Dragon Vein, he traveled to ancient Roran... that wasn't important. What was important was that when Mukade went to the Dragon Vein, his identity was a missing-nin of the Sand Village.
With the example of the Beni-yama clan before him, Rasa had a strong aversion to missing-nin.
"Are there any other candidates?"
"Besides Mukade, the talents of the rest are relatively ordinary..."
Suddenly, Chiyo seemed to think of something.
"There really is one."
"Who?"
"Beni-yama Tategami!"
Chiyo said, "Beni-yama Tategami participated in the puppet master selection before. His talent was about the same as Mukade's, perhaps even above his, but because his family didn't support it, he gave up."
"However, talent is something that won't disappear."
"Give him some time, and he'll catch up quickly."
This time Rasa didn't hesitate.
After all, Beni-yama Tategami was as loyal to the Sand Village as Itachi Uchiha was to Konoha.