They decide to send a few new chuunin to clear out the bandits, with two jounin-and-genin teams on missions nearby so the jounin can play backup. Good practice for working alone.

Frost demands a softer touch. They'll open with an envoy.

Tsunade seems an entertaining option.

(And it's practical, the jounin commander of Frost was reportedly a medic in his early career, and their feelers indicate Frost has long sought to improve its hospitals.)

She isn't, particularly, amused by being made to play diplomat, but she's already gotten several balls rolling on fixing the entire country's mess of a healthcare system, and her old teammate does have a reasonable point about Frost.

She agrees to it with only minor grumbling.

She's greeted at the border with some suspicion, but her arrival had been announced ahead of time, and the jounin commander had agreed over hawk to meet with her, so they're an escort, not an army. For now.

Acceptable. Trying to keep her down is a somewhat laughable consideration, but she understands politics.

She makes no trouble for her escort.

The jounin commander meets her in a tea house in a town near enough to the Hidden Village for reinforcements, not so near that the village's location is automatically given away, nor that a fight would endanger it immediately. It's a bit of a polite fiction, that she doesn't already know its location, but little in politics is true.

"Tsunade-san," he says, bowing shallowly when she enters. "It is my pleasure to meet you."

"Pleasure is all mine, Hira-san," she says, returning the half-bow.

"Come, sit..." he begins, and once pleasantries and niceties are out of the way, he leans forwards, expression serious. "Why did you want to talk to me, Tsunade-san?"

"Pursuing the possibilities of an agreement between Frost and Sound - likely for trade alone, for now."

"That depends on the nature of the trade, of course," he says, voice neutral. "What does Sound have to offer?"

"Medicine is somewhat a specialty of ours. The wider nation also is fertile, and produces much in the way of excess farm-goods. I know rice is hard to grow here."

He inclines his head. "And what would you ask in return?"

"We're mostly interested in trading raw materials. Especially things that're useful to the development of medicines. We'd say nothing easily weaponized, but, well, everything is a weapon."

He inclines his head. "Fair enough. It'll depend on specifics, but we have few limits on materials."

"Perfectly reasonable."

He turns the conversation to those specifics, then - preliminary negotiations. It'll be a while yet before they have so much as a draft of the agreement.

Fortunately, she's available to be here a while...

Nothing disrupts the negotiations.

It'll be several more rounds of back and forth; still, she's done for now, and she returns with a sense of mild relief.

It's Rian that meets her. "Talks go well I hope?" they ask.

"Well enough. They're not opposed to the idea, and agreed to initial trade terms, but there's a lot of diplomacy remaining - which I'd rather someone else handle."

"That can be arranged. You'll be wanted for any actual exchange of medical knowledge, but for now I should be able to handle future talks."

"I'll see about setting out an educational course. Them sending doctors to us to be trained might be good as an eventual goal of this."

They nod. "It'd certainly help strengthen ties."

Tsunade hums, and then, after some more clarifying details, goes to find her brother.

He's findable, currently hanging out with his genin team, laughing at something Karin's said.

She stops to watch him for a while before revealing herself.

He waves to her when he sees her, splitting off from his team a bit. "Hey, sis," he says, a bit hesitantly.

"Hey Nawaki. You getting along okay?"

"Pretty much! Karin's a lot less annoying than she used to be."

"Speak for yourself, dumbass," Karin calls from across the training ground.

"Oh, trust me, you guys haven't had nearly enough time to get properly on each other's nerves. That requires a bit of familiarity."

"We've been doing team building stuff, so maybe won't be long before we can manage a proper intra-team murder attempt."

"Try not to get the blood anywhere important. It's a pain to clean up."

She smiles to hide how shaky the joke makes her feel. Blood still terrifies her, even as it grates on her that she can't do much healing and is stuck as a teacher and coordinator.

"We'll be careful. Promise."

"I'll believe it when I see it." She ruffles his hair. "Be good, squirt."

"Definitely."

She smiles, and leaves them to it.

Emi comes to find them an hour later.

"Hey squirts!" she calls out.

"Hey Emi-sensei!" Karin calls back. "You missed Tsunade-sama a bit ago. She came to visit Nawaki."

"Good she's back. Though we've got a mission."

"Oh, what kind?" She grins a bit wider.

"C-rank, outside the village. We're playing couriers."

"Will we see somewhere new?"

"Yes. We're actually doing a pretty wide loop. We'll be gone for a while, so I'm giving you guys a day to get ready."

"What types of supplies do we need?"

She describes the local terrain and climate of where they'll be going, and makes recommendations for supplies.

Karin takes notes! "When do we leave?" she asks, bouncing a bit.

"Tomorrow morning, bright and early."

After waiting for acknowledgements, she dismisses them to get ready.

They're all there, right on time.

"Alright team. Time to head out," their jounin-sensei says, leading them out of the village.

Karin falls into a habit of periodically scanning their surroundings. It's good practice, even when they're in safer areas.

And, usually, there's nothing, especially not close to them - she'll sense movement in the distance, groups passing them by, of course.

Then there's something blocking their route up ahead. Eight people, who mostly feel like barely trained genin except for one darker, more powerful signature.

Well that's concerning.

She alerts her team.

She sighs.

"Can you get a pinpoint on the more powerful signature? Chakra nature, clan, techniques, training level..."

She can't get most of that too accurately, but she relays what she knows - doesn't recognize the clan, fire nature chakra, fairly good chakra control...

"I'll handle that one to start. You guys will need to take his friends, at least briefly."

"Roger that," Karin says, echoed by her team.

"Right. Do they seem to know we're here?"

Karin shakes her head. "My range is pretty big, and they haven't been reacting to us."

"We'll use that to our advantage, then." She outlines a few basic plans.

Her students listen attentively.

And then they can move on their enemies.

Nawaki's tense. Nervous. (He knows his body's immortal. But - he's still scared.)

Juugo's slowly sliding into a rage, trying to tamp down on his adrenaline -

It's hard.

Still, he's managing so far.

Karin stays back, since her strengths so far are at range.

Emi keeps her team safe. She's good.

The bandits aren't much match for Emi, let alone Emi with backup and warning.

She takes them alive. Better to let the law deal with them, and they might have relevant information.

Most of them surrender once it's both very clear they're outclassed and she won't be killing them right away.

Detouring to the nearest town big enough to hold them's a pain; still, it's an important one.

They're back on their way, soon enough.

Courier work's kind of boring, actually...

"Be glad it's not exciting."

She shrugs.

But Nawaki nods.

She notes that, and - she's not good at being comforting, but maybe she should try.

Their mission rolls on.

Without much further issue, fortunately.

Good.

She's not one to abandon her mission. Or her charges.

Things aren't going so well for Orochimaru and Rian, however...

Entirely because politics are a scourge on any sensible person.

(Rian does remember liking people, of course - they still do, even with their mind altered. But, well, politics are in some ways the opposite of liking people, and the old Orochimaru had never bothered with it at all, so they don't even have experience to draw on.)

And it's politics that's the case now - namely, trade routes. International relationships. Tariffs. All the obnoxiousness border guards can put up over merchants from a suspect land.

The places they're having friction with aren't particularly high and mighty, of course - but they're mostly protectorates of the Land of Lightning, and that nation's daimyo's fingerprints are all over the mess facing them.

The solution - a possible one - floats from Rian's mind first.

Many of these places lack medical infrastructure, of any kind. Lightning's helped their infrastructure some - they have any electricity, and modern roads - but entirely towards supporting military maneuvers, and hospitals are unnecessary for a military that brings its medics and its deep distrust of the out-group with it.

But Senju Tsunade is not only the most well known and innovative medic - in Rian's opinion, her most important claim to fame is as an administrator. A creator of hospitals - not a worker of them.

Of course, Tsunade is only nominally attached to their nation, and might not be willing to play diplomat...

She shows up when politely requested, at least.

Eventually.

She has other crap to do first.

They know what Tsunade's like, and they're not very bothered.

Still: "Good morning, Tsunade," Rian's body says. (Tsunade is still sometimes bothered by Orochimaru's.)

"What do you want?"