Chapter 69 - 69. Sunagakure Elder And Fishy Developments

The palace was filled with samurai in their armour. They stared at Shiroken as if they wanted to murder him. The whole city and the buildings were made of mud bricks and had the yellow colour of the sand. Due to this, even though the city was very big and flourishing, it still looked barren and ugly.

However, the insides of the palace were just something else. Silk curtains hanging everywhere, walls painted in exquisite colours. Lots of showpieces were put here and there. A few fountains were also present inside the building. How they were made was a mystery. ​​

Nobita brought him to the large door of the main hall where the Daimyo sat during his official work hours.

*KNOCK KNOCK*

As the tradition, Nobita knocked on it twice and opened it. The door opened and revealed the beauty of the official hall of the Wind Daimyo's palace.

Shiroken was taken aback, a cold wind came out of the hall. The floor inside was entirely made of white marble, the ceiling was jaded and carved with gold, precious stones and had beautiful patterns.

The room also had a lot of incense burners placed around it, and at the end of the hall sat a man, on a throne-like cushion seat that was placed on the floor.

Everything in the room said just one thing "LUXURY"

"Lord Daimyo, I present to you, a wealthy trader from the Dama Country, Oda Nobunaga. He has brought a large convoy of trading goods." Nobita introduced him.

Shiroken nodded toward the Daimyo and called the men behind him to place the gifts at the front. "These are a few gifts from my country. Many food items that you will only find there."

As soon as the food was named the Daimyo became energetic. The man had tanned skin and was not fat, he wore a traditional noble's hat on his head and a haori down below. He had a circle beard on his face.

However, Shiroken was a bit confused, because from what the intel said, the Wind Daimyo was supposed to be a frugal person. So frugal in fact that to save money he even went as far as outsourcing jobs to Konoha than his own shinobi village.

~Is all this wealth from the past Daimyos? Is he a good man or not? Maybe he's good but just uncompetitive~ Shiroken started to wonder.

"Please, have a seat, Lord Nobunaga. We will soon be having lunch with the envoy from Sunagakure. Their Kazekage had gone missing for some time now." Nobita told him.

~Missing? Hah... This is my chance~ Shiroken internally chuckled and started to knit a plan.

Shiroken without acting reserved took a seat in front of the Daimyo. There was a table on the floor, adjacent to the seats. On them were lots of plates and cups, each having fruits and wine bottles.

~He sure likes to eat~ Shiroken judged the Daimyo. He wondered how a man who likes to save money had his country in shambles. Shouldn't he be better at managing things if he was good at keeping things under control?

Well, his thoughts were disturbed by the arrival of the envoy from Sunagakure. The envoy was an old woman, with probably one step in grave.

It was an elderly woman with black eyes and greyed hair tied in a bun. She wore the traditional Sunagakure outfit which consisted of a dark-coloured, loose-fitting outfit with a poncho-like top.

The Daimyo however stood up to greet her with respect, "Elder Chiyo, come to have a seat."

Everyone was being very respectful to her. And when they said her name Shiroken realised who she was. She was one of the key figures mentioned in the report about Sunagakure. This was the famed puppeteer of Sunagakure, the leader of Sunagakure's Puppet Brigade, and a medical-nin.

Chiyo saw everyone stand up to give respect to her but when she saw the oddity that was Shiroken, she asked in interest, "Who is this old man?"

!!!

Shiroken immediately stood up with an alert and annoyed face, "Old aunty, I am not an old man. I just have white hair."

Shiroken originally didn't mind it when people called him old man, actually, he doesn't mind if kids call him that as they are innocent and don't know anything. But, when a half-dead woman does it, it hurts his pride.

Daimyo quickly intervened, Shiroken was obviously much more important than a representative of a poor and annoying village.

"This is Lord Nobunaga from the Dama Country. He is the big merchant who brought the convoy of 500 carriages worth of items. Lord Nobunaga, this is the counsellor of Sunagakure, Lady Chiyo." Daimyo introduced them.

Shiroken with a raised chin forwarded his hand, "Good to meet you."

Chiyo smiled... Wait... She blushed while shaking his hand, "Likewise, Lord Nobunaga. Ah, I feel like I have seen your face before, but where I don't remember."

Shiroken also wondered the same, ~How many white-haired people are there in the world? AND WHY IS SHE BLUSHING?~

"Let's have a seat and eat. I hope things are okay in Sunagakure, Lady Chiyo." Daimyo took his seat again and asked.

She hesitantly sat down and replied, "Things are normal, but Lord Kazekage is still missing. We are in dire need of grains and other food items or else the population of Sunagakure will starve. You did not give any contracts to Sunagakure either in the past years so we are even short on money."

She was on the verge of tears while explaining her plight. Maybe she was acting or maybe she was genuinely worried about the village. However, the Daimyo seemed to be uncaring about it.

"Lady Chiyo, you must understand that even we are surviving barely. The money I spend is all that I make. Lord Nobunaga here was attacked by cannibals, why wouldn't I have given them food if I had it here?" Daimyo claimed.

~And yet all I see on this table is food that will be spoiled in a day if nobody eats it completely. Will they throw it away then? I guess... I should help finish it~

"But, what about the villagers of Sunagakure? Will you let thousands of innocent people also turn into cannibals?" Chiyo asked.

Shiroken thought, if he could do something right now, then maybe he can take a backdoor entry into their village and gain a very influential status. As long as he provides food, they will have to listen to him.

So he decided to speak. "L..."

"CAN YOU HEAR ME? HELLO, HELLO!"

All of a sudden Shiroken heard a voice in his head. It felt like his own voice. It didn't take him long to realise that this voice was from one of his Wood Clones. There weren't many anyway. Just one in Water Country and one in Wave Country.

Shiroken mentally asked, "What happened?"

"I have some information that you would like to hear. Not long ago, I just found a woman in the Water Country, lying on the ground, dying. The poor girl had a lot of kunai stabbed in her back. I took her with me and healed her to good health. It took a few days however for her to wake up.

"And guess what, she turned out to be a Sunagakure Kunoichi." The Clone Shiro revealed with suspense.

Shiroken felt confused. "Why would a Sunagakure kunoichi be there? They have no relations with the Water country. Both are so far away they can't really spread their influence."

The clone replied, "I know. She was sent to Kirigakure for trade relations. Since Mei became the new Mizukage, many nations have shown their willingness to go for an alliance. She was one of them, sent here to make some deals for bringing some food to her home. But, as we know already, shinobi are the scum of the world. Guess what they did?"

"Killed her, but which side? Sunagakure killing her doesn't make sense." Shiroken wondered mentally.

"HEHE... I got this information out of her mouth. The first thing after she woke up was her cursing Sunagakure. I asked her about it, she told me she was sent here by the Fourth Kazekage. And guess what, she is one of the strongest shinobi in Suna, even titled as the Hero of Sunagakure. She said she was ambushed and killed by her own village." Clone explained everything.

"Hmm, it seems even she does not know why they did it. What was her name by the way?" Shiroken inquired.

The clone blurted, "Pakura,"

[A/N: There is no canon info about the time period she died, so I just made it now. Though I have made a convincing reason for why she went to Kirigakure and it will be revealed later.]

[You can see the Daimyo, Chiyo and Pakura on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

BEHOLD! THE GOD'S NUMBER... 69

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