After half an hour, Onoki and his group returned to their side. On the Hidden Stone Village side, Onoki's expression was notably unpleasant. Even Kitsuchi did not dare speak, and the other Hidden Stone Village Jonin did not even dare breathe too heavily.
The reason was simple. The Tsuchikage had not gained a single advantage during the negotiations with the Fourth Kazekage.
They had originally assumed that since the Sand Village was proactively seeking their cooperation, the pharmaceuticals would be offered at a price below the current market rate. Who would have thought that the price Yuji named was the opposite. It was too high. Considerably higher than the current market price.
The explanation Yuji had given was actually quite straightforward. Current market prices were only temporary. As the fighting in each village intensified, medicine prices would skyrocket several times over.
Furthermore, as long as the Sand Village maintained control of supply, it would eventually become something that even money could not reliably purchase for the Hidden Stone Village.
Therefore, considering that the Hidden Stone Village was their top tier customer, the Sand Village man had spoken with increasing smoothness and maneuvered the situation with practiced ease.
He had framed the slightly above-market price as a personal favor to Onoki, presenting it as a generous concession.
Not below market. Not even at market. Slightly above market. And packaged as a gift.
Was this even something a person could say with a straight face?
Onoki had initially refused. But the more directly he assessed the Stone Village's actual battlefield situation, the more apparent it became that relying solely on their existing military strength to deliver a decisive blow against the Hidden Cloud Village was genuinely difficult, even with the Third Raikage's death creating a temporary window of opportunity.
To achieve their strategic objective, the Hidden Stone Village needed the Sand Village's medicinal supplies. There was simply no way around it.
After a fierce verbal battle, Onoki had been forced to reluctantly accept the cooperation.
Because this young man was extraordinarily precise in identifying the exact weak points in the Hidden Stone Village's current situation.
The cooperation had been designed and prepared in advance by the Sand Village to be something the Hidden Stone Village would find nearly impossible to refuse. Both sides gained something from it.
As long as there was genuine profit to be extracted, Onoki would continue the arrangement no matter how displeased it made him.
This Fourth Kazekage, acting out of consideration for his own village, had structured things so that neither party would turn against the other while the arrangement was in place.
"This young man is quite capable. Far more capable than the Third Kazekage. He is completely a fox. No wonder he inherited the Kazekage position. Be careful when dealing with him in the future and do not be taken in by his pleasant exterior."
Onoki, despite harboring obvious frustration, uncharacteristically did not erupt. Instead he calmly cautioned the others around him.
"Yes," they replied, exchanging glances and nodding.
On the other side, the group was on their way back to the Sand Village.
They first stopped temporarily at the Hidden Sand Village's position on the border of the war zone, where they met with Rasa and the others, including Shimizu's squad.
"Lord Kazekage."
Upon meeting again, Shimizu and the others had naturally changed how they addressed him. Their gazes toward the man before them carried a certain complexity, but showed no sign of displeasure. They were filled with genuine respect.
However, the Kazekage's rise to power had been too sudden and too rapid. It had caught them somewhat off guard. After all, the last time they had been on this battlefield together, the Kazekage had still technically been a subordinate operating under Shimizu's command.
"Lord Kazekage."
Rasa looked at him with a gentle smile and spoke after a brief silence. There was no way around acknowledging it. Killing the Third Raikage alone was enough to leave anyone speechless, to say nothing of every other contribution the man had made to the village.
"Does Lord Kazekage intend for us to reduce our troop deployment here and transfer forces to assist in the battlefield against Konoha?"
The group sat together in the tent, discussing the situation between the Sand Village and the Hidden Stone Village following the transaction.
Rasa was visibly taken aback by the terms of what had been arranged.
"For the time being, the Hidden Stone Village will most likely not launch another major offensive against our border. Their primary target is the Hidden Cloud Village now, and we will most likely only need to maintain a defensive presence here.
But once we begin delivering their medicinal resources, the value will become immediately apparent on the battlefield. It will give them a genuine strategic advantage, and the Hidden Stone Village will naturally not want to jeopardize that arrangement by turning against us."
Yuji nodded calmly.
"For the Third Tsuchikage, as long as he can gain strategic advantage and more tangible gains elsewhere, he does not need to fixate on any single opponent. That old man is very shrewd."
"Of course, this also demonstrates that our village's medicinal resources carry far more than just economic value."
He continued.
"Compared to the situation here, the battlefield on the Land of Rivers side is considerably more difficult to manage.
Konoha has reinforced its forces once again. In the short term, Shimizu and Sasori may be able to hold them back. But I am concerned they will not be able to sustain that much longer. Therefore, we also need to mobilize forces from this front."
He looked toward the quiet and reserved figure across from him.
"Rasa. I am leaving that to you."
Rasa was silent for a moment, then nodded.
"Understood."
"I believe that with your talent, you will definitely make Konoha look at the Sand Village's soldiers with entirely new eyes."
Yuji praised him further. Then he smiled.
"Once the war is over and everything has stabilized, the next Kazekage will be you."
Everyone in the tent was startled simultaneously. They had not expected him to say something like this. Even Chiyo's expression shifted and she moved to speak, but a single glance from Yuji stopped her.
For a moment, the tent was completely silent.
"I am being serious. The Kazekage position is genuinely too exhausting. I feel it is not quite suited to my temperament."
Yuji used a cheerful tone to break the stiff atmosphere.
"Fourth Kazekage, please watch what you say," Chiyo could not help but remind him.
"Hahaha," Yuji chuckled with a somewhat forced laugh.
"Lord Kazekage is joking. In the eyes of the village, there is no one more suited to this position than him," Rasa said, his tense expression softening slightly.
"Oh, even you think so?" Yuji sighed with exaggerated reluctance.
But after observing Rasa's expression and reaction carefully, he felt a quiet sense of relief settle within him.
Mentioning the Kazekage position had been a brief but deliberate prelude.
Having personally come to the front lines, and based on his assessment of the battlefield situation before him, Yuji proceeded to assign Rasa and the others their specific combat arrangements and military deployments.
His objective was singular. Prioritize maintaining basic troop numbers above all else. Using the ongoing battle against Konoha as the framework, he instructed Rasa and the others to lead reinforcements toward the Land of Rivers front, but not to engage Konoha in any direct and costly confrontation.
If the battle situation became unfavorable, they were to retreat without hesitation. Pulling back to the border of the Land of Wind was acceptable. As long as the fighting remained contained within the Land of Rivers and did not spread into the Land of Wind itself, that was sufficient.
Rasa and the others were initially somewhat confused by the instruction. But after Yuji explained his reasoning, the picture became clear.
The Hidden Sand Village's intention was to deliberately allow the Great Ninja War to continue running its course, and then leverage the surging value of medicinal resources at precisely the right moment to extract maximum gains from every party involved.
In this way, although the Sand Village might not appear to be dominating on the battlefield in the conventional sense, it would be reaping real and compounding benefits throughout.
Even the usually assertive and strong-willed Rasa was genuinely taken aback by the scope of this plan. His heart was filled with complicated emotions he could not easily resolve.
He had previously felt that his own personality was fundamentally incompatible with certain aspects of the Sand Village's direction, and that this incompatibility made him perhaps unsuitable for the Kazekage role in the long run.
But now, looking at what was unfolding, it seemed that whether one was suitable to be Kazekage had nothing to do with personality. What mattered was ability, intelligence, and the capacity to bring tangible and lasting benefits to the village.
The previous generations of Kazekage, with their strong-willed and honor-bound approach, had seemed to be preserving the village's reputation and dignity through bloodshed on the battlefield.
But a careful and honest calculation of the results showed the village had consistently come out worse for it. The losses had been severe and the gains had rarely justified them.
The more carefully Rasa thought through the approach being laid out before him now, accounting for every angle and variable, the more he could see that from a fundamental strategic perspective there were almost no flaws in it.
This Fourth Kazekage's vision had long since swept across the current landscape of the ninja world and was already looking toward a future that others had not yet begun to consider.
Rasa's emotions were deeply complicated.
Because he was beginning to vaguely realize that his own thinking up until this point had been somewhat extreme and shortsighted, that certain assumptions he had held as obvious truths were actually mistakes born of limited vision.
This dawning awareness made him profoundly uncomfortable. He was not yet willing to fully admit it or confront it directly.