Between shinobi villages, there had never been such a thing as eternal friendship.
Once a shinobi village became powerful, it would inevitably seek benefits.
That was why the Great Ninja Wars broke out.
At the level of shinobi villages, wars were never caused by emotional issues.
They were always caused by interests.
Take Amegakure, for example.
It had once been an ordinary small shinobi village.
Then a figure like Hanzo of the Salamander suddenly appeared.
His individual strength was extremely powerful.
He directly earned himself the title of Demigod of the Shinobi World.
Even if Hanzo of the Salamander's strength might not have reached half of Hashirama Senju, the God of Shinobi, that title was still enough to represent the recognition everyone in the shinobi world gave him.
After Hanzo spent years developing Amegakure and strengthening the village, the Second Great Ninja War appeared.
Amegakure was no longer satisfied with its previous share of the shinobi world's benefits.
If even a small shinobi village like Amegakure could cause such a huge matter, then what about Sunagakure?
Leaving aside how large Sunagakure's appetite might become—
Just the grudges and conflicts between Iwagakure and Sunagakure in the past meant that once Sunagakure's strength truly rose far above Iwagakure's, Sunagakure would definitely come looking for trouble.
"We need to get some intelligence on Sunagakure!"
Onoki then looked toward the direction of the Land of Fire.
"Konoha will definitely have the same concern."
"The friction between them and Sunagakure is no less than ours."
"Besides, Chiyo's son and daughter-in-law both died at Konoha's hands."
"And Chiyo is still alive. She still holds a fairly high position in Sunagakure."
Rasa once again arrived at the underground prison.
"Yagura, I have good news for you. Your Kirigakure already has a new Mizukage. Guess who it is?"
Yagura glared at Rasa.
But because he was restricted by the sealing scroll, he could not speak.
Rasa had no intention of unsealing him.
He simply read out names one by one.
"Guess. Is it Fuguki Suikazan? Jinin Akebino? Or Takeda Kaguya?"
Every time a name was spoken, Rasa noticed that the emotional points gained by the Confrontation Card surged sharply.
"Oh, right. There's more. On the official level, the Land of Water has already fully acknowledged the existence of the sailing groups. They even specially established a place to communicate with them."
"An island named Water Seven."
"The three great sailing groups have all formed cooperative relationships with the Land of Water."
"Then they copied the name Sunagakure used in Ninja Major Events Weekly."
"They named them the Seven Warlords."
"But right now, there are only three Warlords."
"Do you know the Land of Water sent people to contact Sunagakure?"
Yagura's eyes widened.
He thought of a possibility.
"That's right. It's exactly what you guessed."
Rasa said, "The Land of Water's daimyo invited Sunagakure, hoping that Sunagakure could send shinobi to the Land of Water's seas and create a sailing group."
"Sunagakure, Iwagakure, Konoha, Kumogakure, plus the previous three. That makes exactly seven."
"The Land of Water daimyo's vision is much stronger than yours."
"If the Seven Warlords are complete, then if Kirigakure still wants to exist, it will either become a small shinobi village or submit completely to the Land of Water daimyo, just like the navy that submits to the World Government."
The Land of Water daimyo's thinking was very simple.
Since the Great Sailing Era could no longer be stopped, he might as well participate directly.
Pull Sunagakure, Konoha, Iwagakure, and Kumogakure all into it.
That way, at the very least, order on the seas could be guaranteed.
Once order was guaranteed, and with the number of sailing groups increasing day by day, the entire Land of Water's economy would receive a huge boost.
Undeveloped sea regions would gradually be developed.
Compared to land, the sea was larger and held more resources.
The beginning of the Great Sailing Era was not necessarily a bad thing for the Land of Water.
After all, shinobi villages only competed with other shinobi villages.
In other words, only Kirigakure would be affected and suppressed.
The Land of Water could sit firmly on the fishing platform and obtain massive benefits.
Naturally, Yagura could see what the Land of Water daimyo was thinking.
And in Yagura's eyes, this was undoubtedly a betrayal of Kirigakure by the Land of Water.
A betrayal that would inflict immense harm on Kirigakure.
"Sunagakure doesn't mind sending such a shinobi force. After all, there are benefits in it for us too."
"With the Seven Warlords united, Kirigakure wouldn't dare do anything at all."
"Yagura, don't you think I'm right?"
"Under your leadership, Kirigakure did not become powerful. Instead, it grew weaker and weaker."
"You were the Mizukage. Do you think you were qualified?"
"Should I tell you how the shinobi world evaluates you right now?"
"Kirigakure's…"
"Worst Mizukage in history."
Yagura glared furiously at Rasa.
Facing Yagura's furious glare, Rasa smiled.
"And all of this is because you came to attack Sunagakure."
"After becoming the Six-Tails jinchuriki, your confidence swelled to that extent. You wanted to kill me and crush Sunagakure."
"You were far too confident."
"You had no idea how much you truly weighed."
"You are Kirigakure's sinner."
"In a few days, I'll bring you a copy of Kirigakure's own evaluations of you. I'll read them to you and let you see what kind of image you have in their eyes."
Rasa turned and left.
At this moment, the emotional value the Confrontation Card had obtained from Yagura had already exceeded fifteen hundred.
Rasa felt that once he brought over the evaluations of Yagura collected from Kirigakure next time, he would be able to push the Confrontation Card's points straight to two thousand.
At that time, he could end Yagura's life completely.
"However, before that, I need to interrogate Yagura for his ninjutsu as much as possible."
"The Water Mirror Technique and Mirror Still Water Technique both have tremendous value."
"Unfortunately, Sunagakure doesn't have a secret technique like the Yamanaka Clan. We can't directly read memories from his mind."
"We can only interrogate him."
"But Yagura definitely won't cooperate."
Suddenly, Rasa thought of someone.
A candidate who would definitely be very skilled at interrogation.
"Sasori of the Red Sand…"
On the path of human puppet modification, Sasori of the Red Sand had already walked ahead of Chiyo.
His own body had been reduced to only a core of flesh, yet he could still live tenaciously.
Then Sasori of the Red Sand should also be able to continuously dismantle Yagura's body while keeping him alive.
Maybe he even had a way to cut out Yagura's brain and read it.
Rasa took out a small puppet.
Then he placed it in the desert outside.
The next moment, the small puppet began moving on its own.
Very soon, it disappeared from Rasa's sight.
Not long after, the small puppet arrived before Sasori of the Red Sand.
"Rasa?"
Sasori of the Red Sand silently sensed the gold dust sphere hidden inside his core of flesh, covered in sharp barbs.
It seemed as if some terrifying power was contained inside that sphere.
Sasori of the Red Sand had tried to remove it many times.
But every time, he gave up.
"What does Rasa want from me?"