" too. He promised funds to expand our clan's land, but Lord Fourth still hasn't provided them. I thought the village's finances were simply strained, and that the funds would be released once things improved, so I held back the complaints from the younger n in my clan…"
"I don't have much to add, but I heard the Tōki Clan also turned against the Mizukage because of sothing Lord Fourth did. Thinking about it now… it's very possible the Mizukage went back on his word to the Tōki Clan as well."
One after another, the shinobi present began speaking up.
Most of them were small fry, but right now, every word sounded urgent. It was as if they were trying to push the fear Shiki had carved into them onto the Fourth Mizukage instead.
At this point, they desperately hoped Shiki's theory was true.
If there really was sothing wrong with the Fourth Mizukage, then maybe—just maybe—Shiki would let them live.
What was going on?
At first, i had thought it was only her.
She had assud the Fourth Mizukage had simply planned to discard her once he was done using her.
That was not exactly strange. Anyone who truly believed every promise a politician made was a fool.
And the Mizukage was, by nature, a political position.
But…
How could there be this many coincidences?
It was almost as if… sothing in the middle had been erased.
i Terumī's expression darkened.
Yes, it was normal for the Fourth Mizukage to fail to fulfill a promise from ti to ti.
It was also not impossible for him to break an agreent.
But this was far too many.
"Wait," one shinobi suddenly said, frowning. "Didn't Mizukage-sama complete the reforms he promised? He changed the mission system, didn't he?"
The mont he said that, the others turned to look at him as if he had just said sothing incredibly stupid.
"That was a promise he made before he took office."
The shinobi froze.
And the aning behind those words quickly sank in.
Yes, the Fourth Mizukage had fulfilled that promise.
But what kind of promise had it been?
A public one.
Sothing the entire village knew about.
Even if soone really had placed the Fourth Mizukage under control, there was no way they could overlook sothing that obvious.
In fact, it was precisely because he had fulfilled the public promises while ignoring the private ones made to certain clans and shinobi that the situation felt even more suspicious.
Public promises were easy to investigate.
Private agreents were different.
Even with mory-searching ninjutsu, finding every single hidden promise buried inside a person's mories would be difficult.
Especially if the mories had already been tampered with.
"Shiki," i Terumī said, her voice low and heavy. "Do you have proof?"
Her face had turned terrifyingly grim.
"Mizukage-sama… is still a Kage."
A village's Kage.
Being controlled?
That sounded absurd.
"I do."
Shiki spread his hands calmly.
"The proof is that I haven't killed all of you yet."
He looked around the battlefield.
"Isn't that enough?"
Yes, Utakata had been killed.
But ro's sword had only been snapped, and Hikari's leg had only been broken.
Aside from Utakata, not a single person here had actually died by his hand.
"You were all badly injured, but you're still breathing."
Shiki's tone remained casual, as if he were stating sothing obvious.
"That alone is already rcy."
As for killing the jinchūriki, he did not ntion it.
He was sure these people would not bring it up either.
Not if they still wanted to live.
"Besides," Shiki continued, "if soone is controlling him, the thod is most likely genjutsu."
He pointed casually toward Ao.
"With his Byakugan, checking that shouldn't be difficult."
Ao's expression changed.
"And even without the Byakugan, Kirigakure shouldn't be so helpless that it can't inspect its own Mizukage."
Shiki's eyes swept over them.
"I don't need to explain the rest, do I?"
Yes…
There were plenty of ways to verify it.
It was just that the Mizukage stood at the very top—his status untouchable, his strength unquestioned. No one had ever seriously considered the possibility that he could be controlled.
So no one had even tried.
"And you?" i Terumī took a slow breath, steadying herself. "Mizukage-sama is the Kage of Kirigakure. If sothing's wrong with him… that shouldn't be a bad thing for you, a shinobi from Konoha, right?"
Her gaze locked onto Shiki.
"What exactly are you after?"
"My goal?" Shiki smiled faintly.
"I'm here to deal with the one controlling the Mizukage."
His tone was casual, almost indifferent.
"That's why I ca to the Land of Water."
He paused for a mont, then added,
"Of course… I'm not in the habit of handing out favors for free."
i's eyes narrowed slightly.
"So…"
"I'll help you deal with the Mizukage—and whoever's pulling the strings behind him."
Shiki's voice remained calm, but there was a clear edge beneath it.
"But I'll need sothing in return."
He tilted his head slightly, a faint smile forming at the corner of his lips.
"Once you've confird what I told you… we can sit down and talk properly."
The smile on his face deepened just a little.
"…about compensation."
'This guy…'
i clenched her teeth, her expression tightening despite her efforts to stay composed.
'Shaless…'
He had just killed their jinchūriki.
And now he was calmly talking about compensation, as if none of it mattered.
But she didn't say it out loud.
She couldn't.
Because this… was what power looked like.
Even when you were the one in the right—
You were still the one forced to swallow your anger.
--
Although Kirigakure was still drowning in chaos, an event as major as the Kaguya Clan's rebellion could not be ignored.
The Fourth Mizukage had indeed left the task to i Terumī and the others. He had also gone out personally to draw the Kaguya Clan's attention away.
But after the Kaguya Clan was wiped out, he returned to the village as if nothing had happened, wearing the face of a normal Kage, and convened a high-level eting.
Kirigakure.
The Mizukage Building.
i Terumī's face was as cold as ice.
ro's expression was equally cold, while Hikari remained silent.
The Fourth Mizukage did not have the slightest trace of a smile either.
He calmly announced the beginning of the eting, discussed the current situation in the Land of Water in a flat voice, and then gave a completely aningless summary.
After arranging everyone's duties, he ended the eting.
The entire atmosphere was deathly silent.
Uncomfortable.
The shinobi present could not help casting strange glances toward i Terumī and the other "loyalists."
"The Kaguya Clan really was strong. Those people actually suffered injuries that serious."
"Are they dissatisfied because they were wounded?"
"Or did the Fourth Mizukage's decision to use himself as bait push things too far? Even his own direct subordinates can't stand it anymore?"
Everyone had their own guesses, but no one dared to speak.
The Fourth Mizukage's prestige was already poor. There were plenty of people who did not respect him, and even more who were dissatisfied with him.
He represented the shinobi village, so naturally, he could not truly stand on the sa side as the various powerful clans and local factions.
And his cruel, erratic actions had already driven away many shinobi who genuinely cared about the village.
If not for the fact that his strength was unmatched in Kirigakure, and that he was still the strongest shinobi in the village...
With Kirigakure's current atmosphere, soone would have tried to assassinate him long ago.
So when everyone saw the grim faces of i Terumī and the others, they were not surprised. They only assud that the Fourth Mizukage's twisted thods had once again pushed his own people away.
The aningless eting finally ended.
i Terumī walked out of the Mizukage Building with a stern face.
The others followed behind her, each one looking cold and unapproachable.
To anyone watching, it looked exactly like the beginning of an internal power struggle.
But in reality...
Only after they had walked far enough away did i Terumī let out a soft sigh.
"Ao, what was the result?"
Ao lowered his head.
His lips moved, but in the end, he did not say a word.
Only gloom filled his eyes.
But that alone was already enough.
The other sensory-type shinobi also lowered their heads, their expressions heavy.
Although their sensory ninjutsu could not compare to Ao's Byakugan, they were not weak either.
Confirming the truth had not been difficult.
After a long silence, i Terumī sighed. A flash of anger passed through her eyes.
"It's truly unimaginable..."
"If Shiki hadn't said it himself, I wouldn't have dared to even consider it."
"The dignified Mizukage is actually being controlled like a toy... acting as soone else's puppet."
Extre sha and anger appeared on everyone's faces.
Their own leader was soone else's puppet?
This was an insult.
An insult to the Land of Water.
It was even more humiliating than Shiki killing their jinchūriki.
But...
"What should we do now?" ro and the others looked at one another, bitter smiles appearing on their faces.
Every single one of them was seriously injured.
ro's sword had not been repaired yet.
Hikari still needed crutches.
Utakata was dead.
Even Zabuza had not co, because he was still lying in a hospital bed.
Even if they knew there was sothing wrong with the Mizukage, what could they do?
As a perfect jinchūriki, the Fourth Mizukage was already the strongest shinobi in Kirigakure.
They could not defeat him to begin with.
And now, all of them were badly injured.
Were they supposed to endure a puppet trampling over the village until everyone recovered, just so they could surround him together?
"Let's go talk to Shiki."
i Terumī closed her eyes and took a deep breath, as if forcing herself to make a decision against her will.
Then she spoke decisively.
"Let's hear what his price is."
"This ti... we really have to hire a rcenary."
"What!?"
"Are you serious, i Terumī?" Hikari's face instantly twisted, his thin lips curling in a grimace. "Do we really have to hire soone who just killed one of our own? That humiliation can't be erased, no matter what."
"Then do you want our village to beco a laughingstock for the entire shinobi world?" i snapped back without holding anything back. "A Kage of one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages being manipulated like a puppet? What do you think the other villages would say!?"
Hikari fell silent.
i Terumī clenched her fists.
"Shiki is a legend known throughout the shinobi world. Losing to him is already sothing people can accept. So might even call it an honor. It would never be treated as pure sha."
Her voice lowered slightly.
"I know. I know it's hard to accept. I'm just as unwilling as you are."
"But we have no other choice."
Her words silenced them all.
No one could argue.
Because in the end, everything in the shinobi world ca down to strength.
And right now...
They did not have enough.
Even after confirming that the Fourth Mizukage was being controlled, the problem was far from simple.
He was still the Mizukage.
No matter how many strange orders he had given after taking office, no matter how much blood had been spilled under his rule, he was still the man who stood at the top of Kirigakure.
For i Terumī, ro, Hikari, and the others, that truth was not easy to accept.
Their own Kage—controlled like a puppet by soone hiding in the shadows.
For any shinobi of the village, that was a humiliation hard to swallow.
For so, it might have been enough to break their spirit completely.
But the people gathered here were not that fragile.
There was shock in their eyes.
There was anger.
But there was no despair.
Kirigakure had already fallen into chaos. The fact that they had still chosen to stand here, still chosen to protect the village instead of saving only themselves, proved what kind of shinobi they were.
They were not fighting for Yagura.
They were fighting for Kirigakure.
And if the Mizukage had truly been turned into soone else's puppet, then they would cut the strings themselves.
When i Terumī gave her orders and decided to contact Shiki again, the three mbers of the Seven Ninja Swordsn of the Mist and Utakata all looked at her differently.
There was no hesitation in her voice.
No attempt to push responsibility onto soone else.
She simply accepted the situation in front of her and moved.
For a village drowning in blood and suspicion, that kind of composure carried weight.
ro and Hikari exchanged a quiet glance.
Neither of them said anything.
But the thought had already taken root.
Of course, it was still too early to speak of such things.
i Terumī's expression remained serious. After arranging the imdiate response, she began making secret visits to Kirigakure's elders.
Those elders were already old.
Their bodies had weakened, and most of them could no longer stand on the battlefield the way they once had. These days, they mostly stayed in the background, watching the village from behind closed doors.
But their nas still carried weight.
So had lived through the last years of the Warring States Period. A few had even fought beside the First Mizukage when Kirigakure was founded.
In a village like the Bloody Mist, seniority alone was not enough to command respect.
Surviving that long was.
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