Chapter 382: Gains and Humiliation

Chapter 382: Chapter 382: Gains and Humiliation

"Something like that!"

As Hyuga Kagami spoke, he resealed the remaining swords and blades into the storage scroll.

Every one of these weapons was worth a considerable sum, especially Hiramekarei, one of the Seven Ninja Swords of the Mist. Selling it for tens of millions wouldn’t be difficult at all. So although Hyuga Kagami had failed to kill Obito this time, his gains were still substantial.

After putting away the weapons, Hyuga Kagami leaned against the wall, listening to the commotion outside the window while breathing lightly.

Compared to the Mangekyō Sharingan, the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan could recover the ocular power it consumed. However, if too much ocular power was expended at once, recovering it would still take some time.

In his fierce battle against Obito, Hyuga Kagami had held absolutely nothing back.

As a result, after going all out, the drain on his ocular power had been enormous—so much so that he had been forced to abandon his plan to assassinate the Fourth Mizukage and withdraw from the underground palace beneath the Mizukage Building.

As he caught his breath, Hyuga Kagami carefully listened to the movements outside.

By now, Kirigakure had descended into complete chaos.

Countless villagers, seeking refuge, had poured into the streets with their families, desperately trying to escape the village before the flames of war reached them.

The rebel Kirigakure shinobi were locked in fierce combat with those still loyal to the Fourth Mizukage. Opportunists taking advantage of the chaos to loot and plunder were everywhere, while spies from other villages who had infiltrated Kirigakure were certainly not sitting idle either, each taking advantage of the disorder to make their moves.

The once peaceful village had been swallowed by blazing fires and deafening clamor. What little order remained was rapidly collapsing.

"What a pity..."

Hyuga Kagami sighed softly.

In truth, this kind of chaos was the perfect opportunity for him to take advantage of the confusion and eliminate the Fourth Mizukage. But his ocular power had yet to recover, leaving him with less than a tenth of his normal combat strength. He simply didn’t have the strength to make a move.

Moreover, from the furious roar that had echoed throughout Kirigakure earlier, Hyuga Kagami had clearly heard grief and rage within it.

Such intense personal emotions were not something a puppet trapped under genjutsu should possess. Because of that, he vaguely suspected that the Fourth Mizukage might have already broken free from Obito’s genjutsu.

After all, the unique dōjutsu of Obito’s Mangekyō Sharingan was Kamui, which had nothing to do with genjutsu. Therefore, the genjutsu he had placed on the Fourth Mizukage was most likely merely some advanced Uchiha genjutsu rather than a Mangekyō Sharingan dōjutsu.

With Obito himself having encountered trouble, it wouldn’t be strange for the Fourth Mizukage to break free from his control.

Just as Hyuga Kagami was considering how he should deal with this situation, Itachi noticed that his hair had become somewhat disheveled. He quickly took a hair tie from his pocket and handed it over.

"Senpai."

Hyuga Kagami instinctively accepted the hair tie, then paused.

"You actually carry a spare one of these around with you?"

At this time, Itachi also wore his hair tied back, so he nodded and instead asked curiously,

"Of course. Don’t you carry a spare hair tie with you, Senpai?"

Hyuga Kagami was speechless.

After tying his hair back up, Hyuga Kagami instructed Itachi, "The situation has changed. Go notify Shisui and tell him to get here as soon as possible!"

Itachi nodded. "Alright. I’ll notify him with a ninja crow right away!"

......

Seeing the chaos within the village growing increasingly severe, the Fourth Mizukage pursued Kisame and the others for a while before reluctantly turning back toward the village.

Eliminating the rebel shinobi was certainly important, but stabilizing Kirigakure and bringing this uprising to an end was undoubtedly even more important for Yagura, the Mizukage.

Through the combined efforts of the Fourth Mizukage, Mei Terumī, and the others, several hours later, the rebels who had followed Zabuza were either dead or had fled.

The situation in Kirigakure gradually began to stabilize.

At that moment, a faint, gentle light appeared on the horizon.

A brilliant ray of dawn pierced through the mist, thick with the stench of blood, and fell upon Kirigakure, breathing a trace of life into the gloomy and oppressive village.

Having worked throughout the entire night, the Fourth Mizukage had no time to rest. He didn’t even bother having the Mizukage Building repaired and instead directly convened a meeting of Kirigakure’s higher-ups within the ruined building.

The Fourth Mizukage concealed nothing and openly revealed that he had been under Akatsuki’s control.

In an instant, the Kirigakure higher-ups erupted into an uproar upon learning the truth!

Some flushed red with humiliation and anger!

Others cursed furiously!

But after venting their emotions, the Kirigakure higher-ups fell into an awkward dilemma.

Had this scandal come to light before the joint assault by Konohagakure, Kumogakure, and Sunagakure against Akatsuki, Kirigakure’s higher-ups would undoubtedly have united in holding the Fourth Mizukage accountable.

After all, even if Akatsuki was the true culprit, Yagura, as the Mizukage, could hardly escape responsibility.

However, after the three great ninja villages had joined forces to assault Akatsuki’s headquarters, only to suffer devastating losses and return empty-handed, everyone in the shinobi world now understood that Akatsuki was no ordinary organization of rogue ninja.

It was a powerful organization capable of confronting the Five Great Ninja Villages head-on. In fact, many pessimistically believed that in a one-on-one confrontation, there was no longer a single ninja village capable of dealing with Akatsuki.

With Akatsuki’s true strength now understood, the fact that the Fourth Mizukage had fallen victim to their schemes was no longer quite so difficult to accept.

Moreover, Kirigakure’s high-level combat strength had withered severely. Not only were large numbers of its rogue ninja still roaming throughout the shinobi world, but the village had even lost control of the Six-Tails.

Under circumstances like these, settling accounts with the Fourth Mizukage now that he had returned to normal would be no different from cutting off one of their own arms.

Seeing the dilemma everyone was facing, Yagura rose to his feet and bowed to the Kirigakure higher-ups attending the meeting. Then he said, "When the time is right, I will step down as Mizukage."

Hearing that the Fourth Mizukage was willing to voluntarily relinquish his position, the Kirigakure higher-ups collectively breathed a sigh of relief. This was undoubtedly the best possible solution.

After the meeting concluded, the Fourth Mizukage led Mei Terumī, Ao, and several of Kirigakure’s few remaining elite jōnin into the collection vault located within the underground palace beneath the Mizukage Building.

The sight inside the collection vault immediately shocked Mei Terumī, Ao, and the others.

One of the Kirigakure jōnin crouched down and touched the molten metal that had already cooled and solidified on the floor, murmuring, "This texture... This metal was incredibly hard!"

Another Kirigakure jōnin looked toward Mei Terumī. "Even metal this hard was melted. Was it Lava Release?"

Thanks to the insight of his Byakugan, Ao was able to examine the scene in far greater detail than the others. Before Mei Terumī could answer, he said, "This place was clearly consumed by an intense fire, but ordinary flames could never have reached this level."

Mei Terumī nodded solemnly. "These metals were melted by flames."

Although her Lava Release could also dissolve extremely durable metals, the principle behind Lava Release was corrosion.

What had happened inside the collection vault, however, was entirely different.

The metal here had melted under sheer, overwhelming heat.

At that moment, the Fourth Mizukage said, "I can sense the aura of the man who controlled me within the residual chakra here. He fought someone in this place!"

Mei Terumī hurriedly asked, "Who?"

The Fourth Mizukage shook his head. "I don’t know either. Most likely, it wasn’t one of our Kirigakure shinobi. And the man who controlled me... was probably defeated here."

Upon hearing this, the expressions of all the Kirigakure shinobi darkened.

Two outsiders had fought a fierce battle in the most heavily guarded and secretive area of Kirigakure, yet not a single Kirigakure shinobi had noticed.

For a moment, everyone present felt an overwhelming sense of humiliation...