Chapter 61.1- Gamer of the Desert

“You know I thought it would take you much longer to try this” He said as he walked into his office and found a very familiar body sitting right in the chair that he called his. The Ichikage, in his four years of rule had been forced to face many problems, a practically infinite amount from four of the great five villages: Konoha had tried to secede- twice- Kiri had needed to be quelled after the Jounin led a coup against their own Kage for capitulating to his demands, both Kumo and Iwa had needed billions of Ryo in repairs, and he’d been forced to step in with his own people once the dissatisfaction had gotten to unsustainable levels, and then after they received their aid, they tried to press their independence. So many problems, so many solutions he’d been pressed to find.

But one village had never stepped a toe out of line. Gaara of the Desert had turned out to be a man of his word at the end. They abided by the quotas, they followed the pricing structure he laid down, they paid their taxes on time and never skimped a ryo- their accounting practices had been a work of art- and copying the basics fit was the only thing that even allowed him to exercise what seemed to be a modicum of control over the ship he was steering without running mad entirely. The good behaviour was a warning sign on its own, however. Shinobi were naturally greedy creatures, and not a single one of them would bend a knee with no intention to rise again. To make it worse, the man that sat before him was just like he was.

“Really?” He asked absently, opening his eyes to regard me with them while spinning a very familiar kunai in his hands. The eyes drew more attention, however. A rinnegan in one, and a sharingan in the other. The Ichikage would almost have been afraid if he did not know that he had two shinobi on his roster with one pair of rinnegan each, and when it came to sharingan, he had quite a few.

“Yes. At first, I did expect you to pull something before I entrenched myself in my position, but after those first two years passed, I began to expect that you’d be more cunning and circumspect about things. Only come when I was at my weakest possible state or you were at your strongest possible state. Considering I can no longer sense the Ichibi’s Chakra within you, then the latter is not true and I know for sure that the former is not” He said, walking forwards and taking a seat right opposite his own. He’d play ball with whatever this asinine attempt was.

“Yeah, I can talk all about that, but I would prefer if you answered a question of mine first. I figured out what happened to Sasori, and Noel, and the rest of them, and you said enough that I have a very good idea what happened to Konan. But what happened to Uchiha Itachi? It’s a bit of aa shame that I never got to face him myself.”

“Uchiha Itachi, huh? Well, it’s simple really. I came across he and his brother having a fight to the death in the crumbling ruins of Danzo’s secret root base, and decided to introduce both of them to an ancestor of theirs”

“Madara, then”

“Precisely. It’s a question I’ve always had since the first time I watched the anime, you know? Who would win between Itachi and Madara? I got to watch the fight, and I wish I could say that it was close. But Madara was something else, man. We think we’re strong in the present day, but the things Madara could just do casually were something else. Both brothers went at him together, and they both died all the same.” The Ichikage noticed the way his rival’s eyes widened as he revealed the thing they had in common.

“You’re an insert as well, interesting, Explains a lot to be sure” Yes it does.

“Well, I could tell you were an insert from the beginning. Pretty much from the second Gaara of the Desert began behaving dissimilarly from his canon self when there was nothing I’d have possibly done that could have done that, I had a pretty good idea. And the rasenshuriken was also kind of a dead ringer for an insert’s jutsu if we’re being honest”

A/N; Surprised? I know this will be an unpopular choice, but it’s something I’ve planned for months now, and will not be backing down on.