Ninjas eventually became used to life and death, but the three children were still too young to ignore it completely.
Not far from them was the graveyard filled with cold corpses. Death was not something distant or vague. It was real, close enough to touch, only one step away.
To die like that, without achieving anything, would be both tragic and meaningless.
Power.
Terumi Mei tilted her head slightly and stared quietly at the lake that shimmered under the fading sunlight.
For several days now, her mind had been replaying that battle over and over again. Every moment felt as if it had been frozen in place.
Strong, strong, and even stronger.
No other words could describe what she had seen.
She had personally witnessed a battle at the very peak of the ninja world. And that had only been a Shadow Clone. If even a clone was that terrifying, then how powerful must the real body be?
Her father had told her that the man attacked the Hidden Mist only to take back a Hyuga girl's Byakugan.
To go that far just to protect a bond like that, Mei had never imagined something like it before.
Could she do the same one day?
Mei stared at the distant water, completely lost in thought.
After that day, Kisame's greatest wish became simple, to stay alive. Mei's wish became something entirely different.
Power.
With enough power, you could protect anything. You could stop anything.
If she had been stronger than that man, perhaps the Hidden Mist would not have suffered so much damage.
Power...
Mei sighed quietly, feeling an emptiness she could not explain.
The three of them remained silent for a long time, each lost in their own thoughts, until Zabuza suddenly broke the silence.
"Then I will change everything myself. I don't care about the other villages, but the Hidden Mist must change."
He had finally spoken his real dream aloud.
"I know it won't be easy. Even if I fail and become a rogue ninja, I still have to try."
Mei lifted her head and looked straight at him.
"So what exactly are you planning to do?"
Zabuza grinned.
"The same thing as always. Kill Yagura and start a coup."
Mei frowned slightly.
"That's only a long-term goal. What about now?"
Zabuza's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Right now, I plan to force the village to cancel the policy where students have to kill each other to graduate."
Mei's expression immediately changed.
"What exactly are you trying to do?"
Zabuza shook his head.
"Don't get involved. Just remember this, I will graduate early. When that happens, don't graduate at the same time as me. I don't want to fight you."
Mei clicked her tongue in annoyance when he refused to explain any further.
"Stop trying to act mysterious."
Kisame watched the two of them argue and quietly showed a faint smile, revealing a row of sharp teeth.
He rarely cared about other people's business. Zabuza's plans had nothing to do with him.
Just like he had said before, all he wanted was to stay alive.
The three of them slowly walked toward the Hidden Mist Village.
When they reached a crossroads and were about to separate, Mei suddenly spoke again.
"What do you really want? You didn't come just to ask how I survived, right?"
Zabuza smiled lazily.
"Nothing special. I just wanted to understand how strong Konoha's Lightning Flash really is."
"When the explosion happened, we were taken to a safe place. By the time we came back, the entire village had already turned into ruins. Of course I want to know what actually happened."
Mei's eyes suddenly lit up.
"So you want to kill him too? Then join me."
Zabuza immediately rolled his eyes.
"Sorry, I'm not interested."
"He attacked our village!" Mei said angrily.
Zabuza calmly put his hands behind his head.
"That doesn't mean I want to die for nothing. Even if I killed Konoha's Lightning Flash, would the village recover? Would the dead come back?"
Mei was suddenly speechless.
"And even if he never becomes Hokage, he is still a hero in Konoha. If someone kills him, do you think Konoha would just ignore it?"
Zabuza's tone became colder.
"If someone kills a hero like that, Konoha would definitely take revenge. A new ninja war could easily start, and the Hidden Mist would suffer even more."
Mei's expression froze slightly after hearing that.
Kisame suddenly spoke from the side.
"If you can defeat Konoha's Lightning Flash, you would already be at that level. Why would you be afraid of war with Konoha?"
Mei immediately reacted.
"Exactly. If I'm that strong, Konoha should be afraid of me instead."
Zabuza glared at Kisame, then shook his head.
"That's not how it works. Lightning Flash is strong, but the other villages haven't surrendered to him, have they?"
Mei instinctively nodded.
"That means he is not invincible. Every village has powerful ninjas who can fight him. And Konoha itself still has many strong ninjas. Even if Lightning Flash dies, the village would not collapse."
Zabuza continued calmly.
"The Sannin, the White Fang, the Third Hokage. Killing one person won't change everything."
Mei slowly fell silent again.
"And Konoha is already fighting several enemies at once. If they focused everything on the Land of Water, how long do you think the Hidden Mist could survive?"
Mei could not answer at all.
"So instead of thinking about revenge, it is far more realistic to overthrow Yagura and change the village from the inside."
Mei understood that his words made sense, but something still felt wrong.
If someone destroyed your village and you could not even take revenge, then what kind of ninja were you?
Even so, she had to admit that the Hidden Mist was already in a terrible state. If nothing changed, it might collapse sooner or later.
She turned her head and looked at Kisame.
"What about you? You're not the type to gossip. Why are you interested in that man?"
Kisame did not seem bothered by her tone at all.
"The sword Samehada is in Konoha's Lightning Flash's hands. I want it back."
Mei immediately understood.
After the death of Fuguki Suikazan, one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, the sword had fallen into someone else's hands.
"So you want to become one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen too? That won't be easy."
Kisame only gave a faint smile.
"That would only be the last option."
Mei curled her lips.
"Don't tell me you still expect the Hozuki Clan to summon the sword back. They already tried and failed."
As the daughter of the Terumi Clan leader, she naturally knew a lot of internal information.
Kisame shook his head slightly.
"Even if they managed to summon it back, they would never give it to me. So it doesn't matter who has it right now."
Mei nodded slightly, then turned to Zabuza again.
"And what about you? Do you also want to become one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen?"
Zabuza's eyes flashed with ambition.
"I do want to become one of them, but the lightning blade is not my goal. I want the Kubikiribocho."
Mei raised her eyebrows slightly.
"Isn't that sword still with Senior Juzo?"
Zabuza smiled faintly.
"For now. It won't stay in his hands forever."
Mei suddenly burst into laughter.
Zabuza wanted Kubikiribocho and wanted to kill the Fourth Mizukage. Kisame only wanted to survive and take back Samehada. And she wanted to defeat that man.
None of them had even graduated from the Ninja Academy yet, but they were already talking about things like this.
Zabuza spoke proudly.
"Ninjas need dreams. Even the weakest person wants to rise one day. Besides, we are doing this for the future of the Hidden Mist."
Mei nodded slowly, then spoke in a serious voice.
"The First Mizukage once said that in the sea near the Land of Water, when a whale dies, its body sinks slowly to the bottom of the ocean. That body can feed countless creatures for a long time."
She looked at the two of them.
"He called it Whale Fall. The Hidden Mist is like a giant whale that protects us. And we must repay it before we die."
The atmosphere suddenly became very awkward.
Mei noticed it immediately and her cheeks turned slightly red.
"What? Is something wrong?"
Zabuza snorted.
"We're living in a different era now. Things like the spirit of the Hidden Mist or the Will of Fire are just stories told to children."
Mei almost lost her temper again.
At that moment, Kisame suddenly spoke calmly.
"I also know another version of that story. Do you want to hear it?"
Zabuza smirked.
"What, another one of your strange shark stories?"
Mei crossed her arms.
"Ignore him and just say it."
Kisame nodded slightly and spoke in a quiet voice.
"In the northern sea of the Land of Water, there is a type of shark. After it dies, its body also sinks slowly to the bottom of the sea."
He paused slightly.
"It also has a name."
Mei immediately spoke.
"Shark Fall?"
Zabuza laughed.
"Or maybe Shark Death?"
Kisame only smiled faintly and did not answer.
Then he quietly turned and walked away.
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