"That is the Sand Village!"
"Incredible."
"This is actually one of the Five Great Hidden Villages. You would never see anything like this back in the Land of Rice Fields."
"Though the environment here is completely different from what we are used to. It is so hot, and there is barely an oasis in sight. This is going to take some adjusting to."
"Stop complaining. As long as we can restore the Fuma clan's name in the ninja world, what does a little heat matter?"
Within the borders of the Land of Wind, two Sand Village Jonin were leading a small escort unit, accompanying the sizable group of Fuma clan members across the desert toward the distant Sand Village. From their current position, the village's tall buildings were already visible on the horizon.
The reconstructed and expanded Sand Village clearly made an impression on these ninja arriving from what might generously be called a modest background. Calling them visitors from the countryside was not entirely wrong.
The Sand Village's reconstruction had been made possible because the Fourth Kazekage had leveraged his pharmaceutical resource advantage to draw master craftsmen and builders from across the ninja world, exchanging medicines for the finest materials and most advanced construction resources from even the smaller nations.
In that specific regard, the other four great hidden villages genuinely could not match what had been achieved here. Not to mention that the Hidden Sand Village did not even have a comparable land base to the Land of Rice Fields.
Comparing the environment of the Land of Wind to the Land of Rice Fields, however, the Land of Wind was considerably harsher in every way.
"As long as Lord Kazekage is here, the village will only continue to get better. What we are seeing now is just the beginning," Baki said from within the escort formation, speaking with complete confidence.
Baki and Yura had both been assigned to receive the Fuma clan. Both had served as personal guards to the Kazekage before and had witnessed the village's extraordinary pace of development firsthand over these past few years. The Fourth Kazekage's personal influence on them ran deep. They were, in every sense, long-standing devoted followers.
At the front of the Fuma clan's column walked their leader, a young man with distinctive blue hair and fairly refined features. His name was Fuma Kotaro, and he held the rank of Jonin within the Fuma clan's own internal hierarchy.
For ninja like them without formal hidden village affiliation, the classification of ranks was determined entirely according to clan rules and internal evaluations. Whether someone was considered Jonin or not was essentially whatever the clan itself decided. The standards were nowhere near as rigorous or formally recognized as those of the major hidden villages. In practical terms, there was significant inflation in the assessments.
Kotaro himself was entirely clear on this point.
After receiving the Sand Village's invitation, the Fuma clan had immediately used the opportunity to reach out through their scattered networks and contact dispersed clan members living in various parts of the ninja world, rallying them under the banner of reviving the clan.
The appeal to join a major hidden village, one of the Five Great Villages and currently the most prominent power in the ninja world, had been compelling to anyone with lingering ties to the Fuma bloodline. No one with options wanted to remain unaffiliated when something like this was being offered.
Kotaro had also used the Sand Village's name and reputation to indirectly strengthen the clan's internal cohesion and reinforce his own standing as leader.
This particular branch of the Fuma bloodline had originally numbered only a few dozen people. Most of them were of modest ability, capable of handling ordinary missions but nothing more. The clan's collective strength had been relatively weak.
But by leveraging the Sand Village's prestige, Kotaro had managed to attract a group of scattered clan members from outside to rejoin the fold. The total number of Fuma clan members now entering the Sand Village had broken through fifty.
For a newly arriving clan, that was a reasonably promising foundation.
Of course, the person who stood to gain the most from all of this was Kotaro himself. He intended to use this moment to establish his position within the Sand Village on solid ground.
"Before we arrived, I heard quite a few things about Lord Kazekage. Is he difficult to approach?" Kotaro looked toward the Sand Village Jonin leading the escort and asked with a casual smile.
"There is nothing to worry about. You are about to become members of the village. Whatever rumors you may have heard about Lord Kazekage from the outside world, toward his own people he has always been completely approachable. If anything, you might be surprised by how little pretense he carries."
The Jonin replied simply.
"That is reassuring," Kotaro said with a smile.
His eyes flickered briefly with private thought.
Joining the Sand Village, if he were being honest with himself, was a gamble for the Fuma clan. Once they entered the village, the clan's fate would effectively be placed in someone else's hands. Many decisions going forward would no longer be theirs to make.
But very soon he would meet this extraordinarily young Kazekage who was already being spoken of as a legend across the ninja world.
The reason the Fourth Kazekage's reputation had grown so large was not only his battle record. The most significant factor, when considered carefully, was the new medicines he had developed, which had brought genuinely large-scale changes to the ninja world. It could be said that he had single-handedly reshaped the conditions of the ninja world's battlefields and improved the everyday lives of ordinary people across numerous nations.
Kotaro's willingness to accept the Sand Village's invitation had been driven in no small part by his recognition of the Fourth Kazekage's potential.
...
At this moment, on the other side of the village, Yuji stood at the Sand Village's main gate dressed in his Kazekage robes, accompanied by Chiyo, Ebizo, and the other senior figures, waiting in anticipation.
They were here to welcome the Fuma clan's arrival.
A considerable number of village residents had also gathered in the surrounding area. Word had clearly spread. Many of them knew the village was receiving an outside ninja clan, and because the one who had arranged the matter was the Fourth Kazekage himself, the civilians harbored no real objection. They were simply curious about what kind of people these outsiders would turn out to be.
"Lord Kazekage. They are approaching."
A Sand Village ninja dropped to one knee before the assembled senior figures and delivered the report.
"Good," Yuji nodded without changing his expression.
Within a few minutes of those words, figures appeared at the far end of the road outside the main gate.
"There appear to be somewhat more of them than I expected," Chiyo said, looking into the distance from beside Yuji.
She had some understanding of the Fuma clan's situation in the ninja world. The branch that remained in the Land of Rice Fields had not been large in number. If the Sand Village had not extended this invitation, in another decade or so the clan's descendants would have scattered further still, and the bloodline would have declined into near obscurity.
"Their clan's inherited secret techniques are worth a look. There is genuine value in them."
"Having them enter the village also gives us access to those technique resources. And the timing is particularly convenient. The battlefield situation in the Land of Rain provides an immediate opportunity to field test them."
Yuji smiled lightly.
"The Daimyo's office has already received letters from the Hidden Stone Village and Konoha. The current climate of opinion is not favorable to the village. With the Fuma clan now relocating here, the Land of Rice Fields' Daimyo may also lodge a protest. Have you given thought to how we should respond?"
Chiyo continued the conversation with Yuji at a measured pace.
The Hidden Stone Village and Konoha were only the beginning. Before long, the Hidden Cloud Village and the Hidden Mist Village would almost certainly also make their positions known regarding the Land of Rain. When that happened, the Sand Village would find itself in a situation where every direction held a potential opponent.
Chiyo had lived a long life and had seen enough of the world to understand this kind of situation with clear eyes.
In a single phrase: no one was going to speak well of them.
That said, she trusted Yuji.
"The old method. Pull Konoha back into it alongside us. Pin the responsibility on Danzo specifically. Say that Konoha and Hanzo had already conspired together and were planning to move against the Land of Wind. We simply had no choice but to respond. It will sound far-fetched and the other villages may not fully believe it, but that does not particularly matter. What matters is that the narrative is out there."
"And regardless of anyone's interpretation, the fact that Danzo colluded privately with Hanzo is an iron-clad truth."
He chuckled quietly.
"As for the other villages, no matter how loudly they object, we simply act as though we cannot hear them. They can shout into the sky all they like. They have no realistic means of actual intervention at this stage. They may want to act, but they lack the capacity. So for the time being, there is nothing to worry about."
Yuji said it simply.
Chiyo heard this and allowed herself a small smile.
Yuji's way of handling things was, as ever, rather composed.
While the two of them were talking, Baki and the escort group had already guided the Fuma clan members through the main gate and were approaching.
"Lord Kazekage."
The escorting Jonin bowed respectfully to the assembled senior figures, then stepped aside to present the visitors.
"This is the head of the Fuma clan, Fuma Kotaro."
Following his words, every gaze in the welcoming group shifted to the blue-haired young man stepping forward.
"Lord Kazekage, it is a great honor to meet you," Fuma Kotaro said with a warm smile, stepping forward and extending his hand toward Yuji.
"Welcome. All of you. To the Sand Village."
Yuji met the man's gaze and shook his hand without any change in his expression.
This Fuma clan head carried himself with a certain polished elegance. On the surface at least, he did not show the rough edges that one might expect from a wandering clan with no formal village affiliation. He seemed like someone who would be easy to work with.
But the first impression Yuji formed was not entirely positive.
An instinct.
The other man's posture was almost too accommodating, his manner too deliberately agreeable.
"That person is..."
But Yuji's attention shifted away from Kotaro almost immediately.
Because within the crowd of Fuma clan members standing behind Kotaro, he had spotted a familiar face.
Specifically, the person who in the original story would have been controlled by Nagato and incorporated into the Six Paths of Pain as the first Animal Path. Long dark green hair with a straight fringe cut across the forehead. This individual had also appeared in the original story in connection with Jiraiya.
"He actually came."
Something quietly pleased stirred in Yuji's chest.
This was an unexpected windfall.
But in the original story, this person had appeared at a point in the timeline when they had already submitted to a certain ninja village. Their presence here walking into the Sand Village meant they were not yet a rogue ninja who had betrayed their previous affiliation.
...
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