Time slipped by in silence.
Only the ripples that slowly calmed across the spring proved what had just happened.
In the center of the pool, Teizawa finally let go.
"Hah…"
He exhaled a long, heavy breath.
He did not spare Kurotsuchi, still trembling in his arms, a second glance. He only panted softly as he stepped over the pebbles on the bottom and walked, one slow step at a time, toward the shore.
After he climbed out, he unhurriedly picked up the clothes he had set on a rock and put them on piece by piece, neither fast nor slow.
At the same time, a cold system notification sounded in his mind:
[Congratulations to the host for completing the mission. Reward obtained: "Doton: Domu (Earth Spear)"]
Teizawa felt the weight of the technique settling into him, Iwagakure's strongest defensive ninjutsu. His thoughts drifted.
With this, his defenses would rise another level.
Meanwhile, by the edge of the spring, Kurotsuchi remained frozen in place, body slack and mind distant. Several seconds passed before the faint shuddering in her limbs finally gave out.
She staggered forward a step, bracing both hands against the slick stone at the water's edge, but her strength failed anyway. Her knees buckled, and she collapsed onto the damp, muddy bank.
The cold silt clung to her skin and hair. Strands of her soaked black hair stuck to her cheek, speckled with grit.
Normally, she would have recoiled from even a stain.
Now she did nothing.
She didn't try to rise, didn't try to clean herself. She only lay there, chest heaving, struggling to steady her breathing. Her eyes were glassy, wet with the shine of unshed tears, as if her soul had been scooped hollow.
No one knew how long it lasted.
Maybe only a few minutes, yet it felt like a century.
Fully dressed, Teizawa walked over and stopped beside her. He bent down into a crouch, gaze sweeping once over her before his tone returned to its usual calm.
"Alright," he said. "Don't stay like that. Wash up."
He paused, then added, "In a bit, I'm taking you back to Sunagakure."
Kurotsuchi's unfocused pupils moved, painfully slow, until her blank stare fixed on his face.
"Back… to Sunagakure?" Her voice was hoarse to the point of rasping. "Y-you… you're not going to kill me?"
In her world, being captured on the battlefield meant there was no road that led anywhere but death.
She had already drowned in despair, convinced that once he was satisfied, she would be disposed of without mercy.
But now…
This man had crossed a line with her, and instead of ending her, he was talking about bringing her to Sunagakure?
For what?
To keep her?
Seeing the shock on her face, Teizawa's brow lifted slightly.
"Kill you?" he repeated, as if the question amused him. "Why would I kill you now?"
He leaned closer, voice low and unapologetic.
"I'm satisfied with you."
Kurotsuchi flinched, so small it was almost invisible. Heat rushed into her face.
Teizawa acted as if he hadn't noticed and continued, tone turning faintly teasing.
"And besides, I'm not the type to turn cold the moment things are done."
Kurotsuchi's expression stiffened completely, breath catching in her throat.
What kind of man said something like that out loud?
Teizawa had already lost interest in her reaction.
He straightened, reached into his clothes, and took out a small sealing scroll. With a casual flick, he unsealed it.
A wisp of smoke dispersed.
A neatly folded set of clothing appeared in his hand.
It was a standard Sunagakure female shinobi uniform: an off-white short top, deep-blue pants, plus a Sunagakure forehead protector and sash. Clean. New. Practical.
Teizawa set it on a relatively dry rock within her reach.
"Clean yourself up and put that on," he said, and his voice carried the barest hint of apology. "Your old outfit…"
He glanced at the torn scraps of fabric floating on the water and gave a short, humorless chuckle.
"Sorry. I tore it up by accident."
Kurotsuchi clenched her teeth. She ignored the jab, reached out with shaking fingers, and pulled the clothes toward herself.
No matter what else happened…
At least she was alive.
…
Three days later, the Sunagakure force finally returned home.
And then…
The air in Sunagakure caught fire.
The despair that had hung over the village for years was ripped apart and replaced by something bordering on frenzy.
The shinobi who returned described the annihilation in vivid detail, swearing it had all been orchestrated by Kazekage-sama himself.
More than a thousand enemies had been erased in the roar of ninjutsu and the fury of the desert.
The news flooded every street and every home.
Villagers who had been crushed under hardship for too long poured out into the open, eyes burning with light they had forgotten they could still have.
"Hahaha! Kazekage-sama really is the strongest Kazekage-sama!"
"Teizawa-sama is the strongest Kazekage!"
"He even controlled the mountains… that's insane!"
"Trash. Now you know what Sunagakure can do!"
"Kazekage-sama, banzai…"
"I… I want to marry Kazekage-sama!"
"In your dreams. Kazekage-sama is mine!"
"I'd die for Kazekage-sama…"
Teizawa's name was shouted until it became a chant, then a legend in the making.
Sunagakure finally stood tall again.
A victory worthy of the history books.
Yet outside that feverish celebration, the Kazekage's office was the complete opposite.
Dead silent.
The air was so heavy it felt like it could be wrung into water.
Chiyo's face was livid. Ebizo's brow was knotted tight. Even Gaara, usually unreadable, pressed his lips together, eyes dark and weighted.
All their gazes were fixed on the only person standing before the desk: Kankuro.
"Where is that brat Teizawa?" Chiyo's voice vibrated with restrained fury. "He stirs up this big of a mess and he leaves you here to take the blame alone? Where did he go hiding?"
In his heart, Kankuro had already cursed that hands-off bastard a thousand times over.
Outwardly, he forced his face into something resembling respect.
"Elder Chiyo, Kazekage-sama… he said the journey's been nonstop, and he has many…" Kankuro swallowed, scalp prickling, "…many important thoughts about the details of this mission and the village's future plans that he needs to go over with Temari first."
"So he… went home."
"Went home?" Chiyo's mouth twitched.
Ebizo's face spasmed. "To 'talk' with Temari?"
Everyone here knew exactly what kind of "talking" that was.
Chiyo's fingers creaked against the edge of the desk.
"He causes a disaster big enough to shake the whole country, then pats himself off and goes home?"
"Explain the matter of the daimyo's estate clearly," she snapped. "Where did he get the nerve to go see the daimyo directly?"
"That's the highest authority in the Land of Wind. Does he not understand protocol?"
"Does he not understand hierarchy?"
Ebizo's voice sank, heavy with worry.
"This isn't simple recklessness. If word spreads, what will the Land of Fire, the Land of Earth, the Land of Lightning, and the Land of Water think of the Land of Wind? What will they think of Sunagakure?"
"Defying authority and disregarding legitimacy will put us in an extremely passive position diplomatically!"
"The Kazekage's duty is to protect the village, not drag calamity to its doorstep!"
Kankuro listened to the accusations Teizawa had predicted word for word, and he couldn't stop his mouth from tugging into a small, irritated line.
He remembered the way Teizawa looked when he spoke about this, as if he had already seen the end of the argument.
Kankuro took a breath and delivered the lines he'd been taught.
"Kazekage-sama said… political power comes from the barrel of a gun."
"Force is in the hands of shinobi. Sunagakure's fate should be decided by us."
"Why should we let a daimyo sitting far away in the capital, ignorant of what people suffer, point fingers at us?"
"Political power comes from the barrel of a gun…" Gaara murmured, repeating it under his breath.
A sharp light flashed in his eyes.
Those words hit like thunder, cracking open a fog that had sat over his understanding for years.
Chiyo and Ebizo both froze as well.
The sentence tore away every layer of polite pretense and stabbed straight into the core of what power really was.
They opened their mouths.
And, for a moment, found they had nothing to say.
Still, a deeply rooted feudal order wasn't something a single line could erase.
Chiyo's brows snapped up, voice turning sharp.
"Absurd! The daimyo is the symbol of the Land of Wind, the legitimate ruler! Maintaining the relationship between nation and village is…"
"Elder Chiyo!" Kankuro abruptly raised his voice, cutting her off.
He remembered Teizawa's last instruction.
"If that old lady keeps yapping, slap our 'sincerity' right in her face."
And what was that "sincerity"?
It was obvious.
Kankuro straightened. The strained respect on his face was replaced by a swaggering confidence.
He cleared his throat and announced, loud and steady.
"Reporting to the elders: Kazekage-sama emphasized that although the method used at the daimyo's estate is open to discussion, the purpose was to resolve the village's urgent survival crisis."
"Under Kazekage-sama's personal negotiation and decisive leadership…"
"We successfully gathered the critical funds Sunagakure needs to rise again."
Ebizo snorted, clearly unimpressed.
"Hmph. Even if you scraped together some money, it's still built on error and usurpation!"
"Merit doesn't erase wrongdoing. Teizawa's actions must…"
"The total we gathered," Kankuro cut in again without hesitation, enunciating each word, "was two hundred and thirty billion…"
"Even if it's two hundred and thirty billion ryo, it can't let Teizawa deny… wait."
Chiyo's scolding stopped dead.
Her voice shot up, eyes widening so fast it looked like pain.
"Kankuro, how much did you just say?"
Ebizo went silent on the spot.
The cold smile on his face locked up, then shattered into sheer disbelief.
Even Gaara's pupils tightened, rare shock breaking through.
Kankuro was very satisfied with the effect.
He lifted his chin and repeated it, almost smug.
"Two hundred and thirty billion ryo. Cold, hard cash."
"Impossible!" Ebizo blurted, completely losing composure, his voice warping out of pitch. "Absolutely impossible!"
No matter how rich the daimyo's estate was, it couldn't hand over a number that astronomical in one stroke.
It defied his understanding of finances.
"How is it impossible?" Kankuro's confidence only grew.
He raised a hand and pointed straight at the office window, toward the roaring plaza below.
"The convoy transporting the funds is parked in the central square right now, guarded by elite troops."
"The chests are stacked like mountains. The seals haven't even been broken!"
"This…" Chiyo, Ebizo, and Gaara all went blank.
The office fell into a strange, unnatural silence.
Only the thin threads of the villagers' ecstatic cheers drifted in through the window.
Two hundred and thirty billion.
The number slammed into their minds like a meteor, turning everything upside down.
In an instant, all the talk of "defying authority," all the diplomatic dread, all the rules and legitimacy they'd been clinging to, was blasted to pieces.
Every accusation, every demand for accountability, every worry…
In the face of wealth so real it could remake Sunagakure from the bone outward…
Suddenly felt pale and powerless.
Even…
A little out of place.
For a long moment, no one scolded Teizawa's "lawless" behavior anymore.
Chiyo and Ebizo exchanged a look.
In each other's eyes, they saw shock, confusion…
And a hunger they couldn't quite hide.
"Quick!" Chiyo snapped, spinning around and hurrying to the window.
Ebizo followed at once.
Gaara rose without a word and walked over as well.
They had to confirm it with their own eyes.
That legendary pile of money that could buy half the Land of Wind…
Two hundred and thirty billion.
(End of Chapter)
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