"Killing Gato isn't part of our mission."
Ninja worked for money. They didn't do things unrelated to their missions.
Inari was disappointed at first, but quickly recovered and asked how much a mission to kill Gato would cost.
"Probably a B-Rank Mission would be enough... But I'd advise you not to get your hopes up. Even if you managed to scrape together the money, Konoha wouldn't accept a contract to kill Gato."
Inari grew furious and pointed at Kakashi. "Why?! Is even Konoha afraid of Gato?!"
Sakura and Sasuke were rather displeased. How could Konoha possibly be afraid of someone as insignificant as Gato?
Kakashi, however, remained calm. He shook his head and said evenly, "Those are the rules."
Ninja from an official shinobi village received government subsidies, so naturally they also had to obey the corresponding rules.
Aside from their most basic duty of protecting the country as a military force, there were many other things they were forbidden to do.
They couldn't kill the Shogun or the nobility.
A powerful merchant with considerable influence in the Ninja World, like Gato... was roughly equal in status to a noble.
He used his vast wealth to build a complicated web of connections, maintaining ties with the Shoguns of every country.
And more...
Kakashi didn't even need to investigate to know that Gato must have donated a handsome sum to Konoha every year.
Otherwise, with the Land of Waves so close to the Land of Fire, some passing missing-nin would have cut Gato's head off before his business ever grew this large.
Of course, that didn't mean Konoha was Gato's patron.
Gato paid all Five Great Shinobi Villages. Konoha was just one of them.
And Konoha wouldn't care whether Gato lived or died. They'd take his money, refuse missions to kill