Living in the World of Naruto, Marrying Tsunade

In the past, relying on his talent and his powerful Magnet Style: Iron Sand, Saro had been virtually unmatched throughout the Land of Wind. Even when facing the famed Tsuchikage, he could still fight without falling behind.

Even Zōshirō, who was considered his equal within the Land of Wind, was almost always suppressed whenever they fought head-on.

The reason was simple: the magnetic force of Iron Sand perfectly countered puppet techniques.

No matter how sophisticated a puppet was, it still relied on joints and weapons—many of which were forged from iron.

That gave Saro the chance to interfere with a puppet master's creations. Once the puppets lost smooth control, the puppeteer's combat strength naturally dropped drastically.

This was experience he had gained through years of sparring with his father. Zōshirō's puppet mastery was undeniably strong, but unlike Shamon, he did not possess sand control. Once his puppets were disrupted, his fighting ability dropped sharply—sometimes to no more than elite jōnin level.

Because of that, Saro's record against Zōshirō was one-sided, which was also why Chiyo initially disliked him.

Yet despite being nearly invincible within the Land of Wind, despite having the confidence to fight even a Kage-level opponent, Saro had to admit one thing from the bottom of his heart:

He was inferior to Arata.

Arata's achievements were simply too terrifying.

Saro considered himself a genius—but Arata's existence could only be described as monstrous. Compared to someone like that, his own talent seemed insignificant.

No matter how strong he was, when facing a true Super-Kage-level powerhouse, he would still be beaten back helplessly.

Take his father, Shamon, for example. Though not a Super-Kage himself, years of battle experience allowed him to contend even against early Super-Kage opponents.

The same amount of chakra could produce vastly different results depending on the person using it. Shamon might not have exceptional chakra talent, but his versatility allowed him to fight above his level.

Even against the Third Raikage—widely considered the strongest among the current Five Kage—Shamon had never fallen behind. His only problem was being unable to land a decisive blow due to the Raikage's speed.

It was this overwhelming gap that finally made the proud Saro realize how far he still was from true power.

He wasn't even sure whether he could ever reach early Super-Kage level in his lifetime.

That alone might already be his ultimate goal.

And yet Arata had reached the peak of Super-Kage—a full realm above.

In that sense, Saro was no different from Iwagakure's Four-Tails jinchūriki, Rōshi.

Both were proud. Both had only truly recognized their limits after encountering Arata.

Now, Saro's thoughts were simple:

He needed to strengthen himself in every aspect.

At the very least, when facing Arata again, he did not want to be someone who couldn't even earn the right to speak.

Someone with Arata's strength could kill a Kage-level ninja effortlessly.

To stand before such a person, you either needed comparable power—or influence that even they had to respect.

No one in the Land of Wind could reach Super-Kage peak. So the path best suited to Saro was political power: wielding a force that even Arata would have to acknowledge.

The Konoha Encirclement Plan was the perfect opportunity.

If he gained influence within the alliance, he would naturally earn the right to speak with Arata.

After all, his father was the Kazekage, and his own strength was already considerable. Gaining influence within the alliance would not be difficult.

At the very least, when facing Arata in the future, he would not be ignored.

For someone as proud as Saro, being ignored was absolutely unacceptable.

Seeing his son so cooperative, Shamon felt pleasantly surprised.

He had spoken about these matters many times before, but Saro always insisted:

"In front of absolute power, schemes are meaningless. Strength alone is enough."

In truth, Shamon partially agreed.

Against overwhelming strength, most strategies truly did become useless.

But what Saro had failed to understand was this:

His own strength was only early Kage-level.

That might carry weight in the shinobi world—but against Super-Kage monsters, especially someone like Arata, it meant nothing.

Even as Shamon's son, there was no guarantee Saro would ever reach Super-Kage level. At best, he might reach Kage peak.

And yet he spoke about "absolute power" as if he already possessed it.

That was simply not knowing his own limits.

In earlier years, there had been no rising genius powerful enough to serve as an example.

Only Hatake Sakumo of Konoha could compare to Saro in talent.

But the Hatake clan was famously small. In Shamon's view, Sakumo's future limit was likely only mid-Kage level.

Even the newly rising trio—Tsunade, Orochimaru, and Jiraiya—while strong, were slightly older than Saro, making them poor examples for comparison.

So Shamon had never had a convincing argument to counter his son's arrogance.

Until Arata appeared.

At only nineteen years old, Arata had already reached Super-Kage peak—an achievement most shinobi could never reach in a lifetime.

Even if he had once been unnoticed, reaching that level at nineteen made him the goal every ninja would chase.

After all, even Hashirama Senju and Uchiha Madara had only reached that realm around their thirties.

Arata had done it in nineteen years.

That alone spoke of talent beyond imagination.

Perhaps even greater than the God of Shinobi and the Asura of the Shinobi World themselves.

To the ninjas of the Land of Wind, Hashirama and Madara were already legendary, almost godlike figures.

And now Arata's talent seemed to surpass even them.

Which meant one harsh truth:

Saro might never surpass Arata in his entire life.

And it was precisely because such a monster had appeared that Saro finally accepted reality.

His talent was great—but compared to the true monsters of the shinobi world, it still fell short.

Only now did he understand that strategy and calculation had value.

After all, he was not the one overwhelming others.

He was the one being overwhelmingly crushed by Arata.

If he didn't start thinking carefully, then meeting Arata again would simply mean throwing his life away.

In fact, looking at it this way, the original Saro might have become so arrogant precisely because no one could rival him.

In the end, that arrogance—and his lack of caution and strategy—allowed him to be assassinated by his own fellow villager, Sasori.

If he had just used his brain a little more, things might never have ended that way.