Simply put, the higher-ups were fooled by Hatake Satoru's smooth talk. They decided to quickly get close to Gaara and give him the deciding power.
This way, Gaara could be in the middle, get a reputation as someone who knows Hatake Satoru, and keep that person in check.
Normal solutions just couldn't control Hatake Satoru.
That person actually said to take advantage of the chaos and just get rid of the Kirigakure leaders.
Even if it was a lie, the fact that Hozuki Mangetsu, a former Mizukage, went straight to Sunagakure to chat with Hatake Satoru without a second thought, and even stayed there for so long,
meant that what Hatake Satoru said might be true.
And Hozuki Mangetsu wasn't that old when he stepped down. He was probably just a teenager when he took office.
It's unlikely that someone like that could drastically change Kirigakure, but if it was Hatake Satoru, it would make sense.
Besides, judging by Hatake Satoru's abilities, that kid could really make Kirigakure a place where no one can successfully assassinate anyone.
If the Sunagakure Village leaders and Gaara can't agree soon, Hatake Satoru will use the opportunity to make them fight each other.
When that happens, will people support the Kazekage Gaara, who is out in the open and actually contributes, or will they support these old guys continuing to control the country?
It's hard to say.
Actually, the village had already started to favor Gaara. The higher-ups had never looked into it carefully, so they didn't pay much attention to it.
"They said you're too difficult, so they want to get Gaara on their side."
"This way, they can subtly control you, without turning everyone against you."
"Don't underestimate those old guys. They're almost in their graves, but they have plenty of ideas for scheming against you."
Sasori said, without looking up, in a muffled voice.
Besides some pieces of wood carved into bones, there were also some detailed heads on his desk.
Each head looked a bit like him.
He was copying the carvings made by Hatake Satoru to recreate his own puppets.
After all, if Hatake Satoru didn't give him a new body, he'd have to find a way to replace his own.
But, with his current skill, it's still hard to reach Hatake Satoru's level of detail.
While Hatake Satoru was resting these past few days, Sasori had been focused on studying these things. But compared to the perfect examples, Sasori could barely see any improvement in his work.
It made him feel less and less confident.
"It doesn't matter. Let them put on their own show. I don't care about that stuff."
Hatake Satoru actually enjoyed watching the higher-ups think they were sure to win, thinking they had a sure plan to deal with him.
Then, when they went up against him, they would immediately lose.
No matter who it is, they would feel good when beating up weak guys.
And not just beating up weak guys, but also the feeling that they think they're great, but they're actually nothing.
Hatake Satoru liked that difference.
"Gaara can't control me either..."
"If I had to say, it's actually that Gaara wants to get back his power, and I'm just giving him a push."
Hatake Satoru smiled slightly.
He didn't expect the higher-ups to believe his lies so easily, and even put their hopes on Gaara while he was sleeping these past two days.
You think you're on the second floor, but I'm already in the atmosphere.
"...I see."
"I felt like those people were showing a weird kind of pride. You really know how to plan things."
Sasori nodded, understanding, and looked up at Hatake Satoru.
"Look at these new ones. Is there anything special about them?"
"To be honest, watching you make these things makes me feel insecure."
Hatake Satoru took the wood carving, thoughtfully pulled up a chair, and sat down. He looked at the wood carving while carefully explaining it.
...
A few months later.
On the other side, inside the Akatsuki organization.
Deidara's escape and Sasori's death had created a large gap.
Their main task now was to gather the tailed beasts, so they didn't have much manpower to chase after the runaway Deidara.
At least, they didn't have any extra people to spare.
When Sasuke was chasing Orochimaru, he was alone. Now, every person counts, and they're all trying to capture the tailed beasts as quickly as possible.
Hoshigaki Kisame was responsible for capturing the four-tails.
The five-tails was assigned to Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Sasuke.
Because their numbers were getting smaller, they had to gather the tailed beasts as soon as possible.
If things kept going like this, it felt like nothing good would happen. They might not even be able to complete the big task of collecting the tailed beasts, let alone chasing after those who had already escaped.
"I never expected Deidara to run away. Besides art, that guy doesn't have anything else in his head, does he?"
"It feels strange that he could even think of running away."
Sasuke only found out that Deidara had run away a long time after he had finished his mission. Even though they were assigned missions, they didn't have that many meetings.
Sasuke only noticed what was going on with the others during group meetings.
Sasuke's missions basically had nothing to do with the tailed beasts. This was the first time he had partnered with Itachi.
He heard it was because the five-tails Jinchuriki was difficult to deal with, so they were sent together.
Before, Hoshigaki Kisame would be mixed in, so they never had any time alone together.
When Sasuke was growing up, he did some missions with Itachi and Hoshigaki Kisame.
But instead of doing missions, Sasuke was more like watching them do the missions.
"Maybe someone helped him with his art?"
"Even though you were always arguing with him, you were actually on good terms with him, right?"
For Uchiha Itachi, Deidara and Sasuke were somewhat similar. Sasuke's pursuit of Itachi was more hidden, more like learning by being around him.
Deidara was straight-up shouting that he was going to blow him up.
Deidara also saw the Sharingan as a kind of art, so when he was caught in a genjutsu, it meant that the art of the Sharingan was better than his art of explosions.
So he always had an unspoken dislike for Uchiha Itachi.
Uchiha Itachi's face was mostly hidden behind the high collar of his Akatsuki robe. His voice was already low, and the clothes made it even lower.
The bells on his hat jingled lightly twice as the two stepped onto a hard rock.
"Iwagakure Village."
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