Fukuda Masaki cautiously took the book and flipped through it. He understood at a glance that everything recorded in it was a political achievement. It was a good thing.
Not long after the new Daimyo succeeded to the throne, the officials would definitely be shuffled. With these political achievements in his hands, he might be able to get the highest status.
Masaki’s eyes suddenly lit up. He put the scrolls into his pocket and said with a smile, “You are impeccable in handling affairs. I look forward to continuing to cooperate with you in the future. Two years later, I’m planning to purchase property in Konoha for my son. At that time, if something happens, I’ll need your help.”
Following etiquette, Uchiha Tonan bowed his head but his eyes flashed with a hint of coldness. “Masaki-sama, you can rest assured. I care about human sentiments the most. By the way, I request you to please help me take care of the orphans taken in by the North City Guard Residence after I leave. I’ll come back to pick them up after the matter there is settled.”
Masaki was unlikely to refuse such a small request after receiving such a big favor from Tonan. He immediately replied, “No problem at all. I like children very much.”
Tonan smiled, stepped forward, and lifted the teapot. While refilling Masaki’s teacup, he said, “Thank you very much. Then I bid you farewell. Masaki-sama, I wish you a successful official career. We’ll meet again someday.”
Masaki stood up and put his hand on Tonan’s shoulder, “Let me see you off.” After Masaki sent Tonan away, he returned to the study and carefully stored the scrolls. He was very pleased.
He then drank the tea and muttered, looking refreshed, “If only the people below were like Tonan.”
The six scrolls that were given to Masaki, in the beginning, contained banknotes of five million Ryo each, adding up to thirty million. Masaki understood this was hush money. The second scroll contained the corpses of the North City Guard Residence’s attendants. And the book recorded the crimes of each of these servants.
From the moment Masaki accepted these gifts, it represented that Tonan’s record was completely clean. As for the Sarutobi Shinnosuke’s death, that blame fell on Abe Seimei and the First Highness. Sarutobi Hiruzen should not link anything to him.
“These two shields are not enough insurance though. But there were two Root ninjas with the First Highness that day. I’ve to think of a way to pull Danzo into this after returning to hinder him.”
Among the three implicated people, one disappeared from the world, one had a special status, and the last one was Hiruzen’s old partner who got along with him for several years. Tonan wanted to see what Hiruzen would do.
The trip to the Fire Capital was very successful for him. It would have taken a long time for Tonan to earn 600 million Ryo solely by doing missions. The minimum reward for S-ranked missions was one million Ryo. Generally speaking, very few missions were valued at ten million Ryo.
Even for an S-ranked mission with the reward of five million Ryo, one would need to complete one hundred and twenty such missions. Not to mention the time required to complete a single S-ranked mission, during peace times, the number of such missions in the entire Ninja World wouldn’t reach such a number in a year.
It was much faster to earn wealth by plundering common people. No wonder there were so many rogue ninjas. Also on this trip, he killed Shinnosuke and Sarutobi Asuma. Hiruzen no longer had a successor. Tonan could easily take advantage of this void.
From Asuma, he had learned that Hiruzen valued Orochimaru highly. It seemed it was useless to use the Will of Fire to make Hiruzen see he could inherit his legacy. The only thing on this trip that dissatisfied him was Masaki. Tonan didn’t expect Masaki to plan to migrate to Konoha. Since that was the case, he could only apologize.
It would have been fine if they didn’t get involved with each other in the future. But once Masaki arrived in Konoha and if by chance anything happened, the old fox might use the occurrences at the Fire Capital to pressurize him.
The best solution was to eliminate the disaster in advance.
A day later at the Hokage’s office in Konoha.
Bang!
After reading the information, Hiruzen slammed his fist on the desk, smashing it into pieces. The Anbu member who delivered the intelligence report immediately knelt on one knee, “Hokage-sama, please calm your anger.”
Hiruzen tried his best to suppress his rage and glared at the several Anbu members.
“Summon Mitocado Homura, Utatane Koharu and Danzo.”
“Yes.”
After the Anbu members left, Hiruzen’s face turned hideous. He crumpled the information document into a ball and threw it to the ground, and as if he wanted to kill everyone, he growled, “Shinnosuke… Asuma…”
Soon, the two Hokage Advisers and Shimura Danzo came to the office together. Immediately on entering, they noticed Hiruzen could not maintain his calm look. Instead, he looked manic.
“Hiruzen, what happened?” Danzo asked.
Hiruzen stood in his place with his head lowered. His chest was moving up and down, and he said nothing. He just pointed at the crumpled document on the ground with a trembling hand. It was obvious he was enraged. Seeing this, Danzo said nothing. He picked up the document from the ground, frowned, and looked solemn after reading it.
He then passed it to Homura and Koharu. After everyone read it, Homura said, “Shinnosuke must have been framed. The murderer very likely is the First Highness.”
Danzo squinted his eyes and retorted, “What nonsense Homura! Why would the First Highness kill his biological father?”
Homura too couldn’t think of a reason. Looking unsure, she replied, “I’m just guessing, but it might be that the First Highness was too impatient to take the throne. After all, he is the biggest beneficiary of this matter.”
Dazno coldly said, “It is also possible that the enemy state secretly made a move to sow discord in the relationship between the Daimyo Residence and Konoha.”
In any case, he couldn’t let Naraku who supported him become a murderer. Even if that was true, he had to whitewash it. The Daimyo was not important, but the funds provided by the Daimyo were very important for the Hokage election. Besides, the one who died was Hiruzen’s son, not his.
Homura thought for a bit and said doubtfully, “But according to the description in the intelligence, there is no enemy spy.”
Danzo said indifferently, “What if it’s genjutsu. For example, the Uchiha clan. That evil clan is good at this kind of plot.”
“Enough!” Hiruzen shouted, staring at the three with bloodshot eyes. He then said in a ferocious tone, “I’ve not called you all here to discuss who is the mastermind or who is the murderer. I want you all to put pressure on the Daimyo Residence together with me. Make them hand over the First Highness and the man called Abe Seimei.”
Shinnosuke died tragically and Asuma’s whereabouts were unknown. How could Hiruzen not be heartbroken? Danzo could see the determination in Hiruzen’s eyes. But the First Highness was beneficial to him. He must keep him.
“I have no objection to dealing with Abe Seimei, but the First Highness is the next Daimyo. We cannot touch him.”
Hiruzen gave Danzo a deep look, and seeing through his thoughts, he coldly countered, “Even if there was no First Highness, there is still the Second Highness. Let’s decide by a vote. Raise your hands if you agree with me.”
Hiruzen took the lead by raising his hand and then stared at the other three with cold eyes. He looked threatening.
