"Ah?" Sarutobi Kagejiro hurriedly fell silent, then said softly, "Shinnosuke, I didn't mean that."
The normally arrogant Sarutobi Kagejiro now looked like a mouse meeting a cat, completely suppressed by Sarutobi Shinnosuke.
Though they were of the same generation and Sarutobi Kagejiro was ten years older than Sarutobi Shinnosuke, he was still being thoroughly dominated. It seemed the Sarutobi Clan's reputation for having the weakest member of its generation was not unfounded.
"You won't apologize? Then when we get home, we'll spar one-on-one."
"No! Shinnosuke, please spare me! I just said it casually."
The moment Sarutobi Kagejiro heard the words "spar one-on-one," he frantically shook his head, his eyes filled with fear. Evidently, such sparring had not been pleasant for him, and it had even left him with some psychological trauma.
However, Sarutobi Kagejiro considered himself noble. How could he possibly apologize—especially to a lowborn fishmonger? Thus, even under Sarutobi Shinnosuke's forceful pressure, he stubbornly refused to yield.
Seeing that the two were deadlocked, Umino Sasuke interjected, "Shinnosuke, there's no need for an apology."
"Hmph!" Sarutobi Kagejiro brightened at once, looking utterly pleased with himself.
But after Umino Sasuke finished speaking, he continued, "However, deserting before battle and treating mission intelligence as a joke by changing his story cannot go unpunished. Otherwise, wouldn't that be encouraging people to break the rules of Konoha Ninja?"
"Mm! You're right. He can't go unpunished."
Sarutobi Shinnosuke nodded repeatedly in firm agreement. "Senior, then how should he be punished?"
"Make him stay here to fill the gap in Aoba Squad's defense zone and take over this sentry patrol mission. As for the intelligence, Shinnosuke can deliver it back in Kagejiro's place."
After saying this, Umino Sasuke looked toward Akimichi Toribo, clearly intending for him to make the decision.
"Huh?" Akimichi Toribo's eyes lit up as he rapidly calculated in his heart. This was a great suggestion—a perfect chance to piggyback on some Mission Merit Points.
The only issue was that it might look like he was stealing credit.
No, how was this stealing credit?
Even if it was, Shinnosuke would be the one taking Kagejiro's credit. Shinnosuke was the young clan head of the Sarutobi Clan, so this was entirely an internal matter of their clan. If this arrangement went through, the Sarutobi Clan might even thank him for handling it so tactfully.
Umino Sasuke added at just the right moment, "Yoru, what do you think about having Shinnosuke bring the intelligence back with you?"
"This—"
Gekko Yoru carefully considered it. From the conversation between Shinnosuke and Kagejiro just now, Shinnosuke was clearly far stronger than Kagejiro. Having Shinnosuke escort the intelligence back with him would certainly be safer.
Besides, the camp was not far away, and this was the suggestion of the man who had saved his life. There was no reason to refuse.
Since Gekko Yoru had agreed, there was nothing more for Akimichi Toribo to say. Naturally, Shinnosuke would deliver the intelligence in Kagejiro's stead. As for safety on the road, Maruboshi Kosuke could simply leave behind a Shadow Clone. The camp was nearby anyway; a round trip would take less than half a day.
And so, the matter was happily settled, with Sarutobi Kagejiro as the only one who suffered.
He could only stand there, a mess in the wind.
Akimichi Toribo patted Umino Sasuke's shoulder in satisfaction and smiled. "Sasuke, then what about the distribution of Mission Merit Points?"
"Everything will be arranged according to Lord Toribo's wishes. However, when we intercepted those Sunagakure ninja earlier, we used up a few Explosive Tags and blade tools, so I wonder—"
Umino Sasuke's words carried an obvious implication.
Before Umino Sasuke could explain, Akimichi Toribo immediately understood. Smiling, he said, "Battlefield reimbursement for blade tools and supplies, right? I know the rules. Deduct it from the seized spoils of war. Of what remains, seventy percent goes to the village, and we distribute the other thirty percent among ourselves."
Konoha had explicitly stipulated that seventy percent of all mission spoils had to be turned over, while the remaining thirty percent could be kept as spoils of war.
But where there were policies, there were always countermeasures.
This method of dividing spoils had a fatal loophole: reimbursement for blade tools and supplies.
For example, if ten Kunai were expended fighting enemies during a mission and one hundred Kunai were seized from them, then in theory, seventy percent had to be handed over—that would be seventy Kunai.
But in practice, in order to preserve the team's combat strength against dangers that could arise at any time, ten Kunai could be taken from the spoils to replenish their fighting capacity. This reduced the actual seized amount to ninety Kunai, of which seventy percent was sixty-three Kunai.
The same principle applied to losses of Explosive Tags, shuriken, and other blade tools.
This became an unspoken rule among ninja: blade tools and supply losses during missions could be reimbursed from seized goods, and only what remained afterward had to be turned over to the village.
Of course.
When it came to concealing spoils of war, most ordinary lower- and middle-ranking ninja without backing did not dare do so. But reimbursement for blade tools and supplies left plenty of room for maneuver. It was common for ordinary ninja to inflate their claims by thirty percent.
Ninja clan disciples had deep backing, and inflating reimbursement claims severalfold or even more than tenfold was commonplace—absurdly so.
It became so absurd that the village eventually explicitly decreed that reimbursement for blade tools and supplies could not exceed the seized goods. Any amount that could not be covered by the spoils had to be paid personally, preventing ninja from falsely reporting massive losses or colluding with blade-tool merchants to fleece the village.
The policy was sound, but problems arose during its implementation.
Ordinary ninja still had to scrimp and save while turning in some spoils of war from their missions. Ninja clan disciples with backing, however, basically turned in nothing. When asked, they simply said it had all been used to reimburse blade-tool losses. If anyone kept pressing the matter, they might be presented with a long bill and forced to pay out of pocket to subsidize the village—the image of bleeding and weeping for the village.
This had happened before. Otherwise, the village would not have expressly enacted the policy that battlefield reimbursement could not exceed seized spoils, with any excess to be handled personally.
Clearly, the ninja clans' behavior had once been too shameless, which was why the village imposed this reimbursement cap.
Yet this further widened the wealth gap among ninja.
When wealthy ninja clan disciples went to the battlefield, they claimed every last bit of their losses as reimbursement, turning over virtually none of their seized spoils of war.
Ordinary lower- and middle-ranking ninja without backing were already poor, yet they had to hand over at least eighty percent of their seized spoils of war.
Why at least eighty percent rather than seventy percent, or even less?
Naturally, because the power to assess the value of seized goods was not in the hands of those ordinary lower- and middle-ranking ninja without backing.
The price of a Kunai from a shabby local workshop and one from the Land of Artisans could differ by more than ten times.
As for how the seized goods were valued, wasn't that entirely up to the big shots in the Logistics Department?
To obtain a relatively fair appraisal of their seized goods, shouldn't they give their colleagues in the Logistics Department a small appraisal fee? Charging only ten percent as an appraisal fee was already very conscientious, wasn't it?
Sunagakure's Logistics Department was directly controlled by the Elder Council, where the appraisal fee rose straight to thirty percent. Added to the seventy percent handed over to the village, that meant all spoils of war had to be surrendered, leaving almost nothing for themselves.
Did they know how the Land of Wind's daimyo kept the Sand Bandits within his country under control?
When all spoils of war had to be handed over, who would still pretend to be a Sand Bandit and go through all that trouble robbing Merchant Caravans for no profit?
The Land of Wind's daimyo might not have been much use externally, but domestically, he was absolutely an expert. The fact that he could keep the desperately poor Sunagakure under control showed just how formidable his political skill was.
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