Chapter 28

"We will need to draw a strategy for a possible invasion and counteroffensive of the Hidden Stone village. If we make a push, how far could we get? What challenges will we face? What would a preemptive strike look like? Is there any key infrastructure we can damage in a blitzkrieg attack?" I asked my impromptu war council as I sat behind the Kage desk. Iwa had recently made themselves more urgent enemies with their actions at the chunin exams. Speaking to the genin after the festival had given me enough information to understand that while the Iwa offensive had not been necessarily organised, they'd definitely sought out Suna nin above all others. It spoke of a hostility between our villages that went beyond the pale. As I hadn't done anything to piss them off recently, I was willing to bet that they were planning to do something to me. Propaganda to turn the troops against the enemy was one of the preludes to war after all, and that was why I'd convened this group.

Apart from all the councillors, we had the ANBU commander, Dragon, the Jounin commander, and the Academy Head, along with Mebuki and a representative from the Hospital here to offer what advice they could as I drew up plans and discarded them.

"Blitzkrieg?" Dragon asked, unfamiliar with the word. I cursed myself again. Too much freedom had me slipping more and more into terminology and language from my old life.

"It's a kind of surprise attack using rapid, overwhelming force to take the enemy by surprise and get them disoriented and reeling. It's basically just attacking something important with so much firepower that they're paralysed from the effects." I explained with a wave of my hand, and the masked man just nodded, taking a notebook out of somewhere and jotting down something I couldn't see.

"Thank you, Kazekage-sama" He said, and I nodded, trying to move on to something else.

"I also need a concrete projection of what they can do if they were to flip those tactics on us in the first place. What vulnerable targets do we have? What can they take? What do we seek to defend with our last breath if the worst happens and the wolves break through the proverbial door?" I asked the silent group of people. The councillors rarely ever contributed to these meetings, most of them content to watch silently and judgingly. It was how I preferred them, so I couldn't complain.

That was why I was surprised when Yura was the first to volunteer and idea; "The hospital" He said and I nodded, having already had that on my own list.

"The water storage and treatment facilities" Ikanago responded next, the woman giving me a nod as she did so, showing that she was coming around even more fully to my reign. I thanked Mebuki in my head and I waited for the next idea.

"The academy. The younger generation is Suna's future" Tojuro contributed, adding his own two cents and I nodded at the good suggestion. All these things were already accounted for in my own mental models. This was just to make everyone feel more involved in the decision making process. If a surprise attack did happen, these targets would be prioritised over and above all else, so anyone who lost something or someone because of that would need a place to pin their blame.

Making the decision making a group effort like this would make the councillors much more unlikely to simply turn on me once winds swayed from my favour. Sure, they could just lie, but that went against the vibe I understood from them. Opportunistic bastards? Yes. Dishonest ones? No.

"The archives. Suna's records and forbidden techniques are of paramount importance." Goza chimed in and I recognised the suggestion with a smile and nod. Showing my approval for his thinking process and idea.

"The medical nin training division should not have taken this long before being mentioned" Chiyo sniped from her corner of the room pinning the rest of the room with her gaze. "Second to the hospital, it has the highest population of medical ninja, without the burden of so many vulnerable targets in the form of patients." The head of the hospital seemed keen to speak up at that, but I just raised a hand to quiet him. Chiyo was right. As a trained medical nin, I could see just where she was coming from.

"With all due respect, Honoured elders, there is one target that you all seem to have failed to mention. The most important one of them all" Toshiro began and I turned to him wondering where this was leading.

"It is you, Kazekage-sama" He said with a seated bow at me, and I noticed Dragon nodding enthusiastically from the sides.

"I am no target to be protected, Toshiro-san" I said.

"I disagree, Kazekage-sama. Blitzkrieg, was it? The word you used. It's about leaving the enemy paralysed into inaction with shock and awe is it not? All the previously stated infrastructure will wound Suna, but none would truly cripple her as thoroughly as the loss of a Kage with no viable replacement" At the end of his words, pretty much the entire council was nodding along with him in agreement.

"I need no protection, Toshiro. Do not forget to whom you speak. I am Subaku no Gaara. He who is the Desert itself. If you think I will hide while my home is invaded, then you are sorely mistaken. I am no ordinary Kage. I pledge it to you now, I will not cease to draw breath while the deserts move" I said to them, projecting myself to them with a smile. If I didn't dump so many points into my charisma stat ahead of all this, then the speech might have gotten me laughed out of the room. With it, the council looked swayed. They probably thought it a boast, but it wasn't. None would kill me while the deserts of Kaze no Kuni still moved. I had made sure of it.

"Now, let us leave such gruesome topics and sketch out our own invasion of Iwagakure. Dragon, tell me of the border situation. Mebuki, update us all on the Geography before we begin. Focus on the key landmarks and possibly vital infrastructure. I dub this Operation; Blitzkrieg, and with the powers inherent to my position as Kazekage, grant it S-ranked classification" I said, moving the meeting forwards, keen to begin the planning.

XXXXX

Apart from planning a war, most of my time was spent in this very place. The Kazekage's private library. It seemed that all the past kage had left some things of use here for their successors. The most useful by far, were the Third's writings on magnet release. While I wasn't going to go through the effort of learning to weild iron sand when my regular sand was already magnitudes more dangerous, he did include a lot of tips and tricks for defeating enemies from a distance with said iron sand. Not all of them were usable by me, but enough were that I could add a few things to my arsenal.

Rasa had written on gold dust and mining for gold in the mountains that made up parts of Kaze no Kuni's territory. Mining with ninja involvement had been limited in Rasa's reign. As a result of my newfound affinity with the Daimyo, he'd approved of me sending a clone out to the mountains every few weeks to help out with the mining. With me there, efficiency had nearly quadrupled, and now all i had to do was pop in twice a month to get the gold and other precious metals out in their crude form, and leave it to the miners and refiners to prepare it to be transported deeper into the country for further refinement and preparation for exportation. Jewellers from abroad were being subtly induced to either move manufacturing here or open outfits here.

The Daimyo had already passed strict border control laws so not more than a fixed amount in unrefined precious metals could be exported every month. The real money was in refinement and it was time to get our own share of the pie. Closer ties meant ninja could assist at every step, even beyond me, and civilians from Suna could be employed at the facilities. Already, the efforts were having effects across the board. Both Kaze no Kuni and Sunagakure were seeing the benefits of the new policies. And that was only from Rasa's notes.

The Second Kazekage's notes were likely to have even greater effects. He was Suna's last true fuinjutsu master, and while his work had never been on the level of the Uzumaki, whose teachings I was already working to devour, they were still useful in their own way. His grasp of barrier techniques was well beyond mine, and even if he hadn't managed to finish his magnum opus, he'd left enough notes and ideas behind that I could work to perfect it in time. As war was coming across the horizon, this seal was more likely to change the landscape of the world itself and Suna's place on the global stage.

No, i am not exaggerating. In fact, I'm probably understating things a fair bit. The barrier he'd been working on was a miracle in writing. Not even halfway through before he died, but still done with the most important bit, he'd been working on creating a barrier that would allow the creator to change the climate and weather within a fixed area. No, that probably misstates things a bit. It lets the creator create a false climate within its range.

His original goal had been to turn Suna from a desert into something else. Bold, but too ambitious, had been my conclusion after my first look at it. Sure, maybe if I was Mito Uzumaki or someone else, such a seal might have been within my abilities, but I wasn't going to have skill like that for a long while. Even months of focusing a single clone on fuinjutsu and fuinjutsu alone hadn't taken me to the level where it was feasible. Instead, what I could create were perfect glasshouses, without the requirement for glass domed ceilings.

With the seal, I could set aside warehouses in the center of the desert that had mediterranean-like climate and weather effects. Everything from rain to sunlight was going to be approximated by fuinjutsu bullshit. It was going to take a shit ton of chakra to set up, but the good thing about a lot of barrier techniques was that maintaining them took much less chakra.

The sealing corps had gotten a lot of my attention for this very reason. I was having them scale up recruitment from the ninja populace so it would be possible to run an actual rotation of ninja that would power the seals. The logistics were coming together nicely, but I still had to do my duty of completing the seal itself. A clone had called me here because of the breakthrough and I stared at him as he formed hand seals in front of a sealing circle.

"If this goes wrong, we'll be very dead people" I warned him.

"Not you." He said, and I shrugged in response. Of course, my life wasn't in any real danger.

I watched in rapt attention as he slammed his hands down on the ground and flooded the seal with power. When it began to snow within the miniature house, he smiled at me and I smiled back. At least until he was blown to bits as the seal exploded right in his face. I'd transformed into sand and retreated to a safe distance away. I stared at the area where the clone had been before sand from the inventory transformed into a new one. One thing I'd noticed since the update had separated my chakra pool from Shukaku was that my chakra was growing. Some combination of age and constant stress from the clones I was always creating and my training was probably to thank for the consistent steady rise.

XXXXX- TEMARI (AT THE CHUNIN EXAMS)

After my match, we only had to sit through two more snoozefests until it was Shira's turn to show these foreigners what he was capable of. When he jumped right over the balcony and stood in front of a brash boy with a dog by his side, I almost felt sad for the Inuzuka. Of course, Gaara had told us about the Inuzuka at his chunin exams. To think that the same clan would run into misfortune at the two chunin exams graced by her family. At least this time, this one's dog was in no danger. Shira was a softie unless someone was badmouthing Gaara after all.

"Oh no Akamaru, no need to be worried. He's from Suna. I heard their Kage is my age. They're totally a weak village" He said, making to reassure his mutt, but managing to seal his defeat in one stroke.

"Proctor" Shira said, gesturing for the proctor to hurry up and begin the fight.

"Ignore the stern look, Akamaru. He knows we're right, after all. What kind of village has a 12-year-old kage?" The Inuzuka boy had clearly been able to tell his first statement had gotten on Shira's nerves. Continuing on with that line of action was just stupid. Did no one teach him that pissing off enemy ninja whose abilities and techniques you have no idea about is a bad idea? Clearly they didn't, and I kept my eyes wide open once the proctor announced the start of the fight.

As I expected, Shira did not move to begin the battle. Normally, he fought quickly and efficiently, trying to disable his opponent in as little time as possible to conserve his energy. But this boy had decided to strike at one of the few things that could get on Shira's nerves. When he was upset, his fighting style flipped right on its head. If I was someone like Gaara, I'd probably say something like how it was a holdover from his past of being looked down upon by people who were blessed with the things he was cursed to not have. When ticked off, Shira fought with arrogance.

He stood still and allowed the Inuzuka and his dog to encircle him as they ran at him from different directions. I wasn't worried. Neither were Kankuro and Ebizo. We'd seen Shira fight, and I was willing to bet that when it came to straightforward combat, no one in this tournament would be able to measure up with him.

He kept his gaze forwards, acting as if the dog and its owner were beneath his concern as he stared at the wall. The dog arrived first, jumping in an attempt to catch Shira's attention for the human's attack from the other side to progress. Shira moved. That's the best phrase I could use. One second the dog was in the air, mouth open and teeth flashing as it dove for Shira's throat. The next, and the dog was flying across the room before slamming into the wall with a worrying thud. Dog Lovers across the elemental nations must have collectively winced at that. When the dog failed to get up, the human aborted his attack and ran right for it. Sloppy.

Once again, Shira moved. He was next to the running Inuzuka in the space between breaths, and without a single word, twirled into a kick that sent the boy flying into the other end of the room. When he crashed into the wall and fell to the floor facefirst, he made to get up, but that was quashed when Shira appeared right above him and slammed his boot into the boy's head, smashing his face further into the ground. The sound of snapping bone was familiar to me, but the way it echoed around the room was harrowing.

"Winner; Shira of Sunagakure" The Proctor said, not even bothering to check up on his countryman to affirm his capability to continue. Of course he didn't. No one would be getting up after a hit like that. The medical staff swarmed into the room dressed in their white overalls and wasted no time in gathering man and dog onto stretchers and leaving the room.

"What was that?" The blond loudmouth from the first exam screamed down at Shira, making to dive down and give my teammate a piece of his mind. Only the hand of his sensei on the back of his jacket, dragging him back seemed to prevent him from jumping down the balcony.

"You bastard. Why would you do that to Kiba and Akamaru?" He shouted, and Shira just stared at him, shocked. I couldn't deny feeling similarly. What was he talking about? These are the chunin exams. He was lucky his friend wasn't even killed.

"Because I could. This is the Ninja world. The strong rule and the weak are left behind. If you cannot accept that, I implore you to retire from these exams at once and return home" Shira said with a bow before jumping back up to his place next to the rest of us, ignoring the boy's return screams.

"Did you need to be so brutal with the Inuzuka? Gaara still wants an alliance with these people, you know that right?" I probed.

"He insulted Gaara-sama." Shira said with a shrug and I just shook my head. It could be so simple for him sometimes. I longed to live in such a simple world. A world where Jounin from my own village didn't stare at me with greed and as if they were spotting a massive opportunity. A world where my brother was not constantly pressured to kill me to bring an end to the threat I posed to his reign. Gaara hid it well, both Rin's cousin's friend had an aunt in the council and that was where I got the direct report. Father had wanted me to be Kage.

My thoughts were driven away once Kankuro's name was called. He was matched up against a stone nin, and he walked down the stairs with deliberate slowness while his opponent had jumped down the balcony. The older boy smirked straight at Kankuro when he finally arrived. "I'm going to enjoy this, Desert bastard" He said, and I almost burst into laughter at the absurdity of the nickname.

"Me too, Stone fucker." Kankuro replied and Shira smirked while Ebizo coughed. The proctor signalled for the fight to start. If Shira was a prodigy, then Kankuro would be classified as the exact opposite of that. Shira only needed an hour or two a week with Gaara or Ebizo but Kankuro had forced himself into every spare minute Lady Chiyo had in her day. He didn't need to be a prodigy to gain a lot from that.

That's why the field with the both of them was consumed in a purple cloud in an instant, and when it cleared, the Stone nin was on the floor unconscious. I could already hear the whispers from the audience, 'poison' they whispered to themselves as Kankuro stood up and made his way to the balcony with the rest of us. They were right of course, but only half way. They thought the poison was the airborne smoke screen, none of them noticing the handprint around the stone nin's arm for what it was. Kankuro had clearly used the purple smoke to hide, unsealing his puppet, and using it to incapacitate his opponent in seconds.

Kankuro's gift from Gaara, the miniscule sealing scrolls he hid in his clothing were proving their use every day. Especially because he no longer needed to log around his puppet on his back in order to travel from place to place.

XXXX

The second rounds of the preliminaries passed with very little fanfare, as we finally got to see the Konoha nin face up against each other for the first time. The most noteworthy of those fights had been the one between the two members of Konoha's vaunted Hyuga clan. There was clearly some bad blood on the part of the stronger one, the boy. Neji, he was called. He'd sent his clanswoman to the hospital with pathetic ease after a dance that lasted the better part of ten minutes, before having to be stopped by Jounin from his own village from becoming a kinslayer in plain view of everyone here. And then the loudmouth had to jump down and swear a blood oath to avenge the girl that lost. This village was just filled with drama.

None of the fights were particularly entertaining. None until mine, that is. I was paired against a boy, named Rock Lee. He'd disabled his rock nin opponent in the last round with a quick display of taijutsu and little delay. His fighting style was efficient and flowed in a way that reminded me of some of the kata I'd seen Gaara help Shira introduce to his fighting style.

Even with all that, I had no fear in me. Taijutsu. I'd faced a superior taijutsu master every day for months all in the name of training. The proctor began the battle, and my fan was out in a second. The chakra steel frame, allowing me to move it with speed that belied its frame. When the boy ran straight at me, I sent out a wind storm that he was just barely able to dodge away from.

From another direction he came, and the same result followed shortly. I mentally prepared myself for him to try some nin or even genjutsu. Fire was the most common element in the Land of fire so I prepared myself to deal with it, until the boy ignored all the common rules of engagement and ran right at me again.

I could hear his own compatriots questioning the action until his sensei let slip something that almost made me facepalm. Of course I had to be paired against discount- Shira. Another guarantee that this fight would be nothing to write home about. If he was just like Shira then his only weapon was taijutsu, and he clearly was nowhere near my teammate's level.

At least I thought so until the Sensei screamed at him to take something off. I actually took a deep breath and prepared to close my eyes in case the last ditch plan was for the boy to go nude to gain some form of advantage. Thankfully, all he removed were weights, as if a few pounds could make a difference in the chasm that existed between our levels.

Of course, he just had to cause an earthquake once the weights hit the ground. While I struggled to keep my footing, he disappeared before appearing right next to me in a blur of pure speed. I drop my fan to dodge out of the telegraphed kick before pushing out both hands and sending him flying with a sealless Great Breakthrough. Thank you, Gaara. He was able to spin in the air and land on his feet, but this time before he could bend his knees to move, I hefted my recovered fan and swept it across the room with my full power.

The storm of cutting winds tore apart whatever stood between us and gouged scratches on the floor, but the boy was somehow able to outrun the winds as he ran across the wall of the arena before appearing right at the other end, behind me.

No. I wouldn't lose. Not like this, I screamed as I forced even more chakra into the fan and executed my most powerful jutsu. Wind Hurricane. Already staggered from the sensation of losing so much chakra in one swoop, I was barely able to attempt dodging as the boy appeared right at my shoulder. I tried. I really did. But I just fell to the floor unconscious when his hand hit my neck. I'm sorry, Gaara