Naruto: Saving the Uchiha-Chapter 443.Kirigakure is Ruthless, but Rasa is Even More So

Chapter 443: 443.Kirigakure is Ruthless, but Rasa is Even More So

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Attack isn’t top-tier, defense slightly top-tier, agility isn’t top-tier...

In short, it can manage a bit of everything but excels at nothing.

To put it nicely, it’s a jack-of-all-trades; to put it bluntly, apart from being well-rounded, it lacks any dominant aspect.

Just look at the distribution of the Five Kage.

Kumogakure’s Raikage A: speed and taijutsu offense are all top-tier.

Iwagakure’s Ōnoki: possesses flight ability, his Earth Release and Dust Release inspire awe.

Kirigakure’s Mizukage Yagura: the power of his Water Release is unquestionable, and his status as a perfect jinchūriki alone is enough to overshadow Rasa.

Even Konoha’s Tsunade, considered the weakest in combat strength, holds more advantages than Rasa.

After all, Tsunade is a healer, a support-type ninja.

Tsunade is the type whose combat strength isn’t exceptionally high, but everyone wishes they had one on their side.

Setting aside... other aspects, Tsunade’s medical ninjutsu is in a league of its own within the shinobi world.

Based solely on medical ninjutsu, she deserves her place among the shinobi world’s elite.

Rasa, on the other hand, is decent at everything, excellent at nothing, stuck in an awkward, mediocre position.

"I heard that many oases within the Land of Wind have been ruthlessly destroyed by Kirigakure?"

After inviting Rasa to sit, Kazuki casually asked the question.

Konoha had always dispatched personnel to gather war intelligence in the Land of Wind and the Land of Waterfalls. Unfortunately, the number of people sent was small, and limited personnel meant limited information.

The war between Sunagakure and Kirigakure was both intense and bizarre.

Sunagakure used the environment and weather to their advantage, poisoning water sources and causing all sorts of trouble, forcing Kirigakure ninja to wear metaphorical masks of pain.

In return, Kirigakure wasn’t one to be trifled with.

If you, Sunagakure, dare to poison our water sources, then we’ll target your oases.

Kirigakure had grown weary of chasing Sunagakure ninja all over the place. After enduring repeated provocations, they simply directed their efforts at the oases scattered throughout the Land of Wind.

These oases were vital for the Land of Wind’s survival.

Every oasis was a crucial site for growing food and medicinal herbs.

It was this kind of frenzied retaliation by Kirigakure that led to continuous attacks and destruction on the Land of Wind’s oases, causing the country’s food production to plummet.

This forced Sunagakure to once again purchase basic supplies from Konoha.

Reduced food production was one thing, but what was truly terrifying was that Kirigakure intended to eradicate the roots!

They aimed to completely destroy many oases within the Land of Wind.

This was also the downside of fighting on home ground. With advantages came disadvantages.

Good and bad coexisted.

Mentioning this topic made Rasa’s expression turn sour. He gritted his teeth and cursed:

"Kirigakure’s people have gone mad. Not only are they destroying the food and herbs cultivated in the oases, they’re even wrecking the oases themselves. If this continues, habitable areas within the Land of Wind will only grow fewer and fewer."

What a calamity.

The phrase flashed through Kazuki’s mind.

He genuinely felt sympathy for Rasa.

And for the Daimyō of the Land of Wind, too.

However, during wartime, using various means to target the enemy wasn’t considered excessive. Even if Kirigakure was uprooting the very foundation, Sunagakure didn’t have many good countermeasures.

People could hide and maneuver, but oases couldn’t. One could simply look at a map and follow routes to find them.

Unless Sunagakure dispatched large numbers of ninja to protect the numerous oases.

But was that possible?

If they did that, Kirigakure would laugh in their dreams.

They weren’t afraid of a head-on clash with Sunagakure; what they feared was Sunagakure constantly using the environment to evade and harass them.

It was like being slowly cut by a blunt blade, little by little grinding away at their flesh.

The losses might seem small day by day, but over time, you’d be horrified to discover the village’s cumulative losses had reached an unbearable level.

Just speaking of recent events, a significant portion of Kirigakure ninja who entered the Land of Wind died from poison.

Left with no choice, Kirigakure opted for the "root-destroying" approach to pressure Sunagakure, trying to force them into a direct, large-scale confrontation.

Unfortunately, they overestimated Rasa’s conscience.

Rasa was a classic case of having a heart as black as coal. Never mind them destroying oases; even if they smashed the Land of Wind’s capital to pieces, he wouldn’t so much as furrow a brow.

Kirigakure was ruthless, but Rasa was even more so.

"As long as the water springs aren’t destroyed, the oases will eventually recover. It just takes time."

Kazuki offered a couple of perfunctory remarks before shifting the topic.

He certainly wasn’t going to help Rasa seek justice by denouncing Kirigakure’s heinous acts. Frankly, it had nothing to do with Konoha.

Whether the Land of Wind’s people could survive after the war was a problem for the Land of Wind to worry about. It wasn’t his concern.

"Kazekage, did you bring everything?"

"Please inspect it."

Rasa set down his teacup and produced a number of sealing scrolls.

Looking at this batch of sealing scrolls, Kazuki’s eyelid twitched involuntarily. Well, well. Didn’t see that coming. Rasa was truly prepared to pay a hefty price.

To prevent information leaks, he’d evidently steeled himself to be bled dry.

Unfortunately, Konoha wouldn’t compensate Rasa for any of this. How he transported the goods was his own affair.

Kazuki had his people collect all the sealing scrolls. Together with Rasa, they went to the newly built storage sheds in the camp.

"Kazekage, the supplies your village requested are all in that storage shed over there. You may inspect them first."

Both sides needed to check the goods.

Rasa didn’t refuse, nodding. "Alright."

Some things were better checked face-to-face to avoid disputes later.

Led by Shisui, Rasa went to the adjacent shed to inspect the supplies. Kazuki also had his people open the sealing scrolls and transfer all the ores out.

Back and forth like this, quite a few sealing scrolls were rendered useless. Rasa’s heart must be bleeding.

"Lord Advisor, the ore quality is excellent. It’s all good material."

Professional matters should be handled by professionals. Kazuki simply needed to wait.

Soon, everything was checked. After confirming everything was correct, Rasa retrieved any sealing scrolls that could still be used, doing his best to stuff the supplies inside.

Looking at the now-empty storage shed, Kazuki could only say, Nothing is difficult for a wealthy man.

See, if you had enough sealing scrolls, transporting supplies was a trivial matter.

Look at Rasa: everything packed into sealing scrolls, then stepping onto his golden sand to bid farewell.

Whether Rasa had mobilized all of Sunagakure’s sealing scrolls, Kazuki didn’t know.

But those things were quite expensive.

"Itachi, select a team of ninja to transport everything back. You will be in charge of this. No need to worry about information leaks, and don’t make it too conspicuous. Just exercise some basic discretion."

The items piled in the shed needed to be transported back to Konoha as soon as possible, preferably before the New Year arrived.

Kazuki assigned this task to Itachi.

When it came to handling such matters, Itachi was even more capable than Shisui.