Chapter 544: The Bloody Mist of Bullying

"Of course. Since Lord Mizukage chose to trust you, I have no reason to hide anything. If you want to know, I'll tell you."

Hoshigaki Nanami nodded, her gaze drifting away from Kakashi toward the distant sea.

"I have a younger brother…"

Kakashi immediately became alert.

He frowned.

"You and your brother are very close?"

"?"

"No. I hate him."

Nanami looked at Kakashi in confusion after being interrupted.

She had no idea why he had suddenly asked something like that.

However… Kakashi became even more vigilant!

"You just said that because Lord Mizukage trusts us, you'd tell us everything. So please be honest with me."

He stared seriously into her eyes.

"?"

"I am being honest! I despise my younger brother!"

Nanami frowned as well.

"Some of the others may have been manipulated by that old bastard, but my brother absolutely wasn't. He genuinely wants to follow him and restore the Bloody Mist!"

She truly could not understand why Kakashi kept insisting she and her brother must secretly be close.

She had already said she hated him, yet Kakashi still looked as though he thought she was lying.

"Sorry. It's just that your story sounded a little familiar. Something similar happened in Konoha once."

Kakashi awkwardly smiled and waved a hand in apology.

He could not help it.

Before the truth about Uchiha Itachi was exposed, everyone had believed Itachi and Sasuke were mortal enemies.

And what happened in reality?

Back when Team Seven encountered Itachi and Kisame, Kakashi had desperately tried to protect Sasuke.

Yet Itachi had never intended to attack Sasuke in the first place.

Instead, he turned around and hit Kakashi with Tsukuyomi.

Kakashi had looked like a complete clown.

The current situation felt far too similar.

He was genuinely afraid that this older sister would turn out to be another Itachi.

"I see. Then it's fine. I understand."

Nanami accepted his explanation and continued telling him the story of the island where the Hoshigaki clan lived.

After the Third Mizukage came under the control of "Uchiha Madara" and expanded the Bloody Mist system, Kirigakure's bloodline clans began suffering persecution and were treated as monsters.

The Hoshigaki clan, with their obvious fish-like features, naturally could not escape that atmosphere.

The persecution of bloodline clans had been encouraged by Kirigakure's authorities.

The Hoshigaki clan, however, was too insignificant for the village to bother targeting directly.

Once they saw what was happening to the larger bloodline families, they voluntarily fled Kirigakure.

The only Hoshigaki who remained behind was Kisame.

So in truth, Kisame had almost no connection to the clan at all.

There was practically no trace of the Hoshigaki family anywhere in his memories or his life.

After that came Nanami's father, the current head of the Hoshigaki clan.

When he learned that the Fourth Mizukage had died, he immediately began gathering influence and cultivating followers, dreaming of returning to Kirigakure and seizing power.

He had even fantasized about getting Hoshigaki Kisame to help him take control.

When Terumī Mei, a young woman, became the Fifth Mizukage, he was furious and jealous.

And when Mei began reforming Kirigakure and dismantling the Bloody Mist system?

He completely lost it.

"We were literally driven out of the village because of the Bloody Mist, yet instead of hating it, my father became one of its most devoted supporters."

Nanami's expression darkened.

"I asked him why.

"He said, 'Back then, we were persecuted and driven away because of the Bloody Mist. Now that it's finally our turn to persecute other people, why should the Bloody Mist suddenly disappear?'"

"He's completely obsessed."

"And the people he manipulated have become just as obsessed."

"They all fantasize about seizing power and taking back the 'property and authority that rightfully belong to them.'"

"I honestly didn't know what else to do, so I went to Lord Mizukage for help."

"Before I contacted her, I kept having the same dream."

"In it, I was holding a ninja sword…"

"And killing every lunatic in my clan.""

Alert!

Kakashi had been listening seriously.

But somehow, the longer this story went on, the more it started sounding like the Uchiha Clan Massacre again.

Sure, it was only a dream.

But dreams often reflected what someone spent their waking hours thinking about.

If Nanami kept dreaming about wiping out her clan, did that not suggest she was constantly thinking about doing exactly that?

Maybe the only reason she had not acted was because she was not strong enough.

"You wipe out the entire clan…"

Kakashi cautiously tested the waters.

"…and then leave your younger brother alive?"

"?"

Nanami stared at him.

Then her patience finally snapped.

"Kakashi, are you one of those gay-type ninja everyone talks about? Did you somehow see a picture of my brother and start having some disgusting thoughts about him?"

"Why the hell would I massacre my entire clan and leave him alive?! Huh?!"

She finally had enough!

Kakashi had been picking at her story from the moment she started talking.

"I'm obviously not a gay-type ninja! Don't misunderstand me…"

Kakashi hurriedly waved his hands in denial.

"I don't believe you!"

Nanami immediately fired back.

"Lord Mizukage told us that Kirigakure produces femboys while Konoha produces gay-type ninja!"

"And you people love bullying your own comrades too!"

"Lord Fourth Mizukage Yagura only became controlled by Konoha's 'Uchiha Madara,' and that was what upgraded Lord Third's ordinary Bloody Mist into the Supreme Bloody Mist of Bullying!"

"After that, even Kirigakure's villagers became just like the people of Konoha!"

"They knew perfectly well that provoking bloodline clans could get them killed, yet they still risked their lives to bully and drive those people away!"

"Some of them even got injured or killed doing it, and instead of backing down, that only made everyone bully the victims even harder!"

"Lord Mizukage also said Konoha's Will of Fire is really the Will of Bullying!"

"If you stop bullying people just because you're afraid of dying, then what's the difference between that and being dead already?!"

"Konoha is a village built on bullying and suspicious bonds!"

Nanami unleashed an entire torrent of abuse at Kakashi and Konoha.

There was nothing she could do.

Kakashi had spent the entire conversation attacking her.

It was the same principle as dealing with an idiot flaming you online.

Trying to reason with them accomplished nothing.

You had to attack back.

Only then would they stop searching for holes in your words and start defending themselves instead.

"…"

Kakashi had absolutely nothing to say.

The worst part was that most of what she had said was based on actual events.

He genuinely could not refute it.

Konoha's Will of Bullying was an even harder problem to solve than political opposition.

The main issue was that, by the standards of people with strong morals, most of those villagers had not committed crimes serious enough to deserve death.

But from the perspective of people with weaker morals?

Those villagers were not afraid of dying anyway.

As for the gay-type ninja accusation…

The deeds of the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara were sitting right there in history.

Kakashi could hardly lie through his teeth and pretend otherwise.

Konoha really had been founded upon one enormous pair of gays.

Even the name Konoha had supposedly been Uchiha Madara's idea.

Because the First Hokage used Wood Release, he named the village the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

That was unbelievably suspicious.

Kakashi had no defense.

As for the title Hokage supposedly being named after Madara because he used Fire Release?

That was where Hashirama had been clever.

The Hokage was obviously called the Hokage because they founded their village in the Land of Fire.

If Hashirama had truly wanted the title to commemorate Uchiha Madara, then he should have called it the Eye Shadow instead.

"Yo, Kakashi. How'd you end up arguing with a woman?"

A voice suddenly came from nearby.

Kakashi, already looking thoroughly exhausted, turned toward the speaker.

It was an old acquaintance.

"Zabuza?"

Kakashi blinked.

"Were you invited here by the Mizukage too?"