Chapter 25

Sunagakure
Ryoma, Jonin

“Jonin Ryoma.” A familiar voice greeted him in a smooth tone. He turned his head slightly over and up to regard them, hands folded in his lap and legs loosely crossed.

Mari’s friend, Nagare, was standing to his right and looking down at his seated form. Her immense jugs secured to her shoulders with overlapping leather straps and hair hidden beneath a loose beige headdress. She carried two bags of what looked and smelled like take-out food.

“Mari’s Friend.” He greeted, a little amused smirk hidden beneath his veil. “Fancy meeting you here.”

“This is the Ninjutsu Corps HQ.” She replied blandly.

Ryoma glanced around, looking at the glazed clay walls, the tall arched roof, the regular and bold electrical lighting, the patterned tile flooring, and the comfortable reception chair he was sitting in. You could tell just by looking that the Ninjutsu Corps had cash to burn- mostly because ninjutsu were both powerful and cost chakra to utilize, rather than money.

The Eight Corps of Suna all received a set stipend from the central treasury and a small percentage of whatever their members earned from completing missions. Puppetry, Shiki, Sealing, Medical, Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, Barrier, Weaponry- all received the same base level stipend to keep existing, researching, and to pay for whatever facilities they needed to do both of those things. Anything more had to come from the paychecks of their members.

Many of the corps had either niche applications, so fewer applicants, or outstanding costs, so less liquid capital free to be used on whatever. The Puppeteers had the manufacturing costs and renting out the space for the silos, the Shiki and Sealing Corps both used big oversized tools in their ‘standard’ equipment loadouts, the Medical Corps made a lot of money and spent a lot of money on their potions and poisons and laboratories, and so on. Most didn’t have much in the way of ‘disposable’ income.

The Ninjutsu Corps didn’t have any of these issues- no big costs or shortage of members- and consequently had some of the fanciest looking facilities in Suna. When one considered this, and added that both the current and previous Kazekage were former members of their particular Corps, you ended up with an incredibly arrogant bunch.

Hence why when he swung by and requested a meeting for future business, the receptionist told him that he’d have to wait in the lobby until the Captain could meet with him- no specific time given. This was frustrating, because several people had requested meetings similar to him and had been allowed to enter immediately.

“So it is.” Ryoma commented, turning back to her. He tried to think of a funny follow-up to that, but couldn’t quite manage to come up with anything in time. Thinking was a bit difficult through the persistent irritation that was building up behind his eyes.

Those were called ‘headaches’, he was pretty sure. “Hello.”

Her eyes trailed up and down along his body once, before glancing up at the receptionist pretending to be working, and back to him. “What brings you here, Jonin Ryoma?” She asked plainly, sounding like she was already pretty sure about the answer but asking to confirm anyways.

“Well.” Ryoma leaned back and put on a falsely chipper tone. “I had swung by to request a meeting- or if nothing else scheduled one for the future- to get a quote for a commission for custom work with the Ninjutsu Corps.” He made sure to smile toothily, even if it couldn’t be seen, and shake his head. “It’s just the darndest thing though- because I showed up four hours ago and have seen at least three unscheduled visits show up and processed while I waited.”

He stretched long, letting bones crack and pop as he did. “It’s enough to frustrate me, Miss Nagare, it’s enough to make me grumble and squint. Heck, I might just lodge a formal letter of complaint to the Lord Kazekage and include very strong language.”

His tone conveyed a great deal more irritation than his words.

She nodded slowly. “I see. Are you intending to maintain secrecy about this commission?” She asked directly, tilting her head.

He reached into his pocket to pull out the scroll in question detailing the process he needed to put wood through to densify it, and the amount that he would need for it, and tossed it over to her carelessly. He realized immediately after that both of her hands were currently occupied, and reached out a string to-

She caught it in her mouth, flawlessly, smoothly lowering the bags in her hands down to the ground before taking the scroll out of her teeth and gently patting it against her clothes. Then, as if she hadn’t just done something incredibly odd, she took the scroll in both hands to unfurl and read through it.

Ryoma wasn’t really sure what his expression was at the moment. His raised finger slowly lowered before his hand dropped entirely, returning to his side.

She rolled it up again and handed it back to him, then bent at the knees to pick up her take-out bags again. “I see. Would you like my independent referral to a specialist?”

He considered that for about half a second, nodding as he pushed up from the chair. “If you wouldn’t mind- I’d love to take you up on that offer!” He gave a little half-grin, tucking the scroll away and bowing his head in thanks.

She nodded again. “Please follow me.” She spoke, turning to start walking down a side-hall.

“The Captain will see you no-” The receptionist tried to call out, only to be interrupted by Ryoma’s polite but firm refusal.

“Fuck off.” He called out, waving a dismissive hand over his shoulder as he followed Nagare down the side-hall and towards another equally fancy section of the HQ. He could hear the receptionist trail off awkwardly behind him, and briefly felt bad about being rude to her before deciding that he was too annoyed to care.

He made a mental note to not ask the Ninjutsu Captain for anything ever again.

“You have someone in mind already?” He asked, sighing and doing his best to shake off his ambient frustrations.

“I am capable of one step of the process. I am aware of one other who is capable of another one of the detailed steps, and I trust that she will know others who are capable of the last two.”

“One of those steps is ultimately optional, mind you. I don’t really need it to get the material I’m looking for.” Ryoma made sure to clarify.

Nagare nodded. “I saw that.”

She stopped in front of a door that read ‘Vice Captain’, provoking a raised brow and glance from him. Not that she seemed to notice or heed either. Nagare set one bag of food down again, knocking on the door with the back of her knuckles, and calling out, “Vice Captain, I’ve returned with lunch and a guest.”

“Come in.” A female voice called out from inside, making Nagare nod, open the door, then reach down to take up her other bag again. She pushed the door open with one of her massive jugs, the ones slung next to her hips, and stepped inside. Ryoma followed politely, step hitching once as he saw who was on the other side of the door.

Dark, seaweed-green hair tied back in a smooth bun, kept in place with a long bone needle. Uneven orange bangs that framed the sides of her face. A long, sleeveless black top secured around her waist with a white obi. Faded amber eyes, fair skin, and light purple lipstick. She was certainly attractive, for sure, with a pretty face and rather shapely figure. However, what she was was very much secondary to who she was.

Ryoma recognized this woman, the same way he might recognize Kazekage Rasa and for very similar reasons.

Pakura of the Scorch, Hero of the Hidden Sand, one of the two S-Rank ninjas left in Suna, sat behind the desk. He hadn’t known she was the Vice-Captain of the Ninjutsu Corps- that wasn’t very important compared to the fact that she was Pakura and therefore wielder of the Scorch-Release, the creative name for super-hot fire that magically dehydrated things into mummies by proximity.

Ninja ‘Ranks’ were an imprecise science. It was tricky to get any clear delineation between what rank a ninja should be and why, the reasonings varying wildly from person to person and rankings riddled with exceptions and edge-cases. Theoretically it was a measure of a ninja’s overall threat and force-projection capacity, practically it was an argument about who could beat up who.

Most of the time, earning the coveted status of S-Rank required a particularly noteworthy feat that others could point to and say ‘that’s it, they’re S-rank for sure’.

Pakura’s feat was fighting Han of the Steam, a ninja of Iwa, to a standstill in the middle of the largest battle on the Suna-Iwa front during the Third Ninja War. This alone didn’t sound all that impressive until one learned that Han of the Steam was a Jinchuriki, had a massive primordial chakra-demon sealed inside of him, and had been wearing that chakra-demon’s form and trying to trample the Suna forces while Pakura had fought him.

This narrative has been purloined without the author’s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

A Jinchuriki who could do that was so far beyond Ryoma’s league it wasn’t even funny- so a woman who could actively brawl with one and not die was similarly intimidating. He wasn’t sure how exactly she did it- he wasn’t present on that battlefield when it went down, but he was relatively certain that she had used her magic dehydration-fire to hard-counter the giant steam demon.

Currently, she was looking into one of the bags of take out with a curious eye. “Hm- They gave us a lot of sauce, huh?”

“I asked for extra.” Nagare explained calmly, sitting down on the other side of the desk and taking out a pair of chopsticks. “Their mayonnaise is very good.”