Chapter 38 - 38. Right To Judge
They travelled continuously. On their way, they saw a lot of villages, small or big. But one thing was very common in all, food shortage and rampant disease. The climate of Water Country was humid and this resulted in the growth of all kinds of insects. People were living a miserable life, finding a fat man was like finding a needle in a haystack here. The condition was even worse for people in the internal areas of the country, where people couldn\'t fish.
Shiroken used his wood release and control of natural energy to create lots of fruit trees for them. This won him a lot of goodwill and they got to eat.
Shiroken tied Zabuza with a rope and made him run behind them. He was seeing if this man cooperated or not. Till now, Zabuza was following obediently. Haku was made to sit on his back, as he couldn\'t run very fast.
"The Daimyo Palace is on the other side of the Water Country. It shouldn\'t take too much time for us to reach there with this speed." Shiroken estimated.
"Are you going to attack the Water Country? All by yourself?" Zabuza asked in interest.
"Sure, why not? He\'s a weak man after all, and how many people will be protecting him? 20? 50? They will not be an obstacle in what I want to do. Besides, we will be going in peace first, instead of our swords swinging." Shiroken said. His plan was simple. He will first talk with his mouth, if the Daimyo does not understand then he will talk with his sword.
~Sigh, I wish I had some kind of a way to evaluate how much of a sinner a person is~ He silently muttered to himself.
They dashed on the way for the whole day. When the moon started to illuminate the night sky, they saw a glimpse of a heavily lightened castle in the distance. It had a small town surrounding it, which itself was surrounded by a wall.
"It looks guarded, but manageable very easily. Okay, it\'s time to do an act now. I will be an old man, Shisui and Haku will be my grandkids and Zabuza, you\'ll be my kid. Now hold my arm and help me walk into the town, I will do the talking." Shiroken planned the fun little activity.
"Don\'t give me that face, just do as I say." Shiroken scolded Zabuza.
"They will recognise me as soon as I walk in." He argued.
*WOOSH*
Shiroken took a tree bark and turned it into such fine threads that they started to look like hair.
"Take off your bandages. Ah, now look, you have a beard and brown hair. Good enough disguise I think. Haku, don\'t call him Zabuza as long as we will be there. Call him papa, and call me grandpa. Call Shisui big brother." He instructed them.
Haku excitedly nodded. Shiroken meanwhile made himself hunched. Then he took a stick and started walking. Zabuza annoyedly followed along.
...
After a few minutes, they arrived at the gates. There were just two samurai guarding and checking the people entering the town.
They slowly walked to them, Shiroken acted splendidly, taking each step with such weakness that he looked like he would fall dead anytime now.
"HALT! Show your ID and why have you come here?" The samurai asked.
Shiroken took out 4 cards from his pocket and handed them to him with a shivering hand, "Ah... I-I am just an old man looking for a good wealthy buyer who can buy my precious family treasure."
"What treasure?" The samurai asked interestedly.
"Are you sure you want to see it now? If it gets lost somehow my son Hayabusa here will cry rivers." Shiroken said in a breaking hoarse voice. Zabuza\'s eyes twitched when he heard his new name and the thing about him crying.
"You are safe here, old man, just show us the thing. We need to check it before you go inside." The samurai insisted.
With a sigh, Shiroken slowly took out a cloth bag from his pocket and started to untie it. But it was tied in so many rolls that it was taking him a lot of time. That was exactly his intention. He wanted to make the samurai restless, so they let him in after getting frustrated.
After 10 minutes of the slow unfolding of the cloth, he took a small box out, "Behold, the most beautiful diamond you would have ever seen."
He opened it, the moonlight fell on the crystal clear diamond and made it shine bright. The two samurai were enchanted by its beauty.
*GULP*
"If... I give this to my wife, she will let me do it whenever I want, where I want, and however I want..."
"I want to plant it in my teeth." The two unknowingly spoke out about their deepest desires.
*WOOSH*
Shiroken quickly tied it back, "You have seen it now. I want to show it to the Daimyo, maybe he can give the right price."
The guards seemed to be stuck in time and just looked at Shiroken.
"Grandpa, I wanna pee... can I pee here?" Haku asked all of a sudden and started to slowly untie his pants.
~Hehe, good boy~ Shiroken patted his head.
"Yes, Ukah, if they don\'t let us in, I\'m afraid you will have to pee here," Shiroken said sadly.
"Grandpa, don\'t worry, I will take him to the side," Shisui spoke up and ran straight into a Samurai, ramming his body on the man.
*THUD*
"Ah, Usui, that\'s the samurai. Forgive him, mister Samurai, he\'s blind." Shiroken acted embarrassed.
"GRANDPA! I will pee now." Haku also voiced.
"FINE! Just get inside already. Good luck with that diamond." The two guards finally got frustrated and let them in.
They quickly crossed over to the other side. Shiroken was smiling at the successful act.
"When did you find the diamond?" Shisui asked him.
"Hehe, I did not. It\'s not even a diamond, but just a small piece of crystal clear ice. It won\'t melt or break unless I want it to." Shiroken revealed.
"And you are going to sell it?" Zabuza inquired.
Shiroken smirked, "Of course, we will dry the Daimyo before I deal with him. Let\'s go to the palace now. I hope they let us meet once."
"I have a bad feeling about this bit of a plan," Shisui muttered but didn\'t tell them.
...
A few moments later,
"Hey, just let us meet him, only for once. See, I got this precious diamond, I am sure the Daimyo would love to have this one of a kind diamond in his possession." Shiroken fought with the guards of the castle with his old voice.
"Old man, go away and come back tomorrow. Daimyo is having dinner right now." They tried to shoo him away.
Shiroken made an excited face, "PERFECT! I can show it to him right now. Come on, do this old man a favour."
He slowly slid down 100 Ryo down the guard\'s pocket and winked.
"Fine, but if he gets angry and decides your existence is no longer welcome in the world, don\'t expect me to come and save you. Go now." The guard let him in with the other three.
Shiroken went straight to the biggest door and entered from there. He soon found a maid and asked her for directions.
After a while, he came upon a door, from whose other side lots of musical noise and laughter was coming.
Shiroken looked at the rest, "No need to keep the disguise now, just go with the flow. I will still enjoy acting like an old man though."
*BAM*
He barged in rudely. The music all of a sudden stopped as everyone looked at him.
Shiroken assessed the room carefully. There was a long table at one end, where at the far end was sitting the Daimyo, then three people were sitting on each side of the table. They were eating a lavish dinner. Tens of roasted animals were placed in front of him, dancers were entertaining them seductively.
"AH, my Lord, I am your humble citizen. I have come here to show you a great treasure." Shiroken enthusiastically started to untie the piece of cloth again.
But, even before he had started, the Daimyo screamed on top of his lungs. "GUARDS! THROW THEM OUT! I told you not to let any lowly peasants enter my castle\'s inner grounds."
Shiroken chuckled internally, he was testing this Daimyo and he just failed with flying colours.
He falsely whimpered, "My Lord, I brought you a diamond. You can buy it from me."
"Huh, what can a peasant like you bring? Tell me how much you want and just leave." The Daimyo authoritatively spoke.
"Ten Million Ryo..." Shiroken demanded.
"HAHAHA... Do you know how many S-rank missions I can commission with this much money? GUARDS! They have wasted my time enough, kill them and feed them to the pigs." The Daimyo ordered.
Immediately, a group of Samurai surrounded them. Shiroken glanced at the Daimyo and the rest eating beside him. All of them were looking at him with hopeful eyes, they wanted to see him die and it seems they think it\'s entertaining. They even continued eating.
~This is all entertainment for them~ He realised.
He turned to Zabuza and ordered him with a whisper. Then in a second, Zabuza disappeared.
Shiroken stopped his acting and stood straight, his height was more than any person there. He wiped his face and the fake age lines cleared up. His eyes shined red and a dangerous aura immediately took over him.
"So this is what a Daimyo is supposed to be? No wonder you don\'t care about the lives of your people. You are busy eating? While enjoying your life in such lavish dinners. Perhaps I should have never let you people establish countries." He started speaking while walking to the table.
"YOU SPEAK TOO MUCH! KILL HIM, GUARDS!" The Daimyo screamed.
The Samurai all leapt to him, but... *BAM* he just did a 360 kick. In an instant, all Samurais fell down to the floor, passed out with foam coming out of their mouths.
*WOOSH*
He jumped onto the table and was face to face with Daimyo. "Your time has come now, Lowly Daimyo."
"MY NAME IS *BAM*..."
Before he could say it, Shiroken shoved Daimyo\'s face onto his plate, "I do not care about your name. Your designation as the Daimyo defines you. And I am not satisfied with what you have done. You wanted to feed me to the pigs\' right, guess who\'s the pig now? Sniffing food like this. This country is facing a heavy famine right now, people are dying of hunger every day, and you dared to increase taxes? Just so you can enjoy these luxuries? PATHETIC!"
Daimyo\'s face was pressed into rice and meatballs. He was trying to free himself but couldn\'t even move Shiroken\'s arm.
"YOU! I have Shinobi security, they will kill you soon." He tried to threaten in a muffled sound.
*BANG*
A hot wave of lava touched Shiroken\'s face. He looked to his left while keeping the Daimyo at his place.
"Hmm, the Shinobi protection squad I presume?" He asked the lady. She was young, maybe in her 20s. She was a tall, slender woman with fair skin. She has green eyes and ankle-length, auburn red hair styled into a herringbone pattern at the back, a top-knot tied with a dark blue band, and four bangs at the front.
"Let the Daimyo go and nobody needs to be harmed." She offered.
Shiroken slowly let the Daimyo raise his face from the plate. "You want to save him? This scum? This monster in human skin?"
"It\'s my duty," she replied.
*BAM*
Shiroken slammed the Daimyo\'s head onto the plate once again, this time even breaking it, but he continued to rub the Daimyo\'s face on the spilt food and made a mess.
"Sorry, but I refuse to recognise saving a human monster like this as a duty. May I know your name?" He inquired kindly.
The girl seemed to blush all of a sudden, "I am Mei Terumī, 23 years old, my figure is..."
She stopped as Zabuza suddenly entered with two large pigs.
Shiroken clapped, "Amazing, now let\'s start the show. Daimyo, and his lackeys. These pigs will be your entertainer for days now."
"W-What are you planning?" The Daimyo asked in fear.
Shiroken smiled, the light shining on his white face, making his smirk look utterly devilish. "Now you will be eaten alive, slowly, of course. Enjoy."
"LET HIM GO!" Mei Terumi dashed to help.
Shiroken grabbed the overreaching arm of this kunoichi and dragged her along. She couldn\'t do anything to get free.
"You will not interfere in this. All this is his own fault, whether you like it or not."
"WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO JUDGE HIM?" She questioned.
"What gave him the right to kill people? This is his country to run but not his people to kill, if he can\'t do it right, someone else can and will. You\'re from Kirigakure, right? Do you like those graduation tests? Why didn\'t this Daimyo intervene? Forget intervening, why is the Daimyo still affording all this? Of course, it\'s the money of poor folks." He questioned her back, leaving her in more confusion now.
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