Demon of Lust in the Land of Water 4 (Patreon)

Demon of Lust in the Land of Water
Chapter 4

-VB-

Though her teammates had turned on her, her village hadn’t. This was the thought that led her back to her village, arriving in the night. Thankfully, the mizukage had already gone to sleep, giving her time to sleep and then compose herself before the one on one briefing.

She stood before his office, waiting for the call.

“Come in.”

She grasped the wooden doorknob and turned it. With but a twitch of her strength, she pushed open the heavy wooden doors inward and then closed it quietly behind her. The mizukage was staring out into the city, not looking at her. She didn’t say anything, merely getting to her position in front of the mizukage’s desk.

Standing at attention before the Mizukage, she looked straight ahead and did not meet his eyes as he stared at her.

“Jounin Terumi Mei, report.”

“Hai, mizukage-sama. My team and I went to investigate the Rennedo Omishi and the Rennedo Swamp. My teammates turned on me for reasons, stating bloodline as their reason for it, but I came out victorious.”

“I see,” Mizukage stated blankly, blinking his light purple eyes . “Two jounins turning on a loyal jounin for such frivolous reason is ground for execution, so you were not only in the right but also proved yourself again to me why you and other bloodlines are worth keeping. Continue.”

‘But not enough to intervene when the rest of the non-bloodline users kill us in the streets, right?’ she thought bitterly, but showed none of her thoughts on her face.

“Hai. Unfortunately, I received nearly fatal wounds. However, this is where I wonder if I was under genjutsu or actually encountered the man who saved me.”

He gave her no response, merely staring at her. This was more or less a sign for her to continue before he had to tell her to continue the report.

“I woke up two days after I fell unconscious on the battlefield. I was inside what looked like a normal Land of Waters’ peasant home, though maybe on the less poor side.” After all, just because one wasn’t poor didn’t mean they were affluent. “We talked, and my rescuer said ridiculous things like coming from another world and not knowing anything about our world. And then he waved his hands and the entire four walls and roof fell away to reveal floating mountains, green oceans, and pink skies.”

He finally had a reaction.

He raised an eyebrow.

She didn’t gulp.

“He called it the dreamland, where everyone may be able to visit when we sleep. He gave me food, and I ate it. He made a door in the air when I asked to leave, and when I left… there was nothing except the food was still in my stomach and I still tasted it in my mouth.”

He kept staring at her with his inscrutable deadpan stare for a while before he finally nodded without taking his eyes off of her.

“You have taken measures to see if you were in genjutsu?”

“Hai. Pain and standard genjutsu dispelling did not work. I hadn’t made eye contact before this, staring at his lips only. I heard no auditory, visual, tactile, or olfactory telltale signs of a genjutsu. I may have been drugged, but nothing has changed from my departure from the island to your office. I am also aware of the possibility that I may still be in genjutsu and talking to myself. As such, I ask your permission to not speak of the village's more clandestine information.”

A moment of silence. “Granted. Please head to the Institute of Networking. As I have said before, I value loyal and powerful ninjas. I cannot have you doubting your reality. It is such a pity that you had to run into a genjutsu master.”

She snapped a salute, bowed, and left.

-VB-

The Institute of Networking was a fancy name for the spymaster of the Kirigakure.

Like the rest of the village, this institution took an impact and altered from the ongoing Bloody Mist. In fact, betrayals and murders happened more often among the Kennoami (Kenkuju no Ami) than anywhere else among the island. It was, after all, the place with the most divide among the bloodline users and regular ninjas; most ninjas didn’t need a bloodline to be a spy agent or handler.

Stepping into the Kennoami was like asking herself to get poisoned, but she had a trump card: allies.

Ao, a former hunter-nin turned handler of the Kennoami, was there to greet her.

Unlike other villages, hunter-nins boasted more influence and power simply because it was one of the harder positions to attain. For a former hunter-nin to greet her in public made all who feared to get on Ao’s shit-list back off.

But it also put her on the shit-list of Ao’s rivals and enemies.

That said, it was better to publicly see Ao, a non-bloodline user, as an ally than to not acknowledge him.

This was the kind of subtle detail that went on everyday among Kiri’s ninjas. For those too blunt, this was a torturous hell.

They talked about insignificant things, everything from fashion to rumors, as they headed towards his office.

And when they were there, he finally dropped the nice guy smile for a serious one.

“I didn’t think you would ever come to the Jail, Mei.”

Jail was the other name for Kennoami.

“I didn’t, but I got myself influenced by a genjutsu master,” Mei grumbled as she sat down on the patient chair across from Ao’s desk. He sat down on his seat.

“Oh?”

“I still don’t think all of this is real.”

“Oh damn. That’s serious.”

“I mean, the guy had a really nice smile and all and he helped me-”

“You mean you think you’re in genjutsu because you found a guy you liked because you keep complaining about your a-”

“Ao, I’m going to kill you if you finish that sentence.”

He sputtered indignantly before he composed himself again.

“So, how can I help?”

“I need you to check me. You can get some of your coworkers to actually get in my head. It’s impossible for a foreign genjutsu master to know any of the Jailers’ subtler techniques.”

“So you know they exist…”

“It’s an open secret. How else can we keep up with the other villages other than espionage?”

It was the sad truth. Kirigakure had a lot of bloodlines, but half of them were unstable or too ambitious and the other half were in the process of being exiled or wiped out. This left the regular ninjas, who weren’t up to snuff with their continental counterparts, mostly because they lacked manpower and were too busy killing each other because of the Bloody Mist.

Espionage, in the end, was the only aspect of the village that allowed it to keep its status as one of the Great Five, especially when they had lost most of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist and their swords.

“I see,” Ao hummed. “I’ll get to it, but you know during your stay here…”

“I have to be in one of the Cells, yes.”

The Jail’s Cells were solitary chambers, and once a ninja entered it, they didn’t leave it for a week.

She shuddered. She’s been in one exactly once before, and she was not happy about having to go back in. Everyone hated the experience, even the crazier ones.

“Alright, in you go,” he sighed as he stood up.

-VB-

It was the second day when she saw him in her Cell.

Her savior with that dashing smile.

Fuck.