Her Destiny

Village Affairs

Once they were out of the village, Kabuto used a summon jutsu to summon one of Orochimaru's snakes. He told it that she was with him, that they only needed the seal to get them to Oto.

The snake poofed out of existence, on its way back to Orochimaru, and the two of them continued to walk, avoiding people on the road as best as possible.

"What can you tell me about the village?" Sakura finally asked, breaking the silence that had been hanging heavily over them for over an hour.

"Oh? Interested Sakura-san?" Kabuto mocked.

"Oh shut up. I just want to know what the hell I'm walking in to."

Kabuto shrugged. "As it is, we have a fairly high amount of shinobi of varying levels, anything from academy level to ANBU. Most are missing nin from other villages that made their way to the village when they heard that our gates were open to everyone. There are a fair amount of Mist shinobi. Even though that part of history is largely over for them, many with bloodline limits are still hunted for the bounties still in the Bingo books. They come so that they can stop running. The majority of the civilians coming in are from the surrounding countryside, coming for the protection of a village, rather than staying out there to fend for themselves. As it stands the village probably has a population around that of the Sand and Mist villages. About a third of the population is shinobi. Orochimaru has been sending out the most highly qualified shinobi to collect bounties to raise funds for the village. He has put a lot of the funds he received during his time in the Akatsuki into the medical program as well as the village itself. We are doing much better than many of the other villages, but we need more allies and funding to be able to do what we need to with the schooling and missions."

"Have you considered Ame? Yes they are run by the Akatsuki but they are a wealthy village since Pein took over years ago. They may be willing to enter into a treaty with you if given the proper stipulations and such."

"Such as?"

"Well think about it. With it raining so much there the ground has to be completely saturated, making it hard for a lot of crops to grow. From what I know of Oto, you sit on fairly fertile lands. You could offer them agricultural stability for monetary stability until things have evened out, and even then, there are other ways after you have made it stable in the village to keep things mutually beneficial."

"They won't enter an agreement until Orochimaru is out of the picture, since he defected from the Akatsuki," Kabuto explained, though still impressed by how well she was able to suss out the problems.

"Have you considered talking to individual clans?"

"What?"

"Well its pretty well known that most clans have specific abilities that others don't. The Fuma clan has the chakra string ability and they're really good with archery. I've heard that there are a couple clans that are exceptional with medical techniques. With you and Orochimaru around, I imagine that you could become a rather formidable medical village if you wanted to."

"Hmmm, that's a good idea. I'll have all our records on the various clans brought out so I can sift through them. We would have to promise them something in return though. There's no way that some of the clans would join the village with some form of reciprocity."

"Mmm. If you can get a treaty with Ame and the village of Takumi you would have a revenue flow and a way to supply the shinobi with weapons. You may even be able to get one of the Takumi residents to come to the village to share their techniques, so that others may learn. Then you could offer them something like help in medical situations or something like that. They have become incredibly disillusioned after the other shinobi villages abandoned them, so it may be difficult. You should also talk to some of the small hidden villages that aren't part of the Five Great Shinobi Nations. They may want a treaty just for the security of having others to turn to in times of trouble."

"For someone so loyal to Konoha, you sure have a lot of ideas to build up an enemy village," Kabuto remarked.

Before Sakura could answer, a snake summons appeared in front of them with a scroll.

"Here it is Master Kabuto," the snake summons said.

"Thank you," Kabuto said, bowing slightly in thanks.

Sakura watched as he opened the scroll and checked it before nodding and turning to her.

"Put your hand against the seal with mine and we will be transported to Orochimaru-sama.. Since Sasuke is out of the area for the time being, it will be safe for you to talk to Orochimaru-sama without fear of Sasuke finding out."

Sakura nodded before putting her hand on the seal. And then they were gone in a puff of smoke.