The meeting ended. The lights and shadows on the screens went out one by one, until only Akane remained, continuing to report on the recent operational status of the main headquarters in the Land of Fire, along with some personnel adjustments that required Hii Kōri's approval.
"What's this? Don't you have anything to say, Boss~?"
After the trivial administrative matters were finished, Akane let out a long breath, shedding her serious work demeanor. She brought her ten fingertips together, interlocked them, propped her elbows on the table, and lazily rested her chin on the back of her hands.
Her Majesty smiled as she stared at Hii Kōri, who had removed his mask behind the screen, and "whined" in a tone as soft as fine silk.
"Hmm... do you want me to say something sentimental, Your Majesty?" "I'm starting to dislike you a little, you smooth-talking treacherous official~"
After discovering a subtle sort of enjoyment in that "role-playing" from long ago, this kind of banter had become their way of flirting.
After exchanging such pleasantries for a while and after Hii Kōri had supplied her with a less-than-sufficient amount of emotional satisfaction Akane prepared to end the communication.
"You've worked so hard, Akane."
"Heh heh. It's just for our shared ideal~"
With that conclusion, the screen before Hii Kōri went completely dark.
"Was that woman just now your wife, Kōri?"
After the meeting ended and the other figures had gradually exited the chat room, Uchiha Hikari had gotten down from her chair.
Compared to the other three, who were in the meeting, sitting still for so long had been rather boring for her, with nothing to do.
But since Hii Kōri was still talking with someone else, she had stood by waiting.
"Hmm... I think 'lover' would be more accurate."
As Hii Kōri answered Uchiha Hikari's question, he thought to himself that Akane's mindset had been getting younger and younger lately, not as steady as when they first met.
But it was good that she was becoming more carefree. It also meant she wasn't under as much pressure as before—or rather, even if she faced even more severe challenges, she now had someone to rely on.
All good things.
"Whoa, that's terrible, Kōri..."
But for Uchiha Hikari, this answer was somewhat irritating.
As knew, because the Sharingan required strong emotions to awaken, because the Uchiha had always studied Yin Release, because of over a thousand years of bloodline "purification," and because of the relatively closed environment caused by the clan system, the Uchiha clan could be said to produce mentally ill individuals in abundance.
However, the extreme emotions that easily tilted toward excess also made the Uchiha particularly pure in their love and hate.
Proof of the former was that the Uchiha had been almost monogamous from ancient times to the present. If a spouse was from outside the clan, they suffered no discrimination. After a spouse died, they easily remained alone for the rest of their lives.
One could say that the higher a Uchiha's Sharingan level, the easier it was for them to become a "pure love warrior."
As for the latter, that was also another major reason why Uchiha Hikari had reacted so strongly when she heard that the Senju and Uchiha had reconciled.
But when you think about it, if you replaced Hashirama Senju with a woman, Madara Uchiha's behavior became far too easy to understand.
The dynamics of male-male relationships, indeed.
Being toyed with in the palm of a dark-skinned, thick-eyebrowded country bumpkin girl—indeed.
"Terrible? I think it's more appropriate to call it a pure relationship between adults where each takes what they need."
Akane sought reassurance from Hii Kōri, the only other "insider." Hii Kōri, in turn, needed to ensure that Akane's work ability didn't decline due to changes in her mindset.
Wasn't it perfectly normal for two adults who already had some fondness for each other to become entangled because of mutual benefit?
Moreover...
Weren't you still pure love even if you were purely making love? (Absolutely not!)
"Alright, enough of that. Don't corrupt the kid with your player ways, you womanizer~"
Sakaki Tatsuma stood up and stretched broadly, his joints popping softly. Then, like a man with no bones, he slumped into the sofa and started roasting Hii Kōri, who was teasing Uchiha Hikari with an orange while spouting his outrageous opinions.
"But... are we really going to start formal fighting in five years? Feels so fast. Only five years—it sounds about as unreal as a class reunion being next month."
"Is five years fast? In five years, you'll be hitting the big three-oh, becoming a full-fledged middle-aged uncle. By then, you'll probably need goji berry tea just to stay alive while staying up late processing documents."
"Hey! What's wrong with thirty?! Thirty is a man's golden age! Mature! Steady! Charismatic!"
Sakaki Tatsuma nearly jumped up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, then grudgingly slumped back down, muttering, "And why would I still be staying up late processing documents at thirty?! Can't I just sit in a luxurious office, directing operations, and let those energetic young subordinates run their legs off?!"
"Haha, 'directing operations,' he says. Wanting to retire in ten years? Dream on!"
Hii Kōri pulled out a bottle of juice and tossed it to Sasori, then threw a can of beer to Sakaki Tatsuma. He split the orange in his hand with Uchiha Hikari and continued, mouth half-full, "Ah, got off track. Are the preparations all done?"
"Of course, they've been handled for a while."
Sakaki Tatsuma caught the beer, squeezed the quite firm can, then set it down on the table, rubbing the bottom in circles against the surface. After a moment, he pulled the tab and took a refreshing swig like a salaryman after work.
"The official documents for traveling to the Land of Water, the preliminary proposal for trade negotiations, the arrangements for supply points at each branch along the way, reserve funds, and emergency supplies—all reviewed three times. What about on your end?"
"What luggage could I possibly need to prepare on short notice?"
Hii Kōri raised his hand and waved it, showing off the scroll on his wrist. Rashōmon rose from his shadow as well, opening its crimson eyes and staring directly at Sakaki Tatsuma.
Next, Sakaki Tatsuma would formally visit the Land of Water as the fully authorized representative of the Red Hot Sand Guild, negotiating with the daimyō of the Land of Water regarding the construction of a large-scale maritime transshipment port and supporting facilities within the Land of Water's territory.
Hii Kōri had been eyeing the Land of Water's location for a long time.
Looking at the map, ships departing from the Land of Water could follow the ocean currents to reach virtually any known location in the ninja world. It would also be very convenient for exploring new continents beyond.
Hii Kōri would be traveling with Sakaki Tatsuma.
His cover identity would be the guild's "senior technical advisor," responsible for evaluating the Land of Water's natural conditions, port site selection, and potential future technical cooperation directions.
As for the real reason... of course, it was to serve as a bodyguard for his good brother.
The Land of Water was isolated overseas, with a closed environment. Even combining Hii Kōri's memories from his previous life with his current resources, it was very difficult to gather much reliable intelligence.
And the most useful information wasn't good news either.
"The Village of the Bloody Mist"—that was the infamous name Kirigakure had earned in the original story.
It used an extremely harsh elimination system for internal shinobi training; students killing each other had always been common. Externally, it was almost exclusive, especially toward outsiders. Kirigakure had never been particularly well-intentioned.
This series of high-pressure policies was precisely the reason the "Bloody Mist" had gained its notoriety.
And the current Third Mizukage was the person who had pushed these policies to their extreme—probably.
After all, the First Mizukage, Byakuren, as the founder of the hidden village, would never have gone that crazy. The Second Mizukage, Gengetsu Hōzuki, was also a person who took good care of his juniors.
If Kirigakure had become what it was, it could only be blamed on the Third Mizukage.
But this was also largely related to the overall customs of the Land of Water.
Because it was far from the continent and separated by the ocean, the Land of Water rarely set foot in continental wars. The intensity of warfare was controlled, and the number of small and medium-sized ninja clans was higher than in other regions. The number of various secret techniques and kekkei genkai in the Land of Water was also among the highest in the ninja world.
However, among the five great nations, the Land of Water had the smallest land area. Even so, its territory still contained many difficult-to-use mountain ranges.
This resulted in the Land of Water's population being fairly dispersed. The various islands around the main island also had different customs, and no small number of islanders lived according to those customs.
The population was dispersed and difficult to integrate, and they were even hostile toward each other at times. This factor directly led to the already not-scarce resources also being difficult to fully utilize.
As everyone knew, remote islands, villages deep in the mountains... such environments naturally made the residents prone to a variety of aggressive emotions.
Kirigakure was already in an extremely closed environment, and the mist—much like the heavy rain of the Land of Rain—shrouded the village almost year-round.
Even though the First Mizukage, Byakuren, had successfully founded Kirigakure, this competitive, combative ethos had never disappeared—it had merely been suppressed.
As time went on, this pressure cooker was bound to explode sooner or later. It just happened to explode in this era.
Sending Sakaki Tatsuma—a brilliant, skilled, but combat ability equivalent to that of a goose to the Land of Water as it was now?
Hii Kōri wasn't that carefree.
Of course, he himself was also quite interested in Kirigakure or rather, in some of the unique abilities Kirigakure possessed.
Just as Rōran, isolated from the rest of the ninja world by the Dragon Vein barrier, had developed a series of technologies and architectural styles different from the outside world, the Land of Water, which had remained isolated since the Warring States period, also preserved some rather unique kekkei genkai and bloodline secret techniques.
Setting aside Ice Release, which Hii Kōri had already replicated, the Hōzuki clan's Hydrification Technique and the Kaguya clan's kekkei genkai, Dead Bone Pulse, were both things of considerable research value.
It would be ideal to pack up some people or materials while he was at it. If not, killing them and taking the bodies would work just as well.
Although the differences between Impure World Reincarnation and real reincarnation techniques had made Hii Kōri's research on reincarnation techniques not particularly smooth—and he had tossed the optimization of Edo Tensei to Orochimaru—his research on soul data and physical data had been quite fruitful.
The "Senju Marrow Fluid" made from Tsunade's blood and physical materials was indeed only those three vials given to Orochimaru, but Hii Kōri had never said he couldn't make more later.
As long as the freshness of the corpses was high enough, Hii Kōri could extract "Hōzuki Marrow Fluid" or "Kaguya Marrow Fluid" as well.
And compared to the Hōzuki clan, the Kaguya clan was even more important.
The Dead Bone Pulse ability pulling out one's own bones to use as weapons was hard to evaluate. The real value lay in the Kaguya clan's bloodline itself.
It was known that the Uzumaki, Senju, Uchiha, Hyūga, and Kaguya clans were all bloodlines with strong Ōtsutsuki descent. So if one extracted and mixed the physical data from these clans, processed it appropriately, it might be possible to simulate some of the characteristics of the Ōtsutsuki clan to a certain extent.
Uzumaki, Senju, Uchiha—Hii Kōri had them all. Hyūga blood could also be obtained through Orochimaru. So he couldn't leave the Kaguya out, could he?
If it weren't for the fact that those two bastards Kinkaku and Ginkaku had probably rotted in the ground by now, Hii Kōri might even have wanted to visit Kumogakure and dig up their graves—wait a minute, where had the original story's Kabuto found the genetic material for those two?
Could it be that Kumogakure had kept it for their own research?
Thinking it over carefully, it wasn't impossible. As the hidden village with the most abundant energy, the best relationship between the village and the daimyō, and the earliest-established research system, how could Kumogakure let those two nice chunks of meat go?
If they didn't squeeze every last drop of value from those brothers, they would be letting down the Second Raikage, who had died so ironically, and even more so, missing out on the chance to beat up Konoha while they checked for spies.
Judging by the Kinkaku and Ginkaku brothers' behavior, everyone could guess that those two had raided on a whim, and there probably weren't any spies capable of influencing high-level decisions. But who would dare gamble on something like that?
Not to mention that Kinkaku and Ginkaku were no ordinary jōnin. Being able to enter half-tailed beast transformation made them almost equivalent to two jinchūriki, and that wasn't even counting the effects of the Six Paths tools specially collected for them.
Lose, lose, lose. In the end, they never won. Kumogakure was almost numb.
This was something the Energy Section director, who frequently traveled to the Land of Lightning on business, had brought back plenty of intelligence about.
As for the authenticity and sources of that intelligence... ah, the intelligence agencies of various nations had been selling information to each other on the side to make extra money for quite some time now.
This matter was already documented between the KGB and the CIA.
And since Red Hot Sand was a guild with branches in almost every country, it was only natural that they would have some intelligence business on the side.
Finally, there was the usual "material replenishment."
Developing reincarnation techniques was a waste of a person. Previously, when operating within the Land of Fire with Orochimaru at his side—no matter how like-minded they were—he still had to consider the other's feelings. Many things were inconvenient to do too obviously.
But the Land of Water was different. No one knew each other. Kirigakure itself was no innocent party. If Hii Kōri didn't take advantage of the situation, he'd be doing himself a disservice.
If that Third Mizukage and the Land of Water weren't particularly cooperative, then simply eliminating them was also an option.
Compared to the Land of Rain, which was sandwiched between three great nations and had only avoided exposure thanks to the elderly Hanzō's skilled business skills, the Land of Water, isolated overseas, was the best place to leave no trace of one's activities.
"Sasori, Hikari. Are you hungry? Let's have a good meal while we're still on land today. Once we're on the ship tomorrow, your appetites probably won't be so good."
While scheming many dark thoughts in his heart, Hii Kōri's expression remained gentle. He called out to the two children, preparing to find a good restaurant for dinner.
"Oh! Perfect. I know a good place around here."
Ahaha-kun sprang to his feet, slung an arm around Hii Kōri's shoulder, and grinned mischievously.
"I didn't blame you before when you went off drinking all lovey-dovey with Her Majesty. But today, you're going to have a good drink with me, aren't you?"
"Fine, fine. I'll drink with you, I'll drink with you. I've got two bottles of high-quality brew from the Land of Alcohol. If you don't finish one bottle tonight, I won't let you leave the table. How's that?"
"Uh... isn't that a bit too strong?"
***
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