Friendly Consultation

Niko could feel the cool breeze coming in through the window as she continued working on her chores. It was mid-afternoon, and she had just finished working on an order for the Market, and Oriana was out making the delivery. Regardless of how hard she had worked, Niko just didn’t have it in her to sit down and take a break. Instead, she was making sure food was ready for dinner and getting some cleaning down around her kitchen. Her home was modest; placed in the market district, it had a small yard, which, if you were looking at the store, was technically the back yard. In between the Store and the Living Area, was her forge. All of them were technically one large building, but even being a Jounin and working as hard as she did, she only owned two out of three of them. It was honestly a miracle that she was able to keep up with that much, but hopefully, her luck would change.

Things had finally stabilized and saving money for the shop was in the realm of possibilities. She had starting tucking a bit of Ryo aside for that, while also looking at some needed items for the shop like a Crucible and working on designs for a Blast Furnace, maybe even a Chakra Imbued Hammer for smithing… but those last two were just pipe dreams. For now, she was just making due with what she had and focusing on one step at a time. A crucible would enable her to re-cast the items she had already made, saving her on materials while she continued to perfect her craft. She doubted she would ever be on Uncle Kagroth’s level of legendary blacksmithing, but that didn’t stop her from trying.

On top of all of that, she also had Oriana to worry about, the ninja she had saved from slavery and had followed her home like a stray cat. Over the past couple of years, the pair had grown close, Niko being the only family the girl had, and she had become a really good apprentice to her work. She didn’t really do the smithing itself, but she certainly helped make the process easier by getting fresh ice water and cleaning up when Niko got into ‘work mode’

She finished sweeping the floor, walking to the back door. She didn’t have her Sensory going at the moment, feeling a bit drained from working at the forge all morning, so she couldn’t have possibly detected someone approaching unless they were being deliberate. She wasn’t dressed for visitors either, wearing some comfortable clothes and grabbing a large wooden bucket, preparing to go to the pump-well that was out in the front yard. Opening the door, she was greeted by someone else, and instantly, she knew she was in trouble. Covered in soot and dust in splotches across her normally beautiful lightly tanned skin, her high ponytail needing to be brushed and wearing far less than was normally expected for high-class visitors, she paused, a bit stunned at the visitor that was now at her door.

[1]

As expected for someone who had just woken up after being asleep for two years Ryuko had a lot to catch up on. She’d gone to the administration office intending to go through all the paperwork and reorient herself on the state of the village and had blanched upon seeing the state of the balance sheet.

It wasn’t that the village was doing bad. They were hardly in the red when it came to finances but they weren’t doing exactly what she would call steller either. Almost everything seemed like it was going into upkeep for the vast naval armada they had amassed in her absence leaving little to nothing in the way of discretionary funds. If someone requested an improvement to the village like the construction of a new clan district or upgrading the roads there simply wasn’t enough money in the bank to pay for it.

How long could they continue to tread water like this before things hit the proverbial fan? If things went sideways for any reason things could quickly spiral out of control with little of any hope of recovery bar intentionally starting a war which is something she never ever wanted to consider. A Vestal of Hakkin like herself was meant to stop conflicts not spark them.

The problem was how to improve the state of things. With Nariko out of town attending the Chunnin exam and Shimiko out on business Ryuko was likely the highest ranked person left in the village which meant leaving herself in an attempt to negotiate some trade deals was out of the question.

That’s when she’d hit upon what she considered to be a brilliant idea. Why not go around and consult with her fellow Jounin about the issue. If nothing else they would have a better handle of the current state of affairs then Ryuko herself had at the moment, plus it would serve the dual purpose of letting her get better acquainted with them.

Arriving at the doorstep of a particular special house she allowed a smile grin to form on her face. This was the former residence of the legendary blacksmith Kagroth, a master of his craft that she had looked up to her youth. It was a shame he had passed away before she’d had the chance to pay her respects but she’d heard his niece had taken up his mantle which made the woman someone worth speaking to in Ryuko’s book.

As she wasn’t here on a mission Ryouko wasn’t dressed in her ninja gear but rather a high class dress. Not the kind you would wear at a formal ball or tea party but for business. By noble standards it was casual wear but to a commoner it would still be considered fairly fancy.

“Ah good day. Do I have the pleasure of addressing one Niko Kanuchi?” asked the priestess for formality's sake. She’d taken the opportunity to pull the woman’s file while she was at the office and gave it a quick skim so she already knew what Niko looked like but asked anyway just to be absolutely sure.

She knew Niko had all the crafting skills of the entire Thundercats squad rolled up into one person which was exactly why Ryuko had selected her to be the first person to speak with. They had already lost one member to retirement and nearly lost another from Ryuko’s long coma.

The Priestess wasn’t here about seeking a replacement but rather to insure that if something did happen to her or Shimiko that the village would still have a capable armor and weaponsmith in their place. Some might call that redundant but Ryuko would laugh in their face for not understanding the importance of a solid backup plan.

She didn’t bat an eye at Niko’s appearance. As an armorsmith herself Ryuko knew just how dirty the work could be. The fact that Niko was so filthy at the moment just went to show how serious she took her job which was commendable.

“Might I request a moment of your time? I have some business I would like to discuss with you if now is convenient.” requested Ryuko. She would wait first for confirmation of identity before introducing herself.

[1]

The short woman before her was one of the most powerful people, at least politically, in the village. She hadn’t checked ahead of time, so Niko had no idea that she was coming to visit, and looked a mess, in her own opinion. The truth of the matter was it proved just how hard she was working, but standing before such a prominent figure of the Chain of Command, she couldn’t help but feel absolutely dismayed at the current situation. Still, she hid it well, giving the smaller woman a warm smile. “Yes Ma’am, that’s me,” she confirmed, setting the bucket down to deal with at a later time. She had more pressing matters at hand.

Dusting her hands off, she approached her own doorway as the woman requested a bit of her time. “Certainly. I was just working on some chores around the house.” Opening the door would reveal a very clean interior, to include a large hand-made wooden table and chairs, simple kitchen but with all the needed tools for a good meal, a hallway that led to the bedrooms and a large thick door that led to the forge. No unneeded decorations, nothing that stood out in any which way, a very spartan living style. For Niko, that was more out of necessity; she didn’t have the money to spend on things like decorations and such.

Moving to the table, she offered the smaller woman a seat at the head, and then offered what little she could. “Would you like anything to drink or eat? I have a few options I can offer.” It wasn’t much, but it was better than nothing. She took a moment to hit the sink and give her hands and face a quick scrub, gather any requested food or drink and then join Ryuko at the table, taking a seat and giving the other woman a warm smile. “So, what can I do to help you?” Ever the helpful individual, she assumed to an extent that there was simply a tasking that needed to be done.

[2]

The picture Ryuko had seen in the file hadn’t prepared her for the reality. Niko was much taller than her to the point that the top of her head barely came up to the other girls chin if that. Instead of being face to face, her eye level was right at Niko’s chest which was currently on prominent display. Privately Ryuko thought it made for a rather welcome view though she was a bit jealous to be outdone in the bust department as much as she was in height. It was nothing worth stewing over though as she had long resigned herself to her fate of being small in comparison to both her teammates and most other adult Kunoichi she had run into in the village.

“I see you’ve been hard at work, My apologies for arriving unannounced , I hope I wasn’t interrupting anything” she replied in response to being invited inside. For a woman of her station it was rather rude in a way but she didn’t have the luxury of simply sending a letter to someone she had never met before in order to arrange a meeting either.

Taking note of the interior of the house Ryuko was surprised to see how plain it was, then again maybe that was also to make it easier to clean. She wouldn’t know since she had attendants to clean for her and didn’t concern herself with such trifling matters.

“I appreciate the hospitality but you needn’t bother yourself on my account.” said Ryuko out of consideration. One of the things that had stuck out most in Niko’s file was that she was suffering from some financial difficulty. The last thing the priestess wanted was to increase her burden.

Despite being in a coma for so long Ryuko was a well known figure among the villagers. Niko seemed to have recognized her in at least some capacity having let her inside so easily but still it wouldn’t hurt to introduce herself.

“Ryuko Shizu Von Rose as your service.” she said picking up the hem of her dress and giving Niko a small but polite curtsy before taking a seat. “But please feel free to simply call me Ryuko as all my friends do.” she offered with a warm smile. There was a litinary of titles she could use to introduce herself but today she opted for something more simple to put the woman she was talking to at ease.

“I am here today in my capacity as the Raikage’s attendant. I was hoping to consult with you Jounin to Jounin about ways we might be able to improve the village. If you have any ideas, questions or concerns about how we’ve been operating in the last few years I would be most pleased to hear them.” said the priestess getting straight to business.

[2]

Niko waved a couple of times in front of her face as the woman apologized for dropping by unannounced, dismissing it with a smile. “No problem at all. I wasn’t doing anything pressing.” It would have been an entirely different situation if she was working in the Forge or perhaps preparing for a mission, but neither of those applied now. If anything, this was a golden opportunity. If she could somehow advertise her wares a little bit, she might be able to put a good word in with the higher echelon of the leadership of Kumogakure, and that could really bring in some business.

She needed all the help she could get.

Her telling Niko ‘not to trouble herself’ was basically an open invitation to get the woman some tea at a minimum. Her hospitality, as well as her cooking and drinks, were near legendary in quality, and she grew her own tea leaves, so that was going to be the go-to this morning. The pot was already full of hot water, so it only took half a minute to prepare a large cut of her famous Jasmine tea, and brought it with her to the table, setting it down before the woman as well as a small cup of sugar-cubes if she preferred it sweetened. It had taken a considerable amount of time in the kitchen to figure out how to make the sugar stick together into cubes, but it was the little things that she thought made the difference. It was obvious that despite Ryuko’s insistence not to trouble herself, that this was a bare minimum of hospitality and it ‘wasn’t a bother’ for her to do so.

She stated that she wanted to simply be called Ryuko, and that brought a nod.

Ways to improve the village? She was asking Niko, who was struggling on her own, advice on it? Odd… considering she did know of how well off the smaller woman was, but a few things did come to mind and she thought were worth mentioning.

“Well… we seem to be, in my opinion, preparing for a naval war we don’t know is coming. That has put a considerable financial focus on those ships, to include their maintenance, and that has made it to where other sectors are struggling.” She tilted her head for a moment and glanced towards the thick door that led to the forge. “I applied for a loan so I could officially open my Shop, which I inherited from my late Uncle, and was denied not because of anything on my end, but because the Village wasn’t able to spare the funds. I know I’m not the only one who is like this either. This is all purely my opinion, as well, to be noted.”

She waited a moment, then decided to add in another note. “One thing, non-financially related, is that we haven’t organized the squads properly in some time. I have Shunko, my sister, and Oriana, who I pretty much adopted, but it isn’t a true squad. Whoever is in charge of that has been slacking. I helped out a Genin who failed the Chuunin exams and was about to give up on being a Ninja the other day, and his lack of mentorship was the cause of it. That means we aren’t training them properly, and that means our capabilities will decline in war-power through our Ninja.”

Idly, during her talk, Niko had reached behind her and pulled a hidden Senbon needle made out of steel, not iron, from her hair, and began twirling it rapidly in her fingers with practiced precision and speed. It was an idle habit of hers to do this while she was thinking, but considering it was something she had crafted, she had a preference for it.

[3]

As a cup of tea was placed before her Ryuko simply gave a warm smile in return. She wasn’t really thirsty but it wasn’t really something she could complain about either. Some things simply couldn’t be helped, she could ask Niko not to bother until the cows came home but there was still a minimal level of hospitality that the other girl felt obligated to meet. As someone who lived a life constrained by a constant level of scrutiny and decorum the priestess knew she would only be putting more strain on an already awkward situation if she refused.

Picking the cup up with an elegant hand Ryuko took a dainty sip and gave a pleased hum at the unexpected high quality of the tea. It could rival or perhaps even surpass most of the ones she had been served at parties held by the aristocratic class. She knew people who imported some rather rare and expensive brands who would practically be red in the face with envy that some commoner had managed to pass them up, likely at a fraction of the expense.

“My what a pleasant fragrance and body of flavor,” she commented, making idle conversation. It was a pleasant surprise, one that colored her impression of Niko even more favorable then it had been already. It seemed her fellow smith wasn’t just a diligent worker but a woman of taste as well.

She pursed her lips as she was given the exact kind of feedback on the financial situation that she would have expected. It seemed things were worse than Ryuko had expected if the village couldn’t even afford to give someone of clear merit a simple loan.

“Geopolitically we find ourselves in a precarious position. Pinned between a major power to the east and another to the west and to make matters worse they are allied. We have the land of Frost to act as a bridgehead making it difficult for Konohagakure to approach but without a fleet there’s nothing stopping them going around by sea, or Kirigakure for the matter.” she said, trying to explain the reason why they needed such ships in the first place.

“That said what is the difference between having enough defence or not? Tis a difficult line to walk.” She lamented out loud. Did they have too many ships or too few? That was a question she didn’t have an answer to, perhaps not even Nariko knew for certain and was just giving it her best guess.

“In any case I find it very concerning that we are spending so much on ships that we can’t seem to afford other improvements. Just for one example, having your store fully operational would go a long way towards improving both the quality and quality of the village’s armaments at large. And as you said there are many such cases at hand.” said Ryuko with a deep sigh.

She wanted to help the situation but even as well off as she was the fact remained that she was limited by being only one person. Ryuko simply can’t afford to single handedly fund an entire major metropolis by herself. If she was foolish enough to even try she’d go broke in under a month. She had a decent amount of savings but the truth was even she was having financial trouble in some regards. The cost to upgrade her full set of armor to a higher class was going to be enormous.

“I see we’re still having trouble with regards to proper mentorship even after over two years.” she said with another sigh. If she kept this up all her happiness would slip away. She still remembered when Seid had tried to leave the village frustrated about the lack of higher ranking officers to train him.

“I tried to take someone under my belt myself before my… accident. I wonder how he’s doing now” mused Ryuko to herself not even fully realizing that she was speaking aloud. “Tis seems most of all the Village is lacking in Jounin. What ones we do have often fall ill or retire due to extenuating circumstances. Yet another reason for us to get your store operational. The more that higher ranks have access to better gear the higher their survivability will be.” Ryuko reasoned.

Tapping her fingers on the table she watched as Niko took a needle out of her hair and began to spin it around with deftness and grace that equalled the priestess' own. It seemed from the way she moved that she was more than just backline support. The two of them were so alike it was almost scary.

“Niko please excuse me for asking something so personal but exactly how much capital do you require?” she asked. There had to be a way that she could do something to help.

[3]

Niko listened carefully and drank in the information. Even being a Jounin, it wasn’t often you got to hear the perspective of the higher-ups in the food chain, so hearing first hand how much thought went into the decisions that were being made allowed her to think about it in a unique and interesting way. She nodded on occasion, showing that she was listening and understanding of it all, but not coming up with a ton of solutions, mostly because there weren’t a lot of easy solutions. Niko had ideas, but wasn’t certain that it was her place to voice any of them. While strong, she actively tried to stay out of the politics and whatnot, and thus her perspective on it all was a little bit out of the norm. She also tended to err on the side of a simple, blunt solution rather than the subtle one… that was something she had picked up from her late uncle.

But if someone was going to make a change, the person in front of her might be the one to do it, but before she could propose it, the woman asked another question. Instinctively, she almost answered, inhaled to give the response, and then stopped short as realization dawned on her. That was a close call…

“Please forgive me, but as much as I appreciate the gesture, I could never do that. I’ll earn it with my own two hands. I have to.” There was such conviction in her words that it would broker no argument. What she didn’t say was that there were other ways in which she could help her, such as equipment or asking for an order, but even suggesting something like that was far too much like asking for help. Hellforge closed its doors because her uncle passed and she couldn’t live up to his name as a child. As an adult, she would do everything in her power to ensure it didn’t happen again, but she had to dig herself out of the hole she put herself in with her own two hands. Anything less would put a smear on her uncle’s good name, and that wouldn’t happen as long as she was breathing.

Transitioning smoothly, she decided now was her chance to talk. “As far as the kids go, might I make a suggestion? What if we allowed the Genin a designated time to meet the few Jounin we have, and remove the restrictions on how many can work with a Jounin. Sure, having 5 of them might present other problems, but it has to be better than losing out on teaching them anything. Granted, this is just my opinion.” She had said it lightly enough, but it was how she honestly felt, and while she was being tactful and respectful, one thing Niko was not able to do was beat around the bush. If she saw a problem, she hammered it out… it was just how she was raised.

[4]

Once again Ryuko found herself pleased, this time at the fact that Niko seemed to be having no trouble keeping up with such a high level discussion about the nation's defence. She had been talking about things that the average layperson would have a difficult time grasping and yet here was an intelligent young woman who could grasp such concepts straight away.

That said she wasn’t expecting for Niko to be offering her any concrete solutions to the fleet issues either. It was a problem that was difficult even for a genius to tackle and the only way it could truly be fixed would be with the combined effort of many many people to turn things around.

She could tell by the look on Niko’s face that she was thinking about saying something but was hesitant about doing so. Finally after a second Niko turned down Ryuko’s question to which the priestess gave a hearty chuckle.

“Do not be mistaken. I am not asking out of some misguided sense of charity. Hakkin knows I do enough of that already providing B and A tier armor at nothing but the material costs.” said Ryuko with a sly grin. By cutting out the cost of labor her wears were almost criminally cheap to the point she had received numerous complaints about it from some of her competitors. If she had been just about anyone else with less influence she probably would have had to shut down her store long ago.

“There are however other ways in which I could assist you rather than simply gifting you money. Tis simply means that one can not reach the end goal if they don’t know what the goal in question is.” said Ryuko matter of factly. She was smart but she needed certain info to work with in order to come up with an appropriate plan of action.

Speaking of gifts she was regretting not bringing one along with her, especially after having been served such delicious tea. Niko was clearly having a tough time of things financially and yet here she had shown up at the blacksmiths doorstep empty handed. It was the sort of situation where even a tiny gesture would go a long way.

“A designated time you say?” asked Ryuko cupping a hand to her chin as she considered the implications. Most Jounin didn’t deal with more then 3 gennin for a reason and 4 man squads were the standard for missions but that didn’t mean they couldn’t have 1 Jounin mentor two squads if they had to.

“Tis not a bad idea in theory. Though to be honest I’m not sure I could handle juggling that many children myself.” admitted the priestess sheepily. “Do you suppose creating a more advanced schooling system for higher education could work? A sort of college if you will where we could dedicate a Jounin or two solely to help advance a class of Genin to Chunin level.” Ryuko proposed.

A former child soldier herself she loathed to send the younger kids out onto the battlefield. But if they changed the way the education system itself worked by standardizing a higher level of training that might be able to avoid that issue entirely. It would hurt in the short term having less people to put out into the field but in the long run they could cultivate a large corp of chunin that would be head and shoulders above anything the other villages could field.

[4]

Niko listened carefully, nodding again as the smaller woman explained herself about the various things, and her emerald eyes, which had never really left Ryuko’s own, suddenly lit up as a series of ideas ran through her mind that neatly solved all the problems while tying in her idea for a higher education platform. It would probably piss off a lot of Jounin, but she didn’t care, because it might actually get things moving too.

“Alright… I just got a brilliant string of ideas, so bear with me for a moment,” she started, taking a breath to pause and let the woman brace herself. “First, there isn’t any incentive for Jounin to take on students. I say a 50% pay cut to anyone who isn’t teaching on the Jounin level and not serving the Kage as a staff member, and that will probably force some of these lazy bastards to start working with our kids again.” Considering that Niko was teaching several Jounin, that wouldn’t really apply to her at the moment, but that wasn’t the point. There were several Jounin around the village that just skated by, not really dealing with kids and not really having any sort of incentive to do so. That would be step one… but didn’t address the problem of having too many Genin vs Jounin.

That was where Ryuko’s idea of a higher education platform really shined in her eyes. “Next, we take one of those ships that we have sitting out there, and we strip it of anything not meant for self-defense of the ship itself, and we remodel it into… Let’s just code-name it A.E.V… an Advanced Educational Vessel. Any Genin that hasn’t gotten a Jounin will be on that ship. Since it’s mobile, anyone attacking us will be hard pressed to find the ship to hurt our kids, and it will double as an emergency rendevouz for the young and the old in case of a siege. I’ve been doing a lot of research on a new type of Fuuinjutsu that will allow us to transport items and people across specific points, which I had planned on using to expand my shop once it got off the ground, but now I think this is a better use.”

It still needed a lot of work to finish, but it was progressing, and the theory was sound. After reading the barest of glimpses of what the Flying Flash Thunder God whatever the hell it was called was capable of, she had started researching. It was on the project list right next to her Chakra Tattoo Ink that she was working on, but all of that was at a crawl simply because she was still working on ensuring that she would have a roof over her head for herself and her girls. She couldn’t replicate the teleportation she had read up on, but she definitely had an idea of how to do it between two fixed points.

“And to answer your question, I believe the tab I owe on the shop is roughly 650,000 Ryo. I was eight when my uncle passed, and all the back-taxes and leans in order for someone else not to come in and take the shop out from under me has accumulated over the years. That’s my goal. I appreciate your concern as a fellow craftsman, but I finally hit the top of the hill. I’m not losing ground anymore for the first time since before he died ten years ago.” What went unspoken here was the amount of work she had put in to make this happen since before she had even reached a decade in age.

But she wasn’t looking for pity, so it would remain unspoken.

[5]

Ryuko was being stared at so intensely that she couldn’t help but blush a little from the attention.   She wasn’t used to having someone else hang off her every word like this since she dealt primarily with behind the scenes paperwork to keep the village running when she wasn’t busy with her other duties like making the rounds at the hospital or forging armor.

It was a good thing Niko had warned the priestess that she had a string of ideas to deliver.  If Ryuko hadn’t been given a heads up her head would likely be spinning right now and not just metaphorically.    They could probably count the number of Jounin the village had overall on just over two hands but the only ones active enough to be receiving a salary was less than half that amount.

Still ANY cost saving measures were welcome at the moment.  50,000 ryo a month to people that weren’t even mentoring students was a heck of a lot.  She was sure she’d hear a few complaints but they’d likely shut up fairly quickly once they found the Raikage herself took no salary.  

Ryuko decided that it might hurt a little but maybe she should follow in her sensei's footsteps and eliminate her own salary as well.    Between her stocks and her store she had a fairly stable source of income as it was and while she needed to widen the stream there had to be other ways then putting further strain on the village’s budget when she so rarely ran missions or taught students herself.

“A 50% cut to those not in administration or already teaching sounds doable.   We can always review increasing it again once the situation has improved and stabilized.” Ryuko reasoned. She couldn’t see any reason why Nariko would say no to the proposal.  Frankly they were lucky to be getting any kind of salary on top of mission pay to begin with.

Her eyes widened in delight upon hearing about turning one of the ships into a school. It was such a novel concept and budget wise a stroke of genius since they didn’t exactly have the capital on hand to actually build a new school building from scratch.

“Brillant, we should name the first A.E.V. after you! ” exclaimed Ryuko as she grabbed Niko’s hands in excitement and gave them a firm shake.   “How fortuitous to encounter someone with such deep insight. Tis a lucky day indeed.” said the priestess practically beaming.

“The best part is how scaleable such a thing could be. We can make one to start and if the first ship school as it were is successful enough we can always convert more.” There was the small matter of talking Nariko into it. Unlike with the budget cut this would be a bit of a harder sell but it wasn’t so out there that the Raikage would say no on the spot either.

“I would be interested in hearing more on your Fuuinjutsu research at a later date.  I’ve been looking into using the heavenly transfer technique as a means of expediting trade.  Tis sufficient for moving materials over a long distance quickly but less than ideal for personal." The last part was an understatement.  

Unless someone was insanely tough to begin with or had a specific technique being transported that way was suicide.  It was a shame it took so long to charge up the teleport as well since it could potentially be converted for use in tactical warfare.   It wouldn’t help much for supplying naval ships like the future A.E.V. Either since you needed specific coordinates for it to work making it extremely difficult   to send things to a mobile target.

Ryuko raised her eyebrow slightly when she heard the sheer amount of money that Niko needed to pay off her store. It was more than she’d been expecting.  Enough that it could take going on several s-rank missions to save up the required funds.   Given the risk involved that was not an ideal route to be taking.  Even if you could raise what you needed quickly that way which was in doubt given how few and far between S rank missions tended to be you might not live long enough to collect on your investment.

“Niko In consideration for the tremendous serverius you’ve provided this day I have two propositions for you.” she said with a serious face, this time giving the other girl a chance to brace herself before dropping what she considered to be a fairly big deal.

“The first is simple enough.  It seems you were overlooked when it came to this month's salary report.   If you don’t mind, I could retroactively give you pay for April equivalent to what other Jounin have been getting.”    offered Ryuko.   In truth the village didn’t have even that much money to spare but if she quietly diverted her own salary for the month this one time no one, not even Niko herself was likely to ever notice.

“As for the second are you aware of the fact that for every mission that is completed the village receives a set amount of funds?” she asked.  In general the village took a cut from most missions as a form of administration fees which added up a lot over time. It was their main source of income other than collecting resources.

“The most I can offer you is this. Until you have enough money to pay for the store the village will give you their share of the money for every mission you complete.  Keep in mind that you’d have to grind a few missions to save up so you’d still have to put in quite a bit of work.” explained Ryuko in an effort to make it clear she wasn’t offering a simple hand out.

[5]

Niko shook her head, her emerald eyes serious. “Unless you are going to make that a law for all blacksmiths, you can’t. You will open a can of worms that will have everyone trying to find a loophole to get extra pay, and I did get paid last month, it just all went towards the loans directly, paying off the last of the interest I owed. I don’t mind working just as hard as others to receive pay, but I appreciate the thought.” It was true too; showing favoritism or exceptions to policy without making them fair for everyone was a surefire way to bring about hostility and claims of favoritism and corruption. Niko may not involve herself in politics often, but she knew how they worked as a fundamental skill to ensure she ran her shop legitimately.

She rapidly shifted gears away from the money issue though. “As far as the school, if I can get my skills polished, which I am working on, I am sure that there will be a few missions coming down the pipe for that retrofitted ship. I’ll just have to be ready for those.” She gave her a smile, and then dived a little deeper into her thought processes. “Nothing will trump real experience, no matter what. Classes and Training will help, but the ship will need to be positioned to where the students can carry out missions and gain that first hand experience. It will be tailored, per usual, to group students together with appropriate skills for those missions, but then we also don’t need to worry about sending them to the front lines either. The Jounin who absolutely refuse to take on students should be able to handle them.”

Niko was not afraid of some hard work, but others had often erred on the side of laziness, and if that was coming at the cost of the education of the future generations, she wasn’t going to have it. They needed to be put to work. She reached over, refilling the tea in both of their cups, and settled in a little bit in her chair, her eyes looking past the woman before her for a moment as she tried to think of what else would be needed. “What materials are the ships constructed of? Iron or Steel?” she asked, obviously in a work mindset again.

[6]

Ryuko found herself both equal parts impressed and frustrated by Niko’s steadfastness.  On one hand she admired the fact the other woman wanted to earn everything herself but on the other she was exasperated that her overtures of assistance were repeatedly being turned down.   The priestess had a vision alibet it an incomplete one of what must be done to improve the village and getting Niko’s store operating at full capacity again was an essential part of that scheme.

But having an idea and actually being able to convey it to someone else we're too different things.  For someone like Ryuko who often thought of things in abstractions the most challenging part was watering down those concepts to a level that a working class adult could grasp without sounding insulting or belittling them.

“I’m not opposed to offering the same sort of assistance towards other blacksmiths…. Provided they can produce something of actual worth.”   The way she said that implied that few would meet the standard of quality she was looking for at the moment.

“The vast majority can not produce anything beyond C grade quality equipment.  While such things are fine for the mass market  I’m looking at upgrading the arsenal of what we can provide to our Chunin to at LEAST B level at Minimum, with A grade for our the Jounin.”     This would be a fairly expensive undertaking the amount of money that would be required to do this was nothing to sneeze at.

“Tis no simple task to train people to the level required where they can produce such things. My apprentice Lutz  is head and shoulders about those plebeians and even he can’t produce A grade equipment.” letting out a sigh Ryuko took a long sip of tea draining the cup before Niko refilled it again.

“That method by itself will take much too long to provide for the results I desire.  Time in this matter is a luxury we can ill afford.   The more we tarry, the more lives that are lost.   We have few enough higher ranks as it is. How many can we afford to lose because a kunai wasn’t up to snuff and snaps during a mission?  How many could we have saved if they only had better flack jackets?” asked Ryuko.

The village issued said Jackets to anyone Chunin rank and above for free but hardly anyone she knew bothered to actually wear them because they were considered almost a joke armor wise.  Even the gambeson Ryuko typically wore at the moment would be considered a quantum leap forward in comparison. This despite being outdated and outmoded in the Priestess eyes.

“The reason Niko that I picked you for this assistance is simple. You have the necessary talent and more importantly the necessary EFFORT required.” explained Ryuko putting particular emphasis on the part she felt would most appeal to Niko’s sensibilities.   Reaching out she attempted to take one of Niko’s hands with her own, holding it out flat to show the calais the woman had gotten from all the work she’d put in.  

“Some might say that I selected you because of your uncle's legacy, Or that you were a woman chosen by the gods but they would all be wrong.  I chose you because you have worked harder than anyone else towards reaching the summit that all blacksmiths aspire to.” speaking firmly Ryuko gave the other girl a bright smile.

“Let it be known that I will book no disagreement, Even if after all I have said you feel that you are still unworthy consider tis an investment in the future.  Remember that you are a critical part of this village  and shall be treated accordingly.”   This was Ryuko’s way of telling Niko to hold her head high and be proud of her accomplishments.

“Yes, you are correct. If the ship was merely about them doing paperwork the students would never get anywhere.  Training missions are fine, I merely wish to avoid sending children off to war.”   the idea of doing so put a forlorn look on the priestess face  and she took another sip of tea to soothe herself.

“Neither I’m afraid.  In actually they are made primarily from wood.  For ships that move by sail most metals would weigh them down too much greatly hindering maneuverability.  At our current level of technology we have yet to discover a good enough work around.” They could in theory made an iron hulled vessel but it wouldn’t be of much practical use.

“My former teammate Natsuru managed to shrink a steam engine to fit onto a wagon but apparently scaling them up to the size required to move a ship has proven considerably difficult.  If another village where to discover how before we do our entire fleet would be rendered all but obsolete in one swoop.”   the idea was enough to send a shiver down Ryuko’s spine.

“For now how feasible would it be to build a dry dock type facility to store our excess ships?” asked Ryuko.  Since they are already build it would be a shame to scrap them entirely but since they had more than they actually needed she figure it would be best to reduce maintenance costs as much as possible by keeping the extra out of the water entirely.

[6]

Niko raised an eyebrow at the idea of her being able to offer it to any blacksmith she felt worthy of the right. If she was the sole deciding factor for that, it could be seen as favoritism, but surely, as someone well versed in politics, she would understand that, right? To double check might be considered an insult to the woman’s intelligence, and despite their pleasant conversation, the red-head had not forgotten that she was a superior, and would need to be careful about rubbing her the wrong way. Hearing what her standards were, however, eased that idea completely. It wasn’t whether or not she thought they were worth her time, but what they could produce as proof. Not even Niko was quite to the A-Rank equipment… yet. This made Niko lean back in her chair a little bit, thinking.

Her putting it into perspective, particularly with the ‘lives lost’ caused her eyes to narrow. Now she was starting to understand the direness of the situation and why she was pushing for Niko to advance as quickly as possible. The Flak Jackets in particular was an issue that she knew was long-standing. They were handy because they were flexible and had a lot of cargo room, but absolutely garbage in regards to actual protection. Her mind flitted to a design she had already made that was sitting in a scroll in her room, dragon-scale chainmail. But that was for another time… nothing but a pipedream with her current skills.

Hearing her praise for Niko’s work, even going so far as to take her hand for extra emphasis and show the toughening her hands had undergone to get this far. The praise was enough for her to gain a little bit of a weak smile, a hint of red to her cheeks, and a bit of tears in her eyes. Nothing substantial, but for the longest time, Niko had worked from the shadows. Since she was eight years old she had struggled and fought and worked herself to the bone, and hearing someone of such esteem praise her as such was a bit of a welcome shock. Her free hand quickly wiped away the moisture from her eyes and she moved on in the conversation, but not before a quick “thank you. I promise once the shop is at full capacity, I will contact you and have my pay for missions resume normal rates, and that this is not a moment you will regret. Kinda cheating making it an order though.” She gave her a wry smile to show she meant it as humor, but then took a deep breath and resumed their conversation regarding the ships.

Niko nodded in agreement about sending children to war. That was how she had become an orphan after all was War, and she had no love of it. Hearing that the grand navy was made completely of wooden ships had her blinking a moment in surprise. Even the simplest of water-based jutsu could completely decimate those types of ships, if not properly protected with some kind of enchantment, and even then, a well placed spear could sink one entirely. As strong as it might have looked on paper, this was almost laughable in true military strength, and the fact that it was costing them so much was insane.

A single steel-based warship would be better than that entire fleet, but she tried to spin a positive light on it. “Wood will be good for the students to work with and maintain, and is easier to manipulate to turn it into a proper advanced school. For warfare though…” she sighed slightly. “Any decent tactician could sink that fleet with a few well placed jutsu or a handful of floating mines. Not worth the cost, if I am being honest.”

She paused, letting that sink in. “As far as how to get a steel ship moving…” She stood up, going to her room really quickly before coming back with a few odd looking items. One looked like a rotating fan with a candle underneath it, another like a smaller fan, and a small wooden box that she quickly filled with water and set down on the table. Some careful placement and putting different small gears together, and in about a minute, there was a small model on the table. She lit the candle, which began to make the fan above it spin. “This represents your steam engine.”

She then pointed to where the shafts connected through the gears and then the smaller fan that was placed in the water horizontally, which was now spinning and causing the water to splash against the back of the small box. “And this is where it would lead. It would push the water forcefully, creating thrust you could control by the amount of heat. This is just a concept design, but in theory it would work.” She let her look at it as it continued to push the water around inside the box.

“As far as your last request, a rapid-deployment dry-dock wouldn’t be all that hard. They would be able to deploy the moment we saw trouble coming from the sea, with as little as an hour notice, and that is mostly to load the ships with people.” Already Niko’s mind was mentally mapping how that would look. Having them out of the water meant that their upkeep would be far less than having them floating, as the water itself caused most of the maintenance with the algae and such.

[7]

As Ryuko watched the other girl grow red in the face she began to worry she had pushed just a little too hard. It was far from her intention to bully the woman into getting her way but she quickly realized that it wasn’t tears of frustration that Niko was shedding but ones of relief at having been recognized and praised.

The priestess wouldn’t have gotten to her position if she wasn’t good at reading people. That didn’t mean she was flawless at doing so however. Today she was a bit flustered, partly because of the urgency of the situation and feeling like she needed to right the ship as soon as possible. And partly because Niko was just that much of a bombshell that it was a tad distracting.

“I never had any doubts.” replied Ryuko with a knowing nod when Niko swore that she would report once the shop was paid off so no financial shenanigans would take place. Someone who would be dishonest about such things would never have made Jounin in the first place, not in this village at least. At being accused at being unfair she shrugged as if to say she wasn’t particularly concerned and gave a light chuckle.


“Politics are just another side of war where people wield words as swords. Being fair is rarely part of the equation. When one wishes to achieve an objective pulling rank is simply another tool in their arsenal, albeit one that must be exercised with delicacy less they abuse their privilege and become a tyrant.”

It was not a card that Ryuko was willing to play lightly. She felt a particular distaste for other nobles that took advantage of their position and lorded it over others and the last thing she wanted was to become like them. Her father never had much time for her but if there was one thing that he had taught her that stuck out above all else it would be thus. That she should never consider herself better then others just because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth.

As someone who worked hard to get where she was she couldn’t help but admire the hard work of others, especially since she always kept in mind that they almost always had to start in a less advantageous position as her. Though privately at times she almost wished she hadn’t been given such a head start since it also came with a litany of extra restraints and responsibilities that she constantly had to live up to.

She was fully aware of her position and how she was bending the rules a bit but she had already had a plan firmly in mind to quiet all complaints that might come her way, even the most obstinate. All she had to do was produce results such that none would dare criticize them. It was far from a simple matter, but she was a smart woman blessed by talented subordinantes so she had faith they would be able to pull things off.

The priestess nodded at Niko’s assessment of their fleet. It was so painful on the nose that it hurt. Most people would just look at the raw numbers and leave it at that thinking that the most powerful navy in the elemental nations had nothing to fear. Few realized that just because they had numbers on their side that it didn’t mean they weren’t vulnerable otherwise.

“Ironic isn’t it? Those ships are all top of the line, our navy the finest in its class and yet all the money we’ve put into them could be literally sunk to the bottom of the sea just like that.” said the priestess with a snap of her fingers. Despite all that though they still needed something as having it was a powerful deterrent that prevented them from being attacked by sea.

What Niko had to say next left the Priestess speechless for a good minute as she recovered from the shock of having her mind blown. She had lots of ideas for things that almost seemed straight like they were out of science fiction. Things like ships that could sail underwater, a wagon that could soar in the sky like a bird or perhaps even a train to the stars. The problem was just because she had the vision to dream up such fantastical things didn’t mean she had the knowledge or the skills necessary to make any of them a reality. In just one move Niko had casually done just that. She had taken the concept of making an iron ship that could actually move and made it actually seem feasible. The best part? She’d done it so casually that it almost didn’t seem like it was a big deal.

“This is revolutionary.” Ryuko said, getting very excited. The potential behind the theory Niko had just demonstrated was just that enormous. “Heh, It’s hard to believe you even considered an idea so absurd as being unworthy of my attention. I am indeed blessed, To think I would go looking for gold and find platinum instead.”


The priestess had a very smug look of satisfaction on her face at the fact that Niko had already demonstrated her worth and then some. She was already busy replanning fleet distribution in her head. Obsolete as they might now be, they had still paid quite a bit for them and they would still have some uses even if they managed to get a new type of ship they wouldn’t be able to produce enough of them to act as a full replacement all at once.

“Excellent, with a dry dock facility in place we could cut the amount of active ships in service at any one time to the minimum needed to maintain security. An hour to deploy the rest is plenty for all but the most dire of emergencies. To be frank those are the kind they won’t be likely able to do much good against anyway.” replied Ryuko adding her own assessment.

Honestly Niko had such a sound tactical mind on her that the priestess almost wanted to steal her for administration duties but that would give her less time to work at the forge and research and development which was where she truly shined most of all. Finishing her second cup of tea she put it down on the saucer with a satisfied sigh.

“Meeting with you has proven most productive. Do you have a time frame in mind for how long it would take to complete such a facility and a prototype iron steamship?” asked Ryuko hoping it would be sooner rather than later. If she could simply free up even a little bit of funds it would be much easier to start making other improvements from there.

“Say Niko after we’re done talking would you feel up to going on a mission with me? I don’t get out much these days so it’d be nice to have a chance to stretch my legs and I have a feeling we’d work well on the field together. Of course if you’re busy feel free to say so and I won’t be offended.” she made sure to include that last part since she was offering to go together as a friend, not a superior officer.

[7]

For the first time since Ryuko’s arrival, and even with the light blush still on her face, Niko gave a full, happy smile. It was some stroke of luck that this all had occurred, and she was sitting here getting ready to truly make progress towards the dream she had worked towards for over a decade. She was allowed to be happy, and was going to express it. Once the moment slowly subsided and she began to speak about politics, Niko was finally beginning to reign in her emotions a little bit and gain some semblance of professionalism again.

Hearing about the politics, however, only affirmed that no matter if she was the most powerful Shinobi in Kumo, she was never stepping across that line if she had anything to say about it. Blech. She did, however nod occasionally and ensure the woman knew she was listening, and kept the information in the back of her mind for reference should she need it someday. Then the conversation shifted back to the ships. She nodded at the poor state of what their actual naval capabilities were, despite the large fleet, knowing that it was probably a bit like salt in the wound, but necessary. She HAD told Niko to be honest after all.

Her calling Niko’s idea ‘revolutionary’ though… that was a bit of a shocker. Sure, it was a bit of a leap away from sails, but the concept was as simple as it could be. Heat Driven Turbines was something she had planned to put into practice in her forge to help speed up production on certain things, and hopefully also keep them cooler if she worked it the right way. She was mostly thinking about her assistant, Oriana, with that bit. She liked to wear a lot of clothes because of her less than bright and happy past, and working in the forge like that meant she was constantly sweating to death. She didn’t think of herself as ‘platinum’ but… she wasn’t going to deny the praise at this point either.

Hearing her start to wrap up, she blinked as Ryuko basically put the project of the steam-ship into her lap, shocked for a moment, having thought she would be working with an official team or something and not a lone blacksmith. She thought about it for a moment though, and with the ability of Shadow Clones, it actually wouldn’t be that hard. “It would be a lot easier if I had the Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu from Konoha, but… I can probably get that done without too much trouble so long as I get the needed amount of raw steel and the right equipment. Something on this scale… I would want to design and make the School Ship out of it first. That way before we put it to wartime application, I can work out all the kinks. The dry-docks are really easy if we have some strong Water-Jutsu users. Don’t even really need to terraform all that much.”

Her mind was racing with designs, plans and ideas, but then she shook her head free of them as Ryuko proposed a mission together. It would be good to do because then she could tell the payment office directly that Niko was going to get a bit extra for a little while, without having to get approval and a bunch of other junk. Plus, it wasn’t like Niko didn’t need the Ryo. “Absolutely! Sounds like fun.” And she meant it too. She didn’t often work with someone she knew she would genuinely get along with.

[8]

It was like a warm pleasant fuzzy feeling had taken a hold of the room as the two women continued talking. Ryuko had asked Niko to be as honest as possible and was trying to return the sentiment.   While she had admitted to not playing fully fair she also disliked hypocrisy and she didn’t feel right asking for transparency without giving it in return.  

It was a good sign of things that Niko trusted her enough not to hold back and deliver a fully comprehensive and objective assessment of how she felt about the village’s situation. Yes the truth could sting, by ignoring an issue by glossing over it simply to look good was a far bigger problem.

“My apologies. Tis seems in my excitement I got a bit ahead of myself and gave you the impression you’d be doing some very large scale projects on your own.” that would have been silly.  One person no matter how good they were could build something of the size Ryuko was dreaming off.

“I have an entire team of civil engineers and construction workers on standby” that much was an understatement.  Natsuru had built a lot in the village and it’s grown in scale over the years to a truly massive size.   The problem was that after building the fleet they hadn’t had much projects to work on making times tough for them.   Having some new work coming their way would come as a massive relief.

“They aren’t quite at the level where they could come up with such ideas on their own but they are still experienced enough to be capable assistants.  Feel free to use them as you see fit.”   said the priestess.   Niko would essentially be the one in charge of the project so it only made sense to provide her the tools she needed which included personal and materials.

“Ah that could prove troublesome to get past the financial board.”   Ryuko replied with a wan smile at the idea of making an entirely new ship to serve as the school instead of repurposing an old one.   The idea was to save on expenditures after all.

“Well I’ll see what I can do.  We’ll need a prototype either way before we can begin production of any scale.” She conceded.   With a new system like this they’d  need to run tests and make refinements  otherwise they’d run the risk of overlooking a critical design flaw by rushing.   If it was just up to Ryuko she’d personally be fine with it but a decision of that scale could only be made by the Raikage herself.

As Nariko’s administrative assistant Ryuko had a lot of leeway in what type of decisions she could make.   A dry dock was no problem since it would be fairly low cost to build and came with a high return in investment.  Taking an older ship and repurposing it to be a school would be a little more work  but she was confident she could get that signed off without much issue.  Even building a prototype as a proof of concept wouldn’t be that hard.

Say what you want about Nariko but she clearly liked having a strong navy.  Show her something that would easily multiply that navy’s potential and she’d jump at it.  The difference between the ships they had now and the ship they would have once this project was done was like night and day.  Even just one of them would make a huge difference so convincing the Raikage to let them set it aside was going to be a tough sell.  If the Raikage was someone who was more of a warhawk like Shimiko it might even be impossible.

All things considered they were lucky Nariko had held onto the hat for so long.  She’d only taken the job due to the lack of capable candidates at the time and never expected to stick with it for so long.   Ryuko couldn’t help but agree with her after seeing first hand just how bad some of the other jounin at the time were.  The idea that they could have been run by the Blunder God instead was pure nightmare fuel.

Such thoughts were quickly banished from her mind as Niko quickly agreed to go on a mission with her.  She’d have to make sure that she picked out something special to make it a memorable one.

“Do you have any preferences for what sort of Mission you’d like to take?” asked Ryuko to be sure.   Just because she found it enjoyable to hunt down bandits and destroy drug labs didn’t mean those types of things where everyone’s bag of tea.  

[8]

Niko blinked as she was told that there would basically be an entire task force assigned to assist her with the project, and it would actually do some good to put them to work for the village’s economy, which made her smile a little bit.  Normally, Niko always worked by herself or with her family at a maximum, so the thought that she would have a large number of people working for her just never registered in her mind, but was a welcome surprise.  The idea of being in charge of so many should have made her nervous, but instead, she felt empowered.  She was going to be helping their village in a big way, and couldn’t wait to get started.

But, naturally, the politics would need to catch up with the ideas and plans before that could happen.  She would have to wait for Ryuko to handle that much, and hoped that she wouldn’t have to pitch the ideas herself to any sort of board.  The less she was involved with the politics, the better, but she also understood that some of them might want to hear from her directly before giving approval.  She made a mental note that if they tried to drag her into the administrative stuff that she was going to have to find a way to decline, even if it was an order.  That wasn’t where she would thrive, simply put; her place was working, smithing, on the battlefield or training others.

She nodded at the idea of a prototype.  “It wouldn’t be too difficult to come up with a miniaturized model for them to look at, if that’s what you mean.  Some stuff would be representative, like the candle being in place of the steam engine I would need to build, but that shouldn’t be too difficult to explain either.  I could have you a model ready by the end of the week using the metal scrap I have laying around the forge.”  She liked hard timelines… it made it easier to focus when she had a solid goal and knew how much time she had to make it happen.  But a model would let them see the physical capabilities without costing an arm and a leg just to prove it, and was something portable they could seal into a scroll and carry around.

The conversation switched to the mission, and Niko gave her a gentle warm smile.  “I’ve seen enough of your character to know that most anything you pick will be fine with me.”  It was a true statement too; Niko had been watching the woman, reading her body language, taking inventory of her words, tone and attitude and rapidly compiling it into a mental profile, putting together the puzzle that was Ryuko, and was certain that there wasn’t anything that would bother her about the smaller woman’s choice.

While she waited, Niko allowed her a moment to stretch, unintentionally showing off her athletic musculature and intense curves for a few seconds before settling back into the chair.  “Would you like any more tea first?” she offered, noticing the empty cup.  If so, she would pour it automatically.

[9]

Mission info wrote:
Mission Name: Destroy the Drugs
Mission Type: Raid
Mission Rank: B
Mission Goal: Remove narcotics from the streets
Description: Recent Intel has come in of a major drug lab located in the country. This lab is personable for spreading a poison called Rage far and wide that even some of our shinobi have been indulging in since it gives them a brief edge in battle but can have debilitating side effects. The Raikage has had enough of this crap and wants you to wipe the lab of the face of the planet so that they can't make any more of this garbage. But it's not a major drug lab for nothing so expect heavy resistance from the mob.
Payment: 25,000
Requirements:Chunnin+, Gennin if accompanied by a Jounin

“Well I suppose your right, we should start with a proof on concept first before proceeding to anything larger. That said some things can only be tested at full scale, the last thing I want would be to build a full fleet of six ships only to discover they sink easier then our current models because of some unforeseen design flaw.”

She recalled a verse in the book of Hakkin that described one such historical event that had taken place over a thousand years ago The daimyo at the time had ordered construction of a new type of ship and had 10 of them made at the same time . Only for them to quickly sink on their first voyage because of a small hatch had been built into the side too close to the water line. They had lost so much money his head literally rolled when the peasants revolted.

“Of course if we don’t have to worry about arming the first prototype with actual cannons the cost would be much leaner. Tis would be perfect to be reposed for the new school once testing is complete.”

That was what Ryuko considered to be her cleverest idea of the day. In order to increase revenue for the village she’d done just that ordering a bunch of unarmed Trading vessels. The cannons for them were by far the biggest expense. Why waste money on those when she already had existing ships to act as armed escorts? All she had to do was take that same solution and apply it to their current problem which was so similar.

“Excellent. I had something jucy in mind to begin with.” said Ryuko, returning the smile. When it came to missions the gamut ran the range from noble to things that would be considered less than legal. She’d seen ones listed that involved stuff like stealing a painting from a museum for a private collector or even kidnapping. It was a necessary evil since they were essentially armed mercenaries but that didn’t mean Ryuko had to like those types of things. There was a reason even she was willing to let some bandits get away if they ran for their lives instead of chasing them all down, if she wiped them all out it’d quickly put the village out of business.

“Tell me have you heard anything about a drug called Rage? Apparently it’s a hit downtown.” Asked the priestess. Currently the rules about what substances could or could not be taken by the citizenry was fairly loose, that was another problem Ryuko was looking towards solving in the near future. Having asked what she needed to, she balanced slightly at the idea of having any more tea and politely waved Niko off.

“It’s delicious but I’m afraid I’ll have to decline. Any more and I’ll have to powder my face a bit more often than I’d care too.” joked the priestess not wanting to fill her bladder with any more liquid. Ever since she’d woken up from her comma she’d had trouble going to sleep at night. She was afraid she was going to slip into a dream and never wake up again. She really didn’t need to wake up in the middle of the night to pee after finally managing to get some shut eye in.

“Niko how would you feel about attending a formal party with me? I’m planning on holding one soon to surprise Shimiko with the news of my recovery. Tis could be a good chance to announce you as the newest member of the Thundercats, well assuming you’d like to join us that is.”

Ryuko had just made an unbelievably offer so nonchalantly that it had to be clear it was optional and by no means an order. The Thundercats were the best of the best in all of Kumogakure. She had just invited Niko to join the most prestigious unit in the entire village. As a fellow item maker she had all the right qualifications to become one of them.

[mission 1]

Niko nodded to the wisdom that a full scale model would be the best way to demonstrate, smirking. “Oh, that is the plan. The model version would only be so you could better show the people who don’t know anythin’ about this stuff the idea so we can get approved for the full sized prototype. I can’t imagine everyone who controls the budget is well versed in naval capabilities and would be able to understand it with merely words.” She had confidence that it would help streamline the process and maybe build some excitement about the progress that could be made on that front with her little model.

And a tiny part of her just wanted to tinker with it and make it cool for Ryuko to show off. Could possibly help bring some business her way if she wound up telling them about ‘who made it’ and such. Having that kind of limelight for her business was never a bad idea from people who controlled Kumogakure. She nodded again to the idea of using the concept one for the school if it was successful, as the prototype wouldn’t have all the fancy guns. She made a mental note that defensive emplacements would be needed for the ship design, but that was a note for a later time.

Listening to her about the proposed mission, Niko’s expression lost a fair amount of its previous ‘light’ and turned to something more serious. “Unfortunately I have. Oriana had a run in with someone offering her some about a week ago… told me about what it did to people, good and bad. Not a fan. Reported it.” She had informed the proper chain of command about the situation and had been told that they would be investigating the matter, hopefully the mission was the drug’s complete eradication. Of course, it was a war you could never properly win; someone else would invent something and it too would need to be destroyed, but it didn’t make the work any less necessary.

And then the topic of the formal party came up, and for the first time, her emerald eyes showed true anxiety, which remained through the explanation of what it would mean and become. Part of her wanted to jump at the idea; being invited to, what essentially was, the Special Forces unit was an absolute honor, even if she hated the name ‘Thundercats’. Something about it just… sounded off. Hearing it made her think of these cat-like humanoids running around in skin tight apparel, and that was not a very fun image to be involved with. Might be entertaining for others, but Niko wasn’t a fan, but she did understand the importance of the invitation. She also was extremely apprehensive about meeting the other members.

Would they be accepting of what seemed to be an invitation from just one member? Niko knew Shimiko a little… they had talked, but nothing on the scale of joining her team. Would it interfere with training the Genin, the new project she had just accepted, or taking care of her girls? The first two she could flex on a little, but not the last. Her family came first, period, end of story. But thinking about it for a moment, what was the harm in finding out information? She would need to leave herself an escape route, just in case though, and she hoped that Ryuko wouldn’t take offense.

Her eyes, which had traveled to the ceiling for the past second or two in thought, locked onto the smaller woman with a higher level of intensity. “I would be honored to be considered for the position. Would it be alright for us to wait to announce that to the group until I have conversed with them and we have determined that I will be able to integrate with the group without losing my ability to take care of my girls?” It was a bit of a stretch in a request, but she needed to be certain. Accepting something like that blindly might have been something she would have done a couple of years ago, but now she had family to consider. Her tone would show that she was more than grateful for the opportunity, though.

Even if it meant she needed to break the dress out of the closet.

{1}

“You do realize that building a model means that you might be called upon to present it to the financial committee. Are you sure you’re comfortable doing that?” asked Ryuko, her voice full of well meaning concern.  She had picked up on signs during their conversation that Niko wasn’t exactly someone who wanted to deal with politics too heavily.    The priestess had practically been born for it and didn’t want to drag others into that world with her if she could help it.  She didn’t want to subject the blacksmith to the beancounts if she didn’t absolutely have to.

A good leader not only cultivated talented subordinates but made the best use of them as well.  While it was true Niko had the right disposition and intellect to make for a good administrative assistant  it would be an absolute waste compared to what she could be doing here at her workshop instead.

“We’ve been getting many such reports.  Since you are formular with the drug I won’t waste your time describing tis effects in detail,  Suffice it to say I do not approve.”   the priestess too had a hard look in her eyes. One that burned with judgement for the pushers of such poison.

“Based on the feedback I’ve received so far, I’ve been working on a proposal to relax the rules around some soft recreational drugs like cannabis. Things that are mostly harmless and don’t cause addiction issues.  Rage however is neither of those things and shant be tolerated.” she made a crushing motion with her fist demonstrating what she wanted to do with the stuff.

“By Hakkin’s grace we have a lead to the laboratory where the mob does all the manufacturing for that filth.   The intelligence a chunin team has provided us leads me to believe that is located in Shungiku Town. The culprits likely thought we would overlook them in such a small unfrequented settlement, unfortunately for them they were wrong.”  said Ryuko, giving a fierce grin satisfied in the knowledge that she would be soon doing her lord's work.

She didn’t like pushing her religion on others but part of her was still curious to how Niko would react to having it name dropped like that.  It would be nice to have more converts around considering how much their rivals in Jashinism had grown and if the blacksmith showed interest the priestess would consider gently bringing up the idea of having her join.

“That’s more than fine, I wouldn’t expect a snap decision on something this important to begin with. I’d appreciate if you took your time to think and spoke to the others first at the party before you gave your answer.   If you’re worried about a dress my maid can provide you with one to use.  As for your girls, well let me reassure you.  The Thundercats official motto might as well be Love is all!”

It was a grand proclamation but a true one.  They had accepted the priestess when she had come out to them.  Two long standing rivals had learned to bury the hatchet and work together so closely they might as well be sisters and one of them was looking after several adopted children of their own.

[2]

Niko cringed at the idea of presenting the information herself because of the model. “If you don’t feel confident enough to explain the model to them then I can wait until you get the OK for at least one ship… but if you don’t think they will be sold on the idea, I’ll have one ready and be ready to present it should it be necessary.” She might not have wanted to talk with the people directly, but she wasn’t going to let the plan fail because of that aversion either; too much was riding on it for the benefit of the village as a whole.

Listening to her talk about the drug, she smiled, glad they were of the same mind on the subject of this drug. Hearing her chant that mantra she had heard before from one of the other Acolytes, Niko couldn’t help but nod in agreement. Just because they didn’t share a religion didn’t mean that she thought anything less of anyone else’s. “May Mogis bless us to deliver them to Athreos for judgment. I hope that means we get to personally send them, yes?” It was clear, despite Niko’s normal willingness to not kill every opponent, she had deemed these ones beyond redemption. “They likely have slaves we can liberate as well. May Ephara guide us to providing them freedom.” Niko, after having saved Oriana from slavery, absolutely loathed the use of slaves. She also knew, mentioning her own religion, the Gods of Nyx, she would convey that she had a religion already.

“But some relaxed rules regarding the safer stuff wouldn’t be a bad thing, so long as it is regulated properly. With a relatively light tax, it could even bolster the village’s economic growth.” She personally didn’t think she would have enough time to enjoy them recreationally, but she had heard that it could help with sleep, which was one area Niko sometimes struggled with. She simply had an engine in her mind she couldn’t shut off properly, and would often fall asleep late only to wake up early again, repeating the process for weeks until she outright collapsed and Oriana and Shunko would worry over her for a couple of days.

She smiled and gave a grateful nod at the idea of having a choice be delayed until after they had met everyone at the dinner, but hearing her say that Ryuko could provide a dress, the smile widened. “Actually, I have a few dresses. Maybe you could tell me which one would be best for the event? It won’t take but a second to get ready, and I’ll change myself into what I would need for the mission, if we plan to leave soon.” The statement might have actually been pretty confusing for a moment, but soon revealed itself as she stood up and flashed a few hand-signs, creating five shadow clones in the room who immediately went towards her bedroom. The original gave her a smile. “Be back in a flash.” Then she too left for a moment.

A minute later, the first clone emerged, leading a line of different ones. Most of them were blushing a little bit, and the original who was last was in her Combat Outfit and walked in front of the lineup. “I made these outfits myself… but not sure which would be the best for that type of event.” The lineup all had one thing in common; they complimented her body-type near perfectly, and it was obvious they had a lot of time and attention to detail put into them considering Niko’s height and such. The last one was more of an All Hollow’s Eve costume, but was still nice looking, so she had included it at the last second. She awaited Ryuko’s judgment.

Clone Dress Lineup:

{2}

Ryuko saw Niko cringe at the idea of having to present the model and gave a light chuckle at her reply. Explaining the idea behind the ship to those windbags by herself would be child’s play for her. She'd been more concerned because of other reasons.

“You won’t have to present if you don’t want to, I just didn’t want you to think that I was trying to take all the credit. Besides ff nothing else it would make for a good advertisement opportunity for you.”

It was true Ryuko DID want to show off Niko a bit. It would be a great chance for her to basically go, hey look at this talented blacksmith I found that you overlook. To preen before the members of administration who’d been giving her a hard time because of the reforms she was trying to implement and laugh that infamous ojousama laugh but ultimately she still had Niko’s best interests in heart and was trying to look over those before trying to cover her own.

The blacksmith then said the name of some gods that Ryuko didn’t recognize. The priestess was a key member of the church of Hakkin. A Vestal was about as high as you could get without becoming the Arch-Priest or Priestess. As such she’d taken the time to study some other religions but her education in that regard was far from comprehensive, mostly pertaining to one’s she was the most likely to run into like Jashin or Christianity.

It was plain for all but the most dull witted observer that Niko had a religion of her own. A fact that didn’t really bother Ryuko much. If anything she was relieved to know that the Blacksmith wasn’t a member of her church’s biggest rivals. Between Shimiko the Twins and now Miyu she had enough Jashinist in her life as it was, especially with the recent civil war souring her opinion of that religion in general.

Maybe once the mission was over she could get Niko to teach her more about this new religion. Hearing different mythologies was always fascinating to a young woman who liked to study like herself. There were all sorts of things to learn from them.

“I couldn’t agree more. The most merciful thing we can do for scum like that is to offer them a quick death. Capturing them alive and taking them to trial would just be a waste of the court systems time.”

Ryuko it seemed was in full agreement with the idea of them personally sending all the drug pushers to their next lives. When she heard that they might have slaves her indignation at them only intensified. That was one of the things she was going to make sure was absolutely abolished in this country.

There was a chance albeit a small one that if these mafia people had captives they were connected to the sex traffickers Ryuko was looking for in relation to a case involving the twins Shimiko was looking after. That was a lead she couldn’t afford to overlook. She’d have to make sure they searched the lab thoughtly before they blew it up to kingdom come.

“Freedom is the right of all human beings.” declared Ryuko using a slightly altered version of a very famous quote. Usually it was supposed to be all sacient beings but that was too broad a category for her tastes since anything that was alive and could feel pain could technically be classified as such. She was fine with the captivity of say farm animals for example since that served a specific and useful purpose, provided they were treated well obviously.

“I’ll leave figuring out the tax rates for such things to the cabinet. If I had to solve every tiny detail of such policies myself I’d never get anywhere.” As one of the village’s leaders it was her job to have the vision for which direction they needed to go in. They had many talented officers that could be trusted with executing the nitty gritty of actually making those visions into a reality.

Ryuko raised an eyebrow at Niko’s use of the shadow clone jutsu. It was in her opinion rather unconventional since it wasn’t very efficient to split your chakra that many ways. The priestess sometimes used it from time to time to work on multiple crafting projects at the same time but she was very conservative when she did so. It was similar to how when she drank it was never enough to actually get drunk since she never knew when she’d be called upon to go into battle.

Well Niko would get the chakra back anyway once the clones were purposely dispelled by her and not canceled out by an outside force. Once she was done modeling she’d still be mission ready so it wasn’t anything to be too concerned with, or so she thought until she saw the outfits some of the clones came out wearing.

The priestess opened her jaw so wide it almost felt like her jaw was hitting the floor. One Niko was a bombshell already dressed in even casual clothing. Five of them in dresses was almost too much for her brain to process, especially since a couple of said dresses were on the more provocative side leaving almost nothing to the imagination.

It was so stimulating that a trickle of blood began flowing from Ryuko’s left nostril. She’d always thought people getting nosebleeds when they got a certain level of horny was the stuff of fairy tales and yet here she was suffering from one. Sometimes the right clothing could be even more sexy than just being straight up naked and right now one of the Niko in particular was a perfect example of that. If the priestess wasn’t careful she might be in danger of bleeding to death from too much exposure to that one.

“Hmm let’s see. The first dress is passable though I worry that Nat-chan might not approve and second makes you look too much like someone’s secretary.” said Ryuko as she started to give her feedback. Natsuru was a good friend but more than a bit of a snob. You could almost call a bit of an acquired taste if you weren’t used to that sort of thing already and she wanted to do her best to make sure that the two of them got alone when they met.

She evaluated the first couple dresses quickly but then paused for a long second as she gazed at the third. It gave quite the elegant high class impression, the kind that would make Niko look like she belonged at the type of party that Ryuko was inviting her to.

“This one’s perfect. You could even show up at the daimyos’s annual ball with that one and not be ashamed.” It was so good in fact that Niko had a decent chance of taking home a prize for being the most well dressed commoner.

“The fourth is simply way too coquettish. Definitely not the type of thing I would recommend wearing in public. Save it for the bedroom.” said Ryuko with her face blushing a deep crimson red from even gazing upon such a thing. If she didn’t know better she would almost swear that Niko was trying to seduce her.

“The last one’s not bad but it’s more halloween themed. Tis probably for the best if you saved it till then.” That was the last Ryuko had to say on the subject as she averted her eyes fighting the temptation to cover them with one of her hands. She knew that if she did so she’d only peak between the fingers giving her attraction away if she hadn’t already.

The only problem now was Niko was already dressed and ready to go on the mission and Ryuko wasn’t. The priest had come here directly from the Raikage’s office and simply wasn’ted kitted out the way she usually would be for stepping outside the village. It didn’t look like it but she still had some weapons on hand just in case an emergency came up. She virtually never went unarmed except under the most extreme situations. She’d go as far as carrying a knife with her into the hot springs under her towel.

Still for someone of her calibur it was a trivial issue to tackle. She was hoping for someone to eventually make her a prayer bead bracelet with an enchantment on it that would allow her to quickly swap between whatever she was wearing to her full battle gear but until then she had her lady in waiting on standby outside the house.

“Sophie, Please attend to me.” asked Ryuko with a snap of her fingers. A moment later a black haired woman dressed like a high class maid and a good five or six years the priestess senior walked into the room carrying a large case that was almost half her size. If the case hadn’t been on wheels it was likely she’d have considerable difficulty opening it. Standing up from the chair Ryuko stood in place holding her arms out as Sophie silently began to undo the tassels on the back of her dress.

The priestess gave a casual yawn as her maid began to change her on the spot. She didn’t like to flaunt it but a display like this was a good reminder of just how high class a woman she was. Being changed by her servants was just how things were done and nothing to be embarrassed about.

She’d never do this out in the street but right now they were inside a private house and it was just a group of girls so she saw nothing to be concerned with. It was simply standard operating procedure for her. It wasn’t like she was going to be stripping totally naked anyhow since she’d still have her white sports bra and panties on, only needing to change her outer layers.

Sophe quickly slipped off the Priestess’ dress revealing the priesteen skin underneath. She was still a little pale from being out of the sunlight for so long but that only survived to give her an ephemeral type of beauty that passed in the blink of an eye as she was soon covered up again with a gambeson the maid pulled out of the case and then a set of chainmail that was pulled overtop of the padded jacket.

The fact that she kept the same gloves and stockings that she’d had on to begin with went to show that she’d been more battle ready then her dress had implied. The rest of the change was simple enough, she donned her metal knight rider boots that gave her kicks more of an impact then took her batons and sword and placed them on the proper slots on her belt.

“Thank you Sophie.” said Ryuko making sure to verbally acknowledge her lady in waiting's efforts as the maid took out some red battle makeup and applied it to her master's face in a ritualistic manner. When she wore this she wasn’t the dainty politician anymore. No she cast off that persona and became the full fledged warrior she always had been underneath all the polite niceties.

“Ready to crush some Mobsters?” asked Ryuko with a grin. Drawing one her batons and giving it a light swirl the priest then gave Niko a nod of apology for keeping her waiting. Not that it’d been that long in actuality as her maid had changed her so swiftly it might have actually broken a record if they’d been timing it, but the sentiment was still there.

[3]

Niko gave a gentle smile and shook her head; she had never really worried about Ryuko trying to take credit for her work, and while she definitely thought it would be great advertisement as the woman said, it also would mean those individuals would begin to expect something from her. That was how most people who didn’t like the politics side of things wound up getting involved… but she also knew that some level of involvement was inevitable. Hiding in the shadows while having a prosperous business was not possible. “If it will help you, I will do it. Just let me know.” But that was the end of that side of the conversation… they had bigger fish to fry.

When mentioning it would waste time for the courts, she smirked. “And Ryo.” she chimed in as an afterthought. When responding to her talking about freedom, her expression hardened. “Oriana was a victim of the sex trafficking trade that was home here in the village. I acted of my own accord, but I slaughtered most of them myself and made examples of others. Shin Eyo in the prison system is one of them that I left alive. I cannot stand hurting the innocent, but the use of children as prostitutes… I lost myself for a short time.” It took her a moment to regain her normal light as she banished the memories for now, and shifted her focus to the apparel to be worn at the party.

Noticing her nosebleed, the Niko who was in battle attire quickly produced a napkin and moved close, concerned. “Are you alright?” she asked, pressing it to absorb the blood, her emerald eyes very close to Ryuko’s own and full of worry. She was glad when the woman dismissed it and began the appraisal. The first clone simply bowed her head and moved back to the bedroom to hang up the dress, and a ‘poof’ could be heard, signalling the clone's dismissal, as well as the second one.

The third smiled and nodded as well, retiring, and would set that particular dress aside so that it wouldn’t get mixed with the others as the most likely candidate as the appraisal continued. The fourth, however, made the clone look to the original and blink, and then begin to turn this way and that to look at herself, which only made her show off a little bit more before the original shrugged and she went back to put the dress away and dismiss herself, returning her chakra back to the original. Niko wasn’t entirely sure why she felt that way, because she didn’t see herself in the same light that others might. She simply never had time to think about that sort of thing and didn’t have that high of an opinion about herself; there were plenty of women out there that beat her in looks by a large margin.

Once the last one had put things away and vanished, Niko was still concerned with Ryuko’s reactions, as the woman was acting a bit odd, but thankfully, things transitioned smoothly into something that was very interesting for the redhead. The blacksmith, naturally, had noticed the attendant some time ago using her Sensory, but hadn’t really bothered with it as it was obviously someone who was here with the higher-class woman before her. Now that she was being summoned to ‘attend’ her, it was interesting to watch how it was done. Unlike Ryuko, Niko didn’t blush or act oddly at seeing the smaller woman nearly naked and being dressed, more was simply interested in how it worked. She wouldn’t understand why that was necessary, and seemed to be a waste of manpower in her opinion, but it was still interesting nonetheless.

Niko did a quick check of her own equipment and nodded. She was ready to go. No longer was she the red-headed motherly woman who only cared about blacksmithing. Instead, this was a Spartan style warrior who was ready to handle anything that came her way. “Let’s.” She then marched out of the house after writing a small note for her girls and leaving it on the big table and cleaning up the bit of mess they made.

{3}

Ryuko nodded in return. It was enough to know that Niko had her back if she needed help for the presentation to the budget committee she was going to have to make. If she was the Raikage it would be a lot easier to strong arm the bean counters into getting her way, but in many ways she was glad that she wasn’t.

Even if it meant handling the village’s finances where tougher she wasn’t sure she’d ever want to take over for Nariko anymore. There had been a time she had considered it but that was before she had become so painfully aware of how lacking she was in the power departement. The political side she could handle easily enough, Nariko had practically groomed her to take over as much paperwork as possible. But being the village’s last line of defence was a tremendous responsibility she wasn’t sure she would ever be ready to handle.

At the mention that Oriana had been a victom of sex trafficers the priestess’s face harderend. That it had happened to the twins was bad enough but to discover more had suffered the same mistreatment infuriated her. Why hadn’t she done more to prevent this sort of thing from happening?

Of course given the time frame involved there was a good chance she wouldn’t have been in a position to. Someone in a coma couldn’t do anything about the various injustices in the world and if it had happened earlier in her ninja career there wouldn’t have been much she could have done then either. Taking on such foes as a lone gennin would have been tandimount to suicide.

People have a tendency to look at the past with rose colored glasses and Ryuko was no exception to that. For someone who often underestimated her own worth she had a strange tendency for overestimating herself when it came to what she could have done in such theoreticals.

“I’m surprised you left any of them alive….” if it were Ryuko herself she would have gutted the lot of them like fish and then dragged the ringleader off to Tartarus, a special prison that made those in the normal system seem like Disneyland in comparison. It was a fate reserved for only the truly wicked since all but the most hardened would find a quick death far preferable.

“Tis nothing to be concerned with, merely a lingering aftereffect from my time being hospitalized.” fibbed the Priestess in embarrassment as Niko wiped the blood off her face with a napkin. She couldn’t quite bring herself to admit it was because she found the site of the blacksmith in such revealing attire to be incredibly attractive. It wasn’t that she was shy about the fact she was gay even if she didn’t openly advertise it too often so much as the inapproateness of the situation given that Niko was more or less a subordnante.

That and the fact she’d feel very guilty actually uttering those words out loud, since doing so would make them more real. It would be in a way a betrayal of her feelings towards Nozomi that the sight of another woman had been enough to make her heart stir. Of course the fact Niko was good looking enough to win super model contests wasn’t helping matters, especially as her clone went on to model the most offending dress even more.

A woman who knew how sexy she was dangerous but someone who was drop dead sexy and didn’t know it could be equally as bad if not worse as it created a strong but attractive disparity between their innocent attitude and their stunning looks. Thatfully before her nose bleed could intensify the clone was dismissed and she was able to move on to getting changed, acting as if nothing unusual had occurred along the way.

The priestess could tell by the looks she was getting as she was being changed by her servant that the blacksmith wasn’t offended at all like she’d been expecting but rather interested in the whole process.

“For nobility such as myself having attendants isn’t just for convenience's sake but practically a mandatory necessity. To go without would be to portray yourself as poor and will win you few favours among your peers. Besides, even with my level of dexterity there are some dresses I have to wear on special occasions that I’d have no hope of ever donning on my own.”

The priestess went on to attempt to explain in her own way why having a lady in waiting like Sophie was so indispensable. She’d grown up with having a maid by her side for as long as she could remember. She couldn’t even imagine ever attempting to live on her own at this point. By not having to worry about cleaning up for herself or cooking she was able to pour all of her energy into pursuit into more productive matters.

“Just for fun shall we have a contest to see who can slay the most Cartel members?” asked Ryuko as the two of them left the building together.

[4]