Rihaku
The Internet
Of course not, that would be a silly plan. If the jounin were forced to speak to a Konoha representative, they would probably make these arguments:
1) Mist is currently in a civil war between bloodline users and the genocidal forces of the current Mizukage. His reign is unstable. As we were slated for death due to being bloodline users and bloodline sympathizers, killing us will not only cost lives for no reason (since we don't intend to make trouble), it won't even serve political expediency. If the bloodline users win, the bloodline Mizukage would only be mad at Konoha for killing refugees. If the current Mizukage wins, he's still insane and doesn't care about favors done for him - we have personal experience in that regard. On the other hand, if you don't kill us, the bloodline Mizukage wins, we'll be out of your hair and you'll have repaired Leaf-Mist relations for generations to come, while the current Mizukage is too busy with civil war to start a war anyway. Any war he did start, you would be entirely justified in steamrolling him and setting up a client state in Mist, as we are not "missing-nin" in the classical sense but "refugee-nin" escaping a genocide.
2) We can serve as additional deniable assets for missions in which Konoha presence would be sensitive or undesired.
3) We can serve as an additional, unexpected border guard against any invasion from this region. Rather than spending precious Konoha blood to defend your borders, we can absorb some amount of damage from this angle without costing you money or shinobi. It's the same principle as a buffer state.
4) We have valuable bloodlines which could credibly be integrated into the Konoha populace via "civilian refugees" (like Haku), which would serve to strengthen Konoha in the long term
5) We'll pay taxes, generating more revenue for you without risking the lives of your shinobi.
6) We'll share valuable Mist intel and jutsus over time.
7) You can tell Mist you killed us and take samples for med-nin to create convincing bodies. Physically identical evidence shouldn't cause any suspicion, but even if the Mizukage suspects anything he 1) can't call you on it because you're stronger, 2) is still embroiled in a civil war taking up most of his attention and energy and 3) would lose intentional standing and lose the subsequent war miserably even if he did escalate.
8) Thus, all the disadvantages of sheltering missing-nin, all the normal disincentives that create the social contract not to do it, are either mitigated or nonexistent: we can move to an area you can easily survey, so you won't have unknown assets running around your territory; we have no intention of fighting you, and you can be confident in this because you are so much stronger; Mist is unable to exert serious political pressure for numerous reasons; and because we are fully cooperative, you can create convincing fakes to provide Mist anyway. You may even receive backlash from Mist in the future if you kill us and the bloodline users win.
9) Meanwhile, the benefits of tolerating us are numerous, and can directly save Konoha lives, while killing us would directly cost Konoha lives. Moreover, some of these benefits are irreplaceable and unique: the bloodline limits among our number, high-level Mist intel, peace between Leaf and Mist if the bloodline users win.
10) At the very least, the safest course of action is to wait until the Mist civil war is over before killing us. Turning a blind eye for now not only does not hurt you, it helps you significantly.
Of course, while I think these arguments are pretty convincing, especially in aggregate, I would prefer not to have to use them in the first place. But if we have to deal with Konoha, I don't think our chances are so terrible. And since even enemy ninja regularly banter to express their eccentricities and extract information, there are plenty of opportunities for one of our jounins to open a dialogue.
By hiding in Fire, we substantially decrease our risk of enemy hunter squads in exchange for potentially having to deal with Konoha. Not only is Konoha the safest Major village for our character due to his genes, even a ruthless Sarutobi is still the Kage most likely to look favorably upon and accept credible win-win appeals. He is able to see that sometimes the path of ruthless expedience lies in cooperation.
If we hid in Cloud, Stone, or Sand, our situation would be strictly worse. If we hid in a small country, we would still lose to their Hidden Village in a straight fight, necessitating the exact same arguments as above but with fewer benefits for us, and be much more vulnerable to Mist hunter squads.
Last edited:
