Naruto: Rebuilding the Hidden Sand

A month later, accompanied by several bodyguards, he met Yagura Karatachi on a stretch of the coastal border of the Land of Rivers. The Hidden Mist Village had accepted the Sand Village’s proposal for a trade arrangement.

The two had last met several years ago. At that time, the name Blood Doctor Yuji was only beginning to emerge, far from the level of widely feared figure he had become.

Yet even then, he had driven Yagura away and resolved the Sand Village’s longstanding coastal harassment problem, further building his reputation in the process. It could be said that Yagura Karatachi, one of the Hidden Mist Village’s top-tier warriors, had served as one of his early stepping stones.

Now, meeting again, Yagura saw before him someone whose status had transformed entirely. He had become the Fourth Kazekage, one of the Five Kage. This was something Yagura had never anticipated.

The person who could single-handedly kill the Third Raikage had been assessed during their previous encounter as a terrifyingly powerful and extremely dangerous genius, but one who still had slight exploitable weaknesses. What had happened since then was simply too shocking to reconcile with that earlier assessment.

During their previous encounter, Yagura had not thought the other person could reach this level.

"We meet again," Yuji greeted him, looking at Yagura.

After several years, Yagura appeared almost completely unchanged. That same childlike face, like a spirit frozen in time.

"Keep the pleasantries brief. State the price," Yagura said coldly.

His approach to business was clearly different from the Third Tsuchikage’s. He dispensed with any preamble entirely. Yuji used the Hidden Stone Village’s arrangement as a reference point and offered a seemingly reasonable opening price. Both sides then began the negotiation, maneuvering around the numbers like a game of chess.

However, one thing was even clearer than it had been with Onoki. The Hidden Mist Village currently had enormous demand for medicinal resources. In truth, no village in the ninja world did not want access to their medicines.

Not to mention the particular internal pressures within the Land of Water that made the need even more acute. Therefore, even though Yagura, like the Third Tsuchikage before him, used the threat of escalating war against the Sand Village as leverage during the negotiation, Yuji firmly controlled the direction of the conversation throughout.

Whether it was the Third Tsuchikage or Yagura Karatachi, their differing personalities and approaches ultimately led them to the same place. The threat of war as a negotiating tool had become the established pattern and essential nature of how business was conducted in the ninja world.

Finally, after a brief negotiation, both sides reached an agreement.

After concluding the conversation, Yagura prepared to leave. The entire process had been concise and without unnecessary delay. He himself showed no particular warmth toward Yuji throughout.

"Oh. Please send my regards to your Hidden Mist Village’s Mizukage. I heard he has not been feeling well recently. If needed, I am willing to try to help."

Yuji said this suddenly, just as Yagura was turning to leave.

Yagura stopped. He turned and looked at Yuji with a wary expression.

By this point, the entire ninja world, and in particular those in positions of power, almost universally recognized the Fourth Kazekage as the foremost medical ninja currently active.

Konoha’s Tsunade, due to her long absence from active duty on the battlefield, paled in comparison in terms of practical reputation alone.

Beyond that, the value of the medicines Yuji had developed had become thoroughly apparent to every village and nation in the ninja world. Taking everything together, calling this Fourth Kazekage the strongest medical ninja in the world was, if anything, an understatement.

Most importantly, in the aftermath of his battles against the Third Raikage and Ai, certain of his abilities and information had become more publicly known. This included a healing technique that had never been seen in the outside world before.

As a result, virtually no one in the ninja world questioned the extent of his healing capabilities. To address the Third Mizukage’s particular problem, he was genuinely the best possible option available.

"Now that the villages are fighting so intensely, your reserves must be depleting considerably. In the future, if the Hidden Mist Village wishes to continue trading but faces financial constraints, you are welcome to use resources as payment for our medicines."

Yuji said it with an easy smile.

Resources?

Yagura remained silent for a moment.

What kind of maneuver was this Fourth Kazekage attempting?

The Land of Water was the smallest of the five great nations in terms of territorial area, and as an island nation, certain internal circumstances meant that the resources the Hidden Mist Village could actually access and deploy were extremely limited.

The Land of Water’s natural resources were simply not as abundant as those of the Land of Earth, the Land of Fire, or the Land of Lightning.

But the fact that the other party had raised this offer so openly indicated immediately that they were definitely targeting some specific resource that the Land of Water possessed.

Yagura, however, was a seasoned veteran and not so easily drawn in.

"No need. You should worry about your own village first."

Yagura replied coldly, then immediately led his Hidden Mist ninja away at a brisk pace.

Yuji watched them leave, a slight smirk playing on his lips.

Judging from Yagura’s subtle reaction just now, the Third Mizukage was indeed in genuine trouble.

"Their vigilance is simply too strong. They are all shrewd people. These older generation figures are really difficult to maneuver," Yuji sighed quietly to himself.

"Not a single fool among them."

He patted his own head, then turned to look at the guards beside him.

"Let us go as well."

He led the others away.

The cooperation with the Hidden Mist Village had without question allowed the Sand Village to replenish its cash reserves once again, and it also resolved the difficulty of the Hidden Stone Village being unable to sustain its purchase volume indefinitely.

The brief meeting with Yagura had also given him a chance to observe the man directly. Although Yagura was cunning, he was still considerably less formidable as a negotiating opponent than Onoki. That old man Onoki was the genuine old fox of the two.

The distinction was telling. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Onoki’s insistence on threatening war during negotiations had been based on his observation that the Sand Village was secretly developing itself rapidly and that the window to extract favorable terms would close. He had recognized what was actually happening and moved accordingly.

Yagura’s threat of war, by contrast, stemmed from a simpler assumption. He believed the Sand Village was currently the weakest of the Five Great Ninja Villages internally.

The Third Kazekage’s disappearance, the losses sustained during the previous Great Ninja War, and the perception that the Sand Village had not fully committed to the current war all pointed, in Yagura’s assessment, to a village barely surviving rather than one deliberately managing the situation.

Because of this misreading, Yagura believed the Sand Village’s restraint in using medicinal resources to manage the battlefield rather than committing forces was a sign of weakness rather than strategy.

He understood the Sand Village’s surface situation better than Onoki did in some respects, but he had completely missed the actual weak point in this cooperation arrangement. This meant that no matter how he threatened war during negotiations, he could not gain any meaningful leverage.

Ultimately, the price the Hidden Mist Village agreed to pay for the pharmaceuticals was even higher than what the Hidden Stone Village was paying.

Onoki’s threat, paradoxically, had made Yuji more willing to compromise on price because he genuinely understood the Hidden Stone Village’s economic constraints and knew that pushing too hard would break the arrangement entirely.

The Hidden Stone Village’s economic situation was genuinely strained, and if he wanted to continue extracting value from them over the long term, some flexibility was necessary.

His thinking now was straightforward. Regardless of whether payment came in cash or resources, as long as the profit continued flowing, everything was acceptable.

Drain the Hidden Stone Village first. Then drain the Hidden Mist Village. Through these two villages, he would ensure that the flames of the battlefield burned even more fiercely and consumed the other parties more rapidly.

Then, when the time came, he would turn his attention toward Konoha and the Hidden Cloud Village.