10

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The Flooded District are the remains of the parts of the Rudshore Financial District that couldn't be recovered. A tangle web of crumbling buildings and crude ones built on the old. The entire area is walled off from the rest of the city, with only by boat and some sewer tunnels that one could enter the dark side of the city. Crime runs rampant, even in board daylight and only gets worse at night. But people still enter the Flooded District for many reasons. For those who are brave enough or foolish enough can find just about anything on sale there.

This is where the thieves and robbers sell what they have stolen. The gangs having been run out from their old haunts after the guardians started walking the streets setup shop. They and the Whalers are the only things keeping the district from tearing itself apart. They also kept the creatures that have been appearing in the district from completely taking over. Everyone stay behind lock doors at night here as the creatures always come out at night and the people who are alone or even in groups just disappear.

"Everyone keep close and don't talk," Jiraiya reminded his party as they walk the gangplanks that the people who lived here put together.

The ninjas kept quite as they followed their leader knowing that they're being watched. The buildings and streets that are still above the water line are full of people and carts selling whatever could be sold. Raucous laughter spilled out many of the buildings that looked to be taverns inside. Inns were isolated between the numerous drinking pubs. Most of those seen had many scantily dressed women standing outside. Apparently many inns doubled as whorehouses.

They saw two men dump a naked body of a woman into the water and the body quickly disappeared in bloody pieces as a swarm of Hag fishes took bits out of it. The smell of the water made it clear that the people dump everything into it, as people would pop out and dump chamber pots into the water. The stench of the district was beyond horrid and the streets incredibly filthy with trash and excrement, humanoid and animal alike. At least the closer they drew to the piers the smell was gradually overpowered by the scent of salt water.

It's the seediest town any of the ninjas have even been to in their lives. All of the buildings are in terrible shape with many of them looking like they're on the verge of collapse. In fact many had supporting planks of wood propped up against those structures leaning heavily to one side. One storm could easily bring every building in the Flooded District crashing down. Yet every structure still stood while bearing signs of weathering such storms. It's like something is keeping the sea from completely taking what it refuse to give up.

Kiba had to fight from letting the smell overwhelm him. He spotted the wolfhounds that are found in the Isles and wondered how hard it is to train them. After the second attack by the fox demon, his clan's compound was completely destroyed and almost all their dogs were killed. A new training program and breeding has been going on but with few dogs to go around that need years of breeding to be able to use chakra and fight like a ninja, it's been a slow progress. As all the clans have been busy rebuilding their strength and numbers. The bird seal has been removed from the Hyuuga clan simply because there wasn't enough members of the clan left for that to matter. (1)

"Oh look girls some ninjas from the Element Countries are here," a young girl said to her group of friends.

The Leaf ninjas look to where they been called out on being ninjas, the group of young girls are leaning out of the ruins of a half fallen building. The girl who just said out loud they're ninjas is a girl with fiery red hair worn in braids that are so tightly wound that they stick out sideways from her head. She's dress in a long sleeved red dress with the sleeves rolled up underneath a blue apron with a large yellow colored pocket in the front. She wore large blue boots, a pair of mismatched color socks one purple and the other strip yellow and red one that went all the way up to the bottom of her dress.

The rest of the girls with her are dress in rags or rummage sale rejects. One blonde fizzled girl is wearing a brown paper bag as a dress and wore a half melted crown on her head. But seeing the state this part of the city is they probably gotten their clothes out of the trash. They're also all armed with pistols which made the ninjas realized that they may just dress like that to catch people off guard.

"Let's see what the Whalers will give us for bringing them their heads," the paper bag princess said as she aim her pistol at the ninjas.

The other members of the female gang open fire on the ninjas who disappeared being replaced by pieces of wood. The noise of the gun fire draw little attention from the residents of the flooded city. Not a day goes by without at least someone being killed in one manner or another.

"So much for us being unnoticed," Kurenai said as she and the others had to use speed jutsus to get away from the gang of girls. They're on a building having to catch their breath from their near escape.

"Is anyone have their headband out?" Jiraiya ask the group.

"No," Neji said.

"We're going to have to be on our toes then. Somehow those girls knew we're ninjas," Jiraiya said.

"Or it could be that you have your photo printed in your books," Kakashi pointed out.

"Yes, I guess that could be the reason," Jiraiya said as his picture is printed in some of his books.

Jiraiya lead the group again as they jump from one roof to another hoping that they wouldn't be attack again. Watching far from them is the figure that has been trailing them. Noting that instead of fighting the female gang they instead fled. Must be, they didn't want to draw attention to themselves.

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Awhile Later -

They came upon a large building that was once a government building now serves as a gambling house. Known as the Court House where all kinds of things happen inside it's walls. It's a neutral zone in the district where everyone knows better then to start something in the Court House. For the security system that protects the building will automatically kill anyone who starts a fight. As the Court House is owned by the Shadow Broker and every person who lives or visit's the Court House doesn't want to make him into an enemy.

"No matter what happens none of you can start fighting in there," Jiraiya said to his group. "Or you'll be zap by lightning."

"Right," Sakura gulp not liking the one hit kill machines that seems to be everywhere in the Isles.

Stepping inside past the guards they found themselves in a casino likes of which none of them had ever seen in the Element Countries. Some people at playing cards, others making bets on how fast a dog is able to kill rats in a pit, and others are playing slots. There are other games of chance that none of them had seen before.

"What now?" Anko ask looking around the large room. She could see how some of the walls have been torn down to make more room for the crowd.

"I need to find one of the dealers," Jiraiya said as he scans the room looking for someone.

"Who are you looking for?" Hinata ask.

"There," Jiraiya said locking his sights on a man sitting at a bar.

The man is dress in work clothes but there's something about him that kept the other people around him from getting close to him. Jiraiya walk across the room till he reached the bar and sat next to the man. The other ninjas stayed back and kept watch.

"What do you want?" the man ask.

"Here for information," Jiraiya answers.

"What kind of information?" the man ask.

"Ex-Leaf ninja, name Naruto Rook," Jiraiya told him.

"Wait here," the man said as he got off his seat and headed from a backroom.

Jiraiya waited for nearly half an hour before the man came back. The man simply gave Jiraiya a folded piece of paper. Jiraiya took one look at it and sat up and walk over to his group who have been waiting all this time.

"The Shadow Broker does have the information but it's going to cost us more then we brought with us. We either pay the price or complete a mission for the broker," Jiraiya explains to the group whose eyes widen when they heard the word mission.

"A mission here in Dunwall? With the Whalers not liking any ninja to operate here?" Kakashi ask knowing how powerful the Whalers are.

"Yes or go back to the village to get the money as the broker wants it in cash and our money doesn't have a good exchange rate," Jiraiya said. As the Isles currency is worth more then the Element Countries currency. As the Isles produce much of the imports that goes to the Element Countries.

"What else would the broker except in payment?" Shino ask.

"Vials of elixirs that prevents sickness as you can plainly see this place is a breeding ground from sickness. The elixirs are the practical currency used to keep it at bay," Jiraiya explains. (2)

"How much does the broker want?" Sakura ask reminding herself to get a sample of elixir. She heard about the elixir from the other medical ninjas but since what is needed to make the stuff is only found in the Isles there's always a limited supply.

"We would need to steal from the factory or a supply depot for the amount that he wants. Each one is heavily protected from people trying to steal it. We can try to steal from a rail car shipment but that would take us time to find out when a shipment is taking place and then having to deal with the watch. No we will have to do the mission before Naruto decides to move again and the broker might not have the information to where he went to this time," Jiraiya explains.

"Then what does the broker want from us?" Gai ask.

"The broker wants us to steal a stone mask kept in a butcher shop," Jiraiya said.

"That shouldn't be too hard," Lee said thinking it would be something harder.

"Don't count on it. Nothing is ever easy with the Shadow Broker," Jiraiya said not liking why something that seem to be so simply has been given to them.

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Author's Notes -

1 – The clans are all been effected by the second attack with many clan members having been killed. Which means that none of the cast from the Leaf ninjas act like their counterparts.

2 - Normally, your money is not inherently useful. Sure, you can melt down coins and make them into some sort of art project, or you can try to use your paper money to start a fire, but for the most part, money only has value because people agree that it does. The moment people lose faith in it, money will be worth nothing. (The proper term for this is fiat money.)

Not so with Practical Currency. You can actually use it for something. Maybe it's some kind of food, medicine, or weaponry. It's not too different from a barter economy it's still goods in exchange for goods and services. But unlike barter it also serves as a universal medium of exchange.

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