章 161: Ch161. Negotiation?
Sosetsu stared at Mikado, completely startled out of his wits. He knew the snow bastard would ask this exact question but never would he expect he would be so blunt and rude about it. It was finally driven home for Sosetsu just how arrogant Mikado was.
'This is the man leading a village that is supposed to protect my country from the shadows? I really screwed up with Yukigakure, didn't I?'
His eyes then trailed to the figure of his brother, Doto, hiding a measure of surprise. 'What the hell is he doing here?' Sosetsu's mind went into overdrive, trying to think up a good reason for him to be present. He liked his brother and still wanted to refuse he would actually have a part in this scheme but him being in the presence of the Yukikage was a deep blow to that trust. 'So... in the end, everything in these documents was really true.' Sosetsu mentally slumped in defeat while outwardly maintaining a picture of courtesy.
"I am willing to give you some level of independence for certain concessions on your part but autonomy is impossible. What do you say?"
Mikado looked at Sosetsu funnily as if he couldn't believe what he was hearing. He didn't even try to hide his disbelief and let it show on his face, maybe even a bit exaggerating it on purpose.
"Are you sure you want to be like this?" Mikado airily asked, giving a glance at Doto, "Look, we are both leaders. We both want the best for our people-"
Rei almost snorted when he heard that. He made sure to investigate the Yukikage a bit before coming here and Mikado Suzufumi was a picture-perfect example of a selfish money-grubber. The only thing he ever invested in at his own expense was the chakra armors and even that was because the guy was for some reason somehow obsessed with them, spending millions of Ryo on their development. Honestly, Rei was baffled by it. The bulky junk wasn't even that good.
Sure it could protect a person against ninjutsu and give him an overall boost to his abilities through a mechanical chakra circulation system to key points of the armor. On top of that, albeit slightly, the armor still helped with chakra control, making jutsu more powerful and less demanding on the user. This made even a genin have capabilities of a jonin after a few months of practice which was awesome but the thing had to be built mostly with light-weight chakra metal, hence expensive as heck.
On paper, it was perfect war gear. In reality? The main problem outside of the cost was that the wearers could only reach jonin rank with it. Meaning the second they encountered S-rank ninja or above, they would be 'melted' almost instantly. After all, it still had many weak spots and openings that could be poked, let's say with a kunai.
Then the users of the chakra armor often got too used to using it and stopped developing their own capabilities, relying on the armor instead. That meant the quality of the Yukigakure ninjas actually lowered since the armor started to be manufactured.
"Think hard about what is best for this country, Sosetsu." Mikado continued with a pressing tone, "I don't think a civil war is something you would like to have on your conscience. I am actually giving you a way out here, you see? I am trying to help you! By giving Yukigakure full autonomy, we will still help the Land of Snow. Naturally. We are living in it, after all. It's just that the price will be a bit hig-"
"Utterly ridiculous," Sosetsu finished for him in a cold and a bit angry tone. "That's what you want to say, right?"
Sosetsu knew Mikado cared mostly about Yukigakure's power which translated to chakra armors which meant they needed more money. What Mikado tried to do here was to get autonomy so he could actually start taking a 'protection fee' from the Land of Snow and be able to approve more... human-oriented experimentation when it came to the armors by himself, not needing the permission of the Daimyo.
"In the end, you want money and power over the state. Don't hide it, be clear! Don't you have any pride!?" Sosetsu barely held himself back from shouting.
Hearing him, Mikado frowned, his eyes hardening. This was not a result he imagined. Not in the slightest. He always took Sosetsu for a weakling who could only butter up to the masses. The sheer thought of such a person trying to oppose him was an utterly ridiculous notion for him.
"I think," He started in a measured manner, making sure to put weight in every word, "that you should look more into the long-term gains rather than the short-term losses. Once Yukigakure develops better armors and starts mass-producing them, we will be the strongest ninja village!" Even the emotionless and depressed Kakashi lifted an eyebrow at that while Rei only facepalmed at Mikado revealing such a thing while knowing there was a ninja from a different village present. The man probably didn't count on Kakashi surviving today. "The Land of Snow will become the most impo-"
"No. Do you really believe some piece of metal can make you the strongest? Once you have strong chakra armor in great numbers then what? You will need wearers, more ninjas. You will start mass recruiting from the common populace. You will eventually start a war! A war I doubt we would be able to win no matter on how high pedestal these chakra armors are in your head! Absolutely not! I refuse!" Sosetsu turned towards Doto, "Don't you see it, brother? His goals are insane! Why are you...?"
Sosetsu however quieted down before he could finish that sentence as a very controlled killing intent of Rei landed on his shoulders, making him choke the words back, showing a conflicted expression. In the end, he just deflated with a sigh.
Rei already told Sosetsu what Doto's plans were. To ask him why he wanted to create a coup right now would screw quite a bit of Rei's plans so he simply had to stop Sosetsu from being an idiot and blurting out he knew about their plans and preparations.
Doto simply shook his head at his brother, inwardly highly amused at his antics while Mikado was simply exasperated. 'Here I go out of my way and try to persuade the fool and he just won't budge! Ugh, how frustrating! Fine! Let's go with this.'
"Lord Kazahana, I see you are unreasonable simply for the sake of being unreasonable instead of trying to be constructive here. I am going to give you one last chance so listen very carefully. If the happiness and safety of your people is not such a big deal for you, then I wonder if your daughter is important enough?" Mikado said and the entire room became completely still.
'Damn, that was quite a straightforward threat.' Rei thought, awkwardly grimacing at how it was said.
Sosetsu felt chills creep up his spine as nervousness started filling him, making him fidget. Under the table, he gave Kakashi a hand-gesture, ordering him to go to Koyuki. Kakashi only very reluctantly listened and sneakily but hastily left the room, not even leaving a clone behind.
'I guess experience is something he would have to build up some more.' Rei hummed, looking at the intense staredown between Mikado with threatening narrowed eyes and fidgeting Sosetsu who, while looking like a scared chipmunk, didn't break off the eye contact.
Normally, now would be the time to quietly wait and glare at each other until Koyuki either appears captured or a message of her safety reaches Sosetsu. The negotiation would not go either way unless Mikado decided to straight-up kill Sosetsu but that would create more problems for him than solutions.
'And that's where Doto comes in.' Rei's lips stretched into a smile as he prepared to defend Sosetsu when he saw Nadare and Doto glancing at each other from behind the unsuspecting Mikado.
To his misfortune, Mikado didn't have the best reflexes as he was too used to eating and shrugging off hits when wearing the armor. His only reaction to having a sword run through his heart from behind was to look at the blade sticking out of his chest with wide disbelieving eyes as a trail of blood slowly flowed from the corner of his lips down his chin. He was dead before he could even comprehend how.
As Nadare pulled the sword out of Mikado, letting his corpse fall down, Sosetsu only despondently watched Doto going for a kunai, lunging at him with a ferocious expression. It really drove the point that his brother wanted to kill him home.
As for Rei... 'Here we go!'
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