Chapter 548: The Tyrant Blood Mist
"Of course. Since Mizukage-sama has chosen to trust all of you, I'll hold nothing back. Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you."
Hoshigaki Nanami nodded. Her gaze shifted from Kakashi to the distant sea.
"I have a younger brother..."
Alarm bells rang.
Kakashi immediately frowned.
"You and your younger brother are very close?"
"?"
"No. I hate him."
Nanami looked at Kakashi in confusion after being interrupted.
She couldn't understand why he had suddenly asked that.
However...
Kakashi became even more alert.
"You just said that Mizukage-sama trusts us, so you'll tell us everything. In that case, please tell me the truth."
He looked directly into her eyes.
"?"
"I am telling the truth. I hate that younger brother of mine. The others may have been deceived by that old man, but my brother definitely wasn't. He genuinely wants to follow that old man and restore the Blood Mist!"
Nanami frowned as well.
She truly couldn't understand why Kakashi kept assuming she had a good relationship with her brother. She had already said she hated him, yet he still thought she was lying.
"Sorry. It's just... your story sounds strangely familiar. Something very similar happened in Konoha before."
Kakashi awkwardly waved his hand with an apologetic smile.
It couldn't be helped.
Before Uchiha Itachi's story had been exposed, everyone had believed Itachi and Sasuke were mortal enemies.
But what happened in the end?
Back when he had encountered Itachi and Kisame with Team 7, Kakashi had desperately tried to protect Sasuke.
In the end, Itachi hadn't even intended to attack Sasuke. Instead, he casually trapped him in Tsukuyomi.
He looked like a complete fool.
The current situation felt far too similar.
Kakashi was genuinely afraid that, by the end of this, the older sister standing before him would turn out to be another Itachi.
"I understand. That's fine."
"Please continue..."
Nanami resumed telling the story of the island where the Hoshigaki clan lived.
Ever since the Third Mizukage, who had been controlled by "Uchiha Madara", expanded the Blood Mist policy, the bloodline clans of Kirigakure had been persecuted and treated as monsters.
The Hoshigaki clan, with their fish-like appearance, naturally couldn't escape that fate.
The persecution of bloodline clans had been officially encouraged by Kirigakure itself.
The Hoshigaki clan was too insignificant for the village to bother targeting directly. After seeing what happened to the bloodline clans, they fled Kirigakure of their own accord.
The only one who stayed behind was Kisame.
Because of that, Kisame had virtually no connection to the clan.
His memories and his life contained almost no trace of the Hoshigaki clan.
Afterward, when her father—the current clan head—learned of the Fourth Mizukage's death, he began quietly building up his own forces, hoping to seize power in Kirigakure.
He even fantasized about recruiting Hoshigaki Kisame to help him overthrow the government.
When he learned that the young Terumi Mei had become the Fifth Mizukage, he was consumed with anger and jealousy.
When he discovered that Mei had begun reforming Kirigakure and abandoning the Blood Mist, he completely lost it.
"We were driven out of the village 'because' of the Blood Mist policy. Yet instead of hating it, he became one of its most devoted supporters."
"I asked him why. He said, 'We were persecuted and exiled because of the Blood Mist. So why is it that now, when it's finally our turn to persecute others, the Blood Mist has to disappear?'"
"He's completely obsessed now. The people he brainwashed have become just as obsessed. They all fantasize that once they seize power, they'll reclaim the wealth and authority that rightfully belong to them. I truly didn't know what else to do."
"So I could only ask Mizukage-sama for help. Before I went to her... I kept having the same dream. In the dream, I held a ninja sword and slaughtered every lunatic in my clan..."
Alert!
Kakashi had been listening attentively.
But by the end of it...
Wasn't this turning into another Uchiha Clan Massacre?
Even if it was only a dream, people dreamed about what occupied their thoughts.
If she kept dreaming about exterminating her clan, didn't that mean she secretly wanted to wipe them all out?
Was the only reason she hadn't done it because she wasn't strong enough?
"You'd wipe out the whole clan... and leave your younger brother alive?"
Kakashi cautiously asked.
"?"
"Kakashi... are you one of those Bond-Type Ninja they keep talking about?"
"Did you somehow get a picture of my younger brother and develop some disgusting fantasy? Why would I spare my younger brother if I exterminated the clan? Huh?"
Nanami finally snapped.
Kakashi had gone too far.
Ever since the conversation started, he'd been picking at her nonstop.
"I'm definitely not a Bond-Type Ninja. You've misunderstood..."
Kakashi hurriedly waved his hands in denial.
"I don't believe you!"
"Mizukage-sama said Kirigakure is famous for pretty boys who look like girls, while Konoha is famous for producing Bond-Type Ninja who love bullying their own people."
"The Fourth Mizukage, Yagura-sama, was controlled by your Konoha's 'Uchiha Madara.'"
"That's why the ordinary Blood Mist created by the Third Mizukage evolved into the Tyrant Blood Mist!"
"From then on, the people of Kirigakure became just like the people of Konoha. They knew provoking the bloodline clans could get them killed. Yet they still risked their lives to bully and drive them out. Some were even injured or killed because of it, but instead of stopping, it only made the bullying even worse!"
"Mizukage-sama also said your Konoha's Will of Fire is actually the Will of Bullying. If you're too afraid of dying to bully people, then what's the difference between that and being dead?! Your Konoha is a village built on bullying and bonds!"
Nanami completely unloaded on him, berating both Kakashi and Konoha without restraint.
She couldn't help it.
Kakashi had been attacking her the entire time.
It was just like dealing with an unreasonable troll online.
Trying to reason with them was pointless.
The only way to make them stop nitpicking everything you said was to strike back and force them onto the defensive.
"..."
Kakashi was speechless.
The problem was...
Everything she said was technically true.
He really couldn't refute it.
Konoha's Will of Bullying was an even bigger headache than the opposition factions.
People with high moral standards couldn't bring themselves to kill those troublemakers because their crimes didn't warrant death.
People with lower moral standards simply weren't afraid of dying.
As for Bond-Type Ninja...
The stories of the First Hokage and Uchiha Madara were right there for everyone to see.
Kakashi couldn't honestly deny it.
Konoha really had been founded upon their bond.
Even the name 'Konoha' was supposedly chosen by Uchiha Madara because the First Hokage used Wood Release.
That was... unbelievably devoted.
Kakashi had no rebuttal.
As for the claim that the title 'Hokage' came from Uchiha Madara's Fire Release...
That was the First Hokage's cleverness.
'Hokage' obviously referred to the Land of Fire, where they founded the village.
If it had really been meant to commemorate Uchiha Madara, it should have been called the EyeShadow (Gankage) instead.
"Yo, Kakashi. Since when did you start arguing with women?"
A familiar voice came from nearby.
Kakashi, already nursing a headache, looked over.
It was an old acquaintance.
Momochi Zabuza.
"Zabuza? Mizukage-sama invited you here too?"
(End of this chapter)