One Piece: Hell Pirates

Chapter 425: Civil War in Sunagakure

Chiyo's sudden intervention broke the deadlock between Sasori and Rasa.

But Magnet Release was a natural bane to puppeteers. Even the Ten Puppets of Chikamatsu could not truly halt a life or death clash between two Kage level masters wielding Magnet Release.

"Sasori, stop!" Chiyo shouted anxiously. "The council has already decided to give you the position of Fifth Kazekage! But you are not allowed to harm Rasa any further!"

She wanted to use Brook's temporary absence to put an end to Sunagakure's internal strife as quickly as possible and reach some fragile compromise, one that would preserve the village's strength and interests to the greatest extent possible.

Rasa's face twisted with fury.

"Advisor Chiyo, for the sake of your grandson, you openly betrayed Sunagakure. Sasori of the Red Sand killed the Third Kazekage, and now you collude with outsiders to murder the Fourth Kazekage. Neither you nor your grandson will meet a good end!"

He had no intention of accepting Chiyo's so called protection.

Rather than being stripped of his title, captured, imprisoned, and left to bear eternal infamy, Rasa would rather die gloriously in battle.

"Rasa, for the sake of the village, can't you let go of your power and status for once and protect everything Sunagakure still has?" Chiyo tried to persuade him, hoping to move him with the interests of the village.

Rasa only sneered.

"Your family has no right to say that. Sasori killed the Third Kazekage, and I will never let him become the Fifth Kazekage, even if I have to die here today!"

His resolve was absolute.

Whether it was for the Kazekage's seat or to avenge his teacher, the Third Kazekage, Rasa had no intention of surrendering.

Chiyo fell silent for a moment.

Seeing that words were useless, she turned to Sasori instead.

"Sasori, I will help you take Rasa down, but I hope you will spare his life. His Gold Dust is too important to Sunagakure."

There was selfishness in her words. If she had truly meant to protect Rasa from the start, she could have already used the puppet replicas of Sasori's parents to attack his emotional weakness.

"I don't need your help," Sasori said coldly. "I can defeat the Fourth Kazekage myself."

"Besides, once Lord Brook destroys the Daimyo's residence in the Land of Wind, Sunagakure will no longer lack funds."

"More importantly, I can turn Rasa into a puppet. Just like the Third Kazekage, Magnet Release: Gold Dust will not disappear."

Chiyo's face darkened instantly.

"You...!"

Sasori actually wanted to turn the Fourth Kazekage into a puppet.

The charge of murdering the Third Kazekage was already enough to stain his name forever. If he added the death of the Fourth Kazekage to that, his reputation would be beyond redemption.

Even if Brook forced Sunagakure to accept him as the Fifth Kazekage, the villagers and shinobi would never truly acknowledge him. Assassination attempts would never stop.

Still, with Brook backing him, Chiyo wanted to do everything she could for her grandson, even if it meant trying to wash away some of that disgrace.

That was why she absolutely could not allow Sasori to kill Rasa and turn him into a puppet.

On the other side, Rasa's expression turned uglier and uglier.

"So that was it. You old vultures were only after my Gold Dust from the beginning. You disgust me even more than Sasori."

After several years as Kazekage, he had already seen enough of the filth at the top. He had even started becoming part of it himself.

But he had never imagined that after working so hard to climb to the highest position, he would still be betrayed by the very elders who had once supported him.

These people who always shouted about acting for the sake of the village were nothing more than politicians who placed their own interests above everything else.

To preserve their power and privileges, they would sell out anyone.

"Rasa," Chiyo said heavily, "for the sake of Sunagakure and for the sake of your children, stop now. We will do everything we can to save your life. We can even give you a seat as an elder."

The moment those words left her mouth, Rasa's eyes turned bloodshot.

Her meaning was obvious. Even his children had become bargaining chips.

"You shameless bastards!"

The more Rasa saw through them, the firmer his will to die became.

He already understood that today there were only two paths left to him. Surrender, or death.

As the Fourth Kazekage, he could not accept surrender.

He had already prepared a large number of high level explosive tags. If it came to that, he would drag these bastards down with him. Even if he could not kill them, he would cripple them and destroy his own body completely.

Under no circumstances would he allow Sasori to turn him into a puppet.

Elsewhere, Pakura had no desire to slaughter Sunagakure's shinobi either. She only wanted revenge on Rasa and a few elders.

But those shinobi, all loyal to Rasa, came at her again and again with killing intent. In the end, she had no choice but to cut down her former comrades one by one.

Fortunately, the elders soon sent a large number of Sand shinobi into the field. They forcibly restrained those stubborn loyalists and dragged them away for "reeducation," saving quite a few elite ninja in the process.

Freed from that entanglement, Pakura finally rushed toward Rasa's side.

She still did not know which elders had helped betray her. For the moment, she could only let that matter wait.

What she did know was that the one who handed her that mission order personally had been Rasa.

He was the main culprit.

Once Rasa saw Pakura closing in as well, his desire to die only intensified.

"Rasa!" Pakura's eyes burned with hatred. "Why did you betray me? Who else but you could have done it?!"

A huge ball of blazing Scorch Release fire took shape and roared toward him.

Rasa dodged desperately, then suddenly spat out the truth with vicious satisfaction.

"Pakura, your reputation had grown too great. Using you as a bargaining chip was a decision made by all the elders!"

"If you want revenge, then don't let those old bastards go either. Chiyo and Ebizo included!"

The moment those words came out, Chiyo and Ebizo's expressions changed.

Rasa clearly wanted to drag everyone down with him before he died.

"Pakura, don't listen to his nonsense!" Chiyo barked at once. "Neither Ebizo nor I knew anything about this!"

Now that Brook was backing Pakura, she did not dare to provoke her recklessly.

Some of the nearby elders also hurried to clear themselves.

"Pakura, don't listen to him! This was Rasa's own decision!"

"We may have made suggestions, but he was the one who gave the final order!"

Pakura let out a cold laugh.

"So that is how it is."

She had suspected it all along.

The entire upper echelon of Sunagakure had betrayed her.

A murderous hatred surged through her heart. Once she became the Queen of the Land of Wind, she would settle accounts with every last one of these people.

But first, the chief culprit had to fall.

Inside the Kamui dimension, Brook watched the whole scene unfold with amusement.

He saw the determination in Rasa's eyes. He saw the explosive tags hidden on his body.

And slowly, a meaningful smile spread across his face.

-------------

Under the combined assault of Sasori, Pakura, and Chiyo's Chikamatsu Ten, even Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, could no longer hold the line.

Still, Rasa had already gone completely mad.

He unleashed Magnet Release: Gold Sand again and again, pushing himself into a final frenzy as he weighed one last question in his mind, who he should drag to hell with him.

Sasori, the missing nin who had killed his teacher, the Third Kazekage, was undoubtedly the one he hated most.

As for Pakura, betraying her had indeed been his own mistake.

But Chiyo, Ebizo, and the elders of Sunagakure were far more disgusting in his eyes. If possible, Rasa wanted to blow all of them to pieces alongside Sasori.

Unfortunately, the elders were standing too far away. He had no way to take them all down at once.

That left only one target.

Sasori.

If he could take Chiyo with him too, that would be even better.

At that moment, the four shadows that had split off from Brook rushed toward their respective targets.

Brook had already seen it clearly.

Rasa was about to make a desperate final gamble.

Forced back step by step by Sasori and the other two, the Fourth Kazekage's eyes turned bloodshot, his rage boiling over.

"Sasori! Chiyo! You bastards can die with me!"

Seeing Sasori and Chiyo standing relatively close together, Rasa suddenly tore open his chest.

A dense mass of high level explosive tags was revealed inside.

Then he charged straight at the grandfather and granddaughter with all the speed he had left.

The moment those explosive tags were exposed, even Sasori's pupils contracted sharply. He immediately controlled the Third Kazekage puppet and gathered a huge amount of Iron Sand into a defensive wall.

Chiyo's expression changed as well. She no longer cared about conserving anything and directly moved the ten Chikamatsu puppets in front of herself.

Pakura also retreated at top speed from the side, secretly relieved that Rasa's target was not her. If he had aimed for her instead, she would have had no confidence in surviving an explosion on that scale.

Everyone believed that Chiyo and Sasori were about to be heavily injured, if not killed outright.

But just as Rasa rushed forward at full speed, his body suddenly jerked backward, as though an invisible hand had seized him by the throat.

At the same instant, the six elders of Sunagakure were also grabbed by the neck by an unseen force and hurled in the same direction.

"No!!!"

The six elders slammed violently into Rasa's flying body.

One of Rasa's arms was torn off on the spot and vanished into the air. In the chaos and panic, the high level explosive tags detonated.

Boom!

The sudden turn of events left every Sand ninja present staring in utter disbelief.

The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, had been blown to pieces together with six elders.

In one stroke, a huge chunk of Sunagakure's upper echelon had been wiped out.

And who else could have caused such a bizarre scene, if not the so called ninja god?

Inside the Kamui dimension, Brook had already absorbed and fused with Rasa's severed arm, obtaining a portion of the Magnet Release: Gold Sand bloodline limit. After enhancing it further with divine power, he gained an even stronger gold control ability than Rasa himself.

At the same time, Brook harvested the souls of Rasa and the six elders.

He had just cleared away the greatest obstacles standing in Sasori and Pakura's path, leaving only Chiyo and Ebizo behind to assist Sasori in taking control of Sunagakure.

When Brook slowly revealed himself, the Sand ninjas present were terrified.

This god of slaughter had appeared and, in an instant, erased most of Sunagakure's leadership.

Ebizo's body trembled.

He had just watched six old comrades get dragged away and blown into pieces right in front of him.

If Brook had included him in that attack, he would have been nothing more than a pile of flesh and blood by now.

"Sasori, Sunagakure is yours now. When the time comes, send someone to the Daimyo's residence."

Brook turned toward Pakura.

"Pakura, let's go to the Daimyo's residence in the Land of Wind."

After tossing those words to Sasori, Brook pulled Pakura into the Kamui dimension and disappeared from Sunagakure.

Only then did Sasori, Chiyo, and Ebizo fully come back to their senses.

Chiyo and Ebizo sank weakly to the ground.

It was over.

Completely over.

The losses suffered by Sunagakure this time were so severe that recovering from them would take years.

If Iwagakure launched an invasion now, the Sand Village would barely be able to resist.

Sasori looked over the ruined battlefield, then raised his voice.

"From today onward, I am the Fifth Kazekage! I will lead Sunagakure to even greater heights!"

Brook had already cleared the path for him.

He had even deliberately left Chiyo and Ebizo alive, which made stabilizing the village far easier.

Chiyo and Ebizo had no longer had any room to retreat. No matter how unwilling they were, they could only grit their teeth and help Sasori take control of Sunagakure, gathering the scattered forces, suppressing unrest, and forcing the village back into order.

Meanwhile, Brook had already taken Pakura and moved swiftly toward the Wind Daimyo's residence.

Pakura's eyes shone with excitement as she looked at him.

"Thank you, Lord Brook, for avenging me!"

Her gaze was full of admiration.

She had originally planned to settle her vengeance step by step over time. Instead, Brook had swept away all those who had betrayed her in one decisive strike.

"From now on, govern the Land of Wind properly. Do not disgrace the Brook clan."

Brook pulled the flushed Pakura gently into his arms as he directed the Yatagarasu to fly at high speed toward the Daimyo's mansion.

Pakura clung to him tightly, her face red, her eyes sparkling.

Seeing her like this, Brook's thoughts started to wander.

He had already set his sights on women like the voluptuous Tsunade and the pure, innocent Kaguya before, but Pakura had now officially taken the name Brook Pakura. Since she had already thrown herself at him so eagerly, refusing her would hardly suit a benevolent Grim Reaper.

Thus, as the Yatagarasu rose higher and higher into the sky, vanishing into the clouds, Brook granted her wish.

In ancient times, there was the tremor atop a horse.

Now, there was a tremor in the clouds, a tremor above a divine bird, while even the white clouds seemed stained crimson like the evening glow.

Amid those drifting clouds, Brook sowed the first seeds of hope in this world.

He even came up with an outrageous series of so called mythical beast techniques, Dragon Turns the Clouds, Tiger Crouches, Ape Battles, Cicada Cries, Turtle Leaps and Shifts, Phoenix Soars, Rabbit Pulls Silk, Fish Snatches Scales, Crane Locks Necks, and the ultimate move, An Old Horse in the Stable Still Aspires to Gallop a Thousand Miles.

...

On the third day, Brook and Pakura descended into the Daimyo's Mansion of the Land of Wind.

Brook wasted no time.

He personally crushed the Daimyo's faction, sending the stubborn and troublesome elements off to negotiate with the Sage of Six Paths, while subduing the pragmatic nobles and ministers who were willing to bow their heads.

After that, he took out the remaining Otsutsuki puppets and handed them over to Pakura, allowing her to firmly seize control of the Daimyo's residence.

The Daimyo's capital was officially renamed Wind City.

The Land of Wind was incorporated into the United Ninja Kingdom.

Before Sasori's people from Sunagakure fully arrived, Brook personally sat in Wind City to oversee the situation. At the same time, he continued pounding Pakura with his mighty rod.

Once the Sand Village's support forces finally reached the city, Brook parted ways with Pakura, left Wind City behind, and returned to Flame City in the Land of Fire.

There was no helping it.

The negotiation teams from the Lands of Earth, Lightning, and Water had already arrived in Flame City, and Brook needed to return and deal with them personally.

After all, he had demanded that the three nations bring both their tailed beast jinchuriki and the Sage of Six Paths' treasured tools.

Whether the three great ninja villages of Earth, Lightning, and Water had fulfilled Brook's conditions or not, he would soon find out.

…..

Check out my newly released fanfic on my 2nd account: - FanficLord02

One Piece: My Crew Is Full of Monsters