The arid winds of the desert gave way to the sparse scrublands bordering the Land of Fire. The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, traveled with his Guard Platoon, his mind fixed on Konoha. In one week, the final stage of the Joint Chunin Exams would begin, and as the Kage of Sunagakure, his presence was required.
'Everything is in place,' he thought, a flicker of satisfaction running through him.
His elite ninja were already positioned near the border, their presence disguised as a routine training drill for the Wind Daimyo. On his signal, they would breach Konoha's barrier. On Hattori's advice, he had even secured the Akatsuki as mercenaries to assist in the assault. With nine thousand sets of Chakra Armor from the Land of Snow and the full cooperation of Orochimaru and his Otogakure forces, the plan was simple, yet devastating. All that remained was to wait.
In his mind, the operation would cripple Konoha, if not crush it entirely. Sunagakure would finally reclaim the missions and resources that had been slipping through its fingers for years.
As his party entered a narrow valley, a lone figure emerged from the shadows, blocking their path. Rasa raised a hand, halting his guard.
"You have nerve," he said, his voice low and hard. But as the man stepped into the light, Rasa recognized the pale face and serpentine eyes. It was one of the key architects of his plan: the leader of Otogakure, Konoha's S-rank missing-nin.
"Orochimaru," Rasa said, his tone shifting from suspicion to curiosity. "Why are you here?"
Orochimaru's lips curled into a faint smile as he licked them with his long tongue. "I thought I'd deliver a message in person, Kazekage. A matter of utmost secrecy."
"A message?" Rasa saw no reason for suspicion, not yet. He motioned for his guard to fall back and stepped closer. "What is it?"
In Rasa's estimation, Orochimaru was a vital ally, at least until their plan reached its conclusion. The idea of Orochimaru turning on him now seemed impossible. At this critical juncture, any sane person would know better. What good would attacking him bring?
Rasa let his guard down. It was a fatal mistake.
The world narrowed to a flash of steel. A searing pain erupted in his side, and he looked down to see the blade of Kusanagi buried deep in his ribs. Blood soaked through his robes, warm and sudden.
"You-!" he gasped, the word catching in his throat. He could never have imagined this.
"Kazekage-sama!" his guards shouted, surging forward to help.
Before they could take a step, a cold voice cut through the air. "Dance of the Willow."
From the shadows, Kimimaro emerged, his bones extending like ivory blades. He moved through the Guard Platoon in a blur of white, and one by one, they fell.
Rasa grit his teeth against the pain. He was still the Kazekage. He dodged a follow-up strike and countered, roaring, "Magnet Release: Gold Dust Spear!"
A spear of glittering gold shot forward, striking Orochimaru and dissolving him into a puddle of mud. A moment later, the real Orochimaru surfaced from the ground nearby, his smile unchanged.
"You're betraying our alliance?" Rasa demanded, pressing a hand to his wound as waves of gold sand rose from the earth to protect him. "Is this Konoha's doing?"
"No," Orochimaru replied, his voice a soft hiss. "I simply find you... eyesore. This plan only needs one person at the helm."
"It won't be so easy to defeat me," Rasa snarled. Even wounded, his control over the Magnet Release made him a formidable opponent.
Orochimaru simply clapped his hands together. Three wooden coffins slowly rose from the soil, their lids creaking open.
"Your role is over, Fourth," Orochimaru said. "It's time to rest."
From the coffins emerged figures long dead, their eyes vacant. The most prominent among them, from the coffin marked with the kanji for "three," was a man Rasa knew all too well, the Third Kazekage.
'Let's test the power of the Edo Tensei,' Orochimaru thought.
Rasa's eyes widened in horror and rage. "Third... The power to control the dead?!" He stared at the reanimated Kazekage, then turned his fury on Orochimaru. "You killed him! And you are now desecrating the body of my predecessor!"
'Killed the Third?' Orochimaru was briefly confused by the claim, but there was no time for discussion.
The Third Kazekage stepped from his coffin, his movements stiff. "I... remember Sasori..." he murmured, his gaze falling on Rasa. "Rasa?"
"No time for reunions," Orochimaru said coolly, producing a kunai wrapped in a seal tag and embedding it in the back of the Third's head. The reanimated Kage's eyes went blank, his will now entirely under Orochimaru's control.
Magnet Release: Iron Sand clashed with Magnet Release: Gold Sand.
For a moment, it seemed Rasa might prevail, as a living shinobi, his power was greater than the reanimated puppet's. But just as he prepared a sealing technique, a wave of dizziness washed over him. He felt a warm trickle from his nose and wiped it away to see blood on his hand.
'Poison,' he realized with a jolt of dread. 'The sword was poisoned.'
With his defenses faltering, the end came swiftly. Kimimaro moved in, a blur of white bone and lethal grace. "Dance of the Larch!"
At the same time, Orochimaru struck again. Caught between three opponents, wounded, and weakened by a specially crafted toxin, Rasa had nothing left. The Kusanagi sword pierced his chest, and he collapsed, his last breath a curse of humiliation and resentment.
"As expected of the Fourth Kazekage," Orochimaru mused, retracting the Kusanagi sword into his throat, indifferent to the poison coating its blade. "Quite troublesome." He clapped his hands again, and the reanimated ninja returned to their coffins, which sank back into the earth.
He knelt beside Rasa's body, his thoughts turning elsewhere. 'Kabuto... why can't I sense him?'
His most trusted subordinate had vanished after the second round of the exams. The disappearance had forced him to use Mizuki as the liaison with Sunagakure, a far less capable replacement whose strength Orochimaru had been forced to artificially enhance.
'Has he betrayed me?'
Pushing the thought aside, Orochimaru ran a hand over the dead Kazekage's face. He peeled away a perfect mask of skin, ready for his disguise. 'Vanishing Facial Copy Technique!'
After Orochimaru and Kimimaro vanished into the shadows, two new figures appeared. One knelt beside Rasa's body and placed a hand on his chest, channeling a gentle stream of energy into him. The faintest sign of life returned to the fallen Kage.
"Congratulations, Kazekage-sama," a calm voice said. "You get to live."
It was Naruto.
"Good work with the poison, Kabuto," Naruto said, looking at the man beside him. "Orochimaru didn't suspect a thing."
Kabuto, the very man Orochimaru had been searching for, adjusted his glasses. "Orochimaru-sama is entirely focused on his 'Konoha Crush' plan. He has little attention for anything else."
"A pity. He's only putting on a show." In canon, aside from killing the Third Hokage, Orochimaru's plan had only destroyed buildings and harmed civilians.
Sunagakure lost its Kage and vast funds, only to be branded traitors and bound tightly to Konoha. Who really gained from it was hard to say.
"Yang Release." A golden energy gathered in Naruto's palm. He directed it at Rasa's exposed face, and a thick scab quickly formed. As long as he was alive, losing his face was a minor issue.
Kabuto adjusted his glasses. "Yes, Naruto-sama."
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