"Wait, Onoki. What do you mean, 'false information'?"
Rasa wanted to revitalize his village as much as anyone, but what choice did he have when he couldn't beat Konoha? Surrender? With their blades at his throat, he couldn't very well lead all of Suna's shinobi to their deaths. He'd already been forced to give up a tailed beast. He might be a swindler, but he had his professional integrity, he never sold bad intel. Now that Onoki had dropped all pretense, Rasa saw no reason to save face either.
Onoki just sneered, his glare promising violence.
'Still playing dumb?'
Inside the tent, Orochimaru lifted his teacup for a small sip. Tsunade found a seat nearby, clearly enjoying the show, and Takeshi followed suit, settling down wherever he pleased. The Third Raikage, for his part, simply sat in the nearest available spot, leaning back as if preparing to watch a play.
Onoki didn't care about the audience. All he wanted was to tear Rasa a new one, verbally and physically. Nothing else mattered. The man's gall, acting innocent after peddling such damaging lies, was infuriating.
'This is Suna's Fourth Kazekage?' he thought with a sneer. 'What a joke.'
He floated into the air, his voice dripping with contempt. "Think back carefully. Are you sure you didn't falsify anything?"
"I can swear that the intelligence was all true, otherwise..."
Rasa began his oath resolutely, but his voice faltered when he caught the half-smiles on Orochimaru's and Tsunade's faces. Jiraiya, meanwhile, seemed to be a million miles away, his head in the clouds.
Rasa frowned, turning the thought over in his mind.
'Could there have been a problem with the intel?'
"Go on, keep pretending," Onoki spat. "Tsunade, afraid of blood? How did I ever fall for that nonsense? The world's greatest medical-nin, terrified of blood? Could there be anything more ridiculous?"
"Pfft." At that, the Third Raikage couldn't hold it in any longer and burst out laughing.
Onoki and Rasa both shot him a look.
The Raikage quickly smothered his smile, gesturing with an open hand for them to continue. Onoki glared at him before clasping his hands together, chakra flaring between his palms. "Rasa, what else do you have to say?"
"Tsunade's fear of blood... it was fake?"
Rasa was stunned. He'd been played. Before he could process the depth of his confusion, the cube of Dust Release in Onoki's hands shot forward. The sudden attack jolted Jiraiya from his daydream, and he scrambled out of the way.
*Boom!*
Rasa's hands flew through a series of seals. The next second, the jutsu struck, and everything in its path disintegrated into nothing.
A few moments later, the Fourth Kazekage emerged from the ground, his forehead slick with cold sweat.
'That old man really tried to kill me.'
If he had been a fraction of a second slower, he would have been erased. He would have gone down in history as the most pathetic Kazekage ever, losing his jinchuriki, suffering a crushing defeat, and then getting killed over a bad tip.
He took a few deep breaths, his mind racing.
"Fast, aren't you?" Onoki said, his expression blank as he floated in the air. He hadn't expected the first attack to land. "How about this time..."
He shot toward Rasa like a stone.
"Wait!"
Grains of gold dust erupted from under Rasa's feet, swirling around him to form a protective barrier. As Onoki closed in, Rasa held up a hand, and the dust condensed into a massive shield.
Onoki just sneered and punched it.
*Clang!*
A few seconds later, the gold dust clattered uselessly to the ground.
'Earth Release: Weighted Boulder Jutsu.'
The increased weight made the dust nearly impossible for Rasa to control. He wasn't worried about that, but he needed to stop Onoki before the old man completely lost his temper. He took a step back and said, "Wait, I think we need to clear this up. My intelligence wasn't wrong. At the time, Tsunade absolutely showed symptoms of being afraid of blood."
"Hahaha. Kazekage, you must have seen wrong," the Third Raikage chimed in from the sidelines. "I fought her on the battlefield myself. If she had a weakness like that, I would have captured her long ago."
Tsunade had been there, but she hadn't truly fought the Raikage. What he said wasn't entirely true, but it wasn't a complete lie, either.
Rasa was completely bewildered.
"That's right," Tsunade said with a perfectly straight face. "It's intermittent."
The corner of Orochimaru's mouth twitched, but he managed to suppress a laugh.
'Intermittent...' Jiraiya thought with a sigh. 'Only she could get away with spouting such nonsense.'
He knew it was a lie, but coming from her, with that dead-serious tone, it almost sounded plausible. Of course, that didn't change the fact that she was, indeed, talking nonsense.
It all clicked for Rasa.
He had been played by Orochimaru and Tsunade from the start. The whole thing had been an act to get him to pass on the intelligence. Even if he hadn't sold it, they would have lost nothing more than the effort it took to put on the show.
Onoki had taken the bait and clearly tried to verify the information. Rasa couldn't guess the details, but he knew the result must have been catastrophic for Iwa.
This wasn't going to be resolved peacefully.
"Onoki, calm down," Rasa said, trying a different approach. "I'm a victim here, too. I was deceived."
"Hehehe. Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Jutsu!" Onoki roared.
The cube flew from his hands again. Rasa immediately used his Body Flicker Technique to escape, but he wasn't quite fast enough. A chunk of his hair was sheared clean off, leaving a ridiculously neat, undignified patch.
"Meow. Can't we all just talk this out? Fighting like this won't get anyone killed," the black cat observed, adding his own fuel to the fire.
Rasa shot him a dirty look and took a few panting breaths. After being provoked again and again, even he was reaching his limit. He was furious enough to fight Onoki to the death, but then he remembered the man's Dust Release and his weight-altering jutsu.
"Sigh. Onoki, can't we just talk?" he pleaded. "I can refund the money for the intelligence. That should settle it, right?"
"In your dreams! I lost three squads from the Explosion Corps and over a dozen jonin!" Onoki raged. How could money possibly cover that? These were jonin, shinobi Iwa had spent years tempering through war and missions, and now they were gone. His heart ached at the loss. Of course, a partial refund would also mean losing out on ten million.
"A full refund, then. A full refund."
Rasa was getting desperate. Onoki was a stubborn old mule, and if he decided to make trouble, no one could stop him. Suna was weak, Shukaku was gone, and he had to know when to bow his head.
But the thought of Suna's empty coffers sent a sharp pain through his chest. It would take ages to find that much gold.
"Hah, you wish," Onoki scoffed. "This little mix of truth and lies has been the death of me. You're not walking away from this for less than a hundred million."
"Impossible! Fifty million, at most."
"Eighty million!"
"Sixty, and not a ryo more."
"Fine." Onoki sat down, discreetly rubbing his lower back. It was already screaming at him. If he kept this up, his old ailment would surely flare up. Better to quit while he was ahead. Besides, he'd still "earned" thirty million from the deal.
The Third Raikage smiled to himself. This was far more entertaining than he'd expected. No wonder Onoki had been so eager to settle the score with Rasa. The man had not only scammed him but had cost him three of his elite squads. No one knew the value of the Explosion Corps better than the Raikage. The death of even one of those shinobi was a heavy blow. Three whole squads...
What a delightful turn of events.
Onoki sat with a sour expression, while Rasa felt like his heart was bleeding. No wonder Orochimaru had insisted he come to Jiraiya's camp. The Sannin had been in on it together from the beginning, setting him up to fleece him for everything he was worth.
Hateful.
"We have already reached an agreement with Sunagakure, and Kumogakure has settled its accounts with Konoha," Orochimaru said, his voice cool and slightly hoarse. "All that remains is our situation with Iwagakure. Tsuchikage, let us discuss the matter of compensation."
None of these benefits had anything to do with Takeshi, so his mind began to wander. He felt as dazed as Jiraiya.
'Since I'm bored, I might as well try my luck with the Gacha,' he thought. 'Got plenty of points to spare, and it's time I rewarded myself.'
In the long run, the lottery was never a total loss. Cat food, snacks, even those worn-out scratching posts had their uses. It was always worth the thousand-point investment, not to mention the occasional surprise, like that seemingly useless but decent ninjutsu, Head of Hardship.
Takeshi took a look at the current prize pool. It was pretty good. Aside from the usual snacks and toys, there were several solid ninjutsu, like Wind Release: Vacuum Wave Barrage and Lightning Release: False Darkness. No kekkei genkai, but with seven or eight jutsu available, getting any of them would be a win.
He decided to go for an eleven-pull.
A few bags of cat food, some snacks, and a couple of useless toys he could toss into the Ninja Cat Fortress later.
'Again.'
With his strength growing, he had more ways to earn points. A thousand or two was nothing he couldn't get back by fleecing someone later. To really open up new revenue streams, though, he'd have to leave Konoha. He'd talk to Tsunade about it after they got back.
She was set to become the Fourth Hokage. It was a little different from what he remembered, but she had returned, fought on all three fronts, and made crucial contributions to the war effort. In terms of both prestige and merit, she was more than qualified.
His second pull yielded nothing special, but it wasn't a loss.
On the third...
'Hmm?'
Takeshi's eyes widened.
Everyone in the tent suddenly turned to look at him. The black cat met their gazes, let out a soft meow, and calmly sat back down. They quickly returned to their negotiations, which sounded more like haggling at a market than a diplomatic discussion.
Takeshi listened for a moment before his attention snapped back to the item he'd just drawn.
'Extra-large cat tree.'
'How large is extra-large?'
The item was listed under "Furniture," but the description implied it was massive. Takeshi mulled it over, his curiosity piqued.
'If it's big enough, and sturdy enough, it could be a new building for the ninja cat sanctuary.'
That made perfect sense. He gave himself a mental thumbs-up for his cleverness. What an unexpected surprise.
He was on a hot streak. He pulled twice more.
He got a bag of luxury cat food and a few bags of standard ninja cat food. Not a loss, but not much of a gain either. After a moment, the black cat decided to quit while he was ahead.
===============
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