An hour later, atop Sunagakure's canyon.
Rasa stood at the edge of the cliff, gazing out over the boundless sea of sand, his eyes dark.
He could not suppress the anger on his face.
Chiyo stood beside him. Seeing his expression, she sighed.
"Let it go. The enemy has already escaped the Land of Wind. We can't catch them."
Rasa clenched his fists.
"Damn the Land of Lightning! They've gone too far!"
"Investigate! We must investigate!"
"This time, we have to root out every spy the Land of Lightning has planted in Sunagakure!"
Chiyo glanced at him and said flatly, "That's for you to decide."
With that, she said no more and turned away without looking back.
Rasa turned to watch Chiyo leave, his expression growing even darker.
"Old hag..."
He snorted, his face full of resentment.
But Rasa knew that, to some extent, what he had just said was only an angry outburst.
He simply could not do it!
Though he was the Fourth Kazekage of the Land of Sand, he had only taken office during a crisis.
His power base in the Land of Sand was far from solid.
Many people obeyed him in public and defied him in private. People like Chiyo did not even bother showing him any respect.
In fact... if not for his ability to manipulate gold dust, which brought impoverished Sunagakure extra income through "gold prospecting"...
It was doubtful whether Sunagakure could even keep functioning.
Sunagakure had once relied on funding from the Daimyo of the Land of Wind's court, but those allocations had been repeatedly cut until they were pitifully small.
The village was staying afloat solely through the gold dust he supplied.
On one hand, Rasa had to maintain the village's relationship with the Daimyo of the Land of Wind to