Stance

After leaving the basement, Shixiu looked back, his face so gloomy it seemed ready to drip water.

After his father was severely injured, he could have been saved, but Shixiu had tampered with the medicine, so his father died.

It was not because he craved the Daimyo's power so badly, but because after bowing and scraping before Tian Meng for so many years, the hatred in his heart had become impossible to vent.

He had been born into nobility, he was a man, yet his own woman had treated him like a dog beneath her feet. Even he did not know how he had endured the past dozen years.

His father, Shiraishi Yoshijo, and Tian Meng—these three were the source of his suffering. He dreamed of killing all three of them.

Now his father was dead, Tian Meng was in his hands, but Shiraishi Yoshijo—the man who had raised a demon of a daughter—would not be so easy to deal with.

He had tortured Tian Meng to force her into submission precisely to use her against Shiraishi Yoshijo. Yet though this woman had clearly reached the end of the road, deep down she was still the lofty princess of Peach Country. To make her submit, he had to crush her pride, and that would inevitably take a great deal of time.

Unfortunately, he had no time.

Peach Country had first sent a delegation, which he had detained. Now even the Anbu had moved out. That old bastard Shiraishi Yoshijo had surely noticed something. Moreover, news of his father's death could not be concealed for long. Naruto Namikaze was easy enough to fool, but Kakashi and Jiraiya were no fools.

War!

He had to issue an order for war in his father's name, using it to divert everyone's attention while reasonably