Time flew by, and another year passed in the blink of an eye, bringing them to Konoha Year 39.
Over the past year, all manner of events had unfolded one after another.
The first to mention was Sunagakure.
After the village higher-ups learned that Rasa's Magnet Release could control gold dust, they regarded him as the ideal candidate for the next Kazekage and devoted all their efforts to training him.
The Third Kazekage personally took charge as well. In order to teach Rasa the techniques of Magnet Release, he did not hesitate to delegate much of the Kazekage's authority, handing even less important political affairs over to the village higher-ups.
He paid no mind to whether this approach might threaten his own authority as Kazekage. After all, he was the man hailed as the "Strongest Kazekage"!
Moreover, he himself was one of those who supported raising Rasa as the next Kazekage.
In his eyes, Rasa possessed tremendous potential and might even surpass him one day.
He greatly hoped that more powerful shinobi would emerge from Sunagakure, as the village lacked ninjas with exceptional combat ability.
In the previous surprise attack on the Land of Fire, they had also lost two top-tier shinobi—Sasori's parents.
In order to keep Chiyo, who was fighting on the front lines, from learning of this, Sunagakure had kept the matter under strict wraps.
But how could any of it escape Ebizo, who was chiefly responsible for intelligence and espionage work?
In truth, both Chiyo and Ebizo already knew that Sunagakure's defeat on the battlefield against Konoha was not simply due to their supplies being exhausted. The real key was the complete annihilation of the force that had attacked the Land of Fire.
This painful lesson made Sunagakure's higher-ups realize that Konoha still had a large amount