"Friends Beyond Years"

"..."

Mei Terumi recognized that this sounded like her own voice.

The first few sentences, aside from catching the name "Madara Uchiha," she had no idea who the rest of the descriptions referred to.

Only the last one...

"What do you mean, 'a leftover old maid who can only spit water'!"

Mei lowered her head slightly, her face darkening as she ground her teeth.

"Don't rush. You said that yourself, and besides, I think there's a problem with that line."

Shirozumi wore a serious expression.

"Oh?"

Mei's emerald eyes lit up. "Then tell me..."

"You can not only spit water, but also sticky fluid and acid mist."

"...So 'leftover old maid' is correct, isn't it?"

Mei's expression froze again, and she resumed grinding her teeth.

Huh?

Before she could keep fuming, Mei suddenly paused.

How did he know she could use Lava Release and Boil Release?

She was a nobody right now, never even having left the Land of Water.

Could it be...

Mei began to gradually believe Shirozumi's claim of coming from the future.

She never expected that she would become the Fifth Mizukage in the future, and even fight the legendary Madara Uchiha...

Speaking of which, wasn't Madara Uchiha dead long ago?

The sheer volume of information Shirozumi had dumped on Mei left her at a loss for where to start.

After holding it in for a while, Mei finally released her bite on her lower lip, her red lips parting slightly: "How did you come back? I know you won't tell me about your personal secrets, so just tell me this: how did we meet in the future, and how did you get this thing?"

"Is that all you need?"

"It's nothing much. In the future, during a Chunin Exam, there was also a Five Kage Summit. All five Kage gathered, so I asked each of them for a photo."

"As for this recording, it was originally a video. The Sixth Mizukage went to the meeting, and you, who came along with nothing to do, chatted with me and decided to hit a bar, dragging me along to drink. I worried something might happen with no one to witness it, so I recorded a video. This is the audio extracted from it."

Heh.

Mei felt like she was about to laugh from anger.

What did he mean by "worried something might happen with no one to witness it"?

With her beauty and charm, shouldn't she be the one worried about herself?

Wait—hold on.

"You said you came from how many years in the future?"

Mei clenched her fists and stared nervously at Shirozumi.

"Twenty."

"Ah."

Mei lost her voice.

Twenty years later, she was still single?

Today was supposed to be a good day—they had gathered to lift the Genjutsu on the Fourth Mizukage, blow away the Blood Mist of Kirigakure, and welcome a bright future.

But hearing this news, Mei instantly felt the future was bleak, and her motivation for life drained away.

"Don't be too upset. It's not your fault. You have plenty of chances to change things now, right? Look, I thought of coming to the Land of Water first among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, to find you, because back then we were practically friends across generations..."

"Cough, cough, cough!!!"

Mei had been calming down while listening to Shirozumi's comforting words.

But the phrase "friends across generations" hit her like a ton of bricks, making her vision go dark and nearly making her spit blood.

It took a while before Mei recovered.

"What's that photo in your hand?"

Mei remembered that besides the cassette tape, Shirozumi had also pulled out a photo from the scroll he'd taken out, and he'd mentioned the group photo earlier.

"Here. Handle it yourself."

Shirozumi didn't say anything more to provoke Mei and simply handed the photo over.

Mei Terumi took a deep breath, accepted the photo, mustered her courage, and looked at it.

"!"

Even with her mental preparations, Mei nearly fainted.

"Boiling Release: Profound Mist Technique!"

Mei tossed the photo into the air beside her, opened her mouth, and spat out a thick cloud of acidic mist.

The Boiling Release, capable of melting Susanoo, instantly reduced the photo to ash.

Slap.

After disposing of the photo, Mei turned around, walked up to Shirozumi, pressed her hands on his shoulders, straightened his head, and spoke as he stared back with a face full of question marks: "Look at me, remember what I look like now, and forget the memories you had before!"

At this moment, only one of Mei's emerald-green eyes was visible; the other was hidden beneath her reddish-brown long hair.

She wasn't yet wearing the strapless dress of the future, just the ordinary attire of a Kirigakure shinobi.

Though the black stockings below were as ever...

"Uh, I say, Mizukage-sama, before you say that, maybe you should borrow someone's Kotoamatsukami first?"

Shirozumi gave a helpless smile.

"Don't call me Mizukage, I'm not the Mizukage yet. Just call me Mei."

"Give me the cassette tape, and I'll consider listening to what you have to say about cooperation."

Mei released Shirozumi and smoothly reached for the tape in his hand.

Shirozumi didn't resist; he let go and allowed Mei to take the tape.

She didn't destroy it outright but tucked it away, then her expression returned to a calm seriousness: "Speak, about the cooperation."

Among the Five Kage of the Fourth Shinobi World War, Mei was actually the one with the least seniority.

After the Fourth Mizukage Yagura died, Kirigakure was governed by the elder Genji, and it wasn't until the Five Kage Summit that Mei had just become Mizukage.

The fact that Mei was directly appointed as Mizukage by Genji without opposition was partly due to her contributions in resolving the Yagura Genjutsu incident today.

More importantly, Mei's long-standing love and sense of belonging to the village were clear to all, earning her recognition and thus the title of Mizukage.

So now, with Shirozumi, a man from the future, mentioning cooperation with Kirigakure, Mei naturally took it seriously.

For this reason, she completely set aside the grief of learning she truly was an old maid and entered a calm state.

"Cooperation, first of all, the Land of Waves is now within our sphere of influence. Once the Blood Mist is lifted and the Land of Water opens up, all diplomacy can go through there...

The Land of Water's resources are mainly seafood and the tourism of sunny beaches.

I haven't been there in the future, but I was curious back then, and you gave me a few photos..."

Just as Shirozumi pulled out the photos, Mei snatched them away.

As if afraid they might again show her future appearance.

But this time, they only contained scenery and passing tourists, which let Mei breathe a sigh of relief.

"Such beautiful views, such a relaxed atmosphere. The future after the Blood Mist clears can be this wonderful?"

Mei looked at the photos, a hint of emotion in her voice.

"Thank you. Knowing this, I can avoid many detours. I'll find a way to convince Genji and speak with the Daimyo, steering the Land of Water and Kirigakure in this direction, and cooperate with you."

After snapping back to reality, Mei offered a sincere thanks.

Facing Mei's gratitude, Shirozumi shook his head: "No, I want you to become Mizukage as soon as possible, to hold sway over Kirigakure and the Land of Water. You don't think I traveled through time and came all the way to the Land of Water just to cooperate and make money, do you?"

"The future is still not peaceful?"

Mei let out a soft sigh.

In truth, ever since Mei began to believe Shirozumi was a man from the future, she had already sensed this.