"EVERYBODY STOP!" The enraged Daimyo shouted as he stood up with a stormy expression. Despite his frail and old appearance, the man had a good pair of lungs on him. The entire room instantly quieted down under his booming voice, and the nobles stopped fussing around.
The Daimyo looked toward the samurai who led the guards before continuing, "Guards! Secure the room! Don't let anybody leave the room!" Then he turned toward his ninjas. "Ninjas, go investigate! I want to know who dared to poison my guests at my banquet!" He said with gritted teeth.
Both the samurai guards and the ninjas saluted before hurrying to fulfill their orders. Seeing it, the Daimyo let out an explosive sigh, suddenly looking tired as he turned toward the shaken guests.
"Everybody else, please cooperate." He spoke in a softer voice, "I believe we will get to the bottom of this, and I promise you, the culprits won't evade justice!" While his words were aimed at the crowd, his eyes trailed over the weeping women who suddenly found themselves with a newfound widowed status after today.
The guards quickly started separating the guests into groups, and the Sunagakure ninjas naturally obliged, all grouping up together and standing in a corner of the room, silently observing as the Daimyo's ninjas started to gather evidence and interrogate waiters or guests.
Nobody really approached them outside the few samurai stationed near their group, watching them like hawks. But it was understandable. They were most likely among the biggest suspects by default.
Ren nudged Temari with his shoulder, interrupting her hushed conversation with one of the Sunagakure's important ninjas from her entourage. She turned toward him, looking a bit annoyed, but as Ren motioned with a nod toward the Daimyo, where Koichi Shido was frantically whispering something to the man, both glancing their way, her irritation disappeared as her face turned blank.
Yikes. It seemed trouble was brewing.
Temari and the Daimyo's eyes suddenly met, causing the man's eyebrows to furrow before he raised his hand, stopping Shido's tirade of words. He then once again stood up and fully turned toward the Sunagakure group.
"Lady Temari," In a loud, heavy tone, he started speaking, attracting the attention of everybody gathered in the room, "Tell me truthfully. Does Sunagakure have something to do with this disaster?"
The atmosphere in the room instantly intensified as Temari wryly smiled, not breaking eye contact with the Daimyo.
Naturally, even if Sunagakure was the perpetrator, he didn't expect Temari to confess. That wasn't the point of his question.
But as a Daimyo and ruler, he dealt with liars every single day. He was good at spotting lies. Not to mention the dozens of ninjas and samurai all around the room, intently watching the Sunagakure group's reactions.
In fact, the question might have been aimed at Temari, but she was not its true target. The Daimyo was fishing for a reaction from the other people in the Sunagakure group, hoping that somebody would let something slip.
"With all due respect, Daimyo-dono," Temari shook her head, a hint of exasperation sneaking into her voice, "if we wanted to assassinate these people, we wouldn't do it on a banquet hosted in our honor, now, would we? That does not make a whole lot of sense."
The Daimyo frowned. Her reasoning didn't move him much. When it came to ninjas, people who would kill their own mothers for money, in his opinion, who could really say what intentions they might have for doing anything?
Nevertheless, he gave her a slow nod and sat down in his chair after his ninja standing behind him alerted him that they didn't notice any unusual reaction.
Shido, however, was far less collected. "Unless that's what you want us to think!" He shouted, glaring at Temari. "These people were killed with poison! It's practically a trademark of your people!"
The Daimyo gave the hysterical man a warning look, instantly shutting him up. But it was too late, and the people in the room started murmuring among themselves.
Yet, Temari didn't get mad. She just rolled her eyes in a very obvious way. "Yes, yes, Mr. Shido." She clapped her hands in a sarcastic gesture. "But I have one question if you think that's the case." She asked and paused for a moment, waiting for the curiosity to build up in the spectators before she slightly leaned forward and smirked, "If we were responsible, then why are you still alive?"
"What!?" Shido shrieked, fear visible in his expression as he recoiled back.
The Daimyo's eyes narrowed at Temari, quietly conveying that she should stop talking. But she ignored it and continued, "Do you honestly think you would not be our first target if we wanted somebody here dead? After all, you caused the recent ninja war."
And with that, the whole room descended into a deafening silence. But only for a second, before people's murmurs became even louder than before as the Daimyo let out a weary sigh.
After all, even among these important nobles, not many actually knew about such matters. This kind of knowledge was quickly suppressed.
And while Temari saying these words couldn't be fully trusted, everybody knew ninjas lied for money often enough, the problem was Shido's reaction to her words.
Who among these crafty nobles could not observe well enough to gleam the truth of the matter from how he paled and flinched at her accusation?
The war affected them all in one way or another, and now they knew that the Daimyo's best friend was responsible.
Realizing this, the pale Shido suddenly became beet red in anger.
"... YOU WRETCHED-!" He started shouting as he glared at Temari so much that if a look could kill, she would be turned into a pile of ash where she stood.
"ENOUGH!" The Daimyo firmly shouted and hit the armrest of his throne with his fist, "ALL OF YOU, SHUT UP!"
Highly annoyed, he stared at Shido until the man ducked his head, before he turned towards Temari, "I shall believe your words, Lady Temari. At least, for now. My ninjas should have some information for us soon. I hope you and your people will cooperate and obediently stay put while we figure out what happened."
"Of course." Temari courteously agreed, closing the matter for now.
She let out a small breath as the Daimyo turned away from her, only for Ren to poke her in the side.
"What is it?" She quietly hissed at him, but was instantly taken aback by the grim expression on his face.
"Temari..." Ren trailed off, looking a bit pained.
"Yes?"
"Suna is under attack."
As if unable to believe what she was hearing, Temari's expression became confused.
"... What?" She eventually whispered, but then her brain finally registered Ren's words, and she couldn't help but exclaim, "Now!?"
His shoulders slumping, Ren nodded, giving her a stiff, helpless smile. The timing absolutely sucked.
"Yes. Gaara wouldn't activate the alert seal if the situation wasn't dire."
"Fuck me!" Temari cursed, letting out a frustrated groan. They couldn't just leave right now! But they had to. Gaara would not activate the alarm seal if he could handle the situation.
Alas, the choice was between disobeying the Daimyo or helping the village with whatever trouble was going on that made even Gaara helpless.
The answer was obvious, even if it would definitely have some long-term ramifications.
"Ahem, Daimyo-dono," Temari awkwardly started, "it seems there is an emergency back in Suna. My husband and I will have to go." The Daimyo's expression became unamused, and he began to open his mouth, so Temari spoke faster, "As a gesture of goodwill, I will leave my brother and the rest of my entourage here. I hope no harm will come to them because that would just make the already ugly situation even uglier. Have a good evening."
"No! You are going nowhe-!" The Daimyo ordered, but his words were cut off when he realized neither Ren nor Temari was in the room any longer.
They disappeared right in front of his eyes, and he could only stare at the empty space where they previously stood, with fury rising inside of him. His authority was absolutely disregarded! And during an emergency like this, too!
He looked like a clown in front of all these nobles!
Alongside everybody else's eyes, Daimyo's angry gaze turned toward Kankuro, who grimaced with a dry smile frozen on his face.
"Fuck me!" He whispered, perfectly repeating his sister's earlier words.
Fortunately for him, right at that moment, a few ninjas landed in front of the Daimyo's seat and kneeled, pulling the man's attention away from Kankuro and his fellow Sunagakure ninjas.
"Lord Daimyo, we have found out that the poison was placed on the inner side of the goblets." The lead ninja began his report, while Shido, next to the Daimyo, stiffened. "On its own, the substance is harmless, but when it comes into contact with certain parts of the Sweet Wind wine, it turns into a fast-acting poison."
The Daimyo's expression turned frosty as he asked, "Who provided the goblets?"
From his tone, it was obvious that the heads were going to roll based on the answer.
But that didn't matter to the lead ninja. From childhood, he was raised by the Daimyo's other ninjas to serve as the Daimyo's ninja. The only thing that mattered to him was to fulfill his orders.
"The Minister of Finance, Kagari Kaito." He emotionlessly answered, making many guests gasp as they turned toward the man, only to see him shake when the nearby samurai put their hands on his shoulders.
"What!? That's slander! I have nothing to do with this madness!" Kaito vehemently shouted, but the Daimyo ignored his protests.
"And the wine?" He asked, keenly aware that the plot was definitely not simple. If the substance needed that specific wine to activate, then whoever provided the wine was most likely also a suspect.
"Advisor Koichi Shido." The ninja said, making the Daimyo owlishly blink at the unexpected words.
He became speechless as he turned toward Shido, who gave him a stiff smile alongside a headshake, but the blow came so unexpectedly that even the experienced Shido wasn't able to put forth a good enough facade.
The Daimyo's face fell as he mumbled, "...You've got to be kidding me." in disbelief.
In that instant, the innocence or guilt of Shido became clear to him. And with so many people around, witnessing this, even if he wanted to protect his friend, with so many witnesses, he couldn't.
Closing his eyes, the Daimyo waved his hand, and suddenly, Shido found himself being manhandled by a samurai.
From the corner, Kankuro watched in mild disbelief at how perfectly Temari had maneuvered this event. As far as he knew, Hasegawa wanted to poison the Minister of Finance and pin it on Suna. Shido found out and wanted to use it to poison his political and business opponents while using Hasegawa as a convenient scapegoat.
And after Temari found out through their spy network about Hasegawa's harebrained scheme, she just flipped the script on all of them. She made sure the victims were not the original ones Shido planned to kill, but rather the depraved dipshits with questionable hobbies among the nobles.
Temari also had the hidden Sunagakure assets in the Daimyo's castle to make sure the evidence would fall on people who deserved it, and voila, this was the result. Kankuro had a hard time believing it all went this smoothly.
The operation Cleaning the House was a major success.
Yet, it was hard to be truly happy about it. As he glanced at the Daimyo's frosty expression, he realized that this diplomatic mission might be a major failure.
He kind of doubted the Daimyo would feel very cooperative after today. And he was left behind to clear the mess.
Just great. Kankuro groaned. He would rather go back to Suna and fight to the death.