Chapter 25: See If the Feudal Lord Believes You

After everyone had eaten their fill, they emerged from the restaurant, surrounded by a lively crowd.

"The night is still young. Why don't we continue our revelry with a few more drinks in Kabukicho?" suggested Uchiha Touhuan, who was at the center of the group.

"Since Clan Head Touhuan has spoken, I shall gladly keep you company, even if it costs me my life!" replied Inuzuka Kaze, already slightly tipsy.

The others, their defenses lowered by the alcohol, chuckled heartily at this. Even Hyuga Akito and Hyuga Kento, who usually maintained a stoic demeanor, wore slightly lecherous grins.

"Clan Head Touhuan! There are girls in the squad, you know!" Uzuki Yugao said, feigning indignation.

"Ah, that was a lapse in my judgment!" Uchiha Touhuan laughed. With that, he pulled a stack of banknotes from his storage scroll and shoved them somewhat roughly into Gekko Hayate's hands. "Hayate, why don't you take your little girlfriend out and enjoy the town properly?"

"Indeed, just make sure to return early in the morning," Kuroki Ryuta teased.

The group's laughter left the young couple blushing, but Gekko Hayate accepted the money from Uchiha Touhuan. After bidding the others farewell, he took Uzuki Yugao out for a stroll. As for the rest, they headed straight toward Kabukicho.

Once they had moved far enough away, the real Uchiha Touhuan stepped slowly out of the shadows of the street and headed in a completely different direction.

***

In the Lord's Mansion of Tanzaku Town—a region home to the largest gambling dens in the Land of Fire—the lord was naturally no simple figure. Beyond the noble title granted by the Land of Fire, Yamamoto Taro maintained hundreds of samurai and over a dozen shinobi within his estate. Coupled with his connections to various ninja clans in the Hidden Leaf Village, Yamamoto Taro's position as lord was as stable as a mountain.

After the evening's banquet concluded, Yamamoto Taro, with a beautiful girl draped over each arm, stumbled drunkenly into his bedroom with a lewd grin.

"Tonight is sure to be a pleasant one," Yamamoto Taro chuckled. However, the moment he looked up—before he could even switch on the lights—he noticed someone sitting on the sofa by the window of his luxurious bedroom. The clear moonlight streaming through the window illuminated the figure and the kunai in his hand, which he was wiping repeatedly, reflecting a terrifying, icy glint.

The woman in Yamamoto's arms instinctively opened her mouth to scream, but a flash of red light from the man by the window caused her to collapse instantly, limp and unconscious.

Yamamoto Taro's drunkenness vanished in an instant. Whoever this was, appearing in his bedroom at such an hour with a weapon in hand, it was clear that the visitor had ill intentions.

"Who are you? Why are you here?" Yamamoto Taro was, after all, a man who had weathered many storms. Despite being drenched in cold sweat, he maintained a modicum of composure, stepping backward continuously.

"I suggest you stop backing away. If that thing behind your right foot goes off, it won't be pretty," the intruder said, his tone mocking. "I can't say for sure if you'll die, but you'll certainly go flying."

Yamamoto Taro froze mid-step and looked down. To his horror, an explosive tag was plastered on the floor behind him, and the trigger mechanism was only a few centimeters from his right heel.

Yamamoto swallowed hard. High-ranking as he was, he had never faced death at such close range.

"Let's talk this over. Do you want money, or—" Yamamoto stopped, but his hands continued to make subtle movements. He intended to create a disturbance in the bedroom; if the guards in the mansion reacted, the batch of samurai and shinobi he spent so much money to employ would tear this intruder to pieces in an instant.

The man by the window seemed oblivious, watching with a smile as Yamamoto inched his way forward until he knocked over a large porcelain pot near the door. The sound of shattering china echoed throughout the room.

However, the guards he expected never appeared. Instead, the man by the window spoke.

"Are you waiting for the samurai and shinobi in this mansion?" The man rose slowly and began to walk toward Yamamoto. His footsteps were soft, but to Yamamoto, they sounded like the footsteps of the Grim Reaper.

"Two jonin from the Shimura clan, twelve rogue ninja, and two hundred and seventy-one samurai. It took a bit of effort to clear them out." The man stopped beside Yamamoto and reached out to turn on the light. A handsome face became clear to Yamamoto, and the three tomoe swirling in his blood-red eyes caused the lord to freeze.

"The Uchiha clan?"

"You have a good eye," Uchiha Touhuan said, patting Yamamoto's chubby cheek with the flat side of his kunai.

"As a ninja of the Hidden Leaf, acting in this manner is hardly within the rules, is it?" Seeing the Sharingan, Yamamoto actually calmed down a bit. As a clan of the Hidden Leaf, for the Uchiha to strike a noble with a title from the Land of Fire was a capital offense.

"Rules, you say?" Uchiha Touhuan laughed. "Then let's talk about rules."

"Over the past four years, Mr. Yamamoto, you have provided as much as 1.8 billion ryo in funding, in several installments, to the rogue ninja Shimura Danzo and his criminal syndicate. You plotted to help Danzo seize control of the military power of the Land of Fire. Tell me, what do you think would happen if the Feudal Lord heard this news?"

Uchiha Touhuan spoke with a faint, mocking smile. Yamamoto Taro’s pupils dilated sharply.

"Sir, you cannot speak such nonsense. I was merely seeking some protection!" Yamamoto hurriedly clarified. And it was true; he had spent a fortune hiring the Shimura clan's ninja precisely because of their strength and their willingness to handle dirty work. The idea of them seizing control of the Hidden Leaf was something he had never even considered.

"Merely protection? We shall see if the Feudal Lord believes that," Uchiha Touhuan chuckled.

"What exactly do you want?" Yamamoto Taro asked, taking a deep breath.

"Personally, I believe in Lord Yamamoto's loyalty to the Feudal Lord, but you must realize that our Feudal Lord is a rather suspicious man." The kunai in Uchiha Touhuan’s hand danced like a butterfly between his fingers. "Well? Shall we continue to discuss the rules?"

"Please, keep this secret for me. There will be a generous reward afterward." The sharp edge of the kunai brushed against the tip of Yamamoto's nose several times, shattering his psychological defenses. He dropped to his knees immediately.

"What kind of person do you take me for?" Uchiha Touhuan asked, his face showing clear displeasure.

"Yes, yes, I am a fool! Please, sir, have mercy and spare my life!" With his life dangling by a thread, Yamamoto Taro could no longer hold it together and began kowtowing to Uchiha Touhuan.

After watching him kowtow for a moment, Uchiha Touhuan finally spoke: "I see you've managed this Tanzaku Town quite well. Roughly how much revenue does it generate each month?"