The world we live in

Chöji was told that of all the things he could have inherited from his mother, he inherited the one that was the least desirable one to be the clan head. He tried not to think about it, to not look too much into his father's eyes as to not notice the way he wondered almost at loud if his son would ever be man enough as to lead a clan, but it became difficult recently, his father seemed to be a little more on edge.

"Kindness is weakness."

No one will ever notice those changes; his father was such a funny guy that most people overlooked his demeanors, but Chöji and his mother were able to tell, and although Chöza never said something to his face, he could hear the whispers that were told on his back, the way his father sighed every time Chöji contemplated a beautiful landscape, or how his skull ached every time his dad stared at him when he thought he wouldn't notice.

He was on his knees, his room completely dark, curtains and doors closed, the only source of light coming from a candle beside him, sharp shadows covered his left side, blending that part of him with the gloom. In his hands, a book, lid closed and pressed tightly against his thumbs. Chöji watched its cover, the light blue color and the golden letters, he raised his left hand -detaching it from the somberness that still clutched at the corners of the room-, and caressed their form with his index finger, they felt soft, nothing as felt such in a long time. He opened the book and absently turned the pages, saw black letters that begged for an attention he will not provide.

A sudden pain took him by surprise, the orange light of the candle felt warm, and when he raised his hand to see what was done to his skin, he saw a small stream of blood coming down his index finger. There was some of his blood on the pages too. Chöji kept staring at his hand, the glow of the candle made it hard to see the wound. The paper was quick to absorb the fluid, crimson color stained the pages forever. He had merged with the tale, there had to be a metaphor somewhere.

They used to play together sometimes when they were little, he remembered, forced by their parents. Still, Chöji remembered all too well how Ino would just run towards them and ask Shikamaru eccentric questions to see his face twisted in confusion, or how Shikamaru would stand and merely walk when Ino asked them to go with her to "an exciting adventure that our parents can't know about." Which usually ended up with them in need to be rescued. But then they grew up, Sakura came around and then as suddenly as she came she left, and Shikamaru started to hate adventures.

"I always hated adventures Chöji, all that walking, such a trouble."

"But if you hated them that much why didn't you say anything?"

Shikamaru's sole response at that had been to click his tongue.

Chöji lowered the book he still held in one hand, carefully putting it on the floor, and sighed. He grabbed the candle by the holster with his non-injured hand and blew the flame. When it disappeared, and with it all the light, Chöji was left in darkness. Much to his dismay, he was still afraid of blackness, wasn't it funny how his best friend lived in the shadows?

(No. It will not be funny at all.)

The first thing Shikamaru thought when he felt the weight on his back was 'this seems kind of excessive,' the thought immediately following, however, consisted of letters mashed up together without carrying any sense or congruence. Asuma hadn't told them they were going on an approximately six-day mission until they reached him on Konoha's borders. A light backpack was everything they prepared, not knowing exactly what was going to be asked of them. They had expected, and probably hoped, a D-rank. Another C-ranked mission in such short notice seemed a punishment for something Shikamaru couldn't recall doing and definitely not meriting such sanction. In addition, their sensei had also decided that their training hasn't shown satisfactory results yet, despite him being the one who was in charge of supervising their workout regime, and so they had to cross the Konoha forest jumping from tree to tree by channeling chakra to their feet while carrying a huge bag of stones on their backs.

He posed on a branch and heard his knees complain at the weight he carried, he glanced back and saw Ino struggling to jump ahead, falling and hitting her jaw with a branch, disappearing from his line of sight, leaves followed her down in a soft descent mockingly. Chöji wobbled and was forced to grab the trunk of a tree as not to fall as their female teammate, Shikamaru smirked faintly when Ino -in her haste to return to the coup of the tree-, channeled too much chakra to her feet and cracked the wood, immediately falling again. "This is excessive," he said once Asuma stood on a branch next to him, watching down as to locate a very complaining Yamanaka heiress. At his last word, Shikamaru felt pressure on his chest and was forced to take a mouthful of air, hand against his chest.

"If you talk you won't be able to breathe properly," Asuma said, his eyes still scanning the ground. Shikamaru furrowed his eyebrows at his teacher, he had reached the same conclusion once his lungs were deprived of oxygen, he didn't need to be told what he already knew. Regardless, Asuma did not glance in his direction, and once Ino was able to reach a new branch, her hair disheveled and pale skin shining with sweat, he motioned them to move.

"I think I might die," Ino said in between short breaths, chest moving frenetically, her hands on her knees. "Why do we need to carry these rocks?!" She suddenly screamed, like she wasn't short on oxygen a second ago.

Asuma smiled, "I believe I had already made myself clear," He replied calmly, waving his hand as if to clear the air of her outburst, "we keep going until I say so." He licked his lips and pointed forward with his head, Ino jumped and kept jumping ahead, passing them with surprising speed and sending their teacher a nasty look. Frustration and anger were her fuels.

They didn't fully stop until much later, taking only ten minutes of rest for each half-hour of movement. He felt his chest burning with each intake of air and saw the sun setting in between entangled branches that framed Mother Nature. Orange dim light bathed green grass and the sudden cold air made him shiver and awoke goosebumps through his wet skin. The three of them were scattered across the ground fighting fatigue, the bags full of rocks abandoned alongside their own backpacks at their side. Asuma merely glanced at them before watching the sky with a small smile on his lips. A group of what only could be merchants passed by in between the trees, Asuma looked at them warily and one of them raised his hands in a placating gesture. They were dragging a cart full of boxes and an old lady sitting in between them, fanning herself with what looked like an envelope. She glanced at them and her face dyed white.

"Shame on you," The woman hissed, her gaze piercing through them with venom, she clutched the envelope more forcefully and crushed it against her bosom.

He watched them move and disappear, the old lady never stopped glancing at them, tension in every muscle. When they were gone he looked at Asuma who was breaking a leaf with his thumb, the jönin replied to his curious look with a shrug of his shoulders. When returning his eyes to the sky, the light orange had become darker.

"At this rate, we will reach Suna in twice the time that it actually takes," Asuma breathed out for them to hear, Ino made a grunt with the back of her throat.

"W- why are we going there?" Ino -sort of- asked.

Asuma, who had took a cigarette out of his vest pocket, licked its tip before putting it gently in between his lips, "I thought I told you about the mission before departing." He lighted the cigarette and took a drag, closed his eyes, and stopped breathing for a couple of seconds. When he finally exhaled, the smoke leaving his mouth and joining the cool breeze, he opened his eyes and watched them. He was a rather imposing man.

A rich guy from Kaze no Kuni, a man named Atsushi Ena, had paid an insane amount of money for some sort of commodity that another Konoha team had to retrieve from Nami no Kuni and bring back to the village only to sent it away a couple of weeks later with team 10. The man had given specific instructions of when to retrieve and sent the package alongside notes on how to preserve his commodity for the time it will be in Konoha's possession. Shikamaru supposed it was not such a weird occurrence considering that the value of the package had to be at least twice as valuable as the two C-ranked missions he paid to just have it.

"Why didn't he hired Suna shinobi to do it?" He asked, sweat dripping down his spine, he scratched the dry-salted skin on his forehead. "Isn't him from Kaze no Kuni?"

"We are cheaper," he shrugged, like it wasn't of importance. Shikamaru twisted his mouth in consideration, shouldn't they increase their fees to match Suna's? Lower fees could translate to lower quality of their service to potential customers, and that could be economically damaging in the long run. However, Konoha didn't seem to be particularly struggling -although Shikamaru didn't know about the internal flow of their capital. Perhaps Konoha's earned reputation and success in the last war, in addition to the cheaper costs, cemented his village as the number one option. "There's no patriotism in business," Asuma added, Shikamaru blinked.

Chöji, who had been on his back during the whole interaction, suddenly turned and laid on his stomach to look at them, "but how are we supposed to enter Suna?" He asked, face red and labored breaths.

"We have permission," Asuma shrugged again, "our client bought it."

"He bought a permission," Ino said suspiciously, when Asuma nodded, she went for it again, "he bought a permission for us -another shinobi faction, to enter Suna. And they sell these types of permissions." She didn't try to conceal the sarcastic tone in her voice, daring Asuma to take her for a fool. Shikamaru almost tsiked.

"Their restrictions aren't as harsh as ours, they usually grant concessions in exchange for a large amount of money," Asuma explained. "There's an important factor for them to look for more income, can you tell me what it is?" He asked with another intake of his cigarette and a lick of his lips.

Shikamaru blinked, why would a shinobi village need more money? That was easy, to buy more equipment to strengthen their attack, defense, and research, but that was common currency and Asuma had specifically said that it was an important factor to them, not in general. Hence, it didn't have to do with why would a ninja village seek for more money, but why would Suna specifically need more money. He had to go back to the basics, what separated Suna from the other villages? They were located on Kaze no Kuni, the second largest country, but didn't seem to be held in high regard by their own civilian comrades, since they hired other ninjas from other nations to carry out their needs. That, as Asuma implied, does explain why they sell permissions to enter their borders if they can't maintain a constant flow of income by missions only, but it still doesn't explain why they specifically need the money. In addition, Suna is quite small, smaller than Konoha even, it could be that they were trying to expand their territories, but every village was secretly trying to do so, so they weren't particularly different in that department, besides, nothing stopped them to actually enlarge their city, they were surrounded with the nothingness of a desert.

"Ah," Shikamaru slapped his forehead, "basic resources. Konoha's geographical location and the country's climate allow us to harvest our own food, medicinal plants, and so on. Suna, although it must have native plants, probably doesn't have too much variety, not to mention that it must be very expensive to maintain a potable water system in the middle of a desert."

Both Ino and Chöji looked at him, he could see them from the corner of his eyes, Asuma gave him a small smile and a nod as compensation for his response. "So you mean they use their entire money just to survive?" Ino asked, perplexed, like the sole idea of being able to earn solely what you need to live was unbearable, Shikamaru find himself thinking that he could not blame her. Blushing a furious shade of red she licked her lips, twisting with her finger a golden lock of hair, "but… uhm… if they spend that much money just to be able to live… aren't they… like, a liability?"

Asuma glanced at her, his dark eyes watching her with contemplation. It was an interesting doubt for her to have, it seemed, because their sensei smirked as if proud. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes, he hadn't received the same indulgence. "No country that wants to have any weight for commercial or political negotiation can afford not to have a shinobi village." He replied the obvious, Shikamaru couldn't understand how Ino couldn't put two and two together, but he decided not to hold it against her. Intelligence was not her strong suit. "And now," he continued, "let's set up our camp."

The sound of long intakes of air followed their reaching to Suna's massive gates, exhaling their exhaustion before standing straighter, trying to look sharper, dangerous, menacing. Three suna-nin glanced at them with their eyes completely open and a twist in their mouth as trying to repress a smile for their pitiful attempt. Ino couldn't blame them, team 10 looked shameful, weak, forgettable. Ino denies her responsibility for it. Gray walls stood in front of them with its deafening silence, imperturbable and unwelcoming.

In a moment, the kunoichi from the group jumped down, breaking formation with nimble motions, landing in front of them. Soon after she was followed by the men who lacked her lightness and made a dull sound against the ground. With her head cocked to the side her hair cascaded down like an affluent of shadows against her paleness and from her position Ino could see her neckline, she looked to entice them. Her first thought, however, was that she was not that pleasing to the eye, her jawline was too square and her lips too small for her frame, Ino took it as a small victory for her. "And what brings you along?" She asked with a voice that clashed against her harsh looks, her eyes fixed on the Konoha jönin.

"We were hired to deliver a package by one of your citizens," Asuma replied calmly, looking her straight in her eyes, the woman didn't seem upset by his lack of reaction at her purring, "Atsushi Ena." He said, and deliberately slowly showed his hand while reaching for the scroll in his vest pocket. The Suna squad had their hands above their kunais, without taking them out. "I believe he arranged for us to be let in." He continued once he took out the scroll, carefully opening it with two fingers, the paper seemed to be rough against them.

Saliva was suddenly visible from her peripheral vision, shining thick fluid against the brown sand, she couldn't help to scrunch her nose and glance at the Suna man that had dared to perform such undignified gesture in front -and for, her. The shinobi responsible for the present smirked, showing an incomplete brown denture, Ino visibly licked her white perfect teeth. The man stopped smiling suddenly and Ino took a step back, the smirk returned.

The woman narrowed her eyes at the words in the scroll as to set them on fire, a quick look at their teacher was enough for her to decide that reading while he held the paper was not convenient and stretched her hand without providing further instructions. Asuma gave her the scroll and turned slightly to wink at them while the woman read the paper that was now in between her fingers and made her already disgusted expression even more displeased. "This states that you'll have half an hour of clearance to be inside the city," her tone was soft despite her effort to turn it somber, Ino pursed her lips, "exceeding this time by even just one minute will be considered a violation of the agreement and will be treated as a standard attack."

Ino couldn't help to make a small sound with the back of her throat that seemed to please the guards, the saliva-loving man glanced at her and gave her a brown grin, she could see his tongue through the gap on his teeth. For such a man to look at her with so much superiority... preposterous.

"Thank you," Asuma replied with a nod, and once the tree of their attendants moved aside to let them through, he started walking. Ino glanced quickly at both Chöji and Shikamaru, it took them a full second to actually start moving behind their teacher, hastily running forward to catch their sensei with their backs straightened as not to give away their exhaustion. It was a ravishing contrast to Asuma's figure, who seemed to have grown a couple of inches in the small window of time it took for him to walk between the Suna-nin and the gates they protected. Ino wondered if he was compensating for her and her teammates' fragile complexions. He most definitely was.

Suna did look impressive, that much she was willing to give them considering what Shikamaru had said about them not being able to maintain themselves without assistance. Ino knew the importance of a good impression, and that was what Suna was: a great facade. Its buildings were solid, not particularly pleasing to the eye, but solid, surrounded by the highest wall Ino has seen in her twelve years of life. For a shinobi village, it was a practical, well-thought design that will discourage any regular army to try to invade them. Suna's entire characterization was based on being rough. Desert, endurance, spitting on the floor, all that jazz, it wasn't far fetched to think their entire city would be built to solidify that trademark.

"You think they're following us?" Chöji asked her and she had to blink at his approach, the boy's eyelids were dangerously slow in each blink, he was succumbing to tiredness.

"Most certainly, yeah," she shrugged, trying not to raise her voice above a murmur.

Chöji nodded and kept walking, dropping the subject entirely. They followed Asuma around the sad streets of the city, receiving numerous looks. From curiosity to disgust, Ino witnessed the entire spectrum of human emotions. A group of boys that looked slightly older than her and were cute enough for her to notice glanced at them with pointed disinterest, Ino felt a pang of sadness. I don't look like this, boys. She thought batting her eyelashes despite common sense, minus the fact that she hadn't slept properly or bathed in five days, the skin itching under her clothes was entirely her own.

Asuma entered what looked like a coffee shop and Ino was shaken by the sudden perfume of coffee beans, it contrasted roughly against the musky, sweaty scent that was forced upon her during this trip, so she inhaled the smell as far as she could. It was strong and too warm of a beverage for such heat. The corner of her mouth moved faintly upwards. Coffee shops weren't supposed to be much different in between them regardless of the place they were was established, but Suna's was spectacularly somber, devoided of color, and groups of chatty friends as Konoha or Hi no Kuni's possessed. Ino did not like Suna in the slightest, she had never felt more proud of her place of origin. In between tables and chairs Asuma moved and they followed, silence engulfed them and her heart sped up with nervousness, her stomach twisted unpleasantly.

In the other side of the room, under a flickering light, a man sat on the table located in the farthest corner, a bodyguard on each side of him. The stranger looked at them from above his sunglasses, a small smile decorating his lips while he scratched his goatee beard with the rim of his mug. Ino could distinguish a bright light blue shirt, silk, that struck her as odd, for no one in Suna seemed to dress in such a manner. "Told you, Botan, they'll be here on time." He said tilting his head to his right, without looking at the man behind him. Such man, Botan, barely glanced in their direction, crossing his arms as response to their arrival.

"Mr. Atsushi Ena, I suppose," Asuma said without bowing.

"Please, call me Howard, Atsushi is just a legal formality."

"Howard," Asuma seemed to taste the weirdness of the name on his tongue, his expression showed none of his perplexity.

Howard's smile grew wider, "excentric, is what I was looking for."

"I see," Asuma wasted no time in reaching for his vest pocket, his fingers grasping a blue scroll. "I guess your men are trained to open this."

"They're trained for much more, actually," Howard -really, Howard?- snapped his fingers and the other bodyguard, the nameless one, reached for it. He looked younger than Botan and had a huge scar around his right eye, it was pink, new. Without it, Ino thought of him to be quite good-looking. The man did not glance at Asuma while grabbing the blue scroll, his eyes fixed on the paper, he tapped it and mumbled the kai-release, and a rectangle of cloth, -a painting, emerged in a puff of smoke.

Howard smiled and grabbed the canvas, looking at it while clicking his tongue. "Such an expensive little thing," he whispered, and gave it back to his bodyguard, who sealed it again.

"Now that that's out of the way," Asuma deepened his voice, "I would like to know the reason why you asked specifically for our services."

"Now, now," Howard said, "we don't want to start a scene don't we?" Ino took a step back, Howard looked at her. "Why don't you take a seat, I would really like to chat for a bit."

"I think not," Asuma deadpanned. "A simple answer would suffice."

"Don't be rude dear," Howard brought the mug closer to Botan, who filled it with the content of a flask, "do you know how expensive the permission to have you inside here for an hour was?"

"It's really not our problem."

"Please," Howard said, taking off his sunglasses. Asuma looked at them, then at Howard and finally at his bodyguards, and sat across from him, he did not tell them to follow his example, so they stood behind their teacher. Ino's legs wobbled. Howard smiled.

"So," Asuma looked uncomfortable, "why did you request for team 10 specifically?"

"I'm a big fan," Howard sipped from his mug, "I'm a businessman, is my job to know everything that goes around me and look for a way to make it profitable." He said, playing with the edge of his sunglasses. "Like this, for example, there's a reason why I wanted to receive this painting inside the village. The moment you leave, a group of shinobi will enter this cafeteria and will most certainly take the painting with them."

"That doesn't sound like a good plan," Ino intervened, Asuma looked at her sideways, his expression promising a scold later. More rocks to carry, likely.

"It doesn't, does it?" Howard replied calmly, "but I will, eventually, get the painting back, and people in the capitol would have heard about the censured, prohibited painting by then and will gladly rip it off my fingers. At the very minimum, I will sell it ten times what I paid for it, C-ranks and permission included."

"Why Team 10?" Asuma halted Howard's explanation and made him focus on the initial point, the businessman didn't seem offended regardless, and complied with a nod.

"Like I said," and there was something in Howard's motions, a patience underneath every movement that made Ino wonder if this was his plan all along, if he knew what Asuma would say and how he would react. "I'm a big fan. I know about Konoha, I know about every ninja village, and of course, I know about Ino-Shika-Chö."

In fairness, Ino-Shika-Chö's existence wasn't supposed to be a big secret, after all, Konoha took advantage of the fear that the prospect of their unit being sent to spy on their enemies installed. The sole possibility of the three clans looking for dirt made anyone think twice about trespassing Konoha's trust. But their team number shouldn't be known just yet, not until the Chünin exams were secrecy will be impossible to maintain since they will be showing their skills to the proctors and senseis from other nations. How did Howard knew about them? Why did Konoha allowed the businessman to decide the number of the team that will bring him the package and, more importantly, how did Asuma knew that Howard had asked for them? Shouldn't Ino -they, know about something that might be a risk to their lives? Or their lower rank prevented them from knowing?

"Don't look so tense," Howard read her body language as if she wasn't a trained ninja but a mere scholar. In a heartbeat she felt cold all over her body, the exhaustion she felt left her bones in the exhale that followed Howard's statement, her heart hammered in her chest and she hid her trembling hands behind her back. Howard sighed and looked at the ceiling, "everyone seems so fascinated with the prospect of raw, uncontained power," he went on, looking at every one of them, tilting his head, "fireworks," he whispered and moved his hands, "a one-second, colorful blast. I'm too smart to let myself be influenced by such trivialities, I'm not looking for fireworks, I'm looking for something that lasts, something far more useful." He smiled, "I could make a mountain of gold out of the three of you."

"Our time is running short," Asuma replied surprisingly calm while standing. "So I think this will be all. Let's go, kids."

"It has been a pleasure," Howard smiled, widely, taking a sip of his mug. "I'm looking forward to work with you in the future." He said, looking at her before carefully dragging his eyes at the other two members of the formation.

Ino walked out forcing herself not to look behind.

"Sensei," she finally gathered the courage to ask him what was on her mind since the second the coffee shop's perfume not longer lingered in her nostrils, Sunagakure a mere figure in the distance, Shikamaru and Chöji pointedly looking the other way, still on hearing range. Asuma merely finished adjusting more rocks on her backpack -retaliation for her impulses did come in the form of a stone, and slowly adjusted it on her back. "What did he mean by that?" She blurted.

"Nothing, Ino," Asuma sighed, "the world he lives in is nothing like our own."

(He was lying. They were power.)

A/N: It is canonically stated that Suna charged higher than Konoha for their services as is that the Damyio of Kaze no Kuni outsourced all of his missions to Konohagakure because it was cheaper, which deprived Sunagakure of valuable funds to support themselves. Sunagakure's reason to invade Konoha was merely financial, despite Orochimaru's influence, it was something that would have happened regardless once the Suna-nin reached bottom. The notion that they sold "permissions" to enter Sunagakure to shinobi from other factions is, however, completely fictional.

Stay safe!