The village and the ball of fire

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As we were walking to Aki's residence, while gazing at people and streets, my thoughts drifted towards this village. Within the Land of Wind, Sunagakure is located within a valley, surrounded by cliffs, making it a natural defensive wall. Outside of it for many long miles, there's nothing but desert. While this effectively makes the village a supreme defensive fortress from the outside threats, it also means that once the 'walls' get captured, the fortress would become a tomb to its inhabitants.

Another result of the village's location would be the lack of any sort of resources, which is a result of the desert. This makes it difficult for the civilians to find a source of income, as the typical hunting, forestry, or farming industry is virtually impossible. This nation's economy is built on commerce, trading, and luxury commodities, such as expansive and well-made ceramic, dyes, or spices which can be only grown in extremely hot climates near an oasis.

All of the buildings here are made from clay, stucco, or a mix of both. While it results in a dreary look of a village, it's a cheap and good material for the local needs, it keeps day's sweltering heat, and night's biting cold from the inside of a building superbly well.

As we walked down the streets, I saw traders in bars making deals and shaking hands, locals haggling prices, buying essentials, and artisans selling their pottery or other crafts. Despite the heat, the streets were teeming with life, commotion, and activity.

The leader of this village is Third Kazekage. From the brief talks that I heard about him, he is a respected leader, that commands the village with calm and great might alike. His iron sand gives shade to his allies, while at the same time drowning his enemies with it, inspiring many people, children, and adults alike.

Despite shinobis being in total control of hidden villages and being the main military power of the nation, they do not rule it. It is the dayimos that rule the nation and its economy. It is they that are the source of funding for the hidden villages, by giving out missions to accomplish by shinobis, in exchange for monetary reward.

This system reeks of inefficiency and waste, one would start to question why it's still a thing, despite overwhelming military supremacy over the civilian side. The reasons for its continued existence are twofold.

The first reason is that this system is spread in every single nation on the continent. This means that if a Kage decided to get rid of their dayimo, all of the dayimos in other nations would not allow for such a trend to develop and spread to their nations. They would pester and threaten their Kage using wealth as both a carrot and a stick, to wage war and destroy the capital offender. The overwhelming might of all nations against a single one - that just weakened itself by decapitating civilian administration, and causing chaos and unrest in its lands - guarantees that no single Kage jumps out of the line.

This might cause one to ask the question: "why don't Kage's scheme together, so they all make a political purge at the same time?". And the answer to that is a second reason for the perseverance of the system. All of the hidden villages hate each other's guts. They all scheme against each and one another 24/7, waging skirmishes, sharpening their claws, looking with distrust at any actions of others. Sending a message with the intent of inviting other Kage to make a purge of their dayimo would result in 2 things.

a) The recipient Kage will question the sanity of the sender

b) The said recipient will either use that information to get all of the daimyos support, wage war against the sender, or pretend that he is in on it until the chaos begins and then invade

No Kage will commit to such a scheme with others, as they will never trust each other, only scheme to put a knife in each one's back.

As such, in this world nobility exists, and its existence focuses on civilian administration. Despite the major war that shook the continent and ended 16 years ago (in calendar year 86), their continuous existence wasn't shaken at all. This truly illustrates the stability of the current system.

The First Great Shinobi War ended with First Kazekage successfully negotiating the purchase of a sizeable plot of fertile territory from the Land of Fire. This allowed our nation to secure its much-needed resources of food, water, and other goods, necessary for our development, as our native lands lacked those.

Now my parents will be gone for some time on a mission, I do not know if it's inside or outside of our nation - all military missions are top secret, and civilians (including their children) asking for the details of a mission before it takes place would create a risk to those that will conduct it.

Mum and dad were able to take a yearlong break from their duties because of my birth, and now that their break is ending I'll temporarily stay with Aki's, as they also took a yearlong break when 5 months ago, aunty Sugawara, gave birth to a girl...

My thoughts were cut short when I heard dad knocking on the door of Aki's residence.

"Teruya" I heard my dad speak to me. "While we are away be nice to Aki's, eat all the vegetables, play outside with others, and-"

"And play with their 'ball of fire', right?" With a tired voice, I cut him short.

Dad looked at me amused with mirth in his eyes. "I wanted to say: don't ask for cookies and eat them too much." At which I groaned and looked away, while my mother giggled.

After a few moments, we saw dark green-haired uncle Matsuura open the door, called his wife and the three of us together bid farewell to my parents. After they left aunty Sugawara noticed the box that I carried with me and with an amused smile said: "I see that somebody came prepared." while pointing at it.

"Yes." I answered. "My survival is at stake, and a good shinobi is always prepared." I followed.

"Wise course of action," Uncle said in a grave tone and cold face, though the smile in his eyes betrayed his thoughts. "You will do well in the future."

As we moved through the house I saw 'IT'. IT spotted me at the same time as I did. All hopes of preventing conflict were quickly dashed, as the ball of fire started to bear slowly toward me. A glance towards surroundings quickly showed that aunty and uncle standing just a moment ago on both of my sides vanished, and were found only 5 meters behind me in the doorway.

"Traitors" I muttered under my nose, which they evidently heard, as the corners of their mouths tugged upward on both of their faces.

With my allies throwing me under the proverbial bus, with no escape, and the enemy bearing directly upon me I had to act. A frontal assault is not an option, the outcome would be a foregone conclusion, marked by my total defeat. 'Luckily, I came prepared.' I mused as I opened the box.

'Time to execute delaying action, with hopes that it will stall my opponent for long enough.' With practiced movement, I pulled the content out of the box and presented it to the incoming projectile.

As the threat came dangerously close I quickly said: "Hey Pakura, I got you a present, as I showed her a wooden doll of a shinobi."

'Ball of fire' now reclassified as Pakura quickly switched her attention from me to my present, and after a second she took a doll and started playing with it. For the last week or so I was busy investing my time into making that toy for my survival, and it was worth it.

As I started to move slowly towards an exit, aunty, with a cat-like smile filled with schadenfreude, said sweetly to Pakura, yet to me, it sounded like words from the depths of hell. "Pakura, you should show Teruya how much you are grateful for the gift."

(AN: schadenfreude: German - pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.)

At those words, my heart stopped, and my movement froze. Like a deer in a headlight, I did not move, other than slowly turning my head like a rusty machine that wasn't oiled for a long time.

Pakura was looking at me. She reacquired the target lock, but the decoy failed in its purpose. All because not only was I left behind alone on the battlefield, but also in the least expected moment I got stabbed in the back by those that I trusted.

As I didn't make much distance, Pakura quickly reached me and hugged me, at which I winced. You see, for some reason, Pakura's body temperature is pretty high, and for me - a native of land surrounded by desert and sweltering heat - it meant something. I never was a fan of heat, I preferred cool temperatures that allowed me to think well. As such, living in a desert combined with the high body temperature of Pakura WAS NOT an optimal scenario for me.

At my pleading gaze towards the traitors, all I got was laughter at my situation from both of them, as they were fully aware of my plight.