Chapter 9:

Village Year 75, August 11th

“Hey there, Nara-san. You look more tired than usual,” I said to the woman behind the mission desk.

She let out a long yawn before replying. “That’s because I am more tired than usual. The whole village was in a tizzy last night!”

“The whole village? Why’s that?”

She gave me an exasperated look. “Do you live under a rock or something? There was a massive hunt for traitors last night. It spanned the entire village and went on for hours.”

“There was?” I asked, surprised. I didn’t hear anything. The seals around the Hayabusa compound block out all sounds. It’s great for peace and quiet, but apparently not so great during village-wide emergencies. “What happened, Nara-san?”

“Don’t call me Nara-san, it makes me feel old. The name’s Naoko Nara,” she said, yawning again. “As for what happened, our clan head found out yesterday that some teachers were sabotaging the education of all the girls in the academy. It was a whole thing. You’ll hear the details later, but the gist is that this year’s graduating class includes the last Uchiha. He’s the sole heir to a massive amount of land in the village and the entire collective wealth of his clan. A bunch of wealthy civilians got it into their heads that they could get their hands on his money if their daughters married him.”

“How does that relate to the sabotage at the academy?” I asked, confused.

“I was getting there,” she continued. “The civilians managed to bribe the academy and get all their daughters into the Uchiha’s class. The problem was that none of those girls were actually good enough to *stay* in his class—they would have all flunked out. So the civilians bribed the academy teachers again to completely change the Kunoichi curriculum. Instead of learning chakra control or how to fight, the girls were taught tea ceremony, flower arrangement and a whole bunch of useless other things…” she trailed with a look of annoyance.

“I’m guessing the teachers tried to flee the village when they were exposed?” I inferred.

Naoko nodded. “Correct. Sabotaging the academy is considered treason—it weakens our forces, which are already stretched thin as it is. It took us all night to track them down. Now the academy has only a few good instructors left and a whole bunch of girls who haven’t learned anything useful in years. They even tried offering me a job as an instructor. I told them exactly where they could stuff it. I don’t get enough sleep as it is; there’s no way I’m taking on the responsibility of whipping a bunch of brats into shape.”

“Well… good luck with that,” I said, unsure of what else to add. In a way, this change to the canon was my fault, but it wasn’t necessarily a bad one. At least the girls now had a year to catch up with the boys, though I’m sure they’d be stuck in a lot of remedial classes.

“I take it you’re here for a mission?” she asked, and I nodded. “Well, you somewhat impressed me last time, so I’ll give you a real mission this time.” She handed me a piece of paper with the assignment and details.

I skimmed over it briefly. A wealthy merchant’s caravan had been raided outside the Fire Capital. The thieves made off with millions of ryo in loot, including stolen artwork by a world-renowned painter named Ryosuke-sama…

I’d never heard of him, but then again, I’ve never been a fan of art in general. I can appreciate a good painting, but I can’t understand how some people place such a high value on it—other than the theory that all modern art is just money laundering…

Before I left, Naoko gave me a warning. “It goes without saying, but try not to damage the priceless artwork. But if you do… make sure you eliminate all witnesses and evidence. Our village doesn’t want to be responsible for paying millions of ryo in damages.”

“What if the artwork was already damaged by the thieves?” I asked.

“The client will still try to blame you to recoup his losses. If that happens, do the same thing—eliminate the evidence and return to the village. We won’t list your mission as a failure on your record,” Naoko explained before finally kicking me out so she could get some sleep.

I thought it was pretty shitty that the client would try to blame me if the artwork turned out to be damaged, but then I remembered that insurance doesn’t really exist as a concept in this world. If this mission ends in failure, the merchant will probably be ruined. A single ryo in this world was similar to a penny in the U.S., except it had the purchasing power of a penny from the 1940s. You could get a bowl of ramen here for just 10 ryo. So, a million ryo was enough money to feed 100,000 people.

I picked up my armor from the dry cleaners and took it back home to get properly dressed. Ryu had left earlier for the Fire Capital on a mission from Lady Kimiko. If I’d known we were heading to the same place, we could have traveled together.

I slipped into my armor and strapped my katana to my back using the attachable red scarf. “Should I take some shuriken as well?” I asked myself aloud. I’d finally mastered the technique of throwing them without cutting my own fingers. Those little throwing knives were razor-sharp! Deciding it was wise to have some ranged options, I grabbed a pouch of shuriken.

While rummaging through Ryu’s equipment chest, I came across a roll of tiny papers covered in Kanji scribbles. A delighted squeal escaped me as I held the roll up to my face.

Explosive tags! An entire roll of them! These were ridiculously expensive, especially since each one had to be made by hand. The average ninja carried no more than one or two at a time. The only reason Naruto’s team had a few in Canon was because Kakashi was an expert in sealing techniques.

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Was Ryu a seal master as well? That revelation wouldn’t surprise me at all.

I wondered if he’d be willing to teach me if I asked him later. Every girl needs a hobby, right? Casually screwing with the laws of the universe by drawing squiggly lines on paper seemed like a pretty exciting pastime.

The anime only showed seals used for explosives and teleportation, but I had a bunch of other wild ideas in mind and wondered if any of them were possible.

I carefully separated ten explosive tags from the roll and placed the rest back into the chest. I’d keep them for emergencies… probably. There was a special pouch in the chest specifically designed for explosives. I slipped them inside and casually tied it to my left thigh for easy access. The pouch containing my shuriken was strapped to my right.

I was ready to go!

I left my house and made my way across the rooftops to the village gates. My roof hipping skills had dramatically improved since I had originally started out. I found myself moving a lot faster and jumping gaps with almost no hesitation.

I handed my mission assignment papers to the Chunin manning the booth at the gates. Same as last time, he barely glanced at the papers before stamping them and telling me to move along.

Soon after that, I was jogging down the Dirt Highway again. It would take a few hours to reach the capital, but with my Body stat at Rank 3, I was making much better time than before. I didn’t need to stop for as many breaks, though I made sure to pause for lunch at Chubi Village. It was exactly halfway between Konoha and the Fire Capital, where my first solo mission would have taken place if I hadn’t run into those highway bandits.

Chubi Village was much smaller than Konoha—I'd estimate around 10,000 people lived here. When I jogged up to the entrance, I saw two village militia members standing guard, wielding simple spears and wearing leather armor. They glanced at my Konoha headband and immediately stepped aside.

“Welcome to Chubi, Ninja-san. Are you on a mission in our village? Do you need directions?” one of the guards asked.

“I’m just passing through on my way to the capital. Where can I get some quick but good food around here?” I replied.

“You’ve got to try Mizuno’s Takoyaki. It’s the best in the village!” the other guard said enthusiastically. “You won’t be disappointed!”

“Thanks, I’ll check it out,” I said, asking for directions before heading into the smaller village. The place I was directed to was a small stand, similar to Ichiraku’s back home. An older man was standing behind the cart that had a couple deep fry vats built into it. There were a few street kids sitting on some wooden stools opposite, they all looked like they were enjoying the food.

“Hello,” I said, plopping myself down on the furthest stool from the others. The street kids eyed my headband and armor warily. It was clear they didn’t like having a Kunoichi in their midst.

“Welcome to my little stand. What’ll you be having, Kunoichi-san?” asked the man behind the cart, who I assumed was Mizuno.

“I’ll have the octopus takoyaki,” I ordered. The chef nodded and began preparing my meal. While I waited, I turned to the street kids, who were still eyeing me with suspicion.

One of them finally mustered up the courage to shoot me a glare. “What the hell do you want? We ain’t done nothing, and we ain’t seen nothing!” His tone was immediately defensive. I could understand why—living on the streets was tough enough in my old peaceful world. Here, it was even harder. The money they were using to pay for their meals was probably from some ill-gotten gains, and to them, ninjas likely represented a form of law enforcement.

They were very distrustful. I tried to diffuse the tension. “You all can relax, I'm not after some kids–”

I was interrupted by the only girl in the group. “What are you calling us kids for!? You’re even younger than us!” she pointed out. She looked to be around 15 years old.

I blushed in embarrassment. “Right… sorry. As I was saying, I’m not after any of you. I’m just passing through on my way to the capital for a mission. But maybe you all know something that could help me.”

They seemed to relax once I mentioned I was just passing through. The girl glanced at one of the older boys, probably around 18, with short brown hair and gray eyes that looked like they’d seen far more of life than his age would suggest. He was clearly the leader of this group of street kids.

“I don’t know. What’s in it for us?” he asked warily. “Information doesn’t come cheap around here…”

I knew where this was heading. With a sigh, I reached into my back pocket and pulled out my wallet. The street kids all gasped when I produced a 1,000 ryo bill. It was enough money to feed them well for the next month, and it was only a tiny fraction of what I’d make once I completed my mission. I held the bill up, seeing the desperation in their eyes. I knew this was a cruel world, and I couldn’t help everyone, but I’d probably give them the money anyway. I hated seeing homeless children suffer.

“Hypothetically, if something really, really expensive was stolen around here, where would some thieves go to sell it?” I asked. This was something street kids like them should know—where to offload their ill-gotten gains for cheap.

The leader of the gang nervously glanced at the others before they all nodded at him. No one on the streets liked a rat, but everyone had their price.

“How expensive are we talking here?” he asked.

“A few paintings from Ryosuke-sama were stolen outside the capital. They’re estimated to be worth millions of ryo altogether,” I said.

The kids gasped, and even Mizuno behind the food cart couldn’t hide his shock—he had clearly been listening in.

“What the fuck?! Who would be insane enough to steal something like that!?” the girl exclaimed. “That’s a death sentence! Every bloody ninja in the country will be coming for their heads!” she said with fear in her eyes.

I held my tongue and didn’t mention that wasn’t actually the case. The merchant had only paid for a C-rank mission, after all. “That’s right,” I lied. “There are currently multiple ninja teams searching the whole country for the thieves. I doubt it will take long before they’re caught.”

“Unless they left the country, there’s only one place where anyone could sell something like that—the Den,” the leader told me. I motioned for him to elaborate, and he did. “The Den is located about 30 miles northwest of Chubi Mountain. It’s run by the Oni…” he whispered the last part, glancing around nervously.

“The Oni…? Who’s that?” I asked, puzzled. I’d never heard of anyone like that.

“I’ll take it from here, kids,” Mizuno said, cutting into our conversation. He turned to me. “Pay the brats and let them be on their way. I’ll tell you what you need to know.”

I shrugged and handed the leader the 1,000 ryo bill. He quickly snatched it and tucked it away in his pocket. The kids hopped off their stools and dashed into a nearby alley.

Once they were gone, I turned back to Mizuno. “So, the Oni is a dangerous person?”

The old man grimaced as he loaded up a small plate with freshly made takoyaki and placed it in front of me. “I know you’re a ninja and all, but you’re still just a child, even younger than those brats. The Oni… he’s dangerous. Really dangerous—he controls almost half the thieves in the country. Anyone who steals something valuable, like those paintings, takes it to him.”

Who would have thought this world had its own version of a thieves’ guild? The Oni reminded me a bit of Gato, except this “Oni” wasn’t even pretending to be an upright businessman. “How come no ninjas have stopped him?” I asked.

Mizuno shrugged. “Don’t know. His men have been operating around these parts for almost a year now. A lot of us simple folk think he has you ninjas on his payroll.”

Ninjas on the Oni’s payroll? That would explain how he’s managed to operate for so long. But who could he have bribed to stay off the radar for this long? There’s no way the Third Hokage would allow that. Danzo was an evil bastard, but he wouldn’t accept bribes from someone like the Oni either—he’d just send in his Root ninjas to kill the man. Danzo would then take all the Oni’s assets to further fund his own secret shadow army.

I couldn't think of anyone else. I scratched my head in annoyance. What was with all these conspiracies I was suddenly uncovering one after another? Was the ninja world just full of dangerous schemes or something!?

That was a stupid question—of course, the answer was yes.

I thought I’d be dealing with some thieves at best or bandits at worst, but there’s no way I could take on a group of trained ninjas alone. Unless I had some shinobi backup of my own…

I finished my takoyaki and stood up, handing Mizuno a 100 ryo tip. “Thanks for the information, old man.”

He looked worried. “You’re not going to run off and confront the Oni by yourself, are you?”

I shook my head. “No, I’m heading to the capital first.” My brother was currently there on a mission for Lady Kimiko, and I was sure he’d love to help his adorable sister with her own mission that just went from a C-Rank to an A-Rank!

Maybe I could also find out what they were trying to keep secret from me earlier.