Kisame Hoshigaki's Turning Point! Leaving Darkness for the Light? Kamizuki Yu's Unexpected Recruitment

Kamizuki Yu strolled through the rebuilt streets, with Mei Terumi leading the way ahead of him and reporting on the progress of various matters from time to time.

The remnants of the Bloody Mist era were being purged one by one.

"Most of the diehard factions have been eliminated. The few still hiding are being hunted down," Mei Terumi explained respectfully, turning slightly toward him.

Kamizuki Yu gave a faint nod, his attention drawn to a group of Hidden Mist Village shinobi escorting prisoners not far away.

The man at the front was tall and broad, with bluish skin and a shark-like face that was instantly recognizable.

Kisame Hoshigaki.

Resting on his shoulder was a massive sword wrapped in bandages: Samehada.

Kisame wore little expression at the moment, but something complicated churned within his small eyes.

Weariness, and an almost numb emptiness.

He had been ordered to execute a group of "political prisoners"—old fools who refused to relinquish the glory of the Bloody Mist until death.

"My lord, that is Kisame, one of the village's... finest hands," Mei Terumi explained quietly, following his gaze. "It's just that there's too much blood on his hands."

Kamizuki Yu said nothing. Of course he recognized Kisame Hoshigaki. A monster whose chakra reserves rivaled a tailed beast, wielding a demonic blade capable of devouring chakra.

More importantly, he was a pitiful man who loathed falsehoods yet had been trapped by them all his life.

The procession reached a secluded execution ground.

Several bound Hidden Mist Village shinobi wore expressions of resentment and venomous hatred.

"Kisame Hoshigaki, you traitor! Lord Mizukage will never let you off!"

"The glory of the Hidden Mist Village must not be sullied!"

Kisame drew Samehada. The bandages around its blade stirred restlessly, as if it had scented delicious chakra.

He raised the sword.

The prisoners closed their eyes and awaited death.

Yet Kisame's arm paused slightly in midair.

Killing his comrades to uphold a village he no longer believed in—was that the meaning of his existence?

"Slaughtering your own people to preserve a false and rotten order—is that the 'truth' you seek?"

A calm voice sounded from the edge of the execution ground.

Kisame's body stiffened, and he spun around.

Kamizuki Yu had appeared there at some unknown moment, as though he had been there all along.

Mei Terumi stood behind him, looking somewhat tense.

Kisame's shark-like face twitched. "Who are you?"

His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping together.

Kamizuki Yu did not answer. Instead, he walked closer step by step.

"You despise lies and yearn for truth. Yet all you have done is leap from one lie into another."

Kisame clenched Samehada tighter, the barbs on its hilt nearly digging into his palm.

This man had seen through his heart so easily.

"Your so-called missions and loyalty are nothing but cages woven by those in power. They use false glory to drive you to die, betray, and kill." Kamizuki Yu's tone did not ripple in the slightest.

Kisame's breathing grew heavy.

Those words were like heavy hammers, striking his heart again and again.

Everything he had always vaguely sensed was stripped open so clearly by this man, laid bare before him in all its bloody ugliness.

"I..." Kisame found his voice unbearably dry.

"The Hidden Mist Village will change, but its deep-rooted maladies cannot be removed overnight." Kamizuki Yu stopped just a few meters from Kisame. "If you remain here, perhaps you can wait for the day it is truly reborn. Or perhaps, amid endless internal strife and suspicion, you will once again become a blade pointed at your comrades."

He extended one hand.

"Or follow me. Witness a broader world and take part in a true transformation. Use your strength to protect what is worth protecting, rather than being swept along by empty fame and sinking ever deeper into darkness."

There were no threats, no temptations.

Only a choice.

Kisame stared fixedly at Kamizuki Yu.

This man had overturned the entire balance of the Hidden Mist Village through his own power. Rumor had it that he could even defeat tailed beasts with ease.

What, then, was this "broader world" he spoke of?

Countless images flashed through Kisame's mind. The comrades he had killed with his own hands, the cruel missions he had been forced to carry out, the days and nights he had struggled in darkness without finding a way out.

Lies, betrayal, slaughter.

His entire life seemed to have been made of nothing else.

And now, someone was telling him there could be another way to live.

Samehada let out a low hiss in his hand, as though urging him on, or perhaps rejoicing.

Mei Terumi held her breath. She did not understand why Kamizuki Yu wanted to recruit an executioner whose hands were stained with blood.

But she did not dare ask.

After a long while.

The struggle in Kisame's eyes gradually gave way to resolve.

He slowly loosened his grip on Samehada.

With a heavy howl, the enormous shinobi blade plunged into the ground.

Thud.

Kisame Hoshigaki dropped to one knee.

"I... don't know what the 'truth' you speak of looks like." He lowered his head. "But I am tired of the hypocrisy here."

"I, Kisame Hoshigaki, am willing to follow you."

Samehada's bandages stirred without wind, sending out strange ripples as though it were celebrating.

Kamizuki Yu's face remained mostly expressionless.

To him, bringing a future member of Akatsuki under his command was merely one link in his plan.

It was simply that the process had gone more smoothly than expected.

Perhaps the people of this world had been suppressed for too long.

Even the slightest different light was enough to make them rush toward it like moths to a flame.

"Very well." Kamizuki Yu nodded lightly. "From today onward, you are no longer the Hidden Mist's blade."

He turned to leave.

"Your strength will have a more suitable purpose."

Mei Terumi hurried after him.

Kisame remained kneeling there until the two figures vanished from sight.

He raised his head and looked toward the gray, overcast sky.

It seemed that a ray of sunlight had pierced through the thick clouds.