Nin-To-Five : ARC 6 : Chapter 66

Sunagakure

Ryoma, Jonin of Sunagakure, Vice-Captain of the Puppetry Corps

Ninja wars began very quietly.

There was no proclamation that they were entering a war, no announcement, no fanfare. Merely a series of missions.

The missions were doctored, of course. Contacts and agents loyal to Suna were asked to send official mission requests, given enough money through unofficial channels to make up for the costs required plus extra, at which point the central village administration calmly took in and distributed these missions out innocuously to pre-planned teams of ninja structured to look normal. These missions were designed to place specific ninja in specific places so that they’d already be ready for further orders when the war went ‘hot’.

This war against Kiri had already begun, and from the outside looking in, it was just another normal day.

“Your client is Zouken Arisaki, Head of Arisaki shipping.” The Kazekage explained calmly, actually standing up on the other side of his desk as he rolled out the mission scroll before them. The image of a withered old man with a suit, haori, and cane dominated the leftmost side of the mission statement, followed by lines of precise, formal print that detailed their mission and the pay they’d be receiving for it.

Most of the pay came from the Kazekage himself in the form of gold, which was delivered to this Mr. Arisaki, which was liquidated and then most of it returned to them in the form of Ryo. 

“Officially, the mission is to escort and protect him while he attends negotiations regarding his business and local companies upon Nagi Island. Unofficially, you are to locate and destroy infrastructure and supplies owned and operated by his rivals in the region.” The Kazekage spoke, bringing a finger down to tap against the section where that was detailed, and the slightly-hidden storage scroll that contained their ‘real’ orders.

Both of these orders were covers for their actual orders, and everyone present knew that. 

“Jonin Basuku will serve as Field Commander for the duration of this mission. Vice Captain Pakura will serve as the Second-Commander.” The Kazekage looked up from the desk and nodded towards the individuals in question. Basuku was a tall, stocky man with his headband worn like a bandana, tinted glasses, and a long wooden pipe held between his lips. Ryoma had never met him without his mask before, but he was pretty sure this was the ANBU Commander.

Pakura was someone he met before. Vice Captain of the Ninjutsu Corps, bearer of the scorch-release, arguably the second strongest ninja in Sunagakure. Her hair was a curious mixture of seaweed green and bright orange locks, longer than last time he saw her, and she wore a black sleeveless top, baggy pants, and durable sandals.

“Mr. Arisaki’s message claims that he will be staying in Nagi for at least three months, so prepare for that.” Meaning that they will need to be prepared to be on the front, unsupported, for at least three months. “Take whatever measures you feel are appropriate. Mr. Arisaki is a very important client for Sunagakure. Do not disappoint him.”

‘Do not disappoint me’, was what the Kazekage actually said.

“You’ll travel to Wind Capital first to meet up with Mr. Arisaki. From there you’ll be traveling by boat to his destination. Expect piracy and enemy ninja along the way, especially after you pass beyond the horn of Tea Country.” The Kazekage reached for a stick of pocky, holding in his mouth like a pipe of a hookah. Pausing briefly, seemingly realizing what he was doing, he closed his eyes. “This is an S-rank mission. Payout is one million ryo. Do you all understand?”

Two hundred and fifty thousand per person in this four man squad. They all gave a simultaneous salute. “Yes, Lord Kazekage.”

“Any questions?”

“Any special restrictions about the deployment of the Dragoon?” Ryoma asked, just to be clear beforehand.

“Use whatever measures you feel are appropriate.” The Kazekage repeated himself from earlier. Ryoma nodded calmly.

“No further questions from me.”

“Should we prioritize the elimination of threats to the client or escape with the client, should the situation demand a choice between the two?” The last member of their team asked, a scowling young man with a trio of scars across his face and orange-iris eyes with slit pupils. By the tone of his voice, he very much would prefer if the answer was the first option, rather than the second.

“Only retreat with the client if you are confident in your ability to regroup and strike back against the enemy. Mr. Arisaki’s business in the region is very important, and you cannot allow enemy action to dislodge him until it is concluded.”

In other words, they needed to stay on Nagi island and hold it long enough for secondary fronts to be cleaned up. 

The rest of the room was silent for a few moments. The Kazekage nodded and sat down in his chair. “You are dismissed. Take the mission scroll with you.”

Basuku took hold of the scroll and rolled it up, gently sliding it into the front pocket of his flak vest. They all left shortly after, in quiet lockstep, through the sandstone halls of the Village HQ. 

“We will be leaving at the end of the hour.” Basuku declared firmly, reaching up to load his pipe with a bit of dry plant and snapping his fingers to ignite it. His eyes could not be seen clearly through the large opaque sunglasses he wore. “Ryoma. Deployment of your larger puppets can be accounted for through the summoning technique, is that correct?”

“It is. Do you want me to leave them here and summon them in once we arrive on Nagi?” Ryoma asked, tilting his head. He was the tallest one here, he noted idly. 

“That would be best. We’ll arrive to the Wind Capital on foot, then by boat to Nagi. There’s no place to store such large puppets at the Wind Capital, so there’s no point in unleashing them until after we reach land again.” Basuku paused by a window to briefly puff his pipe and let the fumes escape to the open air. “Pakura, Yusuke. Do either of you have any special considerations for transport that must be regarded?”

“I have none.” Pakura waved off, taking a casual posture, one hand on her hip and the other raised to her shoulder. “I might pack some more, now that I know how long we’ll be deployed, but no special requirements.”

“I have none.” The apparently-named Yusuke replied with lips set into a firm line. He reached up to tap his scrolls. “I have a waterproof bag on hand once we board the ship.”

“Good. Meet at the west gate when you’re ready to depart. We’ll discuss basic strategy once we get moving. Prepare for a long run.” Basuku puffed his pipe a few times. “Dismissed for now.”

If he wasn’t an ANBU commander, then he certainly acted like it. Ryoma huffed in amusement and nodded, turning away from the man and continuing the walk out the familiar halls of the Central HQ. 

“I see you made Vice Captain, Ryoma.” Pakura unexpectedly followed after him and started up a conversation. He tilted his head towards her and blinked.

“I- did yes. A few months ago.” He replied blandly. The implied question in his voice being, ‘why are you bringing this up now?’ 

“We haven’t had a moment to speak for some time now, mutual duties to our corps.” Pakura shrugged and shook her head. “It would be remiss for me not to congratulate you, however.”

“Well, I appreciate the belated congratulations, I suppose.” He replied with a faint note of amusement in his voice. “Same old work in the Ninjutsu Corps?”

“More or less. The paperwork is honestly the hardest part, the rest is just giving the genin the occasional pointer. I started teaching this girl from the Sealing Corps recently, Maki- do you interact with anyone from there?” Pakura started up some idle smalltalk as they moved into the lobby and towards the doors.

“Can’t say I have. I use my fair share of fuinjutsu but…” Ryoma wiggled his hand. 

“It’s a different style, isn’t it?” Pakura guessed, raising a finger. 

“Yeah. Their fuinjutsu is all based around sealing cloth, and I use shiki.” Ryoma confirmed, dropping his hand. “There’s not actually that much overlap between what I do and what’s normal in the Sealing Corps.”

“Mhm. I was hoping to ask if you’d give Maki a few pointers regarding it. I’m entirely lost when it comes to Fuinjutsu, so she’s been on her own for learning it- but if what you're doing isn’t at all similar then…”

“I could try giving her a tip or two. No promises it’ll be helpful though.” Ryoma nodded. “I learned the same Dharmic principles that their binding cloth is based around for my sealing shiki, I can talk to her about that stuff after this mission is over.”

Pakura smiled slightly, nodding gratefully. “That’s gracious of you. I’ll pay the favor back, if you need something.”

Ryoma thought about it for a moment as they entered into the hot, late-morning air of Suna. “I suppose the most relevant thing would be testing your Scorch-release against my Fire-Eater seals. I don’t know how they’d work against a variant-fire like that, and that seems like it’ll be important for the upcoming mission.”

“You think I’m going to hit you?” Pakura asked dryly, raising her brows at him.

“More that it would be nice if you had the option to hit me.” Ryoma explained. Her brows furrowed briefly, then unfurrowed as she realized what he was talking about. “Tactically speaking, if you don’t need to worry about killing me with your fire, then that frees you up to blast whoever is around me indiscriminately.”

“That makes sense. I’ll help you test this along the way to Nagi.” Pakura nodded sharply. A few moments passed and her expression slowly became sly and she leaned forwards, hand raised to the side of her mouth. “I heard that you are engaging in a romance, is that right, Ryoma?” 

She probably heard from Nagare, huh? “I’m dating someone, yeah.” He nodded, then scoffed in a light-hearted manner. “You’re about six months late to the conversation there too, by the way.”

“Saying it so boldly!” Pakura declared in a thrilled manner, pulling back with eyes half-lidded and a hand covering her smile. 

“Is it bold? It’s been six months since I started dating her.” 

Pakura wobbled her head back and forth. “Eh… I’ve seen couples orbit around each other for more than a year before they realized they were together. It’s kinda rare to see such a quick jump into a relationship.”

“How the hell does Suna maintain its population if everyone’s so clueless?” Ryoma asked, shoulders slumped and eyebrows up. “Replacement ninja have to come from somewhere, and it’s not like no one knows what sex is- I distinctly remember those meetings about avoiding honeypots everyone was forced to attend.”

Pakura chuckled. “Well… It’s more that its… It’s not something you talk about in public, you know?”

He was about to respond, before cutting himself off. His new sensory-attachment alerted him to a yin-heavy presence on his flank, and a brief glance told him who it was.

A familiar, short woman with fluffy black hair, powerwalking towards him with a silly heel-clicking walk. He raised a hand to indicate a pause to his fellow vice captain, turning to face the approaching woman. 

“Toyo. We’re a block away from the kebab stand.” Their agreed-upon meeting location. 

Toyoko nodded, holding a bag in the crook of her arms. “It was more expedient for me to make a purchase and then intercept you, Vice Captain.” She declared, a proud little blush on her cheeks as she opened the bag and withdrew a large grilled kebab for him to take.

He picked her up entirely instead, provoking a little ‘eep’ as he sat her in the crook of his arm, hand securing her underneath her bare thighs. “Thank you. Unfortunately my hand is occupied, so you’ll have to feed me I think.” 

“V-vice captain! There’s someone here!” Toyoko’s face heated into an embarrassed glare, squirming in his grip. 

“That’s fine. I don’t mind.”

Pakura coughed into her hand. Her orange bangs were seemingly smoldering, tips waving like tongues of flame and rising up to wave in the gentle breeze. “Ah that’s- Don’t worry. I’ll excuse myself. I’ll see you at the gates later, Ryoma.”

“See you then, Pakura.” Ryoma nodded at the woman, waving a hand as she power-walked away. 

Faintly, he could hear her muttering something as she moved away, but he didn’t really care to figure out what it was.

“Mherm.” Toyoko let out a little noise of disgruntlement, bracing her elbow against his shoulderplate. “Pakura of the Scorch release… Is she your teammate for your… next mission?” Toyoko asked, setting the bag of food on her lap and holding the kebab up near his mouth. 

He held a one-handed seal for a moment, cast a transformation technique on himself, and moved his white veil out of the way to start eating. As he did, he walked towards the wall, channeled chakra into the soles of his boots, and started walking up the sides.

He had to be careful not to walk on anything fragile like this, otherwise the weight he was carrying would just break it off.

“One of them. I guess you and Captain Gentai are heading to the Land of Sea?” He asked between bites of grilled meat and vegetables. 

The arrangement of the war had already been discussed to death by the higher ups of the village in midnight meetings for months now. While the theoretical goal of the war was the destruction of Kiri for daring to have a rogue ninja attack their home with a Tailed Beast, and the more practical goal was to assuage internal tensions with a show of retributive strength- the pragmatic goal was pushing them out of some of their more distant territory and taking over the jobs in the region while the opportunity presented itself.

Namely, the Land of Sea.

Clients almost always request jobs from whatever ninja were closest to them. ‘Brand loyalty’ was only ever a thing on a rare, individualized basis, because ninja were disposable mercenaries at the end of the day. So if they destroyed whatever bases Kiri had in the Land of Sea, set up their own bases, and prevented them from returning- Suna would naturally get the jobs from that region.

The Land of Sea was economically poor and fairly far to the south, Suna was actually closer to the Land of Sea than Kiri was to it. Kiri only really operated uncontested in the region because it wasn’t worth that much and they had a natural advantage thanks to their specialty in water release ninjutsu. 

It wasn’t worth much as a region, in terms of clientele, but that exact thing made it probable that Kiri wouldn’t try very hard to take it back either. Taking it would be a clear symbolic victory that would solve Suna’s internal tensions without over-exposing themselves to counterattack, and afterwards they could get back to focusing on Operation Catching Swan.

But Kiri would try to take it back, which is where the vanguard on Nagi Island came into play. 

Their job was simple. Prevent Kiri from sending reinforcements to the Land of Sea.

“That’s right.” Toyoko confirmed, rotating the kebab skewer around so he could take bites from the other side. He walked over the rounded edge of the rooftop and then started a few short leaps, quickly making his way to the scenic benches that overlooked the new massive lake that surrounded their village. From this distance, he could see the long stone bridges that spanned the water, connecting their main gates to the far, sandy shore of the artificial oasis. 

There were people relaxing by and in the new water- the surface water had very quickly been turned into another pastime to enjoy, although Ryoma hadn’t participated in it yet.

He had been too busy working.

Two strong presences within ten meters, yang heavy, moving quickly passed. He glanced in the direction. A pair of ANBU were moving past him, scrolls in hand. One of them gave him a little nod as they moved along.

He nodded back. 

“Hey uhm…” Toyoko started, bringing his eyes back to her. She had a hesitant look on her face. “After we get back from our missions…”

“Yeah?” He asked through a mouthful of grilled mushroom, raising a brow. 

“Let’s… Do it.” Toyoko mumbled, bringing her knees together and shifting slightly, not looking him in the eyes. 

“It?” He asked, nonplussed, swallowing the bite.

“You know… It.” She repeated, emphasizing the word.

Ryoma blinked at her, a blank expression on his face. 

She made a circle with one hand, then raised a pointer finger with the other, and then made a gesture of repeated insertion. Her face was flushed, and she was staring firmly out towards the water covered in hundreds of rock ‘mushrooms’. 

Ah. It. 

“I know you’ve read Icha Icha. You know saying that is a death flag, right?” He replied with no small amusement, leaning forwards to kiss her cheek and squeezing her thighs with one of his hands. 

“Don’t say that!” Toyoko snapped at him angrily, wheeling away from the water and glaring into his eyes. She reached out to grab the edges of his haori and shake him as strongly as she could. “Moron! Now I’m going to be worried sick! Idiot! Tell me you’re going to make it back safely instead!”

“I’m more worried about you, to be honest.” Ryoma replied with a shake of his head. 

“All the-!” She cut herself off, then glanced around, then leaned in conspiratorially. “All the captains will be in the Land of Sea. I’ll be fine. You and the vice captains are going to be stuck on the frontlines with no support! You’re in way more danger than me!”

He decided to stop his cute girlfriend from working herself up into a panic with a kiss. 

He knew that, abstractly, he was in more danger here, but he somehow wasn’t worried. At least, not about his own safety.

Rather, he was feeling kinda nostalgic for the Third Ninja War right now.