What is going on?
Ao frowned. He caught the eye of a person to his side, lowered his hand, and made a coded gesture.
[Something's wrong. The Fourth Mizukage seems off.]
Beside him, Mei covertly gestured back. [What's wrong?]
[There's no sign of genjutsu control in his brain.]
QAQ?!
Not only was he not under control, but everything else seemed normal. The Three-Tails' chakra was present in his body. It was as if he were the completely normal Fourth Mizukage.
But the arrow was already on the bowstring; it had to be fired. There was no turning back now.
Mei shook her head. As the future Fifth Mizukage, she was certainly decisive. If she backed down now, never mind the enormous cost in money and resources they had already spent; more importantly, the clans who were wavering on the fence would likely never again have the courage to stand up to Yagura Karatachi. The Mist Village would be forever lost to his darkness, with no hope of recovery.
So, even though they had discovered a problem, they could not call off the operation.
"It's a good thing we have another trump card," Mei murmured to herself, her gaze falling on the plain, unremarkable kunai in her hand.
The scroll Uchiha Nagi had given her was filled with kunai. Upon careful inspection, they had noticed that the kunai were indeed inscribed with jutsu formulas. But that scoundrel Nagi, after inscribing them, had lightly coated them with a layer of wax and then dyed them black, making a Flying Thunder God kunai indistinguishable from an ordinary one. It was truly insidious.
The first battle ended quickly, with one dead and one severely injured. Then it was the second match, featuring two more young boys. This time, the fight was even more spectacular. The two Chunin-rank contestants fought at a jonin level. The crowd cheered wildly. The seed of humanity's love for watching its own kind kill each other was, as ever, carved into their very genes.
"Ninjutsu: Hidden Mist Technique!"
A young contestant in the arena released the jutsu, and a thick fog instantly enveloped the entire field.
At that moment, from within the thick fog, a kunai suddenly flew out, heading straight for the Fourth Mizukage on the high platform. Just as it was about to reach him, it multiplied into several hundred kunai.
It was the Shadow Clone and Multi-Shuriken Jutsu!
"Assassins!" The Anbu captain by Yagura's side reacted quickly. "Protect Lord Mizukage!"
The Anbu around the Fourth Mizukage were swift. In an instant, two of them released a Water Style: Water Formation Wall, a barrier of water that blocked the kunai.
"Lord Fourth, are you alright?" an Anbu asked, running to Yagura's side with concern.
"I'm fine—"
Before he could finish his words, the Anbu ninja suddenly lunged and grabbed Yagura. The Anbu captain saw this and immediately understood that this man was also an assassin.
"Ono, you..."
BOOM!
A massive explosion. The huge number of explosive tags hidden on the Anbu's body all detonated, creating a small mushroom cloud on the high platform.
This man was a death-squad member, a suicide bomber planted by Yagura's side by the great clans. He had used his own life to assassinate Yagura. The Multi-Shuriken Jutsu had just been a distraction; this suicide bomber was the real killing move of the Mist ninja clans.
"Lord Mizukage!" the Anbu squad leader cried out in sorrow. Who didn't have a few die-hard fans? Yagura was still the Mizukage. By recruiting grassroots ninja with no clan background as his bodyguards, he could easily win their loyalty. This was why, during the years Yagura was controlled by Obito, he still had loyal ninja despite his persecution of the village. Obito had only targeted the ninja clans, not the commoner-born ninja.
So, in the eyes of the commoner ninja, the Mizukage was simply suppressing the powerful clans of the village. They didn't feel the same sense of shared danger.
After the dust settled, a figure appeared within. It was Yagura Karatachi, unscathed, cloaked in the chakra of the Tailed Beast.
Hiding in the crowd, Mei angrily slammed her fist on her chair. "Damn it, he wasn't hurt! Let's go!"
But Ao, at her side, held her back. "Mei, you are the future Mizukage. Now is not your time to act. Don't worry, there are others."
Mei's potential was immense. No one wanted to see her fall here prematurely. At that moment, the personnel arranged by the other ninja clans began to move.
Countless disguised ninja in the audience stands, along with those from the village below, all quickly formed hand seals. A massive barrage of ninjutsu was unleashed indiscriminately at Yagura on the high platform.
"Water Style!"
"Fire Style!"
"Lightning Style!"
Explosive tags, shuriken, kunai, senbon... all were hurled toward Yagura as if they were free.
"You... you dare to rebel... Argh!"
The Anbu ninja around Yagura began to scream. Some didn't even have time to scream before they were swallowed by the dazzling array of ninjutsu. The Anbu squad leader could no longer carry out his duty to protect the Mizukage. He could only scramble to dodge the numerous attacks and escape the blast radius.
By the time he emerged from the storm of ninjutsu and projectiles, he was already severely injured. His eyes burned with fury as he looked at the people who dared to assassinate his Mizukage. "How dare you..."
He looked, and was instantly stunned. A dense crowd of ninja—on the stage, below the stage, on the rooftops—it seemed as if the entire Mist Village was participating in this assassination attempt.
What is happening? Is Lord Mizukage truly so unpopular?
The Anbu squad leader was frozen in shock.
"Is he dead?"
"No, he's not dead! Yagura has the Tailed Beast chakra cloak! Our attacks weren't enough to kill him! Everyone, be careful!"
Just as the ninja finished speaking, a beast-like figure burst out from the fiery ruins. It was Yagura.
"Die! Since you dare to rebel, I will kill you all!"
Under the Tailed Beast cloak, the Fourth Mizukage was a bastion of absolute defense. No injury could harm him. Yagura charged into the crowd like a tiger among sheep. A single, casual swing of his arm sent limbs flying.
"This is bad. We can't wait any longer. They'll just run in fear when they see the Fourth Mizukage. If this continues, morale will collapse."
Ignoring Ao's attempts to stop her, Mei leaped out and charged toward the Fourth Mizukage. It was like humans facing a tiger. If they worked together, defeating it wouldn't be difficult. But if morale broke and everyone ran in fear, it would be impossible. They needed someone to lead the charge and block the tiger's first attack. Once the initial onslaught was stopped, the others would naturally find their courage.
"Boil Release: Skilled Mist Technique!"
Mei unleashed her ninjutsu, spitting it directly at the Fourth Mizukage. Yagura, assuming it was just another ninjutsu like the ones before, didn't dodge and continued his assault on the fleeing ninja.
"Argh!"
A pained scream. Struck by Mei's attack, the Fourth Mizukage cried out as his Tailed Beast cloak was shattered. He had miscalculated. The fusion of Mei's two Kekkei Genkai, while weaker than Onoki's triple fusion, was still a form of Kekkei Tota. It could melt even a Susanoo; a mere Tailed Beast cloak was no match for it.
Yagura writhed on the ground in agony. After a moment, he finally freed himself from the molten substance, his eyes blood-red as he glared at Mei.
"It was you! You're courting death!"
Yagura roared like a wounded beast. And in truth, he was. Half of his arm had been melted away. He now cared for nothing but dragging Mei down with him.
"Watch out!"
A young boy wearing glasses—one of the contestants from the exams—wielding the twin swords Hiramekarei, transformed them into two giant hammers and blocked the Fourth Mizukage's attack.
The severely wounded Fourth Mizukage was actually stopped by this boy?
Although the boy, Chojuro, had decent taijutsu and sword skills, blocking a jinchuriki was a bit too absurd.
Something's wrong. There's a problem with Yagura.
Mei finally realized it. This Yagura was indeed off. His strength was too low. Apart from the Tailed Beast cloak, he seemed to have almost no taijutsu skills. And she hadn't seen him use any ninjutsu. His combat techniques were like that of a novice—seemingly structured, but actually full of holes.
"Chojuro! Lava Release: Melting Apparition Technique!"
The young Chojuro understood instantly. The twin swords Hiramekarei immediately transformed into two giant chakra ropes, binding the Fourth Mizukage for a short time. Mei's Lava Release struck the Fourth Mizukage directly.
"Aaaaaahhh!"
A final, agonizing scream, and Yagura Karatachi died peacefully.
"What... what happened? Where is the Fourth Mizukage?"
The ninja who had been fleeing in terror a moment ago had now returned. The body of the Fourth Mizukage they saw had vanished, replaced by a strange, white corpse. A large part of it had already been melted by Mei's Lava Release.
"That is definitely not the Fourth Mizukage! Where is the real Yagura?"
"But his Tailed Beast chakra cloak before couldn't have been faked! If he's not the Fourth Mizukage, then who is he?"
Ao and Mei were now gathered around the corpse. Before the eyes of the entire village, their deceased Fourth Mizukage had transformed into someone else.
Ao immediately shouted, "Everyone, you see? Our Fourth Mizukage was an imposter sent by the enemy long ago! Everything we have done these past few years was wrong, all part of the enemy's plot to destroy our village by impersonating the Fourth Mizukage!"
The people who had been worried a moment ago now changed their tune. "That's right! Yagura died long ago! We were eliminating a spy who was impersonating him!"
"That's right! Long live the Mist Village!"
"Damn that enemy! To kill the Fourth Mizukage and then impersonate him to persecute our village..."
"Wait!" At that moment, Ao's face suddenly filled with terror. His Byakugan had spotted someone who shouldn't be there.
"Behind you! The enemy is on the Mizukage's building!"
The people of the Mist Village followed Ao's pointing finger and saw a mysterious masked man. Beside him stood a vacant-eyed Yagura Karatachi.
And Yagura had already transformed into his Tailed Beast state. He was opening his massive mouth, gathering a colossal amount of Yin and Yang chakra into a small sphere, preparing to fire it at them.
The ninja of the Mist Village looked on in despair. Mei screamed in terror:
"Run! It's a Tailed Beast Bomb!"