Chapter 212: Even Daimyo Can Have Strange Ambitions
"Senpai… is it really okay to disturb the daimyo this late?" At the entrance to the mansion, Deidara rubbed his hands nervously and glanced at Kenichi.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Kenichi looked at him in confusion. "Besides, it's not that late."
He had just walked past a street where those women were still working hard to make a living. If that district was wide awake, then a daimyo who lived for pleasure was probably not asleep either.
And judging by what Kenichi had seen earlier, this daimyo was exactly the type to enjoy life. For all he knew, the man was still entertaining himself in his own mansion. Even if the ninja world's "recreational industry" was nowhere near as developed as Kenichi's previous life, wealthy people always found ways to play. Their imagination for indulgence was usually richer than their imagination for governance.
Kenichi would not be surprised by anything he discovered here. He might even end up sighing at his own lack of creativity.
But looking at Deidara, Kenichi suddenly remembered something.
In the ninja world, the daimyo were ordinary people, yet their status was undeniably noble. Very few ninja dared to directly attack a daimyo. Even a village as powerful as Konoha, the top village in the entire ninja world, only threatened a daimyo openly or secretly. They never directly replaced them, and they never turned them into puppets.
In Kenichi's eyes, the power structure of the ninja world was… distorted.
He did not understand why the villages did not simply overthrow the daimyo, yet still acknowledged their authority over the country. Maybe it really was some kind of mutual check and balance.
"Deidara," Kenichi asked, "how do you see the daimyo? And how does your teacher see them?"
"Huh?" Deidara hesitated, then answered quickly. "The daimyo are the rulers of the country. They also allocate mission quotas to our village and things like that. Teacher cares a lot about what the daimyo thinks."
Kenichi nodded. That matched what he suspected.
Even with ninja, a completely unreasonable superhuman force, the nominal rulers were still the daimyo.
To be honest, Kenichi felt the world was almost pathological. Ninja who could destroy a country still served under an ordinary man's authority, at least on paper. In other worlds, the daimyo would have been overthrown long ago.
Did a reason even matter? "I don't eat beef" would be more than enough.
Ordinary people sat at the top, and villages still depended on the daimyo for funding. With power this far beyond the norm, it was absurd.
But that absurdity was apparently the current reality of the ninja world.
After hearing Deidara's answer, Kenichi lost interest in digging deeper. He already understood the daimyo's unique position in the system.
Still, if Kenichi ever wanted to establish a country, overthrowing and annexing others would not be difficult. The daimyo held nominal power, but if there was no one left to rule, what kind of ruler were they?
Kenichi walked straight in and quickly found the daimyo of the Land of Bears.
The man was in the middle of playing a "spring has arrived" game. Even from outside the door, Kenichi could hear exaggerated, dramatic screams.
Kenichi pursed his lips. Then he flicked a small fireball into the room.
The sounds stopped instantly.
A moment later, the same daimyo from earlier stumbled out awkwardly while pulling up his pants.
"Oh my." He rubbed his hands, bowing with a stiff smile, not even a hint of anger on his face. "Have you two sir ninjas finished your mission so quickly?"
Kenichi had to admit it. The man had talent. To endure this kind of interruption without losing his temper took skill.
"Yes." Kenichi quietly took a step back. He had to. The smell was strong enough to suffocate someone. "Hoshigakure has been completely destroyed. No survivors."
He was not lying.
Hoshigakure was gone. Kenichi had even checked it again afterward. He left no one alive, except for the female ninja named Natsuhi.
Kenichi kept her alive for one reason.
Research value.
He wanted to study how radioactive substances affected a ninja's body and how they influenced injuries. It would be useful for future experiments.
If a ninja's body could truly withstand nuclear radiation, then the lethality of nuclear bombs would be greatly reduced. But Kenichi considered that unlikely.
Natsuhi was the perfect example. Her body was already riddled with damage from radiation. If she kept living in that environment, the radiation would eventually bore deeper and deeper into her bones.
That was not exaggeration. Radiation sickness was rare and special, and the damage from radioactive substances was prolonged and almost permanent. Someone whose bones already glowed was a severe case.
The fact she was still alive was a miracle.
"All right, all right." The daimyo rubbed his hands again, smiling. "But could I trouble you two adults to wait one night?"
Kenichi understood the meaning immediately. The man wanted to verify it.
Kenichi nodded without committing. Verification was fine. One night was nothing. Tomorrow he would take the money and leave. His airship was parked in a relatively safe spot, so he was not worried about it being discovered.
"Then, guests," the daimyo asked obsequiously, "would you like me to arrange accommodations for you?"
Kenichi politely declined.
It would not be convenient. Natsuhi was still tied up outside, and he needed to check her condition. He could not just leave her unattended.
The daimyo's offer seemed more like polite formality anyway. When Kenichi refused, he did not press further.
Kenichi left with Deidara immediately.
Outside the mansion, Kenichi stretched. This mission really had been easy. He finished early, got paid, and could return to his experiments sooner.
But as he looked back at the quiet capital behind him, and the noisy special district glowing in the distance, he suddenly realized something.
Where were the hotels in the Land of Bears?
When Kenichi went out on missions, he usually slept in the wild. Ninja did not need luxury. You rested when you could.
Still, his airship was parked outside the capital, and that was inconvenient. It seemed he would have to stay in the city tonight.
"It looks like I need a mission airship in the future," Kenichi muttered, lips pursed.
Fortunately, the capital, though not huge, had hotels. The problem was that many of them had names that made you wonder if you walked into the wrong place.
"Clear System Hotel."
"Hot Spring N Hotel."
Kenichi stared for a moment, then kept walking until he finally found something normal, a chain hotel.
Even the ninja world had chains.
Kenichi was not sure about the other great nations, but the Land of Fire and the smaller countries near it had a common chain called [Footfall Inn], built specifically to accommodate ninja.
It was affordable, cheap, and it was the first choice for many ninja on missions.
Of course, it was also a place where conflicts often happened, especially in small countries.
After all, the ninja staying there were not always from one village. Some were outsiders. Some were enemies.
Just like now.
Kenichi stepped inside with Deidara and immediately ran into Jiraiya.
"Little lady," Jiraiya said, eyes shining in a way that made Kenichi's temples ache, "do you have a mixed gender bathhouse here?"
Kenichi took a slow breath.
Why was Jiraiya here?
This inn was not even close to that red light district.
"I apologize, Jiraiya-sama." The receptionist smiled politely, professional to the end, even as she checked him in on a computer. "Our hotel only has private bathrooms."
That scene gave Kenichi an odd sense of incongruity.
At that moment, Jiraiya noticed Kenichi and Deidara walking in. He turned, sized them up briefly, then turned back as if it were nothing.
In the ninja world, people dressed strangely all the time. Masks were common. Unless someone wanted trouble, most ninja would not start a fight without reason.
Most guests here were on missions. Mutual non interference was the unspoken rule.
Of course, there were exceptions, like Konoha ninja running into Cloud or Stone ninja.
But unless they were idiots, people did not wear their headbands openly in a place like this. They were not crazy enough to advertise their village.
Jiraiya took his key and walked away under the receptionist's faintly ambiguous gaze.
Kenichi checked in next.
The receptionist was efficient. No names. No identification. Just payment, then a key.
Kenichi rented two rooms, tossed one key to Deidara, and returned to his room.
As for Natsuhi, Kenichi did not care. She was still tied up, and a shadow clone was watching her. Escape was impossible.
Her strength was nothing impressive. At best, she was around chūnin level, maybe below jōnin.
If she could escape from Kenichi's shadow clone, then Kenichi might as well find a block of tofu and smash his head into it.
The night passed without melodrama.
Kenichi slept well. The shadow clone remained intact.
In the morning, he changed clothes and stepped outside, only to see Jiraiya leaving his own room, rubbing his waist.
Jiraiya paused when he saw Kenichi, then smiled and greeted him.
Kenichi stood there, dumbfounded and slightly amused.
His luck really was something. How did he keep running into Jiraiya wherever he went? They even left at the same time. If Jiraiya had not failed to recognize him, Kenichi would have suspected it was deliberate.
He called Deidara, who was already awake, and the two of them went to see the daimyo.
When they arrived, the daimyo presented a large box of money with an exaggerated flourish.
"Oh my." The daimyo grinned. "The efficiency of you two ninjas is truly impressive."
Kenichi returned a polite smile. Then he used a ninjutsu to count the money in the box, confirmed the amount, and stored it away.
Then he glanced at the daimyo, who was still standing beside him, rubbing his hands like he had something stuck in his throat.
"Daimyo-sama wants something else?" Kenichi asked calmly.
"Ahem." The daimyo smiled, round as a laughing Buddha, and with his height and weight, he looked the part even more. But behind his squinting eyes, there was unmistakable shrewdness. "Sir Ninjas…did you happen to find a meteorite in Hoshigakure?"
Kenichi's gaze sharpened slightly.
The daimyo continued, still smiling. "Of course, I know the rules. I can buy that stone at a high price."
He gestured.
Several more boxes were brought out, all filled with money. Each one looked just like the box Kenichi had received.
Deidara's breathing instantly grew heavier.
So much money. If it were all his, it would be great. He did not even know what he would buy, but he could buy explosive tags. Then he could toss one every time he saw an enemy.
Whether it actually hurt them did not matter. The point was showing off.
Explosive tags were expensive. Deidara could not afford them. Even if he comforted himself with the fact that he had Explosion Release, he still envied ninja who could casually throw money into explosions.
Kenichi calculated quickly.
If one box was 120 million ryō, and there were five boxes, then the daimyo was offering 600 million ryō for the meteorite.
This old fox.
He really managed to scrape together that much money.
Kenichi almost regretted not interrogating him harder yesterday. If he had known, he might have hung him on a lamppost and shaken every coin loose.
But the daimyo's intent was obvious.
He was not satisfied with living an ordinary life. He likely knew Hoshigakure's secret and wanted the meteorite to train ninja loyal only to him.
Kenichi's answer was simple.
"No," he said, refusing without hesitation.
.....
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