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[Kisame's POV]

As we entered the main room, the busy room got quiet, and the Daimyo showed a bright smile as he loudly spoke.

"Takayama-chan, you've made us wait! Come and sit next to your father!"

The Mistress' face turned ugly at the sight of her step daughter, but the later didn't give her any attention as she made a short bow and explained, "My apologies, I was in the middle of an interesting conversation with Mr Suikasan about lending us some help for the restoration of the Great River."

The Daimyo laughed and looked at the other nobles, who had gradually joined us over the course of the week, and said, "See, that's my daughter! She always had the brightest ideas!"

Those disgusting nobles from the Land of Forests showed fake smiles and praised Takayama, while some of those old men eyed her lustfully.

Seriously, she's an 11 years old child, how depraved can a man be?

No matter how much I despised them, it wasn't my place to rebuke them, so I silently took my seat in the Land of Water's delegation.

As I sat down, my right hand, Kaoru, mumbled, "The Mistress has been acting shifty."

I took a second look, and sure indeed, she wasn't her usual self. Usually, she would spend her time staring at Takayama in hatred, but she was looking surprisingly tame today. Knowing the woman, this wasn't a good thing. But I couldn't act on my gut.

Quickly, we were served tea, and remembering the Mistress' eyes, I insisted for our cups to be tasted first. But it seemed I was being paranoid as no trace of any kind of poison was found in the cups. I had increased the security in the room in the past few days and had them actually hire real poison testers who could detect poisons with chakra, not just people to poison before we tasted things.

Looking over at Takayama, I saw her smiling teasingly. Damn, she really got into my head didn't she?

But a world without lies… I would have taken most people who dared to say this as morons, or idealistic rulers, but for some reason, I couldn't get myself to think the same of Takayama.

She wasn't like the others, she was different, and she actually could make a difference…

"Cough, cough, cough!"

My pupils shrunk as I heard several of the people around the table cough. It wasn't natural coughing, there was something wrong, something very wrong.

Several of the nobles started coughing, about half of them, and their faces were quickly turning red.

As they did, I felt my throat get irritated, but with a surge of my chakra the feeling was squashed away…

My eyes went to the poison testers, who hadn't left the room, and sure enough, they didn't looked phased in the least. Meaning, they were the ones who poisoned us while testing our cups. Smart move.

But as I was analysing the situation, I heard a familiar voice cough. I felt the world slow down as I turned my head in slow motion.

I couldn't care less about the Daimyo coughing as all of my undivided attention went onto Takayama. She started coughing, her eyes quickly showing fear as they widened and turned to look at me.

I could see fear, but more than that, there was disappointment. Not at me, or herself, but simply that she couldn't do what she wanted to do. I could feel it, the strong emotion…

She, along with the others, started frothing from the mouth, and my body remained frozen as they fell against the table, their bodies twitching.

Just like that, she was dead. Dead. Dead.

H… How could she die? I…

"Kisame! What the fuck are you doing?!"

I was shaken awake by someone, and looking at my side I saw Kaoru shaking me. Right, I have a mission.

Closing my eyes for a second, to settle down my emotions, but before I could do that, I hear the Mistress, who wasn't poisoned, say, "How unfortunate, you were supposed to fall too. At least I got the little bitch."

I felt the world turn red as my eyes zeroed on the Mistress, unleashing my killing intent. Samehada felt my rage as the bandages surrounding it were ripped open, and the handle slid into my hand.

Wasn't it Takayama who told me letting my emotions loose is the ultimate form of truth? Wouldn't it be a magnificent way to send her off by letting go to my rage?

She has been rubbing onto me, feeling like a fucking poet.

But my thoughts were interrupted by a loud explosion. Turning around quickly, I saw through one of the windows the guards' barracks explode into a spectacular explosion.

Moreover, dragon made out of those flames quickly manifested itself, speeding towards us. Roka, who was the closest to the window, stomped his foot strongly and instantly created a large block of ice, which successfully blocked the attack, and revealed a man was in the middle of the fire dragon, his spear pointing towards us.

Although the attack was stopped, the ice barrier was also destroyed, allowing the man entry into the room. He was quickly followed by a bunch of other warriors. Those weren't ninjas, those were another kind of chakra wielders.

I turned to look at the Mistress, who was watching Takayama's now unmoving dead body with glee, and heard her say with spite, "Not so smart are we?"

My hand holding Samehada clenched tighter, and in response the living sword grew a little bigger as it was fed more chakra.

This got the Mistress' attention as she said, trying to act nonchalant, "Oh, right. This is a coup, so you are no longer needed. Men, kill them."

However, going by her face, her words obviously did not have the effects she expected them. After a couple of seconds of stillness, we started hearing shouts.

I turned to our Sensor, who said, "There are hundreds of people fighting in and around the palace. It's mercenaries against… thugs?"

I grimly asked, "How long are they going to hold them out?"

Obviously, I was speaking of the thugs. They didn't stand a chance against mercenaries.

Our Sensor replied, "It's… over."

What?

But before I could ask the question aloud, one of the paper walls was destroyed, or rather slashed open by a large sword I recognized.

The Mistress looked through the hole and scowled, "Why did you take so long?"

A man dressed in a black robe with red clouds revealed himself. This man had a large sword resting atop his shoulders, and he ignored the Mistress as he instead looked at me.

His eyes settled on Samehada, and he commented, "So you are the brat who killed Fuguki and took Samehada."

I heard a few gasps behind me, and I couldn't blame them.

Standing before us was an ex member of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mists, the one who holds the Executioner's Blade, Juzo Biwa.

I felt excitement build up inside me as I grinned and said, "We've been searching for you for a while now."

Juzo looked past me, at the other mercenaries, and grunted, "This is one of today's Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, you don't stand a chance against him, so take care of the others."

The other mercenaries, including the rather strong fire spear wielder, replied with excitement, "Yes, Juzo-san!"

Juzo brought down his weapon from his shoulder and said, "I'm curious to see what the new generation has in store for me."

My grin widened, who didn't like a good fight?

Bringing up Samehada, I felt it wiggle with a similar glee upon the thought of facing a strong opponent.

Behind me, Roka and the Fire Spear Wielder started fighting, the clash of the two elements starting a loud explosion that acted as our fighting signal.

Juzo and I leaped toward each other.