Chapter 342: Your Sacrifice is Not Needed
"Water Style: Water Shark Bullet Jutsu!"
Dozens of giant sharks condensed from river water suddenly leaped out of the river, baring their mouths, revealing their grim giant teeth, gathering in a group, and rushing towards Haruno Sakura and the others with bared fangs and brandished claws!
Sakura and Mei Terumī looked at each other, nodded, and then formed seals at the same time, tacitly using the same ninjutsu—
"Water Style: Water Formation Wall!"
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM—!
The giant shark swarm crashed head-on into the water wall created by the combined efforts of the two women!
B-rank and C-rank ninjutsu, when cast by ninja proficient in Water Style, exceeded the limits of the ninjutsu rank and displayed the power of high-level ninjutsu! The giant sharks came menacingly, launching a charge with the force of a tidal wave and lightning, unstoppable; but the Water Formation Wall cast by Sakura and Mei Terumī was thick and hard, stronger than a rock, with an indestructible defense like an iron wall!
The two collided brazenly, instantly making a heaven-and-earth-shaking roar!
Endless sound waves spread out with the shockwave, rippling a translucent wave in the air, which took a long time to subside.
Countless splashes of water kicked up by the collision of ninjutsu then fell down, as if a torrential rain were falling; the rain threads obstructed the line of sight, and in the haze, a silver-white water line shot out from Sakura's side, sweeping a fan shape in the clearing.
Enveloping the ninja opposite her in it!
A ninja was horrified to find himself cut in two. He fell into a puddle. The vitality of a ninja, far exceeding that of a mortal, allowed him to linger for a while longer, but no one could help him with this kind of fatal injury. The miserable, blood-curdling scream lasted for a long time before gradually fading away.
However, more ninja on the First Elder's side avoided this move; or perhaps at the beginning, after these crafty ninja cast their ninjutsu, they didn't dare to show their heads on the frontal battlefield, and most of those appearing on the field were various clones.
Only one or two rash ones were momentarily careless, forgetting that Haruno Sakura still had this move, and instantly forfeited their lives.
After the Wind Blade Raging Stream cleared the battlefield.
The First Elder's figure emerged from the water, looking gloomily at the two ninja lying on the ground.
"It seems your pollen didn't have much effect!" Mei Terumī snorted and said coldly. "It's not too late to surrender now. I can swear in the name of the Mizukage that this incident will only pursue the responsibility of the mastermind! Anyone other than the high-level officials of the Suikazan clan, as long as they surrender now, can be forgiven!"
"Declaring victory unilaterally before the battle is over?" The First Elder spat out a mouthful of phlegm disdainfully and hummed, "Although I'm a little surprised that the pollen didn't completely paralyze you, the current you can't exert your full strength either!"
"Otherwise, you wouldn't use such a crude psychological tactic... am I right?"
The First Elder sneered.
Mei Terumī's eyes flickered suddenly.
Then she gritted her teeth and said, "Even if I'm not at full strength, it's enough to deal with you villains who only use conspiracies and tricks!"
"Your confidence is lacking, Lord Mizukage!" The First Elder grinned, revealing yellow teeth. "To make you fall into the trap, I used up all the remaining stock! Mei Terumī, your body should still be paralyzed now, right? Even if you force yourself to produce chakra, it's less than half of usual, and you can hardly move!"
He turned his gaze to the pink-haired girl standing beside Mei Terumī. "Even with Tsunade's disciple added, it's just so-so... She is also paralyzed, and can't use that kind of sword technique just now."
"The most crucial thing is that your subordinates have long been immobilized! Even if you, Mei Terumī, still have some strength enough to fight against us, your subordinates are lambs to be slaughtered!"
Mei Terumī's eyes widened suddenly.
"Despicable!" she shouted furiously!
"Hehe, ninja should be like this!" The First Elder sneered. "Just now, you could have dodged our ninjutsu attack! But to protect your useless subordinates, you wasted precious chakra engaging in a ninjutsu duel with us!"
"Perhaps in your prime, you could take us all on alone... but do you still have that strength now?"
The First Elder took a fierce step forward. "Mei Terumī, you are too soft! If you had adopted iron-fisted means earlier, if you had given up protecting your subordinates just now, perhaps this battle would have had a different ending!"
He roared sternly, "This is your innate character flaw. The Village of the Bloody Mist doesn't need a leader like you who is sentimental towards comrades! We are used to attacking comrades. You, who can't do this, can never become a qualified, cold-blooded and ruthless Mizukage!"
"The era of the Village of the Bloody Mist has long passed! No matter how many people like you there are, the Mist will never return to that era of comrades killing each other. This is an idea agreed upon by most Mist ninja!" Mei Terumī shouted angrily!
Anger twisted her exquisite features. Mei Terumī stared deadly at the First Elder, gritted her teeth, and said angrily, "My greatest significance as the Mizukage is to protect everyone who agrees with this view, to protect comrades from being harmed by people like you!"
Although not in peak condition, Mei Terumī's momentum was still astonishing, sharp as a knife!
The moment their eyes met, the First Elder felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave. He stepped back in shock and uncertainty. If not for the fact that the chakra sensation on Mei Terumī was still weak, he would almost have thought that this woman had recovered all her strength!
"Dead people can't protect others, Lord Mizukage!" He steadied himself before sneering and saying, "Look at the subordinates you protected, they—"
The First Elder turned his gaze to behind Mei Terumī. As he spoke, he suddenly stopped talking, his face changing abruptly!
Those ninja who were clearly paralyzed by the powerful pollen, somehow found the strength to struggle to stand up one by one!
"With just you ninja who can't even stand steadily, you want to participate in the battle?" He stared coldly at these stubborn ninja. "Their spirit is commendable, but they lack self-awareness!"
"What are you doing? Don't force yourselves, retreat quickly!" Mei Terumī also looked back at them and scolded angrily.
Hagura revealed a weak and forced smile to Mei Terumī. "We're not forcing ourselves..."
He turned to the First Elder again and said coldly, "You, surnamed Suikazan, will probably never understand why Lord Mizukage never needs to give us petty profits to gain our loyalty; why we ninja who are unrelated to Lord Mizukage will follow Lord Mei Terumī loyally! Because only she treats us as comrades, instead of treating subordinates as tools and dogs like your Suikazan clan and the Village of the Bloody Mist in the past, treating them as anything but human..."
The First Elder's face was livid.
"Touching rhetoric!" He sneered and said, "It's a pity that you comrades are now just burdens that will kill her!"
"Not anymore soon..." Hagura said calmly.
He smiled faintly and exchanged a look with the comrades beside him.
Everyone's eyes showed a look of relief, and they nodded silently.
Then, they took out their kunai.
Mei Terumī's whole body shook violently, her eyes widening instantly, as if she had thought of something. "What are you doing? Stop, it hasn't come to this yet!"
Her subordinates looked at Mei Terumī one last time with reluctance, and placed the kunai across their own necks!
The red-haired woman's eyes were almost splitting with rage, and she shouted loudly, "Kiyou Hamaru, Kiyou Hinamen, put down your kunai. It's not time for you to make sacrifices yet! Chōjūrō, you still have dreams to fulfill!"
The two young twin ninja behind her revealed the same smile in tacit understanding. "Sister Mei Terumī, we can't drag you down!"
On the other side, the green boy looked solemn, staring firmly ahead. "The dream of becoming the new generation of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, Lord Mizukage, please let my younger brother inherit it!"
Hagura smiled slightly, a relieved and warm smile. Then, he closed his eyes along with everyone else.
"This is the only thing we can do now."
Although they couldn't kill the enemy, but... they could kill themselves!
In order not to drag down Mei Terumī, they didn't need to communicate. With just a look, they understood what they should do.
In Hagura's mind, his life suddenly flashed back like a revolving lantern.
The mediocrity of the first half of his life had almost nothing worth recalling; until he met Mei Terumī and became her subordinate, the hard ice in his heart was melted by her bright smile, like a person walking in darkness suddenly seeing the light.
He remembered the woman with the bright smile when he first met her.
The woman with the serious expression when he became her subordinate.
The woman with the tired yet confident face when she defeated the Fourth Mizukage.
And the woman who was majestic but sometimes revealed a bit of playful charm when she became the Fifth Mizukage.
And many, many more memories: the scene of her teaching him advanced Water Style techniques hand-in-hand; the scene of him chasing her to ask her to read his palm; the scene of her telling him about the troubles of becoming the Mizukage; the scene of her confiding in him about the frustration of not finding a suitable boyfriend...
That's right, Hagura remembered that he hadn't found a chance to say that sentence to her.
Even though they had so much time alone, he couldn't say it.
Hagura felt that dying here was a worthy death. Just thinking that he could be remembered in her heart forever made everything worth it! There was only one small regret: Lord Mei Terumī didn't know his feelings yet.
He could only take this regret to hell. Hagura thought helplessly. Even at the last moment of his life, he couldn't muster up that courage...
Goodbye, Lord Mei Terumī. Without our burden, you will definitely be able to defeat them!
We'll go first.
Hagura gripped the kunai tightly and was about to use force.
Suddenly, he was startled!
A huge amount of chakra surged violently, its momentum seeming to shoot straight into the sky!
Hagura suddenly opened his eyes wide and looked in the direction from which the huge chakra sensation came—
"Sorry for keeping you waiting. I'm not used to opening the Yin Seal in this state..." The girl's voice, clear and cold as water, came, sounding like heavenly music to Hagura's ears!
"How can this be..." The First Elder's eyes widened.
Is this the true strength of a Kage-level ninja...
The amount of chakra she released.
Was desperately large.
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