Chapter 66: Mei Terumi

Arc: Kirigakure's Civil War

Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto, please support the original work.

After changing to another disguise, now they looked like a well-off couple… well, compared to the rest of Kirigakure.

"Hana-chan, let's go," Naruto said as he held Hinata's hand. The latter nodded, secretly activating her byakugan. However, even after her dojutsu was active, her eyes never changed to the signature look of the byakugan.

It was thanks to Naruto's seal.

'By using a faint, undetectable genjutsu, Hinata can hide her byakugan from view… Unless a ninja uses chakra to disrupt the seal, no one will know she has her byakugan active. Unless the other person has the byakugan.'

After they walked outside of the ninja's encirclement, Naruto frowned.

'Yagura paused… and then another chakra signature appeared,' he thought as he noted that the second chakra signature was faint. if it hadn't shown itself to Yagura, he wouldn't have sensed it. After the second chakra signature appeared, Yagura suddenly looked at him.

'No,' Naruto shook his head. 'He's looking in our direction, not me.'

Naruto was sure of it.

'That second person is a sensor… although how come I never sensed him sensing me? Also, why doesn't he tell Yagura our exact location?'

Naruto pondered.

'Something is amiss. I just know it.'

Inside a white tent, a beauty with long auburn hair looked up as she sensed her trusted man, Ao, coming toward her tent.

"Ao, why are you here?" She asked and placed down the folder she was holding. She sighed, releasing the pent-up stress inside her head.

When the tent opened, it revealed a middle-aged man with blue hair and an eye patch. He bowed to Mei before relaying his report. "Terumi-sama, there has been a change in the village."

"A change?" Mei raised her eyebrow. "What kind of change? Was our plan foiled?" She asked. They had been waiting for time to pass. Because long before the civil war officially began, Mei and Ao had already recognized that a genjutsu was placed upon the fourth Mizukage.

Sadly, they couldn't undo the genjutsu without killing the Mizukage, so they had no choice but to kill and replace him. They were loyal ninjas, so their priority was the village. As the fourth Mizukage, they were sure that Yagura would forgive them in the afterlife.

After recognizing the genjutsu on the fourth Mizukage, they placed a subtle seal that would slowly destroy the genjutsu from within, thereby killing Yagura.

The problem was…

'Somehow, the genjutsu persisted. Although thankfully, the seal was not damaged and the genjutsu is getting weaker and weaker… I suspect that someone is constantly refreshing the genjutsu on Yagura-sama,' Mei shook her head and awaited Ao's response.

"No, Terumi-sama. I received a report that most kiri-nin had left their post to support the Mizukage…"

Ao had to stop when he saw Mei form a slight smile. The smile was sweet and looked good on Mei's face, but it filled Ao with dread.

"Ahem! The kiri-nin left their post to support Lord Fourth Mizukage. Apparently, there is an intruder inside the village who forced Lord Fourth Mizukage into his chakra cloak. Now, the entire village is trying to find that intruder as he had somehow escaped the Mizukage's… ahem! Lord Fourth's assault."

As soon as Ao finished, he heaved a sigh of relief. Secretly, that is.

"So… the ninjas of Yagura-sama are currently distracted?" Mei asked, her brows furrowing.

"That is the case, Terumi-sama," Ao nodded and back off to the side after Mei stood up. Mei passed by him, but she whispered something into his ear that only he could hear. And after hearing them, he paled at a rapid rate.

"Ah, Ao. Prepare the rebels to take over the mist. We are to take advantage of this opportunity," Mei said. "We will evacuate all the stranded civilians, with or without a bloodline limit, and we will make a wall of ninjas to surround Yagura-sama."

Mei paused, and looked up into the sky, though all she saw was the thick mist.

The only times kiri-nin saw the clouds and the sky was when they were on a mission outside of the village.

"This shall be the last battle between us and Yagura-sama. I hope the mist ninjas can understand and side with us," Mei said before she kept walking.

She was headed to a battlefield.

And that battlefield was her own home.

As they traveled to and from their camp and the rest of the village, Mei sensed a subtle chakra signature not too far from her.

"This… I remember this chakra," Mei mumbled and looked at Ao, who was tending to the civilians far away from him. "I guess he wouldn't mind if I go visit an old acquaintance?" Mei licked her lips and chuckled. Then, she vanished toward the chakra signature she sensed.

"That's all the families rescued…" Zabuza took a deep breath and looked at Haku, who was sitting on a boulder. Haku was tired, and so was he.

"Well, let's take a break for now and decide how to help Naruto and Hinata," Zabuza said even though both of them knew that their "break" would be a short one. Nevertheless, a rest was much needed by the two of them.

They ran around like their feet were on fire and saved all the families that needed saving in under a day.

"Zabuza-sama, I can keep going…" Haku suggested though Zabuza refused him. He didn't want to overwork Haku and if needed, he would go alone to help Naruto and Hinata.

"It's fine. We'll leave after five minutes…"

"Oh, look who we have here," suddenly, a feminine voice interrupted their peace. Zabuza stood up in shock, looking toward the voice.

"Mei?!" He yelled out as Haku hurried in front of him. Haku didn't know who this "Mei" was, but he would protect his master 'till his last breath.

"Haku, stand down—"

"My, oh my. What a good-looking boy," the voice chuckled as a figure walked out of the mist. "Zabuza Momochi-san, did you raise him?"

"Mei... Terumi…" Zabuza narrowed his eyes. "What do you want from us?"

Mei chuckled and placed her hand on her hips. "That's what I want to know too. What are you doing in the mist?" Mei asked. Zabuza Momochi was an infamous missing ninja, though she didn't hate him that much. The man tried to assassinate Yagura for the village.

She only disliked Zabuza because of how he turned corrupt in the end.

"We are… helping the mist," Zabuza said through gritted teeth. He knew what he had done, and he knew what he was doing. Still, the life of a mercenary was too barebones and they could barely raise enough funds to eat.

That's why he worked with Gato… at the cost of parting with his comrades.

"Helping the mist?" Mei chuckled. "A rogue man wants to be noble, hilarious."

"Mei, leave us be. After this ordeal, we will leave the village," Zabuza said, trying to convince Mei. Mei was stronger than him, no doubt, but he had Haku with him. Both of their skills could equalize Mei's power.

"We? So, you are allied with that person who attacked Yagura-sama?" Mei inquired.

"Who attacked who?" Zabuza said. He knew what Mei was doing, and he was far from falling for it. Seeing her tactics not working, Mei frowned and shook her head.

"You are working with that person, I see. So, what are you going to do now?" Mei asked.

"I can't exactly just let you be," she added.

Hearing her words, Zabuza's face turned dark as he stared at Mei with cold, steely eyes.

"Mei, you were the one who asked for this," he said. "Haku, help me out."

"Gladly, Master Zabuza."

If you'd like to support me, you can check out my Pátreón page. There are 15+ advanced chapters there. That's two weeks of advanced content!

link: pátreón.cóm/endbanner (replace the accent letters)