Chapter 57: Village Politics
As they entered their hotel, Kakashi said all of you don't discuss anything and go to sleep. We will be leaving first thing in the morning. Listening to the explanation Kakashi had given Guy and his team had understood that many things were omitted and Kakashi wanted to stay it that way.
Nobody asked any questions and entered their own rooms. Yami took a shower and ate some things he had brought from the hidden leaf. After that he fell asleep quickly. 6 hours later he was woken up by a knock on the door. He went and opened the door only to see Guy standing outside.
"Guy sensei what is it? Are we leaving?" Yami asked.
"Yes, Yami we will be leaving in an hour. Get ready fast and then we can all race to our village and reach within 2 days." Guy said with renewed enthusiasm.
After an hour the group of 5 leaf shinobis was walking toward the Kazekage building.
Neji looked at Guy and asked "Sensei why are we going to meet the Kazekage again?"
Guy looked at Kakashi who subtly nodded and then looked at Neji and said "We are not meeting the Kazekage. We are using the tunnels we used last night. They don't want people here to know that leaf shinobis were here."
Hearing this Neji and Lee both nodded but Yami chuckled and said "But we did come from the main gate yesterday."
Kakashi looked at Yami and smirked "I guess they didn't think this through huh."
"I guess I know why we are all rushing out of here." Yami said.
"Why is that?" Lee asked in an innocent tone. He just like Guy sensei was totally oblivious to all these political games and Guy preferred to keep it so.
"This isn't the right place nor the time." Yami said to which Kakashi patted his shoulder. Knowing what to say and when is one of the skills that a shinobi must-have.
The group of 5 entered the Kazekage building and saw the sand jonin standing there.
"I will escort you all out of the village." the sand jonin said.
Everyone followed him to the tunnels and just like last night exited the village through a secret passage.
He looked at all 5 of them and said "I thank you all personally for helping us out of this predicament. It was good to be allied with the shinobis of the hidden leaf even if it was just a mission."
Yami and his group nodded and turned around to leave. They were running through the desert and could Yami could sense that some shinobi were hiding in different places.
'We can't afford to stop here or they might use this chance to silence us.' Yami thought and a similar thought crossed Kakashi's mind.
After running for a few hours they came out of the desert and entered the forest. Except for Lee everyone had a serious expression the whole way. Neji had also detected many shinobis in the desert because of his byakugan. He wasn't sure whether they were for them or just to protect the surroundings of the hidden Sand village.
"Its been a few hours since we have entered deep forest and there is no one around us. I think we can rest here." Kakashi said and everyone stopped and jumped down from the branches.
Yami sat under a tree to drink water. Neji stood in front of Yami and asked "Can you tell us now? Why we rushed out of the village?"
Yami looked at Guy sensei and Kakashi and both nodded given him their seal of approval. Lee also wanted to know what this whole thing was about so he also came close and stood next to Neji.
"The Kazekage never expected us to succeed in this mission and he wanted us to fail so that he could gain some benefits from the Land of Wind Daimyo. But we completed the mission and according to the complete report, the ones who contributed the most were people from our village. The Kazekage can't force his own people to write false reports contradicting ours which is why there were people on the way here hiding who were waiting that we stop and they can attack us and then blame bandits who came back for revenge. They know we can't talk about this mission openly and risk going in direct conflict with the Land of Lightning." Yami said making Lee and Neji's eyes widen.
"B-But we helped them by getting their stolen goods back." Lee said.
"The same goods which were supposed to be sent to us and now they must be with Kakashi or Guy sensei. So if they killed us they can take the goods for themselves and say that the bandits took them back." Yami said making Lee nod in understanding. He was slowly getting to know-how the shinobi world actually works.
Neji thought for a few seconds and asked "But aren't both villages allies? This mission should have brought us closer, right?"
Yami chuckled and said "WRONG...You need to understand the reason why the Village Hidden in the sand is the poorest. It is because the Daimyo of the Land of Wind gives a majority of their missions to our village instead of the hidden sand because we have many shinobis and a good environment so that we can do missions at lower prices. And now by doing this mission we have proved the Daimyo right that the hidden leaf is much more reliable that the hidden sand. This caused the Kazekage to be angered more. I don't know much but the Kazekage isn't someone who cares about his people as much as his own reputation. Those three genins were his own children but you guys saw how he treated them. After the mission when we all were called even his own children were shocked. And he didn't praise them one bit."
Neji and Lee were slowly starting to feel the perks of being born in the hidden leaf village. Little did they know that the waters of the hidden leaf were way muddier than the hidden sand. But the old man managed to keep everyone in the false illusion that everything is roses and rainbows.
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