With this back and forth, the number of people on both sides gradually widened the gap. Quite a few ninjas who had asked around and learned the situation had originally intended to support Ao, but when they saw the familiar faces standing behind Kukurin and the fact that their numbers were nearly twice those on Ao's side, they could not help but stop in their tracks.
"Come stand on my side, Ao—the famed 'Byakugan Killer'. Are you really willing to kneel and submit to a ninja from Konohagakure?"
Kukurin's gaze flicked with a trace of heat toward Ao's eyepatch. Behind that eyepatch lay the legendary Byakugan.
That was the trophy Ao had seized during the Third Shinobi World War, when, by a stroke of fortune, he captured a main-branch member of the Hyūga Clan and took the eye. For that feat, he had single-handedly defeated a mixed squad of Hyūga chūnin and jōnin and earned the nickname "Byakugan Killer."
The only regret was that the Byakugan of branch-family members would automatically be sealed by the Caged Bird. Moreover, the main-branch member had not forgotten to destroy his own eyes before dying. In the end, Ao had only managed to seize a single Byakugan.
Even across the shinobi world, that Byakugan had gained a certain reputation. Konohagakure had even placed a bounty specifically on Ao. The enhancement it granted to his combat power was considerable; his standing among elite jōnin was inseparable from that very eye.
Naturally, Kukurin's interest in Ao's Byakugan was only to be expected. For a taijutsu-oriented ninja like him, obtaining the Byakugan would not merely be icing on the cake—it would greatly increase his combat strength.
However, now was not the time to scheme for the Byakugan.
Although Ao's supporters were fewer in number, besides Ao himself there was still another elite jōnin among them. On top of that, the troublesome woman, Terumī Mei, could arrive at any moment. If a real fight broke out, Kukurin had little confidence that he could securely take down these so-called "weaklings."
He could mock them as weak with his words—but once blades were drawn, no matter how weak an enemy might seem, their knives could still kill.
"You people simply don't understand what you're doing!"
Ao could no longer tell whether his clothes were soaked by rain or cold sweat. If he had known that Kukurin's group would be so stubborn—willing to drag all the ninjas of Kirigakure to their deaths—then even at the risk of triggering a civil war, he would have struck first and taken Kukurin down.
"That monster is simply not something human power can challenge. Continuing to resist will only mean throwing your lives away!"
Startled and furious, Ao even took the initiative to propose a one-on-one blood duel with Kukurin. This was a way of resolving conflicts that had once been quite popular in the "Bloody Mist Village."
As long as both sides agreed, it could be initiated—a one-on-one fight to the death, until one side died. Naturally, the dead would no longer argue with the living.
Unfortunately, there was no way Kukurin would take such a risk when his side held the advantage. He was indeed a genuine Kirigakure jōnin, but compared with Ao, the Byakugan Killer, he still fell short by quite a bit.
"So you mean to have Kirigakure's ninjas kneel and surrender to a ninja from Konohagakure?" Kukurin stubbornly framed the matter as a conflict of positions between Kirigakure and Konohagakure. Even the Kirigakure ninjas who had chosen neutrality—more than half of them—now looked at Ao with a trace of dissatisfaction.
Kirigakure ninjas, famed for their cold-bloodedness and cruelty, naturally looked down on those "flowers raised in a greenhouse" from Konohagakure. Even though Keizumi had already single-handedly trampled Kirigakure's pride underfoot, it was still difficult to change the Kirigakure ninjas' self-righteous thinking in such a short time.
"You cowards! If you don't dare face the ninja from Konohagakure, then get lost! Stop getting in the way of us avenging Mizukage-sama!"
"If you ask me, we might as well kill them outright! If these weaklings hadn't been holding us back, how would Konohagakure's ninja have dared invade the Land of Water?!"
"Move aside, Ao! Are you really determined to become Konohagakure's running dogs?!"
…
Before Kukurin could continue pressing his verbal attack, the conservative Kirigakure ninjas could no longer hold themselves back and had already begun shouting curses loudly. A few of the more hot-tempered ones had even drawn their ninja swords and were preparing to strike.
The Kirigakure ninjas on Ao's side were no less unwilling to back down and also drew their weapons one after another. What had originally only been an atmosphere of drawn swords and bent bows now directly crossed into a full blade-to-blade confrontation.
Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique!
But just as the battle was on the verge of breaking out, a huge mass of highly corrosive acid descended from the sky and landed between the two camps, completely separating them like a moat.
"Damn it!" Kukurin could not help but curse under his breath. A signature kekkei genkai like Lava Release meant that the other side's reinforcements had already arrived. Mei might have come alone, but with her specialty in wide-area group attacks, she was capable of tying down at least several jōnin squads.
With this, the balance of power that had just been broken was restored once again. Even if Kukurin wanted to risk making a move, he would have to consider whether Mei and Ao would choose to focus their attacks on him first.
"What's going on, Ao?"
Soaked from head to toe, Mei landed beside Ao. After only a brief glance, she realized that the situation seemed even worse than she had imagined.
"It's like this…"
Seeing Mei arrive, Ao finally let out a sigh of relief and quickly recounted the disagreement between himself and Kukurin. However, Ao had no intention of exaggerating the matter. In truth, there was no fundamental difference between his thinking and Kukurin's.
The only difference was that Ao believed Kirigakure currently lacked the ability to confront Keizumi. They needed to compromise for now, wait for the right moment, and only then launch a reckoning.
Kukurin, on the other hand, believed that Kirigakure had the capability to drive Keizumi away through its own strength. For that reason, he rejected such a strategy of feigned compliance and wanted to lead the surviving Kirigakure ninjas to stake their lives directly against Keizumi.
After hearing Ao's explanation, Mei only felt a splitting headache coming on. It was the classic situation of the conservative faction believing the radical faction to be overly conservative. The story she had fabricated earlier had merely been meant to lower the Kirigakure ninjas' resistance, yet what she had not expected was that Ao had genuinely taken that explanation at face value.
Even worse, that false plan had still been flatly rejected by the conservative faction led by Kukurin. If they were to find out that she actually intended to act as a traitor within Kirigakure—delivering those who had committed unforgivable crimes to Keizumi for judgment—even Genji's prestige might not be enough to protect her.
"Hey! Gonbee! Why aren't you guarding Genji's side?"
At that moment, within Kukurin's camp, a jōnin suddenly noticed that Mei had not arrived alone. A certain ominous premonition immediately arose in his mind.
"Should we announce it now, Terumī Mei-sama?"
Gonbee did not respond to that Kirigakure jōnin. Instead, he respectfully asked Mei for instructions. After receiving her approval, he carefully took out the string of prayer beads from his robe.
"In the name of Genji, I support Terumī Mei-sama in becoming the Fifth Mizukage!"
The moment the words fell, the previously noisy crowd fell instantly silent. Everyone present stared dumbfounded at the prayer beads in Gonbee's hand. No one had expected that Genji—who had always remained above factional struggles—would suddenly declare his support for Terumī Mei to become the Mizukage.