"What? How? But he was safe at home." Hideki acted surprised. Yoshiro explained to him that the Mizukage faction had sent a team of Anbus to kidnap Yuta and it all happened so suddenly that they couldn't do anything to help.
Hideki's face became red as if he was about to cry and he clenched his fists tightly murmuring "I am sorry Yuta. I couldn't protect you."
Hideki looked a little sad and Kana wanted to go and comfort him a little but Mei stopped her. "Don't interfere now. Let father handle this" Mei whispered.
Kana understood that she was with all the clan heads and interfering now could be rude. Yoshiro saw that Hideki looked a little vulnerable now so he thought to talk about a few more things and extract information from Hideki while talking.
He was about to ask something but the old man intervened "Yoshiro I think Hideki needs a little time to digest everything we have told him. Let's talk some other time." Yoshiro looked back at the old man with a frown on his face 'What is the old man even thinking? He isn't someone who will think solely based on emotions.' Yoshiro didn't know why the old man said so but he decided to listen to the advice.
"I think so too. Enko, Santo take these three back." Asami and Riko also looked at each other but chose to remain quiet. Enko and Santo took the three spies and left the room.
Riko looked at the old man and said "You seem to have gotten soft."
Asami also chimed in and said "Unfortunately Riko is right. This was a very good time to get information from Hideki when he was at his most vulnerable."
Yoshiro didn't ask anything as Asami and Riko had already spoken about their concerns. The old man nodded and said "I am far from being soft, brat. Don't worry about this old man going senile. No wonder Hideki is such a good spy and was able to stay in the hidden mist for so many years without any of us knowing."
"What do you mean?" Mei asked. She understood politics more than her father but even she was confused why the old man cut the conversation short abruptly.
"Hideki is good but not good enough. I must commend him for fooling you into thinking he was sad." The old man chuckled making everyone else look like fools.
Yoshiro stood up as he heard that and asked "Are you implying that he was faking it? That he isn't actually sad?" This was the last thing anyone in that room could think as they all saw Hideki's Oscar-winning performance."
"Of course, he was faking it. And it was difficult to confirm that but the two behind him could be read like an open book. And the most shocking part wasn't that he didn't feel bad about the kidnapping, but he wasn't even surprised when you told him that his nephew is kidnapped." The old man said.
Elder Wu stepped forward and said "Sorry for the interruption but Hideki and the other two have been here since that day and no one had contact with them. Even when the kidnapping happened, he was in front of us at the mansion. At that time no one knew that Yuta was kidnapped. I don't think this news has even spread to the shinobis of the Mizukage faction and now you are claiming that he already knew all this?"
"It won't be a surprise to me that there are more hidden leaf spies in our village but one of them must have managed to infiltrate our prison and give him the news or…"
"Or he knew it was going to happen and left his nephew there as bait." Riko completed the old man's thought. The old man looked at Riko and smiled "Look at you…finally grasping how the world works."
"What kind of an uncle uses his own nephew as bait?" Santo questioned as he felt it was very disgusting to do something like that.
The old man stopped everyone from talking and said "Stop jumping to conclusions all of you. What I said was based on facts but you guys are just speculating."
"Then what should be the next move now? If what you are saying is right then things are very complicated and one mistake of ours could make us the target of the hidden leaf and the hidden stone." Asami said.
"I am tired of all this. I say we just negotiate with Moji and get that kid back. All this wait is making me more and more restless. Let's just launch an attack on those assholes." Riko said grumpily. He was a simple-minded man and all these politics and deception were becoming too much for him.
"Riko I don't know what your father was thinking when he made a meathead like you the clan head." Asami said. She didn't like the barbaric solution that Riko had just given.
Riko was about to retort Asami's words when the old man stopped him and said "I think we should do what Riko just said."
"You must be joking right?" Asami asked with shock evident on her face. She never thought that the old man would listen to a meathead like Riko.
"Can you explain why you support Riko's strategy?" Yoshiro asked. He knew that the old man wouldn't joke about such a thing.
"We have been on the back foot in this conflict from the very start. Another thing is that I don't think the new Hokage is a scheming one. She is the granddaughter of Hashirama Senju and the best medical ninja in the shinobi world. I don't know why but if she wants to ally with us then we should go all-out against the Mizukage faction. If traveling at such a time wasn't unsafe then I would have gone to meet her personally." The old man replied.
"You are not someone to place blind trust on someone just because of their lineage." Asami said. She did agree with what the old man said but still wasn't convinced that a barbaric method suggested by Riko is going to end up becoming their next plan of action.
"Yes, I am not. Because of Tsunade Senju's expertise in making antidotes to any poison, I had someone monitor her movements from time to time. Nothing specific but to only know if she intends to come back from retirement. All that time she never showed any interest in internal politics nor did she claim anything because of her being a Senju."
Even after hearing the old man's explanation, Asami and the others weren't convinced but one thing they were sure of is that they need to take action soon.
'The old man is a stubborn one. Even if we all disagree with his opinion now, he will send a letter to the Hokage. The last thing I want is for our faction to appear divided.' Yoshiro thought.
"We will make concrete decisions on this later. For now, let's go on the offensive. We need to appear as if we are trying to rescue that kid Yuta." Yoshiro said.
"Trying to?" Mei asked confusedly.
"Yes...as we now know that things aren't as simple as they appear, we need information. Mei along with Santo, Kana, and Enko launch a few offensive attacks on them to distract them. Elder Wu and AO both focus on the information-gathering part. We don't have much time." Yoshiro said. He quickly delegated tasks to his people. Some wanted to retort but they decided to follow instructions for now.
*sigh* "I will also send a few squads to attack their people but my clan's main source of info is the merchants union so I don't know how much info I can get." Asami said. They had all decided to be in this together so cooperating now was the best thing to do.
"Hehe...now we are talking. Let's go and kick some stone ass." Riko laughed. He never expected this suggestion of his could actually be their next plan and now he was in heaven.
"Always with the foul mouth." Asami muttered and ignored Riko.
Everyone moved out of the prison shortly after and started making preparations to carry out the things Yoshiro ordered them to do. Whether it was getting information about key positions of enemy supplies and their movements to scouting the best place and way to launch an attack. Everyone had gotten to work and the Mizukage faction could tell that things were about to become chaotic.
While all this was happening, Yami was busy infiltrating a few buildings swarmed with Shinobis. But these shinobis weren't hidden mist ones. In fact, none of the people here were hidden mist shinobis. Everyone here was wearing red clothes and ninja headbands showing the insignia of the hidden stone.
A man could be seen standing on the top of one of those buildings surrounded by a few people. The man was none other than the same man who was dealing with Moji a week ago.
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