Demon of Lust in the Land of Water 21 (Patreon)

A/N: Why the fuck does California have so many water laws…? It hurts my eyes and head....

Demon of Lust in the Land of Water
Chapter 21

-VB-

Sarutobi Hiruzen could not understand what this Mizukage was doing.

The man was obviously powerful if the age reversification was to show for it. His own medic-nin and Tsunade, who came at his request, confirmed that there was no side effect nor were there any traps.

This meant that the Mizukage had truly gifted the Fire Daimyo something valuable; the man had stolen time from the grips of nature itself and gifted it onto the daimyo, something no one else could do.

‘Orochimaru would be after him if this ever became known,’ he hummed to himself. However, he wouldn’t release that information for three reasons: one, his daimyo would be irate with him; two, he himself had received this gift; and three, his student was a traitor and releasing this information would help a traitor reach his goal, which was unacceptable.

He sighed forlornly.

Well, he knew one thing for certain: the man was an irredeemable lecher and sex maniac.

By the customs of the Land of Fire and its people, he should be married fifty times over in the first week of his travels alone. In fact, they are calling his caravan “the Great Trail of Depravation and Debauchery” because of how many young women and widows ended up joining the caravan either because they found someone to marry among the caravan’s vast followers or because they were part of the Mizukage’s own “harem.”

Hiruzen puffed out a smoke.

On one hand, he envied the young man for being able to accomplish a man’s dream, but at the same time, he didn’t think that it was something good.

The man was obviously scheming something. No one tossed that much gold for no reason.

But the problem was finding out the man’s goal. His caravan traveled thoroughly across the countryside. The man visited already half of the big cities and was well on his way to visit the last of them before reaching Konohagakure.

“Is there anything laced to the gold coins he’s been tossing?” They weren’t ryo; the clear design difference made that very clear.

“No, Hokage-sama,” one of his village’s analysts reported. Her name was Suki, right?

“Quality?”

“On average, each gold coin had higher purity than ryo.”

Which made ryo inferior to this new coin.

“Do you see any problem that could arise from this kind of frivolous distribution?”

While the village did not have economists like the capital did, there were a few who dabbled in such an esoteric study.

Nara Shikaku, his right hand advisor since Danzo was being his usual stubborn and sneaky self, yawned. “No.” This man was also the closest person Konohagakure had to an economist. “It’s jus diverting gold from the Land of Water to the Land of Fire. It’ll mean more purchasing power for us.”

Hiruzen frowned. That was good news, because it meant that the Land of Fire - and thus Konohagakure - could afford more goods cheaply comparatively. But would the people of the Land of Fire import more?

“... is it not possible that the value of gold itself will fall?” Hiruzen asked. “Like we have been hearing, there’s just too much of it.”

Shikaku narrowed his eyes. “... There is a chance, but it’s unlikely that he’s spent that much. He is only one man at the end of a day when compared to the entire market of the Land of Fire.”

“If you say so,” he replied with a sigh. “Just thinking about this new Mizukage is …”

“Frustrating, yes,” Shikaku agreed. “His motives are still unknown.”

“Should we assign some of our people to investigate Kirigakure itself? We can’t see what the Mizukage wants, so why don’t we go to the source of his creation?”

“I would, but something has the spies in Kirigakure spooked.”

“‘Something’?”

“The acting leader of Kirigakure in Mizukage’s absence is a woman named Terumi Mei. A follower of the same god, and actually one of the founding members according to rumors, she has been liberal with the authority she’s been given. Our spies have heard rumors of most of Iwa and Kumo’s spies being caught.”

“That sounds less liberal and more-”

“Something about what those followers of Aphrodites have is involved, because all of those supposed spies have been sent there to be interrogated.”

“Spies being sent to a temple dedicated to sex and love for interrogation? You sure they aren’t a front for something else?”

“We’re sure.”

Hiruzen scratched his chin. “Very odd. And all of our spies…?”

“The ones that haven’t been caught refused to go in. Those who have …”

“We haven’t seen them since?”

“That’s the thing. We have. We isolate them from the other cells, and Kirigakure allows them to continue to live there.”

Hiruzen quirked an eyebrow at that. No death to spies? What kind of …

“There are serious talks of brainwashing among the T&I over the current development in Kirigakure.”

“... Let’s put that aside for now. What are the responses from the other Hidden Villages?”

Shikaku lifted up a small packet of reports. “Kumo is blunt as always; they’re just inserting their willing kunoichi to try to seduce the Mizukage. Suna is … absent.”

“Absent? Completely?”

“Yes.”

“... Iwa?”

“Their agents seem to disappear without a trace. None of our sensors can find them once they decide to go into hiding.”

“That’s very concerning… What about the smaller villages?”

The talks continued deep into the night, but at the end of it all, neither of them could figure out what to do with the flippantly lecherous Mizukage.