"How's it looking?" I asked Souta. Nene kept the flowers we bought by their beds. "It had been too much chaos. I heard some deaths actually happened." I had come to visit my teammates at the hospital.
"We have broken a few, but we will be ready for the final."
"Yeah, you better be, I don't want to be a Chunin alone." I laughed while he just scoffed.
"Hey, by the way, what happened after I left. I heard some serious trouble occurred?"
Rina chirped in, "Yeah, teams kept showing up, and it turned into a brawl. A few died."
"Really? Wasn't lethal force prohibited this time?"
"It was, but in that chaos? We noticed that in the chaos, nobody saw you leaving. So we literally escaped with our tails between our legs. Yet we got beaten up so much. It's a diplomatic issue now. With Suna saying that the death of their shinobis warrants compensation."
"I see."
Souta continued. "That's why there are no exhibition matches. Suna says they don't have adequate representation here."
"We got them that bad, huh?"
"Yeah, an influential Kumo shinobi had lost family to Suna in some mission. In his lead, Suna was hard pressed. The other joined to gang up on them. Eliminate one first right? Most of theirs are heavily injured or dead."
"That makes sense. Are there any changes to the finals?"
"No, 33 shinobis left. One-on-one fight. They'll probably do a fall on for one Shinobi."
"Who will randomly be chosen as a Suna Shinobi. The elders are trying to appease them."
We laughed at that. We knew how 'random' that lucky draw would be.
"But this puts things into perspective," Souta muttered reflectively.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"I meant, now I understand why the shinobi combat missions we had never exceeded one or two genins. Why did we gang up on them?" We had hunted missing nin over the years. We had also come into conflict with foreign teams. But usually it ended with a simple stare off. The targets we had weren't A or B-ranked worthy. So it was too much risk for too little reward. The missing nin didn't want a higher active bounty. Or worse, an active hunting mission on them. It was crazy how less fights occurred for non-MCs. But we did kill the occasional missing nin. I have 8 kills now. Two short of achievement. Although it was mostly kill-stealing. But I shared official credit, so there was no bad blood. They just thought I was one of the bloodthirsty ones. An image that my bandit crusade didn't help.
I wished them well and took my leave.
When I reached the compound, Tojiro, a plump guy from Summer, informed me that Masaru was already waiting for me. I met him in a simple room where he spread a lot of plans and blueprints. I sometimes felt that this guy was more enthusiastic about our houses than I was. He showed me various plans to choose from.
First was the overall shape. I chose the one where the center had the Main mansion. In front were guest houses. Behind was the workshop. And the left had training grounds. Right had clan quarters. Surrounding all this were individual houses. I was a square in the end, covering 4 streets. Which we'll have to pay for in the coming years. But proper facilities were worth it. Then there were plans for the individual structures. How big, how small, how high, which color?
It was exhausting. I tried to ask for help by summoning a few clan members. It evolved into even more chaos as they debated even those things that had already been decided. And worse. Actually gave valid points. Forcing us to reconsider. In the end, except for the general structure I described. Nothing was decided. We chose to meet up tomorrow with a fresh mind.
I was tired. Not physically, but mentally. So I chose to finish my daily quest to clear my head.
The persistent chime of Daily Quest Completed, was something that grounded me daily. Slow and steady wins the race, Ren. Slow and steady.
Requirements met. Upgrade Daily Quest?
I paused. Then smiled. I didn't know what I did, but this was a welcome surprise.
As I clicked confirm, heavy weights fell in front of me.
The quest was exactly the same. But now the reward was 5SS daily.
I will have to reconsider a few plans. I grinned.
----
In the evening, I set out towards Hokage Tower. There was a clan council meeting. I had never attended before. But an invitation had come a few days ago.
I reached the big hall that looked more like a parliament hall. In a way, it was the parliament hall and I was feeling Excited. Koharu and Homura, the Hokage advisors, presided over it. But I fell asleep halfway through some tax debate.
"Lord Ren, Lord Ren!" I awoke to the sound of Raya whispering sharply in my ear. It took me a moment to realize where I was. I rubbed my eye only to see the whole room staring at me. "So how do the Kurosawa vote? 10% without exceptions or 20% with them." Koharu and Homura frowned while they looked at my confused face.
This was beyond shameful. And disrespectful to the advisors who were presiding. Middle clans got single votes in the council. I decided to play it safe. "I agree with the advisor's view and vote with Lady Koharu."
A small smile graced her lips. Before I was a callous nuisance, now I was a callous nuisance supporting her. These two were very different things. "But I haven't voted yet, Ren-kun."
"Does that really matter?" I squinted my eyes. She chuckled. "Very well, the Kurosawa vote for 10% without exceptions," and moved on. Whew! I had planned to vote with the majority anyway to show support for Hokage. But I guess this just reinforced that image and my ties to the Hokage faction.
It took a while before it was wrapped up. The clans had many major and petty squabbles.
Can you believe they debated for half an hour about the placement of a street lamp for half an hour. Two clans had stores side by side, and each of them wanted the lamp in front of theirs. The change in placement would not be more than 6-7 meters. Can't they just place it in the middle and be done with it?
We returned home late for dinner.
Before going to sleep. I examined the new seal I had made. I had been doing that a lot. This could change low-level warfare if successful. And it was gonna be out for the world to see soon.