Chapter 76: The First Kazekage Reto

Ebizo turned to Hiruzen and his group, greeting them, "Honored guests from Konoha, welcome to Sunagakure."

Everyone thanked him and then followed Ebizo as they continued through the village. The large group of ninjas who had been trailing them earlier had vanished. After all, they had already entered the enemy's stronghold; there was no need to fear them causing a ruckus now.

Torifū roughly surveyed the entire village. Its structure resembled Konoha's, with the most central building likely serving as the Kazekage's office. The residents' homes were scattered throughout, and the pedestrians on the street all had sun-darkened, brown skin, clearly a result of years of sun exposure.

Regardless of gender, the people here wore simple, long shirts and scarves. Compared to Konoha, their attire could be considered plain, but it seemed that elaborate clothing was impractical here. In less than half a year, the constant wind and sand would wear down any fine garments, obliterating their style. The various customs developed over generations by the desert people, in order to coexist with the wind and sand, were undoubtedly the most practical.

Ebizo led Hiruzen and the others to a small, rather exquisite building. "This is where we entertain our guests. Please rest for the night and await Kazekage-sama's summons tomorrow."

With that, Ebizo departed. Hiruzen and the others pushed open the door to look inside. The small building was remarkably neat and exquisite, completely unlike Konoha's layout and style, and instead filled with exotic charm.

There were many rooms inside, all equally clean and tidy. It was clearly a place for high level envoys who stayed as guests, just as Ebizo had stated. The only drawback was that while there was a bathing area, there was no water. Everyone understood: in the desert, where drinking water was scarce, expecting a bath was simply too extravagant.

The boys weren't particularly concerned with such amenities, content as long as there was a place to sleep. However, Koharu and Naori meticulously examined every decoration in the room, finding each detail novel and intriguing.

"I wonder, what kind of person do you think the Kazekage is?" Hiruzen suddenly asked, seemingly out of the blue.

Hearing this, Koharu immediately retorted, "Why do you care about him? We don't take orders from him. We're just here to deliver a letter."

"I'm just asking; I'm idle anyway," Hiruzen replied.

Danzō pondered for a moment before saying, "Anyone capable of building a village and governing it in an orderly manner is certainly not simple." He then added, "Though he's worlds apart from Hokage-sama."

Torifū secretly nodded in agreement. That much was true. Compared to the first generation Kage of other villages, his teacher could easily crush any of them. Speaking of Sunagakure's Kage, it seemed there weren't many particularly outstanding ones. The First Kazekage had given up the Tailed Beasts during the Five Kage Summit, demanding a large sum of money and fertile land from Hashirama. Hashirama had foolishly given in! But later, perhaps due to poor management, that land became independent and formed the Land of Rivers.

The Second Kazekage invented the Puppet Technique, which provided Sunagakure Village with a foothold—at least a secret technique to fall back on. But the Third and Fourth Kazekage were the most outrageous. The Third Kazekage had sent Sasori's parents to attack Konoha, only for them to be killed by Sakumo Hatake. The grown-up Sasori secretly killed the Third Kazekage when he wasn't paying attention, even turning his corpse into a puppet. And the Fourth Kazekage was Gaara's biological father, who cooperated with Orochimaru to carry out the Konoha Crush plan, but was ultimately killed by Orochimaru... It was no wonder Sunagakure Village was the weakest of the five major ninja villages. If the leaders had problems, how could the village ever be strong?

Koharu stretched, "We can return to the village tomorrow after handing the letter to the Kazekage. These past few days have been so tiring." Everyone agreed. Traveling to the Land of Wind was indeed more exhausting than capturing Tailed Beasts. But remembering that they had participated in the initiation of the first Five Kage Summit in history, everyone felt happy again, all fatigue forgotten.

Torifū and Naori considered going for a walk, but they worried about being unfamiliar with the place. It would be too embarrassing to get lost, and too ostentatious for Konoha ninjas to wander around Sunagakure. It was better to be low-key. Since they couldn't go out anyway, everyone sat together to discuss their meeting with the Kazekage tomorrow and how to handle any unexpected situations. They continued to talk until dark before returning to their rooms to sleep. The heat preservation effect of this kind of house made of sand and soil was surprisingly good; they didn't feel very cold after sleeping all night.

The next day, almost at noon, Ebizo arrived at the small building where Hiruzen and the others were resting. He gently knocked on the door three times, then announced, "Guests from Konoha, Kazekage-sama is summoning you."

"Alright, please give us a moment," Hiruzen's voice responded from inside the building. Ebizo did not disturb him, waiting quietly outside the door.

Before long, everyone was dressed and ready. Hiruzen opened the door and nodded to Ebizo. "Please lead us there." Everyone followed behind Ebizo to the central building of the village.

It was worth mentioning that Torifū had unlocked Ebizo's character card last night and received 500 Peace Points. He wondered how many Peace Points the First Kazekage, Reto, could provide him. Moreover, Reto should be married to Chiyo at this time; perhaps he could unlock Chiyo's character card along the way.

With Ebizo leading the way, everyone quickly arrived at the Kazekage Building. Ebizo stepped forward and explained the purpose of Hiruzen and his party to the guarding ninja. Knowing they were there to meet the Kazekage, the guard immediately accompanied them inside. Only after entering did they realize that although the Kazekage Building looked large, it was only due to its thick walls. The interior space was only half the size of the Hokage Building.

Arriving in front of the office on the top floor, Ebizo knocked on the door. "Kazekage-sama, the guests from Konoha have arrived."

"Come in," a deep and sonorous voice came from inside the room. Ebizo immediately pushed the door open, and everyone followed him into the office.

Torifū looked up and confirmed it was the Kazekage himself, his appearance unchanged from the anime. Behind him stood a woman with short hair tied in a bun, wearing a gray-black robe, and a faint smile on her face.

"Greetings, Kazekage-sama." Hiruzen and the others only bowed slightly to the Kazekage, not performing a grand salute, as he was the Kage of another village.

Seeing Hiruzen and the others enter, Reto immediately smiled. "Welcome to Sunagakure. Did you have a good stay last night?"

Hiruzen returned the smile. "Thank you, Kazekage-sama, we had a good rest last night."

"Hahaha, that's good. Let's get down to business. Please tell me in detail why you came."

Hearing Reto say this, Hiruzen explained in detail that the Hokage wished to hold a Five Kage Summit to discuss peace together. Reto also frowned slightly after hearing this.

Everyone hoped for peace, but it wasn't something that could truly be achieved by five people simply gathering to chat.