"Remind me again: Why is my presence required?"
"'Required' would be a strong word," Hazō said defensively. "You were excited about the idea back at the inn."
"I was not."
"You absolutely were! You 'found the idea of a personal intelligence network intriguing' and 'felt that acquiring novel revenue streams for the clan to be a good use of our efforts.'"
"'Intriguing' and 'good use of our efforts' are quite far from 'excited'."
Hazō blew a raspberry at his grumblypuss sister. "From you, that's the same as jumping up and down and waving your arms."
A freshly-dunked cat could not have appeared more disgusted. "It is not."
"We're here," Noburi said, cutting the debate short by opening the door of the scribist and gesturing the others inside.
Higashino Arata, their once and current ANBU escort, beat Keiko in the race to enter first; clearly, he was more motivated by his need to protect the Hokage's children than she was by her desire to be out of the crowded streets. He paused in the doorway, blocking the entrance in order to visually sweep for threats. Hazō noted the behavior and gave the man a mental checkmark for dedication; the normal ninja instinct and training was to immediately step out of a doorway so as not to be backlit. Standing there essentially made him a target, but also kept his body between his charges and any potential attacker inside the store.
The moment passed and Higashino entered, Keiko following as close on his heels as she could bear. Yes, the boys and Higashino had been keeping a bubble of space open around her as they passed through the crowded streets, but it was like an insectophobe walking across a room that was seething with cockroaches; the fact that the creatures moved slightly out of the way of one's steps did not make the experience less stressful. The inside of the store was mercifully empty but for the counterman (presumably the owner) and three customers. The latter vacated the premises the moment Higashino turned his eye on them, leaving all the scrolls they had been perusing on the floor instead of taking the time to re-shelve or purchase them.
The proprietor was a man on the downhill side of 'mature' but not yet into 'elderly'. His hair, what was left of it, still had a few flecks of pepper among the salt and life had carved wrinkles deeply into his round-cheeked face. "Welcome," he said nervously. "My name is Rai Yasuo. How may I help you, honored ninja sirs and madam?"
"We're looking for a copy of Akatsuki's book," Hazō said. There had been discussion about whether or not to sugar-coat the question or dance around it, but the final decision had been to simply be forthright as long as there was no one else around. "Do you know the one I mean?"
"Uh, I mean...sir, I've heard
rumors that the terrorist organization you mentioned had published some sort of manifesto, but I don't know that I believe them. I've never seen a copy, or met anyone who had. I certainly wouldn't have such a thing in my shop. I'm terribly sorry, sir. Please don't be angry."
Hazō leaned hard on the Iron Nerve to keep any trace of frustration off his face and offer only a friendly smile. "No worries," he said. "It's not important. You said you don't know of anyone who has seen it, but is there anyone that might have and you don't know one way or the other?"
Behind him, Noburi snorted softly. Hazō ignored him with the ease and grace of long practice.
The proprietor's eyes shifted nervously from Hazō to the towering and horrifically ugly Higashino. "I'm, I'm very sorry sir. I would tell you if I knew, truly. It's not a— I mean, isn't it— That is—"
"It's fine," Higashino said calmly. "Lady, gentlemen, if there's nothing else...?"
Hazō allowed his face to reflect his actual feelings of disappointment. "Rats, I was really hoping to find that. Still, there's one other thing: trade."
Higashino took a deep breath and let it out in the slow and careful sigh of frustrated parents and bodyguards everywhere when faced with willful charges. "Sir, we are quite pressed for time. Lord Hokage wanted to see the three of you this morning, and the sun is halfway up already."
"It'll be quick," Hazō promised. He turned back to the proprietor. "My name is Gōketsu Hazō. I'm the adopted son of Lord Hokage Jiraiya of the Legendary Three, who has been negotiating trade and international relations with my aunt, the Mizukage. We're trying to support him in that by negotiating to have merchants and entertainers come to Leaf. The more trade the less war, as the Sage said." Well, probably. The Sage had said so many things that it was pretty safe to attribute anything to him.
"Sir, I write for the illiterate, keep accounts for the innumerate, and sell scrolls, manuscripts, and writing supplies. I'm sure that for a ninja such as yourself the trip to Fire Country is brief and safe, but for an elderly person such as myself...."
Hazō waved dismissively. "We'll provide a ninja escort at our expense, plus storage scrolls to transport your stuff. You can keep the scrolls."
The proprietor's eyebrows went up. "That is a very generous offer, sir. Still, I'm not sure it's worth it for either of us. Business here is good enough that I don't need extra market, and the trip really is dangerous and exhausting. Plus, I can't see why my products would command enough of a premium in Leaf to be worth the travel."
"Don't sell yourself short," Noburi said, studying one of the sheets of paper that had been set out for display. "I've never seen paper this good. Leaf has a huge demand for seal-quality paper"—he grinned—"especially now that we're there."
"More relevantly," Keiko said, "Leaf has a printing press. You could sell some of your paper there, but you would do better to treat Leaf as the source of product, not the target market. Buy there, sell here."
Puzzled frown. "What is a...'printing press'?"
"A machine for making books. Here." She set down the seal she'd had ready to hand and unsealed a small wooden box.
Rai hesitantly opened the box and looked inside. His jaw dropped and he stared in wonder before carefully wiping his hands on his pants and lifting out the contents: a dozen books. He turned through the pages of each, taking great care not to mar them in the slightest way.
"Three separate books, four identical copies of each," he said in awe. "The penmanship is inelegant, there is no illumination nor marginalia, yet the words are crisp and easily legible. And identical between the copies. How is this possible?"
"As I said, a machine," Keiko said, smiling in recognition of a fellow biblioworshiper. "It takes a great deal of time to prepare a book for printing, but once the preparations are done it can be copied very quickly and very cheaply. Until now the books have been barred from export, but I convinced the Hokage to rescind the ban. Each one needs to be vetted by the intelligence department before it can be sold outside of Leaf but once that is done the Nara are allowed to sell as much as they want. We intend to take a percentage for arranging distribution."
Rai wiped a drop of saliva from his lip and replaced the books gently in their box before, with the greatest regret, pushing the box back towards Keiko. "Mistress, that is—"
"Pardon me," she said, pushing the box back. "I should have been clear that these are free samples. After all, you will need to verify the market before the trip would be worthwhile."
Hazō could see white all the way around Rai's eyes. "Free...? But...."
"Free," she said, giving him a smile far kinder than any Hazō had ever seen her use before. "With our pleasure. Do you think you could be ready to leave for Leaf a month from today?"
"Yes! Yes, absolutely! I will—" He pulled himself up short. "Wait. I'm sorry, but I have to ask. How much do these books cost in Leaf? What sort of supply is there? What sort of documentation will I need in order to enter and trade? Will I be permitted to stay within the walls? Will Mist ryō be accepted?"
Keiko laughed.
It was a small laugh, more of a mini-chuckle, gentle and kindly meant, yet it shook Hazō and Noburi's fundamental assumptions about reality enough that both of them felt the need to use the Dispelling technique. Twice.
"Cost of living in Leaf is not that different from what it is here. I will personally ensure that you can exchange Mist ryō for Leaf ryō at a reasonable rate or, failing that, I will stand warden for a line of credit. Books are in sufficient supply that you will be able to buy enough to make the trip profitable. The price of books in Leaf varies widely—"
Rai's face fell like a stone.
"—but the range is somewhere between one hundred and two thousand ryō."
Rai's face lit with joy.
"I can be packed in ten minutes," he said. "Although...I'll need to go to the goldsmith to retrieve more ryō if I'm to make a significant purchase. Can you spare two hours? Perhaps only one if I hurry. No, wait, I'll need to arrange for my sister to mind the shop and the house while I'm gone. I'm sorry for the delay, but—"
Noburi chuckled and raised his hands in self-defense. "It's all good. We didn't intend for you to leave right now. Would a month from today be okay?"
A child whose toy had been snatched away could not have seemed sadder. "Yes, of course. A month will be fine. Thank you so much for this opportunity, sir."
"It can be arranged sooner, if you wish," Keiko offered kindly.
Happiness restored! "Yes! That would be lovely! Um...two, maybe three days? That should be enough for me to arrange everything. Is that too soon? I can wait longer. It's probably too soon. I'm sorry, how long would—"
"Three days will be fine," Keiko said firmly. "Jiraiya may still be here at that time, in which case you could return with the rest of the Leaf contingent. Failing that, I will arrange for two of the Leaf ninja to remain and serve as your escorts." She hesitated. "In the unlikely event that that cannot be arranged, I will hire two Mist ninja to escort you, if that's acceptable?"
"Yes, absolutely! Thank you so much, this is wonderful. I'm so grateful, I can't even...." He trailed off, gesturing helplessly.
"Will you be able to make the trip on foot or would you prefer a wagon? Your baggage, and your goods, will all be in storage scrolls, so volume and weight are not factors."
The old man hesitated. "I confess that walking long distance has become more difficult over the years, especially since the joint-freeze took me. I don't wish to impose, but if it weren't too much trouble...?"
"It is no trouble," Keiko said. "I will notify your escorts."
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," the old man said bowing deeply. "You are most generous. May the Sage's blessings rain upon you. If ever I can do anything for you, you have but to ask."
"Actually," Noburi said. "How would you feel about a joint venture?"
"A...joint venture?"
"Yeah. We'll arrange introduction for you with the Nara and hopefully favored-partner prices. We'll buy some books with our money and give them to you. You sell them for the best price you can get and we split the profits—the profits, not the gross—fifty-fifty."
Rai seemed utterly confused, but he shrugged. "I have no objection, although I confess I don't see why that would appeal to you. You'd be taking all the risk."
"We aren't booksellers," Hazō pointed out. "Or even merchants. We don't know what's likely to sell, where to market it, or how to get the best prices. You'd be doing all the leg work, we'd just be putting up cash. If anything, fifty-fifty is a little hard on you." A thought struck him. "Oh, idea that might or might not make sense: Bring a manuscript, or some written work, and we could maybe get it typeset so that you can get copies of it. They won't be identical to the original—it'll be just the text, not illustrations or marginalia or whatever, and the writing won't match the original, but the words will be the same."
Rai's eyes went wide and slightly glassy as dreams of impossible wealth almost visibly danced through his head. It took several seconds to shake loose from the dream, but then he laughed. "I think this is going to be the beginnings of a wonderful relationship. May I offer you tea while we discuss details? I believe I also have some cookies."
Hazō perked up. "Cookies? What kind of cookies?"
o-o-o-o
The bell above the door jingled as Higashino entered, Hazō hot on his heels.
"Good morning! Welcome to the shop of Saito Asahi, purveyor of mysteries and exotica! Which of your problems may I solve today?"
Saito, assuming this was he, was enormous. Only slightly shorter than Captain Momoichi, he was perhaps even wider in the shoulders and deeper in the chest. Said chest was bare except for a diagonal leather harness that held a collection of daggers and a small hatchet. His hair was shoulder-length, black as night, silky, and restrained with a rawhide thong with only a few strands that had escaped, almost certainly artfully.
He could not have been punching the 'barbarian hero of a lost age' image harder without actually wearing a sign. Hazō had to give the man props for commitment to his role; it was the very end of December in the freezing Land of Water and Hazō could see his breath, so going bare-chested had to be unpleasant...unless, of course, Saito had a small heater behind the counter, which seemed pretty likely now that he thought of it. His surroundings certainly played to the image. The shop walls were lined with a pair of crossed swords, a boar spear with feathers just behind the crossguard, four different mounted heads of various wildly toothy animals that Hazō couldn't identify, a variety of charcoal or ink drawings of battle scenes that featured Saito himself, and a lock of golden hair glued to a piece of vellum with a shockingly red lip-print above it. The display cases were filled with spices, glittering stones, eggs of unusual size and color, dust, scales, hair, roots, leaves, and a bewildering assortment of bottles and jars.
"Excuse me, are you Saito?" Hazō asked, just to be sure.
"That I am, that I am!" the giant boomed, smiling widely and spreading his arms. "Saito the Brave, hunter and trapper! Bard and bargainer, harvester and healer! Purveyor of spices and secrets, gems and jewels, mysteries and miracles! Far-traveler, explorer, storied hero, rescuer of damsels from lost tribes, and teller of tales and histories gathered from the farthest-flung corners of the earth! How may I help you, young ninja? A love potion to capture the eye of a fair lady? I've just the thing—three parts heartdarter seed, one part elixir of peacock feather, and one part that I shall not name, all in a base of the finest mead of Wind Country! Or perhaps you would care for a strengthening elixir? Mighty ninja you surely are and thus stronger already than any mere human, yet still there are gradations of strength among you, yes? Who would not wish for greater power to secure their life and the success of their mission in a profession as dangerous and important as your own? Or perhaps—"
"Actually," Hazō said, cutting quickly into what seemed like a well-rehearsed sales pitch of perhaps problematic length even as he tried to reassure himself that a 'heartdarter' (whatever that might be) was, absolutely and without question, a plant. "What I would like is for you to bring your wares to Leaf."
Saito blinked in shock.
"I'm sorry, I think I misheard you," he said, in a much more normal tone than his earlier heroic voice. "Did you say you wanted me to travel to Leaf?"
"Yes," Hazō said, nodding. "Is that a problem? You are Saito Asahi, far-traveler and explorer, right?"
Saito said nothing for a moment, clearly still stunned. After a moment he visibly shook himself out of it and grinned, revealing a mouth with only three missing teeth. "Of course!" he boomed. "Far-traveler, explorer, rescuer, savior, and hero! I am merely surprised at the idea of being invited to the storied Village Hidden in the Leaves. If you will forgive my clumsy and forthright words, relations between our nations have always been a bit...strained."
"We would like to fix that," Hazō said, ignoring Keiko's mumbled-yet-perfectly-audible '
You would like to fix that'. "Let me start over. My name is Gōketsu Hazō. I'm the adopted son of Lord Hokage Jiraiya of the Legendary Three, who has been negotiating trade and international relations with my aunt, the Mizukage. He—"
"Son of the Hokage, nephew of the Mizukage, and a ninja besides! Sage's grace, I find myself in the company of heroes that barely need a razor yet stand already at my side, and will undoubtedly soon surpass me! You honor this humble wanderer, young master!"
Hazō nonplussed. "Yes, well, thank you. Look, we want to support Jiraiya in creating closer ties between Mist and Leaf, so we're trying to arrange writs of patronage and/or favored trade deals for merchants and performers. You're a very successful merchant"—he gestured around at the spacious store with the vermillion-and-gold-leaf sign in one of the wealthier districts of the city. "We'd like you to travel to Leaf with a collection of trade goods. We can provide a ninja escort, storage scrolls to carry your goods, and introductions in the city. In return you agree to provide discounts to the Gōketsu and our allies."
Saito considered that. "Storage scrolls, you say? How many?"
Hazō shrugged; it wasn't really something he'd thought about. "I dunno. Would two dozen be enough? Each one will hold about as much as you weigh, as long as it fits into a space roughly this by this." He gestured with his hands to convey the volume restrictions.
"Hm," Saito said, frowning. "Well, I would need to select my wares carefully in order to fit in such restricted space...."
Hazō rolled his eyes. "Fine, make it fifty scrolls. And yes, you can keep them. In return you agree that the Gōketsu and our allies get right of first refusal on everything you sell, as well as a fifty percent discount."
"Fifty percent! Young master, would you beggar me?! Mighty Saito already offers the fairest prices in Water Country, selling for barely a fraction of what his goods are truly worth because of my duty to my countrymen!"
"And your base prices shall remain the same in Leaf," Keiko said firmly. "At least so far as the Gōketsu and our allies are concerned. We will take a listing of your wares and prices with us today and you will sell to us for fifty percent of those numbers. You may charge whatever you wish to others."
Saito's grin spread wider. "As sharp at bargaining as your blades at war! Yet more heroes among us—or, indeed, heroines! Mistress Gōketsu, I watched your tournament matches with great interest. Truly, for your age you are a warrior without peer! The one and only time I have seen a weapons mistress more dangerous than you was Selmora, princess of the Amazons in the farthest reaches of the forgotten lands east of Demon! She was twice your age, yet still a striking beauty!" His eyes grew wistful. "Ah, the joy of the hunt, her at my side as we slaughtered our way through the fell beasts of the mountains! The joys of the bedroom, as we lay together in passion at night! The—"
"Back on the actual subject," Noburi said. "There's a good offer on the table. Do you want it or not? We've got more stops to make."
"Offer? Honored ninja, your presence graces this humble warrior, but I admit to being confused. I heard no offer, merely some suggested travel arrangements and then a requirement that my wares all be offered at prices that will penury me."
Noburi looked disgusted. "Fifty storage scrolls and a ninja escort that you don't have to pay for, plus a fresh market. That's a hell of an offer." He glanced disapprovingly at Hazō. "Better than I would have made, O twit of a brother. Maybe next time you'll let
me do the negotiating, just so we don't get completely skinned?"
Hazō shrugged unrepentantly. Storage scrolls might be costly items for the average person, but for a sealmaster they were much like a snack—you made a few each day and didn't really think about it. Sure, they wore out after a while, but they lasted long enough that it was easy to build up a stockpile. He was carrying fifty of the things on his person right now, one of which was full of the dirty socks and underwear that he hadn't gotten around to dropping off at the washerwoman's. And that fifty didn't even include the macerators, which were nothing but weaponized storage seals. Making fifty more for Saito was the work of an evening.
"I freely admit that my heart leaps at the idea of travelling to the one part of the world my feet have never trod. Still, as it stands I would have no choice but to refuse, albeit with the greatest regret and thanks for your generosity. A fifty percent discount is more than I could sustain, especially."
"You are only required to give that to the Gōketsu and our allies," Keiko said. "You may gouge the rest of Leaf as much as you desire." A thoroughly creepy smile crawled slowly across her face and she added, "Should you choose to charge a special premium to the Hyūga, we would have no objection."
"Given the business lost to travel time, I fear I could not afford more than a five percent discount to the Gōketsu, and only on preorders. I apologize most profusely for this, but the realities of business are harsher than the villain Melathon, Tyrant of Torture in the farthest north of the Land of Snow, a fearsome foe that I defeated in my recent travels—"
"Final offer: Forty percent," Keiko asserted. "On all goods, not just pre-orders. To the Gōketsu, the Nara, the Akimichi, and the Yamanaka. Plus, the four clans will have right of first refusal on all sales, in the stated order." She looked over at Hazō. "My patience is at its limit. We are leaving in one minute."
"Keiko! He's the only source for a lot of these things, and they're valuable. We can't afford to not get the deal!"
"Chill," Noburi said reprovingly. "We've already got Asakawa, and he can provide most of the spices this guy can."
"Asakawa? Asakawa?! You would compare my wares to the shoddy servings of that miserable wretch?! My quality is higher, my breadth of offering is wider, and he carries none of my specialty items—elixirs, potions, preparations derived from the deepest lore of a thousand tribes lost to the world—"
"Most of which are doubtless nothing more than a bit of mulled wine," Keiko said. "As to the rest, I shudder to speculate."
"Young mistress, I assure you that all my goods are efficacious and of the highest quality!"
A death stare of ice far colder than the Snow Country estate of Melathon, Tyrant of Torture, bored into Saito's soul. "I do not care if they are made exclusively of gold and the blood of the Sage, although horse urine and your spittle seem more likely. You annoy me and I hold the purse strings. You will take my offer or we will depart."
"Grant me but this and we have a deal: All the things you stated, yet only for the first trip, after which the discount drops to ten percent, and a maximum value to the storied goods I provide at discount to your honored selves and those wise enough to ally with you."
The ice soured, if such were possible. "Two million ryō worth."
"Ah, young mistress! If you seek to beggar me, 'twould be simpler but to rob the store! I could manage fifty thousand."
The cold room became colder. "Listen closely, mortal, for these are the last words we shall speak before departure. You undoubtedly have an account book listing your recent sales. You will hand those to Higashino right now, so we may verify your prices. You will pack your goods and be prepared to leave one month from today. Thanks to the terrible negotiations of my foolish brother, we will grant you fifty very valuable storage scrolls and pay for a ninja escort to bring you to Leaf. Once there, you will offer your wares to the Gōketsu, then the Nara, then the Akimichi, then the Yamanaka. You will offer these goods at a forty percent discount, up to a maximum of four hundred thousand ryō per clan. On all future trips the discount shall be twenty percent. Above the four hundred thousand you may negotiate whatever price you wish. Once the four clans have had their choice, you may sell whatever you have left to anyone at any price. If you attempt to cheat us—perhaps by failing to offer all of your available goods during the discounted bargaining—you will be sent to the Torture and Interrogation department until I can convince my Clan Head to allow you the sweet mercy of death. The nature of which will be for my pangolins to rip you into shreds so tiny it will be impossible to identify one part from the next. I have done my research and know what your last twelve sales have been; if you do not make more profit on this one trip than you have in the last three months then you are an idiot. If you are too stupid to accept the offer then we shall depart, but I am not willing to waste more time on you. Do you agree to these terms or not?"
Saito swallowed, his eyes wide. "Yes, ma'am. I agree."
"Excellent."
o-o-o-o
As they left the store, account books in hand, Noburi turned to Keiko.
"Keiko, I'm disappointed in you."
She blinked in surprise. "What? I thought the deal was quite favorable."
"Yeah, but you told him that terrifying offer of yours was going to be the 'last words we shall speak before leaving' and then after he accepted you said, 'Excellent'. You really shouldn't go back on your word like that or you might damage the sterling reputation of the Gōketsu."
It was a wonder that Keiko's glare did not melt Noburi into a puddle of protoplasm.
XP AWARD: 5
This update covers the period from the end of the tournament (~6pm yesterday ) until 1pm today. It was clear, easy to follow, and a lot of fun to write. Thanks. :>
It is now about 1pm. Lunch with Shin is scheduled for 1:30 and will need to be written by the inimitable
@Velorien.
Vote time! What to do now?
Voting ends on Wednesday, March 20, 2019, at 12pm London time.
