Chapter 1 – Origin

Chapter 1 – Origin

Sunagakure – Kazekage's Office

In a meeting room, a man in his thirties was reviewing some documents with a serious and slightly displeased expression. He was Rasa, the current 4th Kazekage of Suna, and considered by many to be the weakest of the Five Kage and the weakest Kazekage in history. This reputation wasn't entirely his fault; when he took the position during the 3rd Great Ninja War, he was still an elite Jonin. Although he possessed the magnetic style to control gold dust, he didn't have it in large enough quantities to use effectively.

As the battles progressed, he was still growing and wasn't able to directly compete with true Kage-level masters. Thus, he was labeled as the weakest Kage in history, reaching his peak strength only at the end of the war. Afterward, due to the village's immense difficulties, he stopped his training and focused mainly on managing the village and mining in the desert to keep the village alive.

In the end, Rasa was just a poor man who lived a hard life, and now, after the death of his wife, he began to immerse himself more in work, seeking a way to change Suna and starting to think about how to use his youngest son as an efficient weapon for the village.

Today would normally be just another ordinary day, but an unexpected visitor came to see him. Lifting his eyes from the documents, Rasa observed the elder Chiyo sipping some tea with a calm expression while relaxing on the sofa in the room.

When he received the news of the elder returning with a baby and three bodies from the desert, he quickly wanted to go to her. However, for the first time since the end of the 3rd war, the elder Chiyo entered the Kazekage's office and spoke a few words with Rasa before sitting down and waiting.

Rasa wasn't bothered by Chiyo's presence; on the contrary, he wanted her by his side helping him. However, he knew how much she had already sacrificed for the village, and to bother her more than he already did in her retirement would be to ignore her goodwill towards him.

"Anyway, Elder Chiyo. You really don't want to tell me what happened, who attacked you, and especially who the baby is?"

"Wait a bit, Rasa. Although I have my suspicions, it's better to let the Torture and Interrogation Department investigate."

"Yes."

Normally, when a person died, that was the end. However, ninjas had ways of extracting information from corpses. That's why when a high-ranking ninja died, their body was often stolen by enemies seeking information.

Chiyo handed over the three corpses to the Interrogation Department and called her brother to supervise everything. She had her suspicions about the attackers' identity, but in the end, she didn't care much about them. Instead, she was truly curious about the identity of the woman and the baby.

The state of that corpse, although it seemed quite recent, had lacerations and damage all over, inside and out. Whatever they did to her before was something extremely inhumane. Of course, this was the ninja world, where killing and being killed was common, children were thrown into war from an early age, and human experiments were frequent. However, even Chiyo had never seen anyone in such a wretched state, even during the war.

While waiting, Chiyo took another sip of tea, and Rasa once again reviewed the documents on the table. Finally, after a little more than two hours, the office door opened, and an elderly man entered.

"Kazekage-sama, Nee-chan."

"Ebizō, did you manage to get any useful information?"

"Well, as Nee-chan guessed, the two ninjas were Genbu from Konoha, so I couldn't get anything due to the seals they have. The woman, however…"

Seeing Ebizō pause, Chiyo and Rasa's curiosity was piqued, and both remained silent for a moment.

"She is a member of the Senju clan, more precisely someone from the main lineage who survived the Second War. She was captured about 15 years ago by members of Genbu along with several other weaker clan members who had just been sent to the battlefield."

"That's..."

"It seems Konoha has been experimenting with the Senju to awaken Hashirama's Wood Style again."

"Heh, what a bunch of idiots," Rasa said with a mocking smile on his face.

"I remember that," Chiyo said. "The study on Wood Style was an open secret among clans and other villages before the start of the Second War, but they were all halted and then banned due to the high number of clan volunteers who died."

"Well, it seems the village never really stopped the studies with the Senju clan, just made them much more secretive. And this time, without volunteers," Ebizō said to his sister.

"Anyway, that's not important," Chiyo said. "What matters here is... how did she end up in the Land of Wind? In her state, she shouldn't have been able to travel more than a few kilometers before being captured, yet from the wear on her body, she must have wandered for at least three days in the desert."

"Well, about that... she actually wasn't far," Ebizō said with some seriousness in his tone.

"What do you mean?" Rasa asked, feeling a bit apprehensive.

"The Genbu's experimental base, according to the woman's memories, was located within our territory, about 10 km from the border with the Land of Rivers."

BAM

"DAMN IT, WHAT THE HELL ARE THE BORDER NINJAS DOING?"

Rasa was extremely angry. How the hell do enemy ninjas set up a base within your territory and use it for years without arousing anyone's suspicion?

"A traitor?" Rasa asked Ebizō, who shook his head.

"Maybe, but we can't prove it."

"Damn it."

"And what about the child?" Chiyo asked suddenly.

"Yes, the child. Is he also a Senju, Ebizō?" Rasa asked.

"Yes," Ebizō replied. "It appears he was an attempt to create new test subjects for studies."

"What do you mean?"

"Since there are no longer many pure-blooded Senju, they made the woman pregnant using material from another man who had a less diluted lineage." Ebizō explained. "She ended up pregnant and gave birth just before escaping the facility."

"How did she manage to escape? In her condition, it was already a miracle she could walk, let alone kill trained ninjas and walk through the desert for three days after giving birth."

"The number of ninjas at the facility was low due to the Kyuubi's destruction in Konoha a few days ago. She took advantage of a breach to kill a ninja and escape with the baby using a strange spatial ninjutsu, something like the Fourth Hokage's Flying Thunder God, but much more unstable and random."

"Wasn't her chakra sealed?" Chiyo asked suddenly. It would be strange for a prisoner like her to freely use her chakra.

"Well, that's strange... it seems that on that day, she woke up with her chakra already unsealed."

"Someone saved her?" Rasa asked, a bit skeptical. "Maybe an internal conflict within Genbu?"

"Unlikely," Chiyo replied. "Those lunatics are nothing more than disposable tools without their own will. They are effective killing machines, with no sense of right or wrong."

Once again, the room fell silent as everyone focused on their thoughts.

"What should we do about this? Should we demand compensation from Konoha for the existence of a secret base in our territory?" Rasa asked, wanting to extract some benefit from Konoha. After the war, they lost a lot, either paying compensation to Konoha or due to the Daimyo's cuts regarding Sunagakure.

"No. Doing that means we will have to hand over the baby to them. A young Senju, although we cannot effectively verify the father's lineage quality, the mother is a direct line Senju, so he must have an almost pure lineage," Ebizō said with some joy in his voice.

"Should we use him for breeding when he grows up?" Rasa asked as Chiyo and Ebizō paused to think.

Seeing the faces of the two elders, Rasa continued.

"The baby is undoubtedly good material for creating powerful ninjas in the future. Even though the clan's fame is mainly due to Hashirama and his wood style, the Senju clan itself has always been at the top in terms of chakra, physique, or talent. If the baby were used as a breeder in a few years, Suna would have a new Senju clan in the ninja world loyal to them, and even better, if another Hashirama were to emerge in the future, they could finally change the conditions of the Wind Country, transforming it into a fertile place," Rasa said with a smile on his face, as if he could already see the prosperous future of Suna, surrounded by green and vibrant forests, all thanks to him.

"Maybe. But what if the person who helped the woman reappears and sees what we are doing with the baby?" Chiyo said.

"We don't really know if someone helped her. The seal might have just worn off. And even if someone did help, why haven't they shown up again?" Rasa waved his hand dismissing Chiyo's concerns.

"Even so, I prefer a more straightforward and positive approach with the boy," Chiyo said.

"What do you suggest?" Rasa asked.

"We should raise him and train him as a ninja of Suna," Ebizō suddenly said.

"Why do you think he would stay in Suna?" Rasa asked. "He is a Senju from Konoha?"

"Wrong. He is a Senju, but not from Konoha," Chiyo said. "We will tell him about his origins. We will tell him how great his clan was, their achievements, and then we will tell him about Konoha's actions."

"That sounds risky. What if he doubts us? What if he resents Suna? After all, we killed many of his clan members ourselves," Rasa said with some concern, and he wasn't wrong; it was his job as Kazekage to do everything for Suna to prosper.

"Although your concerns are valid, raising him as one of us is much more beneficial than simply using him as a breeding animal," Ebizō said calmly.

"Moreover, if he has talent, we will have a powerful reinforcement. Don't forget that due to Daimaoh's actions, we had no choice but to start focusing only on training elite ninjas," Chiyo continued after her brother. "Although the impact is not so visible now, soon our numbers will begin to decrease significantly. Besides, I am old, and Pakura was killed. Other than you, we don't have a second Kage-level ninja in the village."

Rasa frowned upon hearing Pakura's name and couldn't help but sigh as he sat down. She was an extremely skilled kunoichi and considered a heroine in Suna. She died in an ambush when she was sent as a messenger to Kirigakure. Although irritated with Kirigakure, Rasa knew that the village no longer had the power to fight on another war front, so he blamed Iwagakure for Pakura's death.

"Besides, he couldn't start having children before the age of 13," Rasa said as he sat down. "Wasting a possible talent like him would be foolish of me. Alright, I will find someone trustworthy to raise and train him as a ninja of Suna."

"About that. I would like to do it," Chiyo suddenly said, surprising both Rasa and Ebizō.

Rasa remained silent for a moment and then agreed. Chiyo was skilled and had Kage-level strength. She also had the free time to care for and train the boy, something Rasa did not have, and any other elite ninja he could consider for this was too valuable to be tied down as a babysitter. But more importantly, Rasa knew of Chiyo's loyalty to Suna, and she would never do anything to harm the village.

"Alright, then, Elder Chiyo, as Kazekage of the village, I hereby declare you the legal guardian of Senju... what is his name again?" Rasa asked.

"Yuki, that was the name the boy's mother chose before she died," Ebizō said.

"Alright, then Senju Yuki is now under your care, Chiyo. Please take care of him so that he becomes a great ninja of Suna in the future."

"Don't worry about that," Chiyo said with a smile on her face before happily leaving the room.

"It has been a long time since I saw Nee-chan smile like that," Ebizō said, his voice a little heavy.

"Well, maybe this boy is a blessing for both Suna and her," Rasa said and then remembered his own children. When he thought about his youngest, who was now the Jinchūriki of the One-Tail, he couldn't help but feel a little confused.

'I will think about this later,' Rasa once again began to review the documents while Ebizō left the room and went after Chiyo, who headed to the hospital to see the boy.