Taking out the first secret ballot, Kuro said aloud, "The first vote is yes."
Doing the same for the next 11 ballots, they tallied up to 6-6. Taking out the last one, he smiled slightly and said, "The last ballot reads as yes, with a final vote of 6-7. Proposal of cooperating with Jack passes!"
The elders looked at each other; some shaking their heads. The ballots were secretive, but everyone knew it was Midori Ninja who had changed his vote and, thus, the outcome.
Shinia, the leader of the opposing faction in this vote and a friend of Kuro, said, "With the vote behind us, let us all put aside our differences and find the best way forward," she said.
With the vote over, nobody would argue against allying with Jack anymore. Ninjas are always like this; once a vote is over, they would put it aside and unite; they wouldn’t descend into a long fight over the vote, its validity, etc. They are united; they couldn’t have survived for so many years if they weren't.
Even though they have different opinions on many issues, they all want the best for the village.
Hearing what Shinia said, the rest of the elders nodded and started stating their opinions.
"We should ask him to remove the spy; an alliance with someone who is spying on us is unacceptable," said Mienai ninja, with some hypocrisy.
As they speak, his subordinates are spying on Jack.
Kuro nodded and said, "That is a given; we would not allow a spy to remain in the village."
Pinku ninja said, "We must keep this a secret from Kampaku; make sure to prevent anything from leading out of the village accidentally." Pinku ninja was sure of everyone's loyalty, but sometimes, trade groups controlled by ninja villages come into contact with them, so it is still necessary to pay attention to it.
Everyone nodded; it was pretty unnecessary for Pinku to say that, as everyone already knew it.
Midori ninja chief, whose vote decided the outcome, said, "Warn Jack that if he tries to harm anyone from our village, the alliance will not last!" he said. Even though he is in charge of the Green Ninja, who have the highest fatalities, he still cares about the lives of his comrades.
Everyone stated their opinions, and after a few hours, Kuro, who noted everyone's suggestions, left the room with a thick stack of papers in his hand. Of course, it's impossible to include everything in the final deal, so he has to cut it down and try to keep something from everyone in the final deal; then, he would put it for a vote, and if the council voted for it, it would be sent to Jack.
...
After 3 days of hard work, Kuro finished the final deal. It had many provisions, which included:
1. As allies, they cannot spy on each other or harm each other.
2. Against Kampaku, they only act together; if one side acts on their own, they cannot expect help from the other.
3. Jack uses his influence to form an army, while ninjas protect him in the dark.
4. Both sides must take all precautions to keep the deal a secret.
5. The pact can include other ninja villages or local lords, but it cannot include samurai.
6. All parties must consent before adding another ally to the pact.
7. Their purpose was to take out Kampaku, and the alliance would lose its effect once Kampaku and his allies were out of power.
8. ...
It had 301 provisions, for a total of 61 pages; it was still much thinner than the original version, which was over 300 pages. Still, it was quite lengthy; it would take a while for Jack to read it all and analyze them; maybe a week or so. Along with another week for the council members to read it, it would take at least two weeks to sign the deal.
With the final deal in hand, Kuro went to the next emergency meeting of elders and gave them the final version; after only two days, everyone unanimously approved.
Kuro, happy that everyone responded faster than expected, stared at the letter the spy gave him. The date and time already passed, but the location was still there; it was outside the village, in a remote place.
These days, Kuro hasn't received any new letters. Still, he has spies spying on Jack; after the last defeat, they initially pulled back their spies, but soon, the Mienai ninja chief sent expert spies to keep an eye on Jack again.
The previous spies Kuro pulled back were just ordinary Midori ninjas, but the current spies are skilled experts; they have kept track of Jack's location, so contacting him is not difficult.
Kuro ordered Pinku, along with the cooperation of Mienai, Midori, and Kyōryoku, to make preparations for his trip.
...
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Jack has not been sitting idly these last few weeks; he has picked the strongest villagers when he left his first village.
The village chief was very talented and got promoted; now, he is third in command, after Jack and Michael. He is the de facto leader of the warriors from the villages.
Speaking of warriors, Jack now has over 500 people under him.
He took 60 villager swordsmen from the first village, and in the past few weeks, he has been moving from one village to another, taking soldiers wherever he went. Fortunately for him, everyone likes Hero-sama, and they jump over each other to serve him.
In fact, if he wanted, he could have gotten thousands of soldiers. He didn’t because of the food and weapon supply problem; he would have trouble feeding and arming them if he took in that many.
Because Kampaku is after him, he cannot stay in one place, and cannot even keep all of his troops in one place.
Jack has split his troops into two groups: one he calls Freedom Flag Bearers, and the other he calls Justice Army.
Freedom Flag Bearers are 50 of the elite who always accompany him, while the justice army comprises 450 troops under the command of the village chief; the two groups usually stay in different locations.
"Hmm!" Jack looked at the letter that was sent to him by an arrow.
"So, their spies are around!" he smiled. Even as a peak human, his hearing is not strong enough to hear everything; if expert spies looked at him from far away, he would not notice them.
Still, Jack expected them to place spies on him, so he wasn’t surprised.
Reading the letter, it was a location and time.
After reading the letter, he took out another letter; this one was sent by Lucy.
These days, Lucy has been sending him letters daily, using birds. Lucy has an amazing ability to train birds and can easily send letters secretly; they already have trained eagles as letter carriers.
"Jack-sama, I recently learned they held a vote over cooperation with you! They voted yes, and they will contact you soon! This is the final version of the treaty they will present to you!" it was written.
Jack started reading; they were written on very thin papers but still readable. After a few hours, he nodded.
He nodded happily; it was indeed the right choice to give Lucy peak human spy abilities; she is so amazing. Acting as a spy in a ninja village is obviously not easy; Jack doesn’t know how Lucy got this info and even the text of the treaty, but he trusts its authenticity.
Lucy and Jack have code words, so the letter cannot be from anyone but Lucy; as someone created by him, Lucy would never betray him, and would never send something she doubts about.
Knowing it was legit, He took Mike, along with elite soldiers, and started moving toward the location.
He intends to camp there for a few days, to see if anything suspicious is happening.
Even with complete trust in Lucy, Jack remains cautious; after all, if something urgent happens, Lucy may be unable to deliver news in time, even if she is entirely loyal.
...
Just beside a green mountain, ninjas in green clothes were standing. Their green clothes were so harmonious with their surroundings that they were barely visible; someone passing may not notice them if they don’t look carefully.
In this mission, Kuro, the Black ninja chief, wore green. In the village, ninjas wear their lineage's clothes, but outside, they usually wear whatever helps them camouflage the best.
The last time, Kuro didn’t wear green because he expected it to be a breeze, easily killing everyone; also, he didn’t intend to hide at all, so there was no need to hide.
This time, however, he took everything more seriously and wore green clothes.
After a while, another group arrived; They didn’t have good weapons and armor, but they were all tall and muscular, obviously an elite group.
Kuro looked over and felt fear!
"That archer!" He felt his breath shortened; he was truly afraid of that man!
Mike, with an innocent look and shining white skin, also looked over in confusion.
As someone custom-designed by Jack, Mike is a peak human with amazing archer talent, and even superb swordsmanship and spear skills.
But, he wasn’t perfect; in fact, Mike has a very low EQ, usually having trouble expressing his true feelings; in his background, Jack wrote:
'He has trouble speaking to women who are not Lucy, and as a result, at age 30, he is still a virgin.'
It can be said that all his brain capacity is used up by fighting and commanding skills in battles, leaving no space for anything else.
Therefore, Mike, who shot Kuro in the last battles, had trouble understanding why Kuro was looking at him with fear; in fact, he didn't even notice it was fear, he only thought that the man he shot last time was looking at him 'strangely'; his EQ wasn’t enough to understand that his amazing archer skills can cause massive shocks to nearly anyone who sees them.
Still, this meeting was between Kuro and Jack, so he quickly ignored Kuro; he turned his face and started paying attention to the surroundings, looking for any sign of danger. In addition to his other tasks, Mike is Jack's bodyguard, so he must pay attention.
When it comes to social relations, Mike is bottom tier, but when it comes to battles, he is the best one can hope for. With him as a guard, Jack wasn't worried about his personal safety.
"Kuro! Did your injuries heal?" Jack looked at Kuro's groin area.
coughing, Kuro said, "I'm fine! Let's not waste time; this is what I prepared," Kuro handed over the papers.
Using gloves, Jack started to read. "I agree!" he said after a few looks.
Kuro was very surprised. "Really? Don’t you want to read it first?"
Jack only read a few lines and agreed, so Kuro was confused; he expected Jack to at least read the entire thing.
"It's fine! I get my Lucy out of there in a few days. If you don’t want anyone to die, open the west gate and move everyone out of there by 2 pm next Monday; if anyone remains, their death would be on you!"
"You want us to open our gate for your spy to leave?" Jack asked with anger.
"Yes, this is exactly what I want; that is for your good; my Lucy can leave anytime she wants; it's just that your ninjas may die if they are caught in the way; as allies, I thought it would be necessary to give a heads up!" said Jack.
Looking at Jack, then at Mike, Kuro closed his eyes and said aloud, "Junior Kuro! Go and discuss the details with that archer."
Junior Kuro, not knowing why he felt Kuro's voice trembling slightly, nodded and went forward to discuss details.
Soon, they discussed the details and, after a few hours, returned back to their camp.
Kuro promised to allow the spy to leave at the agreed-upon time; everything else went as expected.