Chapter 295: Planning for the Sand Village, Meeting Chiyo Again
After a simple report, Kankurō left the cell he had grown accustomed to.
Until this moment, Kankurō still had a feeling of unreality.
He also truly experienced again what kind of strength and power Akiyama Makoto had.
Makoto didn't immediately take Kankurō to the border for negotiations. Instead, he gave Temari a morning to help Kankurō deal with personal hygiene issues and buy him new clothes.
Although Konoha prison didn't mistreat Kankurō and Gaara, it wouldn't give them any special treatment either.
The two were considered direct participants in the Konoha Crush plan, and also Rasa's children.
Although they hadn't had the chance to kill any Konoha people directly, their killing intent at that time was real. It would be strange if Konoha people gave them a good look.
Only for Temari's sake, Kankurō wasn't beaten up by young ninja on the street.
Looking at Temari standing in front of him, Kankurō no longer had the original anger and excitement of a young man, only guilt and uneasiness.
He had already made his sister sacrifice a lot. He had to grow up as soon as possible to respond to his sister and reduce the pressure on her.
Makoto watched Kankurō from a distance and could see that Kankurō had made up his mind to grow.
The Konoha Crush plan had indeed changed many people, but Kankurō's change just didn't seem very noticeable.
At noon, Makoto even invited Kankurō to his home for lunch, and then took the satiated Kankurō to the border.
One second he was in Konoha, the next he was at the junction of forest and desert.
Such a huge climate change made Kankurō, who had become accustomed to Konoha's climate, sneeze.
Temari laughed easily at this time and said, "Kankurō, you've been a guest in Konoha for so long, have you forgotten that you are a desert person?"
"Heh, a guest—yes, even as a guest in Konoha, life is more comfortable than in the Sand Village."
Kankurō sighed and said, "Sister, after peace, where should the Sand Village go?"
Temari couldn't answer this question.
The reason why the Sand Village launched the Konoha Crush plan was because they had no way out.
Most of the land of the Wind Country was desert, leading to poverty, and the military funds provided by the Daimyō were limited.
As the population of the Sand Village grew, it inevitably fell into resource tension.
In addition, the Sand Village didn't have enough missions to support the village. Even Rasa, the village head, had to go to the desert to pan for gold to exchange for food to fill the village's deficit.
Facing such a situation, the Sand Village either chose family planning, or chose to eliminate its own clansmen. The last remaining choice was to wage war on the outside.
Now the last road was not only blocked, but they also had to pay a huge price.
They couldn't bring themselves to take the first two roads either—of course, this time the Sand Village's elite ninja suffered huge losses, which was equivalent to completing the second and third roads at the same time. In the short term, the Sand Village's shortage of materials might be alleviated.
But the future of the Sand Village was still gloomy. At least Kankurō and Temari couldn't see the future.
Makoto smiled slightly, walked forward, and put his hand on Kankurō's head.
Kankurō was stunned and looked at Makoto in disbelief.
Although he called Makoto "brother-in-law," he wasn't much younger than Makoto.
After all, Temari was older than Kankurō, Kankurō was older than Gaara, and Gaara was the same age as Naruto.
Makoto's coaxing tone, was this bullying him for not being a man?
Kankurō was about to explode, but Makoto's words calmed him down.
"Don't worry, I can point a way for the Sand Village. Since you can't find survival materials inside the village or next door, then expand outward. After all, there are many countries in the ninja world without ninja villages, right?"
Kankurō retorted subconsciously, "Those places are also barren lands!"
"That was the past. The future is different."
Makoto didn't continue to play with Kankurō's hair, after all, this kid would really explode.
Then Makoto withdrew his hand and said, "But if you want my help, you must listen to my command."
"Kankurō, do you understand what this means?"
Kankurō wasn't stupid, even very smart.
After all, people who could play with complex puppet mechanisms couldn't be muddle-headed.
It was just that in the past, it wasn't his turn to think about such problems, but now he had to make himself Gaara's right-hand man.
So Kankurō frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "You think Granny Chiyo can't listen to your command, right?"
Makoto nodded and said, "Your Sand Village launched a war against Konoha for profit, for materials and survival."
"I think this is an extremely vivid lesson, enough for you to understand that morality and humanity must stand back before vital interests."
"Whether there are factional conflicts in the Sand Village, and which group's interests Gaara and you represent after returning to the Sand Village, these all need you to slowly sort out."
"But I can be sure that Chiyo is definitely not in the same interest group as you."
Makoto had experience as a Kazekage advisor in the Sand Village, so he was very clear about the political landscape of the Sand Village.
In the past, the largest group in the Sand Village was naturally the Kazekage corps led by Rasa.
Because Rasa was the strongest, and his son was a Jinchūriki.
Even if Rasa himself wanted to kill Gaara, and Gaara was a homicidal maniac without a single friend.
But as long as Chiyo didn't come out, no one could shake the status of Rasa's group, so everything in the village was naturally decided by Rasa and the others.
As a result of this Konoha Crush plan, Makoto killed Rasa's group cleanly, even Baki and his good friends.
After Gaara and Kankurō returned to the Sand Village, they would become commanders without soldiers.
In this state, they certainly couldn't convince the public, and the old generation led by Chiyo would step forward to seize power and try to steer the entire Sand Village.
Whether this was out of responsibility for the future of the village, or simply looking down on Gaara, once they appeared, they would become Makoto's enemies because they couldn't understand Makoto's future plans.
The so-called "One Country, One Village" system was to end the Warring States period where countries and clans ran parallel, and various clans fought constantly.
But this structure was an order forcibly suppressed by Hashirama Senju's personal strength. How could powerful ninja be willing to be oppressed by the power of incompetents?
Of course, old-generation ninja like the Third Hokage tried to rationalize the current system of the ninja world with spiritual inheritance like the Will of Fire.
Later, with the emergence of Naruto and Sasuke, they continued to maintain the inheritance of this system with their own strength.
But with the development of technology and the birth of scientific ninja tools...
Even ordinary people could kill ninja, and low-level ninja could kill stronger ninja with advanced scientific ninja tools.
The influence of personal strength was weakened, and the possibility of ninja distorting the world situation as transcendent beings was decreasing.
If this continued, it would be a difficult question to answer whether the Daimyō or the ninja identity would disappear first. However, even if the ninja and ninja village system disappeared, chakra and capable people wouldn't disappear.
In what form would this group of people gather together then?
The answer given by Makoto was an organizational structure transcending villages and countries, allowing capable people to obtain more benefits, that is, a technology trust.
The Akatsuki organization could maintain peace in the ninja world with its powerful strength.
So why couldn't powerful people unite and earn everyone's money fairly?
In fact, Kakuzu had always done this, and lived very well.
If it weren't for the fact that his hard-earned money was squandered by Konan to make paper bombs, plus Kakuzu himself ran into Shikamaru's group, Kakuzu's comfortable life would probably have continued for many years.
And ninja didn't have to make money by killing all the time, although they had done so since ancient times.
In the future, with the emergence of scientific ninja tools, the biggest outlet for ordinary ninja would become the manufacturers and maintainers of scientific ninja tools, and similar institutions and jobs would increase.
At that time, let alone a Sand Village, even if the elites of the Five Great Nations were handed over to Makoto, Makoto could handle them.
It was just that if Makoto told these ideas in his mind to Chiyo, she certainly wouldn't understand. In fact, even ninja of Naruto and Sasuke's generation couldn't accept a future where individual ninja strength declined.
And these were estimated to take shape completely after the Fourth Great Ninja War, so it was meaningless to say them now.
So what Makoto had to do now was to support Gaara and Kankurō, let them unite the younger generation of ninja in the Sand Village to gain a firm foothold, actively introduce scientific ninja tools, and try to shift chakra from combat specialization to production and research, paving the way for Makoto's future needs.
As for whether doing so would reduce the combat effectiveness of the Sand Village—if the Sand Village had no combat effectiveness, would other countries attack and invade the Land of Wind?
Conquer such a large desert to sunbathe?
No one would do such a thankless task, after all, even the ninja of the Sand Village themselves were starving.
From this perspective, the Sand Village was the best and most excellent talent gathering place, and it was a rear area that Makoto could easily master now.
Therefore, Makoto couldn't let Chiyo disturb his plan.
Kankurō nodded slowly. Although this topic was heavy, he still accepted Makoto's statement.
Because during his time in prison, he and Gaara had long talks more than once.
Gaara firmly told him that he wanted to become the Kazekage, protect the village, make up for his past mistakes, and atone for the war started by his father.
Kankurō saw a maturity in Gaara's eyes that didn't belong to his age, and even vaguely saw the spirit of a martyr in him.
Kankurō didn't know how to persuade his brother to give up this idea, so he could only choose to become stronger to protect his brother and prevent him from sacrificing himself.
But Kankurō also knew very well that relying on himself alone wasn't enough.
There was no one reliable in the Sand Village, so he could only rely on external forces.
Then Makoto was the best candidate.
"Brother-in-law, speak. I'll listen to you. As long as it doesn't harm the interests of our Sand Village or make me kill my compatriots in the village, I'm willing to listen to your command."
Makoto smiled with satisfaction and said, "Don't worry. Although I'm not from the Sand Village, Temari is mine."
"How could I bear to let Temari's hometown wither?"
Temari's face blushed slightly. She didn't expect to be involved.
She wanted to comfort Kankurō, but saw Kankurō's surprised look, as if surprised that his sister was taken by his brother-in-law at such a young age.
Temari understood her brother's look, took out her iron fan in annoyance, and planned to teach her brother a lesson, letting him understand what a sister's dignity was.
At this time, two large groups of ninja rushed over. Temari and Kankurō immediately prepared for battle upon seeing this.
Makoto watched quietly with his arms crossed, because he was very familiar with the arrivals.
On one side was Chiyo, the helmsman of the Sand Village. After so many days of border operations, Chiyo's skin was tanned.
On the other side was a tall and fat Akimichi clan member, Torifu Akimichi, the clan leader of the Akimichi clan.
Torifu Akimichi was of the same generation as Hiruzen Sarutobi and Danzō Shimura, and was also a member of the Second Hokage's elite guard.
However, as a member of the Ino-Shika-Chō trio, he had always kept a low profile. Despite having the power to influence Konoha, he concentrated on cultivating his own field.
Now that Konoha was lacking successors, he came to preside over the overall situation at Tsunade's request.
The moment he saw Makoto, he revealed a cheerful smile, and even opened his arms to hug Makoto, lifting Makoto off the ground before letting him go.
"Long time no see, Makoto-kun. Fortunately you came, otherwise I might not have been able to resist teaching this old woman a lesson."
Makoto and Torifu naturally had met, after all, Ino-Shika-Chō had secretly chosen to support Makoto. It was just that the spokesperson for the three families was usually Shikaku, followed by Inoichi, and Torifu basically didn't speak.
In fact, he was a cheerful person, at least towards Makoto.
Makoto moved his sore shoulders and said, "In that case, I won't be polite. Please support me, Senior Torifu, and watch me break Chiyo's defense with one sentence."
"Hahaha, I want to see!"
Torifu automatically stood behind Makoto, and Chiyo also focused her attention on Makoto.
Facing the powerful Makoto, she naturally didn't dare to act rashly.
But she wasn't afraid of death, so naturally she wouldn't weaken the momentum of the Sand Village.
So she took the initiative to speak, "Akiyama Makoto, since you're here, the peace agreement between the Sand Village and Konoha can be signed, right?"
"After signing the agreement, we are still allies, watching over and helping each other. Trade resumption is beneficial to both of us."
"Otherwise, the Sand Village won't be afraid to show our strength in the desert again."
After Chiyo finished speaking, the Sand Village ninja behind her widened their eyes one by one, trying to radiate their momentum.
Even though they were inferior to the team led by Torifu in terms of numbers and strength, this appearance still made Torifu frown.
He didn't want to fight, because every additional Konoha person who died meant Konoha was weaker against the Cloud and Rock Villages.
As for the Sand Village, he hadn't taken them seriously for a long time.
Thinking of this, Torifu looked at Makoto, curious about how Makoto would break Chiyo's defense with one sentence.
❃❃❃
⤑ Show your support with Power Stones!
⤑ Unlock a Bonus Chapter every time we hit 200 Power Stones!
❃❃❃
♕ Get early access to 20+ advanced chapters on Patreon!
🔗 https://www.pat-reon.co-m/c/Hollowborn
(Just remove the hyphen (-) to open the link!)
💬 Enjoying the story? Drop a review!
Your support really helps the series grow—thank you