Chương 48: Chapter 31

Sunagakure Ryoma, Jonin"Read this, and tell me what you think of it." It was amazing what prolonged contact could do to ease underlying tensions. Three years of being an active Jonin meant far more regular communication with his overall military commander, and that meant it was hard to stay tense and nervous around the man. At least, not as much as he used to. Rasa slid a scroll across the desk towards him, and Ryoma scooped it up for initial inspections.

It was a pretty damn fancy scroll, with golden caps, silk body, and the faint scent of something like perfume wafting from it. Most notable was the official 'Wind' symbol emblazoned on its outer surface. Official communication from the capital. He would've asked if he was allowed to see this- but the Kazekage had just commanded him to read it. It would be pretty stupid to assume otherwise. He rolled open the scroll and began to skim through the contents.

Introduction of self and titles, declaration of communication, indication of intended receiver, congratulatory text about their military alliance with Konoha, prose about wind and sand, reduced coffers… He stopped, narrowing his eyes and reading through the scroll more carefully, making sure that he was getting the correct message through the layers of court-speech and random poetry. After a few moments, he looked up with brows furrowed.

"The Daimyo is reducing our funding."

"So it seems." Rasa replied blandly, taking a casual munch of his pocky-stick.

"I was under the impression that he funded us through the distribution of high-payment missions- and he cut those off a few years ago." Ryoma continued, eyes going back down to trail over the scroll again.

"Both methods were used- and you are correct. This is a second round of budget-cuts being declared in light of our declared intent to cooperate with Konoha in the future." Rasa leaned back in his chair, looking up at the ceiling.

"I see." Ryoma acknowledged, turning the implications over in his mind while he chewed on the end of his necklace. A bad habit he had picked up from all the times Toyoko shared pocky with him. After a few more moments.

"You would like to hear my thoughts on the matter?" He wasn't really sure why, but that wasn't really his position to ask why anyways.

"About anything in specific or my general thoughts?"

"Your general thoughts, for now."

"Well…" He began slowly, starting his reply as he assembled a more accurate mental picture of Suna's geopolitical future using this new information.

"Without this budget cut, I would've predicted another… nine or so years at the current rate of income and outcome before Suna was forced to take more drastic action."

"Twelve- emergency economic measures would've been put into place at the halfway mark and bought more time." Rasa corrected, chewing on the tip of the pocky stick like a cigarette. Common snacks, common habits, and all that.

"Drastic action would've been taken sometime before then, most likely." Ryoma nodded to acknowledge the reply, and then continued.

"Thirty three percent more time then, with those measures. That means this…" He glanced at the values again and almost cringed. A full twenty nine percent budget cut.

"... averages back out to… maybe eight or nine years. I'd have to sit down to do all the related math."

"Eight years, six months." The Kazekage explained, closing his eyes. It wasn't surprising that the Kazekage already had the figures ready, either himself or one of the top brass calculators had probably worked all this out within the hour that this message arrived. Ryoma's involvement here was probably some sort of test- scouting for an upcoming role or mission they had planned.

"It's obviously not good." Ryoma commented dryly, reaching up to fiddle with the crystal shard like a toothpick, scratching his teeth and gums with the sharp bit at the end.

"And I suspect that the Daimyo isn't going to just increase our budget again if we ask nicely. He probably has increased security hanging around now too- just in case of a potentially violent reprisal on our parts. Further- while I'm sure we're capable of turning the palace into a crater, the hit to our reputation would probably make us the first missing-nin village in history. I figure we'd want to avoid that." He paused, rolling the shardpick across his lips and then frowning.

"That alliance with Konoha- I doubt that the Daimyo actually cares all that much. He was probably just looking for a plausible excuse to cut our funding. Packing up and moving to a different country is probably too expensive at this point too, and a good deal of our jutsu is specialized for desert living." Ryoma shook his head.

"Either we find a way to replace the Daimyo, or we find a strong enough source of secondary revenue, and we'll have to do it within eight and a half years. The council will have to come up with something for that-""What would you do?" The Kazekage interrupted, cracking open his eyes and fixing a focused stare at him. Ryoma paused, meeting the gaze. Not just tactical, he was being scouted for his strategic abilities here.

Probably for a position in the planning department, if he had to guess, which would probably be fine. He'd request a transfer out after a few months. He let out a little hum, glancing down at the scroll.

"Well, I'd preface my statement that I don't believe I'm fully qualified for this kind of decision-making, Lord Kazekage." Rasa exhaled in a slightly amused manner, shaking out another stick of pocky and biting down on the end to pull it out.

"Continue." He ordered through teeth.

"I actually drafted a series of plans for this a few years ago." The Kazekage paused briefly, turning back to him and raising a brow. Ryoma nodded and shrugged.

"It was a hobby." He explained before continuing.

"I didn't make any plans for potentially replacing the Daimyo, both because that would be treasonous of me and I don't know enough about the man or his palace defenses to start drafting something like that up- but I did outline a series of plans for acquiring secondary revenue without needing to dip into civilian industry." Rasa nodded, chewing on his pocky stick. Ryoma picked at his teeth with the crystal again.

"In summary, there's three options and all of them have problems. They all involve establishing satellite-locations in neighboring lands, which would mean spreading out our military power across a wider region. Sunagakure is nominally the least-populated Great Ninja Village, so this would normally be a terrible idea, but our Great Village Neighbors are both discouraged from attacking us right now.

Konoha because they just declared cooperative intent, and Iwa because they're still recovering from the Third Ninja War." He rolled a hand thoughtfully, frowning again.

"I'm sorry, do you have a map handy?" Black Rings encircled the Kazekage's eyes, and a creeping mist of black dust rose from the sides of the table and shaped themselves on the desktop. After a moment, they formed a nigh-perfect map of the Five Great Nations, complete with little sigils marking every country and land within. That took no handseals or visible effort on his part. The Kazekage was a bit of a showoff, sometimes. Ryoma took the crystal out of his mouth and used it to start pointing.

"Thank you. Our first option is Claw Country, followed by Fang Country and maybe the Land of Mountains if we really want to press up. Satellite locations operated by Suna ninja would each only give mild increases in revenue with how poor those countries are, so they'd have to run on a pretty tight budget. They'd also need to negotiate with the local daimyo for the right to work there, or stay hidden from them, and potentially for a small budget from each.

Our desert-based jutsu would likewise be less effective there, so specialists not reliant on traditional suna arts or high budgets are the best option there."

"All of these expansions would be hotly contested by Iwa, so we'd need to discourage them from attacking us further. An all out attack on their home base might scatter them, but that would probably just provoke another ninja war, and one Konoha would be unlikely to support us in. We still have Pakura, so we have a known-counteragent for Jinchuriki Han- it's Roshi that we'd have to be leery of." He shook his head.

"That and their Tsuchikage- Best scenario is discouraging them from resisting us at all, but I have no idea how that could be accomplished."

"Overall- probably second in priority. Only feasible thanks to the beating Iwa took during the last war." He let the crystal flow over to the next spot on the map.

"Our next option is the Land of Rivers. Decentralized, fertile, and covered in competing factions. Konoha is unlikely to strongly resist us if we attempt to expand our influence into the region- provided we make clear our reasons and stay on our side of the border. They might just help us if we ask, the problem is-" He tapped on the symbol for 'valley' in the region.

"The region is already occupied by our long-term allies in Tanigakure. Expanding into it would mean either direct vassalization of Tani or wiping them out, and either way we betray them. Their current trust in us would afford us first-strike capabilities, and all that would remain afterwards is stragglers who weren't present in their village at the time of the attack. Those stragglers could be a problem for decades to come, but Suna would be able to deal with it.."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He exhaled.

"From there- we could simply insert a Suna ninja as one of the many competing factions and then have them unite the region with Suna and potentially Konoha support. This is the most lucrative option by far, eliminating the cost of purchasing bulk foodstuffs entirely, expanding our ninja business to cover a new territory, and allowing us to siphon wealth from our puppet as we need it."

"The problem is that we'd have to stab one of our long term allies in the back, and that sends a pretty terrible message about our reliability if anyone ever finds out about it. Overall, first in priority." He moved the stick down a bit on the iron-sand map to tap on a series of islands, before leaning back and picking at his teeth again.

"The third option is expanding down into Sea Country- it has all the same issues with expanding up into Fang and Claw but worse and less profitable. We'd have to move farther, figure out strategies for oceanic combat, get less revenue thanks to it being poorer, and deal with Kiri. They'd certainly resist our expansion down there, and we don't have as much intel for battling them as we do for Iwa or Konoha.

It's the riskiest and least profitable option, but Kiri is far enough away from it that they might just let us expand down there if we ask nicely enough for it." He raised his eyes to look directly at the Kazekage.

"Overall, third in priority." The Kazekage chewed on his pocky for a moment, staring back at him. After a moment, he spoke again.

"Those are all of your thoughts?"

"In summary. I can provide the drafts if you give me the time to head home and come back. Anything further would require greater intel than I have."

"Nothing on Tea Country?" Ryoma shrugged.

"Traditionally the mission-domain of Konoha- we'd have to ask them about the matter first before making any moves if we want to maintain this alliance long-term. It's another valid option for a satellite-location if we get a statement of non-interference from them, which I doubt considering we're trying to take over their business there." He wiggled his hands about.

"There's not really a good option here. Not unless we want to establish something like a naval division to hunt pirates and confiscate their goods. I don't think we'd get much more than pocket-change doing that- but it might buy us enough time for the current Daimyo to eat a bad shrimp and die."

"I see. Produce those documents for me by the end of the day."

"Yes Lord Kazekage. Is there anything else?"

"No, that will be all. You are dismissed."

"Tell Mari I said hello."

"Noted." He waved a hand behind him as he made his way out of the office, stepping through the doorway with metallic tinks and meeting with a familiar woman on the other side. She moved to walk in step with him, steps making their own wooden clack noises. She wore a black one-piece dress top tied off at the waist with a large bow, limbs covered in a black layer that gave the impression of long gloves and stockings.

The truth was that she wasn't wearing anything on those limbs- the black was just to make it pass casual inspection easier.

"Was your meeting with Lord Kazekage productive?" Tsubame asked lightly, short black hair flipping around with her distinct gait.

"I suppose. Do we still have hotpot leftovers."

"No. Hotaru ate the last of it at oh-three hundred, while you were asleep." Ryoma hummed, picking at his teeth some more.

"We better buy some more groceries before we go back then."

"What would you like to eat tonight?" She asked as they moved through the entryway and out to the roofed streets of Sunagakure.

"Am I allowed to swing by the ration distribution center and pick up my share?" He asked with a dry tone.

"Absolutely not." She bluntly denied.

"Pick something else." He huffed.

"Then I have no strong opinion, choose something and it'll probably be fine."

"Fried fish with tartar sauce."

"I have one strong opinion, it is against that option."

"How do you know that you dislike it- you've never eaten tartar sauce."

"I don't have to try it to know I don't want it. Some things are just self-evident- I've never been killed before, I know I don't want to be killed."

"You won't die if you eat tartar sauce."

"What would you do if I ate tartar sauce and then died because of it?"

"I'd request seppuku from the Lord Kazekage to atone for my failure." Her tone indicated just how unlikely she thought that outcome would be.

"Well I certainly don't want you to die- so for your sake, I will have to refuse to eat tartar sauce. The risk is too great." Ryoma nodded with exaggerated confidence, his armor clanking as he did. It was a bit hard to be a noisy ninja, but not impossible.

"For my sake?" Tsubame repeated with a bland look on her face.

"Yerp. I'd be terribly sad if you died, so sad that I might have to kill myself over it."

"This scenario began with the presumption of your death. How would you kill yourself if you were already dead?"

"Easy." He declared, then said nothing more, instead just staring at her briefly and restraining the urge to smirk. After a moment he turned away, making for the food market they regularly frequented.

"You explained nothing." She pointed out with an unimpressed expression.

"You aren't a real ninja if death stops you from doing what you want." He explained with an easy humor, rolling a hand.

"That would include every ninja who has ever died before." Not every ninja.

"Nuh uh." She didn't seem too enthused with his childish rebuttal.

"Let's eat grilled vegetables and okonomiyaki tonight." She suggested with a piercing stare.

"That's a sudden return to the topic at hand." He pointed out with an amused smile, looking down at her with a side-eye.

"Is that dish agreeable with you?" She asked, stepping into the garden-store doorway and reaching for a reusable grocery basket.

"Sure, sure." He waved off.

"We'll pick up some melon juice too, we're probably running low."

"We are. I checked the fridge before we left this morning."

"Ah, that's good then."

"Any other business in Suna today?"

"I think Toyoko mentioned something about coming over today during the last Karaoke Night- Puppet Corps business of some sort."

"Business." Tsubame repeated blandly.

"Something like that. I didn't ask what." Ryoma shrugged, reaching over and picking up a zucchini for inspection. Yep, this sure was a zucchini. He handed it over to Tsubame so that she could inspect it. After a few moments, she apparently decided that it was no good, and put it back among its others before picking up another, different zucchini and inspecting it. It was eventually decided to pass inspection and placed in the hand basket. To Ryoma's eyes, they were perfectly identical.

He wasn't sure why the second one passed and the first one didn't. He picked up another zucchini and handed it over without bothering to inspect. Tsubame distractedly looked at it, immediately deemed it substandard, and put it back before looking for another and inspecting it. He smirked, reaching into the basket and pulling out the first zucchini again, handing it over for her to inspect. She looked it over for a few seconds, then shook her head and put it back among the other vegetables.

The basket was now down to one zucchini. She inspected a different one and eventually put it in the basket. Ryoma wondered how long he could keep this bit going. He pulled out another 'good' zucchini with a little smirk and handed it over for 'inspection'. It too returned among the other zucchini. He smirked as she added a new vegetable to the basket. A few moments later, she checked the basket, realized that she only had two vegetables inside, and glared at him.

"What?" He asked with a half-grin.

"I'm just trying to help- here, is this one any good?" He held up a previous 'good' zucchini, offering it to her. She snatched it from his hand, face scrunched up at him.

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"You know what."

"I have no idea what you're talking about- your tone seems to be implying that I'm doing something nefarious or mischievous, and a professional ninja like me would never do something like that. That would be ridiculous."

"Your habitual pranking would be cute on a child- far less so when the perpetrator is supposed to be an adult."

"I'm just an itty bitty babbey."

"I will request spanking permissions from the Lord Kazekage."

"Kinky of you, Tsuba-chan. I'm going to get strange feelings if the unscrupulous older woman in my house touches me inappropriately- I might grow up all wrong."

"You're already grown, Ryoma-san."

"You didn't deny the unscrupulous part."

"I'm going to buy some beer while we're here."

"And now she's bringing alcohol into my house~ I'm in danger~" He placed his hands on his cheeks and wiggled his hips.

"Oh no~" She didn't dignify his antics with a response, leaving him alone in the aisle and walking off without a word. After a moment, he chuckled, dropping the gesture and following after her. A position in ops and command wouldn't be too bad, he supposed. So long as it wasn't too important. He'd get stressed out if he was told to manage a big operation on his own.