Chapter 177 - Negotiations With Ao
A little bit later, Yuna managed to stop laughing, while Zabuza was still looking at her like he was about to attack her at any moment. Ao, on the other hand, had no idea what to do with the current situation. Zabuza was always someone levelheaded and ruthless in Ao's mind, but that image was destroyed rather thoroughly just now. Although he really wanted to know what had happened to Zabuza that resulted in him acting like this, there were more important things to talk about, for now.
"Zabuza Momochi, am I correct to assume that you know what is currently going on in Kirigakure?"
Zabuza took a deep breath to suppress his anger and answered Ao with a serious expression on his face.
"Yeah, I am aware. A rebellion against the current Mizukage, right?"
"Correct. I am aware that you tried to assassinate him once. So, are you interested in finishing what you have started? If the rebellion succeeds, your status as a missing-nin will be removed as well, making it possible for you to return to Kirigakure."
Yuna snorted when she heard that, while a wry smile appeared on Zabuza's face.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but I won't be coming back to Kiri no matter what happens. I have already become part of Konoha's shinobi force."
As he said that, Zabuza pulled out a Konoha headband that he was usually hiding away. As soon as Ao saw the headband, his eyes widened in surprise. It was almost impossible for shinobi from one country to join the forces of another country, especially when they're as powerful as Zabuza. No country would want to take such a huge gamble. It can't be guaranteed that the person isn't a spy, after all.
"Zabuza, how in the world is that even possible? There is no way Konoha would allow you to become one of their shinobi."
Zabuza, however, only shrugged his shoulders.
"I have no idea. I helped Konoha during the invasion a few months ago and a few days after that incident, I'm invited into the Hokage's office and told that I can join Konoha's forces if I wish to do so. Well, I am pretty sure that the person who had her hand in this is currently sitting right next to me."
Ao's eye immediately locked onto Yuna, who couldn't help but chuckle a little.
"It was no big deal. I just asked the old man if he could do me a little favor, and while doing so I might have mentioned a few…interesting… pieces of information I managed to gather about him, hehe."
Ao wasn't sure at first why a shiver of terror went through his whole body when he heard Yuna's quiet laughter, but after a short moment, he realized why he reacted like that. Yuna somehow managed to gather top secret information from Kirigakure, so the thought of what kind of information she could dig up in her own village terrified him. Somehow, he started to pity the previous and the current Hokage a little. But there was still something else he would like to get answered.
"But isn't this incredibly dangerous? How can you trust Zabuza? What will you do, if he simply betrays you?"
The moment Ao finished speaking, an oppressive atmosphere started oozing out of Yuna as her eyes turned cold and indifferent.
"Isn't that simple? I trust him after getting to know him better and understanding his character and as long as he doesn't betray that trust, nothing dangerous will happen. As for if he betrays me… I will personally cut off his head if he does."
Ao couldn't help but shudder at Yuna's merciless words. Cutting someone down who you trusted wasn't easy, but after seeing the indifference in Yuna's eyes, Ao believed that she would do it without a moment of hesitation.
Although Zabuza already knew about Yuna's disposition, he couldn't help but shudder a little as well. Even for him, someone who spent a lot of time killing people for money, Yuna's indifference to the lives of people that betrayed her was very abnormal. Even he, couldn't treat a human life the same way as he treated a random rock on the road, but Yuna could do so. No matter how often he saw it, it always made him feel incredibly uneasy and reminded him about how abnormal Yuna was.
Yuna, however, didn't seem to notice the current atmosphere at all and switched back to her normal mood, like she didn't just say that she would cut off Zabuza's head and continued talking.
"Anyway, it doesn't really matter how I managed to do it. The only important thing is, that Zabuza can't just saunter over to Kiri and help with your little rebellion. The only way to make that possible would be for him to accept a mission to help your side. Isn't that right, Tsunade?"
Zabuza and Ao looked where Yuna was looking and to their surprise, Tsunade was standing in the doorway with an annoyed expression on her face.
"I heard you had foreign guests and expected that you would cause trouble yet again. Seems like I was right."
"Well, that is just rude. No matter how you look at it, I have almost nothing to do with the current situation. If you want to be angry at someone, you should be angry at Ao over there."
When Tsunade's glare landed on Ao, he immediately shrunk back. He heard that Tsunade was rather easy to anger and he would rather not be turned into blood mist by one of her punches.
"I will put it bluntly: What can Konoha get out of this? Konoha interfering with the disputes of another country could be very troublesome. If you think we will help you for free, you are clearly dreaming."
Ao couldn't help but be surprised that Tsunade was willing to help at all. Just as she had said, intervening in the matters of another country is a big deal, so he was slightly moved that Tsunade was willing to help them.
"First of all, Kirigakure will offer an alliance with beneficial terms to Konoha. I am in no position to make any big promises, but that is definitely something Mei-sama would agree to."
""Mei-sama"? Not the Daimyo of the Land of Water?"
Before Ao could answer Tsunade, a loud snort escaped Yuna.
"That piece of sh*t? Who cares about his opinion? Kirigakure, which represents a huge part of his military force, is in shambles and all he does is sit on his ass and does nothing. Might as well assassinate him while you have the chance. Blame it on the current Mizukage and be done with it."
Actually, the Daimyo of the Land of Water isn't even the first Daimyo on Yuna's sh*t-list. The first one was the one from the Land of Fire, who increased the taxes on seal exports to fill his pockets and the second one was the one from the Land of Wind who is partly responsible for the conflict during the chunin exam because he was neglecting his own Hidden Village only because he didn't like the Fourth Kazekage. Imagine driving your own military to ruin, just because you didn't like the leader.
Tsunade, Zabuza, and Ao, meanwhile, had awkward expressions when Yuna mentioned assassinating the Daimyo. Although Ao wasn't happy about the nonaction of the Daimyo, assassinating him never crossed his mind, while Tsunade only thought that doing something like that could only be called insane, without her even thinking about why it would be insane. The only one who genuinely thought about it was Zabuza, but he dismissed the idea rather quickly as well. The Daimyo himself might be weak, but he had a lot of loyal guards that would be hard to overcome.
So, Yuna's suggestion was denied and after Ao guaranteed that the Daimyo would be willing to form an alliance, the negotiation continued.
Yuna, meanwhile, rolled her eyes at the trio's unwillingness to get rid of the Daimyo.
'Maybe I should just do it myself? Well, just killing a few Daimyo won't have much of an effect, so I need to choose the perfect moment. While I'm at it, I might as well do it on a bigger scale. Guess it is time to prepare a few things so everything goes smoothly.'
["While I'm at it", huh? Aren't you a little casual about this?]
'What do you mean casual? This is quite a lot of work. It's good that I have been collecting information for a long time now. That will speed up the progress quite a bit.'
[*Sigh*, here we go: Ding! New Quest added: Overthrow the World Government.]
'Err, I can't really put my finger on it, but that feels a little off…'
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