"Kurotsuchi?"
Kitsuchi was stunned for a moment, not understanding why Onoki suddenly mentioned her. But he still answered honestly.
"She just got back from a mission. Probably sitting in her usual spot daydreaming again."
"Sigh, that girl went to Konoha once, and it feels like her body came back, but her heart hasn't," Onoki couldn't help but sigh at that.
He somewhat regretted sending Kurotsuchi to Konoha. Although she was mature for her age, she was still at the age where kids wanted to play. After that trip, she'd gotten wild, and her heart hadn't come back to focus.
Kitsuchi looked awkward. After all, it had been his poor supervision during the Konoha visit that let Kurotsuchi sneak out so often to play with Aoba and the others.
Now she'd been completely spoiled.
"Tsuchikage-sama, shouldn't we focus on this intelligence Konoha sent us first?"
He remembered that his father had always feared Uchiha Madara the most.
Now, hearing that Madara might have been revived and aimed to unify the shinobi world, Kitsuchi felt Onoki's calmness was unnerving.
"——"
Onoki thought for a while, "If Uchiha Madara truly has a way to revive himself, then he's in the shadows while we're in the open, we'd be completely on the passive side. If he really comes back, there's no way we could resist him with our power alone."
"So are we going to cooperate with Konoha?", Kitsuchi assumed Onoki meant to ally with them.
After all, he'd seen the Wood Release of the First Hokage with his own eyes. Onoki's Dust Release was powerful, yes, but the man was old now, while Aoba was barely in his teens, not even near his peak.
Comparing the two, Iwagakure truly had no future advantage.
"There's too little intel. We can't even confirm its authenticity yet. Go and bring Kurotsuchi here."
Onoki neither agreed nor refused outright.
"You want Kurotsuchi to go to Konoha to verify if the intel is real, and gather more information?", Kitsuchi immediately understood his father's meaning.
"You said yourself that Kurotsuchi has a good relationship with that Hokage's disciple."
"This… then I'll go notify her right away. Should I also inform Roshi and Han?"
Kitsuchi's main concern was that if they sent Kurotsuchi back to Konoha again, she might not come back, like throwing a dumpling to a dog.
"Just remind Roshi and Han. If they want to return, fine. If they don't, tell them not to cause trouble for the village."
Onoki didn't place much value on those two unruly Jinchuriki.
"Yes."
After Kitsuchi left, Onoki stuffed the paper containing Uchiha Madara's intel into his desk drawer and returned to his mountain of paperwork.
As the Third Tsuchikage of Iwagakure, he was practically carrying the whole village forward on his back.
His waist ached faintly. He thumped it twice, his bones cracking audibly.
He thought again of Konoha's intelligence and sighed helplessly. Iwagakure's current situation could only be described as "internal and external troubles."
Internal, the worry was the shortage of young talent.
External, the threat was the Konoha–Kiri–Suna alliance, and now there was Uchiha Madara to add on top.
When the Hidden Cloud had proposed joining forces to oppose Konoha, he had been tempted.
There are no eternal enemies, only eternal interests.
Though the hatred between their villages ran deep, even the deepest grudges could be buried under sufficient mutual interest.
After all, neither Iwa nor Kumo wanted to see a Konoha returning to its peak.
But remembering how his son had been terrified half to death back then, Onoki couldn't help feeling old.
He doubted he would live to see Iwagakure rise again.
So all he wanted now was to protect the foundation of Iwagakure.
He was genuinely afraid that once he kicked the bucket, the village would fall into Kitsuchi's or Kurotsuchi's hands, and neither of them would be able to keep the Tsuchikage's seat stable without him there.
That was why he had refused the Cloud's proposal for a joint war against Konoha.
Besides, judging by how Cloud had behaved toward Konoha recently, if war really broke out, they'd be the first to take the hit.
He'd wait until both sides revealed their full strength, then pick a side.
He might earn less that way, but at least he wouldn't lose his pants in the process.
In the end, it all came down to one thing: Iwagakure lacked strong young ninja.
The village's overall numbers were plenty, among the Five Great Villages, they ranked high, but there simply weren't any powerful new-generation shinobi. Kurotsuchi was already considered the best among the young.
He used to have a rather disappointing student, but that idiot was either blowing up houses in the village or fishing outside it. In the end, he got tricked into becoming a rogue ninja.
Now his whereabouts were unknown. Even if he were alive, it didn't matter, a missing-nin is a missing-nin. Once a traitor, always a traitor.
'What a headache.'
Onoki let out a heavy sigh.
———
Meanwhile, on the other side of Iwagakure, a young girl with legs that made up most of her body sat atop a massive boulder. [T/N: Who the f**k introduces like that?]
She wore a red short-sleeved dress, with black fishnet stockings covering her legs.
Despite the outfit's sexiness, there was little allure in it. Instead, it radiated youthful liveliness and a mischievous charm.
Her long legs swung back and forth, and her delicate face tilted upward toward the sky.
But Iwagakure's sky was small and dim, huge rocky mountains blocked the view, and the swirling dust made it all look even murkier.
It was as if she were trapped in a stone cage.
Everywhere she looked was barren and bare, the surroundings were plain and harsh, nothing but rock upon rock.
Sitting alone, gazing up at the sky, Kurotsuchi's figure looked lonely and distant amidst the desolate stone landscape.
Among her peers in Iwagakure, she had no real friends.
She was the Tsuchikage's granddaughter and disciple, gifted and bright. Almost everyone in Iwagakure believed she was the future Tsuchikage.
Her peers treated her with great respect.
She accepted that identity naturally and even felt proud of it, often pestering her grandfather to retire early and pass her the title.
But ever since returning from Konoha, a new feeling had been growing in her heart, the desire to see more of the world outside.
By all accounts, her life was already perfect.
A Tsuchikage grandfather. A powerful father. Strength of her own.
As a shinobi, she'd started far ahead of the rest.
But after attending the Chunin Exams in Konoha and seeing a world completely different from Iwagakure, green trees, clear mountains, living color everywhere, something had changed.
In Konoha, she had made real friends.
Every day, she'd go shopping, eat, and play games with them.
Once you've seen the world, it's hard for your heart to stay still again.
Kurotsuchi could once tolerate Iwagakure's dullness, but after seeing true liveliness, she couldn't unsee it.
The thought of leaving the village to see the world outside had taken root in her heart, and whenever she looked up at the sky, lost in thought, it would surface again.