Chương 62: Chapter 3

Sand Country Ryoma, Recently Promoted Ninja The environment changed gradually as they approached the Land of Rivers, which was set between Wind Country and Fire Country along the Hanguri Gulf and directly south of the Land of Rain. Rain itself was not a proper 'country', in that there was all of one major settlement in the entire region.

It was difficult for a 'country' to develop when the land was set directly between Earth, Fire, and Wind Country and was usually somewhere between 'ruined landscape' and 'landscape slowly recovering from being ruined'. That single proper 'settlement' was the somewhat infamous Amegakure, led by the very-infamous Hanzo, who was something of a tyrant nutcase. The Land of Rivers was a much nicer place to live, by contrast.

The constant rainfall that came down in the north flowed through hundreds of smaller rivers down towards the Hanguri Gulf, creating an immensely fertile and reasonably warm land. This land was filled by opportunistic farmers who made their living producing rather incredible amounts of food and selling it to whoever wanted to buy, usually Sunagakure.

If a single individual managed to unify all of the land under one banner, they'd have an outrageous amount of projected influence over Sunagakure through control of the bulk food supply, so it was in their best interest to make sure that never happened. This led to a longstanding understanding with Tanigakure, the Village Hidden in the Valleys, who operated within the Land of Rivers.

Suna ninjas would always come to their aid against larger and more dangerous nations, and they would make sure no single person comes to control this bulk of Suna's food supply. This occasionally came back to bite both parties, but both parties were overall satisfied with the arrangement, for the most part. It was Tanigakure coming under threat by both Konoha and Iwa that dragged Sunagakure into the Third Great Shinobi War in the first place.

The Land of Grass, north of the Land of Rain, was invaded covertly by Iwa for the sake of setting up forward-bases to more effectively attack Konoha. Konoha clashed against them in an attempt to stop this. At a certain point both countries attempted to send forces around the primary battlefields to flank their enemies- which would be through the Land of Rain or the Land of Waterfalls. The Land of Waterfalls was an unattractive option to attack, because they had a living superweapon.

The Land of Rain was an unattractive option to invade, because they had Hanzo. That left the relatively weak and safe Land of Rivers and Claw Country to move troops through. Claw Country is only notable for being forgettable, and so Iwa and Konoha both could easily enter the Land of Rivers to continue their flank-attempts at one another. Which provoked Tanigakure, which in turn provoked Sunagakure, and all of a sudden there was a war on at least two fronts for everyone involved.

Geopolitics was a funny subject when you were a child soldier, because most of that was just summarized as 'there are bad guys here, go kill them' when he was a Genin. They probably thought it would take too long and be too complicated to explain. The guys at the information centers were at least nice enough to explain the overall situation to him when he went over to ask, back when he was… maybe thirteen or so, he wasn't sure.

All of that considered, it would be unusual for them to be attacked by ninja from Tani while traveling through their country. Suna had just helped them in a war and they had been allies for a few decades now. Being attacked by Konoha ninja was slightly more likely, but not very much so either. They had just gotten out of a war and had very little reason to spark another over the sake of something so petty as an escort of some noblelady to a festival.

He wouldn't be surprised though, ninja were self-sabotaging pricks like that. The most likely danger, therefore, would come from independents or third parties seeking to provoke something or take advantage of the relative lack of defense on a traveling noble. Case in point.

"Looks like you just stepped into a sword, ninja… huhuhu…" Standing upon the border between Wind and River was a relatively sleepy looking town. The grass was a bit dry, but there was sufficient water and foliage around to both prevent undue erosion and keep everything alive. This sleepy town seemed mostly designed around subsistence farming and fishing from the river, supplemented by the flow of trade between the two larger regions. Or it would have- if the town wasn't still mostly destroyed.

From the looks of it- wind and fire jutsu. Many of the buildings were topped or burned or both toppled and burned, and no longer inhabited by normal commoners. Instead, the ruined village had become the apparent hideout of a bandit group that he hadn't heard of before, which meant they were probably pretty new. The scrawny man standing on the bridge before him was wearing overlapping plates of sandy metal, polished to a shine but covered in knicks and scratches.

His hair was long and pulled back, his face scarred, and his grin crooked. Upon his belt dangled three ninja headbands, two recognizably from Konoha and one from Suna. Each was worn, battered and rusty.

"I'll make this easy for you, ninja. Step away and the Headband-Seeking-Headhunter-Band will spare your lives!" The apparent leader declared, boney hand clutching the hilt of his katana and face pulled into a mocking grin. Around them in the rubble of the village, a number of other bandits emerged with mocking laughter and hands on an assorted number of blades and spikes.

"O-oh no!" One of the servants they were escorting declared, pulling back towards the cart with a fearful tone. They were shivering and glancing nervously around at the handful of armed men surrounding them.

"T-they have headbands on their waists- don't tell me that they hunt ninja down!" Ryoma found himself exchanging a glance with Mari. Mari, standing on top of the cart with fan readied and stance wide. Himself standing at the front of the little caravan, with two of his bolters out and clinging to the bottom of the cart. From her expression, she was confident that they would win, but the ready posture told him that she was taking them seriously. Ryoma, meanwhile, had noticed a few details.

He inclined his head and hat towards his partner, communicating his confidence, then turned back to address the bandit-leader.

"Headband-Seeking-Headhunter-Band, huh?" He commented, raising a hand up to rub his chin, under the veil.

"From the armor, sword, and captured headbands, you must be Ronin, is that right?"

"That's right! I'm the Ronin- Ash!" The leader declared with a sharp grin, taking a step forwards and dropping into a draw-stance.

"My sword technique is deadly to you ninja- I'll simply cut off your hands before you can complete your jutsu! So if you want to keep your fingers- I'd recommend complying. I'm after that cart, but I'll be happy to take your headbands!"

'Ash' was indeed within range to swing at his hands, if he started going through handsigns. Ryoma calmly lowered his hand again, staring at the sword with a raised brow, then glancing around at the bandits again. They were grinning, occasionally giving out a chuckle or a lecherous look. They were at least universal who they chose to lick their lips at- there were a few ladies in their bandit-group who were making crude gestures at him. That was nice of them. He turned back to consider their leader again.

"Ronin Ash, right?"

"That's right! Carve that name into your memory, ninja, then step away from the goods!" Ash ordered, waving a hand to the side. Ryoma tilted his head.

"How familiar are you with Genjutsu?"

"What?" The bandit leader asked, furrowing his brows. Ryoma gave a very deliberate look behind him, towards the empty charred bridge that he stood upon.

"From the looks of it- not very." The Ronin's eyes widened, and he quickly turned to draw his sword on whatever was behind him. He saw the nothing that Ryoma had seen, and quickly turned back to demand an answer. His face greeted a fist, knocking him back and sending him spinning, before falling to the ground and groaning in pain. Ryoma let his fist hang for a moment, then let it drop back to his side. E-rank Genjutsu: Distracting Bluff. A devastating tool in the right hands.

Ryoma had simply stepped forwards and punched him in the face.

"Y-you!" His hand whipped to the side, extending three chakra-strings out to connect with the bandit who had shouted that. A beefy looking guy in a crop-top holding a pair of daggers. A puppeteer controlled their puppets through the use of chakra-strings, which allowed them to connect their energies to a target and exert physical influence over them.

Naturally, chakra already present in the target had the ability to make this puppeteering rather difficult, if that chakra was moving around and providing resistance to the strings. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Of course, these guys being bandits, Ryoma was willing to bet that they couldn't do something as basic as 'circulate chakra' around to disrupt his control.

Countering puppetry was a lot like countering genjutsu, in that you dispelled it in essentially the exact same ways.

"W-what the-!" The beefy bandit yelled out fearfully, jerking upright in unnatural, noticeable, twitchy motions. The rest of the bandits, who had been considering attacking, pulled back fearfully and stared at their comrade jerking about. Stiffly, the beefy bandit raised his knives up to his neck, clearly trying to jerk around and resist but unable to prevent the strings of Ryoma's control from making him move.

"N-no!" Ryoma held him there for a few moments, calmly looking around at the other- very uncertain bandits for a few moments more. He tilted his head again.

"I don't mind making examples of people, but I really hate to be wasteful." He declared bluntly.

"It took me all of ten seconds and a wave of my hands to defeat your leader and take a hostage. Between myself and my partner- I'm the restrained one. So please do us all a favor and simply tell me how many of you I need to kill before you decide to cut your losses."

"Y-you bastard! W-what's to stop us from running in and overwhelming you, huh?!" One of them declared. He twitched his finger as his eyes trailed over to the one who had yelled that. A moment later, a senbon was in his throat and he was on the ground. A non-lethal puncture filled with a paralytic. He gargled as he fell. Ryoma doubted any of the bandits could see where that needle had come from.

"Your loud friend has been poisoned, and I have an antidote. How about we make a trade? You bunch bring me some of your stolen goods, and I sell you the antidote? I'll even throw in a 'spare your lives' discount." Needless to say, they were fairly quick to comply after the little show of force. He made sure to recommend a different line of work as he left, the bandits looking rather tense and humiliated. — Land of Rivers Ryoma, Recently Promoted Ninja"Gah- You totally took the spotlight!

I didn't get a chance to show off at all!" Mari playfully complained as they set up camp for the night. A slightly defensible position pulled to the side of an earth-packed road a few hours past the border. The servants were going through their routines for the night- setting up a campfire, erecting a tent, unfurling Lady Ikeda's bedding and whatnot. The whole nightly affair. The bandits, eager to see them leave and get the antidote for their friend, had paid a premium.

Those pilfered headbands, a few books, and blocks of firewood. The bandits seemed pretty confused about the goods he had decided to claim, but mostly happy that he was letting them go so easily. The headbands would be returned to their respective villages once he got a chance to ship them, the books would be something to read in his spare time, and the logs of firewood were for his puppetry.

"If I let you show off, there wouldn't be a village left after." Ryoma teased with a flat tone, sorting through the small stack of books and seeing what he actually had.

"Hey, hey, you think I can't be delicate?" Mari growled, planting her hands on her hips and leaning towards him.

"Is that what you're saying?"

"Tell you what, I'll let you handle the next group, how about that?" Romance, Adventure, Smut, Historical, Smut again, Adventure, Manual, Smut for the third time.

"If you impress me, I'll brag about you to all my Jonin friends." She blinked, pulling back.

"Y-you have friends?!"

"No." He huffed in an amused fashion, seeing her face drop into a scowl.

"Y-you shouldn't be able to admit that so easily, you know..?" She grumbled at him, to which he calmly ignored. Books sorted, he sealed them away again in a puff of smoke, and rose out of his kneel.

"Ah, that was incredible, Mr. Jonin!" The lady Ikeda, apparently ready for the night already and dressed in her sleeping-clothes, came over to compliment. She was flanked by two servants rapidly working her hair into something suitable to sleep in. There was some kind of routine that he wasn't aware of- his hair wasn't that long and he wasn't a noblelady.

"You managed to make those ninja-hunters cower!" He shook his head.

"That's because they weren't ninja-hunters." He reached up to pull his hat back, letting his hair out and keeping half an eye on their surroundings through the puppet-eyes in his deployed bolters.

"They weren't even actually bandits."

"... Huh?" Lady Ikeda tilted her head. The murmuring servants, still excitedly chatting about the incident, exchanged glances at that. Mari blinked, revealing that she had picked up on some of what he was talking about, but not all.

"That village was half-destroyed by what looked like a fire and wind- the most common elemental affinities for ninja from Konoha and Suna." He began to explain, reaching up to scratch at his head.

"The leader's armor was polished enough to wear the protective paint away, and pretty old-fashioned. He's not a samurai, and ninja don't tend to wear stuff like that anymore. Their weapons were mostly tools and battered ninja gear- the beefy guy was using knives."

"They weren't bandits. They were the villagers using the family relics trying to look like bandits, and doing a bad job of it." He shook his head.

"Most likely- their village was caught in the middle of some Konoha and Suna ninjas, and now they're trying to make some quick cash to afford to repair their homes. The headbands probably came from the corpses of whatever battle caused all that damage in the first place."

"Y-you noticed all of that immediately, Mr. Jonin?" One of the servants, a younger woman carrying a bucket of water, asked.

"Not immediately, it took me a few seconds."

"Hmp. I had only picked up on them not being as dangerous as they were pretending, not that they were the villagers." Mari declared with a rueful shake of her head.

"I'm giving a bad impression here, a younger Jonin showing me up."

"Younger? Ah, is Mr. Ryoma here younger than you, Ms. Mari?" Lady Ikeda asked curiously, leaning forwards and squinting at him in the evening light. He stared blandly back.

"I'm not sure- he refuses to tell me how old he is!" Mari grumbled good-naturedly, reaching over to prod at his side a few times.

"Despite me asking several times now!"

"It's not very important." Ryoma shrugged.

"It totally is!" Mari complained, backed up by Lady Ikeda's enthusiastic nods and determined expression.

"Is it younger than twenty or older?!"

"It's certainly a number." He replied in a noncommittal fashion, shrugging. He didn't really care either way, if he was being honest, but at this point it was a running gag so he had to keep it up.

"Older than four, I'd say. That's probably correct."

"Grr!" Mari growled.

"You know I have a niece that looks to be around your age." Lady Ikeda began slyly, leaning forwards and raising her hand to cover her mouth.

"About… nineteen, is that right? She's a nice girl you know, if a bit shy. How about I introduce you?"

"That's alright, don't go out of your way for little ol' me here." His tone was rather dry as he politely declined.

"So you're about nineteen!" Mari declared with sharp eyes.

"A bit younger then? Don't worry, I have five married sisters, so I have a lot of nieces! I'm sure you'd get along with some of them!" Five married sisters? You need to stop worrying about their daughters and start worrying about your own!

"I'm really not looking for a relationship right now." He raised his hands and took a step back.

"I said the same thing, but I waited too long! Don't make my mistake young man!" His harasser stepped forwards to follow. Mari was about to say something, before wisely deciding against whatever it was.

"Why are you trying to hook me up with your nieces?"

"I'm not! I'm simply suggesting that you'd get along- that's all!" The noblelady's assault was as relentless as her lie was shameless.

"Come on, Ryoma, you need more friends! This is your chance to get introductions!" Mari was equally enthusiastic about battering him.

"You can't live your entire life alone, alone in a small apartment with puppets and eating rations- willingly! Do you even know how to cook?"

"I have a niece who cooks- she makes excellent jam-cakes and needs more friends!"

"I'm going to scout around the perimeter." He was forced to retreat.

"Make sure nothing dangerous is around." He disappeared in a flicker of sand before they could counteract his stated intention.