Chapter 29

I stared at the warehouse as my clone placed the final touches on the sealing script that surrounded it. After that experiment a week ago that ended up with a very dead clone, I'd had a clone spending every hour of every day working on the project, and now these were the fruits. We'd already had close to ten demo tests to ensure that everything worked as it ought.

Now that the seal was set up, the clone turned to me and winked before dispelling itself. I walked forwards on my own, ignoring the whispers of the small crowd that had gathered itself once the project had begun to get some attention. Ninja were naturally curious beings after all, and their presence had dragged the more daring of the civilians. At least they were all used to my presence so none ran for the hills when I arrived hours ago to supervise. Now, I closed my eyes and dispelled all my clones across the village and began to fold my chakra in on itself.

This was the first time ever bringing my chakra capacity to bear like this, so I was a bit taken aback when the wood in the buildings around me began to creak in place. Still, I didn't relent and began to go through seals as I prepared myself to power the seal. Dog-Boar-Rat-Horse-Tiger, I silently whispered to myself before slamming my hands on the ground and flooding the matrix with chakra. Dispelling all my clones ahead of time had proven to be a wise choice as the seal drank up the chakra I fed it and came back for more in no time at all. I felt it reach into me with greedy, grubby hands and suck my chakra dry like a vacuum pipe or something. When it was all over, it was all I could do to keep myself upright, resting against the floor as I was.

If I were anywhere else, I'd have slumped to the floor and taken a nap. Here? A show of weakness like that could get me killed. So I steeled myself and stood up on my own two legs, operating off of pure willpower. I walked inside the warehouse and noted how the temperature and humidity were already noticeably different from how things were outside. Warehouse might have been a bad descriptor of the space that was to become the first of a dozen farms around Suna. It was about the size of three American football fields, and the others would probably be even larger to accommodate for the food needs of not just Suna but the Land of Wind in general. The goal was to supplement the foods we planted on the arable lands the Shodaime had been able to wrest from the Leaf in the first Gokage summit and what we imported, not to completely take over food production. But if things went according to plan in a week, food immunity would be a done deal.

XXXXXX

I stared at the seal in front of me with a scowl on my face. It was only about an hour until I was supposed to leave for Konoha but I had a breakthrough coming. I could just feel it. Level 74 in fuinjutsu had to be enough for this. The farmland problem was really bothering me. It turned out I'd vastly underestimated the amount of land that could be needed to grow crops to feed the whole of Suna. Even to meaningfully supplement it, I'd fallen short. I guess that was a lesson to involve actual professionals before attempting to revolutionise an industry.

I'd had only two choices, either make the seal more efficient so I could use it on many more locations and increase the land available to us, or make the land we could get much more productive than any other. Option A had been a bust. That's what led me to my current project; space-time fuinjutsu. If I could somehow accelerate the flow of time within the barrier when compared to that outside of it, I'd be able to ramp up production exponentially.

"Gaara. It's time" Mebuki said from the door.

"No, I still have an hour. That's what you told me" I said to her in reply.

"That's what I told you an hour ago" She said, taking the wind right out of my sails. Fuck.

XXXXXXXX

The first difference one had to notice between how Konoha and Suna appeared from the outside looking in was that Konoha had all the appearance of a sprawling metropolis. It was more city than village, at this point, and the Hokage did not seem to be shy of this fact.

My best guess was that he was well aware of the conditions of Suna and this little show right here was as much a show of force as it was an attempt to cow me into submission before negotiations even began. I'd sent a request through Ebizo to be allowed to arrive at Konoha some hours before the exams to negotiate with the Hokage, and while he'd allowed it, it was clear that he viewed our 'alliance' with as much respect as I did. If not, why else would he give me such a welcome.

Standing in front of the Village gates waiting to greet me wasn't the Hokage, or even the Anbu commander. No, it was one Jounin and one Chunin, flanked by hordes of hidden anbu. The Jounin? One Isagi Aburame. The Chunin? Hana Inuzuka. If this was an attempt to take advantage of the familiarity I had with them from my first chunin exams, then it was a poor showing. Those exams had no especially fond memories for me in much the same vein that my breakfast two weeks ago did. It happened, I remembered it, and that was that.

"Welcome to Konohagakure no Sato" The girl had greeted, with her ninken companions conspicuous in their absence. I doubted she'd have been the one sent to do the welcoming if a certain member of the Yatsuki clan had been the one standing in my place.

"It's been a while, Hana-san, Isagi-san" I said, greeting them by name but not overly familiarly. Taking the hint, the Aburame had sent us moving almost immediately.

That had been twenty minutes ago, and we were still yet to make it to the Hokage tower. It would have been a statement about the size of the village if I wasn't aware that there were more direct routes they could have taken. Sending us through the bustling commerce district that probably saw more business in a week than all of Suna did in a month (at least before I took over) was an especially obvious piece of bolstering. I would have been more upset if it did not give me the opportunity to accomplish my own aims. On my back laid a new gourd of sand, and wherever we went, more and more grains of sand dispatched themselves to give me a comprehensive feel of the village and what was happening within it.

Even with the sand practically baptised in my chakra, sensing through so many grains required a lot of concentration. That was why Hana Inuzuka's attempts to stir up conversation mostly fell flat. No mention had been made of my father's death, our time at the chunin exams, and anything they must have felt likely to set me off, so the available topics hadn't been particularly robust in the first place.

It took us forty minutes in the end. So close to an hour that I was sure no other village leader would have tolerated the disrespect. Hmmm. An attempt to feel me out? Now, the only question was 'how would I react?'. Explode? Be visibly displeased? Allow it all to pass with no reaction? What to do…what to do.

"Thank you, Hana, Isagi. And my condolences for your loss, Hana. I did not get the opportunity to convey them all those years ago. At least this time, there is no Inuzuka in the finals so we can avoid a repeat. It's always a shame" I said, taking a sick form of satisfaction in the way her face twitched and the way Isagi's hand settled on hers to prevent her doing anything unwise. Hmm. A relationship? Brought together by the corpse of a dead teammate, maybe.

"We are not enemies, Kazekage-Dono," Isagi said, looking at me.

"Are we not? The walk here would have made me think otherwise," I said in reply to him and began to walk into the tower, forcing the both of them to hasten up to walk by my side and guide me up the tower to the door to the Hokage's office.

While we waited for the secretary to go in (another attempt to get on my nerves?)Isagi turned to me with an assessing look. Both of my anbu guards similarly watched him.

"You do not want to find out what Konoha does to her enemies" He whispered to me as the Secretary came out and waved me in. I just laughed in my head as I walked in. As if a village about to be razed had anything they could do to me. After going over my fight with Orochimaru, I'd been forced to come to the conclusion that there was no way the Snake Sannin was actually dead, and that meant that he'd pop up on his own sooner or later. Konoha was definitely on the hit list and this was the best opportunity to get to them.

"Welcome, Kazekage-Dono" The Hokage began, rising to greet me as I walked into the spacious office. He stood behind the desk, and apart from the two anbu that stood behind him, the office was empty. I guess it would be just us village leaders here for this one.

"Am I? I would have assumed otherwise" I started out swinging.

"Oh please, Kazekage-dono. I apologise for the long walk, but Konoha is quite a large village. We have been very fortunate over the years to gain such prosperity, but it has come with the cost of it taking an eternity to get from one point to another. It pains my old bones as well"

"Hmph" I verbally grunted, allowing his poor excuse to stand as I walked deeper into the office and stood right across from him. We stood eye to eye, almost the same height. Me, yet to experience the growth spurts of teenagehood, and he, humbled by age. It was almost artistic how we represented two opposites of the Ninja world. The aged veteran, and the young prodigy.

"Please sit, Kazekage-Dono. I will like to begin by offering my utmost condolences for your father's passing"

"Passing? You make it sound like he slept one day and did not wake up the next. He was murdered. By one of your own ninja." I said, enjoying the reactions of his anbu as they nearly imperceptibly straightened up at the menace in my tone. If Hiruzen had any reactions, I could not see them.

"Orochimaru has not been an agent of the leaf for a very long time, Kazekage-Dono. You know this. After all, your ninja took great pleasure in cashing out his bounty." He said, and I shrugged before leaning deeper into the seat.

"We are ninja. My Kage lays dead by one of your own. You claim that he was no ninja of yours at the time, but you trained him. He used your techniques. And when he died, it was with a headband from the village hidden in the leaves around his head."

"He is not dead," Hiruzen stated, shocking me with the admission.

"No. I can remember the way his body felt as I crushed it in my sand. I removed his head from his shoulders with my very own blade." I said, feigning disbelief

"I believe you, Kazekage-Dono. But still, he lives. His presence has been reported by some of Konoha's own intelligence agents."

"How?"

"I do not know. But I will find out. But let us first get to our reasons for coming together like this. You seek to renegotiate the terms of our alliance?" He asked, and I was beginning to suspect the only reason he admitted to Orochimaru being alive was to get me off my guard ahead of the negotiations.

"Alliance? That is a strong word, and not the one I would use."

"What word would you use then?"

"Slavery. The old contract bound Suna to Konoha in ways that I find unconscionable and gave us little in benefits. A pledge to enter no other alliances without Konoha's consent without you promising the same makes me wonder for my father's sanity."

"It was an alliance forged in the fires of war."

"And now we are at peace." I completed it for him. "Those terms no longer work for us."

"What do you want?"

"A similar deal to that struck between the Shodai Kazekage and Shodai Hokage."

"Konoha has no lands to offer. My predecessor enjoyed that privilege, but now the lands of Hi no Kuni are under the control of the Daimyo. And even if they were not, what do you have to offer in exchange."

"An alliance of course. We can offer you a pact of mutual non-aggression, and a pledge to not join any alliances formed against you and warn you if we become aware of any, provided you do the same."

"You clearly skipped negotiation lessons with your father, Gaara-chan. What sort of deal is this?"

"Call me that again, and I will walk away. It's a deal that takes your present circumstances into account. How many Stone nin are in this village now? How many do you know about? Dozens? A hundred? More? What about the Hidden Sound? They've come in droves, have they not. Negotiation happens when the wolves are at the door. With all due respect, Hokage-same, they've snuck into the house, bent your daughter over the table, raised up her skirts and are about to have their way with her. Pardon the imagery." I said, smiling at his telling lack of reaction to my statement about Stone nin and Sound nin. I guess he knew he was being betrayed but could see no way out of it without coming across as the aggressor.

"Konoha is well aware of the threats she faces. We will beat them back as we always have and that will be that."

"A weak statement. Kazekage-dono. Where are the Uchiha? How many Senju do you have? Your ninja force was gutted by the Kyubi. You will not survive both Sound and Stone without help. That is a fact. Sure, you might force a retreat, but not without suffering catastrophic damage. What happens when Cloud decides to get involved. They'll be picking over your corpse in a year"

"And if we are so finished, why seek an alliance with us? Why not join Stone and Sound now?"

"They are shortsighted. I am not. Konoha still has a role to play in the future of the ninja world."

"And how much land do you seek?"

"Everything from Sora-ku downwards. The village is abandoned and my examinations have revealed that the area is not particularly populated."

"That is preposterous," Hiruzen said. "The most we can offer is 10 acres from the border"

"I am not here to haggle like a fishwife, Hokage-Dono. My terms are my terms" I said to him.

XXXXXXX

If there was one thing about teenagers, it was that they could grow in extremely short periods. When Temari latched on to me from the moment I opened the door to her hotel room, I was struck by the fact that she'd somehow managed to visibly gain an inch or two of height in just a month and change.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry" She whispered to me as she held me, and I felt myself sigh before my hands rose up to envelope her in a return hug.

"You did not disappoint me, Temari" I said, making her rear back in shock.

"To make it past the first two exams in one's first try is commendable, and from all reports, you lost to a genin who fought like a jounin-level taijutsu master. There is no shame in it" I said, but even as I spoke, it was clear that my words were doing a poor job of reaching her.

"Kazekage-sama is right, Temari-chan" Ebizo said, walking behind her and placing a hand on her shoulder. That was unusual. She seemed to agree in the way her face twisted to her sensei in surprise. Ebizo had never struck me as the most emotionally intelligent or caring of men, so this uncharacteristic show of support was definitely a surprise to behold.

"To pass one's first chunin exams is all but impossible for even the most prodigious of ninja, and in my experience, one need not be a prodigy beyond compare to match up against them. Just look at me" He said, gesturing to himself.

"You?" Temari sounded doubtful. I agreed. Ebizo was one of the most famous ninja in Suna's history. A wind release ninjutsu and taijutsu master beyond compare who had been contemporaries with the Second Kazekage in his youth. He and his sister were Suna legends who'd fought and torn Suna's enemies to shreds in three seerate wars.

"Yes. Me. When do you think I became an officially recognised shinobi?" He asked, and Temari racked her head while I didn't even bother. I'd checked. All the records from back then had been lost in the first razing of Suna. If the answers existed, we'd only get them from the horse's mouth.

"Eighty years ago?" She asked doubtfully and I resisted the urge to snicker by turning my thoughts to more solemn matters. Ebizo's twitching eyebrows were not helping matters, but I did my best to act like I wasn't a wrong expression away from collapsing in laughter. Gamer's mind seemed shit at blocking out amusement, so I luxuriated in the emotion while I could.

"No. Not that. Back then, graduating from the academy was not what it is now. The exams were gruelling and tortuous. My sister, the prodigy, did it on her first try. It took me five. But in the end, it was the both of us the world spoke about. Your time will come, just because you do not bloom so quickly, does not mean you will not burn just as brightly as your brothers. Besides, that was a bad matchup either way." Someway somehow, while I hadn't been paying attention, Ebizo had warmed his way into my sister's heart. That look on her face. He'd turned himself into some sort of role model figure for her and part of me swallowed a bit of saliva at the thought. If Ebizo ever proves disloyal…..

She let go of me and enrobed the older man in a hug worthy of songs and I was quick to excuse myself at the closest opportunity. The time for the exams had arrived, and my senses told me Isagi and Hana had been sent to get me, once again.

"Ahh. Isagi-san, Hana-san. What a surprise to see you here,"

"These are not the accommodations Hokage-sama set aside for you"

"Yeah, needed to check up on a few things. Can we proceed?" I said, smoothly sidestepping any questions either of them had.

Isagi visibly held Hana back from speaking as the Inuzuka seemed about to bite my head off.

"Yes, Kazekage-Dono"

I just smiled at the taller teenagers as they led me out. This time, they seemed less inclined to waste my time and took me straight to the stadium that had been scheduled for the exams to take place within.

And then at the stadium, we were led to a cordoned off section and began to ascend multiple flights of stairs. I wasn't surprised to arrive at the Kage box and find that I was the last one to do so. The Tsuchikage was already seated, as was the 'Otokage' and Hiruzen. They all turned to me as I walked in and offered them all an incline of the head that they all returned.

"Ohnoki the fencesitter, tales of your eminence precede you" I said, starting my greetings with the Tsuchikage.

"You sure those are the tales you've heard, boy?" He said staring at me through narrowed eyes.

"Of course. Is there anywhere where you are not pictured as the epitome of distinguished calm and martial might?"

"You flatter well, boy. I'm sure you've met my guards." He said waving at Kurotsuchi and her pudgy teammate, Akatsuchi.

"Ahhh Kurotsuchi-chan. It's been a while."

"Six years." She replied instantly and I smiled.

"You have grown well in that time" I said admiringly, and it was true. Kurotsuchi had grown into a beauty. Black hair matched by back eyes that paid homage to her name. Black stone, indeed. Her features, angular and noble in bearing helped to accentuate the beauty she'd been blessed with, and her body, lithe and dexterous.

"So have you. The fifth kazekage, huh? It's a shame we did not get to meet for a match last time." She said and I smiled at her.

"Maybe we will get the pleasure of clashing techniques sooner rather than later." with that ominous last note, I turned to the next guest.

"Kazekage-sama. It is an honour to meet you" The Otokage said, stretching a hand to greet me only for me to ignore it entirely.

"Thank you." I said, leaving him where he was and moving to Hiruzen. The gesture might have been disrespectful, but I wasn't going to shake hands with Orochimaru and letting the snake drip his poison into my ears would be phenomenally stupid.

"Welcome, Kazekage-Dono" Hiruzen said, and I nodded before taking a seat besides him after dropping my ceremonial hat on the table before me. The robes, designed for comfort above all else flowed with my form as I settled and waited.

After a few minutes, at some unspoken signal, Hiruzen stood up and began his speech to the general public as he began the third stage of the chunin exams.

The first fight, Uchiha Sasuke v Dosu Kinata was called and both boys stood up and made their way to the field.