Chapter 287: Multiple Choice

Terumi Mei's original plan had been excellent.

She deliberately yielded and pretended to be considerate and generous.

She believed this would make Kitahara Kaede feel guilty and prompt him to seek her out on his own.

She had been disastrously wrong.

Over the past few days, aside from official handovers, Kaede had spent almost no time alone with her.

When she invited him to dinner, he said he was busy.

When she asked him to discuss defensive details, he told her to speak directly with Hokage-sama.

The feeling of being forcibly pushed away had thrown her into complete panic.

A sense of crisis spread through her heart like weeds.

Mei once again resorted to following Kaede.

She watched him enter Konoha Hospital.

At dusk, she saw him leave beside Tsunade and enter an izakaya with her.

Tsunade casually picked up a sake bottle and poured herself a drink without saying anything.

Kaede immediately pushed several freshly served side dishes toward her.

Halfway through the meal, Tsunade seemed to say something.

Kaede smiled, pulled out a napkin, and passed it across with complete naturalness.

That effortless understanding—the kind built from knowing someone's habits down to the bone—made Mei ache all over.

She had always considered her methods brilliant.

But before Tsunade, every technique she took pride in appeared pale and powerless.

Mei pressed her lips together.

Did they expect her to admit defeat so easily?

To surrender the light she had finally grasped and hand it back to someone else?

Absolutely impossible.

At the other side of the long table, Kaede sat upright with his gaze directed toward Minato.

He could clearly feel the eyes opposite him circling over his body.

But he forced himself not to turn.

His coldness toward Mei during the past few days was the result of repeated consideration.

The way she expressed her feelings was far too aggressive.

Unfortunately, reason often couldn't control the eyes.

The edge of his vision disobediently drifted toward her.

Mei's eyes drooped faintly at the corners, making her resemble a cat abandoned beside the road.

Something stung Kaede's heart sharply.

The experiences inside the simulations...

And everything that happened after they met again in reality...

All of it had been genuine.

He couldn't simply draw a line through it like an unwanted mission report and turn the page.

Kaede sighed silently.

Give up Tsunade?

Impossible.

But could he watch Mei be neglected until she lost all hope and returned to Kirigakure carrying a body full of wounds?

Merely imagining it made his chest feel blocked.

This was supposed to be a multiple-choice question with only one answer.

Yet now, it seemed he didn't want to choose only one.

The atmosphere inside the conference room grew increasingly oppressive.

"Everyone," Minato finally began.

"I assume the latest reports from the other villages have already reached your desks."

His grave gaze swept across both sides of the table.

"I previously used the ANBU to send the highest-level security warning to every village."

"The confidential letters clearly stated that the enemy was targeting Tailed Beasts, and I specifically emphasized their extremely unusual infiltration methods."

Minato paused for two seconds.

"Unfortunately, the precautions failed to produce the expected result."

"One hour ago, the ANBU received the latest series of urgent reports. Other than Konoha's Nine-Tails and Kirigakure's Six-Tails, which is currently under our joint protection..."

"Every other Jinchuriki in the Shinobi World has been captured."

The conference room fell completely silent.

Minato picked up the scroll beside him and pushed it to the center of the table.

"This is an urgent confidential letter sent personally by the Fourth Raikage."

"The final Tailed Beast to fall was Kumogakure's Eight-Tails."

Looking at the scroll, he summarized its contents.

"The Raikage described the circumstances in detail."

"He personally entered the battlefield to protect the Eight-Tails and prepared an ambush with Kumogakure's most elite ANBU. Even with the Raikage fighting himself, they failed to stop the enemy."

Minato looked over the senior officials present.

"The wording in the Raikage's letter is extremely aggressive. He demands that Konoha provide an explanation and fully disclose the enemy's true identity and abilities."

Hiruzen picked up the pipe on the table.

Minato had briefed him before the meeting, so he could still maintain an outwardly calm expression.

Homura and Koharu, however, exchanged shocked looks.

"How is that possible?" Homura asked.

"The Eight-Tails is a perfect Jinchuriki with formidable combat strength. Combined with the Fourth Raikage's speed and destructive power, how many people in the Shinobi World could take someone from directly under their eyes?"

Koharu nodded, her deeply lined face darkening.

The enemy's strength had completely overturned the lower boundary of everything they understood about power in the Shinobi World.

Amid the grave speculation, Kaede's expression remained unchanged.

It was exactly the strategy he expected.

Black Zetsu was using a sweeping operation.

First, it would collect every Tailed Beast that was relatively easy to seize.

The hardest targets would be saved for last.

Kaede wasn't surprised by the Raikage's defeat.

The Lightning Release Armor was absurdly powerful, and the Raikage's speed approached lightning itself.

But so what?

Black Zetsu knew his abilities, while the Raikage knew nothing about Black Zetsu's side.

The difference in intelligence alone was decisive.

Kaede silently assessed his own strength.

In a full-power one-on-one battle, almost no one in the Shinobi World could oppose him directly.

Only one variable remained.

Had someone been implanted with the Rinnegan?

Once that thought arose, his reasoning became even clearer.

The Rinnegan wasn't the Sharingan. It couldn't be placed into any random person and used freely.

Even Nagato, with the Uzumaki Clan's enormous chakra reserves and powerful constitution, had nearly been drained dry when the eyes awakened.

If Black Zetsu forcibly transplanted them into some arbitrary body, that vessel would never withstand their power.

At most, the result would be an incomplete product that could probably use Almighty Push only a handful of times.

In a direct confrontation, Kaede still possessed the absolute advantage in combat power.

Hiruzen raised the pipe to his lips and inhaled.

A thin stream of smoke slowly spread above the long table.

"Minato."

He tapped the pipe against the table's edge.

"If the Raikage has gone so far as to write an urgent confidential letter, what are the other villages saying now?"

"Do they still intend to shut their doors and endure this alone, or are they finally prepared to lower themselves and negotiate a joint defense with us?"