Undercurrents Rising (Second Update!)

[This should be a chapter; the numbering is wrong.]

Kirigakure (Mizukage Building).

Despite being an administrative center, the building itself is quite unassuming, only five stories high, housing the Mizukage's Office and some important meeting rooms.

"You are Konoha's envoy?" Mei Terumi sat in the middle of the solemn and spacious conference room, looking at Sakura Haruno, whose age could not even be described as young but rather as youthful. Her willow-leaf-like eyebrows suddenly twitched, and she said calmly.

She was a young woman, around twenty years old, with a mature air about her. Her long, wine-red hair and bright red lips were particularly striking, seemingly hinting at her personality.

"Yes, that's me," Sakura Haruno said calmly, handing the Konoha documents to Pakura. "This is your identification, and a handwritten letter from the Fifth Hokage."

Pakura carefully opened it, inspected it, and then handed it to Mei Terumi.

In the instant their eyes met, Mei Terumi seemed to understand something from Pakura's gaze. She thoughtfully opened the envelope, looked at it for a while, and then a charming smile appeared on her bright face.

"Sakura Haruno Tsunade, Tsunade's disciple?" she asked with a smile, looking the girl before her with interest. "Please have a seat."

Sakura smiled and nodded, then sat down in the guest seat as arranged by Pakura, with three students sitting behind her.

The others in the conference room also looked over. There were elders and high-ranking officials sitting at the head of the table, as well as powerful ninjas sitting on the sides. The meanings in their eyes were different: some were suspicious, some were wary, some were welcoming, some were indifferent, some were calm, some were eager, and some were old and cloudy eyes, whose meanings were hard to discern.

Sakura Haruno ignored everything and simply nodded slightly to both sides.

Mei Terumi quickly finished reading the letter and passed it to an elder sitting to her right. While they were reading it, she exchanged a few pleasantries with Sakura Haruno.

"Mizukage, I've come to realize that the surname Terumi exists in Konoha as well. My neighbor also happens to have the surname Terumi, and their whole family are ninjas! I wonder what their relationship is?" After chatting for a while, Sakura thought of her new neighbor and casually asked. She often saw Terumi Ijin and Yuzuki, and had even partnered with Yuzuki a few times when she was in the Anbu, so she was quite curious.

"The Terumi Clan Mei Terumi chuckled. "During the early years of war, some members of our clan were scattered overseas, and it's not uncommon for them to settle abroad. However, now that Kirigakure has shed its Bloody Mist Village' label and opened itself to the outside world, I believe that the ninjas who were scattered back then will gradually return to the village, after all, this is still their home."

"The future of Kirigakure Mei Terumi said firmly.

"It wasn't just a simple war," the elder sitting at the head of the table below the Mizukage interjected. "Back when our village was still part of the Bloody Mist Village, they ostracized Kekkei Genkai families and wiped out several major clans in the village. Many members of the Terumi Clan fled the village during that time."

Mei Terumi pursed her lips and gave a forced, insincere laugh.

"Is the Terumi Clan also Kekkei Genkai family?" Sakura Haruno recalled the information about the Terumi clan. Uncle Terumi worked at Konoha Hospital, and his medical records were very detailed, but she couldn't see any Kekkei Genkai inheritance in their clan.

"Our clan is rather special," Mizukage said with a faint smile. "It's not exactly a secret. The main thing is that the Terumi clan sometimes possesses a unique spiritual quality, making it easier for them to cultivate Kekkei Genkai than ordinary people. Therefore, our clan is also known as a bloodline limit family that isn't a Kekkei Genkai family."

With members of the Terumi Clan in Konoha, they would eventually find out their secret, so the Mist Ninja made no attempt to hide anything.

Is it the dual core of the spirit of life...?

Sakura Haruno immediately understood Mei Terumi's meaning. The original Sakura also possessed this trait, and after she transmigrated, she even formed a three-core soul. This spiritual trait could indeed significantly reduce the difficulty of cultivating Kekkei Genkai.

Conversely, there are always trade-offs; the Terumi Clan is also prone to producing mentally ill patients with schizophrenia, which is their Kekkei Genkai disease.

Moreover, to fuse them into Kekkei Genkai, one still needs to master both Release Techniques to their fullest extent.

Does Mei Terumi possess Kekkei Genkai? Sakura Haruno secretly wondered, but in this situation, she couldn't carefully probe someone else's Chakra.

"Since our village overthrew Yagura's bloody rule and restored order, the order to persecute Kekkei Genkai families was immediately revoked, and Lord Mizukage deserves great credit for this," the elder said slowly.

Mei Terumi's smile froze slightly as she met his gaze.

Sakura Haruno sensed Yakumi; the elder's slightly sarcastic tone implied that Mei Terumi's overthrow of Yagura's rule was solely for the sake of protecting her and her family from oppression by the higher-ups, rather than for the sake of Kirigakure's future.

"Some policies are flawed and need to be reformed, while others are not necessarily so," the elder's voice was old and slow. He turned to Sakura Haruno and asked, "When your village was founded, it was based on the alliance between the Senju and Uchiha, but I wonder how many people in your village still have the surname Senju and how many have the surname Uchiha?"

Sakura Haruno couldn't answer that question.

She lowered her gaze, momentarily at a loss for words.

The elder didn't take her silence to heart, assuming it was tacit agreement, and continued, "Villages within villages built on the bond of family bloodlines will inevitably harm the interests of the village. This is a consensus in the Shinobi World, and even the most powerful Konoha agrees with this view."

At this point, Sakura Haruno had to admit that he had some merit. If the ninja world were to develop further, the ideal state would be families without clans, just as the industrial society of her previous life abandoned the feudal concept of family. However, was going against bloodlines to the point of slaughtering everyone else just going to another extreme?

At least in Konoha, the main fighting force of ninjas still comes from the various large clans. The system of connecting ninjas from different clans through the Ninja Academy, allowing them to break free from the constraints of their clans and become ninjas of their own villages, should still be considered a system that has not yet become corrupt.

From this perspective, the elder's viewpoint is too advanced, to the point of being detached from reality.

Mei Terumi's gaze turned even colder. The elder's use of Konoha's example made it difficult for her to respond.

"Lord Mizukage once said he wanted to learn from Konoha's open policy, so why not learn from their policy of cracking down on Kekkei Genkai clans? Even Konoha's envoy admitted that there are hardly any Senju or Uchiha in Konoha. Why did the Lord Fifth still bring the Yuki, Kaguya, and other clans back to the village?" The elder sighed, and before Mei Terumi could say anything, continued, "Is it because of the village's current special circumstances?"

The atmosphere was somewhat strange; the Mizukage and the First Elder were arguing about these matters in front of the Konoha envoy, demonstrating the severity of the internal divisions within the Mist Ninja.

The people in the conference room remained silent, and no one dared to interrupt.

Mei Terumi took a slow breath and said calmly, "Our Kirigakure and the Land of Water have their own national circumstances, so we don't need to copy Konoha's policies in every aspect. Besides, not every Kekkei Genkai clan in Konoha has been suppressed. The Hyuga and other clans are still doing well, aren't they, Sakura Haruno?"

"That's true," Sakura nodded.

It was Mei Terumi who insisted on the open policy, so she naturally sided with Mei Terumi.

"Is Yuki and Kaguya from our village's Uchiha or Hyuga? Please don't confuse them, sir." The elder said calmly, "Lord Mizukage's decision to establish policies based on our national conditions and the village's actual situation is entirely reasonable, in our opinion."

He started with a compliment, then abruptly changed the subject. "Our Land of Water and Kirigakure are isolated overseas, easy to defend and difficult to attack, and not easily disturbed by mainland countries and ninja villages. At this time, why not close our country off, bide our time, and quietly accumulate strength to participate in the struggle for continental supremacy in the future? Instead, we opened our village when we were at our weakest, attracting the unwarranted covetousness of other countries?"

As he spoke, he glanced at Sakura Haruno.

Many people in the conference room nodded in agreement, indicating that his remarks had quite a few supporters. In fact, judging from his words alone, they were not without merit.

The history of the Mist Ninja is a series of histories of isolation and seclusion. This self-imposed isolation did bring them many benefits, allowing them to maintain their mystique and overcome numerous periods of internal and external vulnerability.

The brutal policies of the Bloody Mist Village, the infighting among graduates, and the relentless crackdown on Kekkei Genkai clans have left Kirigakure in a state of constant self-depletion and generational shortage. The fact that they managed to gather the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist of the Mist Ninja's fighting strength. Afterwards, the seven were either killed or defected, leaving only one Ninja Blade in the village. Even more surprisingly, Mist Ninja lacked the resources to retrieve Ninja Blade!

Sakura Haruno only realized how weak the Mist Ninja's fighting strength was after witnessing it firsthand during her trip to the Land of Water. It turned out that while the countries on the mainland were fighting with foreign powers, the Mist Ninja were fighting with them, wasting a great opportunity for development.

If Konoha were as weak as they are, they would have been torn to shreds by the wolves eyeing them from all sides long ago!

Unlike the closed-door policy of "the country is rich in resources and has everything, and does not need foreign goods to exchange for what it lacks," the elder of the Mist Ninja proposed the blockade of the country out of a lack of confidence in the country's strength.

Mei Terumi's face was very gloomy.

Her gaze shifted from the elders to the people in the conference room; some stared straight ahead, some looked lost and confused, some lowered their eyes as if lost in thought, and some avoided eye contact with Mizukage.

The Fifth Mizukage took a deep breath, calming his agitation, and said, "No matter how many differences we have, in front of the Konoha envoy, we should present ourselves as a unified whole, not a disorganized mess that makes us a laughingstock."

Her voice was cold and stern.

This criticism, delivered from the perspective of the entire Mist Ninja community, accused the elder of being out of touch with reality and of exposing the Mist Ninja's shortcomings in front of envoys from other villages. Regardless of whether the audience agreed with the elder's viewpoint, most felt that the elder's attempt to make a fuss over the issue was excessive.

Mei Terumi glanced indifferently at the crowd below the stage and said, "Since there are still many people with differing opinions, it's perfect that we're all gathered here today. Let's take this opportunity to speak up! Without unifying our thinking, no policy can be implemented!"

"Pakura, could you please show the Konoha envoy around our village?" She turned and winked at Pakura, then smiled at Sakura Haruno. "Sorry for the commotion."

Sakura Haruno smiled gently, then led the three students to follow in Pakura's footsteps and leave the conference room.

She wore a smile, but her nerves were on edge.

The look Mizukage just now seemed to have a lot of meaning...

What is she trying to do?

(Second update! Guaranteed update/. I couldn't find the official setting for Kirigakure, so I had to look at Boruto: Naruto Next Generations, but it's Kirigakure decades later, completely different. So I had to create something original. It feels great to create a world, but I'm a little worried about being proven wrong, I'm so nervous!)

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