Chapter 122 (Patreon)

Yagura’s concerns were well founded, but learning more about Kirigakure’s enemy was just as important. Only Mei Terumī knew who had given her the information. After weighing the clues, it seemed highly likely that the source was somewhere in Konoha.

That left them with a difficult choice. They could let Mei travel to Konoha in search of more answers, knowing she might be detained there. Or they could abandon the lead and rely on what they already knew to find a way to deal with the masked man themselves.

Either choice carried risks. The question was how much Kirigakure was willing to endure.

“Mei, what do you think? Should you go?”

Genji turned to her.

After a moment’s thought, Mei decided that she would.

For one thing, Yagura had spent a year working with Kisame and the others to counter the masked man. They hadn’t stopped him—or even managed to injure him. That made it clear that Kirigakure’s existing intelligence wasn’t enough to defeat him.

The masked man was far more dangerous than Mei had imagined. If she’d known how difficult he would be to deal with, she would have insisted on going to Konoha sooner.

Then there was Konoha itself. From what little they knew, the village under its Fifth Hokage seemed far more committed to peace than it had been during the Third Hokage’s era.

The Third Hokage had often spoken of peace, but in the end, he had wanted Konoha to prosper in peace. If the other lands tore themselves apart, so much the better.

The Fifth Hokage was different. She had taught sealing techniques to other villages without worrying that she was strengthening a potential enemy. She had also established close commercial ties with both Sunagakure and Kumogakure.

Nothing like that had ever happened in Konoha’s past.

When trade gave every side a chance to prosper, who would willingly throw it all away for war?

Besides, Danzo Shimura—the man most likely to target shinobi from bloodline clans—had become a rogue shinobi. Unless the Fifth Hokage was prepared to throw away the future she was building, she had little reason to make a reckless move against Mei.

Konoha could gain the support of another bloodline clan and risk a deadly conflict with Kirigakure, or it could help guide the entire shinobi world toward peace. Mei didn’t think the choice would be difficult.

Yagura seemed somewhat persuaded by her reasoning.

To keep the real purpose of the trip secret, Mei would publicly travel to the Land of Fire as a representative of her clan, there to discuss trade. Everyone in Kirigakure knew that Yagura’s upcoming inauguration as the Fourth Mizukage would mark the end of the Bloody Mist era and the beginning of a new future for the village. Sending a delegation to trade with other countries was perfectly reasonable.

Even if the masked man learned that Mei had gone to Konoha, he was unlikely to suspect anything. That was, as long as no one else knew the truth besides the three of them.

Mei set out with her clan’s merchant caravan. Meanwhile, Kirigakure made preparations for Yagura’s inauguration as the Fourth Mizukage. Beyond that, life in the village continued as usual.

In the days that followed, Obito lurked around Kirigakure several times, trying to discover how his information had been leaked. He even sent White Zetsu clones into the village to investigate.

But apart from the shinobi who had ambushed him, no one seemed to know anything. The other shinobi and civilians hadn’t even noticed the battle outside the village a few days earlier.

The people who had ambushed him stayed together every day. They never spent time alone, leaving Obito no chance to capture one and interrogate them.

Obito had also seen Mei leave the village. In fact, he had been watching when she departed.

At the time, Mei was known as a prodigy in Kirigakure, but she was only a Special Jōnin. She had no reason to be involved in high-level confidential meetings, so Obito paid her no mind.

That was his arrogance. Though he intended to take revenge on Kirigakure, he never considered the village a serious threat. He believed his Mangekyō Sharingan abilities would let him manipulate it with ease.

Had he made plans in advance and used White Zetsu to study the relationships among Kirigakure’s leaders, he might have realized that Mei was the shinobi most strongly supported by Genji, one of the village’s key decision-makers.

Mei came from a bloodline clan, but she didn’t look down on others as many from such clans did. Genji had made her a central figure in his efforts to balance the interests of the bloodline clans and the civilian shinobi.

In fact, she was more important to the village than Yagura, who was about to become the Fourth Mizukage.

Obito’s arrogance had allowed the answer to slip right past him.

Meanwhile, in Takigakure, Chiyuki had explained to Shibuichi that Danzo was targeting the Seven-Tails—and that other powers in the shinobi world coveted the tailed beasts as well.

The other eight tailed beasts were held within the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Only Takigakure, home of the Seven-Tails, had grown weaker year after year. If Danzo could take control of Takigakure now, someone else could do the same later.

Keeping the Seven-Tails there brought the village far more danger than benefit.

Shibuichi was reluctant to accept it, but he knew Chiyuki was right.

In its early days, Takigakure had been comparable in strength to Sunagakure, even if it had never been counted among the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Its leaders had once dared to consider sending someone to assassinate the First Hokage.

They had planned to kill Hashirama and use the chaos in Konoha to push Takigakure into the ranks of the Five Great Villages.

Instead, the elite jōnin they sent—Kakuzu—had failed to assassinate Hashirama. When the jōnin sent to pursue him caught up, Kakuzu killed many of them, leaving Takigakure crippled.

The village could no longer compare even to Sunagakure, the weakest of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. An ANBU unit from any one of those villages might be enough to wipe Takigakure out.

If the Seven-Tails had an adult Jinchūriki, the situation might have been different. But Fū was only three or four years old. She couldn’t be turned into a fighting force—not even take care of herself without help.

Until recently, outsiders hadn’t known she existed. If word had gotten out earlier, ambitious shinobi would have come for the tailed beast long ago.

Allowing Konoha to take her into its protection was now the best choice for both the village and Fū.

As for whether Fū would ever return to Takigakure, Chiyuki had promised that Konoha would protect her and wouldn’t force her to stay once she could defend herself. But Shibuichi knew better than to take such assurances at face value. Who would give up a tailed beast once it had fallen into their hands? Did Konoha think itself the First Hokage?

All Shibuichi could hope was that Fū would remember her village when she grew up. If Takigakure ever faced trouble, even a little help from her would be enough.

Chiyuki had handled the negotiations from the start. So when it was time to return to Konoha, Kakashi and the others still hadn’t recovered from their shock.

They had come to investigate Danzo. How had they ended up taking someone’s Jinchūriki back with them?

Wasn’t that a little too brazen? If word reached the other four great villages, wouldn’t they be furious?

Chiyuki didn’t care what they thought.

While Lord Roy was with them, she had simply followed his lead. And before they left, Lady Kushina had told her to follow the arrangements they had made.

Outside a small town in the Land of Wind, Sasori had bought a batch of materials for making puppets and was on his way back to build some new ones. But less than ten kilometers from the town, a woman in a black robe blocked his path.