Chapter 67: Into the head of the Shark

To read up to 15 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW

-------------

[Kisame's POV]

This mission was supposed to be a smooth one. Of course, the mission's importance was vital to the village, we were insuring our best way to attack the leaf after all.

So I expected to face some of Konoha's Anbu, kill them, and be done with it. However, things had taken a much, much worse twist.

At first, everything proceeded rather smoothly, but then our puppet thought it would be wise to start thinking on his own.

This joke of a Daimyo has been making one bad call after another, and it was honestly a miracle I could even still make his people believe he was a great leader chosen by the Sages themselves.

Worst was, most of these ideas came from his wife, another joke. She thought herself smart, she believed everyone around her to be stupid, and that no one understood what she did. It was honestly tiring to deal with those people.

But all in all, although I had to deal with annoying people, things were pretty much going as planned, with a couple of failed attacks from Konoha.

Until a variable entered the game. At first a servant girl, she didn't really have anything that set her apart. But through the course of the day, she revealed one talent after another, until the ultimate revelation, her being the Daimyo's bastard.

I'm still not sure what to think of that, but whether she is his child or not, he seemed ready to believe it, and so is his wife, meaning she had officially entered the game.

But it seemed we all had underestimated her. I expected her to truly be innocent, to a certain extent at least, but she revealed to be much smarter than her family through our interview.

So whether she is the Daimyo's bastard or a smart girl who can see an opportunity, it didn't matter, because her status was already cementing itself as the Princess.

Moreover, the day after her revelation, as Roka followed her while she shopped for clothes, she did an unexpected move. She managed to turn her attackers into allies, and began forming her very own force.

It was nothing at first, but I've always had someone following the girl for the past week, and she has managed, among other things, to grow her forces to a couple hundred thugs, promising them all a grand future.

But what impressed me the most about her force wasn't the number of people she had gathered, it was how well she had managed to select her targets.

The current Daimyo was a joke, and although we had managed to keep his reputation among the common population, there was one group that suffered from his rule more than the others, one that truly saw him as he was, and that was the poor. Those oppressed in the slums of Tanzaku.

The first group the girl had converted could be attributed to luck, but after a week it had become obvious that she knew exactly what she was doing, and this made her very scary.

Despite having eyes on her at all times, it only felt like I knew nothing of what went through her mind.

If it wasn't for her age and her actions, I would have believed she was a ninja, but even that wouldn't make sense.

Just as we had betted, there had been an attack on the river, one we hadn't been able to stop, meaning she had lost our bet. She still hasn't asked anything out of me, but if she were to ask me to put her in power, I'm starting to wonder what I would say.

She was devious, dangerous and shrewd, making the decision quite hard to make. On the one hand, she would be able to govern on her own and allow us to move precious troops to other operations. However, it would also mean taking a risk, for if Konoha managed to sway her, then we would lose everything.

The easiest solution would be taking care of her, but even that had become impossible. If there was one place where I couldn't have eyes over her all day, then it was the palace, and unfortunately, it was where she was the most skilled.

I don't know what kind of sorcery she used, but she has fully managed to convince the Daimyo she was his daughter. The Daimyo's wife, who had sent multiple squads of men to kill her, had been brought lower than ever, her influence barely amounting to anything today.

So in a week, a little girl had arrived in the palace, turned into a Princess, and pretty much reduced her opponents from giants to ants, while becoming an invaluable asset to the biggest tree in the court.

Worse yet, the girl had managed to use her little gang to spread the news through the whole city that she wasn't just any peasant girl, but the long lost daughter of the Daimyo, Princess Takayama.

So even if I wanted to have her killed, the shitstorm that would follow wouldn't be worth it. Actually, it wasn't just that I couldn't have her killed, I had to protect her, because her death could, and would, destroy our efforts around here, and all of that was planned by her. She didn't tell me, but it was painfully obvious in hindsight.

With the attack on the Great River, presumably from Konoha, both Kiri and the Daimyo had lost quite some credit from the masses, the people of the Land of Forests did not trust us as much as they used to.

The Daimyo's status as the 'Great Leader' was shaken, and although he was coping with the economical backlash from the Great River getting blocked with the country's coffers, the security problem was getting out of hand as Konoha didn't hide when they killed the bandits who had been raiding recently.

But even for the economical situation, the country's coffers were not infinite, and that was something everyone knew.

And while I was busy dealing with this, Takayama had taken a great care in going out in the capital, sympathising with the population and expressing her 'father's' ideas to save the country.

The thing is, those ideas are great, and the way they are presented even greater. By saying they are her father's, although Takayama is giving a big part of the merit to her useless father, she was also securing her position in court.

After all, right now, she was no different from a golden egg laying goose for the Daimyo.

Unfortunately, no matter how clearly I can see what she did, it's now too late. I am not ashamed to admit I got outplayed. Like everyone in court, I underestimated that girl, and what extents she was ready to go to.

I don't know whether she is the Daimyo's daughter, but her innocent background with her dying mother definitely wasn't true, she had been preparing for this day for a very long time.

Actually, I suspect her to have been in cahoots with Konoha, and she was part of those who planned for the attack on the river and the people.

Ah, fuck. Yagura is going to be such a pain when I come back to the village, how am I supposed to explain I got done by a child? And not even a ninja at that.

Well, I guess that's the redeeming point of my story.

No matter how annoying the brat was, I could pretty much rule out she was a ninja from Konoha. She was a pain, of course, and most probably involved with Konoha to some point, but she couldn't be a ninja.

Because the thing was, although she had seemingly set herself in a position of power, being loved by both the population and the Daimyo, she also had made a strong enemy, one I happened to suspect more and more to be a spy from Konoha.

Again, can't really ever be sure with that girl, but Takayama had been making a pretty strong case against her step mother.

I didn't abandon the possibility of Takayama having managed to get into my head, but everything seemed to point at the Daimyo's wife being the spy.

Takayama had been making some damage, but everything she caused could be easily solved with a little bit of time. Worst thing that could happen and that would derive from her actions would be her taking her father's place, and again, this wouldn't necessarily be bad for us, for she could be a valuable ally.

For the Daimyo's wife though, not only had she been actively pushing for us not to defend the Great River, we had actually stopped Konoha Anbu from killing Takayama.

Ah, I'm tired of this world. All they do is lie, plotting against one another from the shadows.

Sometimes… well, always recently, I wish I could just read into people's mind, and see their true intentions, it would make things much simpler. I'm starting to envy those annoying Yamanaka from the leaf.

Fuck it, even if she manages to get into my head, Takayama feels like the only person I can talk to. I know she's hiding some things, but she's the only person with whom I feel like I am having a real conversation.