Demon of Lust in the Land of Water 18

Demon of Lust in the Land of Water
Chapter 18

-VB-

Soon, letters left Kirigakure through the hands of official envoys. These letters traveled to all corners of the Elemental Nations, and these letters asked for permission to enter the hidden villages and their lands.

But these letters did not go to other kage.

Rather, these letters went to the daimyos of each land.

Some accepted the letters as traps. Others accepted the news for what it was.

The idea that a foreign kage would go out and visit other villages and cities for the heck of it was ridiculous. There had to be some sort of a plot behind it. Maybe the kage who would be visiting was nothing more than a body double. Or there was a coup in Kirigakure that might happen!

Regardless of the speculations, the world learned that the Fire Daimyo was the first to accept Mizukage’s request, and so Godaime Mizukage of Kirigakure stepped onto the Land of Fire in peace.

Of course, the Hokage sent some of the most powerful and smartest of his ninjas to “escort” the new Mizukage, a supposedly strange man who wore strange things and worshiped a seductive goddess.

Instead of talking about the power of Kirigakure or the Land of Water like past Mizukage’s have been like, he talked at length about the religion he was the founder of and the goddess he worshipped.

They brought him to the Court of Fire.

And he brought gifts.

-VB-

Sandaime Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen wouldn’t call today a momentous occasion, but he would definitely say that it was a day worth writing down in history.

For how often did kages visit other nations in the name of peace?

He watched from the side of one of the two long columns of Court of Fire’s courtiers as one of the two military advisors to the Fire Daimyo. Between the two columns was a wide berth of space with gold-trimmed red carpet.

And a strangely dressed man walked down the aisle, two Kirigakure jounin, ceremoniously dressed in white and blue robes of the Land of Water’s courtiers, walked behind him with a box each held up by their hands.

Hiruzen wondered what this was all about.

No one knew anything about the Godaime Mizukage. What he knew came from a report months ago about the religion the man founded, which espoused love, free sex, and debaucherous things along those lines. Really, the man had to be a con artist that somehow got into the good grace of the Water Daimyo.

That, however, did not explain how he continued to live when there were disgruntled ninjas who did not respect the authority of a daimyo; Kirigakure was infamous for those.

As the Godaime Mizukage stopped at the foot of the raised dais, he did something shocking.

He knelt and bowed, placing his hands down on the floor and then his heads on top of his stacked hands.

“Godaime Mizukage Marris Alan greets the supreme authority of the Land of Fire, the eighteenth Fire Daimyo Tsuguhito.”

This was the official formal greeting from an envoy to a lord.

‘Why go so far?’ Hiruzen thought to himself in confusion. While the greeting the Mizukage just performed was normal for a diplomat, envoy, and courtiers to do, this was out of the norm for a kage to do. In fact, this went against norm to date where kages met each other and only informed the daimyos after the fact simply because the daimyos were not the supreme military commander of the land. ‘Is the situation different in the Land of Water?’

What was the man after?

“Greetings to you, Godaime Mizukage,” the fickle but now definitely curious Fire Daimyo greeted with humor in his voice. “My, my. This is more respect than I have ever been paid by my own.”

Ah, that was a dig at him.

“I come bearing gifts for the supreme lord of the Land of Fire,” the Mizukage spoke while keeping his head bowed. His two jounins stepped forward and opened the box.

And the courtiers and the crowd oh’ed and ah’ed at what was revealed.

In the left box, a jade dragon statuette sat.

In the right box, a gold dragon statuette facing the opposite direction sat.

Each of those had to be worth quite the sum.

“From the Land of Water to the Land of Fire. May this peace we live in continue forevermore.”

Courtiers clapped for the display and the Fire Daimyo looked extremely pleased.

“This is a very fine gift,” the daimyo spoke truly. “There must be something I can offer in return! It would behoove me to send a guest back empty-handed when he came to me with such grand gifts!”

…

Oh no.

“... Then may I ask the supreme lord if I can practice my religion freely in this land.”

“Oh? What is the religion about? What is its name?”

“I am a worshipper of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.”

This was never a mission about spying, was it?

Hiruzen glanced at the mizukage.

‘You never cared about military matters like everyone theorized you might be. No… You’re here to spread a religion.’

“I would love for the people of the Land of Fire to know the gospel of Aphrodite.”

-VB-

A/N: Obito will show back up in later chapters.