There was game night, something that many families had as an internal tradition. Many ninja and civilians even had a Poker Night, it being a game that had less popularity in the Land Of Fire than elsewhere but still had a fair number of players.
There was, however, only one night that was becoming famous in the Land of Fire as THAT Poker Night.
It had been a time when several people had decided that a little child was an easy mark, who would then owe a few people favors they could cash in later. It had been a time when the sake had flowed, though the child had drank milk, and for some reason that had only been obvious in retrospect to the participants - that sake had seemed to have a more potent kick than usual.
It was a time when bets had been made, when people who really should have known better had completely failed to consider who and what they were betting against. A night where the usual restraints had fallen away and... things had occurred.
Yugito Nii, for example, had once been a ninja of a different land entirely. She had come to Konohagakure to assassinate a child. She'd ended up not only becoming a ninja of the Leaf Village but a retainer of Clan Uzumaki that night, though she hadn't intended to even take part in that poker game.
Clan Uzumaki had a mansion. It was a nice place, most visitors would freely admit. There were workshops and a foundry, there was artwork and tapestries, there was a nice garden and other amenities. There was even one of those little bamboo things in the backyard that went 'tonk' every so often. (Naruto could never remember that it was called a shishi-odoshi.)
There was a shrine, but that was closer to the Hyuga compound. There was a training ground, but that was on the Uchiha property.
There were kunai and shuriken, swords and polearms, bows and daggers, exotic weapons of various types. None of that was why young men of the Academy seemed to find excuses to wander past the mansion.
No - that would be the maids.
Some idea that Naruto's Uncle Jiraiya had once come up with, and had been embraced by many people including the Sandaime, was the idea of a special academy for warrior-maids. Not for ninja, per se. Ninja were loyal to a particular village and elite special operatives. A warrior-maid on the other hand, worked for an employer and was an elite employee. Since Naruto already had a mansion, a training ground, and a supply of maids...
This was only the second year of the Konoha Maid Academy, but it was showing signs of becoming incredibly successful. Many aristocrats of various countries had expressed great interest in the idea of an attractive maid who could tend to the gardens and household duties - and then grab a naginata or improvised weapon and delay assassins long enough for said employer to escape.
Not that a warrior-maid would be a match for a ninja or ninja team. Common bandits or the like? Another story altogether.
All of which contributed to the traffic outside the Uzumaki Mansion, as young men craned their necks around to catch a glimpse of maids in their uniforms doing various things such as trimming bonsai or polishing the brass or doing midair leaps while fighting each other with bokuto and exotic weaponry.
Not all was well within Konoha though.
Danzo looked very unhappy. This was perfectly normal, as there were a vast number of things that would produce that condition. He was a patriot who believed in a strong village able to defend itself. Unfortunately his attitude was that he WAS the village and that anything that benefitted him personally benefitted the village.
The Hokage had disbanded ROOT, because quite frankly ROOT was a bunch of ninja who were loyal to a single individual in the village who was NOT part of the official Chain of Command. That they had a history of causing more harm than good was beside the point. Mostly. So ROOT had gone underground, even more so than they had been.
Danzo Shimura WAS unhappy, and even if he kept his emotions from showing on the surface - they ran hot and fiery through his veins. He sought to make Konohagakure the ruling force of the shinobi world, usually by weakening the other lands through assassination and causing numerous problems to strike those nations.
The reason for Danzo's unhappiness was simple. Konoha had become complacent. With the fox-god in place, and NOT under his control, Konoha had become prosperous. The ninja village was doing quite well, and there were now five OTHER towns and villages (10 years ago there had been ONE) within a day's walk of the ninja village.
"SIR!" said a ROOT member who wore a mask resembling a badger. "An assault team from Mist has just gotten sidetracked into the Village Of Brewmasters!"
"And?" prompted Danzo.
"We've gone through their things and copied all their paperwork while they're inebriated past the point of voluntary motion," said Badger. "Here they are."
Danzo took the papers and frowned slightly more as he scanned through them. Typical rubbish. Except this. "They have guard schedules for the West Wall?"
"Yes, Danzo-sama," said Badger. "Your orders?"
"What was the impression of the squad leader?" asked Danzo.
"They are going to attempt to strike at the fox's shrine. Chance of their success, none."
"Danzo-sama!" said another arriving ROOT member, this one wearing a Doreamon mask.
Danzo shuddered. There was one in every group, wasn't there?
"A team of kunoichi from Rock and another team of kunoichi from Cloud were trying to infiltrate our village, met each other, and are now engaged in a major battle in the mud pits near Brewmaster Village!"
Many members of ROOT appeared out of the shadows.
Danzo blinked a couple of times, ran his tongue over dry lips as he considered that. "You have pictures?"
Doreamon-mask reached inside a large sleeve and produced a stack of photographs that he silently handed his boss.
Danzo took the stack of photographs. "Terrible. How unbecoming of trained shinobi. How... uhm, yes. Moving on. What is it about mud pits and young kunoichi that when they get into fights one of the first things they do is try to rip each other's clothing off? Disgraceful, that's what it is. Hmmm."
"Do you have copies?" asked Badger of Doreamon.
Doreamon handed off a second set of prints from within his robes, which quickly started circulating through the ROOT.
Danzo shook his head as he examined one photograph, frowning ever so slightly. This was indeed disgraceful. What WAS the ninja world coming to?
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(Posted Thu, 20 May 2010 16:39)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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