Chapter 26.1- Gamer of the Desert

I stood in front of the teams we’d be sending to Konoha with a smile on my face. The smile brightened as my siblings caught it and sent theirs in return. Well, Temari did. Kankuro was careful not to do anything with his face that might distort the war paint he’d spent the better part of the morning putting on painstakingly. The fact that Temari had refused to help because she thought it was stupid, and my clone had been little help because he’d ruined it on his first three attempts and gave up to continue practising meditation. It was actually impressive that he could get that much paint applied all on his lonesome.

Impressive and fucking stupid. He was still going to have to spend a few days of travel before even getting to Konoha. Sure, it was paint that would survive the journey but he still had days to spend in Konoha before the first stage of the exams would begin. What was the point in applying it now when he’d have to reapply later?

I turned to the last two members of his genin team, and my smile bellied the depths of the pride I felt in staring at Shira as he stood near their sensei, Ebizo. His ase had crossed my desk after I revised the Academy’s requirements and I’d been quick to approve both his admission and graduation as they occurred months after each other. My record of one day at the academy remained undisturbed, but his three months there was something else. And I’d even looked in on a few of his training sessions, and he was good. Probably better than what Rock Lee was at this point. Unlike Lee, he was an actual genius. A genius of Taijutsu only, but still a genius nonetheless. In three months under Ebizo, he’d become better at taijutsu than I was. Better than everyone I’d ever seen. Technically, at least.
The other teams heading to Konoha also caught my eyes as I stood in front of them. We’d be sending around 11 teams this time to avoid drawing undue attention to ourselves by sending too little or too many. All of them were more than strong enough to survive the exams. I’d watched a few of their training sessions personally to make sure no Suna lives were being wasted by being tossed into the meat grinder that chunin exams could be, needlessly. There was also the fact that this would be the last chunin exams till I unleashed the hounds of war on Ta no Kuni and sent my elite jounin and anbu tearing apart the countryside in search of Orochimaru’s hideouts. I’d spent months coming up with a war plan, having anbu teams scout the areas to point out probable sites of bases, and getting the approval of the council. They hadn’t needed much convincing to get to my side of things, especially after Chiyo had gotten some success in transplanting the cells of the Dead bone pulse into a few foetuses at the hospital. We had a while to wait till we’d know if we succeeded, but they were hopeful. Luckily, Chiyo hadn’t managed to infect them with her unnecessary paranoia.

When the last team arrived, looking shocked to already see me waiting for them, I coughed to get everyone’s attention as I walked closer to them. Most of them were older than me, but they all still stared at me with a mixture of fear, awe, and reverence. All except my siblings, that is. The most devoted of them seemed to be a toss up between Shira and the white haired girl from team 17. “My ninja.” I said in greeting to all of them

“Genin of Sunagakure, I stand before you as proud as any Kage can be. A greater gathering of potential than this one has never been seen before, and might never be seen before again. Standing before me are the creme of the crop. The brightest candles of Sunagakure. Go forth and show the world our strength. Don’t let the winds snuff you out, and make me proud” I said before disappearing in a shunshin I was sure none of them could track.

One benefit of being kage was that I never needed to go on missions, so I’d had months to work on my skills. Mostly the subtle stuff that could be trained in the Kazekage’s private training grounds, but I’d still gotten a few city busters under my belt. They weren’t perfect but they were a work in progress.

Speaking of works in progress, I checked in on the clone working on meditation only to receive a feeling of disappointment. After six months, it was time for me to give up on that avenue of attack. My inner world seemed to be inaccessible without turning off Gamer’s mind which wasn’t even an option to consider. It seemed the mission to subdue Shukaku was going to take a while to be completed.

I had another appointment for now, so I moved the responsibility of thinking through the conundrum to that clone. When I arrived at the training ground, I found Dragon waiting for me, tanto in hand. “Are you ready, Kazekage-sama?” He asked, and I nodded.

He disappeared in a blur and it was all I could do to block his attack with the sword I took out of my inventory. Dark Sister, the Valyrian steel blade of Visenya Targaryen, and her great great grandson Daemon sang through the air as I pushed his attack back and tried to retaliate with one of my own. The blade had been left without use until four months ago when I’d gotten the idea to pick up kenjutsu as a hobby. I mentioned it idly to one of my guards, and the very next day, Dragon, the anbu commander, was waiting for me at my private training grounds.

The spellforged steel sang as it clashed against Dragon’s own chakra steel. The blade, enhanced with fire type chakra as it was, was barely enough to keep me in the fight. Without it, I’d be bleeding on the floor dead already. Why fire nature chakra? The blade refused to accept anything less. It took it in droves and rewarded me by giving me a blade that could cut through anything if given enough leverage.

I’d returned Orochimaru’s sword of Kusanagi to a noble in the Land of Grass that offered to pay millions for it, so I couldn’t know for sure, but I still theorised that the Valyrian steel would come out the better in that encounter. Even now, Dragon was careful to avoid prolonged contact between our blades and stuck to parries instead of blocks. The first time I’d cut his sword in two, he’d looked about to burst in tears. Of course, I had seven identical copies sent to him the very next month, specially ordered from the Land of Iron. It had cost a pretty penny, but since I became Kazekage, Grandfather seemed keen on tossing money at me like there was no tomorrow, and the bounty from Orochimaru had been a healthy addition to my personal coffers.

Speaking of bounties, I had another idea on the backburner that was supposed to come into fruition today. The meeting should have been set for an hour or two from now, but I put it out of mind. Mebuki would remain on top of everything. It was what she’d proven to be an absolute goddess with. The same organisational talents that let her graduate top of her class from the med nin training division made her hilariously overqualified for managing what was essentially an entire village. We’d both underestimated the job I was signing her up for, but hiring her still proved to be the right course of action.

I leaned backwards, dodging out of the way of a wide slash that had been aimed at my head before I transitioned the movement into a backflip. My agility stat governed things like this, and the higher I pumped it, the more my body seemed to ignore the laws of basic common sense and things like leverage and body weight. At this point, the bullshit the Uchiha fuckers could pull off in the anime was possible for me. Jump in the air and twirl between two flying shuriken? Sure. Easy peasy.

With the second’s respite I got, I bent towards the ground and shunshined forward till our blades met again. The higher perception went, the more usable the jutsu became in close combat. If I got it high enough, could I become the second coming of Shisui the Teleporter? Maybe. Who knew? We’d find out when my level got high enough. That was just it.

Dragon spun around my thrust before sending his blade at my neck. Dark sister lashed up like a snake and sent his blade flying backwards and I held it at the ready in both hands as I waited for his retaliation. Instead, he just sheathed his blade and said, “Our session is over, Kazekage-sama” I nodded and returned my blade to my inventory.

I’d started using it publicly after becoming Kage, and so far no one had asked any questions. Chiyo had stared at me suspiciously for a while but just gave up without ever asking. The others hadn’t even done that much. It had helped me understand the aura of mysticism that powerful ninja enjoyed even from their fellow ninja. I did strange shit, and everyone just ignored it, assuming it was beyond their level, or a secret jutsu only Kage could know or something equally ridiculous. I nodded as I received a message from the clone I’d left in the office. It was time for the meeting.

XXXX

The gathered Jounin and special jounin of Sunagakure were enough to fill up a whole hall in the Kage building, so I’d chosen to use a public training ground for this meetup. The fact that there was sand right at their feet should deter anyone stupid from living up to their nature. I wasn’t expecting betrayal at this point, but that didn’t stop me from realising that this was the best time for anyone who’d gotten most of the jounin on their side to spring a trap.

Civil war wasn’t coming to the best of my knowledge, but leaders rarely ever knew when they were going to be deposed. I thought my policies were popular but how would I ever truly know? Everyone could have been lying to my face. It was more likely that they were than they weren’t, if I was being honest.

“Is everyone here?” I asked Mebuki and she nodded after consulting with our clipboard.

“Yes, Kazekage-sama. Every Jounin and Tokubetsu Jounin of Sunagakure within the village. Even the ones that had been on leave” I nodded, staring at them for a few seconds as I contemplated what my approach was going to be.

“Welcome Everyone. I will be straight to the point. Today, I am announcing a new division of Suna’s military and a change in how we operate. The bounty hunting office will be headed by Yura, Jounin of Sunagakure, and staffed by a team of Chunin handpicked by me, and their functions are why I have gathered you here today” Nothing greeted my words but dead silence. They were all experience shinobi. Hiding their reactions and emotions was child’s play to them.

Besides, nothing I’d said really concerned them.

“The part that concerns you is that Suna will now back all bounty hunting activities. In fact, we will do more than that. Each of you is encouraged to form teams at will and seek out targets on the bingo book. Any ninja with bounties you capture or kill can be turned in at the Bounty office and you will receive 70% of the bounties as yours to keep” This one sent a hush through the crowd. They’d been silent before, but the feeling of the silence was beginning to change. This one tasted of anticipation as they hung on to my every word.

A/N; A good place to stop? Maybe. I’ll be back on the other stories tomorrow. Got a nasty case of the writer’s block mixed with the FIFA bug (been playing a lot of career mode after catching up on the Blue Lock manga.) If you’re not reading Blue Lock, I 100% recommend. It’s pure hype