While Nawaki went alone to win over Kirigakure's bloodline families, Kirigakure itself was not idle. They were actively negotiating with the Kazekage.
Since Yagura was leading troops in the Land of Earth to fend off the assault of a hundred thousand Cloud Ninja, he personally wrote a secret letter to Rasa, outlining their respective intentions. The subsequent negotiations were handled by Hozuki Mangetsu himself. Yagura believed that Rasa would certainly agree to cooperate with him.
It had to be said that he had judged correctly. The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, had been having a very difficult time lately.
The previous war with Konoha had not only ended in Sunagakure's crushing defeat, with land ceded and reparations paid, but had also wiped out the direct forces of the Kazekage faction. The fifty thousand ninja remaining in Sunagakure all belonged to the two advisors' factions, while the Kazekage himself had pitifully few forces under his command. Moreover, he bore primary responsibility for the previous defeat. As the defeated commander, his prestige had taken a devastating blow. Though he had not been captured alive like his teacher, his circumstances were not much better.
Fortunately, the two advisors had been thoroughly screwed over by their own grandsons, so their reputations were even worse than his. In the end, they had no choice but to compromise and surrender most of their authority.
Originally, Rasa had planned to slowly cultivate and gather his forces after the war, stabilize his position of power, and restore Sunagakure's strength through development in preparation for a comeback.
Unfortunately, disaster soon struck. Those damned Mist Ninja had actually launched a surprise attack on the defeated Land of Wind. With their forces severely depleted, the caught-off-guard Sunagakure suffered defeat after defeat. Having lost vast stretches of territory, both the Land of Wind's Daimyo