Rasa looked at the village through the windows of his office, in the Kazekage building. His hands were crossed behind his back and his eyes narrowed, contemplating the sea of lanterns that dotted the city's night streets.
A cool breeze gently swept through, displacing the persistent heat of the day.
—Anything new this time?— the redhead asked without turning around.
A shadow materialized in the center of the office, kneeling, its face covered by a mask with a twisted design, like the face of a demon.
—Nothing, Kazekage-Sama. The boy hides behind a whirlpool of water and expels more chakra than necessary, preventing our sensors from studying him properly— the Anbu reported.
—Tch, and what about those who provided the chakra? Did they discover anything?— Rasa asked, clicking his tongue.
—No, Kazekage-Sama. Their testimonies indicate that, apart from the feeling of emptiness, there is no other mechanism involved.
Rasa nodded slowly, dismissing the Anbu with a wave of his hand and remaining alone in the office.
He hated the lack of results. The first time, he was caught off guard and couldn't study the brat's abilities. The second time, he began to hide himself in that water whirlpool, preventing his Anbu from recording anything useful.
And now, he even started using more chakra just to confuse his sensors. And on all three occasions? His shinobi affected by the Dark Release couldn't report anything noteworthy.
But there wasn't much that could be done. The agreement prevented certain experiments from being carried out.
Rasa found himself respecting the boy a little for his cunning. The terms of their contract helped preserve his secrets and security.
The previous year, Sunagakure was in a much more precarious situation than it is now. The Wind Daimyō cut their funding further, Suna's missions were taken by Konoha shinobi, and the winter did not bring much rain.
And then Yuki Takeshi appeared.
According to what Rasa was informed, some shinobi from small villages who mastered Water Release had accepted a mission to resupply Suna with the precious liquid.
On the way, they ran into the brat and for reasons that Rasa didn't care about, they attacked him.
Suffice it to say that they all died. But, upon inspecting their corpses, the boy found Suna's request and decided to take a look.
Between one thing and another, the boy asked to meet with a Jōnin and relayed an interesting offer to the Kazekage's office.
At first, Rasa didn't give it much importance and had made him wait almost two entire weeks. Until an Anbu returning from a mission sensed the large amount of chakra in the boy's body.
That Anbu was one of his few sensors.
When Rasa learned that a twelve-year-old boy was walking around his village with the chakra equivalent of several Jōnin, he ordered him to be immediately subdued.
That resulted in a small uproar and the boy ended up freezing half a dozen Anbu and a couple of Jōnin. However, he didn't kill anyone and demanded a meeting with the Kazekage.
Rasa was about to mobilize his shinobi for retaliation, but then he was told that it was the same boy who had made a business proposal.
Curious and confident that he could subdue the child, Rasa allowed that meeting.
The result of the negotiations?
His office frozen, his gold sand frozen, his Anbu frozen, and the damned brat didn't even move from his seat.
Rasa could have burst with indignation, with the shame of being humiliated by a child in his own village, in his own office. But then, the boy blurted out a question that caught his interest.
—Would you like to know about the whereabouts of your predecessor?
That memory still made his blood boil, for several reasons.
But Rasa understood that the apparent child would not be easy to deal with. Perhaps he wasn't Kage level, but he was definitely far above a Jōnin. At least, there was no Jōnin in Suna who could face him.
So he listened, truly listened, to what the brat had to say.
And thus, Sunagakure reached a special agreement with Yuki Takeshi:
They would provide payments every four months, and the boy would come every four months to provide them with massive amounts of water.
But the brat wasn't satisfied with a verbal agreement, so Rasa had no choice but to draft a document.
In it, Sunagakure promised to keep silent about his lineage, not to attempt to harm Yuki Takeshi or his associates, and the payment for his services was established in installments that the child would collect each time he came to the village.
Among the terms, it was also stipulated that Yuki Takeshi was forbidden from entering Sunagakure, while the Kazekage was forbidden from going out to meet him during his stay on the outskirts of the village.
This was done to avoid problems, and to prevent Takeshi from being ambushed.
Another important point of the deal was that Takeshi would only use a portion of his chakra, and the rest depended on a group of Suna-Nin.
Rasa didn't understand what he meant until the reports came in about what happened the first time the task was carried out.
His ninjas had their chakra extracted with a mysterious power.
And when Rasa ordered a search for information, he came across an old line of text from a dusty, deteriorated scroll that his Anbu pulled from the records.
Dark Release, a Kekkei Genkai that allows the user to steal chakra from their opponents.
That was all the information he got about it. There were no names of great users, nor characteristic techniques. There were no details about the scope, about the weaknesses.
Rasa had never heard of that Kekkei Genkai.
When Takeshi finished his first week of work and left, Rasa demanded the presence of the elders, Ebizō and Chiyo.
The old people did know a little more, as Ebizo recounted that when he was young, his relatives talked about an encounter they had with a mysterious shinobi who could absorb their Wind Jutsus.
It was then that Rasa learned that Meiton not only extracts chakra from the bodies of its victims, but also from their Ninjutsu.
He wanted those Kekkei Genkai. He really wanted Suna to obtain that gift.
He seriously considered trapping the brat, but that would result in more losses than he could afford right now.
He didn't know how capable he was, how strong he was, or the abilities of that Dark Element.
And worst of all, he was still a young man in growth. His chakra would grow, and so would his power.
Options were discussed. Rasa shared this news with the elders of the Village, seeking their opinion on the matter. But Yuki Takeshi's origin was a problem.
What would happen if this child were a high-level agent of Kirigakure? Rasa was more or less aware of the news about what was happening in Kirigakure, but nothing was certain.
He couldn't blindly trust imprecise information and assume that this powerful member of the Yuki Clan was not backed by the supposed village with anti-Kekkei Genkai policies.
The last thing Suna needed was a conflict with Kiri. Even worse, the last thing they needed was to be humiliated as happened with Konoha and Kumo.
*****************************
—Here you are, Takeshi-Dono— Baki said as he handed over a storage scroll, where the payment for this occasion was.
—Uf, thanks, Baki-San. See you in a few months, then— nodded the brown-haired young man, putting away the scroll without even counting the money.
He had no need to. Rasa was a Kage, and as such, his word carried the credibility of Sunagakure.
If the Kazekage himself broke his word, then the entire village would be a laughingstock.
Baki said nothing and watched the escort group leave, with Takeshi in the middle. Afterward, he turned to the now empty, cool, and damp well that had been filled for seven days with massive amounts of water.
The well connected to the village, and the water went to underground facilities to be properly processed.
After all, shinobi were paranoid, and tactics for poisoning water were not alien to them.
Still, Baki really appreciated Takeshi's presence. It was impossible for him alone to supply an entire town with water, but thanks to the help of the Suna-Nin, the amounts of water they could acquire far exceeded what they would get if they paid for its importation from other towns.
More water, cheaper price. What else would it be but a great deal?
He just prayed that Rasa wouldn't do something stupid and would stay on good terms with the young man for a few years.
Baki considered that the best course of action would be to charm Yuki Takeshi. Make him feel welcome in Sunagakure, set a honey trap, and bring him to their side.