Chapter 73: Interlude (2): Rasa, The Fourth Kazekage

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Rasa sat in his kage office reading reports after reports from the battlefield between Suna, Konoha and Kiri.

The Suna shinobi were still busy fighting against the Kiri shinobi even after the end of the third great ninja war.

Rasa thought that it was likely because the fourth Mizukage Yagura Karatachi wanted to show everyone that he was not to be taken lightly.

'But still to think he would have placed such cruel policies inside their academy. One can only become a genin if one manages to kill another student. Truly cruel and the worst policy that I have seen in my lifetime to be implemented in a village.' Rasa thought about the situation of the hidden mist.

He had heard about Zabuza, the demon of the hidden mist who had killed all of his classmates when he graduated. He has heard similar tales happening in the past few years in Kiri.

Even he realized it was a waste of resources. While the quality of shinobi would be great, You still need genins to do menial work and numbers can also turn the scale in one's favor.

Rasa's expression turned sour as he read the report of the casualties on the battlefield.

While they had managed to form an alliance with the Konoha against Kiri, they were the ones suffering the most.

He knew that the quality and strength of Konoha shinobi was much better than Suna and he hated it. It was their village that suffered the most casualties in the past shinobi wars and right now too they were taking the brunt of the Kiri's attack.

Konoha was getting scot-free thanks to the increase in their Anbu forces which Rasa did not know where they got so many strong Anbus from and out of nowhere.

He had secretly tried to have peace talks with the Mizukage, the current three-tails jinchuriki.

But his reply was that if they wanted peace they would have to send Pakura's head who was responsible for killing a large amount of kiri shinobi in the previous war.

But he was reluctant to do so. There were not many S-rank shinobi in Suna and Pakura was one of the strongest shinobi he had under his command. She also possessed a Kekkei Genkai of Scotch release. There were not many kekkei genkai users in Suna, unlike the other villages. In fact, he could count their number on his hands.

But lately, he was having second thoughts about his decision to let her live. Her popularity inside the village was more than his. A lot of the shinobi supported her for the position of Kazekage instead of him.

Thus, he made the decision to sacrifice Pakura for the peace of the shinobi world as well as for the internal safety of Suna.

But first, he had to get rid of her supporters. He has been sending them to the war front to die for a month now.

"I might as well as get done with people who are supporting Pakura instead of me. It would make my work easier when she dies and I would then have complete control over the village." Rasa muttered

He then wrote a few names of shinobi that were to be sent to the battlefield and gave the paper to a loyal Anbu to write and deliver a scroll for these shinobi for giving them their orders to go to the battlefield.

"Now how do I get rid of Pakura? Killing her by branding her as a traitor would lead to several casualties among our forces which we can't afford. I should let Kiri deal with her. This way even if she dies, she would be able to take a few kiri shinobi with her. And I would not be blamed for her death either." Rasa mumbled as a plan formed in his mind.

He decided to send Pakura to negotiate with Kiri forces. He would let them know about it and then they could deal with Pakura.

After doing all of his paperwork, he took a short walk around the village while under a transformation jutsu.

While walking, he thought of his youngest son whom he had made the one-tailed jinchuriki.

Because of Sunagakure's weakened state, he had ordered one of Suna's elders, Chiyo, to use a possession jutsu to seal the Ichibi Shukaku into Gaara. Because of this possession, Gaara's mother and his wife Karura, died while giving birth.

He was sad about her death but he did not regret sealing Shukaku inside his son. It would guarantee him a powerful shinobi under his command in the future.

His only wish was for Gaara to control his tailed beast like B the jinchuriki of 8 tails could.

He reached the market where he saw the prices of Food sky-high. He wanted to get the Fertilizer that a company in the land of rice fields was making to help increase the agricultural porduce of their land but decided against it.

If they got exposed or caught, the land of rice fields might stop supplying them with food grains altogether leading to a famine in both the country and the village.

While looking at the poor people in the street who were not able to buy even a loaf of bread, he swore to improve the situation of their village so that everyone could sleep after eating at least two times a day.

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