Chapter 75: 066 - Muddying the Waters
Land of Water
The night was thick with the scent of polished wood and salt air. Terumi took a sip from the delicate, bone china cup cradled in her hands as she stared at the man across from her. His ship, the Sardine was a beast of opulence. Gold-inlaid wooden panels, elegant, blood-red upholstery and intriguing, obviously expensive paintings dominated the interior. A heavy, ornately carved table sat between them. Just based on what she saw, the mizukage reckoned the vessel cost almost as much as she made in a year.
Its stoic owner sat calmly across from her, toying with a quill as a dainty maid ground a block of high-quality ink for him. Jinrui Tanaka was an enigma of a man. His origins continued to elude her even with the resources and manpower she had at her disposal. At this point, Terumi wasn't even sure if Jinrui was his real name. Her ANBU had followed the only lead they had—his deceased "brother"—and had predictably found nothing. And given the fact that no village had come out to claim him as their own it was almost as if the man materialised out of thin air.
Normally, she would be leery about making deals of this magnitude with a person whom so little was known about, but he was still Jinrui Tanaka, a person who could arguably be the most influential man in the maritime world. And with the Land of Water being what it was, and how intricately connected their finances now were to the tycoon's enterprise, Kirigakure had to put much more weight to his name than would be expected from any other one of the Great Shinobi Villages.
That was why she, The Mizukage, had to acquiesce to attend this meeting on his ship rather than in her office at Kiri as is proper. The tycoon was special in that he had enough leverage to dictate matters such as this.
Terumi did not like the dynamic that was starting to materialise between them. The other shoe she had been waiting for had finally dropped and the poison chalice that Uchiha Sasuke had fed them with his defence contract was now ever so glaring. She always knew it was too good to be true. Yet, the potential to elevate her village, to provide for her people, was a siren call she found hard to resist.
Still, it remained that unless some drastic changes occurred—and soon—the tycoon's ability to influence Kiri's finances would only continue to grow as the village continued to grow reliant on him for the majority of its funding.
Her lips thinned, her vibrant green eyes sharp and assessing as she regarded the man carefully.
"My resources are vast," Jinrui began, these being the first words he had ever spoken to her in person, "and the matters inland to the west continue to hold my attention. So, to ensure my ability to influence the Land of Fire continues to go unimpeded, I intend to provide Kirigakure with the logistics and funding required to mount a proper campaign against Konoha; the region must not be allowed to stabilize, at least for not now."
Terumi felt one of her brows climb at the casualness with which he spoke. "We just recently secured an exclusive defence contract with your subsidiaries operating within our western territories," she replied, placing the cup in her hand gently on the table. "The mission contracts your company generates daily are enough to keep us unable to accept mission requests from an already worrying number of our clients. For at least the next five years, we might have to refuse all non-essential requests just to fulfil the terms of the defence agreement between us. This estimate was, of course, made without taking any future growth your operations might experience in our jurisdiction, but that's beside the point. The point is, that Kirigakure is currently stretched thin in regards to manpower. It would be impossible for us to engage in any operations of the scale you are proposing."
She fell silent, watching as the businessman dipped his quill in a prepared inkwell before he leisurely began to fill the scroll lying in front of him with delicately drawn characters. Even if Kiri had the manpower to spare, Terumi was not about to drag her people into another senseless war for such a flimsy reason.
Especially not at a time like this.
The magnate nodded calmly in response.
"I would be leasing one of my newly acquired islands off the Land of Fire's eastern coasts to the Mist so it can establish a military base to project force in the Land of Fire," he said without looking up. "The former owner, a prominent noble related to the Fire Daimyo, was assassinated during the attack on Konoha and a large portion of his assets were also, coincidentally, burned to the ground. His family, fearing a violent power reshuffle and desperate to consolidate themselves following this tragedy, began selling off their remaining non-essential assets to fortify what they deemed important to maintaining their grip on power. "
"The island I intend to lease was one of the non-essential things sold off in haste. It belonged to the Land of Whirlpool once but after the village's destruction, it was entrusted to one of the former Fire Daimyos who went on to give it away as one of his concubine's dowry. It has since been abandoned, with only a few fishing villages inhabiting it. Ships bearing resources enough to construct a new port arrived at the island a week ago and construction on said port has already begun. Konoha is still reeling, hence distracted, but a window like this closes fast. I need shinobi entrenched on that island before they realise what is going on and intervene."
Terumi stared at the man, agog. Did he not hear what I said? She asked herself.
"I cannot force the Mist if it doesn't want to involve itself," he continued, "but be aware that should you leave here without us working some sort of agreement, the offer would simply be extended to another. And as I am sure you know, there are quite a number of smaller shinobi villages who wouldn't mind forming a coalition if it meant it let them meet the minimum requirements for this operation. This is, after all, a once-in-a-lifetime chance for them to expand their influence."
"...Are you threatening me?" The Mizukage asked, her expression turning gloomy.
The shipping magnate allowed one of his brows to rise in amusement. "No, but if you are unwilling to aid me, I would elevate any competition in the region who would. I assure you, it's just business, Mizukage-sama. Nothing personal."
Terumi found she was really, really starting to dislike this man.
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