Let it be said, that merely having good observational abilities did not necessarily mean that one would make a good spy.
I had waited until nightfall, when I was certain that Gato would be asleep. Climbing out of my bed, I turned my gaze immediately to my bedsheet, which, thanks to the king-sized bed I was using, was fairly large. From then on, my gaze turned towards the long flowing curtains in the room, and then towards the window.
Yup. I was doing that.
Item:
King-Sized Bedsheet
A long flowing, plain white bedsheet – designed to make sure there's no hiding stains.
Tear to Get – x50 Cloth
Item:
Long Curtains
Designed to hide your privacy – or shield the world from it.
Tear to Get – x20 Cloth
A few seconds of grabbing and tying, and I had 'crafted' something completely new.
Crafting Attempt Successful!
Crafted Item:
Rope
A somewhat stable rope tied with strong knots and easily covering twenty feet.
I opened the windows, shuddering at the rush of cold air which rushed in. Staring down, I had already estimated the total height to be at least thirty feet. I didn't let it bother me though, as I took a deep breath and let the rope fall.
I attatched the other end to something extremely sturdy, which was of course, my bed, and just like that, I performed an escape fantasy that I had only seen in movies and never once imagined could happen in real life. Climbing down the rope, I made sure to avoid making any noises that would give me away, and it took me a few seconds before I ran out of rope, and then stared down at the ground floor below me.
Not good. The distance was apparently an eight foot drop.
Sighing, I turned my attention to the wall.
"Too much and you blast off, too little and you slip off."
The rules of the tree-walking technique echoed softly on my lips, except, with my limited chakra reserves, then blasting off was not going to be an issue in the slightest. Gingerly, I placed one foot on the wall, and then the second one, and then I closed my eyes, and felt, drawing deep from within me, the power which allowed people to spit on physics and to manipulate the laws of gravity like a pubescent child molding clay.
I stuck.
Congratulatons, you have gained the –
I ignored the notification telling me about how I had gained the tree walking skill, in exchange for immediately running down the side of the building, as I could feel my chakra reserves drain like as though a legion of vampires had sunk their metaphorical fangs into my veins and sucked like I was juice box. Four seconds later, I landed on the ground in a low crouch, gingerly remembering to apply the chakra to try and soften my landing.
The first step was complete, which was escaping my room, now, came the hardest part. The cold breeze was absolutely ridiculous, but, I toughened it out and then made my way forward, as it dawned on me that though I had escaped the mansion, I was still within its immediate premises.
"Observe."
My eyes widened.
"Well, fuck."
Though I left the mansion, I was still within the compound, and the compound was insanely large, nearly the size of a bloody football stadium, with the walls at the farthest ends easily reaching twenty-feet, barb-wired and electric. The compound consisted of large open space in the manner of an open plains, and this, along with its massive walls and gates, were all meant to shinobi-proof the place, as the flat and level grounds and lack of any obstruction or proper hiding place, meant that there was absolutely no way for you to cross the compound without being seen.
And this was just the topographical challenge, there was also the other challenge which came in the form of actual opposition.
Compound Security Detail:
Ten Average Patrol Guards
Three Elite Patrol Guards
Fifteen Patrol Hounds
Hounds. Aka – vicious guard dogs that were the breed most likely to bite first and ask questions later. There were fifteen of these things patrolling the place, and I was in the body of a malnourished four year old boy that could barely outpace a feline hopped up on catnip.
With that in mind, I realized there was only one thing I could do.
You have abandoned the mission.
Climbing back up to my room, I removed the sheets from the window, shut it to hide from the freezing cold, hopped back into my bed and went to sleep.
S - O - G
Year Four, Month Three
"Up! Up brat! Today's the day you get to see how I run my business in person!"
The third month of my fourth year in this world had started with the familiar site of a rotund man spurring me out of bed with the familiar sound of a belt smacking against a wall. It was annoying as to how Gato of all people had me primed like a Pavlov dog, as merely hearing the sound of something or anything smacking, immediately sent a rush of adrenaline into my body and made me react or attempt to escape on sheer instinct.
"Oh, and don't forget to put on your good clothes boy."
I rose an eyebrow at him. "I didn't realize shipment workers were fashion critics."
"It's not for the workers you fool. It's for the people."
"Oh that's much better. Can't have those starving folk possessing any hope of ever being as wealthy as a four-year old now can I?"
I was not surprised when Gato actually smirked. "You're learning boy, that's good."
Rolling my eyes, I held my tongue from making any more snarks, simply because I would finally get to leave the mansion today. There was no need to say something which would deprive me of that privilege.
A few minutes spent bathing and brushing, and some more minutes spent eating breakfast, our moment of departure finally came via fanciful horse carriages, and the gargantuan gates swinging open for the first time.
New Location Discovered!
Mizu no Kuni!
This was how I got to learn that Gato, and I by association, originated from the Land of Water. It made some sense, considering that he owned a shipping conglomerate, and it also made some sense as to why he would favor rogue shinobi from the Hidden Mist. He was the type of man who had subtle biases in that manner.
"You've got your head in the clouds again boy."
I allowed my eyes to sharpen as I pointedly put as much faux swagger into my posture as I could. I heard some snickering from some of Gato's bodyguards who rode beside and in front of the carriage. They were hired muscle, but loyal hired muscle. The difference however, was that these men did not look anything like the local thugs and bandits I had assumed Gato associated with. No, in their odd kimonos, elegant katanas and long straw hats, it was easy to realize that Gato had Ronin as his bodyguards.
Not quite up to the caliber of elite shinobi, but definitely leagues above mere bandits, and all effectively at least Low-Chunin to Low-Jonin level.
"He seems to be a rather smart lad."
The man who had made the comment, had drawn my attention, my eyes flickering to the side and utilizing Observe on what was now an ingrained instinct.
Name: Kitami Hiro
Title: The Final Gate
Level: 45
Age: 36
Rank: Ronin (B–)
Occupation: Elite Bodyguard
Bio
Kitami Hiro is an experienced ronin, or a rogue samurai from Tetsu no Kuni, the Land of Iron. He, along with a group of forty six others were unknowingly sent on a suicide mission to stop an S-rank shinobi beyond their capabilities, all in service of their Daimyo. However, only thirteen of them, Kitami included, managed to escape with their lives. Homeless, angry and betrayed, he was eventually met and recruited by Gato in order to serve as the leader of his personal body guard squad – The Fourteen Gates.
If there was ever any doubt in my mind that the world I was in was the farthest thing from canon, this, right here, proved it. The slender, dark-haired, bearded man in a dark blue kimono-esque robe and two katanas attached to each side, just proved my point that I should not rely on conceptions from 'canon'. For starters, Gato never had anybody that looked this capable in his employ, but had instead used his money to hire a bunch of ragtag thugs that could be bested by Academy Students. It had always slightly bothered me, to be honest, as it made no sense as to why a man as rich as Gato would have cut costs so much when it came to something as important as his own protection. He struck me as the sort of person who would rather go bankrupt than die, because if he was dead, then he wouldn't be able to use any of his money in the first place.
This was how I slowly arrived at the realization that this Gato was not only more ruthless, he was smarter.
We rode to the docks in a carriage, and I only ever so often pushed aside the curtains of the horse-driven vehicle to stare at the scenery of the environment. The Land of Water, or Mizu no Kuni, definitely had the right name. The trees were luscious and evergreen because the sky was constantly cloudy and weepy, and it was as though the sun had long since retreated from the land. The weather was often cold and chilly, the mornings were filled with heavy fogs and the nights were below freezing, meaning that anyone stupid enough to stay outside at night in Mizu no Kuni would be doing their best impression of a corpse the following morning.
We lived in one of Mizu no Kuni's port cities, a little bit off from the capital, and from the tidbits and snippets of information I could hear around me, and which was compiled by my passive "ABC's" I realized that the Water Daimyo had given Gato full reign to spread his influence along the tiny port town however he so wished.
"I'm curious," I said, turning my attention back to my 'dearest' father as the ride continued "Why'd you suddenly decide that today was the day to let me out?"
Gato snorted. "Burying your nose in books all day isn't going to cut it. It's good, but you need hands on experience to finally get things moving."
My nose crinkled. "I get that." I said, leaning back and ignoring a particular nasty bump on the road, "but why now? Out of the blue? On a whim? What happened that made you realize that I needed to get some hands on experience, now."
Most people would have been marveled by a four-year old being that perceptive, but Gato was not amongst most people.
"Nosy brat," he said, before scoffing. Then, I noticed his lips twitch, as though he was debating whether or not to tell me something, before he finally came to a decision.
"Well, if you must know – I also have some… other business that needs to be taken care off… and you – well –" He grinned, he grinned a massive, nasty type of grin that I knew well, considering that it was the grin he wore right before his predatory gaze fell upon my previous wet nurses "– you're going to handle it for me."
Well… fuck.
~~~~~~~~~~~~SOG
Gato's Shipping Business was, at the surface, an entirely legitimate business.
As I stood at the shipping docks which he owned and managed, I could spot from passenger ships which served as a medium of transportation from this port city to other cities or key areas in Mizu no Kuni, to serving as a means out of the Land of Water. People bustled patiently or impatiently on these ships, stopping at regulated checkpoints which were guarded by what I assumed were some form of samurai-police task keeping force. I took it that these individuals were the equivalent of immigration services or border patrol.
Moving forward, I could spot smaller ships, these ones were apparently ships that were used exclusively for fishing ventures, and as much as I wished I possessed more nautical knowledge and lingo, I did not, and hence, I referred to them as what I perceived them to be, which were ships that was filled to the brim with nets and the familiar aquatic creatures, flopping around on deck or in their various containers of captivity.
Finally, heading deeper in, we got to the parts that held large cargo ships, containing various rectangular containers and crates of varying sizes, this was one of the major ways in which Gato attained his income. The ships contained goods ranging from tobacco, to spices, to food items, to steels and metals, to precious ores, and on and on. Gato Shipping distributed these essentials or materials across the numerous countries, and such as one which caught my attention, which was a shipment of grains and spices that was heading to Yuki no Kuni, or, the Land of Snow.
Considering how that nation was covered majorly by ice and snow, it made sense that they would import food from other countries. There was even a shipment that was labelled Sunagakure no Sato, which had made me raise an eyebrow in confusion, until Observe informed me that the shipment would land at a dock in the Land of Wind and be offloaded to shinobi, who would then transport it safely back to their village.
Gato Shipping distributed everywhere and to everyone, which made me seriously wonder how in the world someone like Kakashi had failed to know who Gato was in 'canon'. Shaking my head at the thought, I took my time to take in the smell of the fresh sea breeze, and took some further time for Economic Observation to take in all the information I had gathered so far, and convert it into a simple interactive format.
"Can you see this boy? From here and down on until the horizon, all of it, is mine."
I blinked. Wait, was Gato about to give me the 'all that the light touches is yours' speech?
He turned to me, patting me on the shoulder, an action which made me stumble slightly.
"One day, it will be yours, and your son's, and his son's, and on and on it goes – the name Gato, echoed endlessly as the king and ruler of all the seas, forever!"
He turned his gaze back to me.
"Now, boy, you learn the basics."
New Features Unlocked!
Management Panel
Gato Shipping Company – Level 1
The largest shipping empire in the elemental nations is at your fingertips to majestically develop or completely destroy as you so wish.
Tutorial
The Gato Shipping Company makes its money via the transportation of people, goods and services across the seas, to distant countries.
The longer the distance and the rarer the goods being transferred, the more the lucrative the deal. (E.G. Distributing vegetables and fish to the Land of Wind/Sunagakure)
The closer the distance and the commoner the goods, the less lucrative the deal. (E.G. Distributing vegetables and fish to Land of Fire/Konohagakure)
Trade Contracts are issued by Daimyo Courts, Kages, and Other Respective Village Leaders.
You can generate your own Trade Contracts, or supply/demand goods from countries and villages which you possess Trade Treaties or are otherwise allied with you.
Additionally, you can make investments in countries that you are allied with, in exchange for eventual benefits or materials naturally provided by those countries. (E.G. Investing in the Land of Fire will earn you large supplies of strong, great-quality Flickerwood.)
Making the right investments, or the right trade deals will not only unlock new benefits, Quests, and exclusive rewards, but also have a massive effect on the world in General, and can even cause great, irreversible changes. (E.G. What do you think would happen if the Land of Wind no longer had access to grains or vegetables?)
Additionally, [Illegal] trades exist, which allows you to trade in materials barred or banned by certain or all countries in the Elemental Nations. These are extremely lucrative, but will however, earn you the ire, hatred or loathing of several countries, and possess heavy, often irreversible repercussions.
Countries and Contracts
This shows the countries and your current relationship status with them, as well as the current contracts you possess. The contracts range from Basic – Advanced – Intricate – Immersive – Mutually Beneficial Treaty.
Land of Fire – [Neutral] – Basic Contract
Land of Wind – [Neutral] – Basic Contract
Land of Water – [Amicable] – Advanced Contract
Land of Lightning – [Neutral] – Basic Contract
Land of Earth – [Neutral] – Basic Contract
Land of Iron – [Disliked] – No Contract
Land of Snow – [Neutral] – Basic Contract
Land of Bears – [Neutral] – No Contract
Land of Tea – [Neutral] – No Contract
It was a lot of information to deal with, especially considering how Gato was dragging me by the arm as he made sure that I listened to him while he ratted off information that had already been fed to me far easier by my gaming interface. All through it, my mind was racking, ideas, unbidden began to form, newer and newer ones and even greater ones combined with my previous knowledge.
If I cut off supply to Land of Wind?
It would create an artificial scarcity of food items and important necessities, contributing to a group of factors that will jump-start the Suna invasion of Konoha nearly a decade earlier. Except, Orochimaru hasn't established Otogakure yet, which meant that Suna would look for another partner to back them up, and if that partner happened to be another of the Big Five, say, Iwagakure?
I'd have started the Fourth Shinobi War – twelve to eleven years early.
Without ever having thrown a single jutsu.
I would have begun laughing like a maniac at the realization of just how much power was at my fingertips, had it not been for the fact that a rough hand smacked into the back of my head.
–4HP!
"Pay attention boy! I'm not going to repeat any of this!"
Eagerly, to Gato's surprise, and probable confusion, I nodded, listened, and watched, as I realized, that I was going to take over the Naruto world using good ol' fashioned…
Economics.
Several hours and more information added into Gato's crash course, I realized that I couldn't simply just back out of a deal with an entire nation without them probably searching for another means of shipping, but, the beauty of it, was the fact that Gato owned a significant amount of ports, meaning, essentially, he had a monopoly. Hence, any other shipping company that intended on doing business would have to go through him, which was the equivalent of them landing on the green houses, and then the blue hotels, finding themselves unable to pay the ridiculously jacked up prices, and eventually heading straight to jail without passing Go.
As I stared back at the man, watching him go off on some information about the distribution of rice, I couldn't help but wonder if he was even aware of just how badly he could utterly cripple and destroy entire nations. It also made me wonder, or consider, how utterly impossible it would be, for someone with this much power, to station himself at Nami no Kuni, hire two less-than-reputable missing nin, and squabble over the life of a bridge-builder.
I shook my head at that notion, and instead, focused back on my interface, which was now a mix and mash of Sim-City and what I could recognize as the Assassin's Creed management option, particularly, the one from Assassin's Creed III, which allowed me to send out ships filled to the brim with cargo, down either potentially dangerous routes which were shorter, or through longer safer routes.
However, when my eyes tracked over to the amount of money I had –
"Oi! Oi! Boy! What the hell's wrong with you?"
"He fainted!"
"You! Get my son some water right this instant!"
My mind blurred out all other sound, over the sweet, sweet mindnumbing mantra of –
So many zeroes.
~~~~~~~~~ SOG ~~~~~~~~~
Walking through the town had been difficult.
"Heh – never seen this side of life before have you brat?"
With all of the major work done at the port, Gato had decided that it would be time to go handle his 'other' business, and this had required us to walk down the streets of Waterlily Town, the port town in which he possessed complete and utter influence.
"P-please – some food – just – provide me with some food –"
I had barely noticed the boy that had clutched unto my ankle, his form tattered, his body bonier and skinnier than anything I could imagine, and there was that look in his eyes – a look of sheer and utter desperation, a look of someone who had gazed into the depths of hell and laughed because the flames were a solace. I had never actually seen such eyes before, and, before I could as much as utter a response, the Ronin at my side appeared, his feet swung out, catching the beggar boy in the ribs, and sending him soaring away from me like a grown man would kick aside a kitten.
"Tsk! Don't let them touch you – you'll catch some of their filth."
I swallowed my suddenly dry throat.
Everywhere my eyes turned, I could see it, smell it, hear it – poverty, starvation, sickness, disease, hunger – the darkest depths of human suffering encapsulated into a tiny mix-and-match ensemble. From the beggars on the streets, to the sharp-eyed pickpockets, to the cut throats, to even the fully grown women dressed in short skirts and revealing tops, gum in mouth and cigarette in lips, with eyes that leered in my direction shamelessly.
"Oh, come on now little boy~! I'll show you a real good time!"
"Beat it whore!" one of my father's guards said, pushing the woman to the ground.
"Oh, don't worry – we'll have a real good time yeah? Of course, you understand that this is going to be on the house… heh heh."
I ignored the sound of the woman's rebuttal, and likewise ignored the sound of the slaps that echoed, and the sounds of the men who were meant to protect me, descending upon her.
It was infuriating, irritating, because these people weren't real!
They were not real!
All of this, all of it was just someone's imagination running its course – they were suffering because someone had created Gato, and decided that Gato's influence brought upon the impoverishment and suffering of others. All of this, it was predestined, preordained – and as such, I had no obligation to help them, to help a bunch of unimportant extras who were there for the sole purpose of giving the world a hint of realism.
Except…
I grit my teeth.
All of it… felt so… so… real.
"Stop."
My father, along with the other few guards, were all staring at me.
I didn't care though, I stood in front of the two thugs, my gaze struck predominantly on them. These weren't the elite ronin my father hired, but just normal, extra-muscle thugs. They both turned to stare at me, likewise did the unfortunate prostitute who had been stripped of her top, her breasts hanging in the air, and her skirt now in pieces.
"Boy, what in the world do you think you're doing?"
I didn't avert my gaze. "If they want to have a good time, then pay the woman, and make sure she agrees to it."
The two men turned to stare at each other.
Then, one snickered.
Just like that, a burst of laughter escaped from their lips, from all of their lips, thug and ronin alike, loud, rancorous laughter at my expense. I didn't stop staring at them though, as my eyes rolled over their plain features, their dull brown clothes and plain black hair, their machetes put in place at the side of their pants, and their other information. The left one was Level 9, and the right one was Level 10 – Ping and Yoshi were their names.
"I think you have something mixed up, Junior-sama," Ping hissed out the honorific as though it were a curse "But, this is the way things work around here. Your father allows us have what we want, when we want it, and how we want it. And right now, we want this whore."
I tilted my head, not blinking, not redirecting my gaze.
"And I say, if you want her, pay her, and then ask her."
Yoshi snorted. "And if we don't? What're you going to do, run to your father and beg him to make us stop?"
"No." The word escaped my lips like ice. "I'm not my father. I'll handle it my way."
The two men, Yoshi, talentless thug, and Ping, notorious thief, glanced back at each other, and then smirked.
"Well then, if that's the case –"
Ping pinned the woman down.
I moved.
The thing was, I had no training, that is, no formal shinobi training, but, unlike these two, I had chakra. Chakra was the cheat sheet for physical development, and despite being a small, four year old boy, despite possessing laughable strength and negligible combat ability, they had not expected me.
A brief burst of chakra was all I needed, ignoring how my CHK Bar near-emptied from the action as I was in between the two men. They turned to me, eyes wide, but I had replayed it in my mind over and over, and Ping could not react before I detached his blade from its sheath, raw adrenaline pumping through my body as I swung it in an arc.
INITIATIVE ATTACK!
CRITICAL HIT!
CRITICAL HIT!
Fatal Damage!
Idly, I ignored the gurgling sounds that came out from their throats in favor of wondering why blood always had the thick odor of copper. It would also be annoying to eventually get the heavy splash stains off my robes, but considering I did not do my own laundry, I suppose I could not truly care.
There was a pounding in my ears, even as right hand which gripped the blade felt inexplicably cold and moist, yet, strangely, as I watched the disbelieving looks of the two men, the sounds of the gurgles echoing louder in the complete ambient silence, I searched for some moral conundrum, for some part of me which screamed at the act I had committed, and instead, all I found, was slow, increasing, satisfaction.
Two bodies dropped to the ground beside a frightened prostitute, and I flicked the blood of the plain, Regular Steel Blade as I grabbed the sheath from the body of the dying Ping, whose eyes still stared up at me in disbelief.
"Thank you," I said, managing my lips into a smile "For being so stupid."
{22/10} Charisma Check Passed!
I sheathed the blade amidst further silence, before turning back to the woman, and raising an eyebrow.
"Leave. And next time – don't do stupid things." I gestured to the dead bodies. "It never end well."
The woman scurried away faster than I thought possible, and I held my new trophy in my hand as I turned back to my father and the rest of his guards.
"Ah, that felt good to get off my chest. Now, where were we heading to again?"
Special Event Completed!
Birth of the Cutthroat
You have attained a special weapon – Firstblood Sword!
Reputation with Gato Increased!
Reputation with the Fourteen Gates Increased!
Reputation with the people of Waterlily Port Town Increased!
Title Unlocked – Little Cutthroat!
Achievement Unlocked – One Hit Kill
Achievement Unlocked – Goliath, Meet David
Fame Increased!
Infamy Increased!
You have gained 2500EXP!
You have leveled up!
Level 1 Level 2!
You have (7) undistributed stat points.
It said a lot about the type of environment I lived in, that my casual murder of two men, was immediately received with warm, open hands, and genuine, impressed smiles.
"Hahahaha! That's my boy!"
The manner in which Gato ruffled my hair and uttered those words made me feel like I was Spike being patted on the head by Butch, simply for chasing Tom up a tree. Strangely enough, I was completely okay with this.
Hmm… could I become a serial killer in this manner?
Wait, most shinobi were already serial killers by default, so even I gathered up all the pedophiles I could find and slit their throats, no one would bat an eyelash.
Meh, I'd stick with my plan of fucking up the world's economy.
First things first though – my eyes scanned the ridiculously atrocious city which I technically 'owned', and I shook my head.
Yeah… no. It would be best to have people worship the ground upon which I walked, and treating me like I was a deity sent from Kami directly, than for them to live in poverty and suffering, and cursing out my name from the streets. The French Revolution was a prime example of just what would happen if Gato continued to step on the toes of the poor people with nothing to lose.
I was certain that this tale, of me 'standing up for' a useless, no-named, prostitute would immediately spread from the woman's lips, to the lips of others in her business, to the lips of the locals, and just like that, I would have started to integrate myself as the people's champion.
Had I actually cared about the whore's plight?
Pft. No.
She was a prostitute – she already slept with men for a living, why in the world should I care if two people decided that they didn't want to pay her or ask her for services she already diligently offered?
But, of course, the people around me believed that I cared – and that was the entire point.
I grinned.
It was all a matter of time.
S - O - G
"To think, that I had actually once believed that my son was a spineless bookworm who couldn't hurt a fly!"
I sighed, pinching my nose, and not responding in lieu of the smell of human excreta.
"Do humans always shit themselves when they die?"
"Actually," Kitami Hiro, Gato's elite guard squad leader spoke up, "I think these ones shit themselves before they died."
Gato smirked. "Serves the cowards right. To think that they actually believed that they could get away with stealing from me? Bah!"
"I get the whole 'execute the traitors' thing, but was there any particular reason why you had me kill all of them?"
He shrugged. "I wanted to mold you into a man who could do what needed to be done in this shitty, dog-eat-dog world of ours. I never expected you to be so good at it though."
"They were tied up, crying, and begging about how they have wives or children. Even a dog could have dragged the sword across their necks – I don't see how that makes me good at killing."
Hiro dumped a body into the slowly growing pile. "You didn't hesitate. It was one thing to see you kill what you assumed to be rapists, and another thing to kill begging, sniveling men and women."
I coughed, as fire was set to the pile of bodies. "They weren't innocent people."
Hiro rose an eyebrow. "Because they stole from your father?"
The smell of burning meat hit my nostrils. "No."
I couldn't particularly tell them that one had been an abusive husband who got off on beating his wife into submission and watching her cry, and one woman had been a black widower who married and poisoned eight husbands and their children to get their inheritances. Probably because I wasn't supposed to know this, but I did, courtesy of my Observe skill, and it made it relatively easier to kill fictional characters, when you had their rap sheet of evil deeds and crimes right in front of you.
A shame that I only got 1EXP per head though. Still, 21EXP wasn't all that bad for a few minutes of work.
"Alright!" Gato clapped his hands. "I believe that covers most of what we can do for today. You did good work Junior, very good. I've got some business and expansion opportunities that'll be taking me to the Land of Earth next month. When that time comes, I'll be confident to leave Waterlily Town in your care."
Hiro glanced at him, and then back at me. "Gato-sama, most people would find it extremely odd to leave such responsibility to a child that is less than half a decade old."
Gato shrugged. "That's their bloody business. After what I've seen today, and taking into account Junior's book smarts – I trust him more than I do any of these so called managers."
"I'm still here you know."
"Of course," Gato then grinned at me, "I'll leave Hiro here with you. We have to make sure you're protected from those savages in the village, and also, we have to make sure that those damned foggers don't try anything funny with their war heating up down south."
I rose an eyebrow, turning to Hiro. "Foggers?"
"He means the shinobi from Kirigakure no Sato. That's a derogatory term by the way, I'd advise you not to say it near any of them if you like your head attached to your neck."
The image of particular man with a giant butcher knife flashed into my mind.
I rubbed my neck slowly. "Duly noted."
Gato snorted. "The foggers know better than to attack civilian cities under the Daimyo's control. Their little civil war would end the second they did that, as it doesn't matter who attacked, just that shinobi did – and like that, the Daimyo would remove all thier funding, send in his samurai and hire help from foreign villages if need be, and put every last one of them in the ground."
Huh. Well that explained that. I had always wondered why the Kage in villages humored the Daimyo, when they had super-ninja powers and the Daimyo were just plain old men. Turns out, ninja villages don't necessarily produce any consumables that can be sold, or at least, they don't produce it in enough quantity for them to be self-sufficient. The Daimyo was the one who provided major funds to the shinobi villages, and without them or the civilians who hired shinobi, well – their entire economy would collapse in days.
Of course, the Kiri civil war would never turn in that direction, because it was really Obito angsting out about how Kirigakure killed his childhood crush, and as such, he decided it would be justified to completely destroy the lives and homes of dozens of innocents who had nothing to do with any of it.
Wow. Sounds really pathetic when you think about it – and doubly more so when you realized that this guy who masterminded the closest thing to a genocide, eventually died a 'forgiven' and 'changed' man, redeemed, happy, and got to meet his childhood crush in the afterlife.
All those nameless extras that died at his machinations? Well, they don't matter, he's forgiven and happy, after creating dozens of widowers, widows and orphans.
Total. Bullshit.
Alright, it seemed that I was going to have to interfere in the Bloodline Purges. Even if I couldn't end it completely, I was certainly sure I could manage to mitigate some of the damages. Which led me to staring back at my status screen.
Name: Gato Junior
HP: 100/100
CHK: 10/10
Level: 2
Age: 4
Rank: Civilian
Title: Little Cutthroat
EXP: 2521/3000
SPECIAL
Strength: 4 (-2) [E– Rank]
Perseverance: 6 (-2) [E– Rank]
Endurance: 6 (-2) [E– Rank]
Charisma: 2 (+20) [D– Rank]
Intelligence: 4 (+20) [D– Rank]
Agility: 4 (-2) [E– Rank]
Luck: 0 [F Rank]
Status
Buffs:
N/A
Debuffs:
(Malnourished: -2 penalty to Strength, Perseverance and Endurance)
Foils:
(Strong Civilian Heritage: Possesses less Chakra than the average human, 60% harder to increase Chakra reserves)
(Son of the Monster: –50% Reputation Gains with Civilians.)
(Machiavellian Principle: –50% Reputation Gains with Honorable or Good Characters, +50% Reputation Gains with Amoral or Evil Characters)
Boons:
(Arithmetic Prodigy: Grants +20 to Intelligence)
(Utilitarian Principle: Grants +20 to Charisma)
(Size Matters: Grants Perfect Chakra Control if Chakra reserves are less than or equal to available Health Points.)
Bio
Gato Junior, or Gat, or Junior, is the son of the prominent, but often amoral Business Tycoon Gato, and the sole heir to the Gato Shipping Conglomerate. Possessing a brilliant mind, a flair to be overly dramatic and pointlessly deep, he believes himself to be a genuine psychopath who will take over the world, enslave its women and become a God-Emperor.
All at once, I paused.
Wait, why was I going to try and stop the Bloodline Purges? Weren't these just fictional characters? 'Fake' people in an equally 'fake' world? What did it matter that hundreds of random nobodies died? How did it affect me?
"Come on, let's head home. We have big things to plan for Junior, lots of big things."
I shook my head, ignoring the whim as it had come. There was no need for me to do anything that would interfere in that. I saw no need for me to bother risking my life, as I was, four years old, all in the name of the lives of a bunch of nobodies.
Maybe when I grew older, but then again, maybe not.
For now, I'd bide my time. I'd think and play smart, rather than acting like those traditional gamers who wanted to rule the world with their fists. No, I'd be the man who conquered the world with nothing more than pen and paper.
I'd win this blasted game – or I'd die trying.