152- I Will Do It Myself

It was dead in the night when a lone man was working tirelessly in his office. This man, with olive skin and shoulder-length black locks, was Satetsu, the Third Kazekage.

Satetsu sighed, glancing at the formidable stack of papers beside him. Each scroll and document seemed to taunt him with their unending demands.

'Being the Kazekage is far more tiresome than I expected,' he mused. 'I always saw Shamon-sama complain and thought he was just lazy. Maybe this is fate's way of paying me back.'

It had only been a few years since Satetsu had reluctantly taken up the mantle of Kazekage. He was forced, or rather compelled, by his clan and the Wind Daimyo, to step into a role he never truly desired but had to occupy.

Just after the last Shinobi War, the second Kazekage, Shamon, had met his end during the siege of Uzushiogakure. The news of Shamon's death had struck the village like a storm.

Shamon had been a revered leader, a guiding light for the village during turbulent times. His death left a void that needed to be filled, and the villagers, in their unanimous decision, turned to Satetsu.

Initially unwilling, Satetsu had tried to refuse the position. He was more of a scholar than a fighter, dedicating most of his life to research. With the support of Shamon, the Second Kazekage, Satetsu had delved into the mysteries of Shukaku, the One-Tailed Beast.

His research enabled Satetsu to mimic the One-tailed beast's sand manipulation by developing the Magnet Release kekkei genkai. This unique ability allowed Satetsu to convert his chakra into magnetic forces, which, when combined with iron powder, enabled him to mimic Shukaku's sand manipulation.

This power, although not born of the tailed beast, made Satetsu a formidable shinobi, an equal to his mentor, Shamon.

While he would have preferred to be in his laboratory, surrounded by his experiments and books, Satetsu understood the necessity of his position. The village needed a leader, and he could not turn his back on his people. Thus, he put the village's interests first and became the Third Kazekage.

"Knock! Knock! Knock!"

A brisk knock on the door interrupted his thoughts. Satetsu straightened up.

"Enter,"

The door creaked open, and Hotaka stepped inside, "Lord Third," Hotaka began, giving Satetsu a respectful bow. "Another place has been hit."

Satetsu's face remained expressionless, but his eyes hardened. "That makes four villages in three days," he said, "What of Ebizo-sama?"

Hotaka shook his head, "He has visited the two towns attacked but still did not find any tracks of the attackers."

Satetsu leaned back in his chair, "These attacks... they are too coordinated to be mere coincidences. Someone is targeting them deliberately."

Just as Satetsu finished responding to Hotaka, something caught his attention from the corner of his eye. A couple of meters from where he was sitting, a scorpion burrowed out of the sandy floor of his office. Satetsu recognized the scorpion immediately.

'Does Rue have any leads on what is happening? If she did, it would make things easier,' Satetsu thought as he saw the scorpion. He immediately reached out and took the scroll from the scorpion, then unfurled it to read the message.

As Satetsu read the scroll's contents, a flicker of emotion passed over his face—a rare occurrence. This subtle change did not go unnoticed by Hotaka.

While Satetsu was not one to wear his heart on his sleeve, after working under him for some time, Hotaka knew that inside the hard exterior the Kazekage portrayed, he was just a big softie.

"They have attacked Rue and her clan. This is now bigger than I thought. I will have to trouble you, Hotaka. Go and tell Chiyo-sama that I need her to visit one of the towns while I go and personally track these people. While doing that, sort some of these papers," Satetsu instructed.

Hotaka nodded. He knew that Chiyo, an S-rank shinobi who had retired to focus on medical ninjutsu, rarely took up missions anymore. However, Satetsu was confident she would listen to the Kazekage since she had been his Jounin Sensei, and he rarely asked her for favours.

With those instructions, Satetsu quickly left his office, flickering away and leaving a few black particles in the air.

Hotaka watched him disappear and shook his head. "He is the Kazekage. Why is he the first one to move in such a situation? I am sure he just wanted to get out of his paperwork," Hotaka muttered to himself as he left the Kazekage's office to complete the orders he had been given.

Hovering on his sand, which darkly gleamed under the cover of the moon, Satetsu moved swiftly towards Rue's location. He was sure she would have some leads on the assailants. While the distance was significant, Satetsu was sure that it would take him less than an hour to reach his destination.

'If Rue's clan has been attacked, this situation is indeed more severe than I anticipated. Since Ebizo-sama has not tracked them down, I will do it myself.' he pondered. The attacks had already affected the food supply of the Land of Wind, which was severe since they were not like other nations such as the Land of Fire which had suitable lands for farming.

This had also been a major reason why Suna and the Land of Winds as a whole wanted to conquer more land as it would help them mitigate damage whenever a hostile nation attacked them. Food supply and security were a glaring weakness that they had been trying to get rid of since the village was formed.

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"So what do we do next?" Hiro asked Sama.

Minato had vanished, presumably to aid Yano and Renjiro, leaving Hiro and Sama alone in an exposed, barren stretch of desert. The location was far from ideal for setting up camp, and they were vulnerable without any immediate cover.

"I am not sure, but we need to create more distance between us and the last place we attacked," Sama replied, bending over to retrieve the kunai still stuck in the ground.

'While we still have the kunais Minato gave us, it's not safe to leave this here in the open. We can place this wherever we reach,' she thought, carefully examining their surroundings.

"Which direction should we head to?" Hiro mused aloud, his eyes scanning the horizon.

Upon Hearing that Sama thought back to earlier that day, using the position of the sun as her guide.

'The sun was rising from there when we placed the kunai here before noon, so that is East. We should probably head North, which is there. At least when Minato returns, we will be closer to the Wind Capital,' she concluded.

She gestured to Hiro, indicating the direction they should take, and they began flickering towards the north.

They had become adept at navigating the desert terrain and they actually preferred travelling by night since it offered them the dual advantages of cooler temperatures and the cover of darkness.

The night winds would help erase their tracks, making it harder for anyone to follow them. Hours passed as they moved swiftly and silently, the vast desert landscape stretching endlessly around them.

Suddenly, Hiro halted abruptly, causing Sama to stop as well.

"What's wrong?" Sama asked, concern evident in her voice.

"Do you hear that?" Hiro replied, his ears straining to catch the faint noise he had detected.

"Hear what?" Sama shook her head in confusion.

"It's sand, like moving sand," Hiro said, his tone serious.

Sama chuckled lightly, thinking Hiro was overreacting. "Is the wind bothering you?"

But then she felt it too—a subtle, but distinct chakra signature approaching them rapidly. Her expression shifted from amusement to alertness. They both knew that such a chakra presence in the middle of the desert was unusual and likely hostile.

"We need to hide," Sama whispered urgently. They moved quickly, seeking cover behind a nearby dune, their senses heightened and bodies tense. The approaching chakra grew stronger, and they tried their best to erase their presence and chakra signatures.

[A/N: The Third Kazekage doesn't canonically have a name, so I decided to call him Satetsu which translates to Iron Sand for obvious reasons]

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