Hoshino nodded, committing it to memory.
He had wanted to go out and look around for a long time, and find suitable materials along the way to finish developing his new puppet.
Things found through verbal descriptions alone just weren't quite the same.
Hoshino was about to leave the stall when he suddenly heard a commotion nearby.
He turned and saw a crowd gathered around a stall, shouting and arguing. Some kind of dispute seemed to have broken out.
"Your puppet is complete garbage! It nearly got me killed on a mission!"
"Bullshit! There's absolutely nothing wrong with my puppet's quality. You're the one who used it wrong!"
Hoshino frowned. A furious middle-aged ninja in a shinobi flak jacket was pointing at the stall owner, a damaged puppet dangling from his other hand.
The puppet's joints were visibly broken, and its Chakra Threads hung loose and tangled. Clearly, something had gone wrong during a fight.
"Your puppet can't handle an intense fight at all! I just used it on a mission, and it fell apart at the critical moment! I almost got killed by the enemy because of it!"
The ninja's face turned livid with anger, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles cracked.
"You used it wrong and you're blaming my puppet? My puppets go through rigorous testing. There's absolutely nothing wrong with them!"
The stall owner refused to back down, slamming the table as he roared:
The surrounding villagers and merchants formed a circle, chattering among themselves, but no one dared step forward to break up the quarrel.
Hoshino glanced around and found, to his surprise, that not a single patrol ninja had come to handle the dispute.
He waited where he stood for five minutes, but still no one came. The two were on the verge of coming to blows.
Hoshino sighed and thought helplessly, They're forcing me to work overtime.
He swiftly slipped to one side, pulled his Anbu mask from his ninja tool pouch, and put it on.
Then he straightened his collar and strode toward the crowd.
"Out of the way. Anbu business."
When the onlookers heard "Anbu," they immediately parted like a receding tide, opening a path.
"What's going on?"
Hoshino walked up to the two arguing men and gave them a cold glance.
When the middle-aged ninja saw Hoshino's Anbu mask, he immediately reined in his anger and spoke respectfully.
"My lord, the puppet this stall owner sold me was such poor quality that it fell apart during my mission. It nearly cost me my life!"
"My lord, I've been wronged! There's absolutely nothing wrong with my puppet. He's the one who used it incorrectly!"
The stall owner panicked too, clearly not having expected an Anbu to show up.
Normally, the ninja on patrol would handle it, and a little money would settle the matter.
But the Anbu were different. They could be extremely ruthless even with their own people.
Hoshino ignored their arguing, took the damaged puppet, and examined it carefully.
He eventually discovered that the connecting axles in the puppet's critical parts were made of ordinary metal, a material that warped and broke easily when subjected to a certain amount of force.
At the same time, the internal Chakra circuitry was laid out haphazardly, which would severely impair Chakra transmission and cause the puppet to lose control at critical moments.
"Hmph, and you still claim there's nothing wrong with it?" Hoshino snorted coldly.
The stall owner's face instantly went pale, but he stubbornly insisted, "My lord, I've sold plenty of these puppets, and everyone else has used them without a problem. How come it only failed when he used it?"
"He must have used some special Ninjutsu during his mission, or run into an extremely powerful enemy. That's how the puppet ended up like this!"
"You're talking nonsense!"
The middle-aged ninja grew anxious. "I was on a B-Rank Mission, and the enemy was just a wandering Genin. The fact is, your puppet wasn't up to standard!"
The stall owner ignored the middle-aged ninja and kept looking at Hoshino. "My lord, you have to believe me..."
But Hoshino gave him no chance to explain himself and spoke directly.
"You sold substandard puppets in Sunagakure, endangering the safety of ninja. In accordance with village regulations, all your goods will be confiscated, you will be fined five hundred thousand ryo, and you will be permanently banned from trading in the market."
Hearing the verdict, the stall owner's legs gave out, and he nearly fell to his knees.
"My lord, have mercy! I won't ever dare do it again!"
Hoshino ignored his pleas and turned to the middle-aged ninja.
"You can be compensated for your loss from the fine. Next time you buy a puppet, remember to go through legitimate channels. Don't be tempted by a cheap price."
The middle-aged ninja hurriedly nodded and bowed. "Yes, yes, yes. Thank you, my lord!"
Hoshino waved his hand, signaling the crowd to disperse.
Seeing that the matter had been settled, the onlookers left one after another, still discussing it in hushed voices.
"The Anbu really are overbearing. Aren't they going to investigate further? Maybe the stall owner was telling the truth."
"Oh, give me a break. Who among the stall owners here doesn't know that guy? This isn't the first or second time."
"Then nobody does anything about him?"
"How could they? He's a ninja himself, and he knows the ninja squad that patrols nearby. A little money is all it takes to settle things."
"..."
Listening to the discussions around him, Hoshino took off his mask helplessly and stuffed it back into his ninja tool pouch.
Sunagakure... really was far too poor.
Sunagakure was situated in the desert, with scarce resources, and its economy had always ranked last among the Five Great Shinobi Villages.
Although the village had no shortage of ninja, the missions they could actually take were limited.
High-paying missions were especially scarce.
Otherwise, several ninja wouldn't have quarreled so fiercely over a mission before, with some even arranging to fight in private.
As a result, many ninja had no choice but to take desperate risks to make a living.
Some began resorting to underhanded schemes, selling substandard puppets, counterfeits, and even ninja tools made with corners cut.
This sort of thing had never been an exception; it had become an unwritten rule.
After all, puppets sold through legitimate channels were expensive, and ordinary ninja simply couldn't afford them. So some ninja would buy counterfeits to save money, even knowing they were fake.
Poverty really is the original sin, Hoshino thought with a sigh.
No wonder Sunagakure had such an extraordinary obsession with attacking the Land of Fire.
The Land of Fire lay on fertile plains, with abundant resources and a developed economy.
By comparison, the Land of Wind's desert environment left it desperately short of resources, and the nobles had always meddled in the village's finances.
That was what had made Sunagakure weaker and poorer until, in the end, it had no choice but to start a war.
Hoshino guessed that, besides trying to invade the Land of Fire and plunder its resources, another possible reason for the war was to expend the surplus ninja.
With fewer ninja, the financial pressure would ease.
As for compensation for the fallen and the like, given Sunagakure's circumstances, it was good enough if those war orphans got a bite to eat.
They could forget about money.
This, too, was a limitation of the era.
As long as you were born in this village...
Unless you were a spy, or were willing to become a missing-nin and face the Anbu's endless pursuit, there was simply no way to leave.
No matter how poor the village was, no matter how hard life became, you had to stay.
You had to obey the higher-ups' orders and endure the scarcity of resources and the hardships of life.
Hoshino had once considered changing the village's current state and solving its problems at the root, only to discover in the end that it was harder than ascending to heaven.
The village's problems had festered for years: scarce resources, a backward economy, and a corrupt atmosphere.
These problems were like one great mountain after another, barring the road of Sunagakure's development.
He could only wait until he had grown stronger and gained more of a say in the village before making plans.
Lost in thought, Hoshino headed toward the restaurant where he had arranged to meet Temari and the others.