Chapter 256: Chapter 253 : Rage and Sorrow
Baki entered the Wind Daimyo's office. It was a large circular room with a circular table at the center of the room. The Daimyo was sitting on the chair exactly opposite Baki's location. Baki bowed respectfully and said, "Greetings, Lord Daimyo. Lord Kazekage wanted to send you a message."
He handed a scroll to the Daimyo. The Daimyo didn't speak a word and took the scroll and began reading. The scroll expressed condolences on the recent deaths. It also mentioned that Rasa speculated that these attacks were done by Konohagakure or Iwagakure.
Baki said, "Lord Kazekage heard about the recent assassinations and was concerned about the safety of everyone in the Wind Capital. He sent me here to investigate the assassinations and increase the safety of the Wind Capital."
Neither Baki nor the scroll mentioned anything about clearing Suna's name. No words were needed for that.
The Daimyo replied while watching Baki carefully, "The recent events have alarmed me. So I have reached a deal with the Land of Iron to send 200 more Samurais here. Unfortunately, I don't have any access budget for it. So it will have to come out of the budget assigned to Sunagakure."
Baki frowned. He said, "Lord Dai..."
However, he was cut off by the Wind Daimyo, who said, "Save your breath. My meetings today were all about this matter. All my advisors and ministers have agreed upon it. I will send an official letter to Rasa soon."
Baki knew that speaking anymore would be pointless. He turned around and said, "Alright. I will start investigating the assassinations."
He left without bidding any farewells. The Daimyo saw him leave and let out a sigh while thinking, 'These warmongers keep getting more and more power-hungry. I had advised them against starting the Third Great Ninja War. But they completely ignored me and started it without my knowledge or permission. In the end, they lost so badly that they were forced into an alliance with Konoha. Even then, they still haven't learnt their lessons.'
The Daimyo snorted and decided, 'If they want to continue being arrogant, so be it.'
He looked at Hajime and said, "Send that letter to Mifune."
Hajime nodded and left the room.
After leaving, Baki's mood was terrible. He could see that the Daimyo was intent on making Suna pay for the recent assassinations. He muttered, 'At this rate, Lord Rasa might decide to kill him instead of trying to come to terms with him.'
He met with the other 19 ninjas. Soon they began investigating the deaths. After inspecting all the dead bodies, Baki concluded numerous clues.
He analyzed, 'All 15 bodies have very similar injuries. It's as if the same person has killed them. Or at the very least, all of them were probably trained by the same master. The wounds are definitely from wind blades. But the same effect could also be achieved by the Wind Sword jutsu. So it is likely that 10 chunins had attacked instead of the speculated 10 Jounins. This alone should be enough to get rid of most of the suspicions from us. But...'
Baki frowned as he recalled his conversation with the Wind Daimyo and Hajime's attitude. He thought, 'Unfortunately, the Daimyo seems to be intent on making us pay. He won't pay any attention to this matter unless he has no other choice. In fact, even if we catch the culprits, he might still think that it is us framing someone else.'
Suddenly, Baki had an idea. He realized, 'The only way to completely remove all suspicions would be to catch the culprits in this city and fight them openly. As long as they use Wind jutsus, no one will be able to blame Suna. The only issue here is that the fighting in the city could cause a lot of damage to the city.'
Baki's expression hardened as he decided, 'But, seeing how the Daimyo treated us, I don't need to be concerned about such damages. As long as the culprits are from Iwa or Konoha, the Daimyo will have no choice but to readjust the budgets and closely align himself back with us. Now, I just hope that those cowards haven't run away!'
The 'cowards', who Baki had referred to, was sitting in one of the restaurants where he could occasionally notice the Sunagakure ninjas. Numerous thoughts were running through his mind and numerous plans were being created.
Fujin heard all the talks happening in the restaurant and outside. He thought, 'So 20 people were sent here just for me, huh? Looks like they didn't suspect Shadow Clones. And their leader is Baki.'
A smirk formed on Fujin's face, 'Still, this is making it so easier for me. I have already seen 6 faces other than Baki. The next time, I will transform into them, hahaha. I wonder what Rasa's thoughts would be if he received a message that the very ninjas he sent to investigate were being accused of murder.'
For the next couple of weeks, Baki and his squad searched the entire Wind Capital to find the culprits. Unfortunately, they didn't find anyone.
In these 2 weeks, no new incident occurred. The Wind Daimyo and Hajime became more and more certain that the assassinations were carried out by the Sunagakure.
Hajime wondered, 'Couldn't Suna come up with a better scheme? First they kill Nobles and Samurais here and then they put up a charade of trying to desperately look for the culprit. Next, they will say that they haven't found any culprit and hence will station some troops here permanently for 'protection'. Even a child could see through this scheme.'
As Hajime predicted, after 2 weeks of desperately looking for the culprits, Baki stopped. He and his unit decided to stay there to stop the next wave of attacks.
Another week and a half passed by peacefully. Most of the common citizens had begun forgetting about the incident earlier and moved on with their lives. Even the Suna ninjas and the Samurai had stopped maintaining full alertness.
In one of the numerous mansions in the Wind Capital, a teenage girl was watering plants in her room while singing merrily. Suddenly, she felt a pain in the back of her neck. Instantly, she lost consciousness and began falling down. However, a hand held her and stopped her from falling to the ground.
At the same time, the door of the room opened. A middle-aged man walked in saying, "Kohei, how many times should I te... Who are you?"
The man suddenly became stunned to see his daughter lying unconscious in the arms of an unknown Suna ninja. Memories of the 10 assassinations surfaced in his mind. He was about to yell when the Suna ninja suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed his mouth and said, "Scream and both you and your daughter will die."
The man felt an intense bloodlust from the ninja. Without letting the man speak, the ninja said, "Did you think that you could double-cross us by forming a secret deal with Amegakure?'
The man's eyes widened. The ninja was amused as well. He thought, 'I just made up a lie. To think that it would be true.'
The man wanted to scream that his deal with Amegakure wasn't harmful to Sunagakure in any way. On the contrary, it might benefit Sunagakure in the long term. However, he could not speak. The ninja was still grabbing his mouth so tightly that his cheeks had begun bleeding. The ninja said, "As this is just your first offense, I will only take the life of your daughter."
The man's eyes widened. He began struggling, but he was no match for the ninja. The ninja continued, "If you continue to betray us, or if you tell anyone about this interaction, then you and your family will be eliminated."
The ninja grabbed the neck of the unconscious girl and strangled her till it popped. The man struggled helplessly, but he could only see his daughter die in front of his eyes. Tears rolled down his eyes.
The ninja tossed the man away and disappeared. Rage and sorrow were visible in the man's eyes. He screamed, "KOHEI!!!!!"
His screams alerted the entire mansion. Immediately a Samurai and a few others came running. They saw their Lord sobbing with the dead body of his daughter in his arms.
Her mother saw her dead daughter and began crying in disbelief and pain as well. She cried, "Who did this, Kojiro?"
Kojiro's eyes reddened. He said hatefully, "Sunagakure! I will never forgive them."
He looked at the Samurai and said, "I want to meet Lord Daimyo. Come with me. But first, call a few more of your comrades to protect my family."
The Samurai nodded and immediately got to work. After ensuring sufficient protection, Kojiro along with a Samurai began moving towards the Daimyo's estate. However, he wasn't alone. Eleven more Nobles were also walking towards the Daimyo's estate in rage and sorrow.
[A/N: I am aware that the killings in this chapter are dark/cold. I'll be covering this a bit in the next chapter.]
[A/N : Bonus chapter on next Sunday if the fic gets 1000 Power Stones. Bonus chapter on next week's Saturday if the fic gets 2000 Power Stones.]
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