015 - The Dune Dervish (Mortar, Dampen Projectiles, Vortex.)
For all that he's a great negotiator, Grandfather is as clumsy as Mother when it comes to real social interactions with people he cares for. In his defense, he tried to lighten my burden when he noticed I was… under the weather. Unfortunately he managed to come out as a condescending jerk and I was in no mood to read between the lines, so I kicked his shin and stubbornly kept with my tasks.
Upon reflection, that might've been… poor judgement on my part.
Good news though, Karin spent the whole evening singing and wiping my forehead with a wet rag after I collapsed. Humiliating or not, that felt very nice. We also reached Wind in the meanwhile, which means blistering sun and endless sand wastes, but that's a problem for Future Ran.
Seriously, bless that girl.
The following day we reached the town of Honebue(1) and Grandfather took us to the tavern so we could 'see how it's done'. I was feeling way better, which means I realized it was another attempt to coddle me, but I wasn't in any mood to get indignant anymore. I'd get to see him in action and that would have to be good enough.
Was there in the tavern, sitting on a stool and taking sips of my peach-flavoured drink while swinging my feet and listening to Grandfather learn every single scrap of news and gossip the place had to offer that I first felt like a careless child in… years.
Don't get me wrong now. I haven't been a careless child since before I was born, and I'm grateful Mother didn't try and treat me as if I was. Eggs and omelets and all that. But still, sometimes I forget I'm actually -almost- ten, and most people my age don't have to worry about anything worse than homework or a scraped knee. This wasn't too bad, from time to time.
Just like me to learn the joys of being a spoiled kid right after I stop being one.
… What? I'm a preteen now. Completely different.
Grandfather laughs loudly at some joke another patron made, drops some ryo in the bar and comes back to our table with lunch. I'm too hungry to do anything other than wolf it down with a passion, but the food is objectively shit. That or my own prodigious cooking skills have spoiled me.
Stupid Shimada blood.
(1) Honebue: Bone Whistle. In a place known for the blowing winds and deadly environment, it sounds like an appropriate name, doesn't it?
There's apparently a monster in the area, scaring away both merchants and bandits. Grandfather scoffed at the idea of a 'Dune Dervish' on the prowl, but still decided it would be prudent to stay in Honebue for a while. We had wares to trade anyway, and any caravan getting out of Wind would gladly sell us their leftover desert supplies at a token cost.
It's only late in the evening, when he sits me aside and gives me some hard numbers, that I realize there's something more at play here. Sure, the rumours of the monster means the trade in the area is slowing down, but few merchants are willing to actually turn back and ruin a journey of weeks if not months just for some rumours, so it's not that bad.
Most telling, while there's been a lot of 'sightings', only one caravan has been attacked so far. The bandits in the area though… they've been decimated. I don't need him to tell me these facts don't really match with the rumours. Judging by Grandfather's face, I had enough data to make an educated guess.
Bandits have traditionally been a big problem everywhere after every Shinobi War. Countless groups gain a foothold while the villages couldn't spare the manpower to clean house. Later, as the Nobles play their little games of war and peace, they fill out with first deserters and later decommissioned ashigaru(2) incapable of adapting back to peace afterwards.
They tend to be slowly culled down while the shinobi villages remain at peace, and actually that sort of missions make up a good chunk of their income. Important trade hubs do their best to clean up the main trade routes as soon as possible, but relatively small towns like Honebue are still part of the routes and may sometimes take years to gather the coin for a mission. In the meanwhile, caravans are bled dry and the economy of the whole area suffers.
...Let's ignore for a minute that, once bandit camps start to disappear, the Villages run out of jobs and always manage to find an excuse to wage open war again. That's not the point.
Case is, the economy of the area should improve drastically, now that there are no bandits. Which could improve the lives of a lot of people. Look underneath. When in doubt, follow the money. Who benefits from this?
The village, obviously.
The nobles, who can tax more.
Rival bandits, who can now move to the area.
Rival merchants, who will see their routes favored on detriment of these.
And the monster(?), obviously, but I'm reasonably sure that's just shadow play.
And yet, neither the village nor the nobles benefit for the -obviously, in hindsight- manipulated rumours. Both the village and the nobles would benefit more if there was nothing to scare merchants away. Same with rival bandits, plus they would've attacked more caravans.
Time to look underneath the underneath. When in doubt, blame the ninja.
A foreign village may benefit from reduced commerce, depending on a number of factors, but overall commerce benefits everyone. And again the above remains valid. No reason for contradictory rumors.
At a first glance, the same applies to Sunagakure itself, but…
I might be into something here, actually.
Monster extermination and other mysterious investigation missions have a wildly varying rank, depending on the threat, but one thing's for sure. A threat that cleans up all the bandits in an area will be, by necessity, higher ranked than cleaning up the bandits themselves. But if the economy is improving at the same time…
"Fear increases, but they'll actually end up richer." I start slowly. I'm sure I'm still missing something, but this is good enough for a hypothesis. "Both seeing an overall improved economy and allowing the town to commission a monster extermination mission from their Hidden Village!"
"A bandit cleanup is just your run of the mill mission, but defeating a monster is the sort of thing that builds reputations." Grandfather comments slyly. Suna's greatest problem right now is their lack of trust from their Daimyo. Reputation helps with that sort of thing.
"Puppeteers using puppets to puppet their own governments." I burst into laughter. Man they're good! "Damn tricky ninja!"
… Wait a minute.
Did that waitress just… dodge around a throng of running children with a stack of dirty dishes in one hand, and another two on the other? There are experts on every trade, apparently. That, or she's an undercover shinobi.
Considering there's a very dangerous 'apparition' in the area and I just made a poor joke about Suna's puppeteer corps, I'll make sure not to show her my back, just in case.
… It's not paranoia if they're actually out to get you.
(2) Ashigaru: Conscripted infantry.
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