14 Chapter 14: Guardian

01 December- 8 years AK

The whole idea of Twelve Guardian Ninja (守護忍十二士, Shugonin Jūnishi) as an independent corp which took care of Land of Fire's daimyō safety was... intriguing. At least in my head.

Even more when one thought that said ninjas all came from a hidden village and could choose to stay as guardians for a not specified length of time.

And why didn't a Kage simply overthrow the ruling feudal lord? I had researched the topic with no success whatsoever.

For starters, no history book explained why a daimyō existed. I went over everything I knew from the manga.

The daimyō (大名, who was the Feudal Lord) is the political leader of a country. A daimyō is responsible for all decisions concerning their country, form alliances to the annual budget to the privileges allowed to the country's hidden village. Daimyōs are therefore one of the single most important individuals in the entire country and hold the highest degree of political power, such that they are given special protection by the Allied Shinobi Forces during the Fourth Shinobi World War.

The final decision in the appointing of a new Kage for their nation's respective hidden village can rest within the daimyō's authority. In the case of Konohagakure, the Hokage typically selected their successor but if the Hokage dies or is otherwise incapacitated, this responsibility moves to the daimyō. The daimyō is advised by his committee, the Konoha Council, the Jōnin Commander and a representative of the Anbu during this selection. Once a candidate has been selected, the incumbent must then be agreeable to all the jōnin before they are sworn into office. For example, Danzō Shimura was selected as the Sixth Hokage Candidate when Tsunade was in a coma but died before the jōnin could convene and thus his position was never made official.

Daimyō frequently attended the final round matches of the Chūnin Exams, either to bet on the fights or to seek out up-and-coming talent. Shikamaru Hiden, daimyōs were noted to always reside in their country's capital city, constantly waited upon by numerous attendants and advisers who, themselves, tend to be overbearing and arrogant to the general population. Like any normal politician daimyōs tend to squabble between themselves. Because the daimyōs don't personally involve themselves in these wars, they never truly appreciate the horrors of battle and thus inevitably get into some other petty conflict at some future date.

Kisame Hoshigaki was condemned as a missing-nin in part because he was involved in killing a daimyō from another country, or his own? I didn't remember.

Despite a daimyō's importance for their respective country and hidden village, some of their political decisions may cause unrest and induce rebellion. When the daimyō of the Land of Wind outsourced many jobs to the less expensive Konohagakure while reducing funding for his own country's Sunagakure, he became very unpopular among the latter village, who even allied themselves with Orochimaruin an attempt to induce fear into the daimyō. Or at least it was something that was going to happen in the first storyline.

Before Hashirama, clans served the higher bidder, and nobody could outsource the Daymō. At the time, the official army of the countries was made of samurais, which were now only trained in Tetsu no Kuni, like a dying religion.

Honor did not keep you alive in a world of shinobis.

Perhaps I should write 'The last samurai' if Jiraya managed to let his smut get read, I had a lot of actually enjoyable stories to share. I distractedly considered.

And the Daymō was still the one calling the shots simply because a civilian would never accept to be ruled absolutely by something that wasn't human.

And whatever anybody could say, ninjas were not humans, not from a civilian point of view. Ninjas were creatures of nightmares, performing blood-curling acts in the middle of the night for money.

Shinobi existed for war, for destruction, there wasn't a single jutsu without a lethal application. Even I used chakra scalpels to kill.

The existence of D ranks was because of the need to show the civilians that if they purchased our services we would be trustworthy.

I strongly suspected that each business owner had to pay a 'tax for protection'.

So it made sense really, having a civilian calling the shots placed the ninjas into a position of servitude, and kept the population calm. Which farmer would properly attend his fields if he was too scared of being shoplifted in the night to properly rest?

And it didn't matter how benevolent the ruler if there was a ninja in the daymō seat, the people would feel like they were into some kind of slavery.

And it would be true. Slavery is the condition of having to work without proper remuneration or appreciation, and most of all, without a choice.

The choice of dying instead of working wasn't even on the table. After all, didn't ninja have their illusions to force people into submission? (We didn't, not on a large enough scale, but the civilians didn't know that).

I could understand the civilian point of view. With a Kage as a supreme ruler, it would have been like living in 'Injustice, Gods among Us'

Another book I could write.

I shook myself out of my reverie and took in the majesty that was the Capital of Hi no Kuni. I was to report at the Guardians' barracks at 06:00 pm, I still had several hours to roam around.

And roam around I did, shinobi style.

I masked my presence and simply ran around taking in sights, sounds and smells. The roofs are the highway of ninjas.

The capital had clearly developed as a castle town, where the local feudal lord resided in the centrally located castle, and his retainers, which once were the samurai, lived in the districts surrounding the castle. Even if it wasn't an actual European like castle, more like a conglomerate of extremely refined mansions and gardens developed on a hill. A cross between a grass field and a garden, there were several water canals filled with carps, and I noticed an abundance of weeping willows and sakura trees. Obviously in the middle of it rose the impressive palace.

Circling said hill there was a stone wall a couple of meters high. It wasn't a highly defensive structure, but in that world everything military-related was accomplished through chakra. I had no doubts that there were some powerful seals placed on the stone walls.

The districts in the immediate surroundings of the central hill were filled with mansions or elaborate residences with earthen walls and elegant homes.

Like in all societies built around the idea of social castes, the merchants lived in assigned city districts. Merchant districts were characterized by shop-lined streets and warehouses, while the canals of these areas were actually used to transport merchandise.

I couldn't miss the traditional geisha districts, characterized by the wooden tea houses, in which the geisha performed during banquets.

Like in every civilian city of vast dimensions, near the outer walls there was the 'red lights' district. It was easy to spot. The Akasen (赤線) was a conglomerate of districts where prostitution and the sex industry flourished along with the black market.

It was as far as possible from the respectable districts, and away from the eyes...

There was no escaping it, the bigger the economy, the vaster the black market. And why I did not doubt that such activities were too rough for the delicate sensibilities of the nobles, at least one of the Daimyō' advisers had his hands full organizing them, with the feudal lord's blessing, no less.

I sighed looking at the malnourished children roaming the streets, trying the occasional pickpocketing or 'helping' the drunks find their way home.

If there was one thing Hidden Villages took care of were orphaned or homeless children.

Sure, they ended up in orphanages with the heavy propaganda turning most of them into soldiers for the good of the village, but still. At least they had the possibility of failing at the academy. But at that point it was easier for them to find some kind of work. If nothing else helping merchants with their cargo. Often the caravans left with one more child on their carriages.

But why would anybody care? The merchants gained someone who would do the hard work for a low price, and Konoha no longer had to feed them.

When they got tired of working on caravans and became bandits or criminals of some kind it was only more missions for the hidden village. So, a win win situation.

I shook my head and rose from my perched position on one of the roofs in the Akasen, flickering back through the capital and announcing myself at the gate of the stone walls around the central hill.

I signed on a register and walked in, following the direction I had been given and soon found myself into a courtyard protected from the sight by thick edges and a tall wall.

The courtyard was as vast as a ricefield, while the barracks where a simple hangar-like building on the south side.

I walked over leaving open my first two gates and doing nothing to hide my presence.

A man left the building and walked until he stood less than two meters from me, squaring me down.

Well, not really, he had his eyes hidden behind a thick cloth. A blind shinobi? Now I've seen it all.

Because there was no mistaking his presence, his chakra was saturating the very air around him, and I was willing to bet he could use it as a sonar of some kind.

The man was tall and broad-shouldered, with a black and white kimono opened on the front, letting the world see his scarred chest.

However, he had the waistcloth of the Twelve Guardians, so it was good enough for me.

"Hello, I'm Daiki from Konoha, I've been told to come here to join..."

"To be tested." The man interrupted me. "I'll test you if I deem you... adequate, you'll be trained for the next couple of months so that you can work with our tactics and we can come up with... adaptation to accommodate your style of fighting." He used a tone than managed to express just how unlikely it was the idea of me passing.

I'm going to kick you so hard...

12 December- 9 years AK

I landed with a heavy grunt on the snow-covered ground. Trying to find again the trail that I had lost. It was in moments like that that I missed my old team. I was as good at following trails as anyone, but there was no competing against the single-minded pursuit of prey following the Haimaru brothers and Hana.

I ignored the twinge of grief that came over with her name with consummated ease.

Ichika landed a few steps from me and looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

I shook my head and she sighed.

"If only you had an useful summoning contract..." She muttered.

I suppressed a blush. "Hey, cut me some slack yeah?"

She raised her hands in a mock surrender gesture. "Nobody else would have noticed it, but it would have been cooler if you had managed to take down the shinobi you spotted."

"Kunoichi." A voice interrupted.

I threw stealth out of the window and let the first two gates slam open, flooding my pathways with chakra.

I was already assaulting the stranger when Ichika's squealed: "Senpai!"

My fist hit an armguard, cracking it and sending its bearer stumbling back.

I connected the face I could barely recognize into the snowstorm to the title Ichika had given him and grimaced. I was about to apologize when I got slapped on the back of my head. I abruptly disrupted the flow of my chakra to break through the genjutsu she had layered on me.

I growled. It was really becoming a routine. "Stop hitting me woman!"

"Apologize!" She shouted right back.

"I was going to, you unsufferable..." I took a deep breath, focusing on the actually relevant things. "Sorry Asuma-senpai, but Ichika makes me jumpy."

"I do not!" she whined.

The light chuckle stopped us from going on with the endless bantering. "That is something I miss in Konoha."

I took a closer look at him, he was already a jounin, even if he was wearing anbu quality arm and shin guards, he already looked like he would in the manga.

"Kunoichi, you said?" I brought us back to the point of order. "I presume you were returning from a mission?"

I took a drag from his cigarette, the lung-poisoning instrument shining bright red in the darkness.

"Yeah, I was heading back to Konoha when the kunoichi almost literally fell on my lap. She didn't identify herself and lacked a headband, so I left her bound, gagged and unconscious three hundred meters further south." The jonin explained, and we started running in that direction.

"You're a godsend, sempai!" Ichika thanked him while I nodded my assent.

"The newbie had lost her you see." the kunoichi kept going.

Ah, hazing, the best friend of the new guy. Even a year after I first donned the Twelve guardians waistcloth. Even If I wore it around my shoulder, so it wasn't really a waist-cloth, it was more like a shoulder-cloth.

And this kind of rambling is a sure sign I'm tired as hell.

Soon we had reached the prisoner, who was still out cold.

"She probably has a team, B-rank ninjas don't work alone out of their country." Asuma reasoned while I was running medical chakra through her swollen brain.

"Her strong point was hiding tracks, we've been lucky to push her in your direction, are you pressed for time or can you help?" I answered while the kunoichi started awakening.

"You do know that the protocol states this is Twelve Guardians business and as a Konohagakure shinobi I have to help unless under direct orders from the Hokage, yes?" The jonin answered lighting a cigarette and taking a deep drag.

"I thought it would have been more polite pretending to give you a choice, Ichika has been working with me on my people skills."

We shared a smirk while Ichika hit me again on the back of my head. I unraveled her genjutsu before it could take root into my system and ignored her to keep focusing on healing the prisoner.

"We've worked on everything, actually, your baffling stupidity when it comes to new ninjas in your life is just one of your most fun traits." She replied.

I sighed, Asuma had cracked her skull in multiple places, it would take a while.

"What's this I hear about a summoning contract that doesn't work?" Asuma joined the 'Make fun of the last to join the twelve guardians' club.

I knew that for the sake of something that resembled the storyline, Asuma should stay as far as possible from the shit going on, but he had already a thirty million ryo price on his head, and from what I could tell, it was well deserved.

I just hoped the situation wouldn't backfire spectacularly.