Strange half-naked boys running rampant through the castle

"You want to give information about us to Konoha? But- but what about us? What will happen to father? Will Konoha start a war if they find something big enough? Are you... are you really trying to destroy my home?" she asked in a scramble for answers after I just turned her world upside down, thinking about what could happen if I succeeded.

"well, yes, but also, no. I mean-" - I cringed inwardly at how horrible I was at explaining, but I need to make sure she doesn't betray me - "okay, what I'm desperately trying to explain is that I'm not trying to bring down the land of water, that would be impossible even for someone as great as I am, I'm just trying to find one secret about Kiri, honestly, it might be something small, it probably isn't, but it could be. And even if it was something huge Konoha wouldn't go to war, the Third Hokage is very pacifistic in his approach" - I tried to explain, slightly more eloquently than before – "but, the most important point I wish to make is that I expect nothing from you, no help, no secrets from the palace, nothing. I just wanted you to know because real friends tell each other these kinds of things... presumably" I said

She stayed silent for minutes after that, looking at me with a thoughtful stare, she was clearly thinking deeply about what I said, and the only thing I could do now was hope that she wouldn't sell me out... because if she did, I would most likely die soon.

"I- I need to think about, all of this, for a couple of days..." she said.

"Okay, that's fair, but, just so you know, Konoha doesn't really care all that much about the water daimyo, mostly, hidden villages deal with other hidden villages, so even if I did discover something really big, you and your father would probably be fine," I said

"thank you," she said, before quickly leaving.

And so, I sighed, went to my bed, prepared for the possibility that I was being betrayed at that very moment, and went to bed with the knowledge that I might die soon. Of course, I didn't actually sleep, instead, I lay in my bed thinking over what particular actions of grand stupidity led me to this point in my life, and came to the undeniable conclusion that it might have been every single action I ever made. But honestly, I enjoyed myself so far, and sure, my actions may very well have led me to an early grave, but it was fun.

I really should have just stayed out of the library.

But after days of jittery waiting, I finally saw Kyoko standing in my room after dinner one day, with a determined expression on her face.

"ok, I won't tell anyone, but in exchange, you have to take me with you," she said.

"excuse me, because while I understand what you're saying, I'm slightly confused as to why you want to come with me," I said.

"I want to be a shinobi, I want to travel all over the world, and I want to get away from this place, I mean, I'll miss mother, father, and my siblings, but I hate everyone else, and so, I want to leverage the fact that you need my help to have any chance of survival to force you into taking my with you, okay?" she said, looking more determined than I've ever seen her before.

"why would I need your help? I mean, I guess it would be easier to get around the castle by just being with you, but I would be able to get there on my own, and getting out will be far more difficult with you there" I said

"because I know the palace like the back of my hand you idiot, and I know when the best time to infiltrate it would be," she said

"Sorry, sorry, it's not that I don't want your help, I just didn't understand why I needed it, but yeah, why not? I mean it's practically a tradition for me to try stealing something with my friends at this point, I mean sure, last time I got caught, but it'll probably work out fine this time" I said with an optimistic smile.

"good, know what do you know about the secret at this point, it will make looking for it easier," she said.

"honestly not that much, I know that something is clearly happening, but all the clues I have could lead to far too many conclusions to make a guess which could be even close to accurate, I know that the amount of shinobi here in the capital is falling, I've looked into making a couple of simple missions in Kiri and it's getting more and more expensive to get a shinobi team, and then there is the fact that I haven't seen a single clan shinobi in all my time here. But the problem is that there could be many reasons for all of this, I mean, maybe they're preparing to start a war, maybe they are trying to separate themselves from the land of water and the daimyo entirely, or maybe they are at war, the problem is that I have no way of knowing" I explained everything I knew, with frustration leaking into my voice.

"so we know almost nothing?" she asked with a quirked eyebrow.

"yes, we know almost nothing and an even bigger problem is that no matter how high of a rank the people I try getting information from are, they either don't know anything or think they know something completely incorrect," I said

She flopped back on my bed with a sigh, before speaking in a resigned voice "I guess it's time to plan how and when we're going to do this since we apparently have to, the only completely certain way we have to find out what this great secret is, is by breaking into- into the water daimyo's private office and finding whatever we can there" she said.

"Sounds about right, I think the optimal time for it would be at a small gathering inside the palace, like one of your sibling's birthday parties or something," I said

"no, we should do it at the daimyos fiftieth birthday, it's in three weeks but I think we can come up with a plan by then," she said, immediately shooting me down.

"While I do see the appeal of dramatics, I don't think the best time for that is when the palace is full of important people with highly trained guards and we are trying to rob the ruler of a nation," I said

"that's the point because everyone has shinobi guards with them and my father has to talk to so many people, almost all of his shinobi guards have to be there to make sure he's safe, so there'll barely be anyone in the palace," she said.

"But even so, there has to be some sort of protection against thieves, right?" I asked

"well yes, there are, but I don't know all of them, but he did brag about the fact that all guard teams have a sensor type shinobi, so they can warn him about any threat before it gets there," she said

And so, the night of the daimyos birthday came and we prepared everything we would need, which meant I grabbed eight of my senbon of shredding and put them in my bun, which, now that I think about it, is a bit of a sinister name... and a little worrying to have stuck in my hair. And a stylish kimono and I was ready to go and to say that my arrival was different than my first one would be an understatement. I took a carriage to the palace with my head servant walking behind it, had my head servant show my invitation, then talked to the stuck-up people of high society like I was one of them. God, I feel gross.

But soon, it was time, and Kyoko and I walked towards the glowing garden, when we got there, we put on chakra suppressing collars I had made and prepared for the grand heist.

"are you ready?" I asked with a smirk as I walked over and stood next to the entrance of the garden,

"I am, so let's just get this over with" she grumbled

Then she ruffled her dress a bit and called out to the shinobi team.

"Help! Help! I was attacked in the garden" she yelled with tears in her eyes, looking like the perfect distraught princess.

The guards immediately ran towards her and into the garden, getting blinded by the setting sun for just long enough to allow me to slip inside without them noticing and moving up the stairs silently, before going to the balcony that overlooked the glowing gardens and looking down.

"your highness, while I realize that animals can be scary, I feel that you could have made it more clear that it was not a human being attacking you, so we wouldn't all have to abandon our duty to protect you" a very fed up shinobi said in a way that practically screamed 'I have to be understanding but it brings me great physical pain to do so'

"but it was an emergency!" - Kyoko cried with tears streaming down her cheeks - "a w-wild a-a-animal was a-attacking me" she sobbed with desperation in her voice, displaying the amazing acting abilities court life gave you.

"of course, your highness, but perhaps next time you could inform us what type of animal was attacking you, so we can protect you more effectively, for example, this time you could have screamed 'help, I'm being attacked by a bee' instead, what do you think?" he said in a voice with a patient tone so forced that it almost made Sasuke seem willing to join the group.

"but it attacked me!" Kyoko said, with a tone heavily implying that there was something obvious that the guard didn't understand.

"of course, now, we have to leave now and get back to our duty, but if any more bees attack you feel free to call for our help," he said.

"thank you," Kyoko sniffled

After the guards left, I took off my haori and placed it to the side, before taking the bathrobe-like portion off and then the portion which looked like a long skirt off as well, binding them together and climbing down the balcony until I was only hanging with one hand while using the other to hold my impromptu rope, allowing Kyoko to climb up.

"you know, I have to warn you about something," I said while putting on my haori

"what," she said with annoyance.

"There might be things more scary than bees ahead of us, so if you need to turn back I won't blame you," I said with an expression of concern on my face.

"like weird half-naked boys?" she asked innocently, causing me to look down and realize that I was indeed only wearing my underwear and haori.

I looked at her with a serious expression "exactly, I recently found out that strange half-naked boys are running rampant in the castle trying to steal from the daimyo" I said.

She snorted a laugh before we had to continue, sneaking through the long empty halls decorated with grand tapestries, ancient samurai armor sets, and unparalleled works of art of the palace as we climbed higher and higher towards the top of the palace where the daimyo worked.

Sneaking around the guards of the palace was easy, at least compared to sneaking around active shinobi from Konoha, clearly, the palace guards had grown lax throughout their service to the daimyo, becoming more and more reliant on their sensor shinobi. However, they couldn't sense even a spec of our chakra due to the collars we wore around our necks, it was a, shall we say, uncomfortable, feeling to not have access to chakra, but it wasn't a real problem since I was barely able to do anything with it.

[you have obtained the [chakra suppression] status effect

This effect prevents you from accessing your chakra, it also prevents your chakra from being sensed]

After hours of tense silence as we slowly and carefully sneaked through the palace, we finally made our way to the office and standing just around the corner from it, I prepared to take down the guards as swiftly as possible, taking four senbon of shredding in each hand before stepping into the hallway and preparing to throw them the second I saw where the guards were. But, there were no guards.

"what's wrong? Why did you stop?" Kyoko said from around the corner where I told her to wait, anxiously waiting for my response.

"there- there are no guards, why aren't there any guards," I said, suspicion filling me as a knot of dread started to form in my stomach.

"i- I don't know, there should be guards, whenever I walked by before there were always guards," she said, and an anxious silence settled over us, but I knew that I would never have another chance like this after Kyoko explained the palace protections on normal occasions I knew that I stood no chance of sneaking inside normally.

"maybe they were pulled into guarding the party hall? This is the daimyo's fiftieth birthday, it's the largest event in years" she said.

"Yeah, yeah you're right, it's probably nothing," I said, but the knot of dread in my stomach never went away.

So, we entered the private office of the daimyo carefully, the creaking doors parting for us, prepared for an ambush, yet nothing happened. Looking around the office, a large desk dominated the space, with many small oil lamps around the room providing a gentle glow to light the room. An armchair in the corner situated next to a small table, a book on the table showing that it was for more recreational purposes than the desk with all its important documents. With bookshelves lining all the walls except for one, which, instead of books, had a tall cabinet with endless folders, leaving only a small stretch of space between the top of the cabinet and the ceiling.

"you check the desk, I'll check the cabinet," I said.

After getting a quick nod in return, I walked to the huge cabinet and looked through the endless documents, however, there was no trace of any secret, it was largely just reports on the activities of different aristocrats, law changes, and law propositions, but nothing about a secret in Kiri.

Then the sound of the creaking hinges of the door reached me.

My hands and feet moved me up the cabinet so fast that I practically flew to the top of the cabinet, hiding by squeezing myself to the wall as much as possible. I wanted to help Kyoko, but she was in the middle of the room, in full view of anyone who entered, I had no choice but to hide and wait for my chance to help.

"I was expecting to see a blond spy from Konoha, not the sixth child of the daimyo, how curious," a cold voice said, and terror ran through me when I realized that they somehow knew I was a spy.

A man with olive-green hair entered, his pink, pupilless eyes boring a hole in Kyoko as he watched her with a clinical detachment like he was inspecting a deviation in a plan he made. And as I realized who had just entered the room, the weak discomfort I felt seconds before fled, making way for true fear to run through me, paralyzing me as I looked at the mizukage, and resigned myself to hoping I would stay hidden from the man who could kill me in an instant.