They reached the corridor outside the Kazekage's office.
Kakashi's group followed Gaara toward the reception room.
"Followed" was putting it nicely. It felt more like they were being escorted.
Inside the Kazekage Tower, there was a Suna shinobi on watch every twenty paces. Their gazes were polite, but they never truly left the Konoha visitors.
Portraits of every Kazekage hung on the corridor walls.
From the First to the Fourth, each one stared down in silence at these outsiders.
Kakashi walked near the front of the group.
His exposed right eye looked half-lidded, lazy.
In reality, he was taking in everything around him.
Guard rotations, possible hidden sentries, the terrain outside the windows, even the faint silhouette behind the half-closed door at the end of the hall.
The security level was not low.
He assessed it quietly.
But that wasn't the point.
The point was, Kakashi still hadn't figured out what this "conference" was supposed to be.
"Would it be convenient to explain what that conference is, exactly?"
Kakashi asked casually, like it was idle conversation.
He pointed to the fresh notices posted along the corridor walls.
Their bold titles leapt out at a glance:
"Notice on Convening the First Sunagakure Shinobi Representatives Assembly," "Representative Election Procedures," "Call for Agenda Proposals"…
"I saw these everywhere as we came in," he said. "Looks pretty lively."
Before Gaara could answer, another voice came from ahead and to the side.
"That's not a high-level meeting."
Kakashi's steps paused.
Kankuro emerged from around the corridor corner.
He wore Sunagakure's distinctive light brown jonin flak jacket.
"That's something the Kazekage decided to hold," he said.
Gaara added, "It's a meeting the entire village can participate in."
Kakashi's brow lifted.
The entire village?
His first thought was that someone was joking.
But the one speaking was Gaara.
The former Kazekage. The One-Tail jinchuriki. A man known for silence, and for not lying.
"The entire village?" Kakashi repeated, making sure he'd heard correctly.
"Everyone participates?"
That question didn't come from Kakashi.
It came from the back of the group.
Yamanaka Ino had somehow squeezed her way forward.
Her blonde ponytail swung with the movement, her face screaming, Are you serious?
Next to her, Sakura couldn't help speaking too.
"Sunagakure has so many people. How could everyone participate? How big would that meeting even be?"
The moment the two genin spoke, they realized they'd been a little rude.
The person in front of them was the former Kazekage.
Someone they should be respectful toward.
But curiosity overpowered manners.
Gaara glanced at them, showing no displeasure at all.
"Not everyone participates," he explained evenly. "Representatives are elected from chunin, genin, and civilians. Those representatives then hold full authority over all subsequent decisions."
"Each group has a fixed number of seats. The entire election is supervised by an oversight committee to ensure fairness."
He paused, then added, "Any elected representative can raise any issue related to building Sunagakure."
"As long as the proposal is reasonable and feasible, it will be adopted and implemented."
"The proposer will also receive a one-million-ryo bonus and public recognition from the Kazekage's office."
The corridor went silent.
The kind of silence where you could hear a pin drop.
Ino's mouth hung open for a second too long.
Sakura's eyes widened until they looked round.
Her face said, What is this, exactly?
Even the usually steady Shikamaru stopped scratching the side of his head, his brows knitting slightly.
"Wait…"
Ino finally found her voice again.
"You mean… genin can become representatives? They can make proposals? And get one million ryo?"
Gaara nodded.
"In theory, yes."
"And…" He paused, his gaze sweeping over the young faces of Konoha's genin. "If you were Sunagakure genin, you would also be eligible to run."
No one spoke.
Ino's expression turned deeply strange.
She looked at Gaara, then at her teammates, then finally at Kakashi, as if asking:
Sensei, is this real?
Kakashi didn't look at her.
His gaze settled on Gaara's face.
He studied him carefully.
Something was off.
That thought rose in Kakashi's mind.
Gaara's expression when he talked about this "Representatives Assembly" was too calm.
No, not just calm.
In his eyes there wasn't a trace of resentment.
There was something oddly…
Fervent.
When that word surfaced in Kakashi's head, it startled even him.
Gaara was the Fourth Kazekage's son, the One-Tail jinchuriki.
As a child he'd been treated like a monster by his entire village, raised in loneliness and hatred.
In the end, Naruto had saved him.
He became a Kazekage who protected his village.
His past, his personality, his gaze, all of it had nothing to do with "fervor."
And yet now…
This guy, talking about the new Kazekage who'd removed him from office… his eyes were red.
Kakashi suddenly remembered what Tsunade had said before they left.
"That Teizawa… something about him is wrong. Go see what kind of man he really is."
At the time, Kakashi had thought she was making a mountain out of a molehill.
A young Kazekage newly in office.
How "wrong" could he be?
Now Kakashi didn't think that anymore.
This new Kazekage could make Gaara submit without complaint?
"This kind of meeting…"
Asuma's voice cut in.
At some point he'd stepped closer to the front, hands in his pockets as he spoke.
"Letting genin and civilians participate in discussing the village's major policies… I've never heard of anything like it in the history of any shinobi village."
He looked at Gaara.
"As the former Kazekage, do you think… this kind of system can work?"
The question was direct.
Borderline disrespectful.
But Asuma's tone remained calm, like it was an academic discussion.
Gaara met his eyes.
He was silent for two seconds.
Then he said, "I don't know."
Asuma blinked slightly.
"I don't know if it'll work," Gaara continued. "But…"
He paused, his gaze passing beyond Asuma to the doors of the Kazekage's office.
"At least he's willing to let us try."
The words were quiet.
But they left Asuma silent.
Kakashi stayed silent too.
Ino, Sakura, Choji, Shikamaru… every Konoha genin fell silent.
Willing to let everyone try?
To them, that idea felt almost too bold.
Konoha was the greatest shinobi village in the world, old and powerful, with a polished system.
But "polished" also meant fixed.
And fixed meant…
Some voices would never reach the top.
Genin.
Civilians.
Ordinary people without prominent bloodlines, without startling talent, struggling silently at the bottom.
And Sunagakure's new Kazekage was going to let those people take part in decision-making?
Kankuro hadn't said a word this whole time.
He stood beside Gaara, arms folded, expression complicated.
Watching Konoha's reactions, he felt something he couldn't quite name.
At first, he'd thought Teizawa was insane too.
Let genin take part in village affairs? Let civilians propose policies?
Wasn't that just asking for trouble?
But now…
He remembered what he'd seen yesterday at the selection site.
A seventy-something old woman, trembling as she shuffled up to the ballot box, cast her vote for the civilian representative seat.
Afterward, she stood there and wiped her eyes, saying:
"I've lived my whole life, and this is the first time I've felt like I belong to a shinobi village."
Kankuro had been standing nearby.
His throat had tightened without warning.
He didn't know what kind of outcome this assembly would produce in the end.
But he knew…
From that moment onward, Sunagakure was already different.
With heavy thoughts hanging over them, the Konoha group reached the end of the corridor.
The Kazekage's office doors opened.
Temari stepped out, sweeping her gaze over them without expression.
"The Kazekage will see you."
She paused, her eyes shifting to Gaara.
"Gaara, you too."
Gaara nodded and moved forward.
Kankuro followed right after him.
Kakashi took a slow breath and went in as well.
Behind him, Ino and Sakura exchanged a look.
"That Kazekage…" Ino muttered under her breath. "What kind of person is he, anyway?"
No one answered.
Because everyone was thinking the same thing.
A man who could make a former Kazekage willingly stand behind him.
A man who could make an entire village, top to bottom, burn with fervor.
A man who could turn something as absurd as "genin participating in decision-making" into reality.
That man named Teizawa…
Just who in the world was he?
(End of Chapter)
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