Chapter 182: An Unexpected Source
Night fell. Dana was sitting in his guest room, his eyes closed, waiting for news.
Suddenly, his Communication Snail vibrated.
"Lord Dana, someone is heading your way."
He used his "pulse" vision and smiled.
"Don't stop her," he said. "Let her come."
Sure enough, a few moments later, a pebble was thrown through his window.
On a rooftop below, Natsu was waiting patiently. She had been scared once in the Land of Rain, and she was not about to be scared again.
And then, a face appeared in front of her, very close.
"If you're not scared," Dana said, "I'll be very, very embarrassed."
"I can tell," she said with a light laugh.
He was defeated. He could only change the subject. "So," he said, "is there another training problem you can't solve?"
"We can talk about that later," she said, shaking her head. "I heard you provoked those two new mercenaries today."
"How did you know?" he asked.
"The whole castle is talking about it," she said. "They're all saying that the number one genius of the ninja world, Yotsuki Dana, is fierce and arrogant. Momo said it's all over the servant grapevine."
"And what do you think? Am I fierce and arrogant?"
"Don't change the subject," she said. "I'm here to tell you to be careful. Those two ninja are not good people. You have to watch out for them."
He was taken aback. This was an unexpected source of information. "Why do you say that?" he asked. "Did you find something out?"
"I live here, after all," she said, her hands on her hips. "My information is better than yours."
"I'm all ears."
"These two," she began, "on the surface, they're normal. But the servants are all talking. The tall, black-haired one is a pervert. He's always staring at the maids' butts. And someone said they felt like they were being watched when they were bathing..." She blushed a little as she said this.
"And you?" he asked, surprised.
"Don't change the subject," she said, patting him on the shoulder. "I don't bathe with the servants. And the sallow-faced one, they say he's always licking his lips. And most importantly, when a servant went to find them, they weren't there, and they found that they were cooking snake and toad in their pot!"
Dana froze. For a ninja, eating snake and toad wasn't that unacceptable. But combined with the pervert and the lip-licking... if he still couldn't guess, he would be a fool.
But he had checked them. No transformation, no disguise.
He suddenly remembered that in the original timeline, Orochimaru had a unique face-changing jutsu, which had fooled many of Konoha's inspections and had allowed him to get face-to-face with many of their ninja, including the Third Hokage, without being discovered.
He couldn't remember the name of the jutsu, but if it was Orochimaru, it wasn't surprising that he had some undetectable way of changing his appearance.
If it was really these two, then the deaths of the two young Cloud ninja also made sense.
But then he thought, both the Daimyo and that Jun'en had been acting a little strange today. There was clearly more to it.
Good thing he had had his men keep an eye on the two mercenaries from the very beginning.
"Then you should stay away from those two," he said to her. "I have an idea of who they are. Thank you for the information."
"Good," she said, happy. "I was worried they would try to get revenge on you in secret."
"You seem a lot more cheerful than in the Land of Hot Water," he said, looking at her.
"Well," she said, a little embarrassed, "at that time, I was about to be dragged back to Asuka Castle. I felt like my future was a black hole."
"And now?" he said with a smile.
"Can you tell me again how you were so arrogant and fierce to those two today?" she said, quickly changing the subject. "There are so many versions of the story among the servants. They say you stepped on their faces and asked, 'How do you want to die?' Is that true?"
"This servant grapevine of yours is a dangerous thing," he said.
They chatted for a long time, and he helped her with some of her training problems.
As she was leaving, she suddenly said, "I was going to try and run away again soon. But since you're here, I guess I'll just forget about it. Yotsuki-kun, I'd like to ask for a leave of absence in advance. Next summer, I want to go to the northern mountains to see my grandfather. And... I'd like to invite you to come with me."
He was taken aback for a moment, then realized. "No problem," he said. "Leave granted."
The wedding was at the end of this year. Next year's leave... she would have to ask him for it.
The next morning, he found Jun'en Furuya and had him summon the few attendants who had escaped with Prince Takayoshi. He had to at least go through the motions of an investigation.
Jun'en was prepared and had them brought in, but he did not leave his side, participating in the entire interrogation.
Dana did not object. He just asked a few simple questions. Their answers were the same as what Boku had gotten. In the end, he even asked to see the prince.
Jun'en hesitated for a moment, then agreed.
The prince, who was said to be a favorite of the Daimyo, lived in a luxurious courtyard on the edge of the castle.
When he saw him, he was still in bed. To be using the excuse of being frightened for almost ten days... it was a bit much.
"I'm sorry," the prince said. "After the shock, I caught a cold. I've only been feeling a little better these past two days."
He didn't dwell on it. After a few pleasantries, he asked him what had happened.
The prince seemed to have been prepared. He recounted how he had been attacked, how he had escaped, and how he had returned to the scene to find the bodies. It was the same story Boku had gotten.
But more than a week had passed, and everyone's story was exactly the same, without even the slightest self-doubt caused by a fading memory. It was a bit... suspicious.
He then left.
Jun'en, confident that he had not revealed anything, no longer followed him.
But what he didn't know was that the real investigation had begun long before, outside the castle. The "Special Strategy Division" had come to the capital, but that did not mean their reach was limited to it. He, Yotsuki Dana, was here just to show the Cloud's attitude.
He returned to his guest room and, after a brief rest, had another visitor.
But this time, it was not a princess throwing pebbles at his window, but a servant with an invitation.
"Lord Yotsuki Dana," he said, "my master, Prince Yukihiro, invites you to a private dinner tonight."
He had never heard of this Prince Yukihiro. He immediately used his Communication Snail to ask.
Boku replied that he was the Daimyo's third son, a famous playboy, the black sheep of the family, and not a favorite of his father, though he was almost forty.
He wondered why this man would invite him. Was it just to have fun?
"Prince Yukihiro asked me to tell you," the servant whispered, "that he has some information that might interest you."
He opened the invitation and a look of interest appeared on his face. "I see," he said.
That night, he took two of his men to the agreed-upon location. It was not the prince's residence, but the largest and most high-end restaurant in the capital, a famous den of pleasure.
He followed a scurrying waiter to a private room in the back and saw the man who was waiting for him. He was a man of about fifty. This must be Prince Yukihiro. He remembered that the intelligence had said he was not yet forty. He could only sigh at how hard these nobles "worked."
The prince greeted him warmly and, after they were seated, he immediately had a variety of delicacies brought in, and then called in seven or eight beautiful dancers.
"Dana-kun," he said, "though I may not look it, my seventh sister and I were very close when we were children."
He had bypassed his surname and had called him by his first name. And the "seventh sister" he was referring to was Natsu.
But his words were not very convincing, with a woman on each arm, one of his hands already up her dress.
And he could not have known that Natsu had already told him everything, and had never mentioned this third brother of hers.
He didn't want to waste time. "What is this information you said I would be interested in, Prince Yukihiro?"
He was not surprised by his directness. He sent the dancers away. "I know," he said, "who was behind the assassination attempt on the Daimyo."