Chapter 7.1- Gamer of the Desert

I stared up at Baki as we covered the ground to the village in a blur. I wondered if I should ask. If I even could ask. I know Baki had had several conversations with Lord Chigiri before we’d dropped the shaken man at the capital. I’d not been allowed into those conversations and what was discussed there was anyone’s guess. If I was a gambling man, I’d wager that they’d at least discussed the attackers. Baki hadn’t even broached the subject with me. Beyond giving me the duty of sealing up the bodies for return to Suna, he hadn’t even acted like the attack had happened at all.

“Uhmmmm” I led with, trying to get his attention, but remaining hesitant as to how to raise the topic exactly.

“Use your words, boy. You should at least be capable of that much” He said in reply, ticking me off and making me blurt out my next words with much less care than I would have liked.

“Who were those ninja, and what did they want?” I asked bluntly. Perhaps too bluntly, because The Bastard just turned to me with a raised eyebrow. The face curtain covering half his face swayed a bit in the wind letting me make out the scarred visage that lay beneath. I didn’t flinch. I’d seen his scars before, and the first time I’d caught a glimpse of them in sparring and frozen up for a second or two, I’d had my head rung like a bed, and the rest of my body pushed to the limit of their regeneration. He broke no bones, but he was in love with the idea of hairline fractures, and small bits of damage that would not be visible, but would hurt like hell in all likeliness. It was actually impressive to me how no one in Suna had offed the bastard yet. Surely his psychopathy had to extend far beyond me.

“None of your business, weapon. You did your job, albeit haphazardly. That is all you should concern yourself with.” He said, and that was all for the matter.

XXXXXX- THE FOURTH KAZEKAGE

“You maintain your suspicion that the anbu were from Konoha?” I asked Baki, trying to get his read on the matter.

“Yes. As I said in my letter, they used a wide selection of techniques, from lightning chakra conduction to mud clones to even water style jutsu. It’s difficult to place them as belonging to just one of the five, but our location and the fact that both Konoha and Mizu would have been able to find out about our trip means they’re the most likely suspects. Given that Mizu can’t do much of anything right now, it has to be Konoha. But that could also be taken advantage of by another one of the five, seeking to rupture our alliance.” He said, not lifting his head from where it remained, looking down on the floor.

I just nodded along to his words. Many saw the rough demeanour and scarred visage and took that for a summation of what he was. Even for ninja, who were supposed to be masters of deception, very few could see the keen intellect that laid behind that curtain he covered his face with.

“Indeed. My thoughts have moved in similar directions. What would you suggest we do about it?” I asked, testing the intellect even further.

“There’s not much we can do, can we? Konoha is never going to admit to it, and apart from the interesting fuinjutsu on their tongues, there’s nothing notable about any of their bodies. Their chakra systems show signs of training consistent with all five great nations, and even a few minor ones. We can’t get any actual evidence against Konoha, so I suggest we learn what secrets we can, and burn the bodies.”

There was a reason I wanted him to succeed me as Kage. He thought just as I did. If he was just a bit stronger, just a bit more polished as a shinobi, I’d have named him my successor and been done with it. Now, the village remained in limbo, the succession unclear, and the future shadowy.

“Those are my thoughts exactly. My next question is about Gaara. How was he? The report said he killed three of them.” I asked the question I’d been really itching to ask. It had taken all I had in me to not personally seek him out once they had returned to the village, accepting the reports that he was unscathed at face value. It would not be becoming of the village leader to run around checking the wellbeing of just one shinobi when there were over a thousand actively in the hospital at any given moment.

A/N; Basically what I’ll be working on for the next chapter. Hopefully I manage to write some more tomorrow.