Chapter 18.1- Gamer of the Desert

The good news is that the chunin vest was less oversized on me now than it was two years ago. The bad news? It would probably still be quite large on me until I was well into my teens. Neither Rasa nor the Third Kazekage had been particularly large individuals, but I was still a child. I'd be a child (in body, at least) for quite a while.

"Gaara of the Desert?" The burly Jounin asked, and I just nodded, walking past him to take my place with the team tasked with escorting me.

That wasn't to be as the idiot grabbed hold of my shoulder and spoke to me in a low tone with menace in his voice. "I don't know what Baki taught you, but in Suna, we address our superiors. Now, are you Gaara of the Desert?" He asked again, pressing down on my shoulder even harder.

I knew the right thing to do. It was obvious. Swallow my pride, answer him, and move on. What did he matter? Of course, knowing the right thing to do didn't mean anything in the face of a complete unwillingness to be subjected to another Baki. I hadn't seen the bastard since I returned from Kusa, and I wasn't so keen to replace him. Especially not with an idiot weaker than me.

Sand poured out from my inventory, looking for all the world like it had appeared out of my shoulder and snaked around his wrist. He didn't move. He was daring me, testing to see if I'd commit gross insubordination to assert my independence. He swallowed a grunt as I cleanly snapped the wrist bone and caught his hand in my grip before he could pull it back.

Was this doing my reputation any favors? No. Could it end very badly for me? Not reasonably. Gaara had gotten away with a lot of shit in canon, and it was becoming obvious that I'd enjoy similar invincibility in terms of punishment. Besides, this jounin was a nobody. I never heard about him in canon, and his brown hair and brown eyes marked him as the most NP NPC to ever NPC. With his hand in my grip, I began to squeeze while applying healing chakra to the breakage. He hissed but let me do my work and waved away his genin as they moved to involve themselves. Good. He knew they wouldn't be a match for me.

"I trust this will not be happening again," I said, and he nodded before I let go of his hand, fully healed. "Let's go," I said to them and took off, not waiting for them to get their bearings as they scrambled to take off.

I moved at a comparatively leisurely pace as we made our way to the capital. The genin still struggled to keep up, but that was their fault, not mine. Not even theirs, I thought to myself, as I looked at the pathetic excuse for a jounin that served as their sensei. I knew I'd gotten stronger, but the me from two years ago would probably have beaten him with ease if I didn't bother with holding back on my sand use. It really struck home then just how weak Suna was. Weakest of the Great Five, and I could see it. We were pretty much a jacked-up minor village at this point. Sure, we were stronger than the minor villages, but against any of the other five, I gave us negative odds in war. Even with me at the helm. The other villages, with the exception of Konoha, had their own powerful jinchuriki. They all had two apiece, and I had faith in myself, but not so much as to think I'd be beating two fully trained Jinchuriki anytime soon. Even Konoha, without a jinchuriki prepped for war, had their S-rank monsters. Kakashi, Gai, Jiraiya, and Tsunade. Each one of them would beat the living shit out of me. Against all that, I was Suna's best weapon. In a year, the only ninja stronger than me in the village would be Rasa. Yup. Suna was fucked. Extremely fucked unless someone with good sense and an understanding of what it took to get stronger was at the helm. That was my manifesto.

XXXXXX

Two of the Daimyo's guardian ninja waited for me at the capital's gate, and I was quick to fall in step with them, not bothering to say goodbye to the clowns from Suna. They led me in without a word, and we body flickered to the palace. They moved with no warning and expected me to follow suit and track them. Not a minute here, and they were already testing me. I did my best to not fail, and when we arrived at the capital, I was given a room to wait in. Apparently, the Daimyo wasn't interested in meeting me until tomorrow when we would set off.

I took up the lotus position and meditated for a few hours until I managed to gain a level in the skill, and then I made my way out of the room, the palace, and into the capital. It was a sprawling metropolis, and I spent my time getting used to the place and just enjoying the atmosphere.

The first store I was even vaguely interested in was a silk merchant's. He called me in with aplomb, "Young Shinobi, I have just what you need," he said, and I let him pull me in, taking a look around the place.

"The best Aburame silk, right here," he said, waving to a few lines of silk. I felt them to be sure and nodded. I'd read a few books on the economies of the ninja villages, and one of Konoha's major luxury exports was Aburame silk. It was expensive as hell, but it resisted most wear and tear and was very breathable, ensuring it was favored by nobles in all the hotter parts of the world.

It was also useful for ninjas, but most didn't bother with the luxury. It was poor armor, not comparable to the multiple layers of cloth ninjas preferred to have their own outfits made out of. You could do the same thing with silk, but that was just a senseless level of luxury. So if he knew I was a ninja, why the hell was he calling me in here?

I lifted an eyebrow at him as he showed me all the colors he had, talking up the utility of the silk, and I cut in before he could talk himself hoarse. "Ninjas don't wear silk," I said, and he looked back at me before coughing.

"That was the older silk. This is much thicker," he said, showing me the material, and I hummed appreciatively.

"Still not as thick as ninja cloth," I said, and he nodded before countering, "Much more comfortable, though." A good point from him. I wanted it, but I was slowed down by the thought that I'd be buying clothing for the second time in as many days. I could probably afford it, but this wouldn't qualify as a reasonable expenditure to anyone with an ounce of business sense.

"Maybe next time. Thank you," I said, ignoring his disappointment and making my way from the store. I was serious with my statement, though. I'd return to the capital in a year, and by then I'd be in need of new clothes.

After his store, I moved on deeper into the market, and now that I was aware of it, I noticed just how many imported goods were for sale in the capital. I could only spot two stores selling entirely indigenous products. The rest of them had some foreign attraction or another. Not a bad thing by itself, but the entire thing was beginning to rub me the wrong way. It was almost like the entire land of Wind was similarly in a perilous situation as the rest of Suna. Why did I say so? The stores were filled with products, but apart from the odd noble, very few people were actually buying non-essentials. I'd never claim to be a master of economics, but that couldn't be a good sign.

With curiosity burning in my belly, I moved through the market and continued to explore the capital. I passed through the first set of inner walls and found myself in a drastically different area. When the Guardians had led me to the palace, we'd been moving too quickly for me to get a good look, so now that I could, it wasn't good. Not even a kilometer out of the inner city, and I was already beginning to see residences that looked on the verge of becoming slums. The streets were clean but also dirty at the same time, almost like no matter what the street cleaners did, there was just a persistent layer of grime on these streets. I walked past homes that looked rundown and homes that would never be mistaken for homes if one couldn't see the signs of habitation. It was bad. Looking at this, it was clear Suna had it easy. We didn't have poverty like this. Sure, we had poor people, but no one was forced to sleep in the streets without a roof over their heads. As I kept walking deeper into the city, I wondered how this had been allowed to happen.

The nobility wasn't poor. My account balance could say that. I received more from my noble grandfather in a month than the average chunin made in a year. Trust me, I'd done the math. I received enough for sixty average-paying C-ranked missions every month, and I wasn't even a member of the main line. If the nobles were that rich and were clearly only getting richer, then how could things be so bad for the rest of the city? I mean, I knew how things could get so bad, but wasn't this the kind of shit that sparked revolution? Where was the revolution? When three playing children ran into me before running away, I resisted the urge to laugh as I watched them turn the corner only to realize they hadn't gotten anything and I'd instead taken their own money.

I looked through the purse containing their loot and sighed before appearing in their midst. "Sorry, Mr. Shinobi, Sir," one of them shouted in fear, and the remaining two looked like they were about to shit themselves.

I just chuckled before throwing their money purse at them. When they opened it, I was already gone. I'd filled it with all the money I had on me, probably enough for them to survive for a while if they were wise about it. If they weren't, I'd done my part to help their situation.

I turned around, having seen more than enough to satisfy whatever curiosity I had about the situation in the capital. The poverty was sad. It was terrible, but it wasn't my business in reality. What was my business was that I had to reevaluate my plans on how I was going to get Suna out of the funk it found itself in. My former plan had involved essentially renegotiating whatever deals Rasa had with the Daimyo, with the knowledge that I would do whatever it took to get a better deal. I'd thought it was just a matter of the Daimyo having some beef with Rasa, but now it was beginning to look like whatever I did to fix Suna would have to originate entirely from within. The fact that it would be harder to fix things actually made me more excited to take the throne. An enemy I couldn't just punch to oblivion. The challenge would be interesting, at the very least.

My mind was already brimming with ideas. Bounty hunting? I remembered that lots of ninjas had really high bounties on them in canon, and that would be fun. Most of them belonged to villages, but that could be worked around. Even good old-fashioned warmongering was always said to be profitable. That would be fun. Just say "fuck you" to canon for shits and giggles.

A/N; In we go. Fire in the hole.