"What difference did it make whether they came now or not?"
The thought surfaced in the Third Hokage's mind, but he still thanked the reinforcements for their late arrival.
The Raikage had no such patience. He directly challenged the leader of the Kirigakure force, making his deep displeasure clear.
"Is being late standard practice in Kirigakure?"
"Weren't you late as well?" Mei Terumi replied, refusing to back down. Then she turned to the Third Hokage and asked, "Lord Hokage, when does the raid begin?"
The Third Hokage sighed softly. "The raid has already failed, and the enemies we fought weren't even the Akatsuki's full fighting force."
Mei Terumi was bewildered. "How could that be? I arrived at the designated time. Why did the fighting end early?"
The Third Hokage glanced at Mei Terumi and said slowly, "The raid was scheduled for yesterday."
The Raikage also shot Mei Terumi a cold glance. He had originally assumed her force had encountered similar obstructions, but he had never imagined she had simply missed the rendezvous. She lacked even a ninja's most basic sense of punctuality.
Mei Terumi fell into thought, leaning against a nearby tree as she carefully reviewed everything that had happened recently.
Her orders had come from the Fourth Mizukage. Since he had been controlled before, he underwent checks in the village every day to ensure nothing like that happened again.
That meant the Fourth Mizukage could not have been controlled. Besides, most administrative affairs were currently handled by the elders led by Genji, making an oversight even less likely.
So why had she received the wrong time and information?
After pondering for a long while, Mei Terumi asked the Third Hokage and Fourth Raikage, "I'm sorry Kirigakure arrived late. Lord Hokage, Lord Raikage, are we still going ahead with the