Chapter 44

Land of Rivers

Ryoma, Jonin of Sungakure

"Lord Takeda." Sho called out calmly, leaping in from a distance and landing a short ways away from their shared camp. He fell into a respectful kneel, one hand on his knee and head lowered. The Samurai turned towards him with bristling hairs and glowering eyes, but did not interrupt or reprimand him.

Well, 'shared' was a bit of a stretch. The VIP had his own structure to sleep in, and spent most of his time among his samurai escorts, who had what was effectively their own camp with their own retainers and servants keeping everything neat and tidy. Next to this camp was the Great Bolter, which served as the mobile shelter of the various ninja.

Then, all around them for a few hundred feet, a thousand spearmen shared sparse camping supplies and too-few tents in a somewhat disorganized sprawl. Some were gambling, some were smoking and drinking, and all looked just a little bit annoyed that they had to be walking around like this.

"Ninja. What is it?" Their VIP asked, looking up from his scroll. The samurai next to him, one with an immense mustache, kept playing his instrument, providing a relaxing tune for the noble section of the camp.

"The bridge on the road head has been sabotaged." Sho revealed. "Its supports sawn through no more than one week ago and left ready to collapse if used."

"What-!" The music stopped as the samurai escorts pulled up from their relaxation. Like lions who see an elephant passing by. "Who dares!?"

"That bridge is the venerable pass of the Fuyan Monks, now departed!" A younger samurai spat with an outraged expression. His hair was a strangely bluish shade. "They would see it defaced?!"

"I swear- if it was the work of you ninja-!" One of the samurai bristled, hand going to the katana on his belt. He had a single swirl of hair hanging down in front upon his forehead, and the rest was tied back in a heavy bun.

"Calm yourself." The largest samurai rumbled. He put down his instrument, a lute, and placed his hands on his knees. He was enormous, two and a half meters tall, with earthy red skin the shade of clay. The most notable feature was his pair of little horns and the small tusks that jut from his lower lip.

He was very clearly some form of oni, whether through chance or bloodline mutation, but no one else seemed to find it strange or remarkable. Ryoma supposed it was less-strange than many other things he had seen thus far, ultimately. "If the ninja were to sabotage the venerable Fuyan Monk Passing Bridge, they would be better served not warning us of it."

"Unless that too is a trick!" One of the samurai pointed out, thumb on the guard of his blade. "Earning the trust of our lord for later trickery!"

This was entirely possible, and wouldn't even be the most elaborate scheme Ryoma had seen from the common ninja. The problem was that it was overly complicated for nebulous benefit. The fact that they were indeed here to manipulate the VIP into actions and decisions that furthered the ambitions of Suna was a bit ironic.

"Enough. I had been suspecting something like this anyways- but not from the ninja." Takeda declared, sweeping a hand across in a wide gesture. "The Takeda-Giri have grown rude as of late- their shipments to the Takeda grow increasingly delayed as the months drag on, and their letters more curt. Treachery is abound, and this only confirms it!"

"My lord, I would advise that you seek further evidence before declaring such a grave judgement." The oni-looking samurai rumbled, frowning and reaching up to scratch at his beard. "Rare is the man who seeks needless war."

"Hmph! You sound like my father, Okada." Takeda shook his head with a frown. "He cautions patience in an age of rapid winds." The oni maintained his worried stare for a few moments longer, and eventually Takeda relented. "Tch, very well! I'll refrain from signing their execution writ for now, but the sabotage of the Fuyan bridge is a crime I won't forget."

"Are we sure it was the Takeda-Giri who sabotaged the bridge, and if so, who among them? The Yagi, Chikae, or Miyano?" Another samurai asked, leaning forwards and carefully gesturing with his saucer of sake. He had a long brown beard and mustache, but looked rather young despite the prodigious facial hair.

"We will see. I will interrogate them thoroughly." Takeda glowered, crossing his arms in an almost theatrically macho pose. "Ninja- how long will the bridge take to repair?!"

"I am not a carpenter, My Lord." Sho responded in an appropriately apologetic tone. "For ninja, the path is no obstacle at all. For others?" He shook his head. "It would depend on the swiftness of your wood workers."

"Where are the sawn pillars, exactly?" One of the carpenters asked, stepping forwards and away from a massive empty bag. "And how deeply have they been sawn?"

"All of the pillars of the bridge, sawn roughly halfway up from the water." Sho gestured with both hands to indicate a rough midpoint. "They were sawn through utterly, save for two pillars which were only sawn through mostly, leaving a sliver of wood."

"Hmmm…" The carpenter considered that for a moment. "It could hold a few men at a time as it stands, but no more than five. To repair it fully would require total dismantle and reconstruction however…"

"And what of temporary repair- how long will that take?" Takeda demanded, stepping towards the carpenter with a sharp nod and frown.

The carpenter grimaced. "If we had the boards and nails? No more than a day. As it stands, we would need to fell the timber, saw it into shape, dry the planks… Three days, perhaps."

"Three days… an unacceptable delay." Takeda growled. "To travel across it five men at a time would take a day by itself- we will do that."

"Would you like the aid of the ninja of Suna in this matter, Lord Takeda?" Sho asked with a blunt professionalism.

"No." Takeda said with an equally blunt professionalism.

Sho nodded, and that was that.

"Everyone- break camp and get moving! We must march more quickly to account for this delay!" Takeda ordered loudly, and although no one groaned or complained, there were a lot of sighs and slumped shoulders.

—

"Hey sensei." Mao said the next day, as they waited atop the Great Bolter for the army they were escorting to slowly pass over the damaged bridge, three to five men at a time. Sometimes it was only a single man and his horse, other times it was an entirely empty wagon, and every time was carefully supervised by the team of carpenters keeping a close eye on the bridge. "Who are the Takeda-Giri, anyways?"

"Why would I know?" Ryoma asked with a tilt of his head.

The bridge was perhaps fifty feet long, and stretched over a deep canyon with a fast flowing river at its base. The Land of Rivers were famous for these sorts of geological structures, with large hills being sliced through with deep rivers that continued unobstructed in defiance of normal water flows.

According to legend, the Buddha Kuwa got tired of needing to walk all the way from the capital to the shore once, and so decided to dig a number of wide canals next to his roads. After a week, his work was done, and the Lands of This and That had become the Land of Rivers.

This was almost certainly historical revisionism to justify an ancient conquest of the region, but the story had stuck around. Ryoma had first heard it from his own Jonin Sensei during a mission through the region. The Land of This and That were apparently still around today, but were highly reduced from their theoretical heydays.

"Because senseis are supposed to know everything, of course." Mao declared with an authoritatively raised finger. She nodded, eyes closed and a smug smile on her face, to emphasize just how sure she was in this point.

"Hm. I suppose that's true." Ryoma nodded slowly. "I do know everything…"

"That is absolutely not true." Tsubame sassed him blankly.

"They're the subordinate-groups of the Takeda clan, hence their collective name." Ryoma began an explanation that made Mao grin triumphantly and Tsubame roll her eyes. This was something that was explained to him as part of the overview of Catching Swan- a list of all potential Suna allies and their related states or neighbors. The Takeda were one of many on a very long list of people and places he was ordered to remember. He didn't get much more than a brief summary on each. "The Takeda control the two major river-ports of the Land of Rivers- both of which are just splits of the same river, the Tsubaki River."

Which was unusual, because normally rivers don't do that. Most of the rivers in the Land of Rivers were generally downstream in flow, away from the various hills and predominantly the Land of Rain to the north, and down towards the sea. The Tsubaki river split a few hundred miles from the shore, passing through a pair of valleys and eventually reaching the sea.

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Quietly, one of the samurai began to walk over, eventually coming to a stop by the Great Bolter's left flank and standing still with arms crossed and expression patient. It was the oni-lookalike. Ryoma ignored him for the moment and continued his explanation.

"Because of their reliance on the river-ports for their wealth, the Takeda have taken steps to secure the valleys north of them, all the way to the next split in the river far to the north-west." Ryoma nodded and rolled a hand, chewing on the end of his necklace. "In exchange for protection from other factions, those three valleys and the clans that control them pay tribute to the Takeda."

"I guess there must be something going on, if Takeda is suspecting them of sabotaging the bridge like this." Genin… Benki said, legs crossed and leaning forwards, squinting at the bridge in the distance. Ryoma had briefly forgotten his name.

"You will address him as Lord Takeda, ninja." A growl came from the large samurai at their side, startling Benki enough to make him fall over. Mao, on the other hand, tensed and jolted into a ready position, hand on the hilt of her long black sword and eyes dilated.

"Yo, Samurai." Ryoma greeted, waving his hand at the large armor-clad demon looking fella. "Is there something that is needed of us?" Tsubame hadn't been surprised in the slightest, giving a calm nod to the samurai from her position next to him.

"Not at the moment." The oni shook his head. "Rather, I'm here to ask how your group intends to cross the bridge- your immense puppet is certainly too heavy to move across the bridge."

Something vaguely akin to formal concern was more than Ryoma anticipated from the samurai. "Don't worry about that. We'd be able to cross even without the bridge. It won't slow Lord Takeda down at all."

The oni frowned, nodding slowly. "I suppose the puppet is capable of great leaps, or something of that nature."

"Not quite." Ryoma shook his head. "Rather, I'll just summon it to the other side once we cross it."

"Summon… It is alive?" The oni titled his head, glancing towards the large insectile plates and frame with a vaguely concerned note in his voice.

"Hm? No, it's just a big object." Ryoma assured, reaching down to rap his knuckles against the hull, a set of hollow thuds rang out. "There's nothing about the summoning technique that inherently prevents a user from summoning an object, so I learned it for the sake of my larger puppets."

"I see." The oni nodded slowly. "Very well then, if you're confident in this, I will not question it further."

"You're being fairly polite to Ryoma-sensei, mister. I thought samurai didn't like ninja?" Mao asked, leaning over the side of the Great Bolter to look him in the eyes.

"Courtesy is a virtue for the self, not the other." The oni explained, then frowned and tapped his horns. "It is one I learned to value, as the son of a samurai and a demon."

Either he was talking about someone with a bloodline trait that made them look like a demon, or a literal, actual demon. It probably didn't matter all that much either way, and Ryoma wasn't going to push his luck by asking about it.

He mentally updated the samurai from 'oni' to 'half-oni'. "It's commendable either way, mister samurai." Ryoma nodded, letting the crystal drop from his lips and the necklace fall back to his chest. The army looked about halfway across now. Five hundred men on one end and five hundred on the other.

"I receive the compliment with grace." The half-oni replied evenly. "I will take my leave."

Ryoma waved him off. "Thank you for the concern."

"Hmh."

—

It was very late at night when the Field Commander came to him, a series of featherlight taps bringing Ryoma to wakefulness in an instant. Sho was crouched near him, silent in the hull of the Great Bolter. He gestured upwards towards the hatch and then made a gesture that meant 'private meeting'.

He then followed that gesture with the proper code-handsign, which indicated that this was probably indeed Sho, their field commander, and not currently an enemy in disguise.

Ryoma nodded slowly, then began to get up and move out of the hull as quietly as he could manage. Tsubame's eyes were closed, but Ryoma half-suspected that she was awake and currently listening anyways.

The hatch was already opened, and Sugimoto was currently on-watch. He waved at them politely as they leapt from the puppet and away, towards a more private location.

Now, every single ninja in the world was constantly paranoid of traps and ambushes of this exact nature. Ryoma slept in his puppetarmor for this exact reason, to be immediately ready for battle if an ambush came. Sure it was a bit uncomfortable, but he made sure to wash twice a day to make sure it didn't become too rank.

They stopped at the Suna-Standard fifteen meters out, and Sho turned to him. "I have updated intel about our objectives in the region." He said, reaching into his vest and pulling out a pair of scrolls, handing both over. Ryoma nodded, checked the sides for the hidden Suna-Authenticity brand, then unfurled the first one to read.

The first scroll was a map of the region, covered in points of interest. Six territories were considered 'hostile' to Suna. Four were considered 'potential allies', each of which had a team assigned to it, one of which was 'Team Sho'. Two were considered 'Suna territory'.

One was the thirty square mile region of farmland that the first Hokage gifted to them a long time ago on the eastern-middle section of the map, labelled 'Suna Forward Operating Base 1' with a breakdown of ninja who were currently operating there by corps-members. The second was labelled 'Suna Forward Operating Base 2', and was right on top of where Tanigakure used to be, also given a breakdown of ninja by corps.

Briefly, he was confused by this. Then he noticed the new corps- the 'Taijutsu' corps.

With the knowledge that Tanigakure was assimilated into Suna as a new corps, it became clear that they had chosen or had been forced to declare their specialty as 'hand to hand'. With that- the reason he had been given a breakdown of the corps was so that he could pick out how many formerly-Tani ninja were in the region and where.

Both operating bases had roughly five hundred ninja present, of which the 'Taijutsu Corps' was the most-represented in terms of percentage, at about a hundred ninja present at each.

Two hundred total ninja of Tani to eight hundred ninja of Suna present in their old territory at the moment. Rasa was keeping a tight leash on their new integrations, it seemed.

The most pertinent information from the scroll was four 'potential Suna allies' and their territories of interest. Ryoma memorized it so that they wouldn't be stepping on any toes later- it would be a kerfuffle if two Suna teams independently backed expansion of their potential allies into the same territory.

It didn't really matter who won in the end, but Suna ninja fighting Suna ninja was just unprofessional. It would send mixed messages to their clients.

Ryoma rolled up the scroll and handed it back to Sho, who burned it immediately. He then started to read the next scroll. This too, was a sort of map. A list of all known ninja, mercenaries, and potential enemies that Suna was aware of that was operating in the region, and their last known locations.

He skipped over many names and faces that were sighted on the other side of the country, near the Rain border, and got to the part of the list concerning their immediate surroundings. There were a few names he had read about before in the bingo books, mostly normal ninja and independents who were doing low-level escort jobs for unrelated parties through the region. His eyes continued to scan over the paper, memorizing snapshots and moving on…

His eyes came across a particular name. Ryoma's breathing slowed.

Hatake Kakashi. "Kakashi of the Sharingan". Last seen accompanying Oda Naginata in Oda-clan territory.

Oda-clan territory was directly adjacent to Miyano-clan territory, which was one of the three tributaries of the Takeda.

Potential for conflict in their goals was low, but not impossible.

Ryoma exhaled slowly, then rolled up the scroll and handed it back to Sho. It was burned a moment later.

"That is all. You may return to your rest." Sho stated. Ryoma nodded, and together they leapt back to the Great Bolter.

Kakashi of the Sharingan…

It took awhile for him to get back to sleep.