Chapter 41

Sunagakure

Ryoma, Jonin of Sungakure

Things were quiet for the month following the ‘impromptu’ annexation of Tanigakure. Officially, Ryoma was punished with a suspension of ninja duties, solitary confinement, and ‘reeducation’. That all sounded like he was being thoroughly interrogated, possibly tortured, for the crime of revealing the Great Dragoon to so many people without explicit prior approval. In practice, it was just a month for him to buff out the battle-damages the Great Dragoon had sustained, recharge its chakra-resevoir, refill its ammo, and similar.

The only actual ‘work’ he was forced to do was draft a few proposals for a second, improved Great Dragoon iteration. He even had time to figure out how to work Senjuwood, which went straight into making a more durable helmet and torso plate for his puppetarmor.

Senjuwood was such a massive bitch to work with that Ryoma was feeling very confident in his new protection. It took his best saw layered with wind chakra to even start cutting through it, and even that was like trying to saw through steel rather than wood. Saturating the block with chakra made it slightly more pliable too, but 'soft steel' was still a pain in the ass.

Of course, being locked away like he had been meant he wasn’t exactly up-to-date with what had been going on in the outside world. It was entirely possible that tensions were boiling over and the village was on the verge of civil war or something. Judging by lthe guards grumbling as he walked past them and the prices of various goods going up by another few ryo, things were mostly normal.

The most noticeable thing were all the stares he could feel on his back.

At least Tsubame was acting normal, that is to say, standing near him with a flat expression.

“Your client is the leader of the Takeda Clan.” The Kazekage began to explain to the eight ninja gathered in his office, a stick of pocky hung out of the side of his mouth. “Self-titled Hatamoto Takeda initially requested the most powerful ninja Suna had available to escort his son and heir, Takeda Kaneda, as he negotiates a dispute with one of their economic interests.”

Rasa rolled the pocky to the other side of his mouth. “Suna officially cannot fulfill this request, our most powerful ninja currently busy with other matters, and has renegotiated the contract to send a team of less-powerful ninja that were currently available. The client is under the impression that each of you are merely secondary options subbing in for more powerful ninja. Under no circumstances are you to dispel this notion.”

Rasa pushed up from his chair, unfurling a scroll across the table as his eyes were ringed with black. The scroll was a map of the Land of Rivers, with a number of territories sketched across and points of interest labeled. Glittering sand, both golden and black, began to crawl across the scroll to form new markers and borders.

“Your mission is threefold. The first objective is the completion of the mission as defined by the client’s contract. The second objective is to succeed bombastically.”

“Clarification requested, Lord Kazekage.” A tall figure wearing a demon-mask asked. His hair was cut short and black, his head partially wrapped in bandages, and his arms completely bare. “What is entailed by ‘bombastic success’?”

The mask was enough to identify him as a member of the weaponry-corps, unofficially known as the Assassin Brigade. Which was kinda strange now that Ryoma was thinking about it- you’d think most ninja would at least dabble in assassination, having a whole corps labeled for it seemed like overkill.

The harsh voice was enough to identify him as the vice-captain of the weaponry-corps- it was a voice he recognized from that totally-secret meeting that was held a bit more than a month ago.

“To sell the image of a more powerful Sunagakure, you will be required to not merely defeat your opposition, but to defeat them with great theatrics.” Rasa nodded with a slight downward tilt of his lips. “Decisive, absolute victories that display great strength and confidence. The client, believing you all to be rank and file, will see your flashy displays and presume that ninja in Suna are all roughly equivalent to such.”

“In short- Advertise Suna.” Rasa rapped the desk with the back of his knuckles. “Do you understand?”

“I understand, Lord Kazekage.” The weapon-corps member replied with a deferential nod.

Rasa turned to him next. “Jonin Ryoma. The Kyojutsu is officially declassified and can be deployed without prior approval, so long as you complete an after-action report detailing the situation and justification for its deployment. Punishment may be levied upon you if the situation does not justify its deployment. You specifically are ordered to seek out as many reasonable opportunities to deploy the Kyojutsu during the course of this mission.”

Eyes turned towards him and Ryoma nodded. Three simple rules to follow. “I understand, Lord Kazekage.” He’d normally question why he was even being deployed on a mission like this, he wasn’t exactly the flashiest guy around, but the Great Dragoon was a pretty obvious reason. It was big, it was kinda-strong, and it looked very impressive to people who didn’t know much about puppetry or combat in general.

The fact that he could pilot a giant puppet meant he was a natural fit for showing off the ‘Strengths of Suna’, and playing it off as average or unremarkable would just be him being honest with his assessment of the thing.

Overall, the mission was shaping up to be pretty simple.

“There is a third objective that will be on a need-to-know basis.” Rasa continued, withdrawing a second, smaller scroll that was tied with a red ribbon. “The acting Field Commander and Second will be required to read this scroll, memorize its contents, and then destroy it.” He placed the scroll on the table next to the first, much larger scroll.

“The client’s son, Takeda Kaneda, is supposed to await you at the border of the Takeda Clan territory along the southern coastline. He is accompanied by a number of samurai guards and a small host of common soldiers. He expects your arrival within two weeks. Are there any questions?”

“Mission rank and estimated payout?” Ryoma asked, tilting his head.

“A-Rank. Eight-hundred thousand ryo.”

There were eight ninja here, which meant that was around one hundred thousand per person. One koku of rice was forty thousand to eighty thousand ryo depending on location. His payout for this mission would be one koku and change in the worst case.

Ryoma nodded to show that he understood. One whole koku would bring some much needed liquidity to his bank account- it was pretty dry after that senjuwood purchase and a month without missions.

Rasa nodded. “Jonin Sho will be acting Field Commander. Jonin Ryoma will be acting Second. You are dismissed.”

That was their cue to leave the room and do a bit of socialization. Which was important both for planning and for getting caught up with the familiar faces in the small crowd.

“Jonin Nagare.” Ryoma gave a little wave as they entered the hallway. “It’s been awhile.”

“Jonin Ryoma.” Nagare greeted with a nod, looking just as sharp and serious as he remembered. Tall with sandy blonde hair and fairly tanned skin. She was wearing her flak vest over something akin to a desert dress, headdress and long thigh-slit skirt included.

And, of course, her two absolutely massive jugs held up by strong leather straps. “I heard what happened on your last mission. Are you doing fine?”

Ryoma ignored Tsubame’s quietly judgemental stare beaming into the side of his head. “As well as I can be, I suppose.” He shook his head. “More importantly- who are these guys with huh?” He gestured at the team of younger ninja that were currently following Nagare like baby ducks. One of which he knew.

Pink haired and with a long black sword on her back, it was one of the genin that he threw a few tips towards during those remedial lessons a few years back. “I recognize Mao there. I suppose you ended up getting a genin team after all?”

“That’s right.” Nagare replied with a short nod and a faint smile, gesturing towards the three behind her. “Chunin Mao, Genin Benki, Genin Tsubasa. They have been my team for two years now.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

One of the genin was male, stocky, and wore a little metal helmet. The other genin was female and grey-haired, carrying a warfan across her back.

“Two years? Have they been to the chunin exams?” Another person that Ryoma wasn’t familiar with asked. Tall and tanned with brown hair and expressive grey eyes, he was wearing mostly standard flak and a long coat with the kanji for ‘medical corps’ emblazoned upon the back. That made him a pretty obvious target in the field.

“Two times now, sir.” Mao answered with a short and serious nod. “I’m filling in for a third member on their team.”

“Sensible. Sensible.” The stranger responded, raising a hand up to his chest. “Jonin Sugimoto. I’ll be the medic for this mission, it looks like.”

“Jonin Ryoma.” Ryoma decided it was about time he properly introduced himself. “Puppetry Corps. Open Warfare Specialist.”

“Jonin Tsubame. Specialized in weaponry and hand-to-hand. I will support Jonin Ryoma throughout the mission.”

They paused in the office, lingering and looking on to the last individual. The member of the weaponry corps continued to look at the smaller scroll for a few long seconds, then nodded, rolled it up, and passed it to Ryoma. Ryoma took it, backed up slightly to be against the wall, and unfurled it to read as their field leader introduced himself.

“Jonin Sho. Weapons Corp. We’ll go over everyone’s abilities and organize into teams on the road.”

“Well that should be easy, shouldn’t it? We have Jonin Nagare and her Genin be one team, and the rest of us be the other team.” The medical nin Sugimoto commented with a raised brow.

“Not necessarily. It will strongly depend on individual strengths and current mission conditions.” Sho shook his head. “We meet at the gate at oh-six hundred and make our way to the mission-location from there. Here- everyone needs to review the mission scroll before we break for personal preparations.”

Ryoma wasn’t surprised by what he saw on the hidden-objective scroll. It was, ultimately, just a continuation of Operation Catching Swan.

Objective Three. Extend and escalate conflict in the region by whatever means possible. Encourage Takeda expansionism. Eliminate regional rivals to Takeda expansion whenever they present themselves.

That was actually three objectives pretending to be one, but sure Rasa. It was pretty easy to see what they were angling for. He carefully rolled up the scroll and tied it off with the red ribbon again, handing it back to their Field Commander. The Field Commander took it silently, hand igniting with fire-chakra flow and steadily consuming the scroll he clutched. After ten long seconds of steady combustion, the scroll was entirely destroyed with only the pair of them knowing its contents.

“We’ll be heading into the Land of Rivers for an extended period, so pack for wet environments.” Jonin Sho commanded succinctly. “The duration of the mission is currently unknown, so bring supplies for foraging, hunting, and cooking as well.”

Ryoma was handed the mission scroll at that point, Tsubame giving him a raised brow as his eyes scanned across the details within. Client name and residence, VIP details, meeting location and directions, mission payout.

“Are your genin prepared for an A-rank mission, Jonin Nagare?” Sho asked, demon mask staring straight at the three genin in question. They straightened up under his masked gaze.

“They are. They have successfully aided me on an A-Rank mission already, and performed competently in their roles.” Nagare responded confidently. “They are roughly equivalent to chunin in overall capacity.”

“Good.” Sho nodded. “I reiterate. Oh-six hundred, front gates. Are there any group preparations before we scatter?”

Ryoma handed him the mission-details scroll, and that was that.

—

“We’ll be gone for awhile.” Ryoma mentioned offhandedly to his renters. Hotaru looked at him with distinctly a worried and nervous expression, clutching a scroll in both hands. “A-Rank mission in River with an indeterminate timeframe.” He explained, chowing down on his meal of rice, curry, and sauteed vegetables.

A quick and easy dinner overall. Ryoma approved of Tsubame’s choice in dish.

“So soon?” Hotaru asked with furrowed brows behind her large glasses. “After you- your uhh…” She glanced around and then whispered the next word. “Re-education.”

“Mhn.” Ryoma nodded, chewing through a mouthful of food. He swallowed and replied. “It was mostly just lectures and chores they had me doing- it wasn’t that bad.” He shook his head. “Besides- My bank account is looking pretty dry at the moment.”

“I- I have the rent here!” Hotaru declared, thrusting the scroll forwards with both hands. “Sato- he went on a mission to get rent money- and he’ll be back soon he said!”

“Oh, that’s good.” Ryoma took the scroll, tucking it into his vest. “Remember to lock everything down when you leave, if you go on a mission while the rest of us are gone.”

“Grk.” Hotaru choked on nothing, sitting back in her chair with her regular constipated expression.

Ryoma raised a brow at her, lifting another mouthful of curry, rice, and vegetables to his mouth.

Besides him, Tsubame set down her chopsticks, platter completely clean. “I should have used more salt.” She observed with a slight frown.

He wasn’t sure if he agreed, it was already a bit salty for what he was expecting curry to taste like. He raised the cut of tea to his lips, blowing briefly to cool it down, and then taking a sip. It was a new flavor he couldn’t quite pin.

He smacked his lips a few times. “New tea?” He turned to Tsubame to ask. She nodded.

“The jasmine finally bloomed while you were in confinement.” Tsubame explained. “I dried it out and ground it for the tea. Do you like it?”

“It’s not bad.” Ryoma answered with a nod, taking another sip.

He was about to say something else when the front door was loudly knocked upon, and a voice shouted from the outside. “RYOMA!”

He raised his brow, setting the tea down and pushing up from the table. “It sounds like Toyoko found out I was free again.” He commented with an amused shake of his head. “I’ll let her in.”

“I’ll prepare another plate.” Tsubame replied, pushing up and walking back over to the actual kitchen-area of the room.

Ryoma rounded the corner, heading down the hallway to the entrance and connecting a string to the eye mounted on the door. Sure enough, a blurry looking black-haired shorty was standing on the other side with a highly impatient posture.

He opened the door, immediately greeted with a flurry of short woman checking all over his form. “Ryoma! What’s your status? What’s the status of the Kyojutsu? What punishment- you were in reeducation for-”

“A month, yeah.” Ryoma answered, gently reaching up to put a hand on her shoulder and pushing her away. “I’m fine Toyoko, thank you for asking.”

She stared up at him for a few long seconds, before gritting her teeth and making a frustrated noise. “You’re just going to act like nothing’s wrong again, aren’t you?” She muttered, seemingly to herself. He raised a brow.

“It wasn’t that bad, honestly speaking.”

She huffed, before reaching into her jacket and withdrawing a little box, offering it to him. He raised his other brow at the sight of a super-luxury box of high grade pocky. It probably cost two or three times more than normal for a candy like this.

“Oh, thank you.” He nodded, opening the box and retrieving one of the sticks. “I’ll eat this during my mission.”

“...Mission?” Toyoko asked, staring up at him with squinting eyes.

He nodded absentmindedly. “No rest for the wicked, and all that. I’ve another mission to the Land of Rivers, one of those A-Rank escort jobs.”

“...When are you going to be back?” Toyoko asked with a calculating and somewhat irritable look on her face.

Ryoma shrugged. “When the client is done with their business. Timeframe is ultimately unknow- mnhm!?”

His sentence was cut off by the black-haired woman tackling him, dangling from his shoulders like some great limpet, and smashing her lips into his. The pocky stick snapped off and clattered to the ground as he reared back and stabilized himself, back colliding with the doorframe.

Toyoko held her ground, sweet lips doing their best to capture his with a furious determination.

He barely had time to figure out that this wasn’t an attack he should respond to with violence before she let go, falling back onto the ground with a rapidly-reddening face.

“We’re going on a d-date when you get back!” She ordered, poking at his chest. A bit of chocolate smeared across the side of her lips. “So you better stay alive- a-and come back soon, okay?!”

Ryoma nodded dumbly, elemental winds slowly dying down from around his hands.

She stared back, confidence rapidly eroding as he maintained his gaze. “A-and we-we’re going to kiss a lot more- okay?” She forced out, eyes rapidly beginning to flicker around nervously.

“...Alright.” Ryoma eventually replied, glancing down. “...You made me drop my pocky…” He observed, feeling quite stupid at the moment.

He looked up in time to see her flicker away in a gust of sand. Said sand immediately sprayed over his front and into his doorway. He pulled back, closing his eyes to wait out the sudden dustdevil, and then rubbing sand from his eyes when it did.

He stared where she stood for a few seconds longer, then glanced back into the house. Tsubame and Hotaru were peeking around the corner, staring at him with unreadable expressions.

“...I have a date, it seems.” He said.

He was still trying to figure out how he felt about that.

“Have you ever been on a date before?” Tsubame asked after a moment, face blank and eyes steely.

“...Not in this life.” Ryoma replied after a moment of consideration.

“...I will have to coach you during the mission, it seems.” Tsubame nodded seriously, stepping back and then down the hall. “I will prepare additional supplies.”

It was about that moment Ryoma realized that there was probably an extra portion of dinner out that no one was eating. Free food was the best food.