Since they were going to put on a full performance, they had to call in that rigid fellow Ao to play along.
"Then let's follow the script."
Gekkō Raito nodded. Something like this required no mental preparation on his part.
Early the next morning.
Elder Genshi was listening to the reports from the previous night: a mysterious organization had launched a nighttime raid, and Gekkō Raito had faced an assassination attempt.
Two S-Rank Missing-nin had appeared at the harbor. Fortunately, Gekkō Raito had arrived in time and killed them with overwhelming force.
"Good! Well killed!"
The old man was so excited that even his beard trembled, his face full of satisfaction.
Just then, the Anbu ninja delivering the report changed expression and stammered, "But, Elder... Lord Mizukage was gravely injured and still hasn't regained consciousness!"
"What did you say?!"
The elder's narrowed eyes suddenly widened, his cloudy pupils filled with shock.
Was the enemy really that terrifyingly powerful?
Could even someone as strong as Mei Terumi be gravely injured?
"She wasn't defeated in a head-on fight. Apparently, they resorted to underhanded methods and used some kind of deadly poison!"
Poison?
That did explain it.
Quite a few people had seen that Mei Terumi only had minor injuries. Claiming she had suffered severe physical injuries would definitely expose the lie, but saying she had fallen unconscious from poisoning made the story fit together.
"Poison... what despicable, shameless scum!"
The elder angrily tapped his cane, but what worried him more was the power vacuum.
"With Mei Terumi down, who's overseeing things now?"
"Lord Gekkō Raito!"
Gekkō Raito?
The elder froze for a moment, then recalled everything the boy had done recently, especially his feat of killing those powerful enemies the night before.
It filled his old bones with an inexplicable excitement.
"How