At this point, Deidara was in some ways very similar to the original Naruto. Even their appearances shared certain qualities, both having blond hair, though Deidara's was somewhat longer.
But where Naruto had deliberately played pranks in the village to attract attention and be acknowledged, Deidara genuinely found the Sand Village somewhat distasteful and indirectly looked down on it. That was why he refused to attend school.
Deidara's talent for Earth Release was truly outstanding. Even without having become a proper ninja yet, he had a clear-eyed judgment of the skill level of those teaching him Earth Release techniques. Unlike other children his age, he simply could not respect teachers whose mastery he found insufficient.
The Sand Village now possessed no shortage of Earth Release resources, but the gap in skill level between their practitioners and the Hidden Stone Village's remained vast. For Deidara, who had spent time training alongside Kitsuchi's group, it was natural that he found his current teachers uninspiring and refused to attend their classes.
But these were only the surface issues.
The core problem was that this child had suddenly realized he was not originally from the Sand Village and had immediately lost his sense of belonging, coming to see himself as an outsider. That was why he kept clamoring to return to the Stone Village. His attitude had undergone a complete reversal.
Resolving Deidara's problem would require the help of someone specific.
Because what Deidara's behavior ultimately sought was simple. Acknowledgment. Acknowledgment that he was a Sand Village person. The knot in the small boy's heart needed to be untangled.
Previously, Deidara and Yuji had maintained a good relationship, partly because of the added connection between them, and partly because Yuji had frequently brought food to the orphanage children and had guided them from a young age, teaching them how to become outstanding Sand Village ninja.
After all, these children were the talented individuals included in the village's core cultivation plan, and they were story characters with genuine future potential. To say Yuji held no particular investment in them would be impossible.
So in the eyes of these children, the Kazekage could be considered something of a teacher figure. His Earth Release skill level, while not at the absolute top tier, was still far superior to the academy's regular instructors.
However, as Kazekage he had too many important matters demanding his attention and could not devote himself to these young ones as much as he might have liked. The frequency of his visits had decreased considerably compared to the orphanage days. And several of them were already approaching the age of entering more advanced training. He did not need to worry about them as much anymore.
Do not be fooled by Deidara's insistence on returning to the Hidden Stone Village or his claims of belonging there. The truth was that even if Yuji truly ignored him completely, Deidara would at most leave the village briefly before returning on his own.
It was not that Deidara could not let go of the Sand Village or of the Kazekage.
Rather, within the Sand Village there was someone Deidara missed more than anyone.
Karura.
In the orphanage, all the children had essentially been raised by Karura, who had served as a mother figure to all of them. Including Deidara, and like Kimimaro and Jugo, almost every one of them had been shaped in some way by Karura's influence. Their personalities had all undergone subtle transformations because of her.
It could be said that these characters, in this version of events, might one day clash with each other over various things, but they would absolutely never oppose Karura. For them, she was the most important person.
"I really am still not good at handling children's problems," Yuji shook his head and turned to leave.
He planned to tell Karura about Deidara's situation and see if she had any ideas.
For the period that followed, Deidara was relatively quiet.
After informing Karura about the situation, Yuji temporarily set the matter aside.
The Sand Village members who had been away on missions gradually returned to the village and received their gene-modifying medicine injections. Any surplus supply was distributed in large quantities to each partner nation and village.
Next, the major hidden villages sent out their second groups of students to study in the Sand Village, and this time the numbers were even greater than the first round. This was because in addition to medical knowledge, they now also wanted to study medical techniques directly.
Furthermore, there were quite a few ordinary civilians and professional staff who wanted to make use of the Sand Village's specialized vocational school to cultivate talent across various trades. Other hidden villages' educational institutions simply lacked this kind of human and professional resource depth.
The Sand Village's specialized school, which trained instructors across various trades, was something the village had intentionally invested heavily in, using connections to invite skilled teachers from across the ninja world.
It had gathered not only the Sand Village's top talent but some of the most capable individuals in the entire ninja world across their respective fields. Looking across the entire ninja world, the Sand Village was unique in possessing an educational system this financially robust and comprehensive.
Therefore, unlike Konoha, other villages did not need to invest beyond the standard study fee. They only needed to temporarily cooperate with the Sand Village to cultivate their own talent.
And this time, it also provided another opportunity for Deidara to interact with Hidden Stone Village representatives and learn from them. Yuji was not concerned about this. Since the problem had already emerged, avoiding it was useless anyway.
This time, the representatives from the various villages did not carry quite the same weight as the previous round's delegation leaders. The Hidden Stone Village was led by an elite Jonin.
Konoha sent the new generation Ino-Shika-Cho trio, led by Nara Shikamaru's mother. The original group leader Yamanaka Inoichi had passed away, and a new face had taken his place. Sending her here indicated that Minato had ulterior motives. Because with her intelligence, after personally visiting the Sand Village she could more intuitively analyze and feel the Sand Village's powerful management mechanisms firsthand.
From there she could conduct analysis and combine it with Konoha's current situation to make improvements. To put it plainly, she could better understand the Sand Village's underlying framework.
Yuji understood all of this perfectly and did not particularly care. The Sand Village was now operating as an open institution. Naturally he was not afraid of being observed or learned from.
Meanwhile, the representatives from the Hidden Mist Village were Ao and Terumi Mei. This was Terumi Mei's second visit to the Sand Village.
Upon meeting Yuji again, Terumi Mei's reaction was noticeably different from before. The particular quality of admiration she had shown previously was no longer present in the same way. Because Yuji had become Pakura's husband. He was no longer the unattached figure Terumi Mei had once considered.
Although she still greatly admired him as a ninja and as the Kazekage, the romantic dimension of those feelings no longer applied.
Furthermore, the woman he had married was Pakura, the strongest female ninja in the Sand Village's history. Terumi Mei had personally witnessed Pakura's performance at the previous exchange gathering.
Because of this, Terumi Mei found herself somewhat at a loss for words on the matter.
If it had been any other woman, she might have entertained some competitive thoughts. But this particular situation left little room for that.
While all of this was progressing steadily, in the blink of an eye the year drew to a close.
During this period, one significant event occurred.
Pakura gave birth to a child.
The Fourth Kazekage's son. A boy. Yuji named him Ryuu.
Born in year fifty-five of the Hokage era, he was the same age as Sarutobi Konohamaru and his companions in Konoha.
Having a descendant did not change how Yuji felt about things in any dramatically emotional sense. The only real change was perhaps the addition of another layer to his identity. He had gained the status of a father.
Shortly after, in the fifty-sixth year of the Hokage era, news spread throughout the ninja world.
The establishment of a new hidden village in the Land of Rice. The Hidden Sound Village.