As things went back and forth, the gap in numbers between the two sides gradually widened. Quite a few shinobi, after learning what had happened, wanted to support Ao—but when they saw the familiar faces behind Ameyuri, along with a headcount that was nearly more than double Ao's side, they couldn't help stopping in their tracks.
"Come stand with me, Ao—the famous Byakugan Killer. Are you really willing to kneel and submit to some Konoha ninja?" Ameyuri's gaze flicked rather heatedly toward Ao's eyepatch. Hidden behind it was the legendary Byakugan.
Ao had obtained it during the Third Shinobi World War, when he seized the chance to capture a main-branch member of the Hyūga clan and take it as spoils. For that feat, he single-handedly crushed a mixed team of Hyūga chūnin and jōnin and earned the title Byakugan Killer.
The only pity was that the Byakugan of branch family members would be automatically sealed by the Caged Bird Curse Mark, and that main-branch member hadn't forgotten to destroy his own eyes before dying. In the end, Ao had only managed to snatch one Byakugan.
That single eye was fairly well known even across the shinobi world. Konoha had even placed a special bounty on Ao because of it. The boost it gave to his combat ability was considerable, and the fact that Ao had become one of the strongest among elite jōnin was inseparable from that eye.
So it was only natural for Ameyuri to covet Ao's Byakugan. If a taijutsu-focused shinobi like him could obtain it, it wouldn't just make him stronger—it would elevate his combat power tremendously.
But now wasn't the time to scheme for the eye. Ao's supporters might have been fewer in number, but besides Ao himself, there was still another elite jōnin among them. And with that troublesome woman, Mei Terumi, able to show up at any moment, Ameyuri wasn't confident he could decisively crush these "weaklings" even if he started a fight.
He could mock them as cowards all he wanted, but in a real fight, no matter how weak an enemy looked, their blades could still kill.
"You people have no idea what you're doing!" Ao could no longer tell whether his clothes were soaked with rainwater or cold sweat. If he had known Ameyuri's group would be this stubborn—so determined to drag every Kirigakure shinobi to their deaths—then even at the risk of civil war, he would have struck first and taken Ameyuri down.
Furious and alarmed, Ao even proposed a one-on-one blood duel with Ameyuri—a method of settling disputes that had once been quite popular in the "Bloody Mist."
As long as both sides agreed, it could begin: a one-on-one fight to the death, with the survivor having no further need to argue with the loser.
But Ameyuri had no intention of taking that risk when his side clearly held the advantage. He was indeed a genuine Kirigakure jōnin, but compared to Ao, the Byakugan Killer, he was still far inferior.
"So you really are asking Kirigakure's shinobi to kneel and surrender to a Konoha ninja, huh?" Ameyuri clung stubbornly to the opposition between Kirigakure and Konoha. Even among the more than half of the Kirigakure shinobi who had chosen neutrality, many were now looking at Ao with open dissatisfaction.
Kirigakure shinobi, famous for their cold brutality, naturally looked down on Konoha's "greenhouse flowers." Even though Uchiha Chizumi had single-handedly trampled Kirigakure's pride into the dirt, it was still hard to change the self-righteous mindset of Kirigakure's shinobi in such a short time.
"You cowards! If you don't dare face a Konoha ninja, then get out of the way—stop hindering us from avenging the Mizukage-sama!"
"I say we should just kill them outright! If not for weaklings like these dragging us down, how would Konoha shinobi ever have dared invade the Land of Water?!"
"Move aside, Ao! Are you really going to become Konoha's dogs?!"
…
Before Ameyuri could continue pressing the point, the conservative Kirigakure shinobi could no longer hold back and began shouting curses. A few of the hotter-headed ones had already drawn their ninja blades and were ready to attack.
Ao's side was no less defiant, pulling out their own weapons one after another. What had only been a tense atmosphere now crossed the line into a direct blade-to-blade confrontation.
"Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique!"
But just as the battle was about to erupt, a huge mass of highly corrosive acid came pouring down from above. It splashed onto the ground between the two camps, forming something like a moat and completely separating them.
"Damn it!" Ameyuri couldn't help cursing under his breath. A signature kekkei genkai like Lava Release meant one thing: the other side's reinforcements had arrived. Mei Terumi might have come alone, but with her wide-area destructive techniques, she was more than capable of tying down several jōnin squads by herself.
Just like that, the balance of power that had finally tilted in his favor was restored. Even if Ameyuri wanted to take the risk and attack, he had to think about whether Mei and Ao would focus him down first.
"What happened here, Ao?" Mei Terumi, drenched from head to toe, landed beside him. With a single glance, she realized the situation seemed even worse than she had expected.
"It's like this…" Seeing Mei arrive, Ao finally let out a breath of relief and quickly recounted the disagreement between himself and Ameyuri. He didn't exaggerate, though—at their core, his and Ameyuri's thinking wasn't actually that different.
The only real difference was that Ao believed Kirigakure currently lacked the strength to fight Uchiha Chizumi and needed to compromise for now, wait for an opportunity, and only then settle the score.
Ameyuri, on the other hand, believed Kirigakure still had the power to drive Chizumi out on its own. That was why he rejected the idea of pretending to cooperate and instead wanted to lead the surviving Kirigakure shinobi straight into a suicidal fight against Chizumi.
After hearing Ao's explanation, Mei felt like her head was splitting apart. It was the classic case of conservatives thinking the reformists were too conservative. The whole story she had made up on the spot was only meant to lower the Kirigakure shinobi's resistance—but what she hadn't expected was that Ao had actually taken it seriously.
Even worse, that fake plan had still been flatly rejected by Ameyuri and the conservatives. If they ever found out she intended to act as Kirigakure's "traitor" and hand over everyone who had committed unforgivable crimes to Uchiha Chizumi for judgment, then even Elder Genji's prestige probably wouldn't be enough to protect her.
"Hey! Gonbee—why aren't you staying by Elder Genji's side?" At that moment, one of the jōnin in Ameyuri's camp noticed that Mei hadn't arrived alone. A bad feeling immediately rose in his chest.
"Shall I announce it now, Lady Mei?" Gonbee ignored that Kirigakure jōnin completely and instead asked Mei respectfully for instructions. After receiving her approval, he carefully took the string of prayer beads from inside his robe.
"In Elder Genji's name, I hereby declare his support for Lady Mei Terumi as the Fifth Mizukage!"
The moment those words fell, the noisy clamor vanished completely. Every single person present stared dumbfounded at the prayer beads in Gonbee's hand. No one had expected Elder Genji—who had always remained above factional politics—to suddenly declare his support for Mei Terumi becoming Mizukage.
~~~
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