"Lord Kazekage, to deal with the Eighteen Seats, we must use the Eighteen Seats' methods. Those people will only acknowledge their incompetence when defeated by a flawless conspiracy. Who knows, once the fake Lord Kaza falls, those opportunists might immediately surrender~"
Toda spoke persuasively.
On the other side, Rasa made no effort to hide his admiration, turning to look at Toda and asking back:
"What about you? I see you're even better at reading the wind than they are."
Hearing this, Toda immediately lowered his head humbly.
"Lord Kazekage, you're absolutely right. But I'm just a small-time schemer with a bit of cleverness who wants to avenge Lord Kaza."
"I know you want revenge. There'll be plenty of opportunities when the time comes. Alright, you may go!"
Seeing Rasa wave his hand dismissively, Toda immediately nodded humbly and left the room.
The moment he closed the Kazekage's office door, a flash of green light passed through Toda's eyes.
After several days of observation, the Fourth Kazekage Rasa didn't seem like the murderer who killed Lord Kaza. However, Lord Kaza had once said: Never underestimate anyone!
So Rasa's recent behavior couldn't completely clear him of suspicion.
Thinking of this, Toda clenched his fists, his eyes full of seriousness.
The plan had succeeded!
With Rasa's thirst for power, he absolutely couldn't tolerate slowly reclaiming only part of his authority. On the contrary, as Kazekage, he would definitely choose to gamble and expose the fake Lord Kaza in front of everyone.
He had the power to gamble and the capital to be willful.
When the fake Kaza was exposed, he could secretly observe. If he could find the mastermind behind it all, that would be best. If not, he could still take over part of the authority.
The Fourth Kazekage Rasa hadn't been in power long. While he might have accumulated some ninjas and ANBU under his command, he definitely lacked management talent experienced in commerce.
When that time came, Rasa, who rashly reclaimed the Municipal Department, would inevitably need administrators. Each of the Municipal Department's six divisions would need managers.
When Rasa discovered he had no one capable under his command, wouldn't someone like himself—loyal and early to surrender—easily gain access to power?!
Once he had power, with his abilities, more power wouldn't be a problem at all. At least Rasa's trusted subordinate Maki seemed like a weakling to him!
Thinking of this, Toda didn't linger and turned back to the Municipal Department.
...
That evening, Rasa returned home.
The house adjacent to the Kazekage building was spacious and luxurious.
Sitting on the sofa, Rasa took the just-one-month-old Temari from the nanny's arms.
Looking at the chubby child, Rasa felt a rare warmth in his heart.
Why not use the child's name as an excuse to hold a gathering? Both to celebrate the child's birth and to celebrate taking the first step toward reclaiming his rightful power.
Just as Rasa was carefully considering the specific operational procedures, Karura, dressed in home clothes, sat beside him.
"What are you thinking about?" the woman's gentle voice asked.
Hearing this, Rasa replied plainly:
"I'm thinking of holding a birthday celebration for little Temari. I'll invite all the prominent people in the village. What do you think?"
"That's fine."
"Would a week from now work?"
"I'll listen to you." The woman nodded calmly, her gaze never leaving her daughter.
Cute little Temari had a few sparse strands of baby hair on her head, very adorable. But the color of this baby hair was somewhat yellow—neither like her father's dark red nor her mother's brown, which was quite puzzling.
...
A week later, a gathering to celebrate the Fourth Kazekage's daughter's birth was held as scheduled.
In the morning, Danzō woke up from his luxurious bed with two big dark circles under his eyes.
He hadn't slept well last night.
For some unknown reason, he'd had three consecutive nightmares.
First, he dreamed of that bastard Rinjin holding a huge shovel, hiding in a pitch-black, endless forest digging holes. While digging, he kept turning back to look at him with wide, staring eyes and a sinister, terrifying smile on his face.
The second nightmare: He dreamed he was made into an eighteen-layer, bloody cake, surrounded by Eighteen Seats members with blood-red eyes and sticky drool flowing from their mouths.
The third nightmare was the most frightening. He dreamed he was captured by Hidden Sand Village and tied to a high platform. Countless people below just stared at him expressionlessly with vacant eyes—Rasa, Eighteen Seats members... and even Sarutobi Hiruzen, Koharu Utatane, Homura Mitokado... He even saw Uchiha Kagami and his teacher.
He called to them for help, but got no reaction at all. Then these people just stared at him, and whenever his attention wavered slightly, these people would get noticeably closer to him, until they were right beside him. That's when he woke up in terror.
Trying hard to recall the dreams, Danzō suddenly had an intuition that filled him with dread—he suspected that today's banquet was a trap Hidden Sand Village had dug for him!
His passive ability had been triggered.
Thinking of this, Danzō hurriedly jumped out of bed and stumbled toward the basement.
Rinjin had once told him that he'd left a shadow clone in the basement. If he encountered any irreversible situation, he should go find this clone.
With hurried and urgent steps, Danzō rushed down the stairs from the second floor to the basement level. He pushed open the basement door, reached for the light switch, and was instantly dumbfounded.
The spacious basement was completely empty!
"Damn it! That bastard Rinjin tricked me again! No, I can't stay in Hidden Sand Village. I only have two intelligence agents with no combat ability by my side—they can be completely ignored!"
Muttering to himself, Danzō immediately rushed back to the second floor, hurriedly put on his clothes, and prepared to flee.
Never mind, I'll just say something happened at the factory outside the village and I need to handle it first. The banquet doesn't start until noon anyway, and it's still morning.
After getting dressed and leaving coded signals for his two Root members to retreat on their own, Danzō forcibly suppressed his rapid breathing and walked out the door.
Outside the door, two men wearing yellow-brown Hidden Sand jōnin vests were chatting and laughing.
Seeing the door open, one of the jōnin immediately stepped forward with a smile:
"Lord Kaza, the Fourth has some business with you and specially sent us to escort you."
"There's something at the southern factory. I need to handle it first, then I'll go see the Fourth. It'll be quick!"
Danzō said, trying to maintain his composure.
Hearing this, the jōnin immediately scratched his head in difficulty:
"Lord Kaza, please don't make this difficult for us, okay? Ninjas who don't complete their missions get punished. Besides, today is your grand-niece's birthday celebration. Whatever work there is can wait until tomorrow!"
Faced with the two men subtly blocking his path, Danzō immediately broke out in a cold sweat.
Now, he had only two paths before him.
The first path: fight his way out.
Honestly, whether puppet masters or sand-manipulating ninjas, Hidden Sand Village clearly countered Danzō, a mid-to-long-range mage type. Moreover, once he made a move, it would inevitably raise alarm.
These two jōnin before him already clearly indicated Rasa's vigilance.
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