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Among all the combatants on the battlefield, Zabuza and Kisame were arguably the most evenly matched pair.
The primary reason for this was that Kisame had been stripped of Samehada, while Zabuza still wielded the Executioner's Blade in his grasp. With the balance of power having shifted in this manner, the two had become locked in a grinding stalemate.
Mei Terumi cast a quick, assessing glance in Zabuza's direction. Once she had ascertained that he would not be cut down in a short span of time, she redirected her full, undivided attention onto the opponent standing before her—Yagura.
As the previous Mizukage, Yagura occupied an exceedingly complicated position within Mei Terumi's heart.
He was her senior, and moreover, he had once held the office of Mizukage. By all conventional logic, Yagura should have been someone she deeply respected. And yet, the actions Yagura had perpetrated within the Hidden Mist Village made it genuinely impossible for her to feel any such reverence.
After a brief, intense exchange of blows with Yagura, Mei Terumi instantly widened the distance between them, causing Yagura's iron staff to cleave through nothing but empty air.
"Fourth Mizukage, I don't care what reason you have for appearing here. Right now, you are attacking the Hidden Mist Village alongside them, inflicting catastrophic destruction upon the village once again... Is this truly what you wish to see?!" Mei Terumi demanded, her voice sharp and cutting.
"Whether it is what I wish to see or not... does it even matter?" Yagura pointed his iron staff directly at Mei Terumi. "At this very moment, I cannot even control my own body. Aside from standing as your enemy, what else can I possibly do?"
"Back when you held sway over the Hidden Mist Village, you tore the village apart from within. The Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist scattered to the winds—not even one in seven remained. An even graver crime was your persecution of those who wielded Kekkei Genkai. You forced those people to either rise in rebellion or, like the majority of the Seven Swordsmen, choose the path of defection. Do you have any idea what the consequences were? A vast number of exceptionally skilled shinobi abandoned the Hidden Mist Village, leaving the village virtually incapable of attracting outstanding talent. Yagura... you are a sinner against the Hidden Mist Village!"
Mei Terumi launched another ferocious assault against Yagura, all the while meticulously tracking his every minute movement. The moment the right conditions presented themselves, she would unleash her Lava Release to melt the iron staff in his hands.
Yagura remained utterly silent. His entire demeanor grew increasingly sullen and withdrawn. Yet it was undeniable that his offensive tempo gradually began to slow in the face of Mei Terumi's relentless verbal and physical onslaught.
He could remember certain things clearly—for instance, that he had once suffered an attack at the hands of the Akatsuki. But there were other matters that felt muddled and hazy within his mind, to the point where he could not even clearly recall what had truly transpired. For example, the "Bloody Mist" era that Mei Terumi had just spoken of.
Was any of that real?
Had I truly committed those acts?
It felt almost as if... I had once been trapped in a waking nightmare.
In that moment of dazed distraction, Yagura's movements faltered. The iron staff in his hands was rapidly and viciously corroded by the Lava Release. In a matter of heartbeats, it had been melted down into two separate, shorter rods, each barely half the length of the original.
Sensing the critical danger, Yagura hurriedly flung the ruined remnants of his weapon aside while simultaneously retreating at full speed in an attempt to put distance between himself and Mei Terumi. But she followed relentlessly, closing the gap in an instant. At the same moment, she unleashed another wave of her Lava Release, a torrent of searing, orange-red liquid spewing from her mouth.
Yagura was forced to retreat once more, barely managing to evade the scorching attack.
Mei Terumi's brow furrowed. She prepared to press her advantage and continue her relentless pursuit. But Yagura brought his hands together in a hand seal, and in an instant, three identical clones of himself materialized. They scattered and moved at high speed, their paths weaving and intersecting chaotically.
"The Water Clone Technique?!"
Mei Terumi momentarily lost track of the real Yagura. And yet, in the blink of an eye, he had closed the distance until he was right upon her.
"Water Formation Wall!"
Mei Terumi did not dare to be careless. A circular wall of water suddenly erupted upwards from beneath her feet, encasing her completely in a protective sphere.
Yagura, however, did not press his attack. Instead, he retreated to a position roughly ten meters away.
As the water wall collapsed, Mei Terumi swept her gaze towards the other flanks of the battlefield. Yugito Nii, Roshi, and Han had already entered states of full Tailed Beast transformation. Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Kurotsuchi were now in far more perilous positions than before.
Yagura, however, showed no apparent inclination to enter his own Tailed Beast state.
End this quickly!
The thought blazed through Mei Terumi's mind.
If Yagura were allowed to complete his full Tailed Beast transformation, her own situation would become immeasurably more dangerous.
Yet, as Mei Terumi launched her next offensive, Yagura's condition seemed strangely abnormal. He appeared to be in a constant, dazed distraction, his movements noticeably more sluggish than they had been at the start.
Mei Terumi could not fathom the reason, but she was fully prepared to seize the opportunity to bring Yagura down in one decisive blow. Just then, Yagura suddenly paused and spoke. "May I ask you one thing?"
"What is it?" Mei Terumi demanded.
"I... What exactly happened during the 'Bloody Mist'? Did I truly commit unforgivable atrocities?" Yagura asked.
Mei Terumi stared at him, then nodded her head without a moment's hesitation.
On the battlefield, there could be no hesitation whatsoever. Otherwise, the ones who would be injured would not only be oneself, but potentially those closest to one's heart as well.
"Can you tell me about it?" Yagura asked, making no further move to attack.
Mei Terumi drew a deep breath, then summarized the most critical events in a concise, clipped recount.
Yagura closed his eyes gently and let out a long, weary sigh.
Mei Terumi's brow furrowed slightly. A pang of unwilling pity stirred within her heart.
When all was said and done, Yagura was a tragic figure. And the root cause of that tragedy was not his own inherent nature, but the machinations of the Akatsuki.
"I... Are my children... are they all well?" Yagura asked.
"Yes. They are all doing well... You have a grandchild now," Mei Terumi replied.
"Do they despise me?"
Mei Terumi found it immensely difficult to give a straightforward answer to that question.
The acts Yagura had committed—even if they had not been born of his own true will—had unquestionably inflicted grievous harm upon the Hidden Mist Village.
Was he innocent?
Yes.
But what of those who had perished as a result?
Were they not even more innocent?
"They... are striving and working hard for the revival of this village," Mei Terumi stated. After a brief moment of further thought, she added, "However, I am the Mizukage. It is my sworn duty to ensure the well-being of every villager. I will stake my life on those words."
"Even if they are..."
"Yes."
"That is good, then... I... I am truly, deeply sorry for the things I have done. From now on, the Hidden Mist Village rests in your hands."
Yagura's body began to disintegrate and crumble into dust. Yet upon his face, a genuine smile had finally emerged. He held that expression until he had faded away entirely from existence.
Mei Terumi felt no joy in her victory. Instead, all she felt was a profound, aching sorrow, and even a sense of deep, personal humiliation.
Starting from the Fourth Mizukage, the Hidden Mist Village had been toyed with and manipulated in the palm of the Akatsuki's hand. Yagura had, in a sense, been killed twice over.
This hatred, this debt of vengeance, Mei Terumi seared deeply into her very soul.
Clenching her fists tightly, Mei Terumi cast aside all hesitation and turned to seek out her next opponent: Han.
Among the six separate individual duels raging across the battlefield, the disparity in strength was at its most extreme between Han and Kurotsuchi.
She absolutely had to assist Kurotsuchi and bring Han down with all possible haste.
...
"Pant..."
Mangetsu gasped for air, ragged and desperate. His forehead and back were thoroughly soaked with sweat. Standing before him, Gengetsu appeared as utterly composed as if nothing had happened at all, his face wreathed in a broad, amused smile as he gazed at his grandson.
Can the gap between us truly be this vast?
Mangetsu felt as though his arms were weighed down with lead. Samehada felt as though it could slip from his nerveless fingers at any moment.
Throughout that entire preceding barrage of relentless attacks, he had not managed to pose even the slightest genuine threat to Gengetsu.
"You are pathetically weak. Although I truly do wish for you to defeat me swiftly... your current state is a long, long way from meeting my expectations," Gengetsu declared, planting his hands jauntily on his hips, his expression one of blatant, open amusement.