Chapter 178: End of Negotiations
*Author Note*
Two days in a row with more than 11 hours of work X.X
Although I doubt that I will release tomorrow’s chapter on time, I’m pretty sure there will be one.
*End of Author Note*
From then on, the negotiations went rather smoothly and at the end of the discussions, every party was rather satisfied with the result. Well, every party except for Yuna, who would occasionally suggest something that involved stabbing the squishy bits of certain people with something sharp, just to have her proposal rejected.
Tsunade was in an exceptionally good mood since she even managed to sneak in a deal that would allow her to buy high-quality alcohol from the Land of Water for a discount price.
After the negotiations were over, Zabuza and Ao left the room, leaving Yuna and Tsunade behind. These two apparently wanted to chat about old times when they were still serving as proper Kiri shinobi together, so they ran away as fast as possible when everything was done.
The first one to speak between Yuna and Tsunade was Yuna, who rolled her eyes at Tsunade’s schemes.
“You sure tricked that poor guy well, huh. I thought you were just some random drunkard, but it seems like you have quite a few tricks up your sleeve.”
Tsunade was rather insulted by being called a “random drunkard”, so she started glaring at Yuna, which amused Yuna quite a bit.
“What? Do you think you can change the topic by glaring at me? “Konoha interfering with the disputes of another country could be very troublesome.” is what you said. What a joke. As if Zabuza would wear the Konoha headband while fighting for the rebels of Kirigakure. Do you think that just because Zabuza and Ao fell for that trap, that I will as well? You are a million years too early to get me with that kind of trick.”
A smirk appeared on Tsunade’s face like Yuna didn’t just expose her trickery. And moments later, she answered Yuna while having a smug smile on her face.
“Hehe, that’s right, I tricked them. So what? Is it not his own fault for falling for my tricks?”
Yuna raised her eyebrow at Tsunade actually admitting to tricking them, but moments later she gave her an approving nod. After all, she would have done the same.
“Haha, that’s right. Wouldn’t I be a hypocrite for blaming you for tricking someone? I would have done the same, after all. Or rather than doing the same, I would have done even more. I would tell him a bunch of lies about how unstable Konoha is due to the invasion that happened during the chunin exam and how we lost one of our strongest shinobi, Danzo, just a few months ago. Oh, and let us not forget about Konoha’s greatest genius, Sasuke Uchiha, betraying Konoha…”
The more Yuna talked, the more irritated Tsunade became. She might have thick skin, but only someone as shameless as Yuna could complain about how weak Konoha became over the last few months without blushing at all. After all, while complaining, she was completely ignoring the behemoth that is the Uzumaki clan that settled inside Konoha not too long ago which was already competing with the Hyuga clan for the spot of Konoha’s strongest clan.
Before Yuna could continue her monologue about tricking people, Tsunade decided to intervene with a question.
“Do you think the rebels will be able to win this?”
Although Tsunade felt weird asking someone as young as Yuna about such a complicated topic, her guts were telling her that Yuna knew much more about the situation than she could imagine. And, as expected, Yuna answered her question instantly.
“Well, the current Mizukage is responsible for the death of a lot of powerful Kiri shinobi, so he doesn’t have any allies left. The only real danger the rebels still face is the Mizukage himself since he is the Jinchuuriki of the Three-Tails. Luckily for the rebels, I have already prepared something to stop him from rampaging.”
Tsunade couldn’t help but raise her eyebrow when she heard Yuna’s last sentence. she didn’t know why, but she had a very bad feeling about this.
“So, I assume you don’t want to tell me what you’ve prepared?”
“Correct.”
“Do I even want to know?”
“No, I don’t think you want to know.”
“…”
“…”
“Whatever, you know how you can prevent me from asking any questions, so I advise you to do it.”
Without a moment of hesitation, Yuna threw a huge, unlabeled bottle towards Tsunade, who caught it with an elated expression on her face. Without saying another word, she left the room while hugging the bottle like it was her greatest treasure.
Yuna, meanwhile, could only chuckle dryly at Tsunade’s behavior. On one hand, Tsunade easily accepting bribery made it rather easy for Yuna to get what she wanted, but on the other hand, it was much more fun for Yuna to see the other party struggle with their own conscience on whether it is okay to accept a bribe or not.
After Tsunade left, a sigh escaped Yuna’s mouth.
‘A war, huh? I’m not really fond of wars…’
[*Snort* Yeah, right. That almost made it sound like you are some kind of pacifist, but if people knew why you disliked war, they would probably curse you until their voices become hoarse.]
‘Well, that might be true, but it is also true that I genuinely dislike war. I mean, just look at how wars are fought in this world. Not only chunin but even genin are participating in them. What is even the point in that? It feels like they are just there to increase the body count.’
‘If I am fighting someone, then that person should at least be worth fighting against. I get no joy from slaughtering my way through a bunch of insignificant small fry. If a country wants to fight a war, they should just pick their ten strongest people and send them to the front line. Then, there would at least be some enjoyment to be had.’
[Well, it is just as I said. A normal person would usually say something along the lines of not wanting so many people to die, but instead of that, you are not fond of war, because you don’t enjoy killing weak people.]
Yuna couldn’t help but chuckle when she heard that.
‘Hehe, what are you even talking about, Kurama? Why are you suddenly acting like you expected me to follow a normal person’s common sense?’
[…]
‘…’
[True. There is no possible way that even a single one of your thoughts could be judged from a standpoint of the common sense of a normal person, after all…]
‘Hahaha, praise me more!’
[…]