Samu Kokaze and Guy's breakfast spot was not far from the Tanaka Clan's council hall. After less than two minutes of walking, they arrived at the entrance.
Stopping Tanaka Keishi as he moved to knock, the two waited quietly outside.
The sounds of an argument drifted from inside the room.
His extraordinary hearing, enhanced by the Nano Core, picked up fragments of the conversation. During their wait outside, he managed to piece together the general situation.
"Looks like the Sato Clan isn't all that united internally either!"
Samu Kokaze murmured softly as he stood there.
"After all, it's a large clan. It's normal for there to be many factions within it."
Tanaka Keishi, standing beside him, replied quietly.
"Including the Tanaka Clan?" Samu Kokaze turned to ask teasingly.
Tanaka Keishi looked slightly embarrassed and gave a soft laugh.
Creak...
As they spoke, the door before them opened. Tanaka Yoshikado stepped out with a somewhat gloomy expression, but a smile appeared when he saw the figures waiting outside. "Why didn't you come in? Why wait outside?"
"It wasn't anything urgent, so I didn't want to interrupt your meeting."
After a pause, he added, "What's wrong? You don't look very happy. Did something happen?"
Tap, tap, tap...
As the two spoke, intermittent footsteps came from the meeting room. One of the middle-aged men they had seen at yesterday's welcoming ceremony approached with a flushed face.
"Hello, Master Samu!"
The man nodded. His gaze swept down Samu Kokaze with a faint air of disdain, as though he did not take him seriously at all.
Yet Samu Kokaze clearly remembered that this was not how the man had acted when he first arrived yesterday. Back then, that fat face of his had looked as if he had seen his own father. Who would have thought that after merely one day, he would put on a completely different face?
"Hello, Mr. Tanaka Shushan."
Samu Kokaze nodded lightly in response, his expression calm as he looked at the other man and waited for what he had to say next.
"Elder Shushan, I seem to recall that you still have matters to attend to."
Tanaka Yoshikado's face turned icy, dangerous light flashing in his eyes.
Faced with Tanaka Yoshikado's threat, Tanaka Shushan's plump face twitched several times. However, for some reason, he quickly suppressed his fear and put on a hard front. No matter how Samu Kokaze looked at it, though, it was all bark and no bite.
"It's fine. I can spare this little bit of time."
His voice was steady and sounded rather imposing—if one ignored the sweat beading on his face in the freezing winter weather.
Samu Kokaze chuckled as he watched Tanaka Yoshikado tremble with rage beside him, clearly about to say something. He gently tugged on his sleeve and shook his head.
"Is there something Mr. Shushan wishes to say to me? Please be direct."
Samu Kokaze smiled as he looked at the man's faintly trembling face.
"I heard from the Clan Head that Master Samu wishes to join the Tanaka Clan?"
Without waiting for the furious Tanaka Yoshikado to interrupt, he continued, "Given Master Samu's assistance to our Tanaka Clan and your skills, joining the Tanaka Clan would not be a problem. However, you should forget about joining the Clan Head's branch. After all, you do not possess Tanaka Clan blood. Still, you could marry one of our Tanaka Clan's young ladies. Once you change your surname, wouldn't that mean you had joined the Tanaka Clan all the same?"
"You..."
After hearing this, Tanaka Yoshikado could no longer suppress the anger on his face. His twisted expression erupted with a hoarse roar, but before he could finish, Samu Kokaze lightly kicked him and cut off his next words.
Samu Kokaze's expression did not change. Still wearing that smiling face, he quietly listened to everything the man had to say before replying with a smile, "Yesterday, Brother Yoshikado and I were merely joking. I didn't expect Brother Yoshikado to actually take it to heart. If I ever wish to join the Tanaka Clan in the future, I will seriously consider your suggestion."
"Ha, is that so?" Tanaka Shushan looked somewhat awkward. He had clearly not expected someone so young as Samu Kokaze to be so calculating. Seeing the Clan Head beside him glaring as if he wanted to kill him, he hurriedly offered a perfunctory remark before turning and leaving, as though some prehistoric beast were pursuing him from behind.
"Xiaofeng!" Watching his retreating figure vanish, Tanaka Yoshikado's face filled with anxiety as he tried to explain.
"Relax, I'm not that petty. But judging by things, your position as Clan Head isn't all that secure, is it? He saw that I wasn't as useful as before, so he came over to disgust you?"
Samu Kokaze waved his hand and joked.
Even after what had just happened, Samu Kokaze had regarded the man as nothing more than a clown. Since that was the case, what was there to get angry about?
"I'm sorry. You were humiliated because of me!"
Tanaka Yoshikado looked guilty as he lowered his head.
"I already said I don't care. You're a Clan Head, a major figure who controls the lives and deaths of thousands. Could you stop acting like a little girl every other moment?"
Samu Kokaze looked helplessly at Tanaka Yoshikado's bowed head.
"You little brat!" Tanaka Yoshikado shook his head and laughed.
"Whose man is he?" Samu Kokaze asked.
The two walked side by side along the bluestone path toward a pavilion in one of the Tanaka Clan's lakes, though going to a pavilion in winter was rather strange.
"He isn't anyone's man. More accurately, he represents a certain group of people." Tanaka Yoshikado corrected his wording.
"I see." Samu Kokaze nodded in realization.
"The Sato Clan Head sent someone this morning to express his intention to cooperate. I had wanted to use this family crisis to clear away the obstacles to you joining the Tanaka Clan, but unfortunately..."
As he spoke, he shook his head with a sigh.
"Hey! Don't make decisions for me! I'm doing perfectly fine living alone in Konoha. Who wants to join your Tanaka Clan?" Samu Kokaze rolled his eyes.
"What's so bad about joining my Tanaka Clan..."
"Fine, fine, I won't say anything!" Seeing Samu Kokaze standing before him with dead-fish eyes, Tanaka Yoshikado wisely shut his mouth.
"By the way, did you find that Sato Clan spy I asked you to look for yesterday?"
With a sudden leap, Samu Kokaze jumped onto the ice below and skated around in several fancy patterns as he asked.
"I arranged it last night, but there's no need now, is there? After all, we're the side with the greater chance of winning now. If we're discovered, it could cause trouble instead!"
Tanaka Yoshikado likewise leaped onto the frozen lake. After swaying several times, he barely managed to steady himself, then carefully slid over to Samu Kokaze.
"Tch!" Samu Kokaze gave Tanaka Yoshikado a disdainful look. With a slight push of his feet, he skated behind him and shoved him. After watching him flail his arms and fall onto the ice, Samu Kokaze skated in front of him and said contemptuously, "Fail to kill a snake, and it will come back to bite you. If you are certain you can take the enemy down in one blow, stop wasting words. Besides, my main reason for coming this time is to destroy the Sato Clan. Helping you is only secondary. You should know that I'm very petty!"
"You little brat!" Tanaka Yoshikado gritted his teeth as waves of pain shot through his backside.
"What kind of killing intent does a child like you have? Let me think about it!" He ignored the claim that helping him was secondary, treating it only as a child's embarrassed words.
"Could you put some effort into it? I guarantee that if the Sato Clan Head had such an opportunity, he would never let it pass. And aren't you afraid he'll disregard the rules and send someone to kill you before he dies? As far as I know, he has no relatives or descendants. Barefoot men aren't afraid of those wearing shoes."
"Besides, if you won't do it, I'll go myself. If I get caught, I'll say you were the one who told me to go." Seeing Tanaka Yoshikado's hesitation, Samu Kokaze's expression changed as he hurriedly added.
Tanaka Yoshikado's expression shifted repeatedly after hearing this. In the end, he let out a long sigh and nodded.
Before you continue