Kazekage Candidate... Gaara

"Besides, even if we object to Konoha sending personnel to investigate security vulnerabilities, the village doesn't have enough manpower to complete the task," the middle-aged advisor added. "The Third Kazekage was attacked on his way to Konoha, Orochimaru somehow knew Kazekage route. The route from the Sand shinobi to Konoha has been heavily infiltrated by other forces. This time, we can use Konoha's strength to uproot these external forces..."

"This is something we should have done ourselves, but the village is currently willing but unable to do so, focusing all its resources on restoring its strength and vitality. Since Konoha has the capacity to do this, let them do it; it will also dispel their concerns!"

From a self-deceptive perspective, this can be considered as taking advantage of Konoha.

However, Baki clearly did not agree with this explanation.

Hearing his words, Baki simply clenched his fists, gritted his teeth, closed his eyes, and remained silent.

His turbulent emotions rendered him speechless.

The Sunagakure in his mind shouldn't be like this.

However, the harsh reality forced the Sand shinobi to bow to Konoha at every turn. As long as Konoha didn't touch their core interests, they no longer cared about losing face or dignity.

Submitting to the strong is a survival strategy for the weak.

But how could Baki, who appeared cold and ruthless on the surface but was more loyal to the village than anyone else, accept this situation?

Baki's expression was noticed by the Sand shinobi high-ranking members present. Chiyo and Ebizo exchanged a glance and both sighed silently.

He was indeed not suited to be the Kazekage. In that instant, the elders and advisors reached a consensus.

Putting aside his lack of ability, his inflexibility and inability to think clearly make it difficult for others to entrust the village to him.

If Sunagakure had the same strength and surrounding environment as Kumogakure, then Kazekage a strong-willed figure like Baki as Kazekage would be perfectly acceptable.

However, the problem is that Sand shinobi Village is not only inferior to Kumogakure, but it is probably not even as good as Kirigakure, which is recognized as the weakest of the Five Great Nations... If a strong Kazekage comes along, and he doesn't have the strength but refuses to back down, I'm afraid the remaining resources of Sunagakure will soon be exhausted.

"Baki, after you're done with this busy period, you should step down and become the Jonin Commander," Ebizo said. "The position of Kazekage is still too difficult for you."

Politics... requires compromise.

A person like Baki is more suited to be an executor than a decision-maker.

Upon hearing Ebizo's verdict, Baki opened his eyes in a daze. He sighed, a look of regret mixed with relief appearing in the eyes of this resolute man.

"I'm really not suited to be the Kazekage..." He took off his hat and placed it on the table, giving a wry smile.

"But if Baki isn't suitable to be the Kazekage, then who is?" the middle-aged man asked hesitantly.

Several elderly and frail high- Sand shinobi Village were eliminated first.

Baki is already an outstanding figure in his generation. There are not many people stronger Baki, and their personalities are all cold and hard, making them unsuitable to become the village's leader.

After much thought, I still can't find a suitable person!

The vast Sunagakure is facing a talent shortage, with no one fit to be the Kazekage!

The advisors exchanged glances, looking at each other in bewilderment.

"If the older generation isn't up to par, let's choose from the new generation of ninjas!" Chiyo tapped her hand on the table and said, "Didn't we start introducing Konoha's talent development model?"

"Chiyo, while the Konoha model is indeed very effective and more popular than the old model, it has only been implemented for less than a year..." After calming down, Baki regained his composure and added, "I'm afraid there aren't enough outstanding newcomers yet to shoulder the heavy responsibility of being a Kage!"

"Whose is it?" Chiyo glanced at Baki. "There are many outstanding talents among the new generation of ninjas!"

She glanced around the conference room and said, enunciating each word clearly, "For example... isn't Gaara an excellent candidate for the future Kazekage?"

"Gaara?"

Upon hearing this name, the entire room was momentarily stunned.

Gaara, the infamous Jinchūriki.

Can he also become the Kazekage?

Sakura Haruno is strolling through the streets of a city in the Land of Wind.

Although the Land of Land of Wind is the largest of the Five Great Nations, most of its territory consists of desert or barren Gobi, and the area of land that can produce something and support its people is not large.

In this country, oases are scattered like stars across the vast desert. In the endless yellow sand, the green hues are dotted like Little Star, like countless dazzling and beautiful emeralds inlaid in a yellow carpet.

Although the climate is dry, water resources are not particularly scarce here, and the groundwater content is abundant, which is enough to support the size of the Land of Wind as one of the Five Great Nations.

People built villages and even cities in the oases. From Gold Dust City, which borders the Land of Rivers, to Sunagakure the core area, one after another unique cities stand in the oases, like a string of pearls with a broken chain, scattered across this land.

The mission of the Fourteenth Squad was to inspect the terrain and cities along the new route to ensure that the Hokage and the examinees would not be ambushed by other forces on their way to and from Sunagakure. This was in accordance with the lesson learned from the killing and substitution of the Fourth Kazekage.

Reconnaissance missions in the wild are actually quite simple, even brutally straightforward—find a suitable terrain for an ambush, and simply use Ninjutsu to alter it, widening narrow paths or leveling towering hills; even in places without paths, with Chakra, it's not difficult to temporarily carve out a new path from the wilderness.

The cities along the route are actually a bit tricky.

They couldn't openly inspect the entire city, after all, it was still the territory of the Land of Wind. The Sand shinobi could probably tolerate the Konoha Village ninjas clearing paths and building bridges, but if they were to openly inspect the citizens of the Land of Wind, it might escalate into a diplomatic incident...

Who knows, this might provoke the Sand shinobi into betraying Konoha again?

Therefore, the only option is to investigate secretly...

Therefore, after entering the city, the three members of the Fourteenth Squad split up and disguised themselves as passing travelers to move through the city.

"The target is anyone with a noticeable Chakra quality," Sakura repeatedly reminded herself as she observed the pedestrians on the street.

This task wasn't difficult. Although she wasn't good at long-distance perception, Sakura's senses were still very sharp up close—all thanks to her powerful mental strength that she could forcibly maintain her perception.

Therefore, she can clearly sense whether every passerby she brushes past is a ninja or samurai with Chakra abilities.

However, in such an ordinary city, the majority of people are clearly ordinary people who have not cultivated Chakra.

Strictly speaking, ordinary people also have Chakra —in a broad sense Chakra can be defined as all physical and mental energy, and ordinary people certainly possess these energies as well.

However, this so-called Chakra, which has not been condensed into actual energy through training, is completely different from the Chakra used by ninjas.

The difference between the two can be compared to that between graphite and diamond.

What could catch Sakura's attention was, of course, the kind of Chakra that had been condensed through training; unfortunately, she walked from one end of the street to the other and didn't find a single Chakra source that looked even remotely decent.

Nature.

Therefore, there was no target that would alert the young girl.

The streets and alleys, the flow of people, the shops—all are filled with ordinary people who pose no danger.

"Lear!" Sakura said in a long-forgotten English phrase as she walked down the street, shrugging her shoulders.

Sakura Haruno herself laughed.

Sometimes, she misses Earth, that peaceful world, and the cities where she can leisurely stroll around.

Instead of walking down the street while carrying Kunai in your pocket and carefully observing whether passersby pose a threat.

(Minimum guaranteed 1/, bonus 0/)

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