Lady Chiyo took a deep breath and spoke again, her tone steady but heavy with resignation, as though she were forcing herself to confront a truth she had avoided for far too long.
"Even if we hand over Sunagakure's secret techniques to them," she said slowly, "there is no guarantee that Kirigakure will truly be able to master them."
She lifted her gaze, eyes sharp despite her age.
"After all, secret techniques require the right physique, bloodline compatibility, talent, and,above all,time. These things are not something that can be obtained overnight."
Her voice hardened as she turned toward Rasa.
"But if we refuse these terms, this entire shinobi force will be wiped out here and now. If that happens, do you truly believe Sunagakure will still be able to survive?"
Rasa's lips trembled slightly as he fell into deep thought.
Yes… she was right.
If he refused, everyone here would die.
And who would remain behind in Sunagakure?
A group of aging elders from the council,men like Sajo and Teiseki,figures long past their prime. Could they truly shoulder the responsibility of defending the village? Could they repel foreign enemies once word spread that Sunagakure's main fighting force had been annihilated?
And then there was Gaara.
The unstable One-Tail jinchūriki, a child who could lose control at any moment.
If Sunagakure lost all of its current combat strength in one stroke, it would be nothing less than a declaration of its impending extinction. That price… was something they could never afford to pay.
After a long, suffocating silence, Rasa finally let out a heavy sigh.
"I…"
"I accept."
Chiba watched him quietly.
On the surface, his expression remained calm, almost indifferent. But deep within his mind, a cold calculation came to a halt.
Good.
Had they refused, he knew exactly what would have followed.
Not a battle. Not an execution carried out under the unspoken rules of the shinobi world.
But something far more dangerous.
A line that, once crossed, could never be erased.
Rasa would not have simply died,he would have become the first Kage in history reduced to an example rather than a symbol. A death stripped of dignity, stripped of meaning, remembered not for courage or failure, but for absolute humiliation.
A precedent so grotesque that every future Kage, in every village, would feel its shadow pressing against their throats when dealing with Kirigakure.
Once that door was opened, the very concept of "Kage" would fracture.
Fear would replace respect.
And the world would spiral into something far uglier than war.
Fortunately, Chiba thought, Lady Chiyo understands the weight of history.
Rasa suddenly lifted his head and roared, his voice filled with fury and humiliation.
"I said I accept,all of your conditions!!!"
Chiba merely observed him, unbothered.
Rasa and Chiyo soon lowered their heads, unable to offer any rebuttal.
Around them, the shinobi of Kirigakure were caught between shock and exhilaration.
None of them had expected Sunagakure to truly be forced into signing such an agreement.
To be honest, what did Kirigakure lack the most right now?
Money. Talent. Time.
During the era of the Bloody Mist, the village's economy had completely collapsed. Trade had withered, resources had dried up, and the shinobi system itself had been reduced to an empty shell. Poverty and chaos had become the norm.
Talent was no better. In those dark years, countless elite shinobi of Kirigakure had either died or defected. Generations were severed, and the loss of skilled personnel had left a gaping hole that could not be easily filled.
And time,time was what Kirigakure needed most of all.
Although Chiba's decisive leadership had already set the village on a path of revival, decades of darkness could not be undone overnight. Recovery required patience, stability, and resources.
Winning this war alone was not enough.
Even if Rasa were executed and the eight hundred captives slaughtered, the result would have been nothing more than fleeting satisfaction and long-term isolation.
But this treaty,
This treaty was different.
First came wealth.
All of the Gold Dust refined by Rasa over the years would now belong entirely to Kirigakure,an enormous reserve of foundational assets. On top of that, the ransom of eight hundred and seventy million ryō would immediately relieve the village's most urgent financial pressures.
Then came the true core of the harvest.
Sunagakure's three great pillars: Sand Manipulation, Jiton (Magnet Release), and Puppet Techniques.
If Kirigakure could thoroughly research and understand these arts, it would not only expand its own arsenal of secret techniques but also accelerate the growth of talent within the village. Its overall strength would surge at an astonishing pace.
Soon after, Chiba personally oversaw the signing of the agreement with Rasa.
All Gold Dust carried into the war was immediately confiscated and transferred. As for the ransom, it was a strict exchange,payment upon release, no exceptions.
As for the three great secret techniques, Chiba demanded that Rasa and Lady Chiyo hand over the complete methods on the spot.
Jiton (Magnet Release), after all, was a kekkei-based technique,but not one passed down strictly through bloodline. It was a power that could be learned and cultivated.
Even the Sandaime Kazekage, the creator of Jiton (Magnet Release), had merely been Rasa's teacher,not a blood relative.
Which meant that once these techniques were in Kirigakure's hands, the balance of power within the shinobi world was destined to shift.
And when news of this unprecedented harvest spread,
The entire shinobi world would be shaken to its core.
As for Sand Manipulation, matters were far more complex than they appeared on the surface.
This was not a crude or instinctive ability, but a highly specialized art painstakingly developed by the Second Kazekage, Shamon, through years of direct research on Shukaku, the One-Tail. By dissecting the nature of the Bijus's chakra, its control over sand, and its violent temperament, Shamon had forged a combat system uniquely suited to Sunagakure's environment and warfare doctrine.
It was not merely a technique.
It was doctrine, identity, and survival woven into one.
The same could be said of Puppet Techniques.
What had once been an obscure and brutal craft was refined under the Second Kazekage into a systematic, scalable art of war,one that allowed Sunagakure to compensate for its lack of manpower through precision, preparation, and overwhelming lethality.
These three pillars,Sand Manipulation, Jiton (Magnet Release), and Puppet Techniques,were not just secret arts.
They were the backbone of Sunagakure itself.
And now, one by one, they were being stripped away.
Without hesitation, Chiba ordered every principle, method, and combat application of these arts to be recorded in sealed scrolls. Nothing was spared. Nothing was concealed. The accumulated wisdom of generations was reduced to ink and parchment under Kirigakure's control.
But Chiba did not stop there.
Lady Chiyo was forced to relinquish her personal puppets as well,every creation she had refined over a lifetime of blood and war. And above all, her final safeguard, the legendary Chikamatsu's Ten Puppets, the ultimate embodiment of Sunagakure's puppet legacy, was seized without compromise.
Only after everything had been taken,after Sunagakure had been stripped down to its bones,did Chiba finally allow Kazekage Rasa to leave.
Rasa, Lady Chiyo, and the remaining shinobi were granted a single ship.
No escort of honor.
No farewell ceremony.
They departed Kirigakure in silence, carrying nothing but defeat, humiliation, and the unbearable weight of what they had lost.
…
Thus, the war came to an end.
And it ended in a victory so overwhelming that even Kirigakure itself could scarcely comprehend it.
When Rasa and Lady Chiyo returned to Sunagakure, the news they brought struck the village like a death sentence. The council of elders was thrown into chaos, disbelief, and rage. Yet beneath the fury lay something far worse,
Despair.
Because everyone understood the truth.
The agreement was no longer a negotiation.
It was a chain around their necks.
Sunagakure complied.
All accumulated Gold Dust was handed over in full, followed by an astronomical ransom totaling eight hundred and seventy-two million ryō.
Only then did Chiba release the more than eight hundred captured shinobi, honoring the agreement with cold precision.
The war between Kirigakure and Sunagakure was officially over.
But its consequences were only just beginning.
The shockwave it sent rippled across the entire shinobi world.
Before this, Chiba's sudden rise had been dismissed by many as an internal upheaval within Kirigakure,dangerous, yes, but contained.
That illusion was shattered.
Under his leadership, Kirigakure had annihilated Sunagakure's main force, seized all of its Gold Dust, extracted reparations on a scale never before seen, and,most terrifying of all,acquired the village's three core secret systems.
Such spoils were unheard of.
No great nation in history had ever achieved such a decisive, asymmetric victory.
Konohagakure.
Kumogakure.
Iwagakure.
Amegakure.
Major villages. Minor villages. Independent organizations.
All were shaken to their core by a single name.
Chiba.
And Kirigakure, through this one war, had announced its rebirth to the world.
The village once known as isolated, cruel, blood-soaked,and weak,
Had vanished into history.
What stood in its place was something far more terrifying.
A rising power that no one could afford to ignore.