Chapter 5
Ken had made arrangements for Ino to travel to the South, to meet up with the owner of the hidden Jade mine.
She stepped out of the carriage and started walking towards the humble building that housed the humble farmer.
Teuchi, the owner, and his daughter were waiting for Ino outside the doors.
They bowed once Ino had stopped in front of them.
"Welcome, Lady Ino. It is very nice to finally meet you."
Ino smiled towards the father and daughter and raised her hands, "It's a pleasure doing business with you too, Mister Teuchi."
The elder man wore an expression of surprise, not expecting a noble lady to treat a mere farmer with respect.
Ayama, his daughter, spoke up, "We are deeply grateful for your assistance in setting up a noodle shop in the city center, Lady Ino. My father, who is a skilled chef as he is a farmer, is excited to start a new venture."
"Ahh, you compliment me too much, dear."
The relationship between the two was clearly very close.
"Come in, Lady Ino. We prepared some tea for your arrival. It might not be much compared to what you're used to, but we wanted to make you feel welcomed to your new property."
Ino shook her head in disagreement, "No worries, I am happy with any tea you serve."
Teuchi gestured for Ino to walk in.
They sat on the table and started talking about the handover and which documents were needed in order for Ino to have full ownership under her name, rather than her family's. It also stated that whatever they find in the land would be hers, and hers alone, and nobody can contest the land.
Teuchi took a map out and measured the borders between her newly owned land.
The land used to belong to the family's great grandparents, however, once Teuchi's father passed away a few years back, they unfortunately fell into heavy debts and needed to sell the land in order to gain more liquidity.
From what Ken had explained, the family did not want to sell the land to just anyone due to the special properties of the soil. It's not special in a way where irrigation and farming would be possible, but Ino knew of the unseen riches underneath the land and knew that the soil was rich in minerals capable of creating the most powerful and stable type of mana stones, Jade.
Teuchi had expressed that his great grandfather found the land due to voices he heard. They lead their great grandfather to this spot and revealed that there were hidden treasures due to the special properties of the soil, however, after a few generations of trying to figure out, they were unable to find any clue as to how to begin to unearth the said treasures. This eventually led to the family accumulating debt that, at the moment, they need to pay off.
These voices had warned the man of the land and that it should not go into the hands of the wrong person, otherwise it would befall tragedies on the empire and the Great Uchiha empire would be destroyed by civil unrest and continuous wars.
As the family were loyal servants of the Empire, they listened to the ominous voice, not wanting to test fate.
Once her seal was on the document, Teuchi and Ayama looked like a weight was lifted off their shoulders.
"We didn't know what we would do if we did not sell this land. We're very grateful for your generosity, Lady Ino."
"I heard that there were a couple of other individuals who were interested in the land, though. Am I wrong?"
Ayame and Teuchi looked at each other before looking at Ino.
"There were, but most of them were suspicious offers. It sounded too good to be true and came from families that did not seem to have financial capabilities to follow through."
"Could this be the Haruno family?"
The old man shook his head, "No, there was an individual who came to us right after we turned the Haruno family down. He had an orange mask on and he had a very dangerous aura around him, despite his bright personality. There was something off with the man and he promised vast riches and to increase our status to nobility."
"But you would not be able to do that, unless you were an Emperor. And as humble servants of the Emperor, we dare not do anything treasonous. The price for treason is death and it's something we do not want to partake in."
Ayama interjected, "Once he realized that we wouldn't budge, his temper seemed to turn bad and started to threaten us. But, thank heaven's your family's knights came at the right time to deliver a message of your visit that he finally gave up and left."
Ino sat back and crossed her arms, wondering who this man was and if it had anything to do with what happened in her past life. She had never heard of a masked-man before.
"Understood. This masked-man, I assume, would sabotage the sale of this land then. I will make arrangements for mana stones around your home and store for protection."
"Thank you so much, my lady! You have been very generous towards us and we will forever be indebted to you."
Ino shook her head, "Let's head out to celebrate over a nice bowl of noodles, shall we?"
After finishing up a meal in Teuchi's newly opened noodle shop, Ino was sitting in her carriage peacefully reading a book to pass time.
It was going to take one whole day for Ino to reach the capital, even with the mana stones on the wheels to speed up the travel speed.
Since they were coming from the South, the roads were slightly underdeveloped compared to the East or the West, and Ino would feel occasional bumps. Sophie, who was not used to long periods of travel, flinched every time there was a bump.
Ino noticed and took the pillow her back was resting on and gave it to her, "Take it, Sophie. It's going to be a few more hours until we reach the capital."
Sophie, who was touched by her mistress' gesture, "Oh no, Lady Ino, I couldn't take this from you. Please I'm fine, I can hold out for a few more hours."
"It's okay, just take-"
Before Ino could finish her sentence, there were shouts that sounded outside the carriage.
"Hey! Get out of the way!"
Ino placed the pillow on the space beside her and opened the curtains slightly, just to see what was happening.
Her eyes widened when she spotted masked assassins fighting her family's knights. Her heart started beating faster, starting to get scared.
Then there was a boom, a bomb was thrown just a few feet from the carriage they were in.
Sophie immediately jumped up and tried to protect the blond from possible rubble, as they feel the carriage shake violently.
"Lady Ino… please, get down. You will be safe within the carriage." Sophie exclaimed from the floor of the carriage.
Ino knew that the Duke's carriage was equipped with enough protective mana stones in cases like these, but she had only brought three knights with her when she traveled South. They wouldn't be able to hold off the swarm for any longer.
She did not want to attract attention with a large number of knights, but now thinking back, it would've been safer to bring more. Especially, since she had started getting a foreboding feeling right after Teuchi mentioned the masked-man.
Blue eyes scanned the scene and noticed that there were at least five assassins targeting them. But her eyes widened, she saw shadows from the forest move quickly towards her knights.
Before she knew it, one of her family's knights was thrown towards her window and blood spattered on the glass.
Ino and Sophie let out a short scream, but she didn't have time to fully process his death before someone forcibly opened the door to their carriage.
The man who killed the knight stood there, staring at them holding a bloody sword.
"Heh, well well, there's another lady accompanying the blonde. Hey, master said we only kill the blonde right? No orders for the other one?" The assassin shouted towards his comrade.
"No. We need to take her head to him to complete the mission."
The man turned his head back to them and wiped his sword on the cloth hanging from his waist.
"It's gonna be fun."
Without thinking, Ino quickly stood and dropped on the floor, her arms raised up.
"Don't do anything to her. Just kill me and get on with it."
The man took a step forward and smirked, "Well, that's not very fun, innit?"
"I don't take no orders from snobby noble bithces like you."
He raised his sword to take a fatal aim against Ino.
Ino closed her eyes and prepared for the worst.
Then, she felt something warm rise within her. The warmth slowly trickled from her center towards her hands and feet.
"L-lady Ino..!"
All of a sudden, she felt everything at once.
She felt the animals scurrying away from the scene of death, felt the soft winds blowing on the leaves on the trees, she felt mother nature give her a warm embrace.
Her fear slowly faded away and all she felt was tranquility.
She felt at peace.
"What the fuck, this bitch!"
She felt the assassin drag her body out of the carriage and threw her on the ground.
Surprisingly, Ino didn't feel any pain. She took a deep breath and then opened her eyes.
Everything was lit up, it seemed like there was a strange glow to everything except for the men dressed in black.
Her eyes went back to the man in front of her, ready to cut her head off. The warm tickling sensation continued to concentrate on her hands and Ino could feel the man's aura turn from full arrogance to fear.
The world was in slow motion and Ino saw the slight tremble at the tip of his sword, the only physical indication that the man was scared.
Without thinking, Ino slowly stood up and raised her arms.
Die.
She took a step towards the man.
He took a step back.
Die.
Suddenly, thorny vines from the ground sprouted and wrapped itself around the men in black. The sound of swords clanging against each other stopped and men started groaning from pain as the vines around their bodies started to tighten dangerously fast.
"Hey! Zetsu! What the fuck are doing, quickly kill the bitch!"
Zetsu, the man in front of Ino, groaned and tried to move his sword so that it could land a fatal blow on the blonde, but before he could swing, Ino clenched her fists close.
The vines completely tightened around the men's bodies and squeezed the life out of them.
Ino's mind cleared up and the first thing she noticed was the pungent smell of blood.
She saw the carnage and upon seeing what had happened she threw up.
Then, she fainted.
"Master, it seems like the mission failed. The Yamanaka Heiress escaped."
A man with dark raven hair reported to the man standing within the shadows of the forest.
There were several men cleaning up the carnage that had happened in the area a few hours prior. The Yamanaka carriage, which carried the young lady and her maid, had left for the capital already.
Even if they had run after them, they would have called for reinforcements and it would be difficult to carry out the original mission.
"What would you like to do, Master?"
The man in question had an orange mask on and stepped into the moonlight.
"Burn everything. Make sure to erase everything that could possibly lead to us."
The servant bowed respectfully and went away to give out the orders to his subordinates.
The man in the orange mask stood as he watched his men carry out his orders.
"Hmm… seems like this bitch is a lot harder to kill than I thought."
He then looked towards the moon, "No matter. I will have her head even if I have to do it myself."
A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry it took a while to get this chapter out. It's a pretty short chapter for now, but there will be more actions/plot development later. I hope everyone stays safe and enjoyed the chapter :) Do share any feedbacks and leave a review xx