Aoratu simply didn't have any walls or gates - this wasn't a village of chakra-users who could raise monumental defenses out of the ground in a couple of days, as long as they had enough chakra. Here, it would take hundreds and thousands of laborers working for years. Not an easy task for a backwoods town with a population of less than forty thousand people.
Since they'd never left the walls of Konoha before, I took a step back and let them waggle their heads around. The first city I saw was smaller, faded, and dirtier than home, with no landmarks other than the town hall and mayor's house, which were three stories high, unlike the rest of the buildings around them, where even two-story houses in the center of town were a rarity and a sign of wealth.
The streets are paved with cobblestones rather than stone slabs, most of the houses are wooden and not first new, with peeling paint or plaster, garbage in the street that is rarely, if ever, cleaned up. Beggars, of which there are none in Konoha at all, street kids or just children from poor families dressed in frank rags.
The list goes on and on. This is not Otafuku-gai with its famous brothels and casinos, where there are guards on every corner, and the streets are all cleaned and decorated. It's good that there was a sewerage system in such a small town, allowing you to breathe through your nose, unlike the villages, where cow cakes were lying right on the road, and no one was going to clean them up.
- Disappointed? - I smiled through the fabric of my mask.
- Konoha is a hundred times better," Surizawa wrinkled her nose in frustration.
- The city is much poorer and smaller," Asani said, turning her head to look around.
- That's because the shinobi generate a huge amount of money, some of which goes to the locals, making Konohagakure no Sato a very rich city," I shrugged, "Unlike Otafuki, which is famous for its entertainment, this city doesn't have much in the way of financial resources to draw on, so it deserves to be a small town.
Aoratu does not have a strong garrison capable of successfully fighting criminals, not just chasing them away. But I didn't tell the Genin about it, they'll find out later.
Deciding that my charges had quenched their curiosity enough, I quickened my pace and in about fifteen minutes we crossed a part of the city and came out not far from the main city square, which served as a marketplace at the same time. Our destination was in the next street, where the office of the slippery peddler was located next to the warehouse.
Stopping in a relatively deserted area of the street to reduce the number of prying eyes, I activated a small seal that prevented the air from vibrating beyond a meter and a half, I turned to the team.
- So, now we are going to meet the customer and your task is to listen carefully and watch him, as well as the surrounding space, - I gave the task to genin, - then I will arrange a survey, who noticed what unusual, strange or just seemed important to you. Understood?
- Yes sensei! - The kunoichi nodded.
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