Cap18:)

Ino faltered.

"We have ANBU and assassination missions, too. Some of the things we do are just as nasty as the rest of the Hidden Villages. We're just better at faking the façade of being the 'nice' village. Really, the only difference between us and them is that so far, we haven't been the direct cause of a hidden war just yet. The last three all came from Suna-Iwa-Kiri territory disputes," Kakashi-sensei explained.

"Sensei, just how bad is it?" Ino asked. "This…money war, I mean."

"Officially, the financial statements of each hidden village are private information, so I know nothing, and neither does the rest of Konoha. Behind closed doors…while our mission rate has grown about 30% in the past few years, theirs has dropped about 40%."

"Well, that's not good," Naruto scratched his head. "This won't end well, will it? Shouldn't we tell someone about this?"

Kakashi-sensei chuckled mirthlessly. "You think the Hokage doesn't already know? Believe me, he's been aware of this from the very beginning. Taking advantage of it, in fact."

Naruto wrinkled his nose. "But…if they hate us…"

Kakashi-sensei sighed. "What do you suggest we do, Naruto? Raise our prices just to placate another less competitive village? A shinobi village is a business first and foremost, Naruto. If you want to be Hokage you'll have to understand that. This is as fair as it gets."

"But what if they do something backhanded to us because of…" Naruto trailed off. "You know. Poor people get desperate."

"And what makes you think that they won't do the same thing, even if they are prosperous?"

"Well, because there's no point, right? I mean, trying to cheat someone else is a gamble, and if you get caught, things can get really bad…but if they're desperate enough that any payoff is worth it…" Naruto scratched the back of his neck. "I don't know much about politics, but I've been poor before. When I ran out of money I'd always go to Hokage-jii-san and ask for some more, but these guys can't do that, right? Is forty percent a lot?"

"Forty percent is almost half, Naruto," Ino said.

"Oh."

"Are you worried that Suna will try to attack or sabotage Konoha over a forty percent mission drop, Naruto?" Kakashi-sensei drawled quietly from behind his book.

"I…I don't know. Do you think it'll happen? Because if it's not going to happen, then I won't have to worry, will I?" Naruto said.

"What do you think, Shikamaru?" Kakashi-sensei asked.

I frowned. "I don't know what they will do. But if this goes on, then yes, they'll definitely do something. It depends on our income curve. If we raise our prices, will that cover for the amount of missions we lose?"

"What if I told you that, hypothetically, our prices are very carefully determined and set by a board of highly trained accountants, and that what we are charging right now is the optimal price, no questions asked?" Kakashi-sensei whispered. "And, hypothetically, what if this situation was real? Would you sacrifice some of Konoha's income, in anticipation for dealing with damages from Suna that may or may not come? You saw the sign at their front gate. Even if we raised our prices a little, people would still come to us. Matching our prices with Suna, even temporarily, will result in a greater loss of money than they could ever deal us in war reparations. What would you do, if you were the Hokage?"

Naruto swallowed, and finally answered, "Keep smiling and pretend nothing's wrong."

Kakashi-sensei let his one eye coast over us slowly.

"Image is the second most important thing to survival. Remember that. First determinant is what you know of yourself. The second is what others think of you. Everyone wears a mask."

"Like you?" I couldn't help asking.

"Yes," Kakashi-sensei answered. I had expected another half-lie at best, but his self-satisfied smirk told a completely different story entirely. "Yes, exactly like me."

Then the little truth I saw was gone, completely wiped off his face by an infuriating smile hidden behind Icha Icha Paradise.

Tanyu was huge. Massive. We had never seen a city this big before. Growing up in a Hidden Village usually meant growing up with the mentality that said sphere of influence was the center of the world. It was even easier to fall for it when one lived in Konoha – the largest of the main five. Seeing the capital of the Land of Fire, however, was a grim reminder of reality – that Konoha's special status as a sovereign city-state only existed as a result of a delicate balancing game with the Daimyo of the Land of Fire and his troops.

It made sense that the Fire Daimyo had military forces outside of Konohagakure no Sato – the Land of Fire was the most populous of the five Elemental Nations, just as Konoha was the most populous of the five main Hidden Villages. They couldn't rely on a (relatively) tiny city of shinobi alone to man all of their borders. The army of the Daimyo was probably large enough to raze Konoha to the ground, if they all marched against us in their entirety.

Of course, such a conflict wouldn't come without major costs to both parties. Despite our numbers, we'd be able to inflict some major damage against the regular soldiers, too. It was said that one shinobi, even a Genin, was worth ten soldiers; the good ones could probably wipe out entire formations singlehandedly. And just because a village was destroyed, didn't mean that shinobi could be defeated. Ideals survived longer than people, and all it would take was one vengeful ANBU to escape the carnage...and the next time the Daimyo went to sleep…

The same worked in reverse, though. If we overstepped a certain bound of insubordination, then, ninja village or not, the whole Land of Fire would turn against us, in economic if not military-based revenge.

For now, though, our relations with our Daimyo seemed friendly enough, considering that his wife was always at the mission desk every other weekend. The same could not be said for Suna and the Wind Daimyo, and I wondered if higher pricing was the only thing that was causing the Wind Daimyo to outsource missions to Konoha. Had they offended him in the past, somehow?

But of course, neither of them were stupid enough to attack each other, and so using another Hidden Village as a scapegoat was the next best thing.

Still, the sheer size and number of people in Tanyu was quite overwhelming. And it was then that I also realized that while normal people might fear shinobi, they really didn't think twice about us as individuals. Though the Hidden Villages were actually a misnomer, since by now they were large enough for easy access, most people had never actually dealt with our "sort" personally – as far as they were concerned, we were our own separate little world.

"People don't trust us, do they?" Ino asked. Even though the streets were packed full of people, we never seemed to have any problems with personal space. It didn't matter that Ino, Naruto, and I were all still only children. One look at our forehead protectors, and everyone, from noble to street rat, went scurrying in the opposite direction.

It wasn't so much that they were afraid we'd stab them in the middle of this open street, seeing as we were walking around with our faces exposed (except Kakashi-sensei) – but Ino was right. Shinobi made a living off lies and deceit. I didn't blame them for keeping their distance. Though all the same I don't think it protected them very well from the likes of Kakashi Hatake.

"We shinobi live secret lives. Travelers and such interact with us commonly, so they know what we do, but unless you've actually lived in a Hidden Village, you wouldn't know how," Kakashi-sensei explained, sporting an odd, ugly-looking red fez hat that hadn't been there before. Reaching up, he removed it from his head and immediately foisted it off on the next closest person walking past us. "Things you take for granted, like sticking to walls or jumping from tree to tree, are magnificent feats of strength for these people. When people say 'shinobi' they think of boogeymen, of inhuman creatures that live in the shadows and only come out to slit your throats at night."

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