NABC Chapter 187 Negotiation
Chapter 187 Negotiation
Chapter 187 Negotiation
It wasn't until evening that Shiba Kiyokawa, exhausted from a long day's work, reappeared.
He then received Chihiro's reward.
"The Daimyo of the Land of Grass is dead. Of the four Grass Ninja who went there, three died on the spot. The Grass Ninja leader also died. The remaining one didn't plan to come back. After the mission, he seemed to want to escape to the Land of Earth. We took care of him on the way."
Shiba Kiyokawa nodded and smiled happily.
"I didn't expect the daimyo's guards to be so effective. They've saved us a lot of trouble. Now, let's spread the rumors as planned and spread the word that the daimyo of the Land of Grass died at the hands of the Grass Ninja."
The daimyo of the Land of Grass died at the hands of the Grass Ninja, and afterwards the Akatsuki organization would use the pretext of avenging the daimyo to formally annex the Land of Grass, abolish the Grass Village, and thus rightfully occupy this land!
They will move the Grass Village's inventory, and the Grass Village ninjas who surrender and are selected will be relocated to the Land of Rain.
As for the remnants left after the selection process, and the remaining traitors who refused to leave, they were all labeled as rogue ninjas, regarded as accomplices in the assassination of the daimyo, and executed, which served as a convenient way to appease the daimyo of other countries.
In this way, the Akatsuki's actions would be legally sound and without any flaws.
Although this excuse is crude and clumsy, and anyone with eyes can see it at a glance, so what?
Just like what Shiba Kiyokawa said to Onoki not long ago when he asked for payment for the Kannabi Bridge project—
Steamed buns? You disagree?
When you have power, even the worst excuse becomes righteousness!
Even Shiba Kiyokawa himself was somewhat surprised that this sense of justice would soon come in handy.
A few days later, after Iwagakure suffered another defeat at the gates of Hefei in the Land of Fire, they had no choice but to seek out Akatsuki again.
Before the meeting, the letter they sent mentioned that they planned to discuss the payment for the Kannabi Bridge project again.
However, they never expected that the Akatsuki organization would not stand still and wait for them, but instead would continue to pursue its own ambitions.
So when the day of the formal negotiation meeting arrived, Onoki had one more task on his shoulders.
"Shiba Kiyokawa, before we came here, our Land of Earth's daimyo specifically instructed us to investigate how the Land of Grass's daimyo died! Do you have anything to say about that?"
Shiba Kiyokawa said calmly, "What do I need to say? Isn't the truth of the matter already clear?"
Kusagakure was struggling to make ends meet, so their leader, along with several Jonin from the village, took a desperate gamble and killed the daimyo of their own country.
"Your village's secret service should be able to easily find this level of intelligence. Do I really have to repeat it to myself?"
Onoki angrily stood up on the chair and slammed his hand on the table. "You're talking nonsense! How could Kusagakure be running a deficit? They've always been employed by Iwagakure!"
"After you halted the reconstruction of the Kannabi Bridge, they were the ones transporting supplies to the front lines for us for the past few days, and we clearly paid them for it! How could Kusagakure be so short of money that they would risk assassinating a daimyo?!"
Shiba Kiyokawa looked at Onoki with a half-smile.
Of course he knew the truth.
Not long ago, he personally led a team to sweep through all the grass ninja squads that had left their villages to go on missions within the Land of Grass, so he naturally knew that they were helping Iwagakure transport supplies.
Many of the supplies that should have been sent to the front lines are now lying quietly in the Akatsuki's warehouses.
But so what?
Shiba Kiyokawa, emboldened, immediately splashed the dirty water back at them: "Oh? Is the Tsuchikage admitting that he hired these rogue ninjas to assassinate the daimyo? So, you're the mastermind behind ordering them to kill the daimyo of the Land of Grass, aren't you?"
Onoki's chest heaved violently as he glared and puffed out his beard. "That's just sophistry! You've got most of the Land of Grass in your hands now, and you still want to argue that you didn't attack the daimyo?"
"So what? Kusagakure was employed by Iwagakure before, so I could say you're the prime suspect. Tsuchikage, are you sure you want to drag this matter into a protracted and messy fight with us?"
In the end, Shiba Kiyokazu placed his hands on his chin, interlocked his fingers, and covered his mouth and nose. His posture and eyes undisguisedly revealed a powerful threat.
Ultimately, the so-called "truth" is merely a necessary means to quell the incident.
The decisive factor is still the comparison of the two sides' strengths!
Iwagakure couldn't defeat Konoha several times, but Akatsuki managed to thwart Konoha's advance twice in a row.
Onoki had no choice. He no longer had any reason to be arrogant. He even had to worry about what would happen if those crazy people from Kumogakure abandoned Konoha and turned around to seek revenge on him.
Furthermore, after the Akatsuki completely destroyed Kusagakure and took over almost the entire Land of Grass, Iwagakure became even more reliant on Kannabi Bridge!
Previously, when the bridge wasn't fully repaired, he could rely on hiring Kusanagi Shinobu to temporarily alleviate the supply pressure.
But now, even this last path has been blocked.
Seeing that Onoki had calmed down and his face was getting increasingly grim, Shiba Kiyokawa couldn't help but laugh even more heartily.
"How about we talk about the reconstruction project of Kannabi Bridge instead?"
"Right after the battle, while we were on the mountain, I reminded Lord Tsuchikage to settle the project payment, but you insisted on delaying. Now I have some new plans and ideas for the reconstruction of this bridge. Would you like to take a look?"
Onoki glared at him: "What trick are you playing now? What's the difference in the new plan?"
"The bridge deck will be more robust, its performance will be better, its stress structure will be more rational, and the material stress will also be..."
Before he could finish his rambling, Onoki hurriedly interrupted, "Say something we can understand!"
"The key point is that the budget needs to be increased by another 20%."
Onoki immediately flew up in anger, shouting, "You're taking advantage of my misfortune!!"
Shiba Kiyokawa maintained his elegant and proper smile: "Who told you to be unwilling to pay upfront when you were on the mountain? If we drag this out any longer, and if Kumogakure attacks, I might have to come up with a third version of the plan."
One sentence almost gave Onoki a heart attack on the spot.
Huang Tu, standing to the side, also glared at his father, saying, "You're asking for so much money, you have to give us something in return, right?"
Shiba Kiyokawa thought for a moment, then smiled, "How about I give you a few 'assassination daimyo' ninja? You can take them back to your daimyo in the Land of Earth to explain?"
See, this is where "justice" comes in handy!
Onoki laughed in fury, "You've abolished Kusagakure, and you've taken everyone back to the Land of Rain. Where are there any Kusagakure ninja left?"
"It can be provided as long as Lord Tsuchikage needs it."
Most of the Grass Ninja were recruited and taken away, but those scum who had actually bullied Uzumaki Kaoru back then would not be let off just because they surrendered.
A deal was quickly struck.
And so justice was once again demonstrated in the Land of Grass!
(End of this chapter)