Rasa's choice was not wrong.
If Gaara fell into this Rain Village ninja's hands, Uehara would have enough means to subdue the One-tailed. In that case, the situation of the Hidden Sand Village would become quite dire.
Before his death, Rasa seemed to finally see his own destiny clearly and erupted with unprecedented power.
Everyone present knew that it was hard for Rasa to survive. His chest was caved in, and blood had soaked through his clothes.
"Magnet Release: Gold Sand Order! Hurry and leave!"
Sharp strands of gold sand sprang up from the ground.
Under Rasa's control, these strands of gold sand continuously extended, attempting to restrict Uehara Naraku's movements.
The Fourth Kazekage was too naive!
Uehara Naraku couldn't help but chuckle softly, dodging the sharp gold sand as he landed smoothly, "Kazekage, how long can you hold out?"
A glimmer passed through Rasa's eyes, and clusters of gold sand became extremely fine and sharp, shooting swiftly at Uehara Naraku, "Kid, don't underestimate people, I am the Fourth Kazekage of the Hidden Sand Village!"
The purple broadsword floating beside Uehara casually deflected the gold sand!
Uehara Naraku blinked and softly said, "Doesn't your Excellency know, the easiest to kill in the Ninja World is a Kazekage?"
Having said that, Uehara Naraku didn't hesitate.
The purple broadsword fell into his hand as he charged towards Rasa!
Rasa chose not to respond to Uehara's taunt, focusing intently on manipulating the gold sand defense.
In order to hold on longer, Rasa even layered a suit of gold sand armor over his body.
Even so, Rasa was still at a disadvantage in his battle with Uehara.
In just a few seconds, Uehara Naraku had already severed several sharp gold sand spears in succession, continuing his charge towards Rasa.
A Hidden Sand Ninja finally couldn't hold back, gritting his teeth, "I'll go support Kazekage-sama! Maki-sama, the Kazekage's orders can only rely on you!"
"I'll go too!"
"Let's go together!"
A group of Hidden Sand Ninja frantically charged at Uehara Naraku, perhaps trying to buy time, or perhaps to seize a sliver of hope.
"Aren't we going?"
Gaara ran alongside Maki, his body trembling slightly, unable to resist looking back at Rasa, who was still fighting to the death with Uehara Naraku.
"Going back is the best choice!"
Maki shook his head, his most important task now was to ensure Gaara, the One-tailed Jinchuriki, returned safely to the Hidden Sand Village.
If they lost the One-tail, the Hidden Sand Village might completely fall among the Five Great Countries.
Ninjas are always expected to sacrifice.
Even a Kage is no different from an ordinary ninja.
If the Fourth Kazekage weren't gravely injured, Maki might choose to replace him and buy time. Unfortunately, with the Fourth Kazekage's injuries, he was doomed.
After Maki and Gaara fled, the battle had already reached its climax.
The few Hidden Sand Ninja couldn't affect the outcome, but Rasa's counterattack before his death was fierce, even knocking off several hundred points of Uehara's life energy.
This level, truly worthy of a Kazekage!
Uehara Naraku had already cut down several Hidden Sand Ninja. He then walked step by step towards the finally collapsing Fourth Kazekage.
Uehara stabbed the purple broadsword in his hand into the ground, looked at Rasa lying prone on the ground, and said softly, "Do you think they can escape?"
"Wh... what?"
Rasa struggled to lift his head, his mouth full of blood.
"Only if I want them to escape, can they escape!"
Uehara Naraku smiled somewhat gently, his purple chakra broadsword suddenly bounced from the ground, piercing through Rasa's body from behind!
Side Quest: Defeat the Fourth Kazekage Rasa (1/1), mission completed, reward skill Golden Body Stasis.
Golden Body Stasis: Uses chakra to solidify the body into a golden form, ignoring any attack and defense, while unable to perform any actions, lasting for 2.5 seconds, minimum skill consumption of 100 chakra points, cooldown time 60 seconds.
This skill has both advantages and disadvantages.
Used well, it's invincible; used poorly, it's waiting for death.
Uehara Naraku glanced at the skill rewarded by the system, frowned, "Forget it, it at least saved me some money from buying equipment..."
Uehara collected the Fourth Kazekage's corpse.
A ninja's corpse must never be discarded carelessly, lest it gets dug up for information, or worse, stolen by Yakushi Kabuto and Orochimaru.
As for the scattered sand gold, Uehara didn't waste it either.
Using command shockwave, he gathered a large amount of sand gold, though mixed with some dirt and yellow sand, he wasn't interested in processing it.
Panning for gold is a fine and troublesome task.
Why not wait for an opportunity to give it to Kakuzu and let him pan for gold?
This task, shouldn't be too demanding on the elderly, right?
Considering Kakuzu is over eighty years old.
Since handling the Rasa issue, it's onto dealing with Gaara's trouble, capturing them first, then asking Nagato and Konan if they need to be brought back.
Additionally, Uehara still needs to go to the oasis near the Hidden Sand Village, trying to obtain the One's Own Life Reincarnation Jutsu from Chiyo.
According to Uehara's guess, Nagato and Konan currently both want to avoid alarming the Five Great Countries' Ninja Villages, to prevent arousing their vigilance. It might also be a good opportunity for Uehara to use Gaara's life as leverage for the One's Own Life Reincarnation Jutsu.
It's just not an easy matter to maneuver.
If only combat were possible while in a state of innate charm, that would be great.
Uehara could transform into a Root Ninja anytime, throwing any trouble onto Shimura Danzo if anything goes wrong.
"Let me see if destiny favors you..."
Uehara Naraku quietly activated his destiny skill, looking at Maki and Gaara's escape route, a touch of regret appeared on his face, "Is your luck really that bad? Does Goddess of Fortune genuinely want you dead!"
Due to Rasa's desperate resistance, although Uehara wasted a bit of time, allowing them to cross the border back into the Land of Wind.
However, on the destiny skill display panel, according to Maki and Gaara's escape route, they were very likely to run into some troublesome people.
Sasori of the Red Sand, Deidara.
Orochimaru, Yakushi Kabuto.
It seemed that Orochimaru and Yakushi Kabuto appeared in the desert of the Land of Wind and happened to be tracked by Sasori of the Red Sand, so Sasori and Deidara pursued them.
The Art Duo's mission was to eliminate Orochimaru.
A remarkable coincidence.
Uehara Naraku opened the destiny's teleportation panel, his figure silently disappeared from where he stood.
In the desert.
Two people were in a standoff.
Sasori of the Red Sand took out his treasured Third Kazekage puppet, while Orochimaru brought out his experiment, the reanimated Third Kazekage.
Just as they were about to engage in a battle, Deidara, who was patrolling the skies on a big bird, spotted Gaara and Maki, as well as Uehara Naraku hunting them down.
Deidara immediately informed Sasori of the Red Sand, "Sasori-danna, someone is coming!"
"Who?"
Sasori of the Red Sand was instantly displeased.
On the contrary, Orochimaru faintly smiled on the opposite side, based on his guess, those active here should be Hidden Sand Ninjas, most likely the Fourth Kazekage Rasa.
If Rasa ran into Sasori of the Red Sand, he might have a chance to muddy the waters, even witnessing Sasori of the Red Sand being besieged by hidden sand ninjas.
"A Hidden Sand Ninja and a red-haired kid..."
Deidara looked out at the silhouettes flying after Gaara and Maki, raising his voice, "Wait... it seems like that intern kid from our organization is the one hunting them!"
After speaking, Deidara even commented leisurely, "Tsk, what a rookie ninja, taking so long to hunt down a child!"
"..."
Orochimaru's smile faded. He had witnessed Uehara Naraku summoning Pain directly over a disagreement.
What was that kid doing here?