Ruined Reputation

The Ministry of Truth acted quickly; they spread the news, which traveled all over the empire in a matter of days.

The Kampaku has complete control of the capital but has much weaker influence in the countryside; there, he relies mostly on local nobles.

However, that is only when it comes to military power; when it comes to money, setting laws, soft power, and intelligence, Kampaku is dominant throughout the country. His Ministry of Truth has hundreds of thousands of spies, many having dual roles, being both Ministry of Truth agents and holding their regular jobs. The Ministry of Truth is a propaganda agency and spy agency; one of the arms holding the Kampaku in power and keeping nobles and samurai under control.

Using its assets, the Ministry spread disinformation about all kinds of horrible crimes that Jack committed against the samurai and ordinary people. Spreading a rumor is not hard; even one person may be able to spread rumors that throughout the kingdom; it's very easy for hundreds of thousands of people to spread false news. There was nothing close to the Ministry of Truth to counter its disinformation, so it began truly damaging Jack's reputation.

...

"Have you heard what Hero-sama did?" said a samurai to his friend.

"Hero-sama? What did he do?" The samurai friend expected to hear a glorious feat.

"He insulted Master Gakusha's daughter! It was so shameful I dare not say it aloud!" the samurai shook his head in disgust.

"What? How can it be?" the friend was shocked.

...

Throughout the empire, public opinion about Jack was changing at an unbelievable speed.

Spreading news like this has risks; it can expose agents of the Ministry; Kampaku has never utilized the Ministry to its maximum capacity like this.

Moreover, even though most ordinary people, who are busy earning money to fill their stomachs, don't have time to dig deep to get the real truth, there are many nobles, analysts, ninja villages, samurais, etc., who would find out that all of this is a smear campaign.

The Ministry of Truth's true capabilities have been a secret; using it like this often would cause everyone to develop countermeasures and in the long term, would render the Ministry's tactics much more ineffective.

Still, the Kampaku wanted Jack dead, so he thought it was worth it. He had already tried getting rid of him in silence, and it didn't work; now that Jack had passed the red line and even involved the samurai, he wanted to kill him no matter what.

Master Gakusha, who was not a fan of the Kampaku, publicly stated that Jack hadn't done any of the rumored crimes.

But the Ministry of Truth did its best to keep the news from spreading, and it succeeded; aside from some samurais in Fire Flower City, where Gakusha lived, very few heard it.

And like this, Jack's reputation turned positive to negative in only two weeks.

...

Akarui opened the letter and sighed; he couldn't read at all.

"Go call Tomei," he ordered to someone outside the room.

...

"What is it?" asked Akarui.

"Kampaku-sama ordered us to expel Jack from the samurai headquarters in Red Flower City!" said Tomei.

Akarui stroked his beard and nodded; he also heard recent rumors; Jack's reputation should be ruined by now.

"Master, Kampaku is really scary!" Tomei said; he also witnessed what happened in the last few days. Even though Tomei is not old and experienced, he is still not an idiot; he can guess that all the allegations are lies. Yet, Kampaku managed to spread lies throughout the entire empire in a matter of two weeks.

Akarui nodded; he knew the power of Kampaku, which was why he was so obedient.

"Do as he ordered; expel Jack!"

...

Hansha read the order sent by the samurai chief Akarui and nodded to himself; after the recent news, it was already getting difficult to keep Jack in the building, as many samurais were enraged, especially because of the assault on Gakusha's daughter.

Kampaku's misinformation and disinformation efforts were much heavier in this Red Flower City, where Jack resided.

Hansha called a few samurais and said, "Let's throw out that criminal Jack!"

The samurais around, already dissatisfied with Jack, who harmed the daughter of Gakusha, nodded. After throwing criminal serial assaulter Jack out, many decided to get revenge for Master Gakusha and his daughter.

Walking toward the room, they didn't knock and kicked the door. To their surprise, however, the room was empty, with nobody in it.

...

"It's time to hide!" Jack, who was in a cave, thought.

He observed the rumors for days and knew they would throw him out in less than a month, so he ran. He wouldn't wait for them to come to arrest him.

"Jack-sama, Pinku Samurai is here!" said Lucy, who was the key person that helped them to run without anyone noticing.

Jack nodded.

He wrote Pinku's backstory, so he knew that persuading him would be easiest.

But, because of the Dao collection problem, he didn't use the information he knew from outside sources; instead, he ordered Lucy to research the ninja village and bring information about their leaders.

In such a tight timeline, Lucy only got surface-level info about Midori, Kuro, and Pinku ninjas.

Among them, Pinku was the most public, as he was responsible for foreign relations. Choosing among the three, Jack picked Pinku and set up a meeting with him.

Standing up, Jack left the room.

...

Pinku Ninja, in pink clothes, stood there, waiting for Jack.

"Pinku Ninja! I'm so happy to see you!" Jack said, smiling.

"Hero, I only agreed with this meeting because you said this is about the recent rumors," Pinku said pleasantly.

"Exactly; as you probably know, Kampaku spread all those false rumors about me because he wants to get rid of me as quickly as possible; who do you think would be his next target? If I die, you guys, ninjas, would be the next target!" said Jack.

Pinku didn't nod, as he didn't want to lose his bargaining chips, but in his heart, he completely agreed; he also thought that Kampaku would target them after Jack. Still, on the surface, he said emotionlessly, "Do you think this is enough to convince me?" He wanted to see if Jack had anything to offer. It wasn't because he himself wasn't convinced; it was just that he still needed to convince six other elders; he was inquiring whether Jack had enough to help convince them.

"Of course, I have! I can provide money, a lot of money! If you accept my task, I can give you 1,000 gold coins weekly!" Jack said.

"1,000 every week? Where are you going to get the money from?" Pinku doubted.

"You are ninjas; you take tasks and don't ask about the source of the money, isn't that right?" Jack asked back. Raphael already made thousands of coins, so 1,000 a week, even though heavy, is worth it in the current situation.

"What is your task?" asked Pinku.

"Hide me! If you hide me for a year, I'll give you guys a total of 52,000 coins! This is good for you too! If Kampaku can't confirm my death, he will leave you alone; therefore, this buys time for you guys, too!" said Jack.

Pinku thought for a minute and nodded; it was as Jack said.

"But, I cannot accept the task; the council wouldn't allow this!" said Pinku.

"Why should the council know about it? Please, let me wear the clothes of a Pinku Ninja and hide there for a year; there is no way Kampaku would ever know about it! The 1,000 a week would also help Pinku ninjas cover the costs!" said Jack.

Pinku bit his lower lip and went into deep thought. He cared deeply about the village and didn't want to see it crushed under Kampaku.

He said, "I accept, but if, in the future, your identity is leaked, I can't protect you and maybe even directly turn you over to Kampaku." It wasn't because of the money; it was solely because he thought that if Kampaku killed Jack, the village would be in trouble.

Jack nodded; this was already the best he could get.

With a smile, he wore Pink Ninja clothes and farewelled Lucy and Michael; their existence would not help and may cause his identity to be exposed. After all, one extra Pink Ninja is not noteworthy, but someone may notice if there are a few.

For Jack at the moment, the most important thing is to survive; with Raphael, Gabriel, Mike, and Lucy there, it's just a matter of time for them to build a massive organization with great financial resources and power. It's just that Jack couldn't survive for that to happen; now, with the help of Pinku, he can at least survive for a year.

...

Kampaku's minions looked everywhere to find Jack, but they failed to find him; it was as if he disappeared.

He wanted to get rid of Jack and then start attacking ninjas, but his inability to find Jack delayed his ninja plans. Kampaku is the type of person who likes to solve one problem before starting to solve another; with him unable to find a clue about Jack, he feels he has unfinished business somewhere.

Even his Ministry of Truth wasn't able to find anything; it made Kampaku concerned that it may be the northern kingdom that was behind it all.

Jack's popularity is mostly ruined among samurais and most city people, but those living in small cities and rural areas are still fierce supporters of Jack; it's as if loyalty to Jack is hacked in their souls; no matter how much Kampaku tried to ruin Hero's image in their hearts, they didn't buy it.

Jack is still a massive threat, who can quickly mobilize soldiers from small towns; even worse, recently, rumors from unknown sources claimed it was him, Kampaku, who spread falsehoods about Hero.

An organization spreading bad rumors about him was unacceptable, so he ordered his Ministry of Truth to find the perpetrator.

...

Kampaku, sitting on his seat, was opening letters.

"There was a protest in Akai Hana City that demanded the truth about Hero," the letter was from an agent from the Ministry of Truth.

Frowning, Kampaku wrote, "Send the royal army, arrest all the protesters, and sentence them to crimes; the crimes should not be related to the protests, but other crimes that they committed throughout their lives." He didn't write it, but people who received orders from him knew that if the person was clean, they should make things up.

Getting a blank paper, Kampaku wrote another order, "Increase taxes on ninjas by 30%." He can't go all out against ninjas with Jack's unfinished business; still, he can't let them remain as rich as they are. 30% tax is heavy but won't cause a rebellion.

Taking another blank paper, Kampaku wrote, "Increase Samurai ministry's budget by 10%." He wants to keep samurais on his side; he would go after them only after destroying ninjas.

Taking out blank paper after blank paper, he wrote order after order, trying to solidify his position. He removed a few nobles from leadership and replaced them with his direct appointees.

Usually, only nobles can rule a city, but the emperor can 'temporarily' appoint non-noble mayors and governors. The key is the word 'temporary.' Who gets to decide what a temporary appointment is? There is no supreme court, so in the end, Kampaku himself decides what temporary is. It can be days or years.