Rasa was the village's foremost combat power, an Elite Jonin, a member of the dominant faction, and the tacitly acknowledged successor to the Kazekage position.
Nohara Murashi and Fukushima Oka were ordinary Jonin who had only recently been promoted. The three were the same age, but in terms of strength, position, influence, and military record, the comparison was not meaningful.
And yet, the path to becoming Kage was not decided purely by strength. Public opinion carried weight. A Kage dealt with an enormous range of affairs beyond the battlefield, and the capacity to handle those affairs required a different kind of standing than raw combat ability alone could provide.
Fukushima Oka and Murashi, coming from civilian ninja backgrounds, moved naturally among the village's general population in a way Rasa's personality did not allow. He was not well liked at the grassroots level, and he was aware of it without being troubled by it.
The two didn't genuinely threaten Rasa's position. That was simply the reality of the gap between them. What the villagers were saying, at its core, was that two more capable young shinobi had emerged in Sunagakure.
The Kazekage question wasn't in the conversation at the street level. Ordinary villagers didn't think in those terms, and the arithmetic of who could actually challenge Rasa was too obvious to be ignored.
But Yuji understood Rasa's character well enough to know that he would not simply ignore the noise. He was not relaxed enough for that. The situation with Pakura in the original story was instructive, her rising prestige had been at least part of what made her expendable when a convenient political transaction presented itself.
Rasa was not narrow-minded in any simple sense, but he was not magnanimous either.
The Daimyo's funds went to military investment, as the Kazekage's faction had wanted. That outcome quietly sharpened the existing resentment on the civilian side. Yuji was waiting for the first wrong step, from any direction.
That, however, was not what occupied most of his attention right now.
Money was what occupied his attention.
Sasori's contribution had lasted less than two months. He was out again.
"You're going out?"
Shiori looked up from her desk in the hospital office, the question carrying more sharpness than its surface suggested.
"The hospital is running properly now. Patient volume is low, the training frameworks are established, the new tools are in use, and you understand all of it well enough to manage without me watching it directly." Yuji took a sip of water.
"I'm going to travel for a while. See the ninja world. Learn about local medicinal herbs and the kinds of illnesses that affect different regions. A significant portion of what we're developing will eventually serve battlefield needs, but civilians are also a market and a customer base.
I should understand that side of things firsthand."
Shiori looked at him for a moment without speaking.
She had been part of the new research department long enough to understand exactly what the current situation looked like in terms of funding and progress. She had also spent her career on the battlefield and was not someone who was managed easily by vague framing.
"If you're planning anything that goes beyond the ordinary, take precautions."
The meaning underneath it was clear. Whatever he was actually going to do, it would be better if it had no visible connection to Sunagakure, and better still if his identity stayed out of it entirely.
"Understood," Yuji said.
"Don't stop the research while I'm gone. I'll send money back as it comes in. Send the data to me by letter."
"You're planning to use the medical research angle as your reason when you apply to the Kazekage for travel?"
Shiori smiled slightly.
"I'll be coming back at intervals. The gaps won't be long enough to cause any real problems. And the stated purpose is genuinely legitimate, I am doing this for the village's medical capability."
"Of course, of course. Safe travels, Director. Come back quickly."
She knew what she knew, said nothing further, waved a hand, and left.
Yuji sat with the silence for a moment.
Being short of money really could stop a person entirely.
He had borrowed from everyone around him who had anything to lend. Arai. Pakura. Even Murayo, his Academy homeroom teacher. The total still wasn't enough.
The research personnel cost nothing in the direct sense, they were all village members contributing their time. The drain came from purchasing medicinal herbs and the enormous waste of materials during comparative drug testing.
When experiments failed, the costs failed with them. Sunagakure at least had genuine talent in the relevant fields. Hiring external specialists in another village would have made his capital disappear even faster.
The village had no missions available right now. That closed the most straightforward path to income. He had spent the previous night working through every option he could think of, including several that were not particularly principled, before arriving at something workable.
The underground economy. The Exchange Shop network.
The major financial backers behind that organization included the Five Great Ninja Villages and various Daimyo. His own name was already on one of their wanted lists, which meant the infrastructure was familiar with him whether he engaged with it or not.
The Akatsuki in the original story had demonstrated just how much money moved through these channels. Kakuzu alone had accumulated enough to fund Konan's 600 billion exploding tag order. That figure was in tags rather than currency, but the conversion would produce something even larger. The work was genuinely lucrative.
Yuji decided he was going out to earn.
The debt alone was motivation enough, independent of the research project. He was not the type to string people along indefinitely on borrowed goodwill, regardless of how patient his creditors were being about it.
He handled the handover arrangements, then went to see the Kazekage with the travel application framed around medical research and regional herb study.
The Kazekage approved it without much discussion. The ninja world had been relatively stable since the war's end, and the justification was legitimate on its face.
Before leaving the village, he met Sasori one last time at the dune outside the walls.
The real reason for the trip required no explanation between them. Sasori would watch the tensions developing inside the village and keep Yuji informed in real time.
If something required action before Yuji returned, Sasori was fully capable of handling it. Eliminating people was not a skill he lacked.
Everything was in order.
Yuji set out.
Not toward a mission. Not toward a battlefield. Toward the outside world, with the specific objective of making money.
He thought briefly about Orochimaru, who had spent years building financial depth, maintained connections across multiple countries, and operated with Danzo's support behind him and Konoha's resources underneath everything. The comparison was not flattering to Yuji's current position.
Some people really did start with more favorable conditions. There was no use being sentimental about it.