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Rasa stared at the point total on the system panel, hesitating.
"Should I do a 10x draw now, or wait?"
"After all, I'm not far from being able to do a 20x draw."
"Will a 20x draw yield higher-tier items?"
His first 10x draw had given him a D-rank item and a B-rank item. His second 10x draw had yielded two C-rank items. The overall reward level was roughly the same.
Rasa vaguely suspected there might be a correlation between the reward quality and the number of consecutive draws.
"Let's look at the village's recent situation first."
"The rumor effect brought by Gen Uchiha is gradually plateauing. The dissemination efforts by Ebizo's subordinates probably won't see much change."
"Based on the current rate, it will take about half a month to reach 2000 points."
"Can the Hidden Sand afford to wait half a month?"
Rasa picked up a frontline battle report from the Sand Village.
At the same time, he beckoned toward the door.
"Lord Kazekage."
A figure walked in.
"Go get me the latest intelligence reports on the Hidden Stone, Hidden Mist, Konoha, and Hidden Cloud."
"Yes, Lord Kazekage."
Soon, the intelligence files were delivered to Rasa's desk.
Rasa looked at the Sand's frontline battle report first.
With Pakura back on the front lines, the situation for the Sand army had improved significantly. Coupled with Rasa using Gengetsu Hozuki to disrupt Fuguki Suikazan's scheme last time, the pressure had eased.
Not only had Fuguki's ambush failed, but the Mist had also lost dozens of elite ninja.
Fuguki had even been punished by the Mist Village for the debacle.
Originally, Fuguki was the commander-in-chief of the frontline forces.
But now, the Mist army seemed to have split into two factions.
One part was still led by Fuguki Suikazan.
The other part was now under the command of Jinin Akebino.
The operations of the two factions were completely independent of each other.
Rasa raised an eyebrow.
"I heard rumors before that Fuguki and Jinin didn't get along. It seems highly likely now. Otherwise, even if they split their forces, they wouldn't be operating so independently."
"But for the Sand, this isn't necessarily a good thing."
Fuguki and Jinin had completely different command styles.
Given that the overall strength of the Mist army was greater than the Sand's, having to deal with two different styles attacking from different directions would put the Sand on the back foot.
Furthermore, there was another crucial point.
Pakura.
The Mist army had four top-tier elite Jonin.
Fuguki Suikazan, Juzo Biwa, Jinin Akebino, and Kushimaru Kuriarare.
The Sand army only had one: Pakura.
Even in a one-on-one fight, none of the four could defeat Pakura.
She could even handle two at once.
So before, even though the Mist had more numbers, Pakura could barely hold the line, though it was exhausting.
But now that the Mist army was split, if Pakura was only on one front, she could handle it fine. But the other front would be in dire straits.
And if Pakura tried to cover both fronts simultaneously, the difficulty would be immense.
Running back and forth would only waste her chakra, stamina, and energy on travel.
Not only might she fail to handle both sides effectively, but she would also put herself in danger.
"Did I make things worse by ruining Fuguki's plan?"
"No. Without Gengetsu Hozuki, the Sand's situation would be even worse right now."
"If that ambush had succeeded, Pakura would be dead or gravely wounded. And since the Mist army has been stalled for so long, they would have changed strategies anyway. They wouldn't stay static forever."
"The Mist ninja aren't stupid."
Rasa couldn't rely on manga knowledge to predict the Sand's future anymore.
After all, the timeline for the Sand Village had changed the moment he decided not to sell out Pakura.
The Sand's future was now unknown.
"Given the state of the Sand army, without external help, waiting half a month might result in significant losses."
"Testing the 20x draw reward level isn't urgent."
Rasa made up his mind.
Then, he looked at the intelligence from the other villages.
Konoha's situation had deteriorated significantly compared to before.
Previously, they had enough spare capacity to trouble the Sand, stationing a ninja army led by Shinku Yuhi on the border of the Wind Country, ready to launch a surprise attack at any moment.
But now, with the Uchiha clan's rebellion, Konoha was in deep trouble itself.
On one hand, they had to deal with the Uchiha rebels.
On the other hand, they had to face the fierce offensive from the Hidden Stone.
As the village currently fighting most intensely with Konoha, the Hidden Stone naturally wouldn't let this opportunity slip by.
Some Stone ninja had even penetrated deep into the Land of Fire.
This made Konoha extremely uneasy.
And it brought huge potential danger to Konoha.
Just as Konoha had thoughts of raiding the Sand when the Sand was at a huge disadvantage against the Mist...
Now that Konoha was in deep trouble, would the currently idle Hidden Cloud seize the opportunity to attack Konoha? It was obvious.
"That's basically the situation for the major villages."
"As for the smaller villages, only a few are relatively active: the Hidden Grass, the Hidden Rain. Also, the Land of Iron seems to have used this war to develop quite well."
"Calling themselves an absolutely neutral country, they mass-produce standard ninja tools and sell them to every village, making massive profits. Besides neutrality, they have another advantage: they are rich in iron ore."
Rasa was a bit envious of the Land of Iron.
Not participating in the war, just selling weapons.
If the Sand were like that, he, as the Kazekage, wouldn't have to work so hard.
"It's a pity the Mist wasn't distracted by Konoha and is still dead set on targeting my Sand Village."
"Otherwise, I could totally wait out this half-month."
"For now, let's just draw."
"Hopefully, I can pull an item that will help alleviate the Sand's dire war situation."
Rasa put down the documents in his hand.
Then his gaze fell on the system panel.
"Start the draw!"
With a thought from Rasa.
The next moment, an invisible wheel began to spin wildly.
[Congratulations Host. You have obtained F-Rank Item: One Ounce of Gold.]
...
[Congratulations Host. You have obtained C-Rank Item: One-Night Dream Fabrication Card (Mist Jonin Edition).]