Onoki received the visitors from the Land of Wind with a guarded heart.
After a brief exchange of pleasantries with the official envoy delegation, he had someone escort the envoys off to rest. Then he turned and gathered with Kitsuchi and the other senior figures in the Tsuchikage Tower's conference room, where Yuji had removed his disguise and joined them.
"Remarkable. The scenery here is completely different from the Sand Village. Sheer stone peaks rising in every direction. No lush vegetation, but it carries its own kind of beauty. And most importantly, the Hidden Stone Village's natural positioning in terrain like this makes it extraordinarily defensible. Truly a fortress gifted by nature. It would be extraordinarily difficult to take by force."
Inside the room, Yuji walked toward the window as though he were any casual visitor and looked out at the Hidden Stone Village's landscape, letting out genuine sounds of admiration. His words were full of appreciation and what sounded like honest respect for what he was seeing.
Unlike the Sand Village, the Hidden Stone Village was surrounded by natural mountain formations serving as strategic barriers and natural buffers. Those mountains had clearly been worked and shaped through deliberate human effort as well.
Along some of the cliff faces, carved channels directed thin streams of water cascading down in distinctive formations, creating a unique landscape within the village. This was evidently part of an intentional effort to bring water sources into the village.
And while the Hidden Stone Village was not as prosperous or commercially vibrant as the current Sand Village, in terms of raw defensive security it was undeniably far superior.
"Hmph."
Hearing Yuji complimenting the village, Onoki felt no pleasure whatsoever. His eyes narrowed and he let out a cold sound.
"Fourth Kazekage. What exactly is your purpose in sneaking all the way to our Hidden Stone Village like this?"
The reason they had recognized Yuji through his disguise so easily, beyond how distinctive his presence was, was that his chosen disguise involved bandages wrapped across half his face. Which carried a certain resemblance to paying tribute to the Hidden Stone Village's Second Tsuchikage.
"Tsuchikage, the war is already over. You do not need to keep treating me with hostility. And besides, every transaction between our villages during the Great Ninja War was entirely voluntary. I never once forced the Hidden Stone Village to purchase Sand Village medicines."
Yuji turned from the window with a calm smile.
He had clearly caught the dissatisfaction running beneath Onoki's words.
"You young brat has already gotten everything you wanted from this war. Do you not know when to stop?" Onoki's weathered face was hard to read. "And I do not believe for a moment that you came to our Hidden Stone Village simply for leisure. Being this cooperative and thoughtful about it means you almost certainly have some purpose you cannot say openly."
He continued.
"Furthermore, the Land of Rain is now the Land of Wind's territory. As a strategic bridgehead and crossing point, your Land of Wind now poses a direct threat to our Land of Earth. Who knows how large your appetite will grow? One Land of Rain may not be enough to satisfy you. What comes next? Are you planning to start a conflict with our Land of Earth?"
He paused, letting the implicit challenge settle.
"After all, your Sand Village suffered the smallest losses in this war. Perhaps right now is your best opportunity to move against the Land of Earth."
Onoki delivered the veiled provocation and taunt with deliberate calm.
"I see. So that is why you had all your village's ninja come out and make themselves visible around me on the way in, moving around the streets in numbers that were quite striking. You wanted me to feel a certain kind of pressure," Yuji said with a quiet laugh.
From the moment they had entered the Hidden Stone Village under Onoki's escort, the streets had been filled with what appeared to be Hidden Stone ninja casually going about their business, in numbers that were conspicuously large.
Onoki was doing his best to conceal the Hidden Stone Village's exhausted post-war condition. He wanted Yuji to believe the Hidden Stone Village's military strength was still fully intact and formidable.
In his estimation, Yuji's visit was most likely reconnaissance. If Yuji found signs that the Hidden Stone Village was in a weakened state, the Sand Village might very well begin preparing a sequence of actions against the Land of Earth. The Hidden Stone Village had been monitoring the Land of Rain situation and already knew the Sand Village had essentially secured control of the country.
Seeing through his arrangement so quickly, Onoki picked up his tea, took a slow sip, set the cup down, and said with a flat expression:
"If you came here to show off, you can spare yourself the trouble. The Hidden Stone Village does not welcome that. And you should understand clearly, even if your Sand Village holds some degree of dominance right now and has seized the Land of Rain, pushing further is not something you can actually achieve."
"Please do not be so tense," Yuji said with an easy smile.
"I came here genuinely wanting to discuss a business arrangement with your village. You should know that despite the grievances between our two villages, in my own heart I have always held a great deal of respect for the Hidden Stone Village.
And for you personally, Tsuchikage, I hold considerable respect as well. During this Great Ninja War, it was your village that we sold our pharmaceutical resources to first. In a certain sense, does that not reflect something of my goodwill toward you?"
These words caused Onoki's expression to soften slightly.
Clearly they had some effect. Being addressed with a degree of deference by another Kage felt different from the usual dynamic.
"Father," Kitsuchi said in a low voice, a quiet warning.
"Ahem. Stop playing innocent with me and get to the point," Onoki cleared his throat.
"I am prepared to work together with your Hidden Stone Village to construct multiple pharmaceutical factories inside the Land of Earth, and to sell you all of our pharmaceutical production knowledge without holding anything back."
A second later, Yuji stated his intentions directly.
From the very first words out of his mouth, he went straight for the kill.
Pfft.
Onoki had just taken a sip of tea and had not yet swallowed when he spat it out.
His expression was one of pure shock.
"What did you just say?"
The old man thought he might have misheard and immediately asked again.
"Pharmaceutical factories and medicine research materials. Sold to you," Yuji repeated plainly.
Every Hidden Stone Village senior figure in the room froze in place.
The idea was genuinely incomprehensible.
Everyone knew these resources were the Sand Village's core advantage right now. They were the foundation of everything that had allowed the Sand Village to develop to where it stood today. And the Fourth Kazekage was talking about handing over his most precious assets with open hands?
Onoki's initial shock lasted only a moment before his eyes immediately sharpened with suspicion, and he forced his rapidly beating heart to slow down.
No.
Something was wrong here.
There is a problem with this.
Onoki's mind snapped back into analytical mode, working through what Yuji's actual purpose could be.
"Perhaps your misunderstanding of me has grown a bit large," Yuji said, catching the shift in Onoki's expression and letting out a small sigh.
"I genuinely came this time with sincere goodwill and honest intentions to make a deal with the Hidden Stone Village. You are also aware that Konoha's counterfeit medicines entered the market in a very short time and have already occupied much of what was originally our market share, reaching cooperation agreements with many nations and forces.
Our Sand Village's pharmaceutical resource advantage no longer exists in the way it once did, and the value of medicines is declining rapidly."
"So looking at the current situation, the Sand Village and Konoha are now direct commercial competitors."
Yuji guided the Hidden Stone Village's senior figures' thinking with careful framing.
"And based on the advantage we gained from being first to market, our Sand Village has already made more than enough money. We are not worried about finances."
"Although we and Konoha have reached a ceasefire agreement, Konoha's behavior in this matter is clearly a direct act of opposition against us. So to be honest, I am not particularly pleased about it."
Onoki maintained his silence.
"Our Sand Village is not doing this just for money. We genuinely want to make life difficult for Konoha. They thought they could imitate us and keep collecting market returns. I would prefer not to let them have their way."
"Since they want to compete with us for market share, let us simply make sure nobody profits. That way Konoha should not expect to extract any meaningful benefit from the pharmaceutical resource industry either."
"So the cooperation with your Hidden Stone Village is, in practical terms, aimed at striking at Konoha."
"When I explain it this way, I imagine you understand the situation now," Yuji said, spreading his hands in a gesture of reluctant candor, laying out his reasoning.
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