"Welcome! It has been quite a while since we last saw each other, Pakura!" The Wind Daimyo enthusiastically greeted Pakura as she and Rei entered the gardens of his castle. "I am glad you accepted my invitation. Feel free to drop the formality. We are here for tea, after all." He amicably retorted as he beckoned his guests to sit opposite him behind the table filled with various delicacies.

"How could we decline such an opportunity, Mikumi." Pakura answered with a calm smile, completely ignoring etiquette and protocol, while Rei distractedly compared the flowery gardens of the Fire Daimyo's castle to the lush green ones where they were now, wondering if the men had nothing more important to spend their money on. Pakura half-turned towards Rei, "This is my husband, Yotsuba Rei." She introduced, causing the Wind Daimyo to widen his eyes in bewilderment and wonder. ​​

After a few moments of staring, Rei lifted his eyebrow at the man, half-expecting a fight to break out because of something stupid like an accusation of stealing Pakura from him but he was pleasantly surprised when Mikumi slowly turned to Pakura and his lips stretched to a satisfied smile. "I see that somebody finally managed to catch you. Good for you, Pakura. I must admit I am a bit jealous of you, Mr. Rei." He added with a wistful sigh.

That... was something Rei didn't expect from a man who had over fifty wives and consorts, 'Huh, maybe Pakura was right and he is a quite cool guy. Who would have thought?' Rei silently mused, not detecting any jealousy. In fact, his instincts were telling him the Wind Daimyo was totally honest in that statement.

"Nice to meet you." Rei slightly bowed, happy this meeting won't go like the one with the Water Daimyo. Sure, pressuring these powerful political figures was fun but Rei really didn't have any wish to pull power-play on civilians. In his opinion, it was totally pointless. Especially since it was so much easier to simply use rules imposed by civilians in charge to penalize and manipulate the superpowered folk and vice versa.

Frankly, Rei clearly saw the next stage in the development of the world would be shinobi taking over from the Daimyo. It might not happen in decades yet but it was the next natural path the world was leading towards.

During the Warring States, ninja clans were simply far too scattered, far too warring to actually progress and develop. All clans had their Jutsu and guarded them with extreme prejudice. All clans tried to kill each other and earn some money in the process. In short, civilians, especially the wealthy ones, were completely safe and prospered while the clans were preoccupied with their own survival and development, surrounded by enemy ninja clans on every side.

That all, however, changed after the formation of the ninja villages. The knowledge of clans that joined together to form a village was pooled together and suddenly, the ninja arts progressed by leaps and bounds. Suddenly, the ninjas no longer fought numerous other clans. Suddenly, the ninjas were no longer scattered and isolated. Suddenly, they started to work together and their numbers swelled. The enemies became the other ninja villages and while they got stronger than singular clans, the number of enemies they had to fend off at the same time was a lot less. Simply put, the ninjas got a much-needed breather to actually develop rather than nonstop fight for survival.

"But let's skip to the chase. As you probably know, I am a very busy man, especially during this time of the year with the Imports convention and whatnot. Dear Sage, I really have no idea what my father was thinking when he set up this tradition." Mikumi wryly said with a sigh. "You want my help with dealing with Rasa, right? What exactly do you envision? You know I can't just openly attack him."

Rei looked at the Wind Daimyo's eager and somewhat anticipatory expression and barely held back a grimace. The man was clearly positively giddy at the prospect of one-upping Rasa, 'This is exactly why I made sure to become both the hidden Daimyo of the Spring Country and the Kage of my own village. This spectacle is simply sad beyond words.'

And that's where the problem of the current society really laid.

It was very surprising and refreshing when the Fire Daimyo reacted so friendly towards Tsunade. The Wind Daimyo, however, was a norm. Sure, he was a good man and clearly a friend to Pakura but it was so obvious he wanted to subtly stick it to the Kazekage. Something that was becoming all too frequent between various Daimyos and their ninja village leaders.

Powerless civilians held powerful positions in the government. Ninjas were peeved because, by all means, they were superior. Civilians were peeved because they wanted to hold onto their positions of power and superpowered generals with entire armies of ALSO superpowered soldiers at their beck and call was not an easy thing to control.

Previously, ninjas didn't have time to set their eyes on the positions of Daimyo or wealthy merchants. Now that there are villages, this started to slowly change. More and more often ninjas become wealthy by doing business rather than mercenary work. More and more often ninjas, retired or not, participate in the civilian stuff. Just the civilian council in Konoha has a few retired ninjas in it. Needless to say, inwardly, civilians are not really happy about it and see it as ninjas trying to wheedle them out of their seats of power.

Which... the ninjas arguably are indeed doing. It is only natural.

And civilians, in return, decided to go slyly about it. After all, ALL of the three ninja wars were caused by missions gone wrong where two villages clashed due to an assignment by powerful aristocrats of their respective nations. Civilians had to be subtle and convincing in their dealings and weakening of the ninjas.

While Rei really didn't care if it was the ninjas or the civilians on the top... he had his own nation and that was that... he also had to be realistic and admit that ninjas would eventually dominate the ruling positions for no other reason than they had the necessary power. The ninja villages existed for barely a bit more than six decades up to date and the power struggle between the ninjas and civilians already started in some parts of the world. Orochimaru and his take-over of the Rice Country was a prime example of such a thing.

'Then again...' Rei smiled at the eager face of the Wind Daimyo, 'Why would I let an opportunity to get the seat of the Kazekage let go just because the idiots in charge are currently bickering like sniveling children?'

"Our request is simple," Pakura gave Rei a glance, noticing he was letting her take the lead and started talking, "Rasa wanted to kill me. He overstepped his boundaries and created a way for us to lawfully attack his position. I know you won't be able to extend political capital to fully deal with him, Mikumi. Don't worry. I am not asking for that. All I want is your support for my challenge."

"Challenge?" Mikumi's eyebrows lifted into his hairline as his mind instantly understood Pakura's angle.

Mischievously smiling, Pakura nodded, "I would like to officially challenge him to a Grudge Duel for the position of the Ruling Clan, as is my right according to the laws of Sunagakure because of his actions."

"Aww, shit." Mikumi grinned, "He really screwed up, didn't he? Not even Rasa could worm his way out of this! Not since this tradition was started by his very own family!" He almost jumped in excitement and glee. Finally, the arrogant bastard of a Kazekage would be out of his way! Finally, he will be able to make proper use of the Suna ninjas if Rasa was booted out of his office! "Of course, I will support you and organize it, Pakura! But..." His grin faltered, "you know you will need at least one clan from the Sunagakure to also recognize your grudge against the Sabaku family as proper."

"Ah, don't worry. We certainly have our ways." Pakura mischievously uttered. "I only wonder how pissed will Rasa be when he realizes I intend to take his family's power the exact same way as they obtained it."

And just like that... the Wind Daimyo was fully on board with their schemes, happy beyond belief to have an actual part in it, not really realizing he was, in fact, not getting more control over the Sunagakure with his actions.