"Ready to go?" Hazō asked, glancing up for just a moment and Keiko walked in, and then going back to obsessively verifying that all his storage seals were where they were supposed to be. He'd do another pass through the room to verify that nothing had been left behind. He'd already done three, but a fourth would be good for his nerves.
"Indeed."
Now Hazō glanced up for real. Keiko was sounding annoyed—only mildly so, yet still something that should be addressed.
"Problem?" His hand drifted towards the pangolin gauntlets that dangled from his belt.
"No. I merely needed to finish arranging escorts to Leaf for those merchants. This process was quite pleasant with Rai and most of the others, but I find interactions with Saito to be...wearing." She pursed her lips in annoyance, then visibly chose to shake it off. "And you? Have you said your farewells?"
"Yup. Momma was sad to see me go, but she appreciated hearing that her advice helped with Captain Zabuza. Hopefully maybe we can convince Jiraiya to let her come back to Leaf at some point. If not, I'll maybe see about coming here for a visit."
"On the mark, people! Let's go, move it!"
The voice drifting through the window belonged to Miki Machi, the fussbudget chūnin in charge of the return to Leaf. The woman had started breakfast with an announcement and been running around chivying everyone ever since.
"Our dread mistress calls," Noburi said with a grin, swinging his barrel up onto his shoulders. "Good to go?"
"Good to go."
"Of course."
o-o-o-o
"Mind if I join you?" Hazō asked, drifting up to one of the campfires that composed the Leaf trail camp. They were two days out from Mist, due to arrive home tomorrow, and they'd broken early tonight. The sun was barely below the horizon, and there were a variety of fires scattered around as people spread out and divided up into small friend groups. Captain Miki had been fairly tight-reined to begin with, more so after Hazō took her aside to mention that he was worried about ambush, but she had authorized people to have a little space between their fires. After being packed together in Mist, everyone was glad to have some elbow room.
Nakano glanced up in surprise and then grinned, gesturing to the log across the fire from himself. "Grab a seat. You remember my team from game night, right? Genda Jitsuku and Sugiyama Shinji."
Sugiyama was short, muscular, with darker skin that Hazō was used to seeing and frizzy hair. His appearance was so unusual that Hazō had to remind himself not to stare. Genda was, to Hazō's shame, easy to not stare at. Her eyes were lovely, definitely her best feature; they were a brown so pale they seemed to glow, but a bad scar trailed across her left cheek, starting at the bridge of her nose and ending at the base of her jaw. It distracted from the eyes and ruined what had already been a plain face.
"And that worthless reprobate toasting the apples is Jinno Yūdai," Nakano continued. "Watch out for him. He's a troublemaker. Good cook though, so hurry up with the damn apples, man. Yūdai, this is Gōketsu Hazō."
"Please don't do that," Hazō said quickly, as Jinno started to bow deeply. "It makes me uncomfortable."
The other genin straightened up, expression displaying a mix of 'confused' and 'nervous'. "Um...sorry?" he offered.
Hazō sighed and plonked down on the log. "Look," he said. "I recognize how this is going to sound, but I'm not used to being a clan kid. Yes, my name used to be 'Kurosawa' and yes, that's a big-deal clan in Mist. I had the name, but I didn't grow up in the clan. My mom got thrown out when I was a kid because she insisted on marrying a clanless ninja for love. The Kurosawa tried to recruit me at one point and I told them to get stuffed. Then I got tricked into going missing, and then me and my team bought our way into Leaf on the strength of some rare advantages—two of us are sealsmiths, Keiko is the Pangolin Summoner, and so on—and Jiraiya formed the Gōketsu mostly as a screw-you to the other clans. I've been in a clan for, like, a minute, and it still feels weird. We're a 'clan' of six people, so it's not really all that different from when we were living in the woods. So please don't do the bowing and scraping thing."
Jinno glanced at Nakano with raised eyebrows.
"He's cool," Nakano said. "His whole family are." He grinned at Hazō. "A little weird, and they cheat like hell at Strategic Dominance, but cool."
"Hey, I'm still a ninja," Hazō said defensively. "As I recall you were no pure soul yourself, Mr. 'Oops, I bumped the table let me help you reset your pieces while I steal half of them and replace them with garbage'."
"Hey!" Nakano yelped. "I did not steal half your pieces!" He paused. "A quarter at most. Probably more like ten percent, actually. And the ones I swapped them for weren't garbage."
"Yeah, but you got my Sharpshooter! It completely wrecked my entire counter-Mari-sensei strategy in Tea."
"Okay, what are you two talking about?" Jinno demanded.
"That board game we told you about, dumbass," Genda said, rolling her eyes. "You know, where you try to take over the EN?"
"Oh, right."
"About that," Hazō said quickly. "We'll probably be having another game night within a week of us getting back, and you're all invited. Jinno, that includes you."
"Wicked," said the reprobate in question with a grin that immediately made Hazō jealous. The other boy was unfairly handsome and that grin probably made girls swoon over him. Some people had all the luck.
Says the guy who found a sealing instructor in the woods and is now part of the Hokage's clan, whispered the back of his brain. He firmly told it to get stuffed.
"Thank you," Sugiyama said, nodding.
"Yeah, thanks," Genda said. "Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why are you here, inviting us to your games night? You were always clan and now you're the
Hokage's clan. Inviting us once so as to meet various Leaf ninja and start to develop a network of useful agents, sure. You didn't reach out afterwards, so I figured we didn't make the cut. Now you come to our campfire and invite us again? S'unclear. Why are you here, chatting up a bunch of mudfoots instead of...I dunno, hitting on Ms. I'm So Pretty Yamanaka?"
Hazō puffed out his cheeks, looking up at the stars in thought for a moment, then shrugged. "First off, don't call yourself a mudfoot. As to why I'm here...a lot of reasons, some of them mercenary. I'd like to broaden my social circle. I socialize with the clan kids a lot, but it's exhausting. There's always this undercurrent of sparring. And yeah, Yamanaka is pretty but she's so high-energy that it's hard to keep up. Nara leaves me feeling stupid. Hyūga is a nice girl but her clan is close to drawn knives with mine so I have to be very careful. Inuzuka is...." He trailed off, then smiled and shook his head. "Inuzuka is. Anyway, I don't have any political training and they're most or all clan heirs, so I always feel like I'm losing." He shrugged. "And, like I said, there's some mercenary reasons. You heard the speech I made at the tournament?" He waited for the nods. "I meant it. Clanless get treated like trash in Mist and it looks like the same is true in Leaf. On the other hand, the Gōketsu are a weak clan and we need allies. We have money but we don't know squat about Leaf—the best places to buy stuff, who the movers and shakers are, anything about the backchannels in the ninja hierarchy, nothing. Also, there's only six of us, so we're vulnerable to a lot of different attacks. Clanless ninja"—he gestured around the fire—"lack money and political clout, but there's a lot of you and you know how things work. I think we could help each other, and the Sage knows the Gōketsu need help right now."
"Yeah? You, Mr. Son-of-the-Hokage, need help?"
Hazō looked calmly at Genda. "You're another one like Yamamoto, huh? 'All clans are evil, no clan kid could ever be a decent person, woe is me my life is pain and oppression'? News flash, sister: Life sucks for everyone, just in different ways. I was betrayed by my entire fucking village and struggled to stay alive in the woods for two years. Get over yourself."
Sugiyama started choking and hiding his face behind his hand. Nakano was struggling to keep his face straight and failing, all the while making uncontrollable snorting noises through his nose. Jinno didn't even bother to try to contain his laughter.
"Look," Hazō said after a moment, gesturing apologetically. "We really do need allies, and I'd like it if you four were some of them. Genda, if you can't stand to be around us because we're clan, that's fine. If not, I hope you'll come to games night."
The girl studied him sourly for long seconds, then nodded. "Okay."
"Okay?"
"Okay enough. Gimma deets."
"Deets?"
"'Give me details', except without half of the words," Nakano said. "She does that." He smiled. "Mostly only when she's with friends and/or people she wants to drive crazy. Isn't that right, Itsu?"
Only slightly apocalyptic glare. "Told you not to use that."
"Ohhhhkay. Moving on," Hazō said. "As to games night, we don't have a specific plan, but now that I know you're interested I'll be sure to invite you. As to the rest...I'm thin on details, actually. I've been told I have a problem respecting other people's agency, so I figured I'd just come talk to you guys and find out what you want and what would actually help."
"You think you could hook me up with Yamanaka?" Jinno said, pulling his current apple skewer back from the fire so he could look at Hazō. "I would totally be in for that."
"Like you've got a chance with Yamanaka," Genda snorted. "She keeps a string."
"Hey, I'm not the jealous type. I'm okay with her having a couple boy toys around, just to keep her happy when I'm busy with important stuff." He put the apple skewer back in the fire, holding it down near the coals and turning it carefully.
"Yes, because telling her that she's not part of your 'important stuff' is a great way to get a girl."
"Don't be twisting my words like that, Itsu! I'm very respectful to all my lovelies."
Hazō raised an eyebrow. "'All'?"
"Yeah. There's Eriko and Manami in Leaf, Ayuka in Tanzaku Gai, Mayuka in this little town down the road about twenty miles, and the lovely Hiroka back in Mist."
Hazō looked questioningly at Nakano. The other boy nodded. "Yeah, I don't know how he does it. It's annoying."
"You picked up a girl in Mist?"
"Well, 'picked up' would be a strong word."
"Dunno," Genda said. "Looked like a pick up to me. Pick, grin, words, up, zoom. Yūdai special."
"Okay, I need to hear this."
Genda snorted. "Same every time. Spot a pretty girl, give her that get-dewy grin, say 'Hi, I'm Jinno Yūdai and I'm a super awesome ninja' then swoop her in his arms and zoom off."
"Hey! You're making me sound like a creeper!"
"And?"
"Look," Jinno said, turning to Hazō. "Don't listen to her. I just tell them I'm a ninja and ask if they'd like to go roof-running with me. Or watch me juggle kunai. That works too." He grinned. "Of course, the best is to ask them to go for a walk on the river and see how long it takes for them to realize that I meant
on the river. Civvie girls really go for that."
"So...you date civilians?"
Jinno cocked his head, the smile disappearing. "You got a problem with that, clan boy?"
Hazō raised his hands defensively. "Nope, no problem. I'm just surprised, that's all. Most ninja don't seem to have a great attitude towards civilians."
Jinno shrugged and pulled the apple back, testing it carefully before slicing bits off and dropping them into trail mugs that he handed around. There was no mug available for Hazō, so Jinno stuck a section on a long splinter and passed it over.
"Thanks," Hazō said, blowing on the toasted apple before nibbling carefully at it. It was sweet, and hot, and tasted just slightly of woodsmoke before it scorched his tongue. He sucked cold night air across the burn, ignoring the chuckles from his fellow ninja, all of whom had been smart enough to let theirs cool. He set the apple aside and rummaged in his pack for writing supplies so that he could sketch. "The bit that I tasted before burning half my tastebuds off was amazing," he said, letting his hand and arm move on autopilot. "You should teach this to my uncle, he'd love it."
"Your uncle... Oh, he's that cr...that older guy who is always talking about...lup-something?"
"Lupchanzen. Singular lupchanz. Yeah, that's him. He's a pretty good cook and he's got a real sweet tooth. Did you put something in these?"
"You poke holes in them with a senbon, then soak 'em in watered honey overnight before toasting them. Pretty good, right?"
"Really good, yeah. Going back to what we were talking about a minute ago...it's cool that you have a good attitude towards civilians. I'd like to sponsor a bunch of till'n'fill missions—ones with good pay, not just pocket change. Would you guys be up for that?"
Nakano cocked his head in curiosity. "What do you mean 'good pay'? You're hiring these missions?"
"No, I'm putting bounties on them. The civilians post the normal price, the Gōketsu add money on top of it. Whoever does the mission tells the civilians what's going on, so hopefully they'll start posting more missions."
All four of the other ninja were staring at him in confusion. "Why?" Genda demanded.
"Why what? Why am I doing this?"
"Yeah."
Hazō paused in his sketching, thinking, then allowed his arm to go back to it while he looked at the others. "That's the wrong question. You shouldn't be asking why I'm doing it, you should be asking me why no one else is. You've all got civilian parents, yeah?"
"Yeah, but they're from Leaf," Nakano said. "They aren't bumpies."
"Bumpies?"
"You know...country mice. Bumpkins. The civvies who live out in the woods and are too dumb to move somewhere decent."
Hazō kept his face still. "Pick your reason," he said, looking down so that he could set aside the current sheet of paper and put another one in its place. "There's the moral reason: Civilians, no matter where they live, are people too. It's so easy for us to make their lives better, so why aren't we doing it? There's the economic reason: Give civilians better health, better infrastructure, more safety, and they can focus on things other than survival. They start growing more food, making more money and more stuff, which means lower food prices and more stuff for us to buy. Everyone is better off. Then there's the Will of Fire reason: More civilians in the Land of Fire living long enough to raise kids means more people in the Land of Fire. More people means more ninja, meaning that everyone is safer. Sure, we're the strongest country in the world, but if we want to stay that way then we need to make sure that we have the largest ninja force. You think that Cloud and Rock aren't going to be sending people to take our stuff when our economy starts taking off and theirs is still stuck in the pits?"
All four of the clanless ninja were looking at him as though he'd grown a second head.
"You this much?"
Hazō frowned. "This sentence no verb."
"Are. You. Like. This. Very. Often?" Genda ground out. "Fancy brain, pictures of sugar and spice?"
Hazō shrugged. "Dunno. To me this stuff is just obvious. I don't know why it isn't obvious to everyone."
Jinno snorted. "Some of us figure we aren't going to make it more than a couple more years so what's the point? Shoot, I'm sixteen. That's
old for a mudfoot genin on a combat squad."
Hazō's head came up fast. "I don't like that word. You shouldn't use it. Especially not for yourself."
"What, 'mudfoot'?" Jinno snorted. "It's what you clan kids think of us, right? Civvie-borns always have mud on their feet because they aren't good enough to water-walk."
Hazō's eyes narrowed. He set aside his lap desk and the half-finished storage seal he'd been working on and held the finished one out to Jinno along with a twig from the ground. "Store this."
Jinno took the seal in confusion and then frowned. He studied it more closely. "It's not working."
"That's because it's not a seal, it's a blank." Hazō leaned over and touched the ink for a moment. "Try now."
Jinno glanced at the newly-infused seal. The twig vanished into storage space and reappeared a moment later.
"You want to make it more than a couple years longer? Come to games night, meet Kagome-sensei. Convince him that you want to learn sealing. Assuming you do, that is."
"Hang on," Sugiyama asked. The frizzy-haired boy had been silent through most of the conversation, watching and taking things in without needing to contribute. Now he was leaning forward, an intense look in his eyes. "You're offering to have your uncle teach us sealing?"
"Yeah...I mean, didn't I just say that?"
"No one teaches mudfeet sealing. Or jutsu hacking, or medical jutsu. I'm pretty sure it's not even legal."
"I said. I do not like. That. Word."
Sugiyama impatiently waved Hazō's words aside. "Fine, whatever. How are you going to get permission for us to learn sealing?"
Hazō shrugged. "I didn't even realize it was a thing," he admitted. "Like I said, me and my clan don't know squat about Leaf. Who would I talk to?"
All four genin exchanged looks. "I don't know," Nakano said. "Maybe the Hokage, maybe the Clan Council?"
Genda snorted. "Seesee, definitely. Gotta control, yeah?"
"Be nice, Jitsuku," Nakano said. "Sealing and hacking are dangerous, everyone knows that. It's definitely something that should be licensed."
Hazō thought about it for a moment, eyes following the Iron-Nerve motion of his brush across the page. "I'll ask, see what I can find out. If we can make it work, cool. If not, the Clan Council's remit doesn't extend outside of Leaf, does it?"
Four helpless looks.
"Eh, fuck 'em. We'll figure it out. If you want to learn it, cool. You need to convince Kagome-sensei and then you need to make it through his training course. It's frustrating and yes, very dangerous, but he's a good teacher."
"Hm," Genda said, leaning back. "So very generous. Price?"
Hazō shrugged the shoulder that wasn't busy controlling a brush. "We can talk. If you could take over making explosives for the family that would be pretty cool."
"Explosives?" Sugiyama asked. "That doesn't sound like much. How fast do you use them up that you need four people making them for you?"
"You'd be surprised," Hazō said, infusing his current seal blank and handing it across to Genda. "Here, this is yours."
The girl took the page and looked at him suspiciously.
"I'm making one for each of you. No strings, no obligations. I noticed you're all carrying packs, and they look heavy. I'll also get you some explosives as soon as I have time, but it probably won't be more than one or two each." He winced. "Sorry. We gave all of ours to Jiraiya or I'd have more for you."
"You're just giving us seals?" Sugiyama asked. "Is this part of your recruitment pitch?"
Hazō shook his head. "No. I'm not giving them to you as a bribe, I'm giving them to you because it's safer that way. Safer for
me, too. I'm not sure if you know why we're traveling just with chūnin, but I'm worried about ambush. You shouldn't be weighed down with something that could shift on your back and throw you off-balance. I want you guys safe and able to fight"—he grinned—"because then you'll be more likely to save
my life if we get ambushed! Purely self-interest, I assure you." The other four chuckled. "As to the explosives...my family are all firm believers in peace through massive ordinance. Jiraiya, Kagome-sensei, and I are all sealsmiths, so the things don't cost more than ink and paper for us. Kagome-sensei yells at us kids if we aren't carrying at least three hundred explosive tags at all times."
"Three hundred?!"
"Hey, there isn't always time to stop and make more, you know? Back in the woods it was very comforting to have a crapton of the things on you. I've only had time to make half a dozen for me, Noburi, and Keiko, and I feel bloody naked."
Genda snorted. "We keep hanging out, Imma get tired of you say 'back in the woods', yeah?"
Hazō shrugged helplessly. "I had a misspent young adulthood." He went back to scribing the next storage seal, meanwhile nibbling on his toasted apple with his free hand.
XP AWARD: 12 (includes brevity bonus)
You will start traveling at dawn and arrive in Leaf around midday tomorrow. By default the current plan is still in effect, but you may feel free to vote changes or a new plan.
I'm sorry I didn't get through more of this, but I've been dragging my tail a bit and there's a long list of stuff that needs to happen before tomorrow. The plan was a lot of fun, and I'll look forward to seeing
@Velorien's take on it.
Voting, if there is any, ends on Wednesday, May 1, 2019, at 12pm London time.
