Chapter 4

Silent!

After answering Sasuke's question, the man realized what he just said, and the fact that Sasuke went silent afterward, he couldn't help but became panic.

Had he exposed the truth? What should he do now? The man slowly reached out for his pocket, there was a gun inside, a magic gun.

However, it only had few bullets left, he had spent some shooting at the Magic Council's man, back when he was surrounded by the wild boars, he planned to use the rest of them, but Sasuke came first before he could.

The man wasn't used to fighting, he rather performed espionage and information gathering, he was good at it, yet when it came to pure brawl or sort of things, he was suck bad.

"I see," Sasuke said after about 5-6 seconds later.

There was no change in his tone as if he couldn't care less about this information, the man then let out a cold sweat, he remembered this guy was from the Elemental Nation, possibly he didn't know much about Eisenwald.

Letting a bit sigh of relief, the man didn't lessen his guard, he asked Sasuke with a suspicious tone, "What's with the questions?"

"Curiosity did," Sasuke shrugged, then he proceeded to walk again, the man followed him a little bit late.

"So the name of the Merchant Guild is Eisenwald? And this Grim Reaper is the owner?" Sasuke said.

The man remembered he did mention about Merchant Guild, thinking that he had tricked Sasuke, his suspicion reduced a lot, quickly responded, "Yes, yes, in fact, my boss Grim reaper managed to rank up Eisenwald reached the point where it rival to that Merchant Guild called Love & Lucky."

"Hmm..." Sasuke didn't respond much, but the man once again started rambling about his Merchant Guild, but what he failed to notice was that Sasuke had lost his interest, he knew this guy had told him lies by this point.

The only thing keeping him from knocking this guy out was simply because he had promised to accompany him to Hargeon, so Sasuke intended to fulfill his words.

...

"I have a question."

Sasuke's clone approached the Magic Council's man, they were looking in a separate area, but the clone had secretly placed a track for the man to follow, making him assumed it belonged to the spy from Eisenwald.

"What is it?" the man didn't bother to look at the clone while answering, his eyes fixed on the trail.

"Assuming you manage to catch the spy, what's next?"

"I'll submit the document to the Magic Council, and they will order the arrest for Eisenwald's members, the guild will also be disbanded," the man said, "Eisenwald is originally considered to be official guild, however, there are rumors that they worked under one of the big Dark Guild called Oracion Seis. So the Magic Council sent spies to join the guild to confirm their relation, and we have discovered the truth."

"This dangerous item, what it can do?"

"The thing is called Lullaby, a dangerous item created by the evilest wizard in legend, the black wizard Zeref, news reported that whoever utilized Lullaby, they will have the power to take life," the man said with a grave expression.

"Where is the item now?"

"Unknown, our spy inside Eisenwald only mentioned that the guild had acquired the item, but its whereabouts is still a mystery, the only ones who knew were their leader, Grim Reaper, and his most trusted subordinates."

"How strong this Eisenwald?"

"Not really powerful, they are 3rd rate wizards at best, a squadron of Magic Council's wizards will enough to sweep them clean..." the man squinted his eyes, "but if they possess Lullaby, this will cause disaster, a criminal like them won't care how much life they would have needed to sacrifice to achieve their goal."

"I have heard this Dark Guild, but what exactly they did to earn such status?"

The man looked at Sasuke with confused eyes, said, "What kind of backwater village you are coming from?"

Before Sasuke could answer, the man waved his hand, "Sorry, my bad, I shouldn't have spoken like that, anyway, there are three types of Guild; Legal, Independent, and Dark. Legal Guild is a Guild acknowledged by the Magic Council or the Kingdom, Independent Guild is a Guild that is neither approved nor forbade by the Magic Council, and Dark Guild is a Guild that is forbidden to be formed due to their purpose of creation which mostly related to crime such as Thief Guild, Slave Guild, etc."

"So basically a Criminal Organization?"

The man nodded, "The most dangerous of them is the Dark Guild run by evil wizards, a Thief Guild or Slave Guild mostly consisted of simple reason, yeah such as Thievery and Slavery, however, a Dark Magic Guild would have all the reasons of the crime existed within them; from rebelling against the kingdom to the genocide of the people, so the Kingdom and the Magic Council are most wary against their movement."

"There are three Dark Magic Guilds considered to be the most dangerous; Tartaros, Grimoire Heart, and Oracion Seis."

"Oracion Seis, I heard you mentioned them associated with Eisenwald?" Sasuke said.

"Yes, in fact, Eisenwald is their subordinate, however, there is no proof about their involvement before, not until we had this document."

"I understand, thank you for answering this much," Sasuke said.

"Not a problem," the man said. Then he looked at Sasuke with a slight smile, "If you can help us, I assure you the Magic Council will pay your effort."

Sasuke nodded, but he didn't say much.

...

After a while, Sasuke and Eisenwald's spy arrived at Hargeon, it's already night, but the town still lively, probably due to it being a harbor, so there were a lot of people still active even at the moment.

"Thank you," the spy smiled in glee, said, "had not without your help, I wouldn't have been able to arrive safely, by the way, I hope you talk to nobody about our meeting."

Then he reached out to his pocket and took out a couple of money, he offered them to Sasuke, said, "This is the sign of my gratitude, is not much, but I promise you once my boss knows your contribution, he will definitely pay you a hefty sum of money."

"No need, I have kept my promise to accompany into Hargeon, there is no more agreement between us," Sasuke's Sharingan activated, said, "now, I want you to sleep..."

Eisenwald's spy widened his eyes, but before he could react much, he fell onto the ground.

Sasuke sent a clone to inform the Magic Council's man, then he left the area before the guy arrived, after making sure the man caught up with the spy, Sasuke left Hargeon entirely.

...

The Land of Iron is a snow-covered country located among three mountains called the Three Wolves.

Unlike other countries that utilized shinobi as their military power, this land opted to use samurai instead.

Despite the difference between the ideologies, understanding, and the formidable strength they possessed, there was no conflict happened between shinobi and samurai, let alone an agreement had been established that any shinobi shouldn't interfere with the Land of Iron.

The land of Iron also considered to be neutral ground, therefore, it's a perfect place to host a meeting between nation, one of the meetings was the Kage Summit and among the subjects was the fight against the Akatsuki, the samurai had also joined forces with the shinobi under the leadership of Mifune, even the Land of Iron hosted the union meeting of the preparation of the war.

... Inside a simple shack amidst a snowy area...

An old man could be seen laying on the top of the bed, a simple-worn-out blanket over his body.

He was pale, his eyes were fading out, his breath was steady but weak...

"Dad..."

A voice of male, landing his knees on the solid surface beside the bed, looking at the old man with a helpless gait.

"I wish I could have done it myself..." the old man's weary tone filled with grief, his eyes were looking at the ceiling, but it was a long sight, seeing something only for his eyes.

"Dad, if we only go down to the country, I can find you a doctor, and we..." but the young male said, but it was soon met with a curse.

"Traitor... I won't blemish my feet to trod a single step onto that dirty soil..." the old man gritted his teeth.

"This is what happens when we open ourselves to those heretics, filthy human beings..." the old man said, his strength was somewhat getting weaker.

"With all the teaching and technique our ancestors have been passed down to us, You promise me, Okita..." the old man's hand reached out, it was skinny, drying like a dying stem. The young man quickly grasped it, however, the touch of soft, feared if he grasped too hard, it might cause more harm than good.

"Blood pay with blood..."

"You retake your brother's honor..."

"You reclaim the pride of Samurai..."

"You purge those filthy shinobis..."

"And you behead that damn Uchiha!"

...

Inside Era, the town where Ishgar Magic Council built their headquarter.

The majority of the buildings were grandiose, fancy, and among them lived a young woman with black raven hair.

She just got out of the shower, wearing a soft white bathroom robe that did not differ from her pure skin.

The woman walked lazily toward her desk, there was a crystal orb, placed above an expensive cushion akin to a crown.

She touched the orb, then she startled a bit before a giggle breezed out her lips.

"Not just an Uchiha, but the friend of the War Hero himself... well, this is a trouble..."

The woman sat on the nearby chair, crossing her long leg above the other, with one finger across her cheek, she said, "Who should play with him, the Tree or the Gravity?"