Chapter 39.1- Gamer of the Desert

I returned home to little fanfare. There was no ceremony welcoming me or anything. After all, I’d pretty much returned in one of the worst situations ever so I was not surprised to find no one waiting for me at the gate. What I was surprised at, however, was the meeting going on in the Kage building. The meeting of the Suna Council that I definitely hadn’t called. Oh, this was going to be entertaining.

I lifted my hand to my face and smiled at the unmarked skin around my wrists before dissolving in sand and allowing the winds carry me across the air, and through the windows of the meeting hall directly opposite my office. I entered and formed in a second, taking note of the gasps of shock. A few of them were even sharp enough to prepare to defen d themselves. I just smiled and walked forwards to the empty seat that customarily belonged to the Kazekage. None of them were any threat to me. At least, they had the good sense not to fill in my seat.

“I am at least 90% sure that I left orders that the next council meeting would be upon my arrival, and not before” I said, speaking to no one in particular, waiting to see who would respond. I didn’t know a lot about politics or shit like this, but my Charisma stat’s levelling up made things like this come easier to me. I just knew the perfect things to say and how to say them. Well, not perfect. The stat wasn’t at a 100 yet.

“Yes, Kazekage-sama. But the report from Elder Ebizo and his students was most pressing. The news that you were embroiled in conflict with not one, but two S-class shinobi, one of whom was the Tsuchikage himself was enough to bring up some need for urgency.” Yura replied, face giving nothing away as he spoke with an earnestness that I knew he wasn’t feeling.

“Indeed? Urgency, I can understand. But plotting for my replacement before my death could even be confirmed was most unusual, do you not think so?” I asked sarcastically, pausing for a second as Chiyo actually chortled and burst into laughter from her seat on the table.

“He’s got you guys by the balls there” She said, cackling. I resisted the urge to turn. To her, unsure if I wanted to smile or glare at the humorous interruption.

“Your treason” at that objections rang out across the table..”or intentions thereof will be discussed at a later date. For now, I have news. The first, and least important of which is that two Kages saw their lives end in the last week. Onoki of Iwa lost his life at my hands.” I said, enjoying the way the veteran ninja struggled to hide their shock. Telling them that there were two dead Kages was enough to get them reeling, but then immediately following with the fact that I was the one responsible for that death must have been scrambling their brains. They’d have a difficult time justifying their desire to remove me now. I’d proven that I could stand against the other titans of the Shinobi world, and name myself their better in some cases.

“The other dead Kage, is of course Hiruzen Sarutobi, Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure. He lost his life to Danzo Shimura, one of his advisors and former classmate.” If Onoki’s death had caused drops of shock to leak through their dams of composure, then Hiruzen’s snapped the dams in their entirety.  That a Kage would die was a shock, that it was the one that most of Suna saw as an indomitable bastion of strength was even more shocking, and then that that would have happened at the hands of one of his own ninja must have turned things up a notch.

“And that’s the least important news?” Ebizo said, with a look on his face that I found difficult to place.

“Yes. The more important bit for everyone here is just what exactly Danzo Shimura has been up to. He’s made himself the most dangerous shinobi in the world in one fell swoop.” I said, watching the doubt creep into their faces. ‘How could one no-name from Konoha be the most dangerous in the Shinobi world’ they must have asked themselves in their heads.

A/N; Heading to bed now. Just a short snippet of the next one.