"Hey, Rei~"
"Hm? What is it?"
Looking at Rei Kaguya, who had taken her straight to a newly opened restaurant in the village to try the food as soon as the meeting ended, Mei Terumi could not help pressing her brow.
She complained to Rei, who had not even changed out of his Mizukage haori.
"Can you not relax to such a ridiculous extent in private? I am not asking you to maintain the Mizukage's dignity and bearing in front of everyone all the time, but… can you not run out looking for food as if nothing happened right after forcefully overruling everyone and rejecting the proposal to select a new Jinchuriki from the village immediately?"
"The way you say that makes it sound like there's something wrong with it. Work is work, life is life. If you cannot clearly distinguish between the two, the atmosphere in the workplace will only become worse and worse. I hope Kirigakure can become a country where everyone performs their own duties and does not spend all day uselessly competing with one another. As the Mizukage, I absolutely cannot set a bad example for everyone else."
While perfunctorily dealing with the puffed-up Mei, Rei greeted the restaurant owner, who had come here to seek development after the new policies Kirigakure had announced.
"Yo, boss. Any good new ingredients today?"
"Of course, of course, Lord Mizukage. I wonder what kind of ingredients you prefer?"
"I don't really have any dietary restrictions. What about you, Mei Terumi?"
"I… I don't either."
"Then customize today's dishes freely for two people. Bring out your best skills. If what you make is distinctive enough, I will consider recommending you to the daimyo of the Land of Water and other nations."
"I will absolutely do my best!"
The owner bowed deeply with an expression of flattered surprise before running back to the kitchen to work at full force.
Rei and Mei, meanwhile, were led by a young waiter into a quiet private room, where they continued the topic from earlier.
"But I still do not really understand why you rejected selecting a new Jinchuriki right now…"
Mei looked at Rei, who casually placed the Mizukage hat aside, and said helplessly, "Do you know how stunned the jonin at the meeting looked when you denied that proposal, Rei?"
"Then did any of them volunteer to accept this mission and become the Six-Tails Jinchuriki?"
Rei whistled and asked back with a face full of disdain.
"If there was one, I could directly promote him into my second guard and personally oversee the entire process of creating a Jinchuriki, ensuring that he absolutely would not go berserk during the process… Was there?"
"…Aside from Yagura Karatachi, not a single person."
Mei gave the answer with complicated feelings.
"Then isn't that the end of it?"
Rei gently tapped the table with his finger and spoke unhurriedly.
"Other than Yagura, who was once cultivated by the Third as a candidate for Fourth Mizukage and truly learned to care about the village while fearing neither gossip nor malicious slander, not one person is willing to sacrifice their future to become a Jinchuriki. Does that result still not explain why I rejected the proposal?"
"Kirigakure has had more than half of its foundation hollowed out in secret by Madara Uchiha. Right now, it is true that the village can only rely on me to hold the scene together. But for the Land of Water, which is isolated overseas and easy to defend but hard to attack, as long as we do not actively launch large-scale wars abroad, having my military strength as the trump card on the surface is already enough to prevent concerns of foreign invasion. Selecting a new Jinchuriki is nothing more than an instinctive fear of insufficient firepower."
"But… if there is a Jinchuriki, then there are some things you would not need to do personally, right, Rei?"
Mei recalled the scene some time ago, when Rei had been forced to handle a large number of accumulated high-difficulty missions. He had to keep running around the village while also creating more than a dozen bone clones to rush around outside.
Her tone was soft and openly concerned.
"Then are the people in the village prepared to accept a new Jinchuriki? Are they prepared to respect the new Jinchuriki the way they respect the members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?"
Rei rolled his eyes speechlessly and threw out a question Mei did not know how to answer.
A Jinchuriki… should be respected too?
This question was not something only Mei found hard to answer.
No matter which village in the shinobi world it was asked in, the number of people who could give an immediate affirmative answer would be very, very few.
A Jinchuriki was a vessel that sealed a Tailed Beast.
And a Tailed Beast was a walking natural disaster feared like a tiger by everyone.
Under the premise that most hidden villages had suffered disasters caused by a Tailed Beast going berserk, and most Jinchuriki were unable to reconcile with the Tailed Beasts inside them, a Jinchuriki was nothing more than a walking, uncontrollable human bomb.
How many people would be willing to approach a bomb and build a good relationship with it?
"See? A Jinchuriki is already an existence who must use his own spirit to resist a Tailed Beast's erosion. Under those circumstances, the people around him will instinctively isolate him because of their fear of both the Jinchuriki and the Tailed Beast…"
Rei gazed out the window at the area that had nearly been flattened by the Six-Tails' Tailed Beast Ball and sighed.
"A person's spirit and will are always limited. If they cannot obtain satisfaction and replenishment from the outside, how could they possibly withstand a Tailed Beast's erosion? Once a Jinchuriki's spirit reaches its limit, the Tailed Beast inside will break out and go berserk, taking the Jinchuriki's life while further deepening people's fear of Jinchuriki and Tailed Beasts."
"If that vicious cycle cannot be resolved, then Jinchuriki will never escape the position of time bombs. And in my eyes, that kind of time bomb, whose upper limit is not high and can also injure our own people, has little meaning."
Mei listened to Rei's words, which were full of human concern.
On one hand, she felt a little awkward.
On the other, she also felt that this side of Rei seemed rather nice.
After staring at her slender, fair fingers for a while, she asked quietly, "Then, if a new Jinchuriki were selected from among people with very harmonious family relationships, or people who already have strong bonds and spiritual support, would the situation be better?"
"Has your body been developing too fast recently, so your brain cannot quite keep up, Mei Terumi?"
Rei cast Mei a puzzled look.
"No matter how harmonious a family is, once a loved one becomes a monster that might self-destruct, everyone's words and actions will become more cautious and more careful. For those whose spirits have become fragile and sensitive precisely because they became Jinchuriki, what are the odds that they would fail to notice that deliberately created concern and indifference?"
"Once deliberately faked concern and bonds are discovered, it will only make Jinchuriki realize even more deeply the fact that they have already become monsters with no way back… Unless the Jinchuriki's family members are all as strong as me and sincerely do not think a Tailed Beast is much of a threat, how could they possibly never reveal any flaws from beginning to end?"
"…So Rei would not look at the people beside him differently just because they became Jinchuriki, right?"
Mei lowered her head and murmured in a voice as faint as a mosquito.
"That is true, but where would I find a close friend or relative beside me who is strong enough to become a Jinchuriki and also has that much dedication… Ah?"
As he spoke, Rei suddenly felt that something about those words was not right.
If they were talking about Jinchuriki, then they should just talk about Jinchuriki. How did the topic suddenly shift to people beside him?
As someone who had always stayed by his side and understood quite a few of his secrets, why would Mei think he needed an unstable Jinchuriki to share his work pressure?
And while speaking, she had even guided the topic toward the bonds and spiritual support a Jinchuriki needed…
Rei narrowed his eyes and looked seriously at the brown-haired girl who was lowering her head, playing with her fingers, and not daring to meet his eyes.
Was this a decision you made on your own after your romance brain acted up, or…
Did certain people pretend to casually instill this idea into you, Mei Terumi?
Join my Patreon to read public release chapters and get 1 chapter ahead for free. Paid members can read more advanced chapters.
Continue reading here
patreon.com/Inkveil_