บท 251: Leaf's Envoy
Mei nodded at the two guards' greeting and said "Go and call over Kana and Santo. Tell them the guests we have been waiting for have arrived."
One of the guards left to call the siblings while the other one asked "Lady Mei are you sure that these are the guests?"
Mei nodded and said "Yes...the number of extra people in the register matches the number of people we were informed of. And I am sure when they see us ready to welcome them here, they will drop their farce."
The guard nodded and said "I will make the necessary arrangements." he left after saying that.
For the next few minutes, while the cargo from the ship was being unloaded, the mist shinobis were making provisions for the passengers on board. Santo and Kana also arrived with a few more shinobis. Santo was instructing them how what to do as he was in charge of taking the envoy to the Terumi mansion safely but also quietly. The bloodline clan leaders didn't want Moji and the others to know that leaf shinobis are coming.
Mei looked at Kana who was a little nervous. "Kana, what happened? I thought you had changed."
"Uhh..sister Mei, I have never interacted with shinobis from other villages...especially shinobis of one of the other 5 great villages. I know how much this meeting is important for all of us and I don't want to mess it up."
"Hehe...don't worry you won't. We won't let you" Mei assured Kana and they both looked at the deck of the ship waiting for the guests to come sure enough the merchant and his immediate family started to walk out of the deck.
At first, when the merchant walked out, he saw many people looking at him...he knew that he wasn't rich enough to deserve such a grand welcome. He looked at his wife and kids and then continued to walk out. As he reached in front of Mei and the others he said "Lady Mei, it is great to see you here."
Mei didn't want to stretch it too much so she directly said "I wanted to meet your extended family so I came here." The merchant suddenly felt choked as he heard that. Bringing strangers inside a village disguised as your family was a crime on many levels and the land he was currently in is known as the blood mist.
"M-My family? Lady Mei why..." the merchant tried to speak but a sound came from the ship's deck.
"You can leave now...We will take it from here." the voice said. Everyone looked at the deck where the sound came from and saw a man with a light beard and a cigarette in his mouth. This man was none other than Asuma.
Mei then looked at the scared merchant and said "You should go with your family and rest for a few days." The merchant who was thankful for being alive quickly took his family and ran away.
Asuma threw away the cigarette from his mouth and started walking out of the ship and he wasn't alone. He was followed by 6 kids, a woman, and an old man.
There were all dressed in civilian clothes but seeing them Mei, Santo and Kana could tell that they were definitely shinobis.
Santo nudged Kana who quickly went ahead to greet the leaf shinobis. "Hello everyone, I am Kana Terumi. We apologize that we could secure the waterways enough to send a ship to bring you all here. And on behalf of our clans, I want to thank you and the 5th Hokage Tsunade Senju for reaching out to us and offering to help."
Kana had practiced this for the past few days and now she delivered it without making any mistakes. After hearing this, Kurenai stepped forward toward Kana and said "I guess this is your first time doing this. Loosen up a little. You did good and we feel welcomed." The kids giggled when he heard that. Even they could see Kana nervous so they found it funny that a grown adult is behaving like a child.
"Huh? Yes, it's my first time, and thank you for the compliment." Kana said realizing how uptight she was being. She then introduced Mei and Santo to the others.
"Lady Mei you are more beautiful than I have heard." Kurenai said to which Mei smiled and said "Thank you for the compliment miss..." Mei stopped after miss because the leaf shinobis hadn't introduced themselves.
Asuma decided to take the lead on that and said "Kurenai...Her name is Kurenai Yuhi. I am Asuma Sarutobi and these 6 kids are our students. These three are my students...Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji while these three are her students...Hinata, Shino and Kiba."
Mei, Kana, and Santo nodded at each of them. Santo and Kana wanted to ask about the old man standing behind everyone but then Mei asked "Asuma Sarutobi as in...the 3rd Hokage's son?"
Asuma nodded and said "Yes Lord third is my father."
Seeing that the current Hokage has sent the previous ones son could mean only two things. Either they were serious about making the hidden mist their ally or the new Hokage has sent the previous ones son to die and get rid of any obstacle to her Hokage position.
Mei quickly dismissed the thought because she knew that the current Hokage is the previous ones' student and never had any intention of getting involved in all this. Everyone knew that the best medical nim of the shinobi world Tsunade Senju left the village and any position she held in it to roam around the world drinking and gambling.
'This means the hidden leaf is way more serious in helping us and forming an alliance than we expected. Father and the other clan leaders will be happy when they hear this.' Mei thought. She didn't want to keep Asuma waiting so she quickly said "I am sorry to hear about your father's condition. I hope the 3rd Hokage heals well."
Asuma thanked her for that as he also knew how to hold diplomatic talks. He found it annoying at times because people hide their true nature but now talking to Mei, he knew that she genuinely meant it or else she was just a good actor.
Mei then looked at the old man and was about to ask his identity when the old man walked forward toward her.
Mei and the others knew that the 3rd person is also a jonin but they didn't know his identity.
As the old man reached beside Asuma, he stood straight and dismissed his transformation jutsu. Kana's eyes widened as she saw the silver-haired masked man in front of him.
Asuma was about to introduce "He is..." but Santo stepped forward and said
"Kakashi Hatake...the copy ninja who knows more than 1000 jutsus." Santo was clearly shocked to see Kakashi in front of him. And the others were shocked to see Santo behave like this.
"I see that you have heard of me." Kakashi said as he rubbed the back of his head embarrassingly.
"I think you have a fan Kakashi." Kurenai chuckled to which even Mei nodded and said "Although even I have heard about Kakashi of the Sharingan I didn't know Santo would react like this."
Santo also realized what he had just done and stepped back "I am sorry for interrupting your conversation. I think we should go to the mansion now. We wish to keep this away from prying eyes."
Asuma nodded and the whole group started going to the Terumi mansion. While they were going Kakashi glanced at the sky for a few minutes and soon he saw a bat flying above the group. Kakashi smiled behind his mask looking at the bat and then the bat flew away.
The only people who saw this happen were Kana and Santo who were walking behind the leaf shinobis. The ones walking in the front were the 3 leaf jonins and Mei Terumi.
Kana didn't know who Kakashi was and why his brother was so excited so she whispered "Big brother Santo, is he a famous Shinobi?"
Santo nodded and said "Yes he has the Sharingan in one eye and he knows more than 1000 jutsus. He is said to also be the youngest to ever become a genin at 5 and a half years of age. He is officially a jonin but his strength is almost that of an Elite jonin or a quasi-Kage. If you go to fight him, you can't even judge what he is going to do next because his taijutsu is also very good. His father was also a very strong shinobi called the White fang."
"Wow, he really sounds like someone very strong. Maybe we will win this war now." Kana said. She didn't say it loud but it was enough for the kids walking in front of them to hear.
Hinata quickly turned back and asked "W-War...T-There is a w-war going on h-here?"
She herself was terrified of fighting people seriously and now she heard she was brought somewhere that a war was going on.
"Oh, Crap" Shikamaru smacked his forehead because only he knew what was going on in the hidden mist.
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