Naruto : Hidden Cloud

Chiyo was downcast; she didn't speak much, and quietly spent time collecting Sasori's belongings.

Sato and Anko patiently sat on a rock formation, waiting for Chiyo to complete her job. 

Meanwhile, Sasuke finally got time to look after his injured teammate, Sakura.

"Sasuke kun-"

Bang

After knocking her out and burning her wound shut, to stop her from bleeding, Sasuke came to Sato.

"Raikage sama."

Sasuke saluted Sato. 

Since his childhood, Sasuke has been respectful when dealing with his boss; after all, he was Itachi's younger brother. Itachi was Sato's biggest supporter.

Whenever he had time, Itachi taught Sasuke (brainwashed him) to be a Sato believer. Sato himself didn't know about this until after he met Sasuke.

Somehow, the second male lead of the show had become his thug.

Thanks Itachi. 

"Sasuke, You did a great job. Your Sharingan use has become much better."

Sato patted his demigod thug on the shoulder, and Sasuke felt thrilled. But he maintained a serious look to seem more mature. 

"I am much worse than my brother, Raikage Sama. My Sharingan has more room to improve."

Sasuke said so, but he had pride in his tone. He was obviously satisfied with his power.

Then, as if remembering something, Sasuke touched his eyes.

"This reminds me. I didn't see clearly, but when Kazekage had his tailed beast extracted, I saw something in his body."

"It looked like a part of one tail's chakra was hidden in his belly."

"But that chakra disappeared soon, so I didn't get a chance to observe closely."

Sasuke honestly recounted what he has seen. He felt this was useless information, but out of ninja code, he told everything honestly.

But Sato didn't think this information was useless; this answered something very important.

"I see. This must be why Gaara survived getting a tailed beast extracted from him."

Sato rubbed his chin thoughtfully. He put two and two together to figure out what happened.

"Shukaku left a part of his body, maybe his tail, inside Gaara."

"And that's how Gaara survived. Shukaku's tail was enough to provide him with life force, to continue living."

Nodding to himself, Sato remembered the original story. The eight tails did something similar with his jinchuriki, killer B. 

Killer B had survived the eight tails leaving him, using this strategy. Sato believed this must be what happened.

"I can confirm this.."

"Kazekage had a good relationship with his tailed beast."

Overhearing their conversation, elder Chiyo slowly spoke. She had overheard Sato's theory and felt it was completely possible.

"Fifth Raikage, you are correct. One tail must have helped Kazekage Sama live."

"There is no other way he could have survived."

Chiyo was hidden sand's best medical ninja, she acknowledged Raikage's theory while approaching their group.

After spending some time, she had collected Sasori's remains, and was prepared to go and rescue Gaara.

"Thank you for helping stop Sasori, but Kazekage Sama hasn't been rescued yet."

"We should go after him as soon as possible."

Chiyo wanted to hurry up and leave, but Sato didn't move. He flipped a kunai and rolled it around his thumb.

"No rush. Before entering this cave, I had sent my shadow clone to help Kakashi's team."

"The shadow clone did its job; Gaara has been rescued by Naruto and Kakashi."

Sato gave Chiyo the good news, which made her breath a sigh of relief. All the stress left her body.

But then Sato gripped his kunai and put it against his cheek, with a sly smile on his face.

"Which brings me to my next point."

"Your daimyo has been compromised. Akatsuki has controlled sand daimyo to set an ambush for me."

Chiyo's eyes went wide; she couldn't believe her ears. Akatsuki and her grandson were controlling the daimyo, and they ambushed Raikage.

This was so absurd that she wanted to deny Sato's claim, but she wisely chose not to. If Fifth Raikage was smart, he wouldn't talk nonsense about such an easy to verify thing.

This was bad, Chiyo knew how big of a scandal this could cause. She decided to launch an investigation immediately.

"Thank you for letting us know, fifth Raikage."

"I will immediately launch an investigation on this issue."

With that said, Chiyo started to leave in a hurry. 

Sato was taken aback, he blinked then smiled gently. His kunai left his cheek and moved toward Chiyo's eye.

His face still had a smile, but now his eyes were cold.

"Elder Chiyo, where do you think you are going? Do you want to run away after saying thank you?"

"Do you think a thank you is enough for hidden cloud? Do you believe Raikage is your thug?"

Sato coldly stared at Chiyo.

"I left my village and came here personally, because Daimyo offered us enough benefits."

"Now that the daimyo is compromised, the benefits no longer exist."

"You think a simple thank you from your end, is good enough to put an end to this matter?"

Sato almost laughed out of anger. Chiyo knew hidden sand would have to pay in place of Daimyo, and that's why she was running away so quickly.

But Sato wasn't fooled by her act; he was not going to let her go so easily.

Anko wasn't going to let her slip away either; she turned her hands into snakes and curled them around Chiyo.

"...What do you want, Raikage?"

Seeing that her scheme was exposed, and she was completely trapped, Chiyo sighed and relented. She thought Sato wouldn't realize she was running away.

She was thinking of pushing the blame on Daimyo, and not pay Hidden Cloud, because Hidden sand was really poor.

But Raikage clearly wasn't a fool; he caught her before she could leave. They had to tighten their belts and pay up.

"Let me think: your puppet knowledge is valuable, and so is your poison knowledge."

Sato rubbed his chin as if he was thinking, then said with a sly smile on his face.

"But that is not what I want. What I want is a forbidden technique; I want the revival jutsu you have created."

Chiyo's eyes shrunk; how could the Raikage know about this jutsu? This was a secret jutsu she created, and she never told anyone about it.

Chiyo didn't know Sato had meta knowledge; she thought hidden cloud had spies around her house. She felt terrified.

"That jutsu is a forbidden jutsu. It takes the user's life as a price to revive someone."

"Are you sure you want this jutsu?"

But Chiyo was an experienced ninja; she didn't show any fear on her face. She instead tried to make the jutsu seem bad, so Raikage takes something else. 

"I don't care about it's side effects. I want this jutsu."

But Sato didn't change his mind, which made Chiyo depressed. She didn't say anything after that; she copied the jutsu on a blank scroll and gave it to Sato.

Then left the cave quickly, as if running away from Sato's group.

"She left."

Sato smirked, twisted his neck, and informed Sasuke about his team.

"Team 7 is about to arrive here with Gaara. Sasuke, you can do the rest."

"Say hello to Naruto and Gaara for me. I am going home."

Sato said goodbye to Sasuke and quickly left with Anko. He didn't waste a single second and ran towards the hidden cloud.

He was running so fast, Anko thought it was hard to keep up; it looked like Sato was in a great hurry.

"Is something wrong Raikage Sama? Why did you leave so early. You didn't even see your friend, Kazekage Gaara."

Hearing Anko's concern, Sato had a calm look on his face, but his eyes were focused. Anko was right; he was in a hurry.

"Anko, I want to go back as soon as possible. Akatsuki wants the two tails, but for some reason, they are no longer hunting me."

"Sasori said their leader was going to take action, but nothing has happened yet. They didn't come for me."

Sato didn't know what was happening, but he knew he should go back as soon as possible.