"What would he gain by lying to you? If anything, the fact that he warned you to stay on guard against the Akatsuki probably means he genuinely knows those people could threaten your life."
"Especially that curse jutsu he mentioned. If all they need is your blood to kill you, then not knowing that kind of information would get you killed the first time you crossed paths with them."
"So I think Akira probably just didn't want you dying like that without ever understanding what happened."
Yugito looked at Samui with a half-smile. "See? The way you're explaining it now is exactly the same way he explained it then. So was I right after all?"
Samui shot her an irritated look.
Even if Yugito was the leader of this mission, Samui was a jonin too, and her standing in the village was hardly low.
The two of them were close in age and had been classmates, so when they spoke in private, there was none of the stiff formality of superior and subordinate.
Yugito let the smile fade and said seriously, "I'll report this to Raikage-sama exactly as it happened. But let me remind you of one thing. That guy belongs to Konoha, and he's ridiculously strong. You're a jonin of Kumogakure. Don't start entertaining any dangerous thoughts about him. The two of you stand on opposite sides as ninja of different villages. There's no future in that. You understand?"
Samui let out a cold laugh. "You're imagining way too much. I've only met him twice, and you're already convinced I'm going to fall for him?"
Yugito answered calmly, exposing her without hesitation. "Twice, yes. But even in those two meetings, the way you've been acting is unusual for you. When he first arrived and sat beside you, you supported him without hesitation. I may not have any experience with romance, but even I can tell there's something different in the way you look at him."
"And when he said he saved you in the Land of Water because he appreciated you, I didn't believe it at first. Now I'm starting to think he may actually have meant it."
"Ever since you came back from the Land of Water, you've been praising him all over the village. Sure, the facts prove that he really is that strong. Even Matatabi admitted he might be stronger than Senju Hashirama. But before this, you never cared that much about some man from another village."
"At first I thought it was only for intelligence-gathering purposes. Later I realized that wasn't it. You just wanted everyone to know how exceptional he was. That's all."
"So tell me. Is there any flaw in my reasoning?"
Yugito's gaze was sharp as a blade, fixed squarely on Samui.
Both women had the same sort of cold, commanding aura, the kind of beauty and presence that turned heads without effort. With the two of them glaring at each other like this, the pressure in the air dropped to freezing.
It felt as though they might draw blades at any second.
Karui and Omoi, hiding in the corner, were scared stiff.
Karui jabbed Omoi with her elbow and muttered under her breath, "Hey, do you think those two are actually going to fight? If it comes to that, Samui probably isn't a match for Yugito-hime. They might be old classmates, but I swear Yugito-hime fights like a maniac. She doesn't exactly do gentle."
Omoi looked equally miserable, his face all but twisted into despair. "If those two really end up dueling and somebody dies, Raikage-sama is definitely going to skin us alive when we get back. We'll have been standing right here and not even tried to stop it... But more importantly, why would two women like that be getting jealous over some guy from another village?"
"Do you think that Akira guy put some kind of advanced genjutsu on them? I'm telling you, that actually seems possible!"
Before he could keep going, Karui smacked the back of his head. "Shut up already! Stop making things up and think about what we're supposed to do if they really start fighting! Small fry like us can't get in the middle of that!"
Samui was absolutely elite jonin level, while Yugito was a genuine Kage-level fighter and a jinchuriki on top of that.
If those two demigods really threw down, the only thing Karui and Omoi could do was stay out of the way and pray.
Samui felt her temper rising under Yugito's relentless pressure, but after a moment she forced it back down.
"You're overthinking it. I just want the village's ninja to be more cautious. If anyone runs into him on a mission in the future, there's no need to force a confrontation. Because as far as I can tell, aside from Raikage-sama and Bee-sama, anyone else from our village who runs into him is walking straight to their death."
Yugito delivered the next line like a knife. "Really? Then you're still underestimating him. Personally, I don't think even Raikage-sama and Bee together are guaranteed to beat him. But I believe something else even more strongly: you've started to care about him. I'm not trying to tear apart a romance that hasn't happened yet. I just want you to stay realistic and not get in too deep."
The truth was, Yugito knew perfectly well that Samui was fiercely loyal to Kumogakure. Otherwise, she never would have become one of the Raikage's trusted subordinates.
Even if her standing was slightly lower than Yugito's, within the jonin ranks Samui was still firmly among the elite.
She was almost on the same level politically as Darui.
And Darui was no ordinary name. He was the Fourth Raikage's right hand, a Kage-level fighter with Storm Style, and the future Fifth Raikage.
Yugito wasn't being irrational. She genuinely had picked up on Samui's unusual attitude toward Akira.
When they had been discussing cooperation earlier, Akira had offered a suggestion, and Samui had gone quiet.
For someone like Samui, silence was basically the same thing as agreement.
That alone was strange.
A woman as rational and careful as Samui had accepted a suggestion from a ninja of another village without even going through her usual long chain of analysis.
That was why Yugito had become suspicious.
As for Samui, she felt wronged beyond belief. She simply respected Akira's strength and wanted to warn the village. There was absolutely no selfish motive in it.
Besides, Akira might have looked mature and imposing, but he was only sixteen. She was twenty-eight.
Samui genuinely could not understand how Yugito's mind had leapt to the idea that she might have improper thoughts about some younger boy.
It was ridiculous.
"Yugito, I'm saying this one last time. I do not have any selfish motives. Stop using your own imagination to slander me."
Yugito said nothing. She just continued watching Samui with that probing, weighing gaze.
Samui knew perfectly well that Yugito still didn't believe her.
With an irritated huff, she turned her head away too. Anyone could give someone the cold shoulder. Who did Yugito think she was glaring at like that?
It was probably the least composed Samui had ever been in her life.
Usually, no matter how dangerous the situation, she could stay calm enough to keep her expression unchanged even if the sky were collapsing in front of her.
But today, for some reason, it felt absurdly easy to lose her temper.
Of course, neither of them was actually going to start fighting over something this stupid.
Yugito's real intention had just been to remind Samui to keep her footing and not let good looks cloud her judgment.
Samui, meanwhile, simply felt she had been accused of something she hadn't done, and the unfairness of it all left her furious.
After a long silence, Yugito finally broke it first.
"I'll report what he told me. But Samui, I hope you always remember who you are. You are a jonin of Kumogakure and one of Raikage-sama's trusted hands. Don't let yourself slip when it matters."
In this era, the walls between hidden villages were ironclad. Marriage across village lines was practically a fantasy.
The kind of world where the Five Great Nations could cooperate openly and powerful clans could intermarry freely was still far beyond anyone's imagination.
So Yugito genuinely didn't want to see Samui lose herself over something like this.
Samui looked at her and spoke in an even, controlled tone. "I know exactly what I'm doing. But if we follow your logic, then what about you? Didn't he tell those same core secrets to you too? So by your reasoning, does that mean he has some special interest in you as well? Or what, did he fall for you? That sounds ridiculous."
Yugito was caught off guard for a second, then frowned. "Even if that were true, I wouldn't agree to it."
The instant the words left her mouth, Samui countered with a mocking laugh. "Please. You think pretty highly of yourself. You wouldn't agree? You might want to look in a mirror first and ask whether he'd even look twice at you. At your age, you're practically old enough to be his mother. There should be a limit to your vanity."
In truth, Samui was only lashing out to get back at Yugito for pushing her earlier.
Yugito was only twelve years older than Akira, nowhere near enough to be his mother. At most, she could qualify as an aunt.
Still, the line hit hard enough that Yugito nearly snapped. She felt the urge to throw a punch, but at the same time she couldn't bring herself to degrade two jonin into bickering like schoolchildren in public.
"Enough. Drop it. I'll report the intelligence. What he wants doesn't matter. What matters is whether the information is true."
Karui and Omoi both let out huge sighs of relief the moment the argument finally died down.
It felt like surviving a battle they had absolutely no business surviving.
Meanwhile, utterly unaware that his casual goodwill had nearly sparked a cold war between two of Kumogakure's most admired women, Akira led Neji, Lee, and Yūgao safely back to Konoha.
If he ever found out, he'd probably just laugh in disbelief.
Once back in Konoha, Akira gave Tsunade a full report in the Hokage's office before slipping back into the quiet rhythm of daily life.
That said, he kept one detail to himself. He deliberately didn't mention sealing the otherworldly spatial rift, saying only that he had dealt with Mōryō through sealing jutsu.
Even so, Akira's reputation across the ninja world rose even higher.
Sealing Mōryō alone was the kind of feat that not even the Five Kage together could easily replicate.
In the past, whenever Mōryō appeared, all the great villages could do was watch while the priestess paid with her life.
This time, Akira had settled the fiend through his own strength without relying on Shion, and that kind of raw power left the entire world shaken.
Especially Kumogakure.
Yugito repeated Matatabi's judgment word for word to the Fourth Raikage.
When A finished reviewing the old records on Senju Hashirama, his face turned darker than either of them had ever seen.
Looking at Yugito and Samui standing before him, he asked in a low voice, "Those were the exact words?"
Yugito nodded. "Yes. Every word. Matatabi admitted it herself. Akira's strength has surpassed Senju Hashirama, and his chakra reserves are more terrifying than hers."
The Raikage's already rough features darkened further. "Does Matatabi even understand what Senju Hashirama means? That was the God of Ninja. The monster who suppressed an entire era!"
Yugito hesitated, glanced at Samui beside her, and then said, "To be honest... after seeing him fight with my own eyes, I had the same feeling. His strength might really have surpassed even Raikage-sama and Bee."
"In fact, I have the sense that even if the two of you fought him together, you still might not win."
"He's faster than you, and he seems to have some kind of space-time jutsu that doesn't require any marking at all."
The Raikage wasn't especially shocked by that part. Samui had already reported earlier that Akira could use Flying Raijin.
Back then, Minato Namikaze had relied on that same jutsu to surpass him in speed.
So Akira being fast was no surprise.
But hearing that even he and Killer B together might not defeat the boy made his jaw tighten.
A clenched his fists, veins bulging along his forearms, and after a long silence, fixed his gaze on Yugito.
"You're sure it doesn't require a marker?"
Yugito nodded firmly. "I'm sure. He's far faster than you, and I watched carefully. When he teleports, there are no formula markings anywhere around him."
"He simply appeared beside me out of nowhere, with no warning and no prior setup."
The principles and identifying traits of Flying Raijin had long since been analyzed by every major village. Kumogakure's own records described it in detail.
So all of them understood exactly what it meant if someone could teleport without using a mark.
The Fourth Raikage fell into a long silence.
He genuinely could not understand how a sixteen-year-old boy could possess strength this unreasonable.
Worse still, the boy had mastered that legendary sage power.
In the current ninja world, aside from Jiraiya, who else could actually use sage jutsu?
Even Orochimaru, that kind of genius, had failed to perfect it.
The Raikage understood better than most how terrifying the enhancement of true sage power could be.
And now, even a fiend like Mōryō, one that his own father would have treated with caution, had been handled and sealed away with apparent ease.
This Akira had already become a threat that could not be ignored.