An Island of the Earth
Chapter 1
Gaara Sabaku sat at his chair Suna's Kazekage mansion. The Fourth Great Shinobi World War had just come to final conclusion. The entire war, while succeeding in uniting the five great nations, had cost Suna more Ryo than it ever had to spend in its history. While all of the funding for the war was taken care of by the Land of Wind, Suna has had a hard time getting the funds it needs in order to help the depleting economy. As Kazekage, this was his number one priority.
He never thought that becoming the most powerful ninja in Suna meant that he would have to pull double duty as a politician but that was life in this new, modern era. If he wanted to protect his village from every horror that it could face, that meant the more trivial horrors as well.
The only comfort that he faced was that he knew that while he had this problem, the four other kage did as well. The war had decimated not just Suna, but the other nations as well. So, they'd have to rebuild each other. Shikamaru, his future brother in law, had been in and out of the village providing assistance wherever he could but Suna's economic problem had been "such a bother" as he always said in the past.
Temari would be moving to Konoha soon to be with her new husband and starting a family of their own. Kankuro's place in Suna was counter-terrorism and he had no time to waste with the boredom that was economics.
After all the enemies that he had to face in his life, Gaara found that the economic status of Suna was his greatest as whenever he thought he was getting somewhere, Baki or the Suna Council would be entering the room with another stack of monotonous documents which went into great detail about a numerous number of issues that he was yet to consider. He had already done as much as he could, even dispatching an expedition across the ocean to determine if there was any uncharted land that was available for usage.
Ebizo was also still on his case about finding a wife in order to keep the title of Kazekage within Suna. While the tensions between Suna and Konoha had come to a end, the council was too unsure with having the future rulers of Suna grow up in a completely different environment.
"You alright?" he heard a voice ask.
He looked up to see Shijima entering the room. Her black hair had been getting longer and it fell past her shoulders. She had removed the glasses for a different pair after Gaara called her "Kabuto" one too many times. She had a cup of coffee in her hand, which she placed on the desk, having to move several papers out of the way in the process.
"It's a mess in here, darling," she said annoyed as she began to rearrange the various papers on the desk into stacks so that they went with other papers of similar topics.
Gaara did not answer but continued to make little scribbles on a blank paper that he had in front of him.
Shijima swiped it from him and skimmed it. "Is this almighty policy that is gonna fix the mighty village of Suna and save it from collapsing under a massive economic sand burial?"
"That is a few lines on a page," Gaara answered.
"Interesting work."
"Why thank you very much."
Shijima smiled sweetly, trying to get the Kazekage to do the same but he wouldn't budge. He simply took the coffee off the desk and lifted it to his lips, throwing it back.
"Do you think that the council is gonna have a productive meeting planned today?" she asked.
Her statement finally forced a smile from the young Kazekage. "As they always do."
"I'll give you time to prepare. Keep that chin up, darling. You're doing as well as anyone can do. We'll clean this place up and we'll look great doing it, if I do say myself." Shijima said.
"I'll see you at the meeting. Do me a favor and keep Ebizo on a leash today."
"Haha, I'll do my best."
After Shijima left the room, Gaara stood up and went over to the mansion window, overlooking the massive village. Massive dome towers of light brown sand seemed to twinkle as the sun's rays beat down upon them. He was surrounded on all sides, the tower being located in the center of the village. Each of the towers had very small windows wrapping around the center and flat tops.
The Suna council was basically the real ruler of the village. Overtime, the political system began to eat him alive. The controlling council forced his hand at almost every decision that he made and nothing could progress without their approval. He began to question his very place in the village from time to time due to the harsh conditions that he was forced to govern under.
He understood why the council was there but he, at times, felt like there was nothing to being the Kazekage if most of his decisions were going to be rejected. Sometimes, he felt like the council was harsher on some of his decisions due to the nature of his birth, but Kankuro insisted that this was not the case.
Through all of his insecurities, he knew that he still had Shijima on his side. Since the mess with Metoro, Shijima had become Gaara's closest friend and female of interest. She listened to every complaint that he had and stuck by his side, forgave him for his mistakes, and did her best to help him in any way that she could. He knew that he was marrying her. He had not asked her yet but it was something that he felt inside him.
Taking a deep breath, he knew that standing near the window would do him no favors. He checked the time before deciding that he needed to go to the meeting or else be harassed by the council for neglecting his duties. He exited his mansion and went to the Suna Council's meeting room.
Shijima was waiting for him, as was his brother. Shijima waved him over and Gaara took his seat next to her. The three of them made small talk until Ebizo and the rest of the council made their way into the chambers. They took their seats at the long table placed away from the regular one with Ebizo taking the center seat meant especially for him.
"Good afternoon, everyone." Gaara addressed the room.
He looked around. Many faces, old and young stared back at him. Every seat in the room was now filled and all were looking at the Kazekage, as if expecting him to give them every solution to every problem that they would ever face.
"I suppose that it is time to get our monthly meeting under way, is it not? I'll just get right into it today, as we have much to discuss. As we are all aware, the Land of Wind has been reluctant to give Suna the necessary funding to solve our current labor issues. Since the war, we've had more people in this village than ever before. Our companies are not in need of any more workers, but people in our village are in need of jobs. In between now and are last meeting, I have determined that what we need is another industry of some kind that will help an average man or woman get into the work force and pay enough for them to support themselves and their family.
"To help achieve this, Ebizo and I have sent several teams of shinobi across the land of wind, looking for any potential crop or mineral that will help us achieve this goal. If we are successful in creating this new industry, it will help our village by giving us a monopoly over it and our ability to trade with the other nations will increase significantly. It is important that we find it first, or else fall behind in the recovery process.
"The war had nothing but negative impacts across all five great nations. If we want to remain as a competitor with the rest of them, we need other options to help the economy. I do not want those teams to be our only options. Does anyone here have any suggestions on what can be done?"
Ebizo stood up, making Gaara narrow his eyes.
"Actually, more on your point, Gaara. Yesterday, I received a scroll from expedition team four, and I would like to explain its contents to the council, if I may."
"Proceed." Gaara replied.
Ebizo passed the scroll around, suggesting to the group that they read it.
"As you can see here, team four has had a major breakthrough. With the use of summoning jutsu, they sent birds to explore the coastline off of Suna. What they discovered is unbelievable. They have found an island that is not on any map of the five great nations."
"A new island?" Kankuro asked.
"Yes."
"How did this stay off the scope of Suna for so long?" someone asked.
"That is unknown. Perhaps it was through the use of genjutsu by a gang of missing-nin or maybe even the Akatsuki. But, what we know from the team is that the island appears to be deserted. Team four is requesting assistance to explore the island and hopefully discover some sort of new, prospering crops in the area."
"Do you really think we should be disturbing this sort of thing at the level of expedition so quickly? Maybe we should have Team 4 go in themselves. Send them money to rent a vessel and have them go out that way." Gaara said.
One of the council members stood up from his chair and whispered something into Ebizo's ear. The balding old main got a curious look upon his wrinkled face.
"We don't exactly know what is on the island, Lord Kazekage. If it turns out that there is something on that island and it is too powerful, the team could be killed. The blood of those shinobi will be on your hands. That will not reflect well on you in the public eye, will it?"
"As will the blood of every expedition member if the same thing happens. It's a risk that I can take. I've taken bigger ones," Gaara snorted back.
"The council will not allow you to do that, Lord Kazekage. You cannot take risks with people's lives in this manner. If it is an expedition, any death is easier to pass off to the village due to it being an organized assembly of shinobi, all agreeing to it. Ordering them to go alone is another story."
Gaara felt Shijima clutch his hand under the table. He looked into her beautiful eyes.
"What do you all think?" Gaara asked the rest of the room.
Gaara's question prompted massive conversation from the rest of the room. The conversations ended when Ebizo held up his hand. Debate went on for a few minutes until Ebizo saying, "That island is the property of Suna, whether there is anyone on it or not. Anything on that island is ours for the taking. A proper expedition would allow us to have strength in numbers as well as the ability to transport more goods from it back to Suna."
"Any local of island would disagree. If the island does have locals as well as a system of government, it would be wrong to infringe upon their lifestyle. If we force a native people to give up their land, it makes us look tyrannical. That will also ruin our image, Ebizo. The other nations can't be seen to ally with any form of dictatorship, not after the war we just had." Gaara said.
"I agree with Gaara." Kankuro told the rest of the room. "Dictatorship is always the enemy, no matter what form that it takes."
Gaara nodded at his brother before turning back to Ebizo.
"I suggest that we compromise. I will sign off an expedition to the island. However, I want to pick the leaders of it. I also want your signed agreement that it is not the goal of the team to take charge of the island, but to explore it and befriend any natives that it has. We can form a partnership with them in the genuine name of building both of our economies up."
"And if they refuse?"
"We'll persuade them." Gaara lied just to make Ebizo agree. He knew if the locals refused, he'd see to it that they'd be left alone.
Ebizo turned to the rest of the council. The group talked among themselves for a few minutes before turning back.
"The council agrees to these conditions. Pick your finest subordinates. The expedition for the new colony will begin at the end of the week."
Gaara turned to Shijima. "Hey, doll. Wanna do me a favor?"
Shijima's eyes widened.
"You're the only one I trust to not screw up out there."
Shijima bowed her head. "Yes, sir."