For the fifth time in his life, Takeshi was crossing the arid lands of the Land of Wind in the middle of the hellish midday.
The bothersome sand, the scorching sun, the extremely hot gusts of wind, and an endless ocean of absolute nothingness were his company, apart from the escort group surrounding him.
This time, Baki was not among them. All were new and unfriendly faces. Perhaps a little tense?
But Takeshi pretended not to notice anything strange and had tried to chat with the subjects, without any success, during the last few days.
They barely gave him a two-word answer, silent nods, or cold shakes of the head. Without a doubt, each one was a walking party animal.
He also realized there were far fewer breaks than on other occasions. They kept him in constant motion, as if they were in a hurry or... as if they wanted to keep him exhausted.
—Suna has done it again, hasn't it?— he sighed to himself.
Takeshi always knew that Sunagakure, or rather, Rasa, was going to betray him sooner or later. Preferably later than sooner.
But what can you expect from the hidden villages? At least Suna was one of the dumbest.
Kumogakure would have thrown the Raikage in his face on the first day. Kirigakure already wanted to kill him, because of all the Obito nonsense and its repression of Kekkei Genkai. Iwagakure... he wasn't sure, but they would probably send harassers to annoy him every day.
And Konohagakure would have sweetened things up for a couple of years and then Wham! A Shimura at the ready for a really dirty play, followed by an argument between the one-eyed man and the monkey, which would have ended with a "You'll regret this, Hiruzen," as always happens in these stories.
For its part, Sunagakure would surely ambush him in the middle of the desert, when his stamina ran out, with poisons and Rasa himself.
That's precisely why Takeshi was neither surprised nor reacted when a needle shot out from a hidden spot in the ground, sticking into his leg.
He also didn't react when the guys accompanying him jumped to the sides, throwing a shower of kunai, shuriken, and senbon.
In fact, Takeshi didn't even attempt to dodge.
He made a half hand sign and spat out a wall of water in front of him, neutralizing the larger projectiles, except for the senbon, whose shape allowed them to pass through the water with relative ease.
But they still lost some of their momentum and barely grazed his skin.
It was at that moment that about twenty shinobi, including Anbu and likely Jōnin, suddenly appeared from the ground, forming a circle around Takeshi.
The ground beneath his feet shifted, and the sand began to move, climbing up his limbs and enveloping half of his body in a matter of seconds, slowly increasing the pressure.
—You really love shooting yourself in the foot, don't you, Kazekage?— the young man said in a calm tone, a touch of disappointment coloring his words.
—Hmph, the only one who shot himself in the foot here was you, Yuki Takeshi. These are the consequences of going around revealing your cards— Rasa snorted, responding with mockery to the comment he didn't entirely understand.
—Is it that no one here can believe in good will? Is it so hard to think that I was honest, because I genuinely wanted to help your miserable village?— Takeshi retorted, his feigned tone of sadness irritating Rasa.
—If you want to help Sunagakure... then you're welcome to stay forever— the Kazekage spoke, gesturing to his men. —Take him down, the poison has already entered his system!
—This little thing?— Takeshi commented as he leaned down slightly, picking up the senbon that the sand had moved out of place. —Hm, it certainly looks like a potent poison, although I don't know a damn thing about the subject.
The brown-haired young man turned to one of the shinobi who was weaving hand signs in his direction and threw the weapon with a quick movement.
The guy, who was probably a Chūnin, couldn't evade the sudden attack and the poisoned needle stuck into his forearm.
—Hmm, it doesn't seem to act immediately. Damage over time, then?— Takeshi asked casually, as if he wasn't being confronted by a Kage and dozens of shinobi.
Blades and bullets of wind were fired in his direction, but a rotating water dome intercepted the jutsu, while also soaking Rasa's sand that had immobilized him.
Without warning, senbon made of water shot out from the spinning dome in all directions and at high speed, catching some Anbu off guard.
Rasa frowned. Truly, Sunagakure was terribly weakened if its Anbu fell to such a technique.
He controlled the gold sand at Takeshi's feet before it became heavier and tried to break his legs again.
He had tried at the beginning but found the task unexpectedly difficult. That put him on alert, since if his sand couldn't penetrate his defenses, a mere senbon couldn't either.
And despite knowing it, he deceived his men, ordering them to charge anyway. Rasa was willing to trade the lives of these shinobi for Takeshi.
Suddenly, the water dome opened in four directions, and four Takeshis charged against the Suna-Nin.
—Those are clones, the original is still trapped in my sand!— Rasa called out, instructing his shinobi not to fear.
An Anbu charged at one of the Bunshin (Clones), his tantō tracing a downward arc. But to his horror, the blade was stopped with the forearm and the Bunshin did not dissipate.
The Anbu's muscles tensed, and his blade began to crack. But the Bunshin attacked first.
A kick slammed into his abdomen, knocking the air out of his body and breaking a couple of ribs. He spat out a mouthful of blood as he was violently thrown backward.
In the other direction, the clone weaved hand signs, unleashing a barrage of water shuriken against the opponents on its side.
Rasa couldn't believe what he was seeing. No, he didn't want to believe it.
His shinobi, some of them Jōnin, were being suppressed by the clones of a brat, a vagrant who shouldn't even have had the backing of a village, the teachings of a Clan.
—Has Sunagakure fallen so low?— he couldn't help but mutter. The next moment, he jumped from his position just in time to avoid a growth of ice spikes that would have pierced his legs.
Now the Kazekage was truly stunned. How on earth could such an attack be launched without being perceived? Worse yet, the chakra of that jutsu should have passed through his gold sand before, which would have alerted him to the attack much earlier.
But Rasa didn't have time to think more about the matter.
The dome that was keeping the brat hidden rippled wildly until it shot out in a single direction, taking the form of a water dragon.
That direction was his, and Rasa was forced to mobilize his sand to form shields.
The dragon opened its jaws, shooting high-powered water bullets, fiercely shaking the gold sand walls and soaking them, making Rasa's control difficult.
The Kazekage had no choice but to use shunshin to move away in another direction, as the damn jutsu seemed to have acquired a life of its own, snaking between the walls instead of crashing into them.
—What kind of manipulation is this!?— he thought with his eyes wide open.
The ability to expel an Elemental Release, mold it into other techniques, and manipulate them as if playing with clay is not something many can do in the shinobi world.
Most can barely mobilize the direction a jutsu is fired, but that's where the common limit ends. It's not as if everyone has the ability of Deidara or Darui to move their techniques like puppets.
And very few manage to do it with basic Releases like Water.
Meanwhile, Takeshi's clones were giving a total and absolute beating to the Suna-Nin, mainly with Taijutsu, relying on their abnormal toughness to deliver powerful impacts that took many out of the fight.
And despite some pretty ugly wounds, they limited themselves to killing only a few.
Was it out of pity or a lack of nerve?
None of that. The only reason Takeshi didn't kill all the Suna-Nin, and why he decided to make a deal with Rasa and expose himself to Sunagakure in the first place, was solely because of Gaara.
Yes, Takeshi couldn't care less about the Fourth Kazekage, but Gaara was among his favorite characters from the anime. He wished to establish a good relationship with that future Kage and maybe help him out a little on his journey.
And what better way than to have a previous record of helping his village, and more importantly, having a good beating and humiliation of his dad under his belt?