Naruto: Rebuilding the Hidden Sand

Further down the path from where Baki had departed, there stood an ancient temple within the village. This temple was the Sand Village’s generational ninja temple, and it was also the earliest site used for sealing a Tailed Beast.

It was worth noting that the Sand Village’s Tailed Beast had not been distributed to them during the first Five Kage Summit by Senju Hashirama. The original Hidden Sand Village had possessed one from before that arrangement.

The First Kazekage’s negotiating position during those early summits had actually been built on this advantage, using it as leverage to secure conditions that allowed the village to fully utilize the Tailed Beast as a resource.

At that time, the First Kazekage’s reasoning was straightforward. The Land of Wind was a vast desert with limited productive capacity. To compete with the other four great nations on an equal footing, the village absolutely had to utilize the resource the Tailed Beast represented.

In the eyes of others, Tailed Beasts were undeniably extremely dangerous. Without additional restrictions on their use, once war broke out and all the great ninja villages began deploying them freely, it would introduce enormous variables and instability into the ninja world and make every conflict far more catastrophic.

The more Yuji had come to understand the village’s history through its documents and records after becoming Kazekage, the more he appreciated something important. From the time of the First Kazekage’s reign, the Sand Village had maintained close contact and communication with the ninja temple tradition.

Purely in terms of research on Tailed Beasts, the Sand Village had always been considerably ahead of the other villages.

Especially in Sealing Jutsu.

Regarding the sealing of Tailed Beasts specifically, the ninja world could now be divided into two distinct schools. One was the Uzumaki clan’s Sealing Jutsu lineage. The other was the ninja temple’s Sealing Jutsu lineage, which had originated within the Hidden Sand Village.

In other words, Sealing Jutsu was also a significant combat power asset of the Hidden Sand Village, though objectively speaking, after the development of Puppet Jutsu and the current medical system, Sealing Jutsu’s battlefield performance was considerably overshadowed by those two specialties and therefore lacked prominent recognition.

However, it played a very important role in the Sand Village’s history.

Among other things, the methods the Hidden Cloud Village used to seal Tailed Beasts had actually been obtained years prior by stealing intelligence from the Hidden Sand Village and conducting their own derivative research.

During the Sand Village’s development following the Second Kazekage’s rise to power, research into visual jutsu had increased and the positioning of Tailed Beasts had shifted toward being treated as weapons of war.

The creation of Puppet Jutsu during this same period meant the village’s policy became primarily focused on military expansion and conventional strength building. This caused Sealing Jutsu, which was relatively less suited to the village’s new development direction, to be gradually neglected.

But Sealing Jutsu remained a genuine strong point of the Sand Village to this day. Many Sand Village ninja possessed high-level Sealing Jutsu capabilities. In the original story, during the Fourth Great Ninja War, the sealing squad within the Allied Shinobi Forces had been composed mostly of Sand Village ninja.

Taking advantage of some free time today, Yuji had come to visit the ancient temple. His purpose was to meet the One-Tails Jinchuriki.

This place was considered a forbidden zone within the village. Even though the Sand Village had been almost completely rebuilt throughout the surrounding area, the ninja temple’s location had remained untouched throughout the construction.

Near the temple, on the road leading toward it, Buddhist statues and murals and sand sculptures with Buddhist elements appeared with increasing frequency the closer one got. The atmosphere was deeply contemplative.

Before the village’s broader construction and renovation work, many of these statues and murals had been damaged or had crumbled. Only about a year ago had they been restored.

He had passed by here often on his way to the academy as a child. His deepest impression of this place was of a massive stone Buddhist tablet buried deep underground beneath the temple complex.

"Lord Kazekage."

The three of them arrived at the temple entrance. A monk was already waiting there and bowed to him. Yuji nodded and followed the monk’s guidance inside.

They arrived eventually before the structure housing the One-Tails Jinchuriki’s confinement. Although it was called a prison, it was actually a row of buildings within the temple complex resembling a towering, enormous, earthy yellow sealed vessel, with numerous ropes and incantation scrolls imbued with spiritual power hanging from its surfaces. Inside was a grand hall.

Separated by an iron gate, an elderly monk sat cross-legged on a cushion within the hall, hands clasped before his chest, eyes closed. A Buddha statue stood behind him.

It was Bunpuku.

As Yuji approached, he dismissed the guards. Standing at the gate, his gaze passed through the barrier and settled on Bunpuku. After observing the old monk for a moment, a slight expression crossed his face.

Since becoming a Jinchuriki, Bunpuku’s life had been genuinely difficult. Even the guards had been harsh toward him. Yuji was well aware of this. But the old monk’s cultivation ran deep, his mind settled far above ordinary concerns, and he did not seem to be troubled by any of it.

Another kind of spiritual training entirely, Yuji thought, narrowing his eyes.

The presence Bunpuku projected gave him a very unusual feeling. Completely calm. Deeply powerful in some quality that was difficult to name. And yet carrying not the slightest trace of threat.

It was almost as though any ordinary person could simply end his life if they chose to. But this impression contradicted the actual power Yuji could perceive when he extended his senses carefully. He opened his hand slightly and let an invisible force extend outward.

The subtle fluctuations spread, and a moment later he appeared directly before the monk through spatial movement.

Bunpuku, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, opened them.

"First meeting. My name is Yuji. I am the Fourth Kazekage of the Sand Village."

Facing the old monk, Yuji felt something shift quietly within him. He wore his robes, his tone carrying no condescension, only genuine respect. He lowered himself slowly to sit cross-legged on the ground.

The old monk, having been confined and isolated for so long, was completely unaware of what had been happening in the outside world even though he was physically within the Sand Village.

"This sinner Bunpuku greets the Kazekage."

The monk bowed his head and spoke softly. He showed no sign of alarm at Yuji’s sudden appearance, remaining composed and peaceful throughout.

"You are no sinner. In my view, you are a hero of the Sand Village. A great hero."

Yuji said it with quiet conviction.

The monk nodded in silent gratitude, studying the young man before him with a calm and attentive gaze. He seemed to sense something different about this particular visitor compared to everyone who had come before.

Because whether it was the Second Kazekage or the Third Kazekage, both had been relatively powerful figures in their own right, particularly the Third.

But in their eyes, Bunpuku as a Jinchuriki had been nothing more than a tool. Not a person in any genuine sense. They would never have interacted with him in this manner, sitting across from him as an equal, speaking with this kind of gentleness.

This had simply been his fate, and he had long since made his peace with it.

"First, on behalf of the village, I want to thank you for your sacrifices over the years."

Yuji paused for a moment.

"But that is simply how the world works. You and I are both ordinary people caught within the flow of events larger than ourselves, unable to truly live as we might wish. You have your mission. Similarly, I have mine. As Kazekage, I carry and must manage considerably more than most. I also have more considerations than I can freely speak of."

"Therefore, I apologize."

He said it plainly and without ceremony, after a brief moment of genuine thought.

Bunpuku gazed at him in silence, his eyes completely clear.

The longer he looked, the more apparent it became that in Bunpuku’s presence, concealing or obscuring even the smallest of one’s true thoughts and feelings was genuinely difficult. This old monk possessed extraordinarily powerful mental energy, enough to perceive what lay beneath the surface of any person who sat before him. He could see through to the heart of things.

And beyond that, Yuji did not want to deceive him.

"What I just said is my personal acknowledgment to you, expressing genuine remorse. But regarding why I actually came today, there are two specific reasons."

"The first concerns the One-Tails that resides within you."

"The second is that I wish to ask you several questions related to Sealing Techniques."

He stated his purposes clearly and without pretense.