Chapter 9: Spies everywhere!

The news of Konoha being devastated by Kyuubi reached us fast. Hah, poor 'Yellow Butcher', and oh god, how I love using that insulting nickname of his, didn't even manage to warm the Hokage seat for Hiruzen before he kicked the bucket.

I just comfortably trained at home as these events happened. What? You expected me to rush to Konoha and steal scrolls, bloodlines, or secrets while Kyuubi attacks? Hah, tough luck. Nah, I am gonna mess with the timeli-, ahem, Konoha only after the canon begins. And I pride myself on 'upholding' my promises. If it brings me benefits though…

My homely training was very comfortable though. Now that uncle A, brother A, and brother B left for Kumo and my mother doesn't really bother me anymore with physical training I could go with more 'my pace' training. I got a lot of copies of scrolls with earth and lightning Jutsu from the Kumo library but I wasn't going to learn them.

The only one I learned is Earth Release: Hiding Like A Mole. That is useful. Others? Not so much. I instead used all methods to get better control in nature manipulations of Earth and Lightning. I did any and every exercise known to Kumo. Sigh.

Earth was hard. Compared to Lightning, my affinity for Earth was only my 'natural' affinity. Yet, it was hard. It stumped me for quite a while until I realized I completely disregarded chakra control. I mean, come on! I could manipulate my chakra enough to form Chakra Mode. Sigh, it looks like I reached my limit in ignoring it. I won't improve if I will continue like this.

So I spent days falling from trees and bathing in the lakes. And I found out, it's heaven-sent. The improvements were actually enormous! I could manipulate my chakra just fine but it looks like controlling it is different!

Weeell, even though I didn't see the difference between manipulation and control, I mean, these should be synonyms, right? I could see the effects of training my chakra control. I spent three months on it with a hundred active clones! Oh... yup, the amount of my chakra was skyrocketing by the day with the Chakra Enriching Seal. I was actually flabbergasted because I was way past Jonin reserves and was nearing Kage ones already.

By the end of my control training, I could separate differently colored sands mixed together into three differently colored heaps of sand. Hah, it made my affinity training SO much easier!

By the sixth month, I could feel slight vibrations on Earth every time something moved. All thanks to my fine earth chakra transformation and my lightning affinity. I could feel these vibrations within a radius of ten kilometers around me. I was hyped! There was no way I would stop in training my Earth Affinity now!

Hah, I, of course, knew that these results are mostly because of the Natural Energy coursing through me but damn. My sensory skills were getting better and better. But. Vibrations! Think about all the applications they have! And yes, I mean even the perverted ones! Kukuku!

On the lighter note, it was barely a year after the end of the 3rd War and my investment in the spy network of Kumo and Kaminari was already paying its dividends! Well, I also made a few seals that make it easier and faster to relay information for spies but that's beside the point. Our spy network was a marvelous piece of art by now.

My father had spies in every Daimyo court in every country. Whether it was a maid or high minister was unimportant. They were there and they waited to get a juicy piece of information. It wasn't only Daimyo courts but also the biggest foreign merchant guilds that were easily infiltrated by his spies. An entire new division had to be made to process all reports from spies. My Spy Seal actually worked like a chat-box. Two books. What you write to one appears in the second one. No more pigeon reports! Fast, efficient, and easily hidden thanks to the concealment seal.

As for my father's court, there were no spies anymore. His shinobi guards made sure by using my Seal of Truth. To be honest, I didn't really want to make Kumo too strong. But… Sigh. When the biggest moffos of Kumo and Kaminari are my family, what choice do I have?

Now if civilians could infiltrate every daimyo court and biggest merchant groups with my easy-to-use seals, you can imagine what actual shinobi could do with them. As for Jiraya having the best spy network… I officially call bullshit.

Thanks to the spymasters of Kumo using my seals, I knew that Hanzo was going to double-cross the newly made peace seekers, Akatsuki, with Danzo's help even before it actually happened. I was also informed of the kidnappings of orphans in Konoha.

Ha! Called it! If I, someone far in the Kaminari no Kuni, could actually be informed about it, there is NO FREAKING WAY, Hiruzen Sarutobi does NOT know! If he really doesn't know, then he is an even bigger idiot than I thought… So, our little friend, The Professor himself is letting Danzo kidnap kids for his ROOT. And it's so discreet that even I, a guy from a completely different country picked up on it. Yup. And the guy is called The God of Shinobi... Really now.

The information that got to me was only the most filtered bits. I had no time to listen to hours-long reports on what is going on in Elemental Nations. I mostly asked questions to my informants and they said if they knew or not alongside any of the more 'juicy' types of info. I was actually not interested in the kidnappings. But when a lot of kids suddenly disappear in shinobi village it's kinda a big deal. Or, is it?

That was the same way an interesting piece of hearsay got to me. Apparently Konoha has a new jinchuuriki who is also the son of Minato Namikaze. Whelp. GG WP Hiruzen. You managed to keep it secret for all of the six months since the kid was born! Now, the jinchuuriki bit was easy to learn for Kumo spies. I mean, the villagers are screaming it to the wind inside Konoha. Are they actually dumb? No, forget I asked…

For the Namikaze bit, now that was harder. They got interested in the kid due to the hatred of Konoha and his newfound status as jinchuuriki and 'researched' him. Well, all it took was a pretty lady, getting banker and councilman Akira drunk, and sticking the Seal of Truth on him during sex. He told her even his deepest desires. Hehe.

Shame she had to leave Konoha, afterward. The girl is an excellent spy from what I heard. Now, we actually got information about the financial situation of every clan or wealthy man in Konoha and lethal blackmail on their main banker. All the while, the guy only knows he betrayed Konoha but doesn't know to whom. That means, he can't do jack-shit but cooperate with us and hope we won't say anyone he is the leak in the village.

Hah. But god, the Uzumaki were loaded! Their account could support the entire village for years! And, keyword being 'were'.

Yup. The second Kushi-chan died the accounts started to be slowly drained by the civilian council and Danzo. Well, the reason for Naruto's poverty was discovered! Yatta! Good Job, Hiruzen.

Not like I care anyway. He would just take it like a champ and think he probably deserved it and be happy it was used for 'village' anyway.

The Namikaze accounts were untouched though. But they were also abysmal. It should be enough to make Naruto somewhat comfortable until he is at least thirty though. Well, with his prank tendencies? The kid will be glad if he still has some of that money when he reaches the age to actually inherit it. Who do you think will pay for the damage he caused with his pranks? Hokage? Pfff…

The real kicker was actually the situation of the Uchiha clan. They really were relocated from a fancy location near the center of the village to the outskirts. Their clan accounts looked quite bad for a clan too. Well, I guess, being a police force that is paid by a village when said village looks down on you is not very profitable.

The information I actually asked about is the situation of Suna. And lookie, lookie, it was bad. Not, oh we are dying, bad. More like, whelp we are fucked, bad. They will run out of money to run the village in a decade if they don't do something. Well, I know they won't do anything. The plans I could use this situation for my benefit. Hehe.

And lastly was the entire reason why I even invested in a spy network.

Kiri and their civil war games. Hah! The purges started. Not overly. Not in the open. But, the bloodline clans actually ran out of the village and hid all around Mizu no Kuni. It's barely a year from the end of the third great war and they are again shedding blood. Geez, really Bloody Mist fits them but I would call them Bloody Dumb Mist instead.

Heck. The Yuki clan is scattered. The Terumi clan was officially marked extinct. The Hozuki clan also relocated and 'defected' the village. Civilians in the south of the Mizu no Kuni are being wantonly slaughtered by Kaguya clan battle-junkies. And other clans also went into hiding. Water Daimyo is a greedy pig who just takes the entire situation as entertainment and Yagura's new reforms clearly show he is just a whipping boy of Obito.

I would have to be retarded to not profit from this situation. Now, my target is actually only one girl but if I can grab more, why not? As for causing another war? Ha, Kumo had almost no casualties in the last war compared to other countries. The second they start a war, they will be overrun.

As for the girl herself, I know exactly where and in what condition she is after yesterday's report. Sigh. I will have to be quick. Don't want her to actually die, or worse, be saved by someone else. My aim is obviously Mei Terumi. The sole survivor of the Terumi clan who is being held in Kiri prison.

Well, time to play it diplomatically. I am gonna throw a large amount of money to Water Daimyo's face and make him sell Mei to me. It's such a simple, dumb, and obvious plan that he will actually do it and be happy about it!

Sigh. I will be very busy for the following year. It's time to come to Yagura's turf and flip him off in front of the masses while insulting his mother! At least, that would have a similar effect to what I really plan to do.