Chapter 58.4- Gamer of the Desert

“So you expect us to believe that this Yamanaka snuck into the village beneath everyone’s noses, took over the body of Mebuki-chan here and then used her body to set fires across the village and no one was able to find the Yamanaka until you arrived and then found them and killed them and now their body is here before us and Mebuki-chan is now freed from their control” Chiyo recited the long list of bullshit that I’d spent the last hour weaving before Suna’s council with a look on her face that said, ‘you have to be fucking joking’. I kept the placid smile on my face all the while and nodded.

She knew I was lying through my teeth. Most of the council probably had bullshit detectors strong enough to tell that I was lying through my teeth, but what they did not know was why. So they blinked and grinned and had to bear it. I smiled at the fact they could nothing but wonder what was going on. At least, I was certain they didn’t think I was a traitor or something so they were unlikely to do something drastic to get to the roots of thing. It meant Mebuki’s influence within the village would be curbed as well. I wouldn’t need to spend all my time wondering what she was up to or watching over her activities when I was going to have the entire Council doing the job for me. Even better, they couldn’t act too overtly because one of their own had adopted Mebuki as a ward so they had to be careful in that as well. Causing problems for them was one hell of a pastime.

“Now, we need to move on to the reason I called this meeting in the first place:” I said, killing my smile to show that the subject matter was going to get more serious. All around the table, various members of the Council straightened up and sent their full attention to me.

“As you must know, I led an attack on Konohagakure no Sato in pursuance of an alliance made with a rebel faction comprised of Tusnade and Jiraiya of the Legendary Sannin, and Konoha’s greatest weapon in the person of Naruto Uzumaki, the Jinchuriki of the Kyuubi no Kitsune aimed at deposing Danzo the traitor from his position as Fifth Hokage of Konoha. The alliance was projected to pay off in the form of substantial land grants within the Land of Fire, millions of Ryo in cash, as well as access to Konoha’s legendary scroll of forbidden techniques. The mission went smoothly. I fought the Fifth Hokage briefly and then the Leader of the criminal group, Akatsuki stepped in. He was a dangerous shinobi with the power to bring all nine S-ranked members of the organisation to heel on his lonesome. And he killed the Fifth Hokage before trying to do the same to me. We fought. I won. Much of Konohagakure no Sato lies in ruins due to the fight.” I said, enjoying the way they twitched at every bombshell that I dropped on their shoulders.

“The ensuing discussions between myself and the new Hokage, Tsunade of the Sannin were interrupted by another individual, Kabuto Yakushi. He displayed mastery of one of Konohagakure’s forbidden techniques, the Edo Tensei, and displayed reanimated bodies of several dead shinobi of legend, one of them being the famed Madara Uchiha himself. He claimed to only be interested in discussion and announced the convenance of a Six-power summit at the Land of Fire between Leaders of the Five major villages and himself, as the next leader of the Akatsuki.” I said, laying down the facts.

“Surely you do not intend on honouring the invitation. It is preposterous for someone like that to dare command the Kazekage to attend at his pleasure” Hiroshi spoke up. He was a new addition o the council, as I tried to expand it beyond the collection of old farts the attended my father and his predecessor into a group of relatively younger folks who could relate with Suna’s new direction. Still experienced, the youngest inclusion was in his thirties, but young enough to not be improperly attached to the echoes of what Suna used to be. Or to not be so attached that they opposed the new direction out of nostalgia, to be more precise.

“He claims to have custody of all the tailed beasts captured by the Akatsuki. Considering the Nine Tails, Eight tails, and myself were the last three according to our intelligence, and Kabuto himself has claimed to have captured the Eight tails, then anywhere from six to seven tailed beasts could be sent our way for refusing the invitation. I don’t know about you but there’s little I can do in the face of seven tailed beasts at the same time” I said simply.

It was the truth. Seven tailed beasts was a death sentence. I’d escape and move all my attention and intentions to evacuating those I cared about if such a threat was levied against the Hidden Sand village. There was no chance of me defeating something like that. Even if I did manage to transplant Nagato’s rinnegan in time and mastered it to the same level that had taken the man decades in months, I’d still have little chance of taking that on. Even if I managed to capture Naruto and steal the Nine tails and place it under genjutsu, I still gave myself low odds in that fight. Especially since Kabuto had Edo Tensei in his side. He had Madara, Deidara, and Obito. Those were just three I knew for certain. Then there was what I suspected to be the dead Seal masters of the Uzumaki clan. He had all the cards. It stabbed at me to admit it, but he had me in a position where there was little I could do beyond play his game and hope for the best. I had to hope he slipped up somewhere and then take advantage of that.