"On guard!"
Ao and the other three guards instantly scattered, surrounding Mei Terumi as they watched their surroundings warily.
Mei Terumi's expression was grave as she walked step by step toward the clearing beside the lake.
Then she saw it-
Genji and two guards lay in pools of blood, lifeless.
Utakata stood quietly not far away, his back to them, like a statue.
"Lord Genji!"
Ao cried out and was about to rush forward.
But Mei Terumi caught him.
Her gaze remained fixed on Utakata's back as she extended her sensory ability to its fullest.
The next moment, Mei Terumi's expression turned exceedingly grim.
Utakata's chakra was unnaturally calm, but beneath that calm lurked a trace of distortion that made her hair stand on end.
What made her heart pound even harder was-
Besides Utakata, another faint presence of chakra lay concealed in this area.
"A trap..."
Mei Terumi understood that Genji had not written that letter at all.
Someone had used Genji as bait to lure her here.
And today, this lake would likely witness the fall of a second Mizukage.
"Byakugan-activate!"
Veins bulged across Ao's face and around his eyes as his pure white pupils instantly captured every flow of chakra within his field of vision.
His gaze first locked onto Utakata, whose back was turned to them.
At that sight, Ao's expression changed drastically.
The flow of chakra inside Utakata was extremely strange-
His own blue chakra was tightly entwined with and infiltrated by a cold, viscous, dark red chakra. His brain in particular was almost entirely occupied by that dark red chakra, controlling him like a marionette.
"Lady Mizukage! Utakata is being controlled by genjutsu! The chakra flow in his brain is abnormal-it's Sharingan genjutsu!"
Ao reported urgently, his Byakugan vision rapidly sweeping the surrounding woods.