The negotiations were over.
But the reparations weren't finished yet.
The Hidden Mist needed time to scrape together all those resources.
On top of that, Yagura had no idea how to handle the first two brutally harsh demands Rasa had laid out.
The first one was manageable. The Hozuki clan had already fallen from grace. If they framed it as being for the village's sake, they could still strong-arm the sword summoning scroll out of them.
The real headache was the second demand.
Hand over Jinpachi Munashi, Elder Genshi, and Kisame Hoshigaki.
Kisame wasn't important.
But Jinpachi and Elder Genshi were both vital to the Hidden Mist.
One was the last surviving member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.
The other was a village elder.
Just thinking about it made Yagura's head throb.
"But if we don't agree to Rasa's terms, the Hidden Mist will be looking at thousands of ninja deaths.
"And anyway, the Mist was the one who made those kinds of demands on the Sand Village first."
Yagura took a small squad and headed back toward the Hidden Mist Village.
The remaining Mist shinobi were left under Sand Village guard.
Rasa didn't stick around the front lines. He handed command over to Pakura.
Then he climbed aboard Yatagarasu and flew straight back to Sunagakure ahead of everyone else.
A fresh new issue of the Ninja World Big Events Weekly was already spreading out from Sunagakure in every direction.
This time Rasa hadn't delivered it personally. He'd left it to Sand Village shinobi—and some merchants who'd volunteered.
The Weekly covered all kinds of ninja-world news.
But ordinary people ate it up too. They could rattle off the names of the Five Great Shinobi Villages like it was nothing.
And then there was the serialized novel The Basilisk Scroll.
A ton of readers who'd devoured last week's paper were itching for the next installment.
"Finally!"
"I wonder what crazy plot twists are in chapter two of The Basilisk Scroll."
A young man ripped open the newspaper and started skimming eagerly.
"Yashamaru's description is so badass!"
"Kagero's description is gorgeous."
"Juro the Earthworm is… kinda just a guy, I guess."
A shinobi remarked, "Compared to real ninja, the ones in The Basilisk Scroll feel way too exaggerated. Probably so readers latch onto the characters faster."
"The story's good, but the ninja don't feel like actual shinobi."
Most people, though, zeroed in on the headlines.
Hidden Mist Surrenders to Hidden Sand!
Leaf Repels Hidden Rock!
Leaf and Sand Reach Peace Agreement—Leaf-Mist Alliance Shattered!
One headline, four massive bombshells.
"Is the war finally ending?"
A civilian from the Land of Fire got excited.
"Awesome! The Leaf won!"
A civilian from the Land of Wind cheered.
"I knew the Sand Village would pull it off."
A civilian from the Land of Water scowled.
"So what's the deal with the Leaf? Weren't they allied with the Mist? Why the sudden betrayal? Making peace with the Sand and selling out the Mist?"
"Those shameless bastards!"
A huge number of Water Country people started cursing out the Leaf. They were convinced the Leaf's betrayal was the only reason the Mist had lost the war.
The Fire Country folks were momentarily speechless, but once they reached the small sidebar section, they fired right back, blasting the Water Country people.
"It was your Mist Village that acted shameless first."
"You were allies with the Leaf, but you secretly sent ninja to ambush Leaf forces."
"You even killed one of Lord Minato's students!"
"That's the Yellow Flash's student, you know!"
The Water Country people froze.
"No way."
The Fire Country people snorted.
"It's right here—read it yourself!"
The Water Country folks scanned the page but still refused to believe it, digging in their heels.
"This can't be real. This is the Sand Village's paper. They're enemies with the Mist, so of course they're painting the Mist in the worst light possible. It has to be fake."
"The Mist had zero reason to do something like that!"
"They're not idiots. Why would they do something that only hurts themselves?"
"So it has to be fake."
"Or maybe they were set up by someone else—like the Sand Village."
"This is the Sand Village's divide-and-conquer scheme."
Minato Namikaze had been drowning in grief over his student's death, but he quickly realized something was off.
Mist ninja had attacked Leaf forces and basically chased their own allies away.
That left the Mist army to face the full Sand onslaught and surrender.
Did that make any sense?
No, it didn't.
By any logic of who benefited, the Sand Village came out on top.
"But… could it really be the Sand Village?"
One Mist ninja floated a different possibility.
"It could be the Leaf's self-sabotage play."
"The Leaf didn't want the alliance with us anymore, so they staged the whole thing. Now they can walk away clean and abandon the Mist."
"Especially since they just beat back the Rock army."
The opposing Mist ninja hesitated.
"Wouldn't that be too high a price? That was the Yellow Flash's student."
"Just one student? She was a civilian-born nobody. The Yellow Flash can get as many students as he wants. And picking someone important-sounding makes the story feel more real."
A Leaf ninja snorted coldly.
"It wasn't us. It was either the Mist or the Sand. If there's one other possibility, it has to be those Uchiha."
"Yeah, exactly—the Uchiha clan and the Takechi clan."
"Both those ninja clans hate the Leaf and the Mist with a passion."
"They'd definitely try to drive a wedge between the Leaf-Mist alliance."
"The Uchiha are naturally evil—they'll do anything. Plus they have Sharingan for genjutsu control, and the Takechi clan knows the Mist's situation inside and out."
"It was the two of them working together that caused this disaster."
The theory spread like wildfire and won over tons of people.
It didn't blame the Sand, the Leaf, or the Mist.
As for the Uchiha and Takechi clans—who cared what happened to them?
When Uchiha Yashiro and Takechi Ta heard all the ninja-world chatter pinning the blame on them, they felt nothing but pure frustration.
They wished they'd been the ones to pull it off.
But they hadn't.
Yet here they were, stuck with the blame anyway.
"The entire ninja world is full of shameless scum!"
"None of these villages are worth a damn."
"Hypocrites, bullies, liars!"
Back in Sunagakure.
Kazekage Building.
Rasa stared at the system panel in front of him, eyes gleaming with anticipation.
"The points from the second rumor wave are finally in."
"Just ten more draws left."
"Time for another pity guarantee."
Rasa's thoughts shifted.
"Ten consecutive draws—start!"