World on a String | A Sasori fanfiction

Chapter 2 - The sleeper agent

"Miss, please have some Jasmine tea."

The tea was transparent and had a strong auburn color with the only indication of Jasmine being the flower placed on the top.

Ever since the day Maren spoke up, Kurosawa Naozumi stopped Lady Kouyou from bullying her. At the very least, he did want them to show some semblance of a family. Noticing the change in tides, the servants stopped bullying her - after all, it was not worth the risk if they angered Daimyo.

Ichika, the personal maid who bullied her also changed for the better. Though no one knew whether it was due to the fear of going against the Daimyo's daughter or because Maren agreed to plead on her behalf and spared her from a life as a disabled person.

"You may go." Maren waved Ichika away.

The smell of jasmine was something she was used to. Indian women wear it in their hair on auspicious days. In Japan, it is linked to being mentally agile even in old age. The scent of Jasmine is soothing and calms the nerves.

Maren didn't particularly dislike the taste but wondered if this was a new way of bullying.

'Since when are children given such bitter tea to drink?'

However, she sipped the tea slowly with a smile. The kind of scenario where you sip the tea, pretending to be a connoisseur. Around her, there were couples and men who had come in groups to meet. Apart from a few wheel carts, everyone walked on foot. The rare exceptions were nobles who would use carriages. 

Seated in a corner, she proceeded to open her books and began studying. In her past life, she was used the white noise in the café, the sound of people turning pages, typing on their laptop and the occasional mumbling sound of someone trying to memorize answers...

To the point that studying in absolute silence was more distracting. 

The books in front of her was about this world, the Land of Wind and the little reference materials about Sunagakure.

Being in the Naruto world, it was necessary to know ways of a ninja in this world.  Even from a political standpoint, one would be foolish not to follow the news of the shinobi world since apart from private forces and meagre army, it was shinobis who fought wars and defended the lands.

Using reference books available, Maren tried to understand the shinobi world and Sunagakure - the village that came under her father's control. It was a plus that the anime covered the shinobi part of the world in depth since the records in the Daimyo's library were very basic, to say the least.

'...Sunagakure lies in a fortified valley behind cliffs of rock, with passage in and out of the village restricted to a single cleft between two cliff faces.The buildings inside is made of clay, to keep the buildings cool...

...Unlike the other villages that have prominent clans that pass on their techniques to successive generations, Sunagakure is made up of various families, instead of clans. While known specially for their puppeteer and wind style users, they lack distinguishing bloodline limit. The village gained the recognition of the Wind Daimyo after Mitarashi Shori was chosen by Hashirama Senju to be the first Jinchuriki of the one-tails Shukaku...'

Dividing the learnings under 'Strength', 'Weakness', 'Areas of improvement' and 'USP' (unique selling point), Maren tried to categorize information to memorize better.

But the more she learnt, the more she found herself confused about how the village actually managed to survive so far.

'70% of their adult shinobis are in the genin and chuunin stage! That's is the exact opposite of Konohagakure which at least by anime standards should have 40% in the jonin category, 30% in chuunin, 20% in genin and 10% in ANBU and ROOT ANBU... In such a poor state, they even tried to team up with Orochimaru for the Konoha invasion?'