Mikio gave a hearty laugh when Megumi told him about Kazuto and his problems.
“I’ve seen that child, it looks nothing like him!” He said and slapped his knee and leaned back as he laughed. The candle-maker, sitting right beside him was so focused on his work that he only gave a small snort of appreciation as he continued to carefully rub wax onto the candle in his hands. Marriage and relationships were problematic institutions in Gobi, where prostitution wasn’t so much rampant as expected. The men and women who worked at the brothels were as much the backbone of the village as its craftsmen and farmers. In a place like that, keeping track of who and when you should or shouldn’t have sex (with) wasn’t as easy as in other places. Kazuto’s situation was not unique in any way.
 
He then listened carefully, smiling and nodding in understanding as Megumi told him about her frustrations. He understood them well. The skills that ninjas like himself and Megumi possessed, and that children of the village were learning every day were not suited for an isolated life in a relatively peaceful village. It was hard to justify training and getting better when the highest demand on fire users was to light the great bonfires in the spring. Someone who has matched himself with real ninjas from other villages like Mikio knew exactly how wide the gap in power was, and that it was only in war and conflict that the ninja arts could really shine. 
 
“Don’t wish for war” Musashi Hikaro the candle-maker said, apparently following a similar train of thought as Mikio had. The candle maker had lived through the war, same as Mikio, but with the perspective of a relatively powerless civilian. Even if he’d been a soldier, armed and armoured, there was not much to do against a highly trained ninja. The size of the walls were a great example of when kind of protection you’d need to even start to consider yourself safe. 
“That is very wise of you, have you breathed in too much wax again?” Mikio said to the candle-maker with a smile, and was rewarded with a similar snort as earlier. 
“I think that the jobs we do here in the village exists in the rest of the world, but there are also many more ninjas in the world. If we’d been the only ninja village we’d be travelling from west to east every day, lending our services to anyone willing to pay. But we’re not alone, not by a long shot, and some of the other villages are home to really amazing ninjas. You should look up some of the people that have moved here from other hidden villages, they have really awesome stories to tell.” 
 
Mikio took a huge bite of an apple, and chewed for a minute. “I know it’s frustrating, but if we stop doing our best everything falls apart. If you truly are destined for greatness you’ll find a way to show it, and I hope I can be apart of it, if only as a teacher from long long ago.”