Wave country was less of a country and more of a medium sized island that no one actually bothered to do anything with.
The island had some farmland, forest to get wood from and plenty of fish …
It was a self-sustained island with a small population of workers and fishermen.
The ruling family of Wave country was an old exiled noble house from the Fire country, they didn't have many servants nor an impressive army, but even just a few warriors trained to wield chakra were more than enough to take over the place …
After those initial years, the Hizao family kept a very ‘hands out’ form of governance, as long as the populace paid their dues, they didn't care … Sometimes they would see a pretty face and take her as a maid and or concubine, sometimes they would take a strong young man to their service …
Most of the people living in the wave country barely knew about their rulers, they just paid the tax collectors their dues, be it lumber, rice, fish or coins and went on with their lives … year after year …
It was a peaceful and stable life.
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Tazuna was a carpenter and a damn good one at that … so much so that he was considered the island’s expert and paid some good coins for when the Hizao family requested his services …
Tazuna helped design and build the new harbors for the Wave country …
The Hizao family was looking to expand their nation's influence into the wider world … There was a partnership happening with one up and coming business man by the name of Gatoh and his transportation company …
Tazuna saw things slowly changing … drugs running rampant in the streets, contraband, people being taken and sold …
Tazuna tried to gather any support he could to appeal to the Hizao family, but money spoke louder than the lives of their people …
Gatoh had the Hizao family in his pockets for a share of the profits, using the wave nation as homeground for his criminal operations, Gatoh amassed a lot of wealth, buying the silence of the local nobility was just the cost of doing business …
The population with little to no options, rallied behind Tazuna and his son in law Kaizo, they made protests, they stopped manning the harbors …
That's when Gatoh started to take control with an iron fist … using Mercenaries and Bandits under his employ, he had the populace pacified and basically took control of the country … Though in doing so, tensions became still sky high with the Hizao family … The old head of the family died and the new head finally saw the puppets they became under Gatoh, so they hatched a plan with what they had …
Tazuna was at the moment, building a bridge with the help of the Hizao family to break away from Gatoh control … The Hizao family could barely defend the bridge from being blown up, but as Gatoh started recruiting more mercenary ninjas, sabotage became a constant threat to the bridge requiring the Hizao family to also recruit chakra users to defend the bridge …
It was a complete money sink, a very precarious balance that the Hizao family was losing, for Gatoh could simply throw more money into it … If Gatoh wasn't such a miser, the civil war would already be over … as it stood, there was a small chance they could compete the bridge and establish a trade agreement with the Fire country in exchange for security, thereby making Gatoh having to contend with a Fire Country nobility, a losing proposition to the man …
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[Tazuna] - … But the agreement only comes into effect when the bridge is completed … Gatoh probably has a hand on this but with his bribes, but as it stands, we don't have enough money … The Noble family, who we have a deal with, told us that he could put up a good word for a mission for Konoha's ninja, a simple C Rank mission to protect supplies and to help accelerate the bridge construction … -
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Tazuna finished squeaking everything he knew as Kakashi grilled him over the actual parameters of their mission …
Kakashi ignored the sob story but he could see that Sasuke and Sakura were affected … Kakashi would have to speak privately with Jay soon enough … The boy's lack of emotions after his first kill and the lack of empathy for Tazuna’s story was pointing to some not so great mental issues … maybe Kakashi could give his little apprentice a test of character … he had a choice in his hands …
[Kakashi] - … Your mission omitted a lot from Konoha's staff, you made your mission especially appealing to a jounin with a recently formed team of genins … the nobility that recommended this strategy for you knew that this is the time Konoha's graduation happen, and as luck would have it, you got a jounin with a team to pick up your mission … -
Kakashi's amused voice and sarcastic tone did nothing to ease the dreadful pressure still pressing into Tazuna.
[Kakashi] - … Now you leave me with a tough choice in my hands … standard procedure for a client that lies on his mission request is capture … followed by a nice vacation in Konoha's torture and interrogation department before disposal, depending on how important you are of course … -
Kakashi smiled at the trembling man …
[Kakashi] - Konoha can't kill off important clients like the Fire Noble that recommended this plan … but concessions and agreements can be made, there is a lot to be gained when a Noble lies to Konoha … -
Kakashi stopped, letting the chakra pressure up …
[Kakashi] - … as a joinin, I do have the authority to continue with this farce of a mission as long as Konoha is properly compensated by the end of it … with a nice fine on top for your lies … but I'm not the one you put in danger, my cute team of little genins are the ones you put in danger, so they get to decide … -
Kakashi turned to his team … Sakura and Sasuke froze like a deer caught in front of a fireball, Jay on the other hand kept looking at Tazuna with his blank expression …
Kakashi was expecting Sasuke and Sakura to defer to Jay, as they pushed him to be the team leader, but Kakashi underestimated how green his genins were … they were more emotionally invested in Tazuna's sob story than he predicted …
[Sasuke] - I say we keep going, we took care of two chunins during an ambush and Kakashi sensei didn't even need to help … we can win this … besides, if the mission rank gets bumped up, that means we will have a Rank B mission in our record as the first non rank D mission we did … -
Sasuke was puffing up his chest like a proud Uchiha, ready to do the honorable thing … The pride and glory that would come with it was also a nice bonus.
[Sakura] - … if we can help all those people … we should, shouldn't we ? … I mean … a Rank B on the record is pretty amazing too … -
Sakura paused and together with Sasuke, they both glared at Jay.
[Jay] - Hey, no need to glare a hole in my head, I'm fine with either … but I still think the old man here needs to be punished, his sob story is very sad and inspiring, sure … but he still lied and put us in danger … imagine it this Gatoh wasn't such a miser and actually paid the big bucks for a jounin or jounin equivalent ? -
Jay crossed his arms before Kakashi tried to butter up the proposal … Kakashi was genuinely impressed with their performance on this mission and there was also a manner of pride at play … Jounin were rare and Kakashi wasn't any other Jounin after all, the team wouldn't be in any danger even if somehow Gatoh found someone …
[Kakashi] - My, my, no need to worry about that … in case a Jounin appears I'll be the one fighting … and Jay, jounins and jounin equivalent mercenaries don't grow on trees, even with the money, Gatoh wouldn't easily be able to find a talent like that for hire … a mercenary jounin is highly desirable for any organization, they tend to find stable employment very quickly, be under a new village or under another nobility, few are those that keep on being freelancers … -
Jay nodded.
[Jay] - That's less bad at least … Well, if Kakashi-sensei is confident, why not ? We can deal with some professional chunins anyway, more combat experience is always worth it … and the loot too, those assassins gauntlets and chains are good quality, probably already worth the mission … -
Kakashi nodded at the reasoning and grabbed Tazuna by the collar, lifting him up with one hand so he was standing …
[Kakashi] - It's your lucky day Tazuna-san, apparently, my genin team is hungry for a B Rank on their record … we will continue the mission … but remember that Konoha will have a talk with you and the Hizao family after this … -
Kakashi patted the dust off his clothes, focused a bit of wind chakra on the tip of his fingers to cut them open … before stringing a series of handsigns with an ungodly amount of chakra …
In a smallish puff of smoke, a dog wearing sunglasses was in front of him …
Kakashi took a small scroll, writing something on it before pressing his still bloody finger on the paper before tossing it to the dog …
Sasuke and Sakura watched mesmerised as the dog turned just right and a pouch on his back opened and the scroll fell inside of it before he turned the other way to close the pouch with a click …
[Sakura] - … How did he do that ? … -
Kakashi and Jay just smiled at the dog's antics … They both knew about the subtle use of chakra strings to make any of that possible, but the dogs preferred to impress bystanders by pretending that they could do everything on pure skill alone …
[Kakashi] - Stop trying to impress my genins Akino, I need that scroll delivered to the Hokage alright ? -
[Akino] - Not trying, succeeding, and to answer your question pinky, I’m just that good … -
The dog stood up to give them a salute before dashing away with a plume of dust behind him such was his speed …
[Sasuke] - … Kakashi sensei, I didn't know you were a summoner … -
[Kakashi] - Really ? … Must have escaped my mind, Jay already knew about it so I thought you all knew, is not like it's a secret or anything … -
Kakashi shrugged, leaving Sakura and Sasuke to glare at their teammate for not sharing that bit of information before he resumed reading his porn, leaving a stumbling bridge builder still shaking in fear and awe to get back to the cart and drive towards their destination …
Sasuke and Sakura on the other hand were left poking at Jay because all this time, they could have bothered Kakashi to let them train with puppies that could talk …
The Inuzuka made a killing with their trained ninken for that exact reason …
The team was ready to continue with their mission …
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So, the decision to keep going on their mission …
While cannon never really addressed how things actually worked in the ninja society, is very clear they are a militaristic government with Daimios scattered around the land, with Konoha being the fire country paramilitary force.
(See, the villages were formed by clans uniting themselves after the warring states era … those clans were competing for clients and work for the nobles of the world … the Ninja Village system is basically a Workers Union, but for super powered assassins apparently …)
Now, we are constantly shown over the series that there are a lot of different nobles and nobility and all of that, despite the focus on the ninjas, Naruto more specifically …
This leaves me with a bit of a problem while addressing Cannon … One, would Kakashi actually keep going with the mission now that he knew the risks ? Naruto and Sakura simply weren’t ready, Sasuke did all the work in defeating the Demon Brothers before Kakashi had to intervene … So why would he keep going on the mission ?
And another one, would he even be allowed to ? Konoha would pay the difference now that they reported the mission being of a higher rank than expected ? … that doesn’t seem right, especially since the mission wasn’t issued by Konoha itself, Tazuna is the one that put on the mission notice, he would be the one paying that shit …
And with that out of the way, we are left with the Wave Country … What the fuck is that anyway ? A whole country with no nobility ? Gatoh just took over … because ? … and to make a bridge to signal hope ? … It the people can’t fight against Gatoh’s thugs, Tazuna is basically building a bridge for the guy … for FREE …
If Gatoh wanted the bridge, he could just take it over at any moment, or if he wanted the bridge gone, he could just sabotage it or have a ninja destroy that shit … we see what ninjas can do, breaking a bridge that doesn’t even have protection shouldn’t require more than a few pieces of Explosive Tags … and those are everywhere.
So yeah, I had to put a noble family that actually governs that region, a reason for them leaving it to Gatoh (money) and another reason for them wanting to take it back (Previous leader dies and new leader wants the drug dealer out) … Now Tazuna actually has some support in the form of the Wave Countries own nobility and the conclusion of the Bridge isn’t for ‘Hope’, but to finish a deal with a Fire Country Noble that would take over the protection after that, as part of the trade agreement that the Bridge would represent …
So yeah, I hope things are proceeding in a somewhat consistent manner up til now … next chapter, Zabuza.
