Ruling by the Book
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Chapter 4: Engagement
- Kazuya -
"Have they settled?" I asked, taking a seat.
"Yes. They lost their consciousness. The youngest one was barely able to stand either. We arranged doctors for them but at the rate they are healing, it will take over a month for them to recover on their own. It looks like the Iwa shinobi were trying to catch them alive for some reason so the poison they used was mostly for the purpose of subduing and not killing them." Saitō explained.
"Yes, the Uzumaki have always had exceptional life force. They can heal pretty fast."
"They have something big to hide. You have noticed that the person dressed up as a guy is actually a girl. She must be someone very important."
Crossdressing?
Damn, I did not notice that at all.
"Did you find anything about the Iwa Shinobi?"
"Two among the dead were Jōnin ranked and the rest were Chunin. Those two redheads must be exceptionally strong to take on that kind of force, probably Jōnin at the very least. We are interrogating them but they are not speaking."
"Such people rarely talk. Just do not let them die. I will take care of them. Have you cleared out the area of the fight?" I asked.
"Yes. Everything has been cleared out and all traces of battle have been removed. I have ordered the students to plant flowers on the land, to cover the area too."
"Good. Keep a watch on our guests and see that they are hidden from the view of normal people. No one must know they are here."
"Yes." Saitō nodded.
I saw a hint of hesitation in his eyes.
"Any questions?"
He nodded after some thought. "Are you sure this is a good idea? Interfering in the business of Iwa and siding with someone we don't even know?"
"Obviously. I have several reasons for this. First, there is no way we can side with Iwa. Anything that has the chance of empowering them is bad news for us." I saw his eye twitch slightly but he did not say anything. By now, he understood the situation of the whole world.
I continued. "Second, The Uzumaki are connected to Konoha and after the Land of Stairs becomes a part of the Land of Flowers, they are going to be our neighbours. If we could make some good relations with them with Uzumaki as a mediator, we can use it to lessen the pressure of Iwa and even keep Kumo in limits."
"What if they try to conquer us?" Saitō countered.
"Hmm?"
"Konoha and the Land of Fire can also try to pull the same thing as Iwa. What then?"
"They would not because we do not have anything they do not already have. The Land of Fire has plentiful fertile lands. They do not exactly need our small patch of land to give them anything and it would also put them directly on the boundary of Iwa. That is a bad choice. They would rather have us as a buffer."
"Buffer nations don't have the best of the fates either. Look at Ame and Kusa."
"No, no they do not." I agreed and then smiled. "That is why it will give us a reason to push the date of the merger back until the war ends giving us more time to prepare. Give me five years and we can have strong enough forces to deter the big five. In fact, the Uzumaki are a very important part of these plans?"
"What plans?"
"Tell me, why are the Uzumaki Clan famous?" I asked.
"For their red hair, extremely high vitality and...their prowess in sealing. You...you are planning to get their help with Rōen?" He asked.
"Well, not Rōen exactly. We do not have any negotiation power if they turn on us to take control of Rōen for themselves. That is a mountain we need to cross by ourselves. Unless we have at least one Kage level individual, we do not have the freedom to do anything that might attract the attention of people."
"Then the Uzumaki?"
"Even just warding our palace or warehouses would be a great boon. The Uzumaki are the best we can get for this. Fuinjutsu is the most versatile art in this world. You should not just look at it from the sealing perspective. They have a wide variety of uses."
He nodded slightly in understanding.
Moreover, if I could make some friendly relationship with the Uzumaki, then after the attack on Uzu, there could be some chances of us recruiting them.
I could even just hire them right before the invasion and give them a place here as the attack on Uzu was apparently too sudden or at least that is what I remember.
If possible, I could also discreetly pass on some information about the coming invasion and let them bleed the other three villages badly.
"By the way, did you get what I told you to?" I asked.
"Yes. We were able to get their blood." He handed me the vials.
"Good. We will need another sample from them when they are cured of the poison." I ordered.
"As you order."
I sighed and lay down on the tatami mats after he left.
Sigh.
With only one month left for the engagement, I was feeling the pressure as well.
Another thing I had discovered about the Grimoire was that which it could give me information about someone, it could only do so until that point of time.
If I needed the updated information, I would need to go through the entire process of searching again which requires time, something I lack.
Right now, I needed to use the Grimoire to search for techniques and knowledge of Chakra to train my people.
Balancing both has been hard. If I focus on people, then the rate at which I acquire knowledge will be compromised and if I concentrate on knowledge, the rate at which I get information is compromised. I can only force myself to juggle both until I have a good enough spy network.
Even the Grimoire cannot predict the future and thus can only give me information about selected people which is not exactly good for spying.
I could not possibly know who my enemy is among all the people of this world.
Saitō was training some people to be spies too but such things take a lot of time, something which he does not have due to his duties.
I need two more chunin for the next soul ritual. Perhaps that could boost my chakra a bit more and I could summon someone stronger next time?
There were a few things which I had set in motion though.
For example, I had begun the search for some characters and found that the Ame Trio were still with their parents.
I used Konan for the search target as Nagato was not worth the effort as grabbing him would just attract the unwanted eyes of Madara and Zetsu.
Konan's parents were actually craftsmen who made things out of paper like paper windows and doors as well as paper lamps.
Thus I had sent some people to offer them jobs stating that I had seen their work and was impressed.
Daimyo were known to be whimsical beings so it was not out of scope of understanding for some of them to make such a move.
I wanted to get Konan under my wing because she was someone who had become an S Class ninja on her own with just three years of training from Jiraya.
Well, what would happen to future Yahiko and Nagato?
Why should I care?
By that time, I would have more than enough power to take down Hanzo or even Madara so it wouldn't matter.
x_
"You are teaching them Fuinjutsu?" Tamaki Uzumaki, the youngest member of the group, the girl who was disguised as a guy, asked.
It has been three days since they started living here and the three had not disclosed the identity of the girl so we didn't break their facade either.
Who knows how they would react?
Still, the girl was terrible in acting and at this point most of my subordinates knew her identity as a girl.
"Yes. We think Fuinjutsu is a beautiful art, not to mention incredibly useful. We wish to teach some of our people Fuinjutsu so that they can help with the security of our country." I replied, not stuttering in the slightest.
"So you are the one teaching them? Wait, you know Fuinjutsu?" She asked me.
"Hahahaha we wouldn't call ourself a master but we know enough to teach some of them. We are learning the skills too although it's quite a difficult task for us."
"Well obviously. Fuinjutsu is the most complex of the Shinobi Arts. Not everyone can learn it, let alone by self study." She puffed her chest proudly.
"True, still, we need to try for our people." I answered, not even pretending this time.
She just stared at me for a while and then looked at the kids.
"I can teach you."
"What?"
"I can teach you till my companions are cured. Think of it as a thanks for helping us and saving our lives." She replied.
"You do not need to do so. We know that Shinobi arts are the secrets of a Shinobi Village and different Clans. We would never tell you to do something like this. We didn't save you for your knowledge. We saved you because we wanted to. We hate Iwa Shinobi too. They were the ones responsible for the death of our father. So killing them was not a completely selfless act either." I answered. Really, I didn't need the Uzumaki clan to come after me.
After all, if it was just their techniques, I could always search for it with my Grimoire and I would get it regardless.
There is no use to potentially harm our future friendship over this.
She just looked at me and rolled her eyes. "I am obviously not going to teach you my clan secrets but teaching you common things is not a problem so you don't need to worry."
"...are you sure?"
"Yes. Now show me what you are doing."
I hesitated a moment before nodding.
Over the next two hours I showed her the seals I had learned, which was quite a decent collection by now.
"You have only learned this much?" She asked.
"Hahahaha, learning things by our lonesome is hard." I laughed, not disclosing any of my secrets. She then went on to explain some tricks about some seals and some basic methods which can be used to make them more efficiently.
The Uzumaki had really perfected this as an art form.
Just changing the composition of paper or ink could affect the seals so much.
They had even divided the practitioners into different ranks.
Novice, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert and finally Master.
I was currently a novice, close to the Intermediate Level but still a Novice.
Tamaki on the other hand was an Advanced level Fuinjutsu user, something which she happily bragged about.
Her two companions were both Experts.
The likes of Minato and Mito would be genuine Seal Masters although the latter was far above Minato's level from what I could tell due to the ramblings of this girl.
Being an Advanced level at her age was already a great achievement, something only rare prodigies could achieve.
If things went well, she would become a Seal Mistress as well.
To be honest, I learned many things about Fuinjutsu and realised how inefficient my method of learning was.
I was only focusing on Seals instead of the entire art.
My method was not at all systematic and thus was far harder to learn.
Tamaki explained to me the order of doing things which helped me make a basic outline of how to teach fuinjutsu.
Over the course of the next two weeks, I was able to learn more than I had learned in the last three months unassisted.
The sealing arrays reminded me of maths problems and with my enhanced mind, they were becoming easier to solve when I knew what I wanted to do.
I completed the last character with a stroke of my brush on a wooden plank and looked at my work.
"Yes. This looks good. Now use chakra and activate it." My temporary teacher told me and I complied.
The Wooden Plank emitted a very soft light for a moment.
Let's test it.
I hung the plank near the main door and went back to the room and then I looked out of the window and called Kuina who was practising swordsmanship with Kanae.
A moment later I felt a presence entering the house.
Sensory Seals were at work.
"You sensed it, didn't you?" She asked.
"Yes. How strange. I am not there and yet..."
"It's because of your chakra. Even when separated from your body, it's still a part of you. That's why you can sense these things." She explained.
I nodded.
This was the exact same principle behind the memory transfer of the Shadow Clone technique, something which I had gained but couldn't use due to my chakra reserves.
Seriously, using that technique gave me the idea of why Multi Shadow Clone was a forbidden technique and how absurd Naruto's chakra reserves truly were.
The technique had left me drained and with a headache the first time I had used it. Moreover, the transfer of pain was no joke either.
It also made me have some respect for Naruto. He must have insanely high pain resistance for him to just bulldoze through hundreds of them and not even blink an eye.
To be honest, I couldn't even imagine fighting with Shadow Clones as suddenly feeling the pain of being stabbed in the gut was enough for most people to break their attention and losing attention in a fight could easily kill someone.
"Now you can activate the traps from a distance too just by sensing where they are. It's a very nifty technique to make traps which can take out even stronger shiboni. I guess this makes you an Intermediate Seal Master. Congratulations." She wished me with a smile.
"Thank you. This wouldn't have been possible without your help." I bowed to the girl.
"Ah! You don't need to bow. You saved my, our lives. This is only the least bit I can do." She hurriedly waved her hands.
"No. This is the least we can do. You have been an incredible teacher. Thank you very much." I wasn't even lying. In these past two weeks, she had actually guided me honestly and helped me progress.
The girl blushed at the praise. "You're welcome, dattebane."
...
...
...
...
I just stared at her while her blush deepened and then she bursted. "You didn't hear anything, understood?!"
"Yes Ma'am." I nodded.
"Good...wait. Ma'am?!"
Ah fuck.
x_
"Do you three have to go so soon? We are having a celebration in a week. You can stay and join us." I asked.
The older of the twins, Mina and Rina shook her head.
"We have already overstayed our welcome. We couldn't impose more upon you. We have to escort Miss Tamami back to the village. We are already very late." She looked at the girl who was talking with Kanae and the rest of the group before leaving.
She had been embarrassed when I discovered her identity but fortunately she didn't attack me or anything.
Hell, even her companions had just face-palmed when they found out.
"That's disappointing. But feel free to visit us in the future. We would also love to go to your village sometime in the future."
"Thank you, Your Highness. We would love to welcome you and return your hospitality. The Uzumaki will never forget this gratitude so please feel free to ask us if you need our assistance in any case."
I nodded. "We would also feel more comfortable to hire shinobi we know than someone we have no relation with."
This made her confused. "My apologies, Your Majesty but isn't the Land of Flowers allied with the Land of Lightning?"
I rolled my eyes. "What kind of allies have to pay tributes to their friends? We have a relationship of convenience. Lightning doesn't want Earth to grow stronger and we don't want to be conquered by other countries. Lightning is just the lesser of two evils here. But from the things we have discovered, it looks like even this might not last for long."
"Excuse me?"
"It seems that Iwa, Kumo and Mizu are planning something. An alliance between them would mean a death sentence for us." I sighed, passing a crucial piece of information to her. If they could investigate it and find out more, good for them.
I saw her eyes open wide and her mouth open in surprise at the news.
"Are you sure?" She asked.
I nodded. "We don't know the details of anything or even the time but there is no doubt in our information."
"Thank you, Your Highness."
"Just..."
"Yes?"
"Please don't disclose to anyone that we gave you this piece of news or it might become bad for us."
"I swear on the name of my clan." She vowed.
By now, Tamami was done with her greetings and came back too.
"Then we will leave." She said after some hesitation.
"Are you sad?" I asked with a smile.
"Hah! Why would I be sad? And why are you so happy?"
I just burst out laughing at her words.
"What are you laughing at, you moron?"
"Miss Tamami, you cannot say that." Her companions quickly intervened.
Well, small Daimyo or not, insulting a Daimyo or a Prince was a no go for shinobi.
Daimyo and royal families were absolute taboos.
Killing one could get anyone a rank S bounty by all nations combined.
The only exception was when two countries were at war.
I waved their worries off. "Don't worry. We are not offended. After all, although temporarily, Miss Tamami was our Sensei and we think it's not odd for a sensei scolding their pupil."
The girl was shameless enough to grab at the opportunity.
"See Rina, I was not wrong, ya know."
...
This just made me laugh again.
"What are you laughing about?" She asked, incensed.
"Nothing. We just think we should part ways with a sad look on our faces. Laughing like this is much better."
"Hmph. Well, if that's the case, then it's fine."
I saw both her companions shaking their heads at her.
"Anyways, we are leaving now."
"Hmm, take care on your journey and remember that the Land of Flowers always has a place for you. After all, the future Daimyo of this Land is your student." I smiled.
This caused her to smile too.
"Oh we remembered something." I brought out a scroll from our sleeves. "This is a request for a quest for the Uzukage. If they accept it, they can send someone over. But please don't worry. This will not affect our relations at all. This is...just my personal curiosity after all."
"What is this?" She asked, looking at me.
"A request for a job." I smiled mysteriously.
With that said, the group of redheads left for their village.
x_
I stood in my lab.
Tomorrow was the day of my engagement and I was planning to complete some rituals today.
First was a Ritual to increase my charm.
I had to collect two hundred varieties of flowers for this, something which was quite easy for me and I had even collected the materials for the ritual a while back but didn't go through with this to prevent my guests from noticing. The catch was that each of these flowers should be flawless.
This ritual was relatively simple and just drawing the circles and placing the sacrifices was enough to get me started with it.
The ritual circles lit up and the flowers turned into an ink like substance and slowly flowed into my body.
I felt warm all over. It was like the first ritual I had done.
After the ritual was completed, I went to the mirror and checked myself.
The changes in my body were not huge.
What the ritual did was fix my imperfections or any blemishes my body had. Scars were removed and the skin and hair became healthier.
Apart from that, I couldn't notice anything. Was this all?
Damn, that's no good.
I started to prepare for the second ritual right after that.
This time something else was going to come in hand. The blood of the Uzumaki.
I had found out that Mina and Rina were both sensors. I didn't know if they had the Uzumaki's trademark Mind's Eye of Kagura but even that didn't exactly matter.
The ritual I was going to do was to gain the ability to sense chakra.
It required several ingredients but most of all, the blood of another sensor ninja.
Sensing was an ability I was looking forward to for a long time.
Kensho apparently had this ability but I didn't want to ask him for his blood as that would just raise doubts in the guy's mind. The encounter with the Uzumaki was heaven sent.
I had planned for another set of rituals for different things, for example the ritual to increase my elemental affinity with different elements.
On checking, it turned out that I had water affinity but there were rituals which could give me different affinities as well as increase the strength of my existing affinities.
For example, I needed the water from seven different lakes to increase my Water affinity. Earth from seven different mountains to gain earth affinity, etc.
I hadn't tried these yet as I wasn't exactly concentrating on elemental ninjutsu for now.
The preparations were complete and I started the ritual as usual.
The ritual circle lit up and suddenly, I felt as if a door was opened.
It was strange, as if using an organ I hadn't used for the first time. I could just feel different presences around me.
Each presence had a different...size or weight and each presence was different in their own way. They had their own...flavours if that's even the right word for it.
So this was a sensing skill? It's incredible.
No, it was beyond incredible.
My range was not that high yet, slightly beyond the warehouse which would be fifty metres radius but even that was incredible.
There was so much I could do with this.
Another Ritual I wanted to do today was to achieve poison resistance.
I knew that the people of the Land of Stairs and the Land of Medicine would try to poison me so it was better to start getting resistance to these things in advance.
There were several levels to this Ritual as well. The higher I went, the better the poisons I would be resistant too. This also gave me resistance to some diseases.
The first stage of Ritual needed me to gather twelve poisonous animals or insects.
The second stage of the Ritual needed 100 poisonous herbs.
The third stage needed some esoteric types of poison which I didn't even know about so that's out of reach.
Finally, checking a few more things, I decided to proceed towards the last thing on today's to do list.
Summoning.
Tomorrow was my engagement so I was betting a lot on this summoning ritual.
This summoning could change a lot of things. That's why I was planning to summon someone as a bodyguard.
Drawing the ritual circles again, I summoned my Grimoire and put my hand on it.
I need someone completely loyal to me as a bodyguard.
As I imagined this, the memories of Mina and Rina defending Tamami came to my mind.
Having a shinobi bodyguard wouldn't be bad either.
The white ritual circle turned into a red colour and a figure appeared in front of me.
Before I could react though, the figure jumped towards me.
Leaves gathered around the figure's hands during the jump.
"Tsubamegaeshi."
...
"What!" My mind blanked for a second at the words.
Thankfully, Kuina, who was behind me, worked quickly and was about to stop the girl's attack but something strange happened.
The sword made of leaves fell apart as soon as it came near me, making Kuina miss her attack and hitting the girl instead.
The force threw her at me at a faster force, crashing straight into me and I was enveloped by a soft feeling.
I tried to push but my hands were met with two soft cushions of flesh and I felt a moan in my mouth.
The girl seemed to have realised what had happened and moved back quickly and I could finally see her face.
She was a girl with long black hair and green eyes. She had her hair in a high ponytail and left a few locks of hair to dangle on either side of her face. She was slightly shorter than me and...that figure, damn...
Kuina had blanked due to the incident and the girl herself was stunned and was touching her lips.
...
So that was a kiss...
This was not the kind of summoning I was expecting.
Kuina was the first person to break out of the stunned state and quickly stood in front of me, covering me.
She had her sword drawn and pointed towards the girl in black.
"Who are you and why did you attack all of a sudden?" She asked.
The question seemed to have broken the girl out of her trance as well. She threw me a glare and if looks could kill, I would be dead already.
"What's up with that look lady? And what problem do you have with me? Sure I called you here, but you were given an option too. I didn't force anyone here." I said, slightly angry at the sudden attack.
"So it was you who summoned me. I thought it was another trick of the other ninja clan to take us down. Who are you and why did you summon me here?" She asked.
Ninja Clan?
Was she a ninja?
But Tsubamegaeshi?
"Well, I was the one who summoned you but I only asked for someone who was about to die and even then they must be asked for their agreement first. You were summoned because you agreed to it then why did you attack me?"
She let out a sigh. "I was in a fight when we were ambushed in a trap of the enemy clan. That's when I heard the voice and accepted the offer without knowing what was happening. When the light disappeared and I saw someone in front of me, I attacked." She then looked towards me with a heated gaze. "And yet, I became powerless as soon as I went near you and was taken advantage of."
"Taken advantage of? Are you out of your mind? I didn't make a single move. You were the one who tried to attack me and then crashed into me when the attack failed. How is that me taking advantage of you? If anything, it's you taking advantage of me."
She just continued to glare at me.
Thankfully, Kuina took charge of the situation. She told me to leave the room and that she would talk to the girl.
I was more than happy to leave.
The two girls came out after an hour and while the girl was controlled, she still stared at me unnervingly.
"My name is Seraphim. I am a vampire ninja. Thank you for saving my life." She bowed slightly.
Vampire?
"Do you drink blood?" I asked, cautiously.
"Yes. But I don't drain just anyone out of blood. I can drink blood from blood bags just fine." She explained.
"Alright. I will arrange blood bags for you but you are not allowed to drink blood from any of my people. Nor are you allowed to turn anyone into a vampire. This is an order." In fact, I set a rule for her.
"I cannot turn others into vampires. I am a vampire ninja, not one of those freaks from TV Dramas." She protested.
"Oh...that's fine then."
Apparently, Kuina had done a really good job at explaining everything to her, having witnessed the process several times.
I told her to take her to Kanae to explain about this world. Kanae was the best at explaining things among us.
Still, this also reminded me how much of a bet summoning someone was.
Although it said that whatever or whoever I summon will not be able to harm me, it doesn't mean they wouldn't try to harm me.
Till now, everyone I had summoned had turned out to be pretty good but that doesn't mean the future would be the same as well.
Sigh, and here I thought things had been going good.
x_
The door to my room opened and Kuina entered.
"We are ready to leave." She said before taking a look at me. "Oh, you are looking good, dressed like that."
"Oh my, are you hitting on me?" I asked with a smile, making her roll her eyes.
Kuina and I had a funny relationship.
We were bros.
With how tomboyish she was, it wasn't even odd.
I haven't had any friends my age due to my position and so when she came, she became my first friend.
That's why she has always been very special to me.
We often joked around with each other like this.
"So, feeling nervous? You are going to get engaged today."
"I am feeling nervous but not about the engagement itself but the other things that will come afterwards."
She patted my shoulders. "Don't worry. We will take care of every problem together."
"Hmm."
With this, we left the palace and went to the place where my Grandpa was waiting with the other nobles.
In front of him another man sat in the traditional clothing of the Daimyo. He looked to be around the same age as my Grandpa. Behind him was a girl sitting with her head bowed and looking at the ground. Princess Kasumi, the sacrifice from their side in a bid to usurp the Land of Flowers.
She had long black hair and red eyes, dressed in a red kimono, she looked like a doll of some kind.
My arrival brought all the eyes on me. Grandpa looked at me and signalled me to sit beside him. I bowed and politely took a seat there.
While doing so, I almost unconsciously spread my chakra sensory skill and quickly pinched myself in the leg to prevent showing any expressions.
Six Chakra signatures in the people sitting in the envoy brought by the Stairs Daimyo.
One was far above my own Chakra level, three were around my Chakra level and two were below mine.
One Jōnin, three Chunin and two Genin.
I didn't look in their direction and just smiled at the Stairs Daimyo.
Grandpa and the guy talked with each other and then Stairs Daimyo formally presented the marriage proposal which Grandpa accepted. They then looked at me.
"Kazuya Katsuyoshi, do you agree to take Princess Kasumi Fujimoto, the Granddaughter of the Sixth Daimyo of the Land of Stairs as your fiance?" Grandpa asked.
"Yes."
"Kasumi Fujimoto, do you agree to take Prince Kazuya Katsuyoshi, the Grandson of the Fourteenth Daimyo of the Land of Flowers as your finance?" The Stairs Daimyo asked her.
"Yes." The girl spoke in a very small voice.
"Good then, from today onwards, Princess Kasumi Fujimoto of the Land of Stairs is engaged to Prince Kazuya Katsuyoshi of the Land of Flowers."
What followed was a long and tiring introduction and celebration.
Surprisingly, the Jōnin three Chunins were actually introduced as the attendants of the Princess, which I knew to be utter bullshit.
The Jōnin's name was Mogami or at least that's how she introduced herself.
Were they planning to send these four from the start to infiltrate my home?
They would stay here for a week before leaving.
Ah, that just complicated things.
But, maybe not.
A thought came to my mind and I began planning.
Let's see if I can use this situation to my advantage.
Grandpa took the Stairs Daimyo for an official tour of the City while I had to do the same for the Princess.
Her attendants followed me.
On a simple signal from me, Kuina followed me.
I had asked my other subordinates to stay away from the sight of the Stairs entourage. I didn't want to give them any indication of our power.
In fact, the place where Saitō conducted training was changed to look like a school.
I showed her around the town, avoiding the direction of the school and my warehouse.
From what little we talked, I could say that the girl was actually a good person.
In fact, simply noticing her gaze during our travels was enough to give me an idea about her nature.
"So, what do you think about the Land of Flowers?" I asked,
"Your people seem to be happy. Lord Daimyo must be a very good leader." She replied.
"Indeed, our Grandfather is a very able and kind ruler. He always places the happiness of our people above all else. This is what has earned him the love and trust of our people." I replied.
It was at this time that the Jōnin spoke.
"Lord Daimyo is indeed an able ruler but you must not discount your own contribution towards the people, Prince Kazuya."
I looked in the direction of the woman.
"We don't understand what you are referring to?"
"Obviously the new farming method you have introduced to the population of the Land of Flowers. It is due to this that even during such dire times, the people of the Land of Flowers can live such peaceful lives." She spoke with a smile.
My mind ran at a fast speed, considering the implications of her words.
Were they here to get that method?
No, it would be easier to just get it out of some random farmer than come to me.
"There are rumours that the Prince himself invented these methods as well as brought reforms for all the farmers of the land. It goes to show that the Prince is a very learned researcher too." She praised.
Ah, I see.
So that's your plan. Good. Then let's see how far you can go.
I smiled at her and nodded. "Thank you. It's just something we do for our people."
Looking closely, I saw a glint in her eyes.
"Prince is very kind." She bowed.
I concentrated back on the Princess and didn't speak further on this topic.
- Attendant Jōnin -
Six days had passed since they had come to the Land of Flowers for their mission.
Her team's mission was to infiltrate the Daimyo's mansion and discover the information about the new farming methods, the formula for the fertilisers and finally the special seeds which the Daimyo's lands used to grow their crops.
The information about the miraculous growth of the crops in the Land of Flowers had spread to the neighbouring lands as well and everyone wanted to know how they could do such a thing.
Obviously finding the information was quite easy as the fool had spread the information among every common farmer.
That said, they soon noticed a difference.
While the produce in the other lands increased as well, they were still lower than the produce of the Daimyo's lands.
It was then guessed that the Daimyo must be using some other secret method for his lands which further increased the production of crops.
Her mission this time was to find this method and slip away with the procession of the Princess of the Land of Stairs.
Obviously the Daimyos of the Land of Stairs and her own Daimyo must have some kind of agreement behind the scenes which she was not aware of.
But her question was not asking questions but completing the mission.
It had taken her three days to figure out the locations where the Prince worked and three more days to verify the entire place. Tomorrow they were scheduled to leave and today was the day they had to work everything out.
An unusually large warehouse a little distance away from the main Palace. There was also a school and a martial arts dojo combined with the place.
Late at night, after the royal families had gone to sleep, she and her team left their rooms and vanished in the darkness of the night, gathering in the forest in the outskirts, looking at the building from a distance away.
The building looked quiet and they checked for anyone around the place but didn't find anything except the guards on the gates and some guards making rounds around the place. None of them went inside the place.
From the information she had found out, only the Prince and two girls who were thought to be his lovers were allowed inside.
The boy apparently had two or three lovers, one of them being the samurai girl following him. Still, what Daimyo didn't?
At least the boy was far more attractive than any other Daimyo she had seen. Hell, she had felt her heart skip a beat the first time she had seen him.
That Princess was lucky to get a shot with this hottie instead of being married off to some fat bastard.
Still, this is also what made her sure that the secrets of the Prince's research were obviously inside this place.
With a signal from her, all of them rushed inside the building from several directions.
Each of them took a different route to ensure they could check the whole buildings at the fastest speed possible.
She herself headed towards the most important rooms, like the Principal's Room and other official rooms but didn't find anything inside them.
It was when she was about to leave that she noticed another courtyard which looked like living rooms, perhaps the quarters for the teachers.
Did the teachers go on a vacation because she couldn't see anything there?
She went ahead and found the rooms indeed looked like people were living there until recently. She checked around and found a locked door to the basement.
To her surprise, the room's doors were actually reinforced steel under the wooden outer layer. Instead of frowning, her eyes lit up.
Was it this place?
Obviously the room was locked with several locks but these things were as simple as flicking a finger for her to unlock. Behind the door were stairs which went below. She lit up a matchstick and slowly walked down carefully before she stopped. A thin wire shining under the light of the matchstick.
Trap.
It was well hidden and could probably catch even inexperienced Chunin off guard but she was a Jōnin and it would be stupid for her to fall for something like this.
The trap only served to make her more excited as she was sure that this place had something to hide.
She checked the place and simply walked on the walls to avoid the traps until she reached below to another door.
This one had more complicated locks and even took fifteen minutes to unlock.
"Damn that Flower Boy has gone beyond his level to protect this place." She muttered.
On opening the room, she found it to be outlined with books everywhere.
There was a desk with paper and many shelves with what looked like containers full of seeds. Jackpot.
She quickly brought out the sealing scrolls and began storing everything inside.
"You missed one on the bottom shelf." Suddenly a voice made her freeze. On reflex, she reached for her kunai but found herself frozen. No matter how much she tried, she couldn't move a muscle.
She heard footsteps behind her as the figure came in front and she saw the face.
"Prince Kazuya!"
The boy didn't show any expression but brought spoke paper seals and placed it on her and then a handcuff and cuffing her hands, finally making a hand seal.
She found herself losing control of her chakra.
This is...the chakra suppression seal!
After that, the boy brought an injection from his pocket and injected her with some kind of liquid.
Poison.
Dammit!
She felt her muscles relax and drowsiness trying to settle in.
Quickly thinking of a plan, she pretended to sleep while forcing herself to stay awake. This poison must be strong because she was from the Land of Medicine and had high resistance to poisons and yet she felt the effects. If it were any normal shinobi, they would have fallen asleep already.
This was a bet. It all depended on if her ploy worked.
If he catches her, she dies, if he doesn't, she escapes.
She waited and thankfully, the boy seemed to be assured and she felt the paralysis fall as she felt the boy's hands on her back, grabbing a hold of her collar to pick her up.
Using this opportunity, she bit her tongue, forcing her to push away the drowsiness, turned and took a hold of the boy between her thighs and in a quick motion of her hands, she snapped his neck.
Yes.
A smile came to her face.
Even without chakra, the power of a Jōnin was not something people like these could contend with.
Sure, the Prince dying would be a big problem but that has nothing to do with her.
Maybe someone didn't want the relationship between the two Lands and assassinated the Prince.
She has already gotten what she had come here for and will leave early tomorrow morning along with the rest of the envoy.
These thoughts of hers however crashed as the figure between her legs...burst into a cloud of smoke.
"Bunshin!"
The paralysis on her body was activated again and several voices came from behind him.
"See, I told you, it wouldn't be so easy." A girl's voice came and she raised her head to look at the figure of the samurai girl who always followed the boy.
Beside him, the boy was rubbing his neck and was frowning.
"Well, I know. Why do you think I was using a clone?"
"Still, you could have paid more attention."
"Kuina-chan is not wrong, Your Highness." Another girl's voice came as she looked at three figures climbing down the stairs. To her horror, each one of them had one of her team members with them, all knocked unconscious and chakra sealed.
"Underestimating ninja, vampire or human, is always foolish." Another voice came and the speaker was a girl with black hair and green eyes, someone she hadn't seen before.
"It seems you need to increase your training more, Your Highness." The rough looking man in the group said.
"Ah, I took measures, didn't I? Stop picking on me already." The boy complained as he looked at her. "Hello, Mogami-san or should I call you Tsukimi Kodon?" The boy smiled, his eyes shining in the dark, suddenly sending shivers down her spine.
- Kazuya -
I chucked the entire team in different cells, this time, making it so that they couldn't even move properly if I didn't want it.
Seriously, I had to thank Tamami for helping me out with the seals or I would be stuck without any options against such kinds of attacks.
Paralysis Seals and Chakra Sealing Seals were extremely useful for us.
"What should we do now?" Asked Saitō. "Because there is no way they would ignore the missing ninja in their envoy considering their true intention of bringing them here."
"I am not intending to let them ignore it either." I said, taking out one of the kunai I had confiscated from them and playing with it.
While these people were investigating me, I was doing the same for them.
I found out the information about the Jōnin just this morning. Six days for the information was understandable considering she was just a common Jōnin from a small village without any special skills.
From this, I found out about her mission.
The Medicine Daimyo was really pushing his limits now so it was time to bring him down a notch.
"Set explosions in several places of this warehouse as well as set off an alarm. Kill one of the chunin from their team and spread the news that they tried to rob the warehouse and attacked me. Even stole fifty pounds of gold and several bits of research data while destroying the rest." I commanded.
"We can forge the identities of the chunin as well as reveal the identity of the Jōnin, putting a bounty on their head." Saitō added and I nodded.
"Yes and I will have Grandpa and the Stairs Daimyo put some extra pressure on the Medicine guy to drive away the Kodon Clan from his land."
"Do you think it will work? I mean the Medicine Daimyo can deny any involvement too."
"Oh he sure could, but he will not. That guy is counting a lot on this marriage. After all, it's his long term plan to take over the Land of Flowers. He will absolutely take action even if it's only to satiate our anger. After all, there is no way he would give up potentially acquiring both our lands over one small ninja clan."
"But wouldn't that put the Clan against us?" Kanae asked.
"They are bound to go against us, after all, the clan protecting the seal of Rōen is the Kodon Clan. We have to face them sooner or later so it's better to have them removed from the Land of Medicine sooner rather than later."
In fact, even if it weren't the Kodon Clan, I would have found a way to pin this on them and have them removed from the Land of Medicine. They were a Clan with three Jōnin and several Chunin level ninja which would also serve to cut a bit of the Medicine Daimyo's power.
This attack had turned into an unexpected boon for us.
Especially since it gave me the extra chunin level ninja I needed for my next ritual.
"But how would we fool them? After all, you are unhurt." Kuina asked.
"Oh you will see that soon."
We quickly got ready to arrange the scene according to our requirements.
When everything was done, I made a hand sign and detonated the whole place.
"Now for your question, Kuina." I took the kunai I had been playing with and quickly stabbed myself in the shoulder, taking all of them by surprise. "What are you saying? I think I am plenty hurt." I replied through gritted teeth.
Dammit, that hurt.
"Kazuya! Are you insane?" She quickly shouted and hurried to me.
I was bleeding and in moments, my entire haori was dyed red.
They helped me remove my kunai and bandage while Saitō took another kunai and stabbed himself and even cut himself at different places as well. At their confused looks, he replied. "Someone has to save our untrained Prince and make them retreat. I am just a common samurai from their point of view so being unhurt against a Jōnin and possibly other chunin could make it suspicious especially when I was protecting someone like him." He explained.
They helped us treat our wounds while many others quickly rushed.
An explosion so close to the palace would attract anyone's attention after all.
Let the drama begin.
x_x_
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Author's Note:
I am back with another chapter of 'Ruling by the Book'.
A few things happened and we got another summon in the group.
Kazuya got an in with the clan of redheads and even faced the first attack against him.
I am planning to write this story in a full story format instead of a snippet so the pacing will be slow.
Enjoy the new chapter.
Good Day, Peace Out.