Gaara has a fever.
He dreamed of many terrible things:
The One-Tail Shukaku, war, Rasa, death, blood, Rasa, falling...
His father's stern face kept appearing in his terrifying dreams. Instead of making Gaara feel safe, it made him tremble even more.
"Dad..."
Rasa heard his son call out, sat beside him, and felt Gaara's forehead. He whispered,
"I'm here."
But as soon as he finished speaking, he heard Gaara say again:
"Don't come near me, stay away."
Rasa froze on the spot.
"Pfft."
Laughter came from behind him. Rasa turned his head and saw that Granny Chiyo, eating sweet beans, had somehow wandered to the doorway.
"He's delirious from the fever," Rasa explained.
Granny Chiyo smiled. "Heh."
Rasa explained, "You're older, you might not understand. 'Heh' doesn't mean anything good among young people."
Granny Chiyo gave him a sideways glance. "I understand."
Rasa: "..."
Granny Chiyo: "Heh."
Rasa shook his head, touched Gaara's burning forehead, and hesitated for a moment before finally picking him up.
"I'm going to find Linto. Gaara's condition is very strange, his Tailed Beast Chakra is extremely chaotic.
Didn't they say the Uchihas can control Tailed Beasts? I'll have him try to suppress the power of the One-Tail."
Granny Chiyo nodded. "Yes, yes, Tailed Beast matters are for the Uchihas."
The distance from the courtyard to the Daimyo's mansion isn't far. For a ninja, it takes less than ten minutes to get there.
But just as Rasa was about to leave with Gaara on his back, all the lights in the courtyard went out.
Not only the courtyard, but everything in sight was plunged into darkness. Only a few candlelight flickered with faint light. In the glow of this flickering light, a figure slowly approached from the depths of the small yard.
Rasa felt the figure was somewhat familiar. When it got closer, he realized it was a bald man.
"Hoichi?"
Rasa was first surprised, then saw the pipa on Monk Hoichi's back. He then thought of the monk's specialty in controlling Jinchuriki with Ninjutsu, and Gaara's strange state. In an instant, he understood:
"You're behind this?!"
Monk Hoichi clasped his hands together and bowed to Rasa and Granny Chiyo.
"It's not causing trouble."
Monk Hoichi looked at Rasa, his eyes filled with the compassion unique to a monk. "I'm giving you an opportunity."
Rasa and Granny Chiyo had no intention of playing word games with Monk Hoichi.
One controlled sand, the other summoned puppets.
They wanted to see if, after beating this bald monk half to death, he would still spout such ambiguous nonsense.
Just as Rasa was about to make a move—
"Don't you want to kill the Daimyo?"
Sand poured from the sky, hanging in mid-air.
Rasa licked his lips. "Explain."
Monk Hoichi stopped playing coy and briefly explained the current situation to Rasa.
"...The whole city is rebelling now, but it's not enough.
With Linto's power, if he wanted to, there's a chance he could quickly suppress the rebellion and control the situation.
We need something to briefly stall Linto."
Monk Hoichi pointed at Gaara.
"The One-Tail Shukaku goes berserk, causing chaos throughout the city. Linto defeats the One-Tail, but doesn't have time to stop the rebellion... that's how it's done."
Rasa understood his plan.
Once everything is in utter chaos, hatred will sprout. Those who believe in the awakening ideology will fight desperately, fueled by hatred. Linto has to choose whether to save or not save, whether the revolting samurai live or die.
When many innocent civilians are dead, they will look expectantly at Linto, hoping he will decapitate Tokugawa Daimyo, just as he did to the former Daimyo of the Land of Water.
Will Linto cut off his head, or not?
Rasa suddenly realized.
"Isn't this the kill-or-be-killed dilemma I encountered at the city gate this morning?"
But this morning, Linto could throw his sword away. Now…
No.
Linto had to make a choice.
Because not choosing is, in the eyes of many, also a choice!
"Is this a trap set by the Daimyo?" Rasa asked.
Monk Hoichi snorted. "He's not worthy! A cowardly pig who chose to surrender.
Rasa, hand Gaara over to me, and you can achieve your dream of killing the Daimyo."
Trading Gaara's life for Tokugawa Nobuyoshi's life?
Rasa gently set Gaara down from his back.
Granny Chiyo frowned and softly called Rasa's name, telling him not to be foolish.
But Rasa remained silent.
Seeing that Rasa didn't speak, and with time pressing, Monk Hoichi assumed he had tacitly agreed. He took off his pipa and sat on the ground.
He pressed the strings with his left hand and plucked them sharply with his right. A clear, cascading melody filled the air.
A seam tore open in Monk Hoichi's kasaya, revealing countless Sanskrit scriptures on his chest. Black chains surged out from his chest.
This was Monk Hoichi's specialized sealing jutsu:
"Immortal Sealing Absorption"
Activated by music, the chains would track Tailed Beast Chakra within a hundred-meter radius and pierce into the Jinchuriki's body to control the Tailed Beast.
In this era, where ninjas still had to make hand seals, couldn't just clap and get what they wanted, and Jinchuriki were still considered nuclear weapons, Monk Hoichi was truly a strategic talent.
It was precisely because of this that Rasa had gradually sidelined him—
After all, the Jinchuriki was his own son. Who would want someone in the village specifically capable of dealing with their son?
Not deliberately targeting him was the most Rasa could do.
But for Monk Hoichi, who had studied under Master Fenfu for most of his life and was waiting for a chance to make great achievements, Rasa's actions were a complete betrayal.
"Killing your son right in front of you is the price you pay for ostracizing me before."
"This is karma!"
The chains shot out, about to pierce Gaara three times, when suddenly a rough hand appeared and grabbed all the chains.
Rasa, tugging on the chains, slowly looked up.
"Back in the village, you treated me like a miner."
"Now, outside the village, you treat me like Linto's subordinate."
"But you wouldn't have truly forgotten—"
Rasa's gaze was haughty, shedding his usual ordinariness.
"I am the Fourth Kazekage!"
"Do you think I want to kill the Daimyo for no reason? Or that I follow Linto for nothing?"
"It's all so my family and the people of my village won't be bullied anymore, so they won't have to suffer poverty and hardship.
And now you're telling me that to kill some worthless Daimyo, you'll trade my son's life?"
Rasa raised his hand, countless grains of sand suspended in the air, forming thousands of sharp steel needles.
He coldly stared at Monk Hoichi.
"You will die here today."
At the same time, inside the Daimyo's mansion, a group of dignitaries and celebrities were in a panic in the darkness.
Everyone was running.
Some wanted to hide in a safe place, others were directing samurai to set up defenses.
Servants hurried to light candles, but as soon as they were brought, they were blown out again by the wind stirred by the fleeing people.
Only Tokugawa Nobuyoshi stood by the window, motionless.
He had roughly guessed what was happening outside and explained it to Linto.
"Aren't you afraid of dying?" Linto asked.
Tokugawa Nobuyoshi said, "The more disappointed a person is, the less they should lose their composure."
"Prestige and substance, you have to have one."
Linto sighed softly. "Indeed."
Killing the Daimyo to appease the masses was prestige.
Suppressing a fake rebellion was substance.
"So, Mr. Linto,"
Tokugawa Nobuyoshi raised his wine glass and gently clinked it with Linto.
"What's your choice?"