Under the moonlight at the edge of a cliff, the corpses of several Kirigakure's Ninjas lay scattered, their blood glinting darkly in the cold light.
However, they had not died at the hands of Shura before them… they had been slain by their own captain, Kisame.
Facing the enigmatic and formidable enemy, Shura, and with no hope of escape, Kisame had not hesitated to wield his sword, ensuring that none of his comrades could be captured and interrogated for Kirigakure's secrets.
Even though no one was captured at this moment, he still chose the cruelest means to fulfill his duty.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Kisame said coldly, holding his sword horizontally while his other hand reached for a kunai tied with explosive tag, preparing to finish off the still-breathing Miru.
However-
A sharp whistling sound cut through the air as Shura flicked something toward Kisame. It rolled to a stop at his feet.
Looking down, Kisame saw it was a scroll.
"This is evidence of Suikazan Fuguki's collusion with neighboring countries. Take a look." Shura's voice was low and rough, like iron grinding against stone. He had retrieved this scroll from Fuguki's body while gathering spoils.
After saying that, he slowly walked over to Miru, who was still barely alive, crouching beside her to examine her injuries.
He found that she had only suffered a shoulder wound and had fainted from shock.
Menma then raised his head, looking at Kisame across from him.
He saw that Kisame already picked up the intelligence scroll Menma had taken from Fuguki. As he read, his shark-like eyes contracted violently.
"Impossible-" Kisame instinctively wanted to deny it, but the handwriting was unmistakable, it was clearly the handwriting of the Anbu Commander, Suikazan Fuguki!
"The bodies of Biwa Juzo and Suikazan Fuguki are still in the outskirts of a small town called Ume City, south of Kirigakure. You can go and find them."
Menma stood up, his black cloak fluttering in the wind.
He continued in a measured tone: "An elite Anbu like you should have no trouble verifying the corpses and extracting evidence."
Kisame's blue-skinned hand clenched the scroll, nearly crushing it.
His direct superior, the Kirigakure's Anbu Commander, had been selling Kirigakure's secrets to enemy nations?
For someone like Kisame, who had spent his life in the shadows enforcing Kirigakure's strictest secrecy, this was unacceptable.
His grayish-blue skin twisted into grotesque furrows of rage.
Kisame remembered when he first joined the Anbu, how Fuguki, as the Anbu Commander, had given him his first classified mission.
"If any Kirigakure's Ninjas are wounded and cannot be retrieved during a mission, or if the team is surrounded with no chance of escape, prioritize protecting the village's secrets… eliminate those Ninjas."
Kisame had lived as an executioner in the darkness, all to safeguard Kirigakure.
But now, he was being told that his own boss was the real traitor?
How could this not shatter his convictions?
"Oh, and one more thing… the one one who ordered you to hunt me down was Yagura, wasn't it? Or rather, the man behind Yagura." Seeing that Kisame's faith had collapsed, Menma sneered and revealed an even more shocking revelation.
"?!"
Kisame's head snapped up, his shark-like face frozen in shock, his small eyes bloodshot.
"What do you mean?!" Kisame snarled, tucking away the scroll and raising his sword toward Shura opposite him.
"Are you trying to slander Mizukage-sama? What's your goal… to make me betray the village? Don't even think about it!" Kisame barked, his Anbu instincts leading him to assume the worst of his enemy's motives.
Menma kicked aside the corpse of a chubby Ninja at his feet, clicking his tongue.
"That man has been controlling your Mizukage since the Third Great Ninja War. And after all these years, you still haven't noticed?"
"Don't you find it strange how his Blood Mist policies keep flip-flopping? Or why he's been systematically exterminating the great clans?"
"He's turned what was once a proud Kirigakure into this wretched state."
"As for my goal-"
Menma took a step forward, closing the distance until the tip of Kisame's blade pressed against his chest, and yet he showed no concern.
"Truthfully, I hold great respect for a Ninja like you. I simply pity the path you've been forced to walk."
"How about serving under me instead?"
"I will put an end to the chaos of the shinobi world. The Five Great Nations, the twenty-odd smaller nations, the dozens of Ninja Villages… I will erase them all. There will be only one nation, one village."
"Just as Senju Hashirama ended the Warring States Period, I will bring an end to the endless conflicts of the Ninja World."
"I can't promise that war will never return, but at least during my reign, the world will know an age of peace."
Seeing Shura was so close to the tip of his sword, Kisame still didn't dare to move. Every instinct screamed at him that if he attacked, he would die!
He swallowed hard.
Menma's idea of ending the Ninja World's chaos and creating a peaceful nation didn't particularly interest him.
Right now, all he wanted was to return to the village and investigate whether Fuguki had truly betrayed Kirigakure, and whether the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura, was being controlled!
'If what Shura said was true… if my superior was a traitor, and his superior's superior was also a traitor… then what had all my secret missions even been for?!'
'How many Kirigakure's Ninjas had I killed under those orders?!'
For now, Kisame only harbored doubts about Fuguki. There was no evidence that the Mizukage was being controlled, so he planned to investigate in his own way.
'But if even the Mizukage was-'
Kisame's mind was in turmoil. The collapse of his beliefs struck him harder than any physical wound.
"I'm looking forward to your answer." After Menma was sure that the seeds of doubt had been planted in Kisame's heart, he turned and walked over to Miru, lifting her unconscious body into his arms.
Then, he dropped a specially made Flying Thunder God kunai at Kisame's feet.
"If you ever face mortal danger, or if you wish to contact me, inject Chakra into this kunai and I will come."
"I hope your answer will satisfy me by then." Menma glanced down at Miru in his arms, gently brushing a strand of hair from her face, "As for this woman… consider her collateral for now."
With that, Shura's figure vanished.
Kisame was left alone under the moon, his eyes wide open, looking around and listening carefully, but he indeed found no trace of the other party's departure, and even the footprints left on the ground did not show any signs of deepening.
"Is it Space-Time Ninjutsu?" Kisame could only connect the other party's way of leaving to the mysterious Space-Time Ninjutsu.
It reminded him of the legendary [Yellow Flash], which was famous during the Third Great Ninja War.
"Damn it!" Looking at the four corpses of the Kirigakure's Ninjas on the ground, Kisame slowly put down the sword in his hand.
After silently burying his comrades, he followed the direction Shura had mentioned.
Soon, the scent of blood led him deeper into the forest.
When he arrived at the ruins of the battlefield, he found wild dogs gnawing at the bisected corpse of Fuguki. Nearby, Juzo's body lay abandoned, his forehead protector glinting coldly under the moonlight.
The surrounding forest was a wasteland of shattered trees and craters… evidence of a battle so fierce that just the aftermath was enough to send chills down his spine.