Chapter 173: Terumī Mei Discovers a Blind Spot
Ding.
The two Lightning Blades collided.
Kurotsuchi Raiga's original plan was that, no matter what, he would lose this match.
That's right.
The once-arrogant Kurotsuchi Raiga had, for some inexplicable reason, learned how to read the room and deal with human relations.
However, that thought didn't last very long. The instant he exchanged blows with Ringo Ameyuri, he realized there was absolutely no need to hold back.
Ringo Ameyuri's strength was genuinely solid.
Even though Kurotsuchi Raiga was far more familiar with the Lightning Blade, he couldn't gain even the slightest advantage.
Originally, Ringo Ameyuri specialized in Lightning Release and ninja swords. The Lightning Blade merely acted as icing on the cake. For her, there was no need to re-familiarize herself with it.
In the original work, Ringo Ameyuri's fame was reflected in just two points: one was that she was called a "genius Lightning Release ninja," and the other was that "once she locked onto a mission target, there was absolutely no chance of escape."
Without ever having participated in a Ninja World War, that already counted as having a certain level of notoriety.
What was even rarer was the timing.
Kurotsuchi Raiga was taken down by a Naruto who had learned the Rasengan, and the Fourth Great Ninja War began just three years later.
In other words, Ringo Ameyuri had at most three years to make a name for herself before she had to hurry up and die, otherwise there'd be no way for her to be brought back via Impure World Reincarnation.
People always say Namikaze Minato died young, gone at the speed of light, but Ringo Ameyuri was the real definition of speedrun death.
This was also the second gift Shiromo had prepared for Terumī Mei.
Just giving her the Lightning Blade was useless. The one who will be wielding the Lightning Blade is about to die.
They said she could still live for three years, but that was "at most three years."
Who knew whether Ringo Ameyuri was a hardcore grinder, the type to go crazy doing missions and farming reputation within a single year, get famous, and then immediately die.
As Terumī Mei watched the two of them trade blows back and forth amid flashes of lightning and roaring thunder, Shiromo suddenly spoke: "Did you know she's sick?"
"Hm? Sick?"
Terumī Mei froze for a moment: "She does have some quirks, but every generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen has quirks. Hers doesn't really count as anything special, does it?"
"I don't mean sick in the head."
"..."
If it wasn't her head, then it had to be her body.
"Ameyuri… she's okay, right?"
Terumī Mei's face immediately filled with concern.
"Under normal circumstances, she has at most three years left to live. No one knows exactly when she'll die from the illness. Anyway, in the original timeline she was brought back during the Fourth War via Impure World Reincarnation, three years later."
"..."
Terumī Mei looked deeply troubled.
Shiromo's words were effectively a verdict. There was no need to doubt them.
He had come from the future. Other matters might change due to various factors, but Ringo Ameyuri's birth, aging, illness, and death were clearly not within the scope of things that could be altered.
Terumī Mei felt utterly stifled.
Kirigakure was already short on manpower. After finally pulling an SR character, Shiromo even gifted her a full set of equipment. She thought she could use her as a main carry.
Then she took a closer look, good grief, it was a limited-time character?
"Is there a way to cure her?"
Terumī Mei sighed and asked.
"There probably is. Let her come back with us later and run a few tests first. We need to confirm what the problem is before we can know whether it can be treated and how."
"Don't worry, Orochimaru also has someone over there with a terminal illness who's going to die soon… oh, that one actually also comes from your Kirigakure."
"By the way, is there some kind of radiation source near Kirigakure? Or are you cursed or something? Why do geniuses keep dying young over there?"
By the time Shiromo said this, even he himself sounded a bit unsure.
At first, when only Kimimaro died young from a terminal illness, people wondered whether it was because of the Shikotsumyaku.
They even speculated about things like pulling bones out to use them and then stuffing them back in, getting contaminated.
But it seemed that wasn't the case.
Ringo Ameyuri also died from a terminal illness.
Suigetsu's older brother, Hōzuki Mangetsu, also didn't seem to die in battle. After he died, the twin blades Hiramekarei were inherited by Chōjūrō.
"Probably not? If you're saying we're really contaminated or cursed, then I am not fine too, right?"
Terumī Mei said this, but she felt a bit uneasy as she spoke.
"There's another possibility. Early on, the Land of Water may have hidden some evil ninja who once did some unspeakable things to fish."
"And since the ninja world seems to lack reproductive isolation, that led to a group of people appearing in Kirigakure with sharp, pointed teeth."
"This also indirectly caused some people in the Land of Water to have an extra layer of instability in their latent genes. The more talented a person is, the more easily they activate deeper genes, and the more easily they collapse?"
Shiromo proposed another hypothesis.
"What does that have to do with teeth? Don't tell me you have some kind of prejudice against Kirigakure ninja?"
Terumī Mei looked confused after hearing this: "What's wrong with sharp teeth? Why does it have to involve fish doing that? By your logic, Uzumaki Naruto, the Nine-Tails jinchūriki with whisker marks, does that mean the Yellow Flash had an affair with the Nine-Tails?"
"Ah?"
Nohara Rin looked over in confusion.
Why was Minato-sensei getting dragged into this?
"This… is hard to say."
Shiromo looked troubled.
"Ah?"
Terumī Mei looked stunned.
What's hard to say about that?
Is there some hidden scandal?
Uchiha Hikari was also dumbfounded.
Is Konoha really this perverted?
Does that mean she not only has to join anti-gay protests, but also anti-furry protests?
"When the Seventh Hokage was struck in a chakra point by his daughter using the Byakugan, the Nine-Tails felt the pain simultaneously."
"During the Fourth War, after reconciling with its jinchūriki, the Nine-Tails once voluntarily suggested taking control of the body, temporarily gaining control to fight."
Shiromo gave two examples.
These two examples were perfectly serious.
But when connected to what Shiromo had said earlier, they suddenly became very not serious.
If it could feel pain, could it feel other things as well?
If they could swap consciousness and take over the body to fight, then could they take over the body to fight in other ways too?
Terrifying.
Even Rin looked flustered: "Um, don't think about it too much. I'll go ask Kushina-nee about this sometime when I get the chance!"
"Forget it, let's not dwell on that."
Terumī Mei waved her hand, then suddenly frowned: "Wait, something's not right. You took away the Three-Tails. To compensate, you helped me recover the ninja swords and gave them to Ringo. Then you're going to take Ringo to Amegakure for treatment…"
"After all that back and forth, didn't you basically give me nothing, while taking away both the Three-Tails and Ringo for free?"
"..."
"Oh, well, it's not like there's nothing. There's also a Kurotsuchi Raiga without a ninja sword, and a red-eyed one."
Terumī Mei added a correction.
As her words fell, the fight beside them also happened to end.
As expected, Ringo Ameyuri emerged victorious and took the other Lightning Blade from Kurotsuchi Raiga's hand.
"If you're nothing without a ninja sword, then you don't deserve to have one. Since you didn't leave, go back to the Kirigakure Ninja Academy and become a teacher who teaches swordsmanship."
Shiromo stepped forward and said to Kurotsuchi Raiga.
"Don't think you can change the subject just by saying some cool lines."
Terumī Mei's resentful, lingering voice drifted out from behind Shiromo.
(End of this chapter)