Naruto: Tango with Death

To read up to 15 chapters ahead: https://www.patréon.com/SlyOW

-------------

Since my protecting umbrella had shut up, I defended myself, "All my skills were taught to me by my mother. It was her dream for me to come work here."

Kisame seeped onto his tea and said, "Still, you're what, 11? 12 at best. The other servants have been training for most of their lives at their job, a few years of training shouldn't be enough to reach such skill."

This time, I decided to drop some of my mannerism as I shrugged and replied, "I don't really know. My mother once told me I had noble blood, but she never told me who my father was."

And there I dropped it, the big bomb. It wouldn't really trigger anything usually, but with how stimulated everyone was, especially the Daimyo who had no way to counter the poison passively, this phrase had a much bigger effect.

Kisame looked like he wanted to continue asking his questions, but the Daimyo suddenly cut in, "Noble you say?"

I immediately showed fear as I defended myself, "I did not mean anything by this Great Leader. It's only something my mother told me before dying. She talked about my father being a noble in hiding…"

His eyes grew wide, while I was internally jiggling. Take that, mom. I knew watching all these dramas wasn't a waste of time!

"W-Which village did you come from?"

This time, I shook my head, acting even more scared as I replied, "My mother never told me. She said it was a secret. Please don't be offended Great Leader, she was dying, she probably wanted to give me hope by telling me my father was a young noble of the royal family. But look at me, I couldn't be of the royal family, I'm nothing but a servant."

Yuki suddenly stepped in, "That would explain her talent! Who else than a princess could be so elegant?"

I took a step to the side, 'accidentally' getting closer to the Daimyo as I muttered, "Stop, you are scaring me. If anyone hears this I'm going to get hurt…"

The moment I said that, the room turned eerily silent as even Kisame now looked at me in pity. The most fearsome aspect of my poison is how it messed with the common sense of those affected by it.

Actually, if used by a normal person, then this poison barely qualified as an E Rank Jutsu, after all the effects were still rather mild as I was giving out great stimuli for them to show those reactions, and they only needed a little bit of wind for my perfume to smear off and the poison to become useless.

But for a ninja, especially me, as long as I found the right circumstances, then it could become as fearsome as a B Rank Poison.

It's almost like a boss in a video game that can be used once defeated. Most of the time, the player will feel like the boss has become much weaker than when they fought, and while this is true in some games, in most games it isn't the boss that became weaker, but simply that it's strength is situational.

In the right circumstances, that is the boss room, then the Boss becomes much more fearsome than it actually is. For example, if it specializes in large AOE attacks, then the boss room would be a small room where dodging his attacks is very difficult.

But once said boss is used outside, dodging it's attacks would become much easier, thus making it seem nerfed.

This was the same logic. Give my poison to Naruto, and he would have more chances of poisoning himself than his target. In my hands however, the results were fearsome.

After several seconds of silence, the Daimyo, whose face had turned red, asked, "How old are you, ex-exactly?"

There comes the hard question. For all my past sentences, I used broad subjects so that he would make his own conclusions, creating HIS truth, but this wasn't something I could dodge.

For the noble in hiding, this was easy to guess, Kiri needed someone of royal blood to take over the country, but said royal blood also needed to hate the past regime enough to take over, so picking an exiled member of the royal family was the obvious pick.

As for the village he was hiding in, I couldn't know, but the Mistress had given me a huge chance, as my imaginary mother wouldn't want me to get killed by her if I revealed to anyone where I came from.

But for my age, this was delicate. The Daimyo obviously had something in mind, he probably had a relationship with a peasant girl at some point, which probably wasn't very long, and he should perfectly remember when this was.

For him to come so far, this relationship must have happened around 10 years ago, but I needed the exact number, or this would all go down the drain.

So instead of answering, I muttered, "I'm not a princess. I… I think I should go."

The Daimyo gasped, and was about to say something, when Kisame suddenly interjected, "Are you 10 years old?"

I shook my head, cursing him inwardly. The Daimyo was panicking, and he was about to ask the real number, but Kisame wasn't a fool, he knew it also, and since it would be the obvious move for a girl in an impostor position to agree to the first suggestion, he asked a trick question.

And it seemed I was right as the Daimyo looked even more joyful than before. I did not try my luck right away though, and instead kneeled down, bringing my forehead against the ground as I asked, "Great Leader, may I speak freely?"

The Daimyo, who still looked shook, nodded slightly, but Kisame said, "You…"

He couldn't even place a second word when the Daimyo exploded in anger, "Let the girl speak will you!"

This time, Kisame chose to become silent, but he was looking at me with suspicion. Although we stand as enemies today, I have to admit, he is an opponent I respect. I always thought he was done wrong as Itachi's partner.

He was a great character, but he was overshadowed by Itachi in the original show. And today, he did not disappoint.

But again, he was the enemy today.

So with a sobbing voice, I said, "I'm sorry for saying this, Great Leader, but I'm not stupid. I know who my mother refereed to, and who my supposed father is supposed to be. But I cannot be his daughter."

Confused, the Daimyo asked, "Why?"

Increasing my sobbing, I replied, "Because for years he has been trying to have children with his wife. If I were to be his daughter, then my existence would be the proof his wife is the problem, not him. And for that, my life would be a short one."

The neat thing about maids is that they gossip, and so while I had been making tea, I had talked with the other servants. And one of the things I had learned from them was that the Daimyo did not have any children. Another thing, was that his marriage to the Mistress predated his rise as Daimyo.

Adding in that she was older than him, they probably were in a relationship for a while now, for her to have a strong enough grasp on him to stop him from taking in any other wife.

And the only reason for them to not have any children, would be for them to be unable to do so.

Being sterile was a huge taboo in this world, especially for a man as it implied they were less than a man than others, and this was unacceptable for a Daimyo. The Daimyo was supposed to be the superior one, so how could he be sterile?

And so, predictably, after a few seconds of silence, the Daimyo solemnly said, "No one would dare to…"

I quickly cut him off, raising my head to show my determined face as I said, "My mother's mind was harmed by her sickness, so she most probably made everything up. My father was probably nothing more than a coward who couldn't face his responsibilities."

With that said, I got up from the ground, before bowing sharply and saying, "I apologize for bothering you for so long. I will take my leave."

I quickly walked away, and the Daimyo cried out, "Wait!"

However, I did not stop, and only moved faster as I left the room.