Naruto the Scarecrow

Chapter 19

"Okay Hiruzen, what's with the cryptic note?" asked Reo Suzuki, Daimyo of the Land of Fire.

"Reo, I need to know what you can tell me about the attack we suffered last week. I have activated several different seals in this office to ensure our privacy."

Reo ran his chubby right hand through his long brown hair. "Well, I don't know the identity of the people who actually attacked but I can hazard a guess as to who ordered the attack. I would say that it's Shoma Nakamura, Daimyo of the Land of Earth."

Resting his hands on his rather obvious stomach, Reo took a breath and continued, "Shoma has a serious grudge with your Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze. In the decisive battle in the Third Shinobi War, the one where Minato killed a thousand enemies in an hour; Shoma lost his son, a cousin and a ninja who also happened to be his favourite concubine.

"Shoma is the one who fronted the majority of the bounty on Minato or any of his family. The rest was provided by the Hidden Stone village. Shoma is… ruthless. He has allowed the power of his position to go to his head and he does what he wants, when he wants. The only reason the people do not live in fear of him is that his private ninja abduct random people from other areas as his victims. The one redeeming feature about him is that he never lies, he considers it beneath him.

"You cannot go against Shoma. He fields the largest number of samurais of all the Daimyo, not to mention that he has a large percentage of the Stone's Explosion Corp in his pocket."

There was a pregnant pause. Hiruzen now had a name responsible for the damage to his village but there was nothing he could do about it. It was infuriating. Looking Reo in the eye, Hiruzen asked, "If I made a move against the Stone, would you sanction it? After all, they attacked our country, are we to just abide foreign enemies attacking his with impunity?"

Reo sighed and fiddled with his robes. "Hiruzen, the peace we have is standing on the edge of a knife. Even though I do not participate in the baser aspects of the Daimyo council, I am apart of it. We manipulate and pull so many strings across the land. Shoma is currently the only Daimyo who is ready for war.

"Wind's Daimyo, Jin Nishiyama, is very frugal. War would force him to spend money he works so hard to horde. He also might not be able to count on his Hidden Village's support after outsourcing so many ninja missions here instead.

"None of us have heard from Mist in several months. We are almost certain that an S ranked missing nin called Kisame Hoshigaki assassinated the Daimyo. Until the civil war in the Mist is resolved, none of us will step in to help 'choose' the next Daimyo.

"Lightning's Daimyo, Manabu Shingan, is very aggressive and would wage war easily. However, he would wait for someone else to attack first. He is a wild card and I cannot predict who he would side with if we went to war."

Hiruzen sat back in his chair, it was a lot of information to process but Reo wasn't finished. Hiruzen continued listening as he took a quick sip of coffee.

"What I am trying to say is; the Daimyo operate in secret to maintain peace while also serving our self-interests. For Shoma and Manabu, they covertly took control of the black market to help control valuable materials from getting into other people's hands. If a few people happen to disappear for their personal entertainment, no one bats an eye.

Jin and I used our resources to corner the criminal underworld. By plucking missing nin up and employing them, we stabilise peace by ensuring that the truly dangerous are not set loose on innocent people. That Akatsuki managed to grab hold of so many S ranks offends my pride. I have several of my best people searching around for information on them.