"Young lord this is an honor for me to have you in my town,"
At the gate of one of the towns of the sky country, an old woman wearing luxurious traditional attire and the other dignitaries greeted Akashi and his procession as warmly as possible.
The town was a quiet place carefully hidden in the mountains
"It is a pleasure to have the prince of our city visiting our little town, my name is Uemi Utakema" she presented herself and the other.
"I'm Sukeiro Uzumaki Akashi, this is my cousin Arima Uzumaki a pleasure to be among you all," he replied warmly as they discussed,
Facing those old men Akashi displayed the result of his lessons of etiquette while Arima remained mostly uninterested in those discussions.
"So you have two family names, my lord this is uncommon, and Uzumaki at that, I'm surprised," one of the fat dignitaries said while they were walking in town.
"Yes, it is I am not the biological son of the Daimyou after all!" Akashi said with a smile
his sentence created a strange atmosphere as many didn't know how to react to what he said.
It's important to know that for a noble particularly for a Daimyo marrying a woman who already had a kid is very frowned upon.
Usually, it would be seen as an insult, and in the past it created succession disputes.
"Hahaha, don't worry after we all know why they decided to get married," he said and everyone was brought back to the event that pushed Yanagi onto the throne and the fear that had gripped the people of the sky country.
It was like so many others, a political union.
'I wonder what they will think if they have the confirmation that the massacre that happened that day was our doing!'
"Aren't you the only one who received lessons in etiquette why are you saying things like that," Arima murmured in his cousin's ear, but Akashi just shrugged.
Akashi, Arima, and their following were installed in the residence of the town lord.
In an office, Akashi, Arima, and Karin a young and talented ninja of the clan were discussing the reason they had been sent here.
"So we are here to inspect the factory right,"
"You didn't listen to the briefing that's all you that," Akashi responded to his cousin.
"No I just wasn't brief I was on another mission, why do you assume the worst from me," he said seemingly hurt.
"Because it's often true," Karin responded.
"Ok sorry, we are for to one assess the damage in the factory caused by the ninjas attack a few days ago,"
"How boring,"
"Two find the ninjas responsible and kill them your father thinks they are still hiding not far from here, if possible determine which nation send them,"
"Three find and eliminate the spies in this town capture them and bring them back for interrogation,"
"It's much better," Arima rejoiced
"Mission perfectly understood,"
"So what's the plan?"
"Well, I already started to evaluate the dignitary when we arrived,"
"Ohh, was that the reason for your unusual behavior this morning? Should've realized you were doing something," Karin said
"So how was it?"
"Some of them already seem to have some disdain toward us even before my little games,"
In the office, the three ninjas started to plan how to complete their mission under the scrutiny of the old Uzumaki Kuroko.
He was like the Ambu forces and the samurais sent to protect Akashi and Arima when they got out of the capital, unless they were really about to die, they couldn't intervene.
The next day after a delicious breakfast worthy of the son of a Daimyo they left the comfort of the house.
Akashi Uzumaki and the old town leader Uemi were walking around the city with her two old advisors, an old man named Arata and a woman named Akemi.
While around them a perimeter of security had been installed but it was so subtle that most of the townsmen barely noticed
"I hope that you like our little town, my lord,"
"If you need anything to make your sejour more comfortable please we are at your disposal,"
"Oh thank you, I'm impressed the has great charm, the little tour of the town was lovely,"
Akashi said looking around the place was quiet, peaceful, protected by nature, and at the same time not completely inaccessible, while the houses were well-organized and not fancy like in the capital.
"Beautiful indeed, and I see that the people also love you," he said looking at the smiles and salutations of the people around them and he could feel that they were genuine.
With the dignitary of the town serving as guides, the groups could comfortably enjoy the charm of the city and as his identity hadn't been hidden they were even more respectful of him, he could also feel fear in them.
'My mind eye is getting better' he thought and from the corner of his eye he spotted someone among the crowd who triggered something from him
briefly closing his eyes to focus he felt a feeling of malice directed toward him before the man retreated
'Found one,'
He didn't chase the mane or anything instead he continued to explore the town with the three old men.
"It is unfortunate that your cousin decided to not come with us,"
"Oh, I assure you this is better that he didn't come, I don't want to appear rude but you would have trouble keeping up with him, plus he is probably already exploring the town with Karin,"
"Oh, I see the young wanted to be alone," the old woman said with an understanding smile
Thus time passed while he enjoyed the company of those old-timers
At night
"So what was the result, of your tour in the town?" Akashi asked Karin and Ashina
"Not bad, very good I found about five suspect people during your little tour with the old folks, not bad for a first day," Arima said with glee.
"I found seven on my side, the owls are keeping an eye on their every move, the mind eye has always made missions like that easier," Karin said
"Good, I detected three people, using me as bait was the best and fastest option, they are all going to leave their homes or at least lose enough composure for the mind eyes to detect them,"
"I don't really understand sometimes, this isn't the first time that ninjas are sent to destroy the facilities of the country, It would've been so much more useful to try to get the technology, why don't they do that?" Karin asked looking at her comrades
"They do when they are ordered to by their leaders, but this is mostly useless because another country will send their ninjas to destroy it," Arima lazily lay down on the sofa and explained.
"The great nations often send their ninjas to steal or destroy the technology of their weaker neighbor if they refuse to comply, and to be honest most of the time there is no need for the great nations to do something a competitor or a jealous neighbor has the option of hiring some mercenaries to do the job,"
"That's awful, how can a country develop itself if it is constantly pulled down," she said concerned.
And at that, Arima let out a soft laugh.
"This is part of being a ninja, we do worst every day I mean we were sent here to kill people,"
"That's true, I didn't think very deeply about that,"
"Anyway did you know that a lot of the technologies present and used in this country have existed for years now, since maybe even the creation of the ninja's village, fascinating right," Akashi said with enthusiasm
"And how do you know that,"
"History lessons, I paid attention, this is more interesting than you can think, for example, wristwatches have existed for more than a hundred years, and the reason that no smart ninja wears one is that any chunin can earn from more than one kilometer away,"
"No this is boring! I don't need to be in class to know that,"
"Well I think this is cool," Karin said encouraging Akashi
Somewhere in the town, a young woman was carefully writing a message on a piece of paper that she tied to the leg of a squirrel who disappeared in the night.
"Is everything there?" the old Kuroko asked
"Yes, sir we have everything, nothing escaped us,"
"Good with that we will have a full picture of the spy network in this town,"
"It was a smart idea from the kids,"
"Yes, but it could have been better executed,"
That day and the next few days similar things started to happen in the small town.
Some of those animals were sent far far away to other nations while others were sent very close.
But one thing was certain, the letters sent away were intercepted either by Akashi's team or by the old Kuroko's team.
After all, it was one of his purposes for following them here.