Chapter 24: Suna council
The next day, Captain Canteen gave the three of them their reward for an A-rank mission.
The total reward was 700,000 Ryo, and the three of them received 150,000 each, while the rest of the money went to the team captain.
Nomad nodded in satisfaction with the amount of money.
Custus was also happy to receive her payment, they had been several weeks without being able to do a mission that would generate money for them so she could use the money.
Rasa wasn't interested in the money for now, if he wanted money he could get plenty of money in a matter of minutes, and he would, but the first thing was to improve his strength.
"This... captain, is more than I expected," Custus said confused by the amount she was given, not that she was complaining, but she knew it wasn't that much money.
While Nomad looked at her like she was the devil, if there had been a mistake with the amount of Ryo they were given, it was the superiors problem, not his.
"No Custus, Since there has been a Jonin on this mission along with three elite Chunin and some junior chunin, the Kazekage decided to raise the reward from 550,000 to 700,000" explained Canteen calmly.
Making Nomad smile happy to know that.
Custus was also calmer to know the reason, but she couldn't help but look at Rasa.
Now she knew that he was the Kazekage's apprentice, so for a few moments, it crossed her mind that it could come to be due to that that they raised the reward, but she willed those bad thoughts from her head.
'The Kazekage wouldn't do something like that' Custus nodded to herself.
Rasa noticed the look Custus gave her and he guessed what she suspected, and indeed he thought the same as her, but he had no proof of that.
Custus didn't mention to Nomad or Canteen Gold's true identity as Rasa, and Rasa didn't feel the need to do so either, when the time came they would find out.
Of course, Rasa supposed the captain must have already known since Nomad kept talking on the trip to Sunagakure about how envious he was of Rasa's ability to manipulate gold.
Canteen hadn't said anything, but it didn't take him saying anything to know that he had come to the logical conclusion that the ability Nomad talked so much about was none other than the release of dust gold that only the Kazekage's apprentice had.
"Captain Do you know if anything is going to happen with that village?" asked Nomad.
Canteen did not answer this question directly:
"In fact, it seems that the village chief was working with the bandits."
"Now I understand. The village and the bandits were getting rich together, that's why they were so prosperous" nodded Nomad in understanding.
"Right, several merchants are passing through that village and others nearby to get to Sunagakure, they must have taken advantage of that to make a lot of profit" analyzed Custus.
"So the village chief gathers information and tells these bandits about the merchants or traders along with the strength of the guards they have" Rasa finished the analysis.
"That's right, the reason the bandits had not been completely discovered was because they convinced the village chief to trade with them. While the bandits were making money for the village and themselves, the village chief was in charge of keeping their location and information secret" said Canteen.
"You took out the village chief, didn't you?" said Nomad to Canteen as if it was a no-brainer.
Canteen nodded without saying anything.
Rasa couldn't help but think that this village shouldn't be the only one to ally with bandits to progress or just keep themselves safe.
He has yet to get to know this ninja world well, he has yet to learn many things.
"Are they going to do something about the village now that it is known that they allied with bandits?" asked Custus this time.
"No need to think about that, Lord Kazekage will decide, maybe it will become a new Sunagakure base or maybe they will just leave the decision to Wind Daimyō," Canteen said lightly, obviously he didn't care what they decided to do with that village.
The three just nodded and left that topic aside, they didn't care that much either, they were just intrigued to know what would happen to the place where their first official mission as Anbu was.
Four months had passed since the first official mission that Rasa's Anbu group had done.
So far their group had done a total of 14 A-ranked, 9 B-ranked, and 7 C-ranked missions.
And currently, they maintain a 100% mission completion rate which means that no matter what situation they found themselves in, they always completed the mission.
For a group new to Anbu, it was pretty amazing, especially since most of their missions were A-ranked.
On the other hand, Rasa did not go unnoticed in the village despite being in Anbu.
This is because he always uses his gold dust in all the missions he does, being the only one publicly recognized in his group.
Everyone in Sunagakure now knew that Rasa the apprentice of the Kazekage being only 9 years old was part of Anbu and also that his strength was already at the level of a Chunin.
Even Rasa felt it sounded pretty incredible when others said it, but he would never admit it.
This was all part of the Third Kazekage's plan, if it wasn't for him pretending this whole thing happened, Rasa's identity as Anbu would have been kept secret by eliminating all those who had seen his use of gold dust on missions.
But the Third Kazekage arranged for Rasa not to bother hiding his identity, in fact, he arranged for Rasa to show off his gold dust skills on more than one occasion on his missions for others to see so that they would talk about him within the Windy Land and even outside of it.
Rasa knew that the Kazekage did this for many reasons such as gaining more support and power within the Suna council and the higher-ups in the village.
As well as promoting him as the young genius of Sunagakure and thus letting other villages know that the hidden village of the Wind Country also had genius and talented ninjas.
This would make the Daimyō of the Windy Country more interested in Sunagakure and thus they could also make him more willing to increase the village's manpower as well as the commissions it gives them.
Another reason is that there is currently no war, but tensions between the villages are constant and a war could happen at any time.
And until that happens, the best way for village leaders to compete without going to war is to demonstrate the strength of their villages' promising youngsters.
Sunagakure: Suna Council Hall.
Just now, in the Kazekage Building inside the Suna Council meeting room where the large statues of the previous Kazekages are located, an important meeting was taking place with all the top leaders of the village along with some leaders of the most important clans of the village, there were also some ninjas and experts that help to make decisions concerning Sunagakure.
All those present were seated at a large round table facing the Third Kazekage who wore his Kazekage robes along with his hat with the kanji of WIND on it; to the right of him was, Captain Anbu and his right-hand man, Skull, while to the left of the Third Kazekage was the Second Kazekage now retired from his position but he still acted as the chief advisor and investigator of the village.
Then there were the elders of the council and the two Suna commanders known as the Honorable Siblings, Chiyo and Ebizo, two ninjas whose fame spread throughout the 5 great ninja nations.
And finally, the table could also highlight some of the leaders of the most important clans of Suna, the Hōki, Zensho, Jiki, Seishin, Chikamatsu, Doku, and Ningen, only the seat of the Jiki clan was empty since its leader was the Kazekage himself.
"Alright, we all gathered today to discuss the upcoming Chunin exam, but first we must know about the current situation of the rest of the 5 ninja villages" started saying the Third Kazekage as he stood up from the big round table and looked at everyone.
Ebizo stood up, requesting to speak, he was Chiyo's brother and one of the highest ranking members of the Suna council:
"I agree Kazekage. Snake, tell us everything you know."