Not Sure What to Name This Chapter! (Please Bookmark, Please Recommend!)

The place where Samu Kokaze and Guy ate breakfast was not far from the Tanaka Clan's council hall. In less than two minutes, they arrived at the door.

Stopping Tanaka Keishi as he moved to knock, the two stood quietly outside and waited.

The sounds of an argument came from inside.

His extraordinary hearing, enhanced by the Nano Core, allowed him to catch fragments of the conversation. During the time they waited outside, he more or less understood what was going on.

"Looks like the Sato Clan isn't all that united internally either!"

Samu Kokaze murmured softly where he stood.

"After all, it's a large clan. It's normal for there to be many factions within it."

Tanaka Keishi, standing beside him, spoke quietly.

"Including the Tanaka Clan?" Samu Kokaze turned and asked teasingly.

Tanaka Keishi's face became somewhat awkward, and he gave a soft laugh.

Creak...

As they spoke, the door in front of them opened. Tanaka Yoshikado strode out with a slightly gloomy expression, but when he saw the figures waiting at the entrance, a smile appeared on his face. "Why didn't you go in? Why wait outside?"

"It wasn't anything too urgent, so I didn't want to interrupt your meeting."

After speaking, Samu Kokaze paused before asking, "What's wrong? You look unhappy. Did something happen?"

Tap, tap, tap...

As the two spoke, intermittent footsteps sounded from inside the meeting room. One of the middle-aged men they had seen during yesterday's welcoming ceremony walked over, his face glowing with health.

"Hello, Master Samu!"

The man nodded. His gaze swept from top to bottom with a trace of contempt, making it clear that he did not take Samu Kokaze seriously.

Yet Samu Kokaze clearly remembered that the man had not acted like this when he first arrived yesterday. Back then, when he saw Samu Kokaze, his plump face had looked as though he had seen his own father. Who would have thought that after merely one day, he would wear a different face?

"Hello, Mr. Tanaka Shushan."

Samu Kokaze gave a slight nod in response, looking calmly at the other man as he waited for what he had to say.

"Elder Shushan, I remember you still have matters to attend to, don't you?"

Tanaka Yoshikado's face turned icy, and a dangerous light shot from his eyes.

Facing Tanaka Yoshikado's threat, Tanaka Shushan's plump face trembled a few times. However, as if recalling something, he quickly suppressed the panic in his heart and put on a tough expression. Still, no matter how Samu Kokaze looked at it, it was all surface bravado.

"It's fine. I'm not short on this little bit of time."

His voice was steady and sounded rather imposing—if one ignored the beads of sweat on his face in the freezing winter.

Samu Kokaze chuckled twice. Seeing Tanaka Yoshikado trembling with rage beside him and about to say something else, he lightly tugged at his sleeve and shook his head.

"Does Mr. Shushan have something to say to me? Please, speak plainly."

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, "Considering Master Samu's help 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, Master Samu does not possess Tanaka blood. But 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 fury on his face. He roared in a hoarse voice with a twisted expression, but before he could finish, Samu Kokaze, standing beside him, lightly kicked him and cut off his next words.

Samu Kokaze's expression did not change. He remained smiling as he quietly listened, then said, "Yoshikado and I were only joking yesterday. I never expected Yoshikado to take it so seriously. If I ever wish to join the Tanaka Clan in the future, I will carefully consider your suggestion."

"Ha, is that so?" Tanaka Shushan looked somewhat awkward. Clearly, he had not expected someone as young as Samu Kokaze to possess such composure. Seeing the clan head beside him looking at him as though he wanted to kill him, he hurriedly offered a polite remark before turning and leaving, as if some primordial beast were chasing him from behind.

"Kokaze!" Watching his retreating figure disappear, Tanaka Yoshikado looked anxious as he tried to explain.

"Relax. I'm not that petty. Still, it seems your position as clan head isn't very stable. Did he come over to disgust you because he thinks I'm no longer as useful?"

Samu Kokaze waved his hand and teased him with a smile.

Even after what had just happened, Samu Kokaze had regarded Tanaka Shushan as nothing more than a clown. Since that was the case, what was there to be angry about?

"I'm sorry. You were wronged because of me!"

Tanaka Yoshikado looked somewhat 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. Can you stop putting on this little maiden act every other moment?"

Samu Kokaze looked helplessly at Tanaka Yoshikado's lowered 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 phrasing.

"I see." Samu Kokaze nodded in understanding.

"The Sato Clan head sent someone this morning to express his intent to cooperate. I originally wanted to use this clan crisis to clear away the obstacles to your 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 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 any more!" 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?"

Samu Kokaze sprang onto the ice below and skated around in several fancy patterns before asking.

"I arranged it last night, but there's no need now, right? After all, we're now the side with the greater chance of winning. If we're discovered, it could cause trouble instead!"

Tanaka Yoshikado likewise leaped onto the frozen lake. After swaying a few times, he barely managed to steady himself and carefully slid over to Samu Kokaze.

"Tch!" Samu Kokaze shot Tanaka Yoshikado a disdainful look, then pushed lightly with his feet, gliding behind him and giving him a shove. After watching him flail his arms and fall to the ground, Samu Kokaze came before him and said contemptuously, "If you fail to kill a snake, it will come back to bite you. If you're certain you can take the enemy out in one strike, stop wasting words. Besides, my main purpose in coming this time was to destroy the Sato Clan. Helping you was only secondary. You should know that I'm very petty!"

"You little punk!" Tanaka Yoshikado gritted his teeth as waves of pain rose from his backside.

"What kind of killing intent does a child like you have? Let me think it over!" He ignored the part about helping him being secondary, treating it only as the embarrassed words of a child.

"Could you put some effort into it? I guarantee that if the Sato Clan head had this kind of chance, he would never let it go. And aren't you afraid that before he dies, he'll disregard the rules and send someone to kill you? As far as I know, he has no relatives or descendants. A barefoot man isn't afraid of someone wearing shoes."

"And if you won't do it, I'll go myself. If I get caught, I'll say you were the one who sent me." Seeing Tanaka Yoshikado's hesitation, Samu Kokaze's expression changed and he hurriedly added.

Tanaka Yoshikado's expression shifted several times after hearing this. In the end, he let out a long sigh and nodded.