5 Chapter 4: Sunagakure's Sugar Daddies

The worst part about waking up in the morning, for me, at least, was making the bed. Even though I was a trained mercenary of sorts, being a shinobi, I lacked the subconscious discipline that permeated everyone I knew from memory. There was a sense of laissez faire, an unbothered and uncaring heart, towards how I slept.

Waking up to see the covers on the other side of the room, drool on the pillow, back hurting from the awkward sleeping position, was not a good start to the day. Obviously, it wouldn't do to forget the alarm clock that was blaring away on the bedside table.

The sun had barely made it's way up into the sky, peeking out beyond the valley that the village was situated in. I remembered why I was up this early only after a few seconds spent blinking at the absurd hour I had woken up in.

Training my new abilities, getting used to having a more energetic and fit body, all of that was important.

After completing my ablutions, using only the barest amount of water for this purpose, given that we were approaching the beginning of a long, dry spell.

The Wind Country was called so because it received the depleted, arid winds from Earth and Fire country perennially. The prevailing wind in the Summer was South Western, and it brought with it dryness and famine. It was important that the people of the country time their work right.

As I pondered about the Village and its current state, that being one of sever drought, I had a few ideas about how one could mitigate the crisis, but not only would that require time and energy, but also expertise that I did not possess. I was surprised at how quickly I had adapted to thinking that the Village was my own and that it's people were my family. It genuinely felt like I had a duty to them, perhaps a remnant of my previous "self".

I stood in the smallest of the seven training areas that the Village had. Even though the Village was situated in the largest country, it was still the smallest of the Big Five. It's entire population summed up to around twenty-eight thousand and four-hundreds, thereabouts, of which only 320 were Shinobi. While it may seem like a lot, only around a hundred of them were capable of anything more than the Academy Three.

I was doing my stretches and daily sets, working out every kink in my newly-gained muscles, astonished at how fluid my movements were compared to before. There was a brief moment of dissonance when I felt like I was trapped in a stranger's skin before it was squashed by another, brief moment of calm. I ignored it and proceeded to try out my new gains. Bukijutsu was first, knowing that it would be the easiest to test out and assess. My existing expertise with it was on a very advanced level. Competence, however, was not measured by how much one knew, but how much one could do.

So in the shadows of the dunes and cliffs, I trained my ability to control my weapons. A few senbon, finding their mark dead-center on the painted targets, a frankly obscene amount of Kunai finding purchase in the smallest of crevices. The best weapon, I had found, was the Ninja Wire. It was made from a hughly ductile metal, and conducted chakra well. It was also very sensitive and could be whipped around like a tail from hell, to slice boulders and tear off the hands of dummies.

I noted that my Bukijutsu was far above the level of the previous Ryuichi, who was admittedly not a bad hand at the most basic of Ninja Arts. I felt like I could take on a Kage, even though I knew it was impossible.

I rested for a while, leaning on a boulder with a few chipped parts from where I had punched it to test my strength. It wasn't a good idea, because my knuckles hurt themselves on the hard stone surface. Of course, my fists were strong enough to not be damaged beyond repair. I did have a lot of work to do that involved my hands, after all, but it still hurt to hit a boulder! I had no delusions of being as strong as Tsunade or Sakura, let alone Lee or Gai.

I was just experimenting with the skills I had purchased. Luckily, I had the sense of mind to pick two ranks of Medical Jutsu, which put me at the Average Level for the Village's medic-nins. It was a quick fix, and I was raring to go another round. But the clock I had brought with me showed that it was time to leave.

I was a bit miffed that I hadn't even gotten to check out the Battle Rhythm technique yet, and vowed to do so the next day.

After showering, I decided to go out into the market and buy some groceries for breakfast and lunch.

Most of the vegetables that were sold came from the Country of Vegetables, which was a proxy state under the Feudal Lord of that Country who paid tribute to the Wind Daimyo. It was only through multiple pacts, treaties, threats and corruption that Suna and the few other villages that were scattered in the Wind Country found their nutrition.

Not only were the people dependent on importing grain and vegetables, but also water.

As mentioned earlier, Wind Country faced an acute shortage of water at least twice every year.

During the Warring States period, the Desert People dealt with it in their own traditional way. Those that failed to would die. It was for this reason that Water-natured shinobi were very valuable to the Village, even though, to my knowledge, there were practically none. Those that had it, couldn't train it because we lacked the jutsus, those that could use it would be more useful doing other things instead, such as irrigating the orchards and vineyards, because it was a more efficient use of their time and energy. Besides, the water created by a Jutsu was not for human consumption. Chakra-based water was phenomenally pure. So pure, in fact, that whoever consumed it would die. That's what happens when you drink water that has no minerals in it. And Suna could only afford to use that water to provide baths and to irrigate the specially imported soil from the Fire Country.

Earlier, due to the war, a lot of the things that kept the Village happy and provided for was gone. Imports were cut down by nearly 80%. Except for the most basic of necessities, everything else was unavailable. Lord Third had instituted various practices, such as water and food rationing, eating one slightly large meal a day instead of three square meals, that sort of intelligent thing to save people from starvation.

The only major agricultural produce in the desert lands was a very exotic fruit. It was similar to a tangerine, only pale red in colour. It was the money-maker for the entire nation, because it was very widely sought out for its pungent, sour and zingy flavour. Some famous chefs, who worked for the Feudal Lords, would call in early shipments of the fruit because it was a coveted fruit.

Spices were only grown in a small part of the country, which bordered the River Country. Due to the situation in Amegakure during the war, those fields were evacuated and the Spice trade came to an halt.

From what we could find out through sources in the other villages, the Feudal Lords had called for an end to the war because of the blandness of their food or because their wives pestered them for luxurious silks, which Suna also grew, incidentally. Nobody liked not having the good things in life.

All these thoughts ran in my head as I picked my way through the market stalls, finding myself some nice, fresh produce to whip up a mediocre breakfast before I left for work. My new salary was high enough that I could eat out nearly every single day withojt5harming my finances, but there was something about cooking that had always brought Ryuichi of then and the Ryuichi of now, a great deal of peace and happiness.

I took home the stuff that I had bought and quickly went about my work, preparing food.

I settled for a savoury pancakes, some quickly fried shrimp and a pea soup. I left the remaining vegetables and meat for dinner.

That was not a bad start to the day.

I checked what my Targets for today were.

[TASSEL v1.0.0]

[Targets 0/15]

I nearly wept, seeing how I had more work to do than yesterday. Shouldn't the whole thing make my job more easy?

I decided that it didn't matter and left for work a bit early.

I had shit to do.