By the time the Third Kazekage—whose hairline had noticeably stopped receding in recent years as his workload grew lighter—finished his paperwork and pushed open the door to the "break room" on the fifth basement floor, Hii Kōri had already finished his lunch. He was lounging in an armchair, leisurely sipping tea and slowly chewing on a piece of candied fruit.
Vegeta's gaze landed on the candy wrapper on the table. The corner of his mouth twitched, and he couldn't help but complain: "Hey, kid. If I remember correctly, that stuff was supposed to be a souvenir for me, right? And you've already started eating it yourself?"
"So stingy. I brought you lunch. What's wrong with eating a couple pieces of your candy?"
Not even bothering to lift his eyelids at the accusation, Hii Kōri picked up another piece of candied fruit from the wrapper and tossed it into his mouth, replying vaguely: "Here. Your share."
With a flick of his wrist, he produced a large lunchbox from a scroll. Inside was a generous portion of pilaf, topped with a row of sliced grilled lamb chops.
The bold mutton and beef cuisine unique to the desert region, combined with the high energy demands of a ninja's daily life, came together perfectly in this meal.
Rich, fatty lamb pilaf—he'd eaten an entire large box of it in one sitting!
"Hmph. At least you've got some conscience, kid."
The Third Kazekage didn't say anything more. Grumbling under his breath, he took the lunchbox from Hii Kōri, grabbed a stool, and sat down at the desk that had long since been repurposed as a dining table, digging in with gusto.
He knew it—Hii Kōri never went short on food.
"Mmph… so, tell me. Taking your students out for a stroll across the great sand sea—how did it go?"
Still chewing rice, his voice came out muffled, earning a look of disdain from Hii Kōri: "Can't you swallow before you talk?"—conveniently ignoring the fact that he himself often launched into lengthy monologues while gnawing on energy bars.
Strict with others, lenient with oneself. It was a little trick for staying in a good mood.
"But as far as results go, there were some."
Hii Kōri slowly sat up straight. The relaxed, casual expression on his face gradually faded. He clasped his hands together, mimicking the posture the Third Kazekage often adopted—fingers interlaced in front of his mouth. His gray eyes filled with seriousness and focus, he spoke in a solemn tone:
"One Piece is real."
"…The hell is that?"
Vegeta, who had just stripped the meat off a lamb chop with his teeth and was chewing the boneless chunk, looked utterly lost. no idea what Hii Kōri was talking about.
"Mm-hmm. Meaning I actually found Rōran."
Hii Kōri lowered his hands, sank back into the armchair, and took a lazy sip of tea before continuing: "Not only did I find it, I made contact. You could say we've established a friendly cooperative relationship."
"And the legendary Dragon Veins are real, too."
He paused briefly, as if organizing his next words. "The Dragon Veins are essentially a massive aggregation of natural energy. But due to some very practical factors, I couldn't exactly bring them back with me."
"Hmm… a massive aggregation of natural energy, huh…"
Vegeta could understand the "practical factors" Hii Kōri mentioned. "Since you're calling it 'massive,' it must be something pretty difficult to control."
For a ninja of Hii Kōri's caliber, using the word "massive" to describe energy meant something at least on the scale of a tailed beast or a giant summoning creature's output. It was only natural that it couldn't be tamed easily.
"That's part of it."
Hii Kōri nodded noncommittally, then pointed down at the floor beneath them. "But the bigger factor is the existence of Rōran itself."
"Thanks to the power of the Dragon Veins, Rōran managed to remain hidden for over a thousand years, only now being discovered by me following traces. Compared to simply seizing power, the value of a hidden location like Rōran—one that went unnoticed by the outside world for so long—is far greater."
"And aside from serving as a hidden stronghold, based on the data I observed, the natural energy concentration in Rōran's core area is already high enough to call it a 'sacred ground.' Even if it can't quite compare to places like the Three Great Sacred Lands, and Rōran itself doesn't have any relevant traditions to pass down environment, just training in that would be enormously beneficial for sensing and utilizing natural energy."
"Once I've had some time, I'll go back to Rōran and see if I can use the environment there to develop a more universal form of Sage Mode suitable for human training. If it works out, the village will have another major card to play."
As for news about his future son, or the Ōtsutsuki—Hii Kōri had no intention of sharing that. At least, not with Vegeta and the others.
Even if they knew, it wouldn't do any good. Sunagakure was already pushing its development to the limit. Pushing it into even greater militarization wouldn't help; it would only damage the village's foundations.
Sunagakure was a place Chiyo, Vegeta, and Master Bunpuku all valued deeply. Hii Kōri still had plenty of other cards to play—and outside the confines of a ninja village, the merchant guild could accomplish even more. There was no need to squeeze Sunagakure dry.
It wasn't like the village didn't still come to him for money all the time anyway.
"Finally, after this trip, I think Sasori's emotional issues are mostly resolved."
With that thought, Hii Kōri steered the conversation back to family matters. "He gets along really well with Yahiko and the others. With their company and my guidance, there's no way he'll turn out too extreme."
"All in all, this trip was a huge success. Feels like a real harvest."
"Pfft—cough! Cough, cough, cough—!!"
The Third Kazekage, blindsided by the barrage of casually delivered but explosively significant results, nearly choked to death on a mouthful of rice.
Seeing him stiff-necked and turning a bit red, Hii Kōri timely handed him a glass of water. Vegeta downed two big gulps, thumped his chest heavily a few times, and finally managed to catch his breath.
Setting the cup down, the Third Kazekage looked at Hii Kōri with an expression that was quite complicated.
Now he understood why Hii Kōri hadn't said anything back in the office upstairs. This was definitely the kind of intelligence that had to be shared in private.
In recent years, Vegeta could truly see that both Sunagakure and the entire Land of Wind were improving at a visible pace. The future looked bright.
When he thought about it, the turning point—and the greatest driving force behind all of this—was this guy Hii Kōri.
Recalling that before this trip, Hii Kōri had stated he had no interest in the position of "Kage," the Third Kazekage suddenly felt a surge of curiosity. Tossing aside the genuine bone in his hand, he gazed at Hii Kōri's gray eyes—which always seemed clear and bright—and asked sincerely:
"Hey, Kōri. What do you really want? I mean your ultimate goal, your deepest desire. What is it you're truly after?"
"Ha… that's a strange question…"
Slowly sipping his tea, Hii Kōri sighed at the question. He set down his cup, his tone as calm as if he were discussing the weather: "My goal has never changed. It's to conduct my research in peace."
"Find a scenic spot with good feng shui, and live a stable life with family, friends, and students. Do whatever research I want, without worrying about funding, without being bothered by pointless people, without having to deal with any more trivial annoyances… pretty simple, right?"
As he spoke, his voice paused briefly, then gained a faint edge of mockery: "It's just that in the world as it is now, even a simple goal like that isn't really achievable."
"So..."
"So?" The Third Kazekage raised an eyebrow, already guessing what Hii Kōri was about to say.
"So I figure it's better to just crush all the problems in one go, then deal with any new ones that sprout up afterward. The other villages, the nations, the daimyō… even the very profession of 'ninja' itself. Might as well smash it all and rebuild something better."
The break room fell into brief silence, broken only by the faint hum of the air circulation system.
The Third Kazekage's expression remained fairly calm. The slight surprise mixed with his "I knew it" reaction was probably only because Hii Kōri had chosen to be so candid with him at this moment.
After a moment of silence, Vegeta, still chewing on the bare lamb chop bone, asked in a muffled voice: "… Is that why you pushed Hanzō to go as far as he did back in the Land of Rain?"
Ever since he'd learned from Hii Kōri exactly what he'd done in the Land of Rain, and how far Hanzō had since taken things, the Third Kazekage had vaguely sensed that a day like this would come.
As a village's Kage, he naturally had the clearest understanding of Sunagakure's situation. No matter how unsuited to administrative work he might have been at first, after years of experience, he'd gained considerable insight.
When Hashirama Senju founded Konoha, he probably hadn't thought that far ahead. Plus, the Senju had longstanding ties to the daimyō of the Land of Fire—the latter had been their old patrons.
The relationship between village and daimyō that emerged under those circumstances had posed no problems for Konoha at that time. But now, things were different.
Konoha's hat had passed to Hiruzen Sarutobi—an "outsider"—and the relationship between Konoha and the Land of Fire's daimyō had likely cooled somewhat.
As for the other villages modeled after Konoha… their situations were even more delicate.
When Hii Kōri first established the Red Hot Sand Merchant Guild, hadn't he gone out of his way to distance it from Sunagakure precisely because he feared the Land of Wind's daimyō would use it as an excuse to cause trouble?
But now, the guild had ballooned into a massive organization spanning the entire continent. Even a major nation's daimyō couldn't move against it easily. And Sunagakure, nourished by the guild's support, no longer needed to watch the daimyō's every move.
Even though Sunagakure—which had its own plans—had emerged from this Great Ninja War with significant gains, no one wanted a repeat of being "forced" to declare war on Konoha.
If given the choice, who wouldn't prefer a stable, prosperous life over constant bloodshed?
Ninja were accustomed to living with their heads on the line. That didn't mean they liked it.
"Are you planning… to move against the daimyō?"
Vegeta's voice unconsciously dropped, but the excitement in his tone—stirred by thoughts of "the time has come, let us rise"—was impossible to suppress.
"…Why are you so eager?"
Hii Kōri's expression was one of barely contained exasperation. Here was a man who was already part of the leadership class, yet still this excited about rebellion?
He supposed it was true that, no matter the era, men had a hard time resisting things like "excavators at work," "giant robots in motion," or "the thrill of rebellion."
Silently making this observation, he still moved to rein in Vegeta's excitement. "The Great Ninja War just ended. No one's in the mood to stir up trouble. Work like this has to wait until the waters are muddy enough."
"The guild expanded too fast recently. We need time to stabilize. We still have to see how things develop with Hanzō. Funds, weapons, soldiers, influence, a banner... if we want to crush the old order, we have to prepare everything first."
"Heh… you really dare to think and dare to act, don't you, kid?"
The Third Kazekage let out a short, ambiguous laugh and shook his head.
"If everyone thinks things aren't right, and I happen to have a little ability to do something about it… why not try?"
Replying as if it were the most natural thing in the world, Hii Kōri suddenly remembered something and reached out toward the Third Kazekage. "Oh, right. Approve another travel permit for me. I'm planning to head to the Land of Fire."
"?"
The Third Kazekage blinked. "Why are you off to the Land of Fire again?"
What was this supposed to mean? Were all redheads like that foster father of yours, constantly running outside the village?
Is that just what redheads did? Would Rasa end up like that too?
"This time it's personal."
Hii Kōri explained. "Master Bunpuku has always wanted to visit the Temple of Fire and exchange ideas with the monks there. But you know his situation. Even if you were willing to let him leave the village, I wouldn't dare let an old man like him travel that far."
"I'm planning to go there to get some copies of Buddhist scriptures for him. If I get the chance, I'll debate the dharma with those monks too."
"…You really care about Bunpuku."
The Third Kazekage found himself without any grounds to argue against this reasoning. Perhaps for Hii Kōri, compared to Chiyo—who was always somewhat unreliable in daily life—Bunpuku was closer to being his elder.
And for Bunpuku, who had become the One-Tail's jinchūriki as a child and had no family left in the world, Hii Kōri was surely the child he felt closest to.
Sunagakure owed Bunpuku far too much. How could Vegeta refuse such a simple request?
"And also…"
"Now what?!"
Hearing Hii Kōri's follow-up, Vegeta snapped right out of his sentimental mood.
He knew this red-and-white-haired kid too well. Whenever he said something like that, what came next was never good for Vegeta's blood pressure.
"Naturally, to have some fun in Konoha and see if I can capture a few live ninjas."
Though his expression remained calm, his tone grew noticeably sharper: "Researching reincarnation techniques consumes a lot of lives. I can't very well use our own people for that, can I?"
"…"
Vegeta fell silent again, then rose to retrieve his seal and a notepad. He scribbled out a few lines, tore off the permit, and handed it over.
He had no grounds to stop this—neither from a personal standpoint nor from the village's.
"Don't worry. This time I'll enter Konoha disguised as a wandering monk."
Seeing Vegeta's serious expression, Hii Kōri smiled reassuringly, then leaned in to add: "So I'd like to issue a guard mission. Assign it to Pakura and Karura."
"…You really are something else, kid…"
Sighing heavily, the Third Kazekage wrote out another slip. He had to admit, he probably couldn't do anything about this guy.
"Just think of it as generating revenue for the village. That's what GDP is for, right?"
***
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