Chapter 278: The Price of Absolute Power
Mei Terumī, still damp from the ocean mist and thoroughly exhausted, followed Uchiha Akira's subtle instructions. She pushed open the heavy, ornate door to the mansion.
Inside the resistance movement's current base, the lights were dim, the atmosphere oppressive, filled with the anxiety of desperation.
A gaunt old man, the Elder Gensui (Gensui - a leader of the resistance in this fic's context, likely), was sitting cross-legged behind a low table, eyes closed in tense meditation.
Hearing the footsteps, the Elder slowly opened his cloudy, aged eyes.
"You're back, Mei."
"How did it go? Did you manage to contact the rebel forces in the northern sectors?"
Mei Terumī walked to the low table, knelt down, and lowered her head, not answering his questions immediately. Her body was rigid.
The Elder frowned, sensing something profoundly amiss in the silent atmosphere.
"What's wrong, Mei? Did you fail?"
Mei Terumī's body trembled slightly. After a long moment of painful silence, she spoke in a dry, strained voice.
"Elder-sama..."
"Uchiha Akira, the Fifth Hokage of Konoha Village, has arrived."
A sharp, violent glint suddenly flashed in the Elder's cloudy eyes. His body tensed like a whip.
"The Hokage of Konoha? What is that dog doing here?! Has he come to interfere with the Fourth Mizukage's rule?"
"He..." Mei Terumī bit her lip hard, saying with immense difficulty, the words tasting like ash in her mouth. "He wants our Kirigakure to merge with Konoha. He demands unconditional surrender."
"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"
An astonishing, contained aura of fury instantly erupted from the Elder's emaciated body, a terrifying wave of killing intent honed over decades of war.
Bang!
He slammed his palm on the low table, and the entire table groaned and creaked under the unbearable, crushing pressure of his chakra.
"Presumptuous! Utterly arrogant!"
The Elder trembled with incandescent rage, shouting, "Who does Uchiha Akira think he is?! A mere junior! A boy! He dares to speak such wild words and demand the annexation of my Kirigakure?"
"Our Kirigakure is one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages, personally established by the First Mizukage! How can an outsider dare to humiliate it like this!"
"Mei! Why did you bring such a madman here to deliver this insult?! Why did you not kill him on the spot?!"
Facing the Elder's absolute, thunderous wrath, Mei Terumī merely shook her head bitterly.
"I did not do so willingly, Elder-sama. I am his captive."
"Then where is he now?!" the Elder demanded sharply, pushing himself to his knees. "Gather all elite Jōnin in the Village! And all the forces of your resistance army! Now!"
"So what if he is the Hokage? If he dares to trespass into my Kirigakure alone, he will not leave alive! We will drown him in mist and blood!"
"Today, I will let the Ninja World know that the dignity of my Kirigakure is not to be challenged by the arrogant Uchiha!"
The Elder's voice echoed with murderous intent in the empty room.
Facing these powerful, proud words, Mei Terumī's face, however, showed a desperate, bitter smile.
[Kill him? Gather forces? It's no use.]
"Elder-sama, it's no use."
"What did you say?!" The Elder's voice was dangerously low.
"We... we cannot beat him."
Mei Terumī looked up, meeting the Elder's furious eyes directly, forcing herself to maintain composure.
"Not long ago, Ao, Chōjūrō, and I already fought him. We were all defeated."
"What was the result?" the Elder demanded, his voice thick with apprehension.
"Ao and Chōjūrō... they couldn't even withstand a single move from him. They were instantly defeated. Completely helpless. Their strength was nullified."
The Elder's pupils constricted slightly in horror.
[Ao's Byakugan has astonishing perception and rich combat experience. Chōjūrō is even the heir to the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, wielding Hiramekarei, possessing considerable offensive strength.]
[These two, working together, couldn't even withstand a single blow from the opponent?]
"Then what about you?" the Elder asked, his voice now strained, thin. "Couldn't your two Bloodline Limits do anything to him either?"
"Do anything to him?"
Mei Terumī gave a self-deprecating, hollow laugh.
"Elder-sama, using the phrase 'do anything to him' is already overestimating me to an absurd degree."
"Before him, my Lava Release and my Boil Release were both utterly useless. He neutralized them. The power gap between us is simply too vast. It cannot be compensated by numbers. Not even by the entire resistance."
The room fell into a long, profound silence.
The Elder stared intently, furiously, at Mei Terumī, seemingly trying to find a single trace of a lie or exaggeration on her face.
But there was none. He only saw deep, painful frustration and genuine conviction.
After a long while, the Elder slowly spoke, his voice trembling slightly.
"He... is he truly that powerful?"
Mei Terumī nodded with utmost seriousness.
"Elder-sama. After easily defeating me, he chose to completely shatter my will. Uchiha Akira showed me his true power."
"He stood on the sea, merely raising his hand... and then..."
Mei Terumī paused, reliving the impossible memory. "And then... the entire ocean was split apart."
"WHAT?!"
The Elder suddenly shot up from his seat, his emaciated face contorted in disbelief and raw horror.
"Say that again! The ocean... was split apart? A tsunami was created?!"
"Yes." Mei Terumī nodded heavily, her gaze fixed on the floor. "With him as the center, the seawater was forcibly pushed aside by an unimaginable, gravitational power, forming a terrifying tsunami hundreds of meters high, blotting out the sky, looming over the shore."
"Elder-sama, please believe me. Every word I say is the undeniable truth. It is what I witnessed with my own eyes!"
"Furthermore."
"According to my estimation, if the target of that move wasn't the ocean, but our Kirigakure..."
Mei Terumī did not continue the thought. She didn't have to.
The meaning was already self-evident. The entire Kirigakure—the village, the people, the stone—would be completely wiped off the map in an instant! Annihilated by the displaced sea itself.
"..."
The Elder stood rooted to the spot, his emaciated body shaking uncontrollably.
Splitting the ocean? Creating a tidal wave of that scale with a hand gesture?
Is this something a human can do?
In the room, only the heavy, ragged breathing of the two remaining shinobi could be heard.
As an elder of Kirigakure, the Elder's inherent, traditional pride made him instinctively unwilling to bow to any outsider, especially Konoha. The dignity of Kirigakure was more important than his own life.
But... if Mei Terumī's words were true... if the opponent truly possessed the power to flatten the entire Village with a single, contemptuous blow... then what was the point of so-called dignity? What was the meaning of so-called glory?
Resist?
With what would they resist? Their Genin? Their Swordsmen, now defeated?
Would they sacrifice the lives of everyone in the Village—their descendants—for a meaningless, suicidal cause?
The Elder's heart was struggling wildly, torn between ancient pride and impossible reality.
Mei Terumī looked at the Elder's violently fluctuating expression, knowing the time for words was rapidly closing. She delivered the final, crushing blow.
"Elder-sama, we have no retreat. No time. No allies left."
"Not long ago, the Hidden Sand Village... was completely conquered by Konoha."
"What?!"
This news shocked the Elder even more profoundly than the earlier, impossible story of "splitting the ocean"! It was a political, structural reality he could not deny.
"You said... the Hidden Sand Village... was conquered by Konoha?!"
"Yes." Mei Terumī's tone was incredibly heavy, mournful.
"Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, along with all the elders and the entire leadership of the Hidden Sand Village... all died in battle."
"The entire Hidden Sand Village suffered catastrophic casualties. The remaining ninja were all taken as prisoners of war, escorted back to Konoha, becoming forced labor for building their new super city."
"The Land of Wind... has now become the territory of the Land of Fire."
Mei Terumī leaned forward, her voice low and desperate. "If we refuse Uchiha Akira's demands... if we cling to our wounded pride..."
"Hidden Mist will surely become the next Hidden Sand Village."
The Elder staggered back two steps, the strength leaving his legs. He slumped back onto his cushion, utterly distraught.
[The Hidden Sand Village... is gone?]
[One of the Five Great Shinobi Villages... just like that... gone?]
How is this possible!
[When did the landscape of the Ninja World undergo such earth-shattering changes?! And our Kirigakure knew nothing about it!]
"Village of the Bloody Mist..." the Elder muttered distractedly, his voice cracked with pain and regret.
"It was the Village of the Bloody Mist that ruined us... it was Yagura's paranoia..."
To eliminate dissent and consolidate the tyrannical rule of Yagura, the Fourth Mizukage, Kirigakure had almost entirely severed all ties with the outside world.
The Village's intelligence system was nearly paralyzed. Their borders were closed.
They were like prisoners living in a self-imposed, closed cage, completely unaware that the entire world outside had long since become unrecognizable!
It wasn't until today, when the ultimate enemy had already breached their walls and reached their doorstep, that they belatedly discovered the entire landscape of the Ninja World had changed forever!
There was no choice left. Only the will of Uchiha Akira.
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