Inside the Land of Rivers, the Sand Shinobi leadership held a highly secret meeting in the former shrine of the Jashin Cult.
Only four people attended.
They were the Fourth Kazekage, Rasa; Sunagakure adviser Ebizo; Sunagakure scientific adviser Kawanishi; and Sunagakure's jonin commander, Baki.
The other senior official, Granny Chiyo, had sent her younger brother in her place.
In other words, Ebizo represented not only himself, but also his sister, giving him two votes.
Once everyone had arrived, Rasa slowly began. "The main reason I invited you here for this leadership meeting is to address the Daimyo of the Land of Wind's repeated cuts to our military funding."
Ebizo's brows knitted together at those words. "The Land of Wind is poor in resources and produces little grain. Given our defeats in previous wars, it's only natural for the Daimyo and the nobles to have reservations."
Jonin Commander Baki immediately offered a different opinion.
"Elder Ebizo, it's true that Sunagakure lost the previous shinobi world wars, but look at the current situation. Which great nation isn't eyeing Konoha hungrily?"
"Besides, times have changed. With Adviser Kawanishi's many secret techniques and those desert creatures, Sunagakure has grown far stronger. We're perfectly capable of tearing a huge chunk out of the Land of Fire!"
"Over the past two years, we've beaten Konoha twice and seized the border regions of the Land of Rivers and the Land of Fire. Can those foolish nobles not see those victories?"
"If we can seize territory in the Land of Fire, we'll never have to worry about food again!"
Baki's words expressed Sunagakure's greatest wish—or rather, the Land of Wind's.
To seize a sufficiently fertile stretch of land and become self-sufficient in food!
Otherwise, what kind of situation was this, having to buy food from other countries just