[Chapter Size: 2300 Words.]
Third Person POV
Land of Fire, 43.
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"Then is this person very important?" Rin's voice asked as she was with her teacher on top of a carriage, within a fairly large convoy moving along the road.
"You could say that," Minato said, since they were tasked with escorting the woman inside the carriage back to her country.
It had been a month since the village began preparing for war. Minato ended up not going on any missions with his team, limiting himself only to training.
In the middle of all this, a daimyō from the Land of Stairs had come to the Land of Fire, requesting to hold some negotiations. Since she was already halfway along the journey, she couldn't turn back in the middle of this chaos, so she had this meeting with the daimyō to finalize her trade agreements and had to account for more matters when she learned that a possible war was being prepared to break out within a month.
Obviously, rumors about the war began to spread. The atmosphere in the countries was already more tense, and the feeling was already in the air: war was inevitable. It could come in six months or a year, but it would soon be there. The villages were already preparing, so all borders would be closing at this moment. Trade would begin to suffer, and missions would even start to increase before the conflict truly broke out.
Minato's team was assigned as soon as Sakumo spoke about the mission. Minato volunteered to take it, as his students had gone a long time without leaving the village, especially on an escort mission for someone as important as the only daughter of the most powerful family in the Land of Stairs.
Obviously, none of his students knew. They only knew it was someone important, given the number of guards waiting for them when they arrived at the capital of fire for the escort, and they even wanted two more teams, but didn't insist after recognizing Minato Namikaze, who would escort them personally.
"But that doesn't matter much, Rin, let's just follow the mission. I don't think we'll have any major problems here," Minato said, at first not thinking that anyone would attack—only if they were very foolish. But the possibility was still valid.
So they continued without concern as they followed the convoy. Rin, Obito, and Kakashi were positioned: Minato always took care of the front, Rin the rear, while Obito and Kakashi handled the flanks. This was the official formation of Team 7.
Always alert.
Meanwhile, in the main carriage...
"So it seems that now I'll have to go to the castle... I'll have to hide for months or years...?" A dissatisfied voice sounded inside the carriage.
It belonged to a woman covered with a hat, with a cloth in front hiding her face. Finally opening it, she revealed her appearance: Sayuri Tsukiyama, someone a little over twenty years old. She was the heir of the Tsukiyama family, which was the richest in the Lands of Stairs.
Meanwhile, the woman in front of her looked at her with pity, Sora, who was her lady-in-waiting, or main maid/servant.
"Lady, there's no way to change this... we are on the verge of war, this is truly concerning for your safety!" the lady-in-waiting spoke carefully to her mistress. She was a bit older, but had been taking care of the girl for many years, even before her father died.
"Why is there always war...?" the young woman, Sayuri, murmured, frustrated.
"Think about it... wasn't it enough that the Second War already took my father through bandits while we had an agreement with Kirigakure? They were supposed to protect us, but instead, no one was there when they tried to kidnap him for money and he ended up dying!" Sayuri said angrily.
Sora couldn't even say anything before her mistress continued. "Then there was the conflict in Uzushiogakure, very close to the country. You could hear the explosions even from the castle, in the capital!"
The battle went on for so long, but all that bombardment of bijūdama could be heard by everyone. That frightened all the neighboring countries greatly at the time... Sayuri always wondered how someone could have so much power to fight like that.
After the battle of Uzushiogakure ended, everyone was shocked by the result: four great countries within an alliance attacked the Uzumaki clan in the Land of Whirlpools, resulting in failure. Many on the coast of the Land of Stairs even saw the island flying into the sky.
"And now, when everything seemed calm, another conflict is about to break out..." Sayuri murmured about the arrival of another war.
When she entered the Land of Fire, the rumor came and her men asked her to return to her country when she was already not far from the capital of fire, so she refused. She went all the way to fulfill the commitment with the Land of Fire.
"You must protect yourself, Lady Sayuri," the woman murmured.
"Yes, I know... I know... but I don't like this at all," she replied in a low tone.
"I hate this as much as I hate the idea of marrying Lord Raizen..."
"My lady!" the maid began, but the young woman did not stop expressing her dissatisfaction.
"If they use this war to force me to marry him, I don't want that."
"I know, my lady, but you know they will force you," Sora said.
"It wasn't supposed to be like this... my father was supposed to have a son. Now I have to take care of the entire country in the middle of a war in the name of my family... and I'll still have to marry him? I refuse that. I would rather have the right to choose who I will marry," she said firmly.
"I know you want that, but Lord Raizen can also provide you more security..."
"No. I refuse to give power to that man. Don't you see the greed in his eyes? He wants to marry me to turn me into a puppet and take my father's place. I refuse... I refuse that."
The maid merely shrank back. She didn't disagree, but she didn't say anything else either. It was obvious that Y's greed was something to be envied. As the second greatest noble in the Land of Stairs, possessing a vast network of hot springs both inside and outside the country, he was the best candidate to marry Lady Sayuri, with the greatest fortune and central power in the nation.
"I don't want to marry for politics... I wanted to find love," Sayuri murmured, not failing to open the window in search of someone.
"That man they sent from the Leaf Village... he is so handsome and confident. I wouldn't mind marrying him," Sayuri declared, placing her hand under her chin as she said that.
The maid panicked. "My lady, don't even think about that! You know very well who he is. He is already married! And they are all famous women!" Sora said, obviously recognizing Minato Namikaze. As soon as they heard he would take part in the mission, they were stunned, but also more confident about the journey.
"Besides, he is the man with the highest bounty in the bingo book. Anyone related to him would be in great danger!" the maid said with concern, opening the book and pointing to Minato, with the bounty of 500,000,000 ryō.
"Well, I would rather marry someone like that, even if I have to share him, than Lord Raizen. At least that man already has enough power, he doesn't need to try to control a country out of greed, like in the Land of Stairs. And he is handsome!" she said, blushing.
"Don't say that so loudly!" the maid looked in horror, while also seeming unsure of what to say after hearing that.
Minato was listening to the entire conversation beside Rin. He ignored all that nonsense about marriage and about the woman blushing while talking about him, but something interesting caught his attention: there seemed to be a certain conflict between Lady Sayuri and a noble, Lord Raizen, who wanted to marry her. Which was nothing unexpected, after all she was what remained of the family, and whoever married her would get everything.
'So there may be dangers...', he thought. Minato simply raised his hand in a quick signal. Kakashi and Obito went to the carriage where he and Rin were.
"Listen, everyone," he began to speak. "It's not certain, but I just received some interesting information, so there may be a possibility of an attack. Understood?"
He paused briefly. "I will not get involved in the fight unless there is a jōnin or something you cannot handle. The rest will be entirely up to you, understood? I will only intervene if our client or any guard is in danger."
The three nodded. Kakashi and Obito returned to the trees. Minato would take care of the front, while Rin would stay in the rear.
If someone appeared ahead and needed to handle it, Minato would inform them, but even though he was a sensor far superior to his students, he wanted to let them become more independent, so they could resolve things on their own.
'So this is the price of fame...', Minato couldn't help but comment mentally, now that he realized how the woman admired him the entire time since he arrived, seeing him almost like a knight on a white horse.
It wasn't just the fact that it might be some kind of love at first sight for a young daimyō, but even the guards looked at him and whispered among themselves since they learned he would be escorting them.
They didn't even demand more teams once he arrived and introduced himself. They even asked if there would be additional escort support, but Minato refused, saying that the value had already been increased exponentially, after all, it was an S-rank mission, given the high payment the daimyō had offered.
They arrived at the border. Several ANBU approached, and one team confronted Kakashi. Minato disappeared from the carriage and appeared beside Kakashi.
"Leave it to me," he said to his student before turning to the squad leader. "We are on an escort mission," Minato informed.
His eyes, however, did not stop at the ANBU leader. He followed his gaze to someone behind him. There was an entire squad of twelve people, and a woman with a mask nodded at him in greeting. It was his wife, Mikoto.
"Minato Namikaze... alright, you are free to pass," the ANBU leader said.
Minato nodded, told Kakashi to continue, and returned to the carriage while the ANBU team went back to patrol.
Mikoto had now been part of the ANBU for a few weeks, being able to leave Itachi under care, even being breastfed, by Tsuna. Who would not leave the village, since Tsuna was taking care of hospital matters and other things with her mother.
In any case, they continued entering the Land of Stairs. Minato kept observing.
A moment later, he managed to see something 20 kilometers away, he had detected a trap — a bit far from the border so as not to draw attention from the Land of Fire.
And there were indeed some jōnin-level ninjas. It seemed he would have no choice but to get involved.
He made a signal, and everyone gathered with him again. He explained the situation. Everyone felt a bit nervous, but they prepared themselves, except for Kakashi, who seemed much calmer.
Minato went to the main carriage and opened it, making both the woman and the maid look at him in surprise as he entered.
"May I sit for a moment?" he said.
The guards didn't even have time to react, as he was already inside.
"Hey, what are you doing here?" Sayuri asked, while a blush appeared on her face upon seeing Minato. Sora was also surprised to see him there.
Minato ignored this, already used to women blushing, especially now that he was older, famous, and powerful.
While the young woman looked on in surprise, Minato spoke: "Sorry for appearing like this, but I need to talk to you."
He paused. "There is a trap ahead of us."
The woman widened her eyes, losing her blush and taking on a more serious expression. "Are you sure, Lord Minato?" Sayuri asked carefully.
"I can already sense it. There are about thirty people, but there are 4 jōnin among them, which are not easy to hire. So there is a lot of money involved. Mercenaries are more expensive than regular ninjas to do dirtier work."
He paused and continued. "Anyway, we'll take them out by going ahead, while I leave a clone here. But I want you to know that there are two guards who are accomplices in this."
"Two guards...?" she asked, surprised.
"Yes. I know. I've been sensing their nervousness since we were introduced." Minato crossed his arms; he could sense emotions from the start, as well as their intentions.
"And now that we've entered the Land of Stairs, they seem even more anxious. After all, the one protecting you is me. No trap can really stop me."
"What should we do?" Lady Sayuri asked.
"It's nothing serious. Just relax, we'll take care of everything. Just know that I will leave a clone here, and it will inform me if anything happens. I'll be back here in an instant, and we'll just clear the path before you pass."
The young woman was not bothered by these words. Minato simply left.
He called his team once more and explained the plan. Everyone already understood.
Then, Minato left only a clone to take care of the place and keep an eye on the two soldiers, and went along with Obito, Kakashi, and Rin, without the guards noticing, leaving the carriage and advancing with the group.
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