The shuriken clenched in Aoki's hands suddenly tore free from his grip.
They flew to Ethan's side, then turned in unison and aimed straight back at Aoki.
Aoki stared at them, swallowing hard.
A cold weight dropped into his stomach as a terrifying possibility flashed through his mind.
His pupils contracted sharply.
"No... that can't be right."
The words left his mouth with a twisted expression that was halfway between a laugh and a grimace.
It was as if part of him wanted his guess to be true, while the rest desperately hoped he was wrong.
"That's exactly what it is," Ethan said, cutting off any last illusion.
Aoki froze for a beat.
Then he threw his head back and laughed.
It was a strange sound, full of disbelief, frustration, and something close to surrender.
When the laughter finally subsided, he looked at Ethan and bared his teeth in a crooked grin.
So that's it.
No wonder.
"The Third Kazekage's only student... and you actually mastered Iron Sand. Fine. I can accept losing to that. I really can."
Ethan watched his near manic expression in silence, then slowly shook his head.
"You think the Third Kazekage's Iron Sand could control metal weapons and puppets this precisely?"
Aoki went still.
He stared at Ethan blankly, lips tightening.
Then he laughed again, harder this time, until tears began to gather at the corners of his eyes.
All around the dunes, the spectators exchanged stunned looks.
They had not expected a veteran shinobi who had survived two wars, a man who had lived through battlefields since childhood, to lose his composure like this.
Aoki laughed for several more seconds. Since the sand binding him kept him from wiping his face, he could only blink repeatedly to clear the tears from his eyes.
When he finally settled, his expression turned complicated, caught somewhere between bitterness and admiration.
"Heh. You really are something, kid. Fine. The Third could control Iron Sand, but you can control weapons and puppets directly. You've surpassed him. Plain and simple."
"No wonder you were this confident."
He let out another hollow laugh.
"What kind of luck is this? First, I spent half my life under his shadow. Then just when he's finally gone, I end up facing someone even more ridiculous."
The dozens of shinobi who had already moved close to Ethan and Aoki heard every word clearly.
For a second, they were stunned.
Then joy broke across their faces almost all at once.
The people watching from the dunes heard the exchange a heartbeat later, and their reaction was much the same. Shock first. Then rising excitement. A few even had tears in their eyes.
The Sunagakure had never been a village blessed with easy fortune.
For years, many of them had imagined, usually in their quietest moments, that someone might one day appear and pull the village out of decline.
But that hope had always felt distant.
And when the Third Kazekage vanished, most of them had begun to think the village's future was finished.
Yet now, right in front of them, they were witnessing the rise of someone who might surpass even the Third Kazekage.
Pakura stared at Ethan with open admiration. Her lips curled into a smile.
"Now that's more like it. That's my best friend."
Yashalei threw her arms around Karura in excitement, practically hanging off her.
Karura gently stroked her sister's hair with one hand while looking at Ethan with soft, shining eyes.
"I told you. Rasa is the one who can save the Sunagakure."
Nearby, Tsuyu planted her hands on her hips and turned to the Guard Platoon members around her.
"I said this from the beginning, didn't I? Rasa is the one. You just didn't want to listen."
The Guard Platoon members exchanged looks, then turned back toward Ethan. Even behind their masks, the excitement in their eyes was obvious.
Masami was breathing fast now, her chest rising and falling beneath the layers binding it. She looked so overwhelmed that she could barely speak. For a moment, her mind was simply blank.
After a pause, Aoki looked back at Ethan with genuine confusion.
"Then why didn't you use it from the start? If you had, I would've lost immediately. You wouldn't have needed to drag this out."
"A quick win would've made everyone accept you even faster. You know that, don't you?"
Ethan smiled faintly and tipped his head back, lifting a hand to shield his eyes from the sun.
"Another war is coming sooner or later. And when it does, if I become Kazekage, I'll be the one standing on the front line against the strongest enemies from the other villages."
"So I wanted to know something."
He lowered his gaze back to Aoki.
"If I only used half my strength, how many exchanges would it take to beat an elite Jonin?"
"As for pride, or whether people accept me... beating you is proof enough."
With a slight movement of his fingers, the sand binding Aoki unraveled at once.
Aoki barely reacted to the sudden freedom in his stiff limbs.
Instead, he straightened and looked at Ethan with knitted brows, studying him properly for the first time.
Ethan met that gaze without flinching. His expression remained calm.
Aoki kept looking.
Then something shifted in his face.
The quiet, awkward young man he remembered was gone.
In his place stood someone steady, composed, and carrying thoughts too deep for Aoki to read.
He had seen that kind of look before.
In the Second Kazekage.
In the Third.
But even they had carried some uncertainty when it came to the future of the village.
Ethan did not.
Aoki let out a slow breath.
"Rasa... I take back everything I said before. You really are the one best suited to lead the Sunagakure through what's coming."
His shoulders loosened, and a trace of shame crossed his face.
"I really am not on your level."
After saying that, he looked away and fell silent, staring at the sand at his feet as if weighing something in his mind.
.
.
.
A long moment passed.
Or perhaps only a second.
Then Aoki steadied himself, turned back to Ethan, and sank to one knee.
For the first time, he lowered his head completely, until his forehead touched the sand.
"Jonin Aoki greets the Fourth Kazekage."
Ethan looked at him without any visible surprise, as though he had expected this outcome all along.
He gave a small nod, then clasped his hands behind his back and slowly swept his gaze across the people gathered on the surrounding dunes.
The other shinobi had recovered from their shock.
One by one, then in clusters, they knelt as well.
"Jonin Pakura greets the Fourth Kazekage."
"Jonin Karura greets the Fourth Kazekage."
"Jonin Masami greets the Fourth Kazekage."
"Jonin Mizune greets the Fourth Kazekage."
"Chunin Yashalei greets the Fourth Kazekage."
"Chunin Tsuyu greets the Fourth Kazekage."
The voices were not perfectly synchronized, but they were firm.
And they echoed across the dunes for a long time.
Ethan drew in a slow breath, forcing down the surge of emotion rising in his chest. His hands remained behind his back, his nails digging hard into his palms.
He was not nearly as calm as he looked.
But he knew this was not the moment to show it.
The wind lifted the hem of his dark robe as he raised his head and looked toward the distance.
"You can all rest easy," he said.
"As long as I'm here, the Sunagakure will not fall."
"And it will rise far beyond what it was before."
.
.
.
"What did you say? Rasa beat Aoki in under five minutes?"
Inside the Kazekage's office, Chiyo's eyes widened. She even reached up and tapped one ear, as if checking whether she had somehow misheard.
"Fourth sama really did defeat Aoki within five minutes," Tsuyu said, doing her best to keep her voice steady despite her excitement.
"And he did it with room to spare."
"He has also fully mastered the Third Kazekage's Iron Sand, and gone beyond it."
Another voice spoke up in the office, this one unfamiliar and male.
"Fourth sama already? That was fast."
The speaker sat in the Kazekage's chair, a middle-aged man with blue hair and yellow eyes, dressed in the white Kazekage robe over a blue shinobi uniform.
Tsuyu immediately lowered her head slightly.
"Yes. Everyone present knelt and acknowledged Rasa sama as the Fourth Kazekage."
The man nodded, sounding mildly regretful.
"What a shame I wasn't there. Just hearing your description is enough to tell how dramatic it must have been."
Chiyo, now fully convinced she had not gone deaf or hallucinated, rolled her eyes at him.
"Brother, stop talking and deal with the mountain of paperwork on your desk. Finish that first. Then this afternoon you can make a round through the village."
This man was, of course, Ebizo, disguised as the Third Kazekage through a transformation technique.
Ebizo sighed helplessly. At his age, he should have been retired years ago, not playing this role.
He looked ready to protest, but one glance at Chiyo's expression made him think better of it. He stiffened, then bent back over the paperwork.
Once she saw him working again, Chiyo turned back to Tsuyu after a moment of thought.
"Go tell Masami to notify everyone who was on those dunes. From now on, they address Rasa exactly as they did before. No more using the title of Fourth Kazekage."
"As far as the village is concerned, we still need the Third Kazekage in place to keep the situation stable. Once it becomes impossible to hide the truth in a few months, Ethan will formally take over as the Fourth."
She set down her teacup.
"And send Rasa here."
Tsuyu quietly let out a breath of relief and bowed her head.
"Yes."
Ebizo, who had just finished one document, suddenly looked up.
"Sister... why do so many people know the Third Kazekage is missing now?"
Chiyo picked up her tea again, took a sip, and gave a cold snort.
◉◉◉◉◉
~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
◉◉◉◉◉
Thank you so much for your support and for reading!