Mei Terumi's pupils abruptly contracted to pinpoints, and she instinctively reached for the ninja tool pouch at her waist.
"Lord... Lord Minamoto!"
Uchiha Minamoto looked at Mei Terumi's startled expression, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly.
"Mei Terumi, as agreed, I've brought Karatachi Yagura to you."
A Kamui spatial vortex opened silently behind him.
A short figure was "spat" out of the vortex and fell onto the ship's deck.
Karatachi Yagura.
"Lord Fourth!"
Mei Terumi called out instinctively, then caught herself.
Karatachi Yagura was no longer the Mizukage.
He had already rejected the title of Mizukage.
Karatachi Yagura struggled to his feet on the deck. He waved a hand and gave a bitter smile.
"There's no need to call me that anymore, Fifth Hokage. I'm nothing but a sinner now."
Uchiha Minamoto interrupted their exchange of courtesies.
"Mei Terumi, there's something else I need to tell you."
Uchiha Minamoto spoke calmly.
"I've already unsealed Isobu, the Three-Tails, from Karatachi Yagura's body."
Isobu, the Three-Tails!?
Mei Terumi looked at Karatachi Yagura in disbelief.
Faced with the Fifth Mizukage's gaze, he could only nod, his expression growing even more bitter.
Mei Terumi's vision suddenly went dark.
Tailed beasts were a ninja village's ultimate weapons.
As the soon-to-be Fifth Mizukage, Mei Terumi understood the immense strategic significance of tailed beasts to Kirigakure better than anyone.
Now the Three-Tails was gone.
Kirigakure had only the Six-Tails left.
Mei Terumi looked at Uchiha Minamoto and opened her mouth, but not a single word came out.
What else could she say?
"That's our village's tailed beast. Please give it back"?
But Konoha had been the one to sell the Three-Tails to Kirigakure in the first place!
Now Kirigakure had launched a war of its own accord, then lost at lightning speed.
Wasn't it reasonable for