22 Message from Konoha

Earlier...

A pigeon could be seen flying across a barren desert with an attachment on one of its feet. It flew for a series of days non-stop, flying over a vast expanse of sand and rock until the vague silhouette of Sunagakure could be seen. 

Aoto was sitting down in front of his table which was incredibly neat with very little amounts of paper, something he was extremely proud of. 

He had just issued an A-rank mission to some Suna shinobi and upon seeing them leave the room, he brought his hand up to massage his head as he let out a fatigued sigh. 

Getting up to distract his mind from the paperwork, he made his way towards the window and was able to see a pigeon make its way straight towards him.

His eyebrows raised in intrigue as he made his way out to the balcony outside his office and just as he made his way out, he was greeted by a shinobi from the information department who was making his way to his office.

"Lord Third, there's a messenger pigeon on its way right towards Suna," he reported with a light bow.

"I saw it, let's go and see what news it brings," Aoto answered as he patted the man on the shoulder before turning and leading the shinobi to the balcony.

Seeing the pigeon land, the shinobi hurriedly forward and untied the scroll that was strapped to its feet. Opening and unfurling the paper that came from the scroll, the shinobi immediately handed it to Aoto.

Reading the letter, a slight smile appeared on Aoto's face.

"Looks like we will be having a trip to Konoha," Aoto stated plainly before handing the letter to the shinobi.

"Assemble the village elders and clan leaders for me," Aoto requested as he made his way back to his office.

In the next thirty minutes, all the important figures in the village were gathered and gossiping amongst themselves about what the purpose of this meeting could be as Aoto made his way into the conference room of the Kage building. And as he sat down, Haruki, his assistant, spoke out, "We can commence the meeting now."

He then brought out the paper that held the news and placed it on the round table. Immediately, everyone's eyes turned towards the piece of paper before turning back to Haruki for further elaboration.

"Konoha has sent out an official invite to the Chunin exams that are to happen in five months," Haruki explained, "They have asked us to bring some of our Genins that could be promoted to Chunin and allocated us up to five teams to bring to participate in the exams."

At this, the whole table burst out.

"Lord Third, you must let my son participate!" a slightly short man with grey eyes blurted out as he stood up and put his hands on the table.

"My grandson has been waiting for promotion since last year, he must participate!" an elderly man who looked to be in his fifties also chimed in, his heterochromatic eyes, blue and red, filled with determination to take this opportunity.

"Your son? Don't make me laugh, he couldn't even pass the first stage last year, what makes you think that he could pass this time?" a middle-aged slender brown-skinned woman mocked the old man as she turned to Aoto and spoke, "Lord Third, you must send the heir of my Kurohige clan! We must show the other clans that we are not to be trifled with."

"Silence!" a voice from the far end of the table, directly across from Aoto, spoke out. In that instant, a heavy aura fell on the room and everyone immediately quietened down.

A tall man with a ponytail stood up and stared directly at Aoto as he asked in an oppressive tone, "What are you going to do, Kazekage?"

Seeing the table now quiet, Aoto slowly stood up and spoke, "We will send all five complete teams. Each of the six main clans will team up to form a team of three. You can decide the teams amongst yourselves. And as for the remaining two teams, they will be given to the best shinobis out of this year's academy graduates."

Hearing this, the remaining clan leaders and elders who were not a part of the six main clans let out a sigh of relief as there was still hope for them.

"Well then, that concludes the meeting, I hope that you all push our genins to train their hardest to come out on top of the Chunin exams," said Aoto as he ended the meeting there and the room began to slowly empty.

"Lady Chiyo and Ebizo," Aoto suddenly called out as everyone began to make their way out.

"Is there anything that you need, Lord Third?" the voice of a young woman sounded. A short lady and a man with very unforgettable eyebrows who looked to be entering their late twenties walked out of the crowd and made their way towards Aoto.

"I would like to ask you guys to take someone into your care and train him," Aoto requested.

"That would be our pleasure," Chiyo replied as she bowed with a smile on her face while Ebizo asked, "Judging from the fact that you asked us, it seems that you want us to train Haru?"

Aoto nodded lightly as he let out an embarrassed smile, "Yes. I'm afraid that my knowledge of puppetry is limited and I cannot teach him anymore."

"All the more reason for us to accept. It would be our honour to train the little brother of a kazekage who truly cares for the growth of the village," Chiyo and Ebizo both said in unison and Ebizo couldn't help but add, "We will have him strong enough to participate in the Chunin exams!"

Hearing this, Aoto waved his hands in dismissal as he spoke, "I don't intend to have them participate in the Chunin exams."

"Eh?" the siblings both stared at Aoto in confusion as Ebizo questioned, "Why?"

"You will find out when you start training him," Aoto replied with a smile, not wanting to give too much away, "It will do more harm than good to have him participate in the exams."

...

"Undercurrents..." Ryuuya mumbled while Kiyoshi and Haru turned towards Aoto. 

"Yes... I cannot simply show such emotions as a Kazekage..." Aoto replied seriously but his face quickly lit up once again as he continued, "But as your older brother, how could I not celebrate my little brothers succeeding on their first mission."

And with that, dinner was served and the anger that Kiyoshi felt towards Aoto was quickly dissipated. 

"What did you guys end up learning from your first mission?" Aoto asked out to the other boys as they all rested their heads on the soil.

"I feel that I have found out how heavy the responsibility of being a shinobi is. No, thinking back on it, I feel as if I have simply just scratched the surface," Ryuuya answered after a thoughtful pause.

"And why would you say that?" Aoto questioned, surprised at such an answer.

"Because..." Ryuuya stared up at the abyss, "I saw how helpless the villagers were. Each of them played a role in our success despite not having the ability to use chakra. They are all important to the village and with a loss, they suffered greatly."

Reflecting on it, Ryuuya then let out a small smile as he continued, "I don't know how much harder and heavier the tasks and the burden of being a ninja will be but I promise to value each life as important as my own."

A short silence followed as Aoto was left stunned by how much Ryuuya's philosophy had developed with a single mission. He could not help but let out a proud smile and thought, 'If only there were more shinobi like you in Suna...'

"What about you Haru?" Aoto then turned to Haru.

"Hm," Haru replied with a simple hand point towards his puppet and it suddenly began to form just the head of the human puppet which then spoke out, "I need to improve on my puppets' materials and also work on increasing my damage output."

The puppet then took a short pause before spurting out one more statement, "The reaction time of the puppets was also too slow. I feel like I've reached a bottleneck that I am so close yet so far to overcoming."

Aoto let out a smile as he heard this and he ruffled Haru's hair, "I think that won't be too difficult to settle. I'll take you somewhere tomorrow morning."

After saying this, he turned to Kiyoshi, awaiting his answer. 

"I need to reach the sky faster..." Kiyoshi took a few seconds to consider before speaking.

He recalled, "Those were just animals and we struggled with them. The mission made me realise at the current strength that we have, we would have come out of the mission with many casualties... If we meet other missions at this difficulty against other shinobi, then I am sure that we will not be able to protect anyone."

"Because of that, we need to get stronger faster so that we can minimise the lives that might be lost," Kiyoshi spoke with a serious sigh.

"Hahahahaha!" Aoto suddenly laughed out loud, causing the boys to stare at him in confusion, "The three of you don't even realise it yet... Among all the kids your age, you guys are easily the strongest that ever emerged in Suna's history."

"But that doesn't matter if we end up facing off against adults..." Kiyoshi replied blandly, dismissing Aoto's praise.

Aoto knew that there was truth to what Kiyoshi had just said but a warm smile appeared on his face as he spoke, "Well then, it seems that you guys will have to train harder while doing more missions. I'm going to need you guys as strong as you guys can get in three months"

"Huh, why?" Ryuuya asked curiously as the inclusion of a timeframe piqued his interest.

"The Chunin exams are going to take place," Aoto replied.

"You signed us up?" Ryuuya asked in shock.

"Haha, no," Aoto answered with a little laugh, "You guys will not participate in the exams but I'm going to take you guys anyway."

"Huh? Why would we have to train if we are not participating?" Kiyoshi asked in confusion.

Aoto did not reply and simply lay down on the ground as he mumbled in a volume that all three could barely hear, "Because Haru will be stronger than all of you by the end of the three months."

"WHAT?" all the boys shouted in shock.

'I hope these three months will be enough for you to be able to face the real world,' Aoto thought as the day came to a close.

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Uh... No guarantees on chapters being published but I can promise that this has not been dropped. 

Enjoy the chapter.