NABC Chapter 146 Political Games
Chapter 146 Political Games
A restaurant in the southwest corner suddenly caught fire, but the flames didn't spread because ninjas staying at a nearby inn heard the commotion and helped extinguish it. Fires in the Gobi Desert are indeed difficult to put out; precious water resources are hard to gather enough to extinguish them. And this restaurant was right next to the city lord's mansion; if the fire had spread, a gust of wind might have carried it away. Therefore, the old city lord, who had just been attacked by ninjas the night before, now had to thank them for saving his property.
With the Four-Tails Jinchuriki surrendering and the fire incident, the old lord indeed had no time to track down the ninja team that had not caused any casualties to the lord's mansion, only damaged some buildings and kidnapped a boy. Naturally, he could not find a reason to issue a decree.
At this moment, he was unaware of the mass child abduction at the auction house; instead, he was preoccupied with the Four-Tails Jinchuriki's ramblings at the city gate. Whether it was true or not, it was all just nonsense! The old lord grew increasingly angry, dragging the Iwagakure ninja aside for a thorough dressing-down. Although Huang Tu was angry, he dared not retort. This old lord was a favorite of the daimyo, and his words carried considerable weight. If he said anything to the daimyo, Iwagakure's already strained budget would be further reduced.
The city lord's mansion's sluggish response was no match for Hui's masterful control of the situation. "Tomorrow's News" featured the scandalous events along the Silk Road in its gossip column, a favorite of many, and also published a dark fairy tale in its story section, completely different from its usual style. It told the story of a little girl who went to a market with her parents but was abducted by strangers and locked in a cellar. The story was unfinished, yet it had already captivated many, after all, it was told from Little Tuya's first-person perspective.
The *Tomorrow's News* wasn't favored by mainstream periodicals, relegated to local pamphlets, but its strength lay in the global production and transportation network behind it. They naturally had their own printing plants, and such urgent dispatches were handled with extra work, then shipped worldwide via the Flying Thunder God technique. During the days of interrogating the Four-Tails Jinchuriki, the sordid deeds of Lord Fukuhide spread with incredible speed, even reaching the distant Land of Water.
The fact that the city lord led an ambush on a caravan is a scandalous affair anywhere, drawing criticism from both commoners and nobles alike. Commoners are concerned for their lives, while nobles worry about their wallets and doubt the Land of Earth's capabilities. Such incidents can happen in secret, but once they become public, it signifies a weakening of the Land of Earth's daimyo's control over the country. They will question the nation's abilities, which will ultimately affect other collaborations.
This is the first global information war.
Many long-suffering survivors took to the streets to recount their harrowing experiences. Most of them were not from the Land of Earth, but rather scattered throughout the world. Nobles and merchants were considering alternative locations for Fuxiu City; an insecure city-state could not guarantee the continuation of trade.
Locally, Bok-soo wasn't without protesters, including both commoners and wealthy merchants. The commoners, long oppressed and with locals having died at the hands of wolves, couldn't resist this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and took to the streets to voice their grievances for Old Lady Zi. The astute merchants quickly sensed the crisis; the lord's actions had severely damaged Bok-soo's reputation, potentially costing them lucrative opportunities. They immediately pressured the nobles to restore Bok-soo's honor.
The old city lord, quite elderly, had never encountered such a united resistance before. He was so angered that he fainted once. Upon waking, he immediately ordered the city sealed off and mobilized the army to suppress the protests. He thought it was just an ordinary uprising, unaware that while he could manipulate the common people, the tax-paying merchants were not so easily fooled. The Daming Prefecture reacted quickly enough, sending the decree via express courier, but the efficiency was too low, taking five days to reach the destination.
At this point, ten days had passed since Lao Zi surrendered himself, and three days since Fu Xiu sealed off the city. The negative impact had already been achieved. Although the city was completely quiet, whispers never ceased in the shadows.
The daimyo of the Land of Earth was far more clear-headed than his brother. He ordered the unjust release of the Four-Tails Jinchuriki and praised him for ridding the people of a scourge, posthumously awarding him a hero's badge. As for the deceased lord? He was already a former lord, his body buried deep beneath the yellow sand, undiscovered. He was a sinner, and his servants, who had escaped death, were only adding fuel to the fire of his crimes.
Hui held a meeting regarding whether to immediately sue the car rental company, and after sending some children home, he sought the opinions of the families. Unfortunately, the vast majority lacked lofty ideals; they thought the child's return was the best outcome and didn't want to invest the time and energy to eradicate the problem and save more lives. Indeed, some families were living aimlessly, had another child, and were not welcoming to the lost child because they could only afford to raise one. But it wasn't that no one wanted to stand up; their tears of gratitude, as if they had been given a second chance at life, were truly moving.
"They are important sparks, and we should protect them." Hashirama, who initially tried to bury the human traffickers, chose to remain conservative after seeing the faces of those parents. He did indeed possess the power to move mountains and seas, but perhaps it was not power that saved the world.
“If we appeal now, the blame will probably still fall on that dead man. Anyway, he’s dead and took all the sins with him. If Fukuhide gets a new lord, it won’t be any different from before.” Tobirama remained rational in his analysis.
“The story has already reached the auction house. Our enemies aren’t stupid; they’ll definitely notice something’s wrong. Taking down the car dealership first is crucial.” Izuna, the commander-in-chief of the propaganda war, didn’t approve of being overly conservative.
“I also think it’s important to cut off the source of human trafficking; at least we must stop the ones we’ve investigated. However, the appellant still needs to reconsider.” Naruto sent a clone to express his opinion amidst his busy schedule. His real body had already gone to the other side of the Land of Fire’s border. No one expected that his clone would be killed during the mission.
The four men turned their gazes back to Fugaku, who was neither radical nor conservative, making the impure body almost break out in a sweat.
“...I think the real source of human trafficking is that there is demand from customers.” The father of two children certainly couldn’t stand this kind of thing, but he always saw things clearly and pointed out the crux of the matter directly: “If the demand is not eliminated, there will always be people who take the risk. And those who do dirty work are at the very bottom of this chain, and removing them will not be effective.”
The discussion ended with sighs, and the meeting passed a resolution by a vote of three to two to temporarily refrain from appealing. However, they devised a compromise, such as adding descriptions of special landmarks to the story to hint at the true locations of various places. Trafficking is certainly not limited to just this one chain, but Hui's current resources are extremely limited; they may not even be able to recover all the missing children. Their task remains arduous and long-term.
"By the way, Tobirama, how's your research on the database going? It would be great if we could create a globally applicable database, so that we could synchronize information on missing children to the whole world."
"...The communication isn't even synchronized yet, stop dreaming, brother!"