Chapter 61: The Land of Fire

Such political assassinations of one's own nobles and politicians only happen if they are part of some serious stuff. Usually, this gets solved publicly by the Daimyo with the help of his Samurai or his twelve Guardian Ninjas, but this time it seemed to be different.

It all started because the Daimyo of the Land of Fire is quite the capable leader. He is genuinely interested in the betterment of the country and works hard on his political tasks. Since he wants the Land of Fire to prosper in the future years to come, he takes the education and selection of his heir very seriously.

From an early age, his children started their general education, including reading, writing, math, history, and geography. Later on, they began to learn politics, economy, and many other necessary skills for nobles and politicians.

Who his heir is, isn't determined by who was born first, but carefully selected by the Fire Daimyo after a period of time. In this selection process, he makes sure that each of his children experiences every office in the Government and its workings at least once.

Once they reach a certain age, they would help out for a few months in each branch of the Government. The advantage of this is that they learn how the Government of the Land of Fire works, gain a feeling for work, and may even make some suggestions for improvement, which would definitely raise their chances of becoming the Daimyo themselves. And also, once they become the Daimyo, they know what they are talking about.

Recently, it was finally time for his second son, Ikkyū Madoka, to undergo this process. While working in the Ministry of Finance under Takeshi Yotsuki, their assassination target, Ikkyū, who is very versed in financial and business aspects, realized some discrepancies in the country's numbers. The Finance Minister tried his best to cover it up, but Ikkyū's observant eyes didn't miss anything.

Ikkyū secretly reported this to his father, who made sure to investigate further with the help of his remaining Ninja Guardians. They quickly discovered that Takeshi was laundering money from the Land of Fire into his own pocket to expand his personal power.

Normally, this would have been solved with a public trial in front of the court. However, stealing money wasn't all that an ambitious man like Takeshi did. During their investigations, the Guardian Ninjas discovered signs of further shady businesses. Businesses that could destabilize public trust in the upper echelons of the Land of Fire.

Takeshi Yotsuki used these additional funds to start a network of businesses involving prostitution, slave trade, and more, all involving children. He kidnapped children and women for years, selling them to rich customers, many of whom were part of the nobility and from outside the country.

That's why they involved the ANBU. Of course, the twelve Ninja Guardians could also kill the Finance Minister; that was the easy part of the mission. Any capable Shinobi could put a blade into a civilian only guarded by non-Chakra users.

But first of all, this wasn't part of their tasks; their duty was to guard the Daimyo and his family. Secondly, they were seriously understaffed; a few months ago, there was an ideological split among the Guardians, and over half of them ended up dead. They weren't replaced yet.

The mission was a bit more complicated than just assassinating the Finance Minister. It had to look like an accident or natural cause. People would ask many questions if the Finance Minister ended up dead with a blade in his brain. To prevent that, it had to not look like an assassination.

There was also a whole second part to that mission: an investigation of who the customers in the Land of Fire were, the business structure, and more. These customers would then be also secretly taken care of, either through assassinations or faux trials.

All in order to prevent public unrest. With the recent destruction of the Uchiha Clan, the country didn't need also a civil uprising. The international situation was already unstable enough, with Iwa and Kumo still waiting for an opportunity to invade Konoha.

With the investigation part added to the mission, it became clear why it couldn't be taken care of by the twelve Guardian Ninja. They simply lacked the manpower for such an investigation and infiltration. Also, a secret assassination wasn't really part of their training; this was something Shinobi's in the ANBU were trained for.

After learning all that, Team Ro ended their break and continued their journey towards the capital of the Land of Fire, where the whole government was sitting, including the Fire Daimyo and his family.

When they arrived a few hours later within range of the capital, they headed to a specified clearing in the forest, a meeting point where one of the twelve Guardian Ninja would be waiting for them. Once at the clearing, they saw that their contact was already waiting for them.

It was a tall man with brown eyes, olive skin, short black spiky hair, and a beard. He wore a simple long-sleeved shirt with bandages on the arms, pants, and a jacket with a fur collar, denoting he was a guardian. That sash had the kanji for "Fire" on it. Tekku recognized the man, although he looked a bit different and younger than in canon. It was Asuma Sarutobi, the future leader of Team 10, which Ino would be part of. He was currently smoking while leaning on a tree.

After following the standard ANBU identification protocol during this kind of mission, they exchanged information in the Standard Konoha Sign Language. It was a bit different from the ANBU one and was simply used by all Konoha Shinobi to communicate without speaking, so they couldn't be overheard.

Meanwhile, the ANBU Sign Language changed at different intervals so the information exchanged with it couldn't be deciphered easily. The Standard Konoha sign language always remained the same for ease of use. ANBU missions are usually more high-profile and of higher importance, which is why the level of secrecy was much more important. They often carried important information and village secrets.

That's why ANBU also had to make sure that they wouldn't fall into enemy hands. One of the first things Tekku learned during his three months of training was a self-destruction technique, and also self-destruction seals triggered by his death. They had to be applied before the start of any mission. That's how different the ANBU was from the normal ninja in the village.

The only ones in the village with more serious restrictions were the Root, who had cursed seals placed on them, preventing them from even attempting to speak of forbidden secrets. They would undergo serious brainwashing from the beginning of their training.

Once the exchange of information with Asuma was over, they got ready to be shown the different discovered properties of their target, until Asuma halted as his eyes fell on Tekku, "Isn't he a bit young to be part of the ANBU?" signed the man with worry on his face, as he was aware of what kind of things Tekku would see.

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