Chapter 240 Martial Law in Sunagakure Too?
"Rules?" Shi Yixi's face darkened upon hearing this. "If we're really talking about rules, then you, Jonin Yashamaru, aren't qualified to leave the village yet. After all, the Fourth Hokage's death is inextricably linked to you. The Jinchuriki went berserk while you were on a testing mission!"
"What is the Kazekage trying to do?" At this moment, Maki arrived at the village entrance with former members of the Fourth Kazekage's faction, confronting Shi Yixi. "The two elders have already reached a conclusion: the Jinchuriki's berserk behavior has nothing to do with Jonin Yashamaru!"
Seeing this, Shi Yixi's expression stiffened. The situation became delicate after Maki arrived with former members of the Fourth Kazekage's faction. Although Shi Yixi had brought his Anbu and his Shadow Guard, Maki's number of Jonin exceeded his own.
Moreover, he realized at this moment that targeting Yashamaru was a terrible move.
After all, Yashamaru was a rare medical ninja in Sunagakure, a village teeming with poison masters, and his strength had reached the Jonin level. It could be said that most people in Sunagakure had received his help. Moreover, he was the Fourth Kazekage's brother-in-law, and even the two elders had to give him some face. After Rasa died in the rampage of the One-Tailed Beast, both Chiyo and Ebizo immediately stepped forward to say that the matter had nothing to do with Yashamaru himself.
"I just want to arrest a rogue ninja who might endanger the safety of the village!" Shi Yixi glared at Maki with hatred. Before he became the acting Kazekage, it was Maki and his group who had been obstructing him. Now that he had become the acting Kazekage, didn't these people still treat him like an executive?
"Whether Temari and Kankuro are rogue ninjas is still undecided even by the two elders. Why is the acting Kazekage in such a hurry?" Maki said coldly, emphasizing the word "acting" in his words.
"But they've been away from the village for so long, and the village's Jinchūriki has gone missing because of it. They should at least be detained and investigated!" Shi Yixi Yue said. "Who knows if that Jinchūriki who inexplicably appeared in our territory was summoned by them?"
After Maki arrived, Shi Yixi Yue knew that it was unlikely he could take Temari and Kankuro away today. However, even if he couldn't directly convict Temari, Shi Yixi Yue didn't want to miss the opportunity to smear her. If he wanted to remove the title of Kazekage from his name, then Temari, who had previously competed with him for the position, was the biggest obstacle.
However, at this moment, Temari stepped forward, came to everyone, and looked intently at Shi Yixi Yue.
"The Acting Kazekage suspects my brother and me of colluding with forces outside the village to take away the village's Jinchūriki. Has the Acting Kazekage forgotten my identity? I am the child of the Fourth Kazekage. I grew up in this village, eating the same food and drinking the same water as everyone else! My loyalty to Sunagakure is as clear as day!" Temari declared passionately. "But now, you want to pin the label of traitor on me! My father taught me that his power was given to him by every villager of Sunagakure. The Kazekage represents not only glory and power, but also a heavy responsibility and obligation!"
"And you! Now, for your own selfish reasons, you're pinning the label of a rogue ninja on your comrade without any evidence. I want to ask, when has the Kazekage ever had such power? The residents of Sunagakure have never granted the Kazekage such power! Moreover, you're just an acting Kazekage!"
"You!" Temari's righteous words forced Ishii Nishigaku to take a half-step back, pointing at Temari, but unable to utter a word. Temari's words were undeniably righteous. After a moment of twitching at the corner of Ishii Nishigaku's mouth, he brought up Gaara again, "Don't forget, the Fourth Kazekage died at the hands of your brother, who was a Jinchūriki! Now that he's been rescued from the village's pursuit, you also bear an undeniable responsibility!"
"Gaara's rampage was just an accident!" Temari said firmly. "However, given the damage he caused to the village, I will personally bring him back and make him face the village's judgment."
Temari's expression was extremely solemn as she spoke, perfectly portraying the struggle of wanting to protect her brother but being forced to sacrifice him because of his grave mistake.
"Hmph, I hope you can keep your word!" Seeing this, Shi Yixi Yue knew that getting rid of Temari today was impossible, so he snorted coldly and turned to leave with his followers.
...
Back at her residence, Temari finally let out a long sigh. At that moment, a communication snake slowly crawled out of the ninja tool pouch she had placed on the table beside her.
"You did well just now," Uchiha Touko said with a light laugh. "That's how it has to be. If you want to become the Kazekage, then you can't hide that idea. Your confrontation with that guy just now sent a signal to those in your village who are still wavering: that even if he's the acting Kazekage now, you can withstand the pressure from him. At this time, your status as the princess of Sunagakure can come in handy. After all, everyone is following you in this coup, risking their lives for a fortune. You have to give them confidence for them to follow you."
"I understand," Temari sighed. "However, this means that I've completely broken ties with Ishii Nishigaku."
"Heh, does it matter? Or rather, this is exactly the effect we wanted," Uchiha Touko chuckled. "You have the moral high ground of your position, while the other side only gained an initial advantage due to good luck. You saw what happened just now. Don't be fooled by his current role as acting Kazekage; within Sunagakure, the majority of ninja support you because of your father. Under these circumstances, the stronger you appear, the greater the chance he'll expose his weaknesses." "
Is that so? What should I do now?" Temari asked.
"Just wait," Uchiha Touko said with a light laugh. "If I'm not mistaken, Sunagakure's financial situation must be quite dire after losing your father's support."
Temari's pupils constricted as she looked at the communication snake; she hadn't provided this information to Uchiha Touko.
"Don't look at me like that. Anyone in the ninja world with a little effort can find out that your Sunagakure's mission requests, especially the low-level ones, are shifting towards Konoha year after year," Uchiha Touko chuckled. "The fact that your Sunagakure has been able to survive until now is largely thanks to the gold extracted by your father's Magnet Release ninjutsu. Without your father, your Sunagakure would have gone bankrupt about five years ago."
Temari pursed her lips; what Uchiha Touko said was true.
"So, can you learn your father's Magnet Release?" Uchiha Touko asked.
"I didn't inherit my father's bloodline." Temari shook her head. "If I could use Magnet Release, I could directly become the Fifth Kazekage, and I wouldn't need to do all this."
"That makes things a bit troublesome," Uchiha Touko said. "If you can't solve this problem, even if you successfully seize power through a coup, it will be difficult for you to overthrow the two elders of your village in a short time, and your supporters will quickly leave you because you can't keep your promises."
"Then… what should I do?" Temari turned to look at the photo in the room where she, at three years old, was holding the newborn Gaara and carrying Kankuro, who had just learned to walk, on her back, and asked somewhat absentmindedly.
"Hehe, since it was Naruto who asked me to help you, I'll do a good deed to the end." Uchiha Touko said with a light laugh, "After you officially take power, Konoha will subcontract some of the existing C-rank and below missions to Sunagakure, and we'll only take a 10% commission."
Upon hearing this, Temari looked at Uchiha Touko with disbelief.
"Don't look at me like that. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement. The number of low-level missions in Konoha far exceeds the number of genin in the village. To complete these missions, some chunin and joinin have to do these cat-catching, dog-catching, and garbage-collecting tasks, greatly wasting the village's ninja resources. Subcontracting it to you is a mutually beneficial thing," Uchiha Touko said. "Konoha and Sunagakure are friendly neighbors with an alliance agreement, wouldn't you agree?"
After this period of preparation, Uchiha Touko and Konoha have completed the ninja system reform. Now only some… There are still some minor issues to resolve, including the surplus of D-rank missions in the village after the system reforms, which are currently used to train newly graduated genin. Simply cutting these missions outright would inevitably damage Konoha and Uchiha Tokō's reputation in the ninja world. Compared to the Raikage and Tsuchikage, whose reputations in Tokō's previous life were probably so weak they couldn't even be scanned by a shared bicycle, Konoha and the Hokage's reputation is something that each Hokage since the First Hokage has carefully maintained. Tokō doesn't want this tradition to end with him.
Now, if these piled-up missions could be subcontracted to Sunagakure, Konoha could solve the problem while also making some profit—a win-win situation.
"Well then, thank you very much, Hokage." Temari took a deep breath and said. Although she didn't know why Uchiha Touko, the Hokage, would help her like this, she had no choice but to rely on him if she wanted to take the position of Kazekage to save Gaara's life.
...
Inside the Kazekage's office, Shi Yixi Yue returned and first looked up at the photos of the past Kazekage hanging in the office. He had wanted to hang his own photo there after being appointed acting Kazekage last night, but Elder Chiyo refused because he wasn't the official Kazekage yet.
The incident at the village entrance today had made him lose face even more.
Therefore, Shi Yixi Yue's idea of getting rid of Temari and the former subordinates of the Fourth Kazekage grew stronger.
Thinking of this, Shi Yixi Yue took out a stack of documents and began to study them carefully.
If Uchiha Touko were here, he would definitely exclaim in surprise when he saw what Shi Yixi Yue was studying.
The reason was simple: Shi Yixi Yue was studying Uchiha Touko's rise to power. "
Good heavens, is he an optics expert too? "
Just as Shi Yixi Yue was trying to find a way to get rid of Temari and the Fourth Kazekage's former subordinates from Uchiha Touko's deeds, there was a knock on the door of the Kazekage's office.
"Come in!" Shi Yixi Yue said after carefully putting away the documents in his hand.
"Kage-sama," came his trusted subordinate, who had been promoted to Kazekage's secretary immediately after becoming the acting Kazekage. At this moment, the man came to Shi Yixi Yue with a worried look on his face, carrying a stack of documents.
Hearing his secretary's address, Shi Yixi Yue nodded in satisfaction. That's more like it. A Kazekage is a Kazekage, unlike those guys who insist on adding "acting" before his name.
"What is it?" Shi Yixi Yue asked.
"Kage-sama, the village's funds for next month are severely insufficient. Even the salaries of the hospital staff and the Anbu can't be paid." The secretary said with a worried expression.
"What? How could this be?" Shi Yixi Yue frowned upon hearing this.
"Previously, most of the village's finances relied on the gold mined using the Fourth Hokage's ninjutsu. Now that the Fourth Hokage is dead, the funds he left behind are almost exhausted," the secretary said.
"In that case… go and tell the ANBU and the ninjas at the hospital that this month's salaries will be delayed," Shi Yixi Yue instructed.
"But, Kazekage-sama, won't the ANBU be unhappy with you?" the secretary asked hesitantly.
"I also want to pay them now, but the village has no money left," Shi Yixi Yue said impatiently. "Go and tell them about the village's current difficulties. I, the Kazekage, am also tightening my belt. We need to work together to help the village overcome this crisis."
"Yes…" Shi Yixi Yue's secretary could only nod and leave.
"Lord Kazekage, our spies stationed at the Fourth Kazekage's residence spotted Jonin Baki and Jonin Yashamaru leading several high-ranking members of the Jonin squad into the Fourth's mansion."
"Damn it!" Shi Yixi Yue slammed his fist on the table in anger. "What are they plotting? Do they even respect me, the Kazekage?!"
Then, recalling Temari's open duel with him at the village entrance earlier that day, Shi Yixi Yue felt an even stronger sense of danger.
[No, this can't be delayed any longer.]
Shi Yixi Yue gritted his teeth and said to the ANBU messenger, "Pass on my order: three hours from now, Sunagakure will be under complete martial law!"
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(End of Chapter)