Necessary Corruption 31

Necessary Corruption

Chapter 31

-VB-

As time passed, other foreigners began to arrive at Konohagakure. Having taken one of the biggest residences, I chose this chance to network with them.

I invited a rich noble from the Land of Rice, a courtier from the Fire Daimyo’s court, Konohagakure’s own merchants and courtly liaison, and anyone else would had a title to their name and a name worth remembering.

Of course, I knew that most of them were here to network and connect with me and not the other way around. Personally, this was a good thing as this meant that my influence was spreading even without me there to guide it.

This was a bad thing for my blessed guards, however, as they had to scour through every nook and cranny for every single second that I held a feast, tea party, and more. After all, any of them could be an ally of my rivals back in the Land of Rivers.

Speaking of which, the clans and nobles of the Northern Rivers, upon realizing that my lands and I were unassailable because of my blessed (whether they knew it or not), began to turn upon each other. It probably helped that I planted evidence of narcotics trade among them as diversion.

Said diversion already led to multiple honor killings and revenge honor killings and blood feuds and -.

Northern Rivers was a mess of my creation, and I gleefully cheered them on.

Hell, my people should be providing weapons to multiple sides of the fight, making profit hand over fist. If ninjas interfered, then they would be swiftly hunted down by my blessed. Yina may be my strongest blessed, but even she could not fight against the combined might of the next three, never mind the strongest twenty I left behind.

“What are you thinking about?”

I blinked and got a hold of myself, and found Tsunami staring at me with mirthful eyes.

I smiled back at her. “Oh, just thinking about how much of a mess I must have created for my rivals.”

“Rivals? You have rivals?” she asked with a faux gasp. She already knew that I had competitors. However, the two of us were currently in front of a crowd who were listening in even if they made themselves look like they weren’t.

What we were doing was a little script. See, I knew that Tsunami could be used against me if someone with enough money (like any of the other ninja villages) got their hands on her. I discussed with her, and she was the one who gave me the idea. As much as it galled her and her own life experiences, she asked to play the role of an airhead trophy wife.

I told her that it was unnecessary.

And she had responded by telling me that she understood that she could never be my partner for, in her humble opinion, I was too great for her in all ways that history would remember me. As such, the least she could do was reduce the burden she might have on me.

… I really did pick a good woman to be my wife.

So. I went out of my way to give her my blessing as well, and Tsunami was now someone who could read the mood of the room. Like literally. She could read what mood someone was in because, from her perspective, words would float around the room with colors and more.

It was a critically powerful tool for someone who intended to stay on the sideline yet advise me on the ebb and flow of the court.

“Yes. My lord, the River Daimyo, has been trying his best quell the unrest among the clans and nobles in charge of Northern Rivers, but they are becoming too rowdy even for him. How could a single daimyo handle half of an entire land rising up to kill each other? It isn’t even a revolt, so the River Daimyo can’t even force a truce through force against them. I had to send quite the sum of money and weapons to help my lord.”

I already saw one man leave with calculating looks in his eyes.

“Oh my,” she hemmed. “I hope our lord will bring justice to the realm. He is a forthright person, isn’t he?”

Like hell he was! He was as corrupt as they came!

“He is,” I replied with a “sincere” smile. “I pray that he will soon find a solution to my peers’ lack of discipline.”

-VB-

Danzo looked at the man playing a game much like he did, and felt … competitive.

Disguised with a simple genjutsu, he was in one of Takanori’s many feasts. Tonight, he had disguised himself as a courtier from the Land of Lightning and several of his Root ANBUs were disguised as Land of Rock merchants and courtiers, and when the feast ended, they would kill him.

Oh, he would be nowhere near the scene of the crime, so he would be absolve of any suspicion.

It would also cause strife between the Land of Rivers and the Land of Rock. The former was sure to accuse the latter, and the latter would deny any involvement. More than that, a death outside of a Chunin Exam would be seen as breach in the treaty, causing the strained relationships of the Land of Rock and plunging it even further. It might even serve to complete isolate them.

With the Land of Rock isolated, it would only leave the Land of Lightning for Konohagakure to focus on.

As the feast wound down, he left just as several of the “drunk Land of Rock” courtiers stand up to approach the Lord of Southern Rivers.

Except they didn’t go towards him. They left in a different direction.

What was happening?

He kept his cool and strode out to the garden, taking his place at the edge and along the compound wall.

“... Greetings, Shimura Danzo.”

He froze.

He glanced about and saw a single red eye in his shadow.

A Nara?

No.

This was not a Nara technique.

A shining white teethed smile formed underneath the eye.

“No reply?”

“I do not know the person you are asking for.”

“There is no need to play the game, Danzo-dono. Consider me your counterpart in the service of Takanori-sama. Greetings.”

“... I was unaware that such a talented individual served him.”

The shadows chuckled, flickering with the light provided by a nearby brazier. Far away from him and the brazier, the rest of the feast participants in the garden cheered and drank as if there was nothing wrong.

“Many talented people serve him,” the shadows replied. He spotted another eye opening up and then closing in the shadow of a local rice merchant. “I am merely one of many.”

“I see. I underestimated him.”

“Indeed. Fortunately for you, my lord is not currently in the business of antagonizing the Hokage by killing his friend. However, this incident shall be reported to him, you understand?”

“You make it sound like you have evidence.”

“How does the severed tongues of your Root agents sound?”

He stiffened.

“It’s hard to suicide when we have multiple servants among his service who can do things outside of your comprehension. After all, is it not impossible that someone can make an illusion real and reality into illusion?”

That sounded a lot like … the Uchiha!

They survived? No, there couldn’t be anymore Uchiha other than the Uchiha Sasuke, Uchiha Itachi, and the unknown!

“The shadows of your left arm are strong,” the shadows tittered.

It knew.

“Perhaps our silence can be bought, though the silence of our lord cannot be guaranteed.”

“What is your price?”

“Back the fuck off, Danzo. Next time you try this, our retaliation will see Konohagakure cry blood.”

And then the mouth and the eye was gone, leaving him alone.

“Truly, I underestimated him,” he hummed before calmly leaving the compound.