Unlike the Tsuchikage, who harbored many little schemes in his heart, Mizukage Terumi Mei's thoughts, along with those of Sunagakure's representative Chiyo, were much simpler.
Earlier, Ao of Kirigakure had reached a shocking conclusion under the enhancement of his Byakugan: their village's Fourth Mizukage had actually been under someone's control all this time.
Once this fact became known, the extremely cruel Blood Mist Village policy of Kirigakure in the past finally had an explanation.
However, before Terumi Mei and the others—who had learned this information—could take action, the Fourth Mizukage had already met his end.
One day, the Fourth Mizukage suddenly found a random excuse to leave the village with a few people. Terumi Mei and the group who wanted to change the status quo originally thought this was an opportunity, but things did not develop as they had expected.
After leaving the village for some distance, the Fourth Mizukage was suddenly ambushed. Right before Terumi Mei and the others' eyes, facing the enemy's bombs, the Fourth Mizukage barely resisted at all and was blasted into serious injury, losing all ability to move.
What kind of joke was this? Who was the Fourth Mizukage? He was someone who could freely control the power of a tailed beast and had been Kirigakure's strongest shinobi for a very long time.
This time, Terumi Mei and the others had spent a long period mentally preparing themselves before they even considered taking action against the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi.
But what was this situation? It was true that the explosion from that Iwagakure missing-nin was indeed astonishingly powerful, but was it really plausible for the Fourth Mizukage to be defeated so easily?
Still, Terumi Mei and the others were no fools. Connecting this to the earlier fact that the Fourth Mizukage had been controlled, as well as Akatsuki's operations to capture tailed beasts, it became understandable how Yagura Karatachi could be defeated so easily.
After roughly guessing the truth of the matter, Terumi Mei naturally could not allow the opponent to take the Three-Tails away so easily.
However, she had only just begun taking action alongside Haku, Chojuro, and several other like-minded jonin when they were ambushed by Sasori, who had been hiding in the shadows.
Although their reactions were all very quick, several shinobi inevitably suffered minor grazes. And for a poison expert like Sasori, even such small wounds were enough to be fatal.
As their comrades gradually fell, although Terumi Mei's strength was considerable, facing the joint attack of two Kage-level opponents—Sasori and Deidara—she inevitably fell into a disadvantage.
In the end, Sasori and Deidara were worried about the possibility of endless reinforcements arriving later, so they chose to withdraw voluntarily. Terumi Mei, no matter how unwilling, could only stop there.
Because of these various events, Kirigakure—which had been ruled by bloodshed for years—could not help but fall into chaos. To resolve the issue, Terumi Mei had no choice but to make the truth public.
This shifted the contradictions, directing all the village's hostility toward Akatsuki, the true culprit behind everything.
It was precisely because of this that Kirigakure did not sit back and watch from the sidelines as Onoki had expected—instead, they joined the alliance against Akatsuki without a second thought.
As for Sunagakure, the situation was even simpler. After Orochimaru's Konoha Crush plan, they had already formed an alliance with Konoha once again. Moreover, Gaara—the only one who held any real hope for the village—was also a target of Akatsuki.
Joining the alliance against Akatsuki was naturally a matter of course.
However, although the alliance was smoothly established under the pressure from Akatsuki, when it came time for each side to actually contribute, the various parties in the alliance once again harbored their own ulterior motives. Everyone wanted to eliminate the threat of Akatsuki at the smallest possible cost.
But if everyone thinks this way, then the matter simply cannot succeed—after all, the members of Akatsuki are neither blind nor idiots.
After the five great ninja villages formed the alliance, they could no longer act as recklessly as in the original plot. Moreover, because of Furina's interference, Akatsuki was even stronger than in the original plot.
Against such an organization, even if the five great ninja villages united wholeheartedly, it would not be easy to deal with them—let alone in their current state of mutual suspicion.
However, it was clear that the other Kage had not yet realized this problem. In their view, Akatsuki had only managed to capture the jinchuriki of each village through sneak attacks.
If it truly came to an open, frontal confrontation, Akatsuki—with only a dozen or so members—would absolutely not be a match for their ninja villages. The only thing worth considering would be the cost they would have to pay during the extermination of Akatsuki.