Pre-Chapter AN: Here we go. New chapter. I'll be taking a break next week to mourn the ending of JJK (yeah, I know I still have a month left with it, but I'm getting a head start on my mourning), so you can either wait till next two weeks for the next chapter or read the next two on pa-treon right now and keep reading as I write. For the pa-treon, you can remove the hyphen between pa and treon, google it, and then search for my username- Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting in your address bar.
Have fun with this. Also, in case you haven't checked out my other story (One Thousand Hands), please do so. It's also set in the Naruto Universe and is an SI into an OC Grandson of Hashirama with a Hyuga mother. I guarantee you'll love it.
He returned to a village in a much better state than he had feared. As he flew down to the Land of Wind, all the while regretting not spending any energy on time in trying to reverse engineer the Flying Thundered or even a basic teleportation seal of his own. He knew it was illogical. He could have spent every day for years working on it, but without a base to work off of, it would have been the work of decades of intensive effort. It hadn't been worth it to him then. Not by any means. But that had quickly changed with the realisation that he had no way to get back to his village when it was in danger. Someway, somehow, he had come to care for Sunagakure. It was his. The massive skyscraper made with glass that he had blown himself with his sand and fire release, the farms that he'd designed bespoke climate alteration seals for, the rich marketplaces that he'd had to spend hours negotiating with merchant after merchant to get them to adopt, the sewer system he had banged his head against for weeks until he managed to create a system where every drop of sewage was repurposed to water that was funnelled into an internal cooling g system for the city. All that and more.
Just as much as Hashirama had built Konoha, he had built the new Suna with his own hands. His knowledge, efforts, and creativity went towards making life as easy as possible for his citizens. An already hard people used to hardship, they came to love him for every innovation, and he could not lie that he felt the same. With every problem of theirs he took on, he'd come to learn that he cared for them even more. And with Gamer's mind a thing of the past with Shukaku in his control, there was nothing stopping him from losing himself in that feeling. Just as wholly and completely as anyone else would have.
So when he arrived to find that only parts of it had been burnt in fires that Temari, Kankuro, and the Jounin had had an easy enough time stopping, he was happy beyond words. But he was also confused. He raised the issue up with his siblings instantly, and Temari had explained it away by saying they probably caught on to her before she could do anything too dangerous. But he knew Mebuki. He also knew the amount of trust he'd placed into her hands. She could have poisoned the water that his Grandfather provided at subsidised prices. She could have ruined any of the dozen delicate sealing matrixes that kept the village running. He'd blessed her with access that went beyond the pale for a personal assistant to any Kage. She had the power to cause untold harm, but she hadn't. He couldn't explain it away with classic small-minded incompetence that came so easy to people, because he knew Mebuki. She was sharp, and smart, and intelligent.
She knew how to get things done, so he was certain that there was something more going on here. And his curiosity would not let him leave it be.
So of course he had to visit her in their prisons. He walked in to find the place just as he had expected it to be. Not every aspect of Sunagakure's operations had seen his attention or influence. He could admit with some form of shame that he had a tendency to focus on the exterior much more than the interior, but that was a feature and not a bug for the most part. The only problem was that he was finding the holding cells to be one of the last remaining echoes of Rasa's era as Kazekage. He would have to get to it sooner or later. Probably after he came up with a strategy for dealing with Kabuto, and had this conversation with Mebuki. He also had requests from his Grandfather he had to see to to keep the water coming in and a few things to deal with to make sure the village was back to running at full capacity, but the Prisons would get his attention eventually. All traces of Rasa would be extinguished from his village. It was a vow.
"Open the door" He ordered the Chunin guard that had followed him to this particular cell.
"The prisoner is very aggressive, Sir" The Chunin said.
Gaara just tilted his head at the man, giving him a very unimpressed look. Now that he had his full attention on the man, he could see a line of scratch marks that ran from his collarbone downwards, mostly hidden by his shirt. Interesting. The man stumbled over himself as he moved to open the door. He seemed to have forgotten just who he was speaking to. If every single prisoner and guard in this facility came at him at the same time, they'd still fail to land so much as a scratch on his person. So the insinuation that he somehow had something to fear from a single prisoner was ridiculous.
When the door was opened, he walked in smoothly- not allowing any of the hesitance he felt show in his movements. He was Gaara of the Desert, Fifth Kazekage of Sunagakure. He was indomitable, invulnerable, and inevitable. Right foot, Left foot. Gods, had he ever really had to think so much about moving before. He caught sight of her the moment he walked into the cell proper and felt a flash of rage overcome him. His sand moved to his will before he even made any conscious thoughts. It picked up the Chunin guard and slammed him against the cell wall before holding him there.
"What is this?" He demanded, never taking his eyes off of Mebuki's form. She looked terrible. Bruised all over, and bleeding from at least two open wounds.
"Nothing, Sir"
His sand squeezed. He could hear the man's bones begin to squeak.
"No no. Just roughed her up a bit, Sir. Me and a few of the boys. It's standard practice for traitors, Sir."
"And I assume that is how you got the scar on your neck." Still staring at her, not able to take my eyes off of her form.
"Yes sir. She's a bit of a feisty one, Sir."
"How many of you raped her?"
"Raped, sir? Nothing like that Sir. Just punishing the traitor you see" I saw red at those words.
"Names. Give me names. Now" I demanded.
No response. I turned around, feeling a strange sensation on my sand, and found that the man I'd been speaking to had been reduced to nothing more than paste in the wall. Well, that was new. I stared at my stat screen for a second, noting that thew Gamer's Tag toggle was stitched to 'Off'. Just as it had been since I'd tamed Shukaku. This was one of the first times I was getting comprehensive proof that my ninjutsu and such and such was a bit affected by the switch. Well, that and my nonsensical decision to gloat to Pain instead of killing him when I could have ended things then and there. Only the fact that both Rinnegan eyes remained in my custody kept me from beating myself up about the foolishness.
"What have they done yo you, my friend?" I asked, leaning down next to her and placing a hand on her body. The diagnostic came easy to me. From there, I began to work. Using chakra to heal everything which could be healed by chakra, which in her case was most of the damage. I'd kill every single other person who had laid a finger on her.
As I healed her body, I began to notice the signs that Mebuki truly had never been who she'd said she was. The seal on her tongue was the first to appear to my senses, and I took great pleasure in tearing Danzo's inferior cursed seal apart before having a brief debate on whether I should replace the seal with one of my own. In the end, I decided to make the cursed seal of Honesty a temporary one rather than a permanent feature.
In the course of healing her, I also disabled a large amount of dead man switches and kill switches around her body. There was even a kill switch that had been placed on her that would have killed her if she ever allowed anyone to notice the seals around her. Danzo had really covered his bases here. The work was so good that I was actually beginning to feel more impressed than angered at the actions. He was an inferior sealing practitioner by every metric. His seals took me minutes at the very most. But there were so many of them that it still ended up being the work off hours. Much of that was spent trying to figure out which seal tied everything together and contained the matrixes that enabled all the seals to work in harmony together. It had part of every seal in her, so hopefully disabling it had meant that I could have stopped there, but my inner perfectionist would not be satisfied with mere deactivation of the seals. I had to destroy whatever legacy Danzo had within my four walls.
"Gaara?" Mebuki asked, jolting away and pushing off of the bed to drag her body away from me.
"Why did you do it?" I asked her the second she woke up./ That wasn't the question I had in mind. I wanted to ask about the bastards that raped her. I wanted to ask about Danzo. I wanted to ask about a million other things.
"I had no choice. Danzo-sama gave an order, and I could not refuse" She froze.
"How…"
"Did you say his name? Every seal he had on you is now gone."
She looked flabbergasted. Shocked beyond belief. She said so, I just smiled.
"You've seen me do things with seals that we all thought were impossible. Top you truly think that the seals that decrepit old bastard made would have been anywhere complex enough to ev en act as a stumbling block?" I asked with some amount of exaggerated confidence. The two points I'd gained in fuinjutsu from twang his seals apart have taken me into the high 80s so I was now at the level that there were probably few seal masters in Uzumaki history who could claim to have ever been on my level. To put it in perspective, I had fuinjutsu mastered up to the same degree as Hiruzen Sarutobi had had ninjutsu. I could do things that no one alive would have any chance of understanding. Jiraiya prided himself on being a seal master. The best things he had Orochimaru could cook up would fall apart before me. They didn't count as rivals. Not even as colleagues.
"You still haven't answered my question." I probed further. Mebuki's gaze fell to the side, unable or unwilling to meet my gaze for any longer.
"I already told you. He ordered it. I had to. You saw the seals."
"I saw the seals, indeed. And as much as I beleive Danzo to have been stupid, I doubt he ordered you to set the village on fire, beginning with the part of the village that housed most of the jounin and was most likely to be saved." I asked.
"He ordered me to use my access to sabotage the village. I interpreted my orders as I saw fit." There was a smirk on her face then. I was right.
"So you were trying to get caught"
"Of course. Your siblings are wonderful. But they'd have stood no chance if I was trying"
"But that still doesn't answer my real question. Why did you do it?"
"You're asking about spying on you? Hiding it? All those things? I had no choice. Danzo ordered me to join Suna's medical program so I could steal research on Suna's infamous poisons for him, but then I met you. I sent it back in my report and he ordered me to endear myself to you by any means necessary. It was just a mission. But it became more at some point. You were so lonely. Just like I was. I was lonely as well. When you graduated from the academy and left to continue going on missions, I thought it was done. But then you became Kazekage. And you appointed me as your Secretary. I wanted to say no. I knew that Danzo would have me use the position to betray you, but I could see how lonely you were when you made the offer. I just couldn't do it. So I worked for Danzo, but I helped you as well. I kept him from trying to assassinate you and helped to foil some of his less important plans, but I cupid not openly work against him. When he ordered me to destroy the village, I fought against the orders with all I had, and that was the best I could do." I nodded at her words. Her voice never cracked as she spoke. It was clear, robotic, and monotone. It showed the root training that she'd done so well to hide for so long.
"Enough on that. Give me the names of the guards who touched you" I asked, not able to keep the part of my brain that demanded vengeance silent any longer.
"Do you assume they gave me their names while they did what they did. Like one of them took off my shirt while saying hello, my name is Hiro?" She snarked.
I flushed at her words, unable to come up with an adequate reply for her sarcasm.
"Well, luckily for us, they were that stupid. I can give you a list. But on one condition"
"What?"
"I want to kill them myself" She said. The joyful girl I remembered from the med nin training academy was nowhere to be found. In her place stood the cold Danzo-trained root operative.
"I can agree to that."
"So what is going to happen to me?" She asked.
"Well, I ought to fire you at the very least. But the only issue with that is that I can not let it be known that my Secretary was a spy against Suna's interests and I never noticed. That kind of thing tends to ruin people's estimations of their Kage, you know? Besides that, the Elders would take any chance to pry whatever power they can from me. Having one of my own turn to be a traitor would be a coupe they would not hesitate to take advantage of." I explained.
"So you will keep me? Quite a few people saw me light the fires, you know?"
"Yes, that is problematic. My present plan is to just say a Yamanaka that worked for Danzo managed to use a hidden entrance from my father's time as kazekage to sneak into the village and take over your body."
"No one will buy that"
"They will. I even have a body to show them"
"So you expect us to believe that this Yamanaka snuck into the village beneath everyone's noses, took over the body of Mebuki-chan here and then used her body to set fires across the village and no one was able to find the Yamanaka until you arrived and then found them and killed them and now their body is here before us and Mebuki-chan is now freed from their control" Chiyo recited the long list of bullshit that I'd spent the last hour weaving before Suna's council with a look on her face that said, 'you have to be fucking joking'. I kept the placid smile on my face all the while and nodded.
She knew I was lying through my teeth. Most of the council probably had bullshit detectors strong enough to tell that I was lying through my teeth, but what they did not know was why. So they blinked and grinned and had to bear it. I smiled at the fact they could nothing but wonder what was going on. At least, I was certain they didn't think I was a traitor or something so they were unlikely to do something drastic to get to the roots of thing. It meant Mebuki's influence within the village would be curbed as well. I wouldn't need to spend all my time wondering what she was up to or watching over her activities when I was going to have the entire Council doing the job for me. Even better, they couldn't act too overtly because one of their own had adopted Mebuki as a ward so they had to be careful in that as well. Causing problems for them was one hell of a pastime.
"Now, we need to move on to the reason I called this meeting in the first place:" I said, killing my smile to show that the subject matter was going to get more serious. All around the table, various members of the Council straightened up and sent their full attention to me.
"As you must know, I led an attack on Konohagakure no Sato in pursuance of an alliance made with a rebel faction comprised of Tusnade and Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin, and Konoha's greatest weapon in the person of Naruto Uzumaki, the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune aimed at deposing Danzo the traitor from his position as Fifth Hokage of Konoha. The alliance was projected to pay off in the form of substantial land grants within the Land of Fire, millions of Ryo in cash, as well as access to Konoha's legendary scroll of forbidden techniques. The mission went smoothly. I fought the Fifth Hokage briefly and then the Leader of the criminal group, Akatsuki stepped in. He was a dangerous shinobi with the power to bring all nine S-ranked members of the organisation to heel on his lonesome. And he killed the Fifth Hokage before trying to do the same to me. We fought. I won. Much of Konohagakure no Sato lies in ruins due to the fight." I said, enjoying the way they twitched at every bombshell that I dropped on their shoulders.
"The ensuing discussions between myself and the new Hokage, Tsunade of the Sannin were interrupted by another individual, Kabuto Yakushi. He displayed mastery of one of Konohagakure's forbidden techniques, the Edo Tensei, and displayed reanimated bodies of several dead shinobi of legend, one of them being the famed Madara Uchiha himself. He claimed to only be interested in discussion and announced the convenance of a Seven-power summit at the Land of Fire between Leaders of the Five major villages and himself, as the next leader of the Akatsuki." I said, laying down the facts.
"Surely you do not intend on honouring the invitation. It is preposterous for someone like that to dare command the Kazekage to attend at his pleasure" Hiroshi spoke up. He was a new addition o the council, as I tried to expand it beyond the collection of old farts the attended my father and his predecessor into a group of relatively younger folks who could relate with Suna's new direction. Still experienced, the youngest inclusion was in his thirties, but young enough to not be improperly attached to the echoes of what Suna used to be. Or to not be so attached that they opposed the new direction out of nostalgia, to be more precise.
"He claims to have custody of all the tailed beasts captured by the Akatsuki. Considering the Nine Tails, Eight tails, and myself were the last three according to our intelligence, and Kabuto himself has claimed to have captured the Eight tails, then anywhere from six to seven tailed beasts could be sent our way for refusing the invitation. I don't know about you but there's little I can do in the face of seven tailed beasts at the same time" I said simply.
It was the truth. Seven tailed beasts was a death sentence. I'd escape and move all my attention and intentions to evacuating those I cared about if such a threat was levied against the Hidden Sand village. There was no chance of me defeating something like that. Even if I did manage to transplant Nagato's rinnegan in time and mastered it to the same level that had taken the man decades in months, I'd still have little chance of taking that on. Even if I managed to capture Naruto and steal the Nine tails and place it under genjutsu, I still gave myself low odds in that fight. Especially since Kabuto had Edo Tensei in his side. He had Madara, Deidara, and Obito. Those were just three I knew for certain. Then there was what I suspected to be the dead Seal masters of the Uzumaki clan. He had all the cards. It stabbed at me to admit it, but he had me in a position where there was little I could do beyond play his game and hope for the best. I had to hope he slipped up somewhere and then take advantage of that.
"Seven tailed beasts? Can anyone even control such a force?" Tsuyashiro asked
"There's little need for control when he could just point them our direction or release them in our vicinity" Chiyo sniped back.
I agreed with the woman. Kabuto, one way or another, had Madara under his control. I had no idea how he was doing it, but he had maneovered himself into a position where he had the world at his feet, and the entire continent for the taking. I knew the meeting he called was going to be for nothing else than to threaten all of us in the same place. But it did open a glimmer of opportunity.
"Do you know what he could want from this meeting he has called?" Another asked, directing the question at me this time.
"Nothing good to be certain"
"Will You be honouring this audacious request?" Ebizo asked, easily getting to the meat of the matter.
"I must. There are no other options before me. Either go and bear my neck to this fool that thinks he can dictate terms to the Sand, or resist and have seven tailed beasts at our gate. Assuming there was some way to reach a consensus with the other Kage to oppose his terms completely, then we could cooperate on a resistance to deal with the threat he poses, but that is unlikely at best."
"Unlikely? Surely the other Kage will understand the threat being posed to the status quo here. For a criminal organisation like Akatsuki to dictate terms to the Royal Five would be madness" Jinpei burst out. I chuckled at the thought. He was the youngest here, a master of Agriculture with a green thumb like no other, but woefully inexperienced when it came to matters like this one."
"Even at the best of times, the Five have been a contentious lot. This is nowhere close to the best of times" Ebizo said, giving me a look out of the corner of his eyes.
"Why do I feel like you're insinuating any of that is somehow my fault?" I shot at him.
"In the last ten years, you have; destroyed an island in the Mist, destroyed several landmarks in the Leaf and been involved in the destruction of the village itself, destroyed the Hidden Stone, and caused the death of two of its previous Kage. The number of dead Kages that can be traced to your actions is an astounding four. A number that never ceases to beggar belief" Chiyo replied, looking unimpressed even as she rattled off an impressive list of achievements.
"Four?"
"Ohnoki, Kitsuchi, Hiruzen, Danzo. It's perfect that you've managed to keep your murderous tendencies limited to the elites of our immediate neighbours." She replied to my query with sarcasm dripping from her mouth like venom.
"For the last time, I didn't kill Hiruzen." I asserted.
"Of course, Kazekage-sama" The fake demure note in her tone made it clear that she didn't believe a word that dropped from my lips.
"Beyond the point, we must come up with a strategy. Our first option is to send letters to our closest allies among the other ninja villages to harmonise foreign policy and strategies before the meeting begins." I started.
"What allies, Kazekage-sama?" Inasa asked, looking actually confused.
"What do you mean? Our allies. Surely we have some" I started sure, but trailed off when I realised that I wasn't actually personally aware of any alliances we had.
"Fubuki-san. Please educate us on the state of our alliances" I said, turning to the Councillor that my father had used as what was essentially his Minister of Foreign old man seemed to quiver under the gazes that turned to him, but when he rose and spoke, his voice was strong.
"There are no alliances, kazekage-sama"
"None at all? That's impossible."
"It very much is. Under Yondaime-sama, the village had alliances with the Land of Rivers, the Land of Grass, the Land of Steam, and the Land of Fire, as well as a basic trade treaty with the Land of Stone. Since Godaime-sama took the hat, however, these alliances have whithered."
"Whithered? How did that happen?"
"Lack of attention, Kazekage-sama. The treaies with both Konoha and Iwa perished violently, but the others had slower ends. Roughly falling apart due to a lack of maintenance on our ends"
"Lack of maintenance? What precisely are you employed for if you can not do something so simple."
"I tried, my Lord. But your Secretary rebuffed any attempt I made to see you on the matter as you were busy. I made multiple attempts. The delegation from the Land of Rivers came in to the village to discuss renewing a water supply contract, but your Lordship was occupied with the raid on Iwagakure for the period and was occupied further upon his return with medical concerns. There was nothing to be done about it, my Lord" He said, and I had no choice but to sigh. Mebuki.
I couldn't even blame her entirely. I'd been negligent, that was the truth of it. And it was a scary truth. For what else had I been neglecting in my search for building the strongest village possible.
"There is nothing to be done about it then. We will make attempts to repair the relationships, but we must proceed without them for the time being. That means that we must proceed alone. The details for the meeting are yet to be communicated, but assuming that standard protocol is observed, I will be taking two guards with me. For that role, my brother Kankuro, and my secretary Mebuki will suffice." I said.
"Kazekage-sama must take powerful Jounin with him to secure his safety" Fubuki shot up to his feet at my words, like y choice of guards must have been some personal affront to him.
"To what end? I could kill every Jounin in this village at the same time without breaking a sweat. What would they add to my security that I can not add to myself"
"Every Kage must be escorted by powerful Jounin, Kazekage-sama. It is not merely for protection, but also to act as a message to the other villages. The Raikage did not travel with his brother for years because he needed to lean on the protection of the Eight Tails." Chiyo added in.
"I see. So it's all posturing"
"Everything is posturing, my Lord" Ebizo replied in his sister's stead.
"Of course, it is. But is there any message stronger than the fact that I have my family united behind me? That the sons of Rasa stand as one?"
"I agree with your point, Kazekage-sama. And if this were a normal meeting, then I would support the idea wholeheartedly, but the truth being danced around by my fellow councillors is a simple one. This meeting is too dangerous to risk both you and your brother. We have every condolence in your strength but feel it would be safer if you were to go with someone a little less essential." Tsuyashiro was the one to give that cold take.
I stared her down as she spoke, but she did not back down. Looking around, I could tell that most of then others were in agreement with her. They nodded to the words they hadn't the courage to speak from their own lips. What a village.
"Fine. I will take Dragon to guard my back"
A/N; Transition to the final arc, eh? As I said earlier, I'll be taking a break next week so next chapter comes up in two weeks or skip the wait and read the next two along with daily uploads on pa-treon. For the pa-treon, you can remove the hyphen between pa and treon and google it then search for my username- Oghenevwogaga. Or you could copy the link in my bio and remove the spaces before pasting in your address bar.