Naruto: Rebuilding the Hidden Sand

Within the borders of the Land of Rain.

Rasa was leading a Sand Village force several hundred strong, sweeping through a regional armed faction's territory. Both his palms pressed to the earth as he drove gold dust erupting from the ground like rainfall, cutting down an entire column of rebel fighters who had been charging toward them head-on.

The Sand Village soldiers following close behind were equally merciless, harvesting every survivor.

It did not matter whether they were wandering ninja who had entered the battlefield for money, fighters with known ties to the Hidden Rain Village, or civilians holding weapons. Wherever the Sand Village forces passed, everything became corpses. Every death looked different, but the outcome was always the same.

Not one left alive.

Of the five thousand Sand Village soldiers stationed in the Land of Rain, a portion had accompanied Sasori and Shira toward the border, while Rasa had stayed behind specifically to handle the internal situation throughout the Land of Rain.

When the Hidden Rain Village had been seized, a number of Hidden Rain fighters had still been stationed outside the village's walls. After learning that the Hidden Rain Village had fallen to the Sand Village's forces, some of them had reached out to local regional factions and attempted to organize resistance.

But against the Sand Village's main army, these scattered and fragmented organizations were simply no match. More importantly, with a Kage-level fighter like Rasa anchoring the operation, many rebel commanders had already fled without even engaging after receiving word that the Sand Village forces were approaching. The Sand Village had captured the Hidden Rain Village and immediately launched a comprehensive massacre of every illegal armed faction and organization operating throughout the Land of Rain.

The methods were extraordinarily harsh and uncompromising.

No survivors left behind. Anyone identified as an enemy, even civilians caught among the combatants, was eliminated entirely.

Under these conditions, the internal chaos and factional fighting that had plagued the Land of Rain for years suddenly looked almost quaint by comparison. Once the cruelty of war escalated to this level, not everyone could withstand it. Many factions operating within the country had not anticipated that the Sand Village's military campaign would be this dominant and this thorough.

"Lord Rasa. We have located a village nearby. It appears to be, with some degree of uncertainty, this particular organization's base of operations. But there are also a significant number of civilians living inside."

A Sand Village soldier came forward and delivered the report.

"Kill everyone."

Rasa said it standing in the rain, his tone entirely without fluctuation.

"Understood."

Several hours later, on Akatsuki's side.

Yahiko received the intelligence report brought back by the operatives he had sent out.

The Sand Village's forces were moving with the force of a thunderstorm cutting through the land. Another cluster of regional factions had been eliminated, but in the process a considerable number of ordinary civilians had also lost their lives.

This was completely contrary to everything Akatsuki stood for in its operations.

In their own liberation campaigns throughout the Land of Rain, Akatsuki had always pushed through with strength while seeking negotiated surrenders, working to minimize casualties and civilian harm in exchange for stability.

The Sand Village was doing nothing of the sort. They were drawing the blade all the way.

The idea that even ordinary people were being caught in the devastation of war was the single thing Yahiko could not stand to see. He was finding it almost impossible to accept.

But there was nothing he could do. They had given their word to the Fourth Kazekage. And they were in no position to stand against the Sand Village regardless.

"Looking at the current casualties, the Land of Rain has suffered enormously. But the Sand Village's show of overwhelming force has caused many people to lose their nerve before a single shot is fired against them. I have heard that recently, many armed groups throughout the country, including factions that came from other nations and even from hidden villages, are hurriedly pulling back out of fear of drawing the Sand Village's attention."

Konan read the thought behind Yahiko's expression and spoke quietly.

Subduing the enemy without fighting.

Through sheer threatening force alone, an entire array of armed factions had been scared into retreat.

The effectiveness of this approach, compared to Akatsuki's ideology-driven campaigns, was not merely stronger by a small degree. Because the number of battles that needed to be fought would decrease as enemies disappeared, even if the immediate cost in lives was jarring and disturbing to witness. When the final accounting was made at the level of national damage, the total harm might actually be smaller than what years of Akatsuki's gradual liberation campaigns had produced.

"This is what he called the path that must be walked to reach peace," Yahiko said in a low voice, reaching his hand out to catch the falling raindrops.

Konan looked at him and said nothing.

Perhaps the Fourth Kazekage truly could succeed.

This was how the ninja world's battlefield actually worked at its core.

The Sand Village had given them another lesson.

On the other side, at the border between the Land of Fire and the Land of Rain.

Shira was leading a unit of puppet corps soldiers, blocking a group of Konoha ninja who had been attempting to infiltrate the Land of Rain. Many of the faces among them were young, clearly not veteran fighters.

"Take your people and go back to the Land of Fire. If there is a next time, I will consider it a violation of the ceasefire agreement between your village and ours."

Shira stood with his arms crossed, his eyes cold as he looked at the visibly frightened Konoha ninja and spoke in a flat tone.

If he gave the order right now, every one of them would die here.

But Lord Kazekage's instructions had been clear. Simply block outside interference from other nations. Do not allow any hidden village to gather intelligence on the situation inside the Land of Rain.

And not to proactively trigger a new round of open warfare.

"We are entering the Land of Rain. Not your Land of Wind," the Konoha squad leader said, drawing a slow breath.

"Listen carefully. From this point forward, this place is the Land of Wind."

Shira said it with absolute conviction.

The Konoha ninja's expressions shifted visibly at this open and forceful declaration of sovereignty.

At the border between the Land of Rain and the Land of Earth, inside a mountain valley.

Sasori stood alone on the face of a sheer cliff.

Below him on the ground lay over a dozen Hidden Stone Village corpses.

Yuji had mentioned keeping things from escalating too far. Sasori had paid that instruction essentially no attention. The reasoning was simple. As long as the bodies were destroyed and the evidence eliminated, as long as every person was killed, the news could not reach the Hidden Stone Village. The Tsuchikage would have no way of confirming that Sand Village forces were responsible. After all, everything in the ninja world still ultimately came down to evidence.

"Clean it up thoroughly," Sasori said.

"Understood."

Several Sand Village ninja began clearing the scene of any remaining traces.

Worth mentioning was that Salamander Hanzo's body had also come into his possession. It was currently in the process of being converted into a puppet.

Sasori's mood had been reasonably good recently as a result. His collection was growing, and everything being added to it was of the highest artistic caliber.

Konoha. The Hokage's office.

Hiruzen, Minato, Danzo, Koharu, and the other senior figures were all present.

The several small units the village had dispatched toward the Land of Rain had all been turned back without being allowed to enter. Fortunately there had been no casualties. The Sand Village had shown at least that degree of consideration.

But this also confirmed something. Regarding the Land of Rain, the Sand Village was completely committed and there was no opening to exploit.

Thinking about this, Hiruzen glanced at Danzo and could barely restrain the urge to cross the room and strike him, just to release some of the frustration that had been building.

Because this was Danzo's doing. Again.

Originally, facing the Sand Village's sudden escalation of conflict in the ninja world, Konoha would have been in a position of absolute diplomatic authority. They could have condemned the Sand Village's actions from a position of clear moral standing.

But because of Danzo's secret collusion with Hanzo, it was now Konoha that had made the first compromising move, effectively giving the Sand Village the justification it needed to claim it had been forced to respond. Every step that had led to this outcome traced back to Danzo operating in secret without authorization.

Of course, Hiruzen also understood Danzo's original calculations. If the Hidden Rain Village had successfully absorbed Akatsuki and combined their forces, Konoha, still in the process of recovering from the Great Ninja War, would have been in a genuinely vulnerable position. Any sudden destabilization could have been extremely difficult to manage.

Danzo's starting point had not been wrong in principle. That was precisely why Hiruzen could not confront him openly.

"Once the Sand Village fully consolidates control over the Land of Rain, I believe everyone here understands clearly what the consequences for our village will be," Hiruzen said, drawing a slow breath from his pipe.

There were other pressing matters the village also needed to address at this moment, which left Hiruzen feeling the weight of exhaustion pressing down on him from every direction.

One was the matter of formally elevating Minato to the position of Fourth Hokage and reaching internal consensus on that transition.

The other was the festering problem of the Uchiha clan.

"We must place military pressure on the Sand Village. The best available option right now is to form a coordinated alliance with the other hidden villages."

Danzo spoke, his complexion still pale. His injuries had not fully healed.

Hiruzen, in a rare departure from habit, did not look at Danzo at all. He turned his gaze toward Minato and the others instead.

"What are your thoughts?"

Danzo said nothing further.

...

Stones PLzz

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