Chapter 51.1- Gamer of the Desert

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“Lariat” he screamed as they smashed into each other. For the first time in a while, their strengths were equal. Bee wasn’t holding back or not giving it his all to avoid harming his big brother. Ay smiled. It was a short brief smile in the end. Bee overpowered him in one swoop and he was sent flying right back into the steps of Unraikyo. He got back to is feet with words on his tongue but they stilled as he looked at the tails floating behind Bee. There were six of them. He’d gotten him up to six tails finally.

“Well done, Big Bro” Bee said. Even ten portability abandoning his ridiculous rapping at the achievement. Ay wanted to puff up, to swell with pride. But he remembered. Six was a long way away from Eight. And even worse, this was only in the Version 1 cloak. The second version of the cloak was even stronger, and still had toxic properties. He was nowhere near that level.

“It’s not enough Bee. I need to get stronger, faster, better. And I need to do it fast”

“There’s no rush, Big Bro. Don’t rush. Fool ya Fool”

“Who’re you calling a fool, Bee. Better not be me”

His brother let out a sound that definitely wasn’t a whimper and turned around to flee.

“No running from the Iron Claw, Bee. Come face your punishment like a man”

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She stared at the report with no idea what to do. Two years ago, it was rare for her to come across a situation she was incapable of solving. Now, it happened every other day. Ao was dead. The Byakugan in his skull was gone. Somewhere in between Mangetsu being retrieved and his body being brought back, the Byakugan had gone missing. It had just disappeared. Those were two assets gone. The Six Tails was taken by a group of men with black and red cloaks- Akatsuki, she’d learned. Mist had no Jinchuriki. No Byakugan. And a dead former Anbu Commander, to boot.

There was no way this could be described as anything less than a total clusterfuck. Even worse was the report from their Operatives in Cloud. The village was militarising. Ramping up even more than they already were. Considering Cloud was almost always on wartime levels of militarisation, going even beyond that made one thing clear. They wanted to attack. And they were going to do it soon. This wasn’t sustainable in even the most vague terms.

She had to come to terms with that fact. Cloud would wage war by the end of the year, at the very latest. Her best analysts claimed that the present militarisation could only be supported for a few months before they actually had to declare a target and attack. If she were a more hopeful woman, she would deceive herself that there was some other target in Cloud’s mind than her own village. Decades of spinsterhood had beaten the hope out of her, however. It was for the best. Hope was an expensive commodity in the Shinobi world. She had to be realistic, and if she were in the Raikage’s place, there would be no other target on her radar.

Everything Iwa had that was worth something had been taken by the Kazekage in his attack. Even if there was benefit to be gained, the Raikage was a prideful man. He wouldn’t want to be a jackal picking over the carcass of prey killed by another. Konoha was too strong, right now. They were also actively ramping up their own military to support their charge across the continent and help in the Cold War with Suna. Suna was in a desert under the rule of a man who had Desert in his literal name. No one was stupid enough to attack Suna. That only left Kiri. And if she was being honest, they were only a bit stronger than they’d been in the heights of Yagura’s madness. She was doing her best, but things took time. Time that it was clear they would never get.

Training swordsmen, getting bloodline clans to return their members to the ninja force, getting their economy back on track, figuring out the situation with the Daimyo and ending that clusterfuck before it built up to another civil war, and another million things were all on the agenda. Even if there seven of her, she still had no chance of getting things on track before they built up into disaster.

She war-gamed it in her head. What would happen if Cloud invaded tomorrow? How would they do it? By sea, obviously. They had the biggest fleet and would use it to send shinobi right at her doorstep. She could probably force them to make shore in Nagasaki, but beyond that? She had no chance. What would happen after that? They’d either clear it Island by Island, or make a straight rush for Kiri’s core. The latter would probably appeal more to the Raikage’s personality, but it would be the wrong move. Kiri wasn’t like the other villages. You could have the Kage Tower and still not hold the village. Power lay in the Islands. If he moved straight for Kiri, they could take him out with guerilla warfare. Death by a thousand needles. Cut him off from Kumo, destroy his ships, starve him on the Island, things like that were well within Kiri’s playbook.

However, she couldn’t assume that he’d fail to take all that into account just because she wished he did. There was every chance that he was thorough and surgical about it. Tear apart Island after Island. A mad rush for Kiri would only be essential if he didn’t have the manpower and quality for a continuous push. She knew he did. One kiri shinobi might be worth three clouds, but it wouldn’t matter when they had them outnumbered 10 to 1. Every calculation she ran had her coming out the loser if Cloud waged the war with any intelligence. She couldn’t bet the entirety of her village on the hope that their enemy would be stupid.

She needed an alliance. She needed someone strong to stand with her. To give Kiri the illusion of strength to ward off their enemies. Her first thought was Konoha, but she remembered Ao’s words- “Danzo Shimura is the last person you should ever trust. He is called the Darkness of the Shinobi world for a reason. Invite him in and he won’t leave. Ever”. That wasn’t an option. She’d rather surrender to Ay than Danzo. Iwa was an option- two weakened villages coming together to equal one strong one.

The only problem was that that might make the Raikage even more likely to test his mettle against them. Take two for the price of one. She would give them good odds against the Raikage, but it was still 50-50. Those were fighting odds, not deterring ones. The only other option was a man she didn’t have the best relationship with. Suna was strong. Strong enough that she knew that if they worked together, Kumo would fall. Her operatives in the village were also clear on one thing- Suna was on the ascendancy. Gaara of the Desert, had somehow become a fuinjutsu master without peer. Everything in the village was enhanced with fuinjutsu on some level. Their ninja were equipped with weapons she could only vaguely imagine. An alliance with a power like that would be just what the Doctor ordered.

The only problem- he’d destroyed an Island. A minor one, but still a whole Island. He was part of her village’s weakness, even if a minor one. But at the end of the day, between Shimura Danzo and Gaara of the Desert, there was only one choice.

‘But was there?’ Her mind betrayed her by asking.

There was another option she hadn’t even considered- Akatsuki. The organisation of S-ranked missing nin. Sure, they’d taken the Six tails, but there had been no guarantee that Utakata would have ever come into the fold. Perhaps the source of her problems would help with the solution. Perhaps allying with them was just what she needed. And even better, Kisame Hoshigaki was a member. Returning the most powerful of the swords to the village was another benefit. The best part was that the fact that they weren’t a major power of their own meant that the alliance had every chance of being an equal partnership that she would have eminence in.

It had to be done.

Mei Terumi never noticed the red eye in the shadowy corner of the room that spun menacingly. It’s wielder smiled with sadistic pleasure before disappearing without leaving a trace for any to find.

A/N; Yes. I did that. More chaos? Sign me up.