Chapter 24, Part 4: The Puppet Master's Shadow
The air in the Mizukage's office was thick with a heavy, anxious silence. Mei Terumi stared out the window at the swirling mists of her village. Ao stood by the door, his single Byakugan active, scanning the perimeter with a restless energy. It had been over an hour since Gin had vanished. An hour of tense, agonizing uncertainty.
A flicker of movement.
Gin appeared in the center of the room as silently as he had left. The sight of him brought both relief and immediate concern. His usually immaculate Shihakushō was singed at the edges and torn across the shoulder and chest, clear evidence of a violent confrontation.
Mei was at his side in an instant, her calm, authoritative demeanor replaced by genuine, personal worry. "Gin! Are you alright? What happened out there?" she asked, her eyes scanning his tattered clothes.
Gin offered his trademark closed-eye smile, though it seemed a bit more strained than usual. "My, my, Mizukage-sama. Such concern. I'm touched." He waved a dismissive hand. "Just a bit of a disagreement. Nothin' to worry about."
"A 'disagreement' doesn't leave your clothes looking like they went through a paper shredder," Ao grunted, stepping forward. "Who was it? Who was the 'old friend'?"
Gin's smile sharpened slightly. "I ran into a familiar face. Our old friend, Kisame Hoshigaki."
The name hung in the air, heavy with history. Kisame. The Monster of the Hidden Mist. A name that was both a source of shame and a terrifying legend in Kirigakure.
Mei's expression clouded over, her mind drifting back through the years, through the blood and the fog of the past. She didn't just remember the S-rank defector. She remembered the boy. Kisame, a quiet but intense child, fiercely loyal to the village. She remembered seeing him on the training grounds, his ambition to join the Seven Swordsmen a burning fire in his eyes.
Then came the Bloody Mist.
The cheerful boy vanished, replaced by a grim, brutal shinobi who carried out his missions with ruthless efficiency. The laughter was gone, replaced by a cold, shark-like grin. The system had changed him. It had twisted him into the monster they needed him to be. And then came the infamous mission... the Cypher Division... the news that he had slaughtered his own comrades. She never understood why. She had assumed it was the final, brutal act of a man broken by the system, a final descent into madness before he fled.
"...You fought Kisame?" she said finally, her voice low. The thought of one of their most dangerous defectors returning was a grave concern. "Why was he here? What did he want?"
"He wasn't alone," Gin corrected, his tone becoming serious. His eyes opened, the sky-blue irises sharp and analytical. "He was with Itachi Uchiha."
Ao swore under his breath. "Two of them? The Akatsuki are moving on us."
"They came for the Three-Tails," Gin stated simply. "They came for Yagura."
Mei's face hardened. "So, they seek to capture the Jinchuriki. We must bolster Yagura's security immediately. Ao, assemble—"
"It's not that simple, Mizukage-sama," Gin interrupted, his voice dropping, drawing their full attention. "Their interest in Yagura isn't just about the Tailed Beast. It's... personal." He paused, letting the weight of his next words settle. "I had a little chat with Kisame-kun. And I got him to talkin' about why he hates this place so much. The world of lies, he called it."
He looked directly at Mei, his playful mask gone completely. "Tell me, what was the one mystery of Yagura's reign that we never solved? The one thing that never made sense?"
Ao frowned. "What are you getting at, Gin?"
"Yagura, a perfect Jinchuriki, the most powerful Mizukage of his generation... suddenly turns into a bloodthirsty tyrant overnight," Gin said, his voice a low, dangerous purr. "He slaughters his own people, isolates the village, turns it into a living hell... all without any logical reason. It was as if he wasn't himself. As if he was being... controlled."
Mei's eyes widened as the horrifying implication dawned on her. "The genjutsu...
Gin's gaze was like ice. "Itachi's presence here wasn't a coincidence. Kisame's group, the Akatsuki... they weren't just taking advantage of the chaos in our village."
He leaned in slightly, his voice a conspiratorial whisper that would shatter the foundation of Kirigakure's history.
"They were the ones causing it."
The room fell silent. The air grew cold.
Ao was the first to find his voice, a strangled gasp of disbelief. "Impossible... You're saying the Akatsuki... were responsible for the entire Bloody Mist era? That they controlled the Fourth Mizukage?"
"It's the only explanation that fits," Gin said, his smile returning, but this time it was a grim, humorless thing. "They turned our home into their personal petri dish. They cultivated our hatred, our paranoia. They made Yagura their puppet to weaken us from within, all so they could eventually come and collect their prize with minimal resistance."
Mei sank into her chair, her mind reeling. The years of senseless death, the friends she had lost, the brutal graduation exams... all of it. It wasn't just a civil war. It was a grand, orchestrated conspiracy, a long game played by an unseen enemy, and they had all been nothing but pawns. The weight of the revelation was crushing. Her entire rebellion, her victory... it had all been played on a board set by someone else.
"The Akatsuki..." she whispered, the name now tasting like poison.
"They're not just a group of S-rank criminals," Gin finished, his expression hardening into something she had rarely seen before: pure, cold fury. "They are the architects of our suffering." He looked out the window, his gaze distant. "And they've just declared war on us by coming back to collect their property."
The game had changed. This was no longer just about protecting their Jinchuriki. This was about avenging a generation of stolen lives.
Tbc