Naruto: We Agreed on a Simulation, But They Actually Came to Life? Chapter 119 119: A Different Kind of Person

The shopping district of the Hidden Mist Village.

Terumi i stood before a knife rack in a general store for a long while. She picked up a small kitchen knife, flipping it over to examine the blade before testing the edge with her thumb.

Kitahara Kaede stood half a step behind her, already carrying a bag of seasonings.

i placed the knife back on the rack and picked up a narrower one beside it. "This one feels more natural for chopping vegetables."

Kaede glanced at her. "Have you been practicing your cooking lately?"

i's finger paused. "Just ssing around."

She placed the knife in her basket and grabbed a small bottle of soy sauce. When it ca ti to pay, she nudged the packed bag toward Kaede.

"Carry this for ."

Kaede took the bag without asking any further questions. The two left the shop and walked along the street in silence for a while before i finally spoke.

"Ao-senpai has kept a close eye on Fuguki Suikazan for a year, but he hasn't found a thing."

Kaede didn't respond imdiately. i turned her head to look at him. "What do you think?"

"I only suggested a direction back then. As for whether there's actually a problem... it's hard to say." His tone remained noncommittal.

i looked away. He never spoke in absolutes about things he wasn't certain of, but he wouldn't have brought it up in the first place if it were just a random guess.

If Ao had searched for an entire year without finding any substantial evidence, then either the direction was wrong, or Fuguki Suikazan's tracks were cleaner than anyone had expected. She suspected the latter.

They walked a bit further. Kaede stared at the road ahead.

"Sotis, finding nothing is a result in itself."

i didn't reply, waiting for him to continue.

"You've been in contact with Genji for so long. Don't you feel that Lord Yagura is... different now than when he first took office?"

i's pace slowed. After a few seconds of silence, she spoke. "Lord Genji asked sothing similar a while ago."

Kaede glanced at her. i's gaze remained fixed on the stone path ahead.

"He asked whether the changes in the village since Lord Yagura's ascension were for better or worse."

"And how did you answer?"

"I didn't say whether it was good or bad," i's speech slowed. "I told him that the words the Mizukage spoke when he took power are not the sa as the things he does now."

Kaede looked at her. He had originally prepared a full line of reasoning to guide her—starting with the contrast in Yagura's behavior and leading her step-by-step toward the idea of "manipulation."

But he couldn't say it that way now. She had already found the edge of the truth on her own. If he pushed further, it would seem too deliberate.

Kaede shifted the paper bag to his other hand. "The fact that Genji asked you that shows he has his own suspicions."

i glanced at him and nodded thoughtfully. "Why are you bringing this up suddenly? This doesn't feel like a casual question."

Kaede didn't deny it. "When a person changes that drastically, there are usually only a few reasons. They were faking it, they were corrupted by power, or soone is filtering the information they receive."

He paused. "Or, there's a final possibility: he is no longer the one making the decisions."

i stopped dead in her tracks. She had considered the first three, but not the fourth.

"Are you saying soone can influence the Mizukage's will?" Her voice was barely a whisper.

"Just a guess. I have no evidence." Kaede's tone remained flat.

i didn't press him further, but her mind began to race.

Faking it? Yagura had promised to fix the village's systemic issues when he took office. If he had never intended to change anything, those words would have just painted a target on his back. That made no sense.

Corrupted by power? Before becoming the Mizukage, Yagura was already a perfect Jinchuriki; he already held the strongest fist in the village. The position didn't grant him any additional power, and those decrees didn't benefit him personally. That didn't fit either.

Filtered information? Aside from Genji, Yagura had no one close to him. If Genji were satisfied with Yagura's current thods, he wouldn't have tested her with those questions. If you exclude Genji, there was no one else.

That left only the final option. He wasn't the one making the decisions.

i clenched her fist. What kind of ans could possibly override the will of a Mizukage? She couldn't imagine it. But if this path was correct, everything that had happened in the village over the last few years finally made sense.

"We still need evidence," she said softly.

Kaede gave a small hum of agreent.

i fell silent. As they turned a street corner, they saw soone walking toward them with a brisk pace.

It was Ao. He rarely appeared in the shopping district at this hour.

i and Kaede stopped simultaneously. Ao walked up to them and scanned the surroundings. A few pedestrians were drifting in the distance, but there were no prying eyes.

"I've been looking for you." He skipped the pleasantries and got straight to the point. "Fuguki Suikazan is dead."

i's expression froze. One mont she was thinking about how Ao had found nothing for a year, and the next, Fuguki was dead.

"What happened?"

Ao didn't beat around the bush. "Kisa Hoshigaki killed him. Subsequently, Kisa defected from the Hidden Mist Village and has been added to the missing-nin pursuit list."

Kaede frowned slightly, but the pieces in his mind clicked into place.

After the Cipher Division incident, Kisa had begun to suspect Fuguki. He must have found evidence that Fuguki was secretly leaking intelligence. Then, he likely realized that every ti he had personally killed a comrade in the past—thinking he was protecting the village's secrets—he had actually been cleaning up the tracks for a real traitor.

His convictions shattered, and the blade fell.

Ao continued, his voice cold. "The Intelligence Departnt intervened afterward and deduced that Kisa had obtained evidence of Fuguki's espionage, leading to a conflict. Only Fuguki's body was found at the scene; Sahada was taken by Kisa. By the ti the village discovered it, he had already left the Land of Water."

i remained silent for several seconds.

Fuguki Suikazan really had been a traitor; Kaede's initial judgnt had been correct. But the price of proving it was one of the Seven Ninja Swordsn dead in his own village and another elite shinobi defecting to a foreign land.

She spoke in a low voice. "Can we trace anything further up from the things recovered from Fuguki?"

Ao glanced at Kaede, then shifted his gaze toward the end of the street.

There, the gray, high-rise office building stood silently, shrouded in the mist.