"Let this old man ask you something."
Ikki dismissed Rasa entirely, shifting his heavy gaze toward Chiyo and Ebizō. "The Kazekage of your generation—is he always this painfully foolhardy?"
His tone was casual, laced with a detached, almost mocking curiosity. Yet, the moment the words left Ikki's mouth, Chiyo and Ebizō felt as though they had been plunged into a glacial abyss. Despite the scorching desert sands baking beneath their sandals, a paralyzing, biting chill seized their limbs.
Chiyo and Ebizō exchanged a fleeting glance, their eyes reflecting a shared, bitter helplessness. They, too, wondered exactly when Rasa—who had once treated them with the reverence due to elders—had developed such unparalleled, suicidal arrogance.
It was one thing to throw his weight around the village and play politics with his elders. But to stand before the Iron Fist himself, spouting wild demands and bluntly ordering Ikki to step aside? It was absolute madness.
"Lord Ikki, our Kazekage meant no such disrespect." Though inwardly cursing Rasa's stupidity, Chiyo stepped forward. As an elder of the Hidden Sand, she had no choice but to act as the shield.
"What Lord Kazekage intended to convey," Ebizō interjected, stepping up beside his sister, "is our humble request that you grant the Sand safe passage across the Land of Rain."
When did the Hidden Sand sink so low that we must beg for permission merely to walk? Rasa's expression remained an impassive mask, but inside his pockets, his fists were clenched so tightly his knuckles had turned a bruised, bloodless purple. He knew the siblings were trying to cover for him, casting aside internal grievances, but as the Fourth Kazekage, the only things burning in his chest were blinding humiliation and deep shame.
"And if this old man refuses?" Ikki asked, his voice entirely indifferent as his gaze flicked briefly over Rasa.
"Then..." Rasa's face darkened. Just as his fragile restraint was about to snap, Chiyo yanked him back by the sleeve, cutting him off with desperate speed.
"Then the Hidden Sand will take a detour!" she declared.
What?! Rasa snarled, his composure fracturing into pure outrage. To be repeatedly subjugated and humiliated by his own elders was an intolerable insult.
Ignoring the Kazekage—whose livid face looked ready to ignite—Chiyo kept her focus locked on Ikki. "If Lord Ikki does not wish for us to cross the borders of Rain, we will simply alter our route. We have absolutely no intention of obstructing your path, my lord!"
"We humbly beg for your leniency," Ebizō added. Taking a deep breath, he ignored Rasa's murderous glare, stepped forward, and offered a deep, respectful bow to the man before them.
Disgrace. This is an absolute disgrace to the Sand! Rasa seethed. It is because we have cowardly, spineless fossils like you for elders that we are doomed to rot in this desert, forever barred from expanding past the Land of Wind!
In Rasa's eyes, Chiyo and Ebizō weren't trying to save him. They were taking the prestige of the Kazekage and the dignity of the Hidden Sand and throwing them at Ikki's feet, practically begging the man to stomp on them. The inferno in his gut birthed a dangerous, treasonous thought: strip the siblings of their elder status entirely. Once the idea took hold, it festered like gangrene, taking deep root in his mind.
"Take notes, little Kazekage. This is how you speak to your betters."
The moment Ikki uttered those words, the 'bravest' Fourth Kazekage in history nearly lost his mind. Had Chiyo and Ebizō not discreetly reached out and channeled chakra to force him down, Rasa would have gone completely berserk.
"Then... Lord Ikki, you agree?" Elder Chiyo exhaled a quiet, tremulous sigh of relief.
Ikki stared at Chiyo, a dark, amused smirk tugging at his lips. "When did this old man ever say he agreed?"
The siblings' faces fell. "But why?"
"Lord Ikki, could you at least offer a reason?" Panic began to bleed into their expressions.
Rasa said nothing. He merely watched the elders with frigid disdain. As far as he was concerned, Chiyo and Ebizō had brought this profound humiliation upon themselves. Had he been allowed to handle the matter his way, the village would have at least kept its honor.
"Since when does this old man need to justify his actions to the likes of you?" Ikki's voice was not loud, but the timbre had dropped, suddenly laced with a crushing gravity. "Do not mistake my idle amusement for an invitation to speak as equals. Stepping aside? Answering to you? Even Reto wouldn't dare utter such nonsense to my face, yet you think you have the right?"
As Ikki's tone grew heavier, the very atmosphere around them warped. Chiyo, Ebizō, and Rasa suddenly felt the air thicken into something viscous. It felt like standing in a rushing tide of mercury—heavy, suffocating, and terrifyingly oppressive.
Silence fell. Faced with Ikki's ruthless dismissal, Rasa's expression twisted into an ugly snarl, while the elder siblings blanched.
Did the arrogant boy truly think they wanted to grovel? He didn't understand. The deterrence of the Iron Fist was simply absolute.
This was a man who had single-handedly pacified the Warring States period, overwhelming an entire era of legendary shinobi and samurai with nothing but his bare hands. The sheer scale of his power was horrifying. Unlike Rasa, who was a sheltered product of the modern village system, Chiyo and Ebizō—much like Ōnoki of the Stone—were born on the bloody precipice between the old world and the new. They could intimately sense the terrifying majesty of the Warring States' greatest apex predator. It was a primal, instinctual terror that Rasa simply lacked the experience to comprehend.
Yet, their terror did not equate to total submission. As elders of the Hidden Sand, Kage-level combatants forged in the brutal fires of multiple Shinobi World Wars, they possessed their own fierce pride. If words were useless, and diplomacy had truly failed... they still had the grit and determination to fight to the death.
A/N: For this week, every 100 Powerstones will get ya'll an extra chapter! Thank you!