---Third POV---
Witnessing the destruction of the Four Violet Flames Formation, Tatsuma raised an eyebrow. He hadn't expected this.
A ninjutsu similar to acid... Is it the Lava Release?
However, the Root ninjas had already surrounded the area. These Kiri ninjas wouldn't escape today even if they had wings. He decided to make an example of the one possessing a bloodline limit first.
Under his control, swarms of destructive insects formed waves of black tide, encircling from every direction.
Mei could only watch helplessly as the swarm closed in on her.
She had already used a large amount of Water Release in an area without water and had just used Lava Release as well. Due to her age, her chakra was now severely depleted.
She couldn't even muster a basic Water Formation Wall.
Misfortunes never came alone.
On the other side, Daigoro and the others were also surrounded by Root members, and were on the verge of being slaughtered.
"Even if you kill us, the peace talks won't stop!" Mei tried to stall for time with words, but the person in front of her, wrapped tightly in a cloak, clearly had no intention of communicating.
This might really be the end...
She could almost see the twitching antennae on the insects as death loomed near.
Just then, a burst of chirping bird-like cries echoed through the empty street.
"Aa～"
Brilliant lightning streaked through the air, forming a twisting electric net that blocked the black tide of insects.
"Two nations at war still don't kill envoys. Why does he always like to play such dirty tricks?" A clear, youthful voice rang out to everyone present.
Hearing that somewhat familiar voice, Mei looked up to see a white-haired young man bathed in radiant blue lightning standing before her.
"Ryouma…" She hadn't expected him to show up and save her. Thinking back on her earlier suspicions, she immediately felt a bit guilty.
Like Kisame, she had assumed that this attack was orchestrated by him, but clearly, she had guessed wrong.
Seeing his attack thwarted, Tatsuma's expression darkened. Working within Root, an intelligence agency, he was very aware of which people in the shinobi world he couldn't afford to cross.
With Ryouma now guarding the girl, killing her by force was no longer an option.
"You're supposed to be in negotiations with the Kiri delegation. Why did you arrive so quickly?"
Tatsuma finally voiced the question that bothered him the most.
After days of careful planning and calculation, they were certain they had enough time to eliminate the Kiri envoys before any help could arrive.
Unless Ryouma had foreseen this and marked the girl beforehand with the Flying Thunder God.
So, did he really mark her?
The answer was, of course he did. But it wasn't because he could see the future.
During the operation in the Land of Water to destroy Kiri, after his identity was exposed, he had briefly fought her. During that encounter, he had placed the Flying Thunder God mark on her wrist.
However, due to the effect of the Shadow Seal Manipulation Jutsu, she had never noticed it.
Originally, he had left the mark as a backup, in case all the other marks inside Kiri were discovered and destroyed, he could still use her to infiltrate the village at any time.
Now facing Tatsuma's question, he naturally didn't reveal the truth.
Being intercepted by a kid who hadn't even been out of the Academy for two years annoyed him. But there was nothing he could do, this brat was strong.
Besides, failing to kill the girl wasn't a big deal. There were still three other Kiri ninjas. As long as they killed one of them, their mission would be complete.
Other than Ryouma, who could use the Flying Thunder God Technique, there was no way the others could arrive so quickly, unless someone had predicted everything and was already lying in wait nearby.
Otherwise, he refused to believe that with so many Root operatives on the field today, they couldn't kill even a single Kiri ninja.
Seeing that Tatsuma had tactfully chosen to back off, Ryouma nodded in satisfaction. After all, the other guy was still a registered Konoha ninja. He didn't want to fight his fellow villagers, especially not to protect someone from Kiri, of all things.
All he wanted now was to wrap up the peace negotiations quickly and send this trouble-prone Kiri delegation on their way.
Mei surveyed the surroundings, then quickly pointed toward Daigoro and the others and urged, "Please save those people over there!"
She didn't particularly like Daigoro and his team, but considering they were tasked with the peace talks by the Fourth Mizukage, not a single person from the Kiri delegation could be allowed to die. If word got back to the village that Konoha ninjas had killed members of the delegation, the Mizukage would not be able to suppress the extremist ninjas whose minds were clouded by hatred.
And if war reignited, it was hard to say what would happen to Konoha, but with its deep resources, Kiri would undoubtedly face utter annihilation. So even if someone from the delegation had to die, it must only be after they'd left Konoha and returned to the Land of Water.
Upon hearing her plea, he remained motionless.
Tatsuma felt a bit more at ease, it looked like Ryouma really had come alone.
While he relaxed, Mei grew increasingly anxious. In the distance, Daigoro and the others were already surrounded by over a dozen enemies with no escape in sight.
Just as she was about to speak again, Ryouma said, "Someone else will step in."
Almost as if in answer to his words, just as the Root operatives unleashed various ninjutsu attacks on the three trapped Kiri ninjas, a black-haired girl suddenly appeared in front of them in a flash.
Shiori opened her eyes, and her Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan slowly rotated.
A massive white skeletal structure sprouted into existence, forming a chakra-armored giant that enveloped both her and the three Kiri ninjas behind her.
Against this level of power, she didn't even need to activate the second stage of Susanoo.
All the attacks struck the Susanoo and didn't even cause a ripple.
"What is that?"
"That's Shiori of Thousand Birds!"
"The Sharingan can do that?!"
Faced with this unfamiliar power, the Root operatives murmured among themselves, but ultimately, they could come to no conclusion.
Most of them were war orphans collected by Danzō from all over, with only a few coming from the major clans of Konoha. So, it was perfectly normal that they hadn't heard of "Susanoo." After all, information about the Mangekyō Sharingan was something Konoha deliberately kept hidden.
When Ryouma saw that Shiori had already taken action, he placed his palm on Mei's shoulder.
The Flying Thunder God Technique activated instantly.
They appeared directly inside Shiori's Susanoo.
He ignored Mei, who was a bit dizzy from the space-time movement, and walked over to Shiori's side and asked in a low voice, "Did your future self give you another tip?"
She nodded slightly and replied crisply, "About three hours ago, my dōjutsu suddenly activated on its own and told me to come here early to save the delegations from Kiri."
"Did it say what would happen if you didn't save them?" he asked curiously. After all, in a similar situation before, her future self had said something about regret.
"It did," Shiori replied.
After waiting a few seconds, Ryouma looked at her in confusion. That's it?
"So, what did it say?"
Faced with his follow-up question, Shiori remained silent. Because what her future self had actually said was: If you don't want an extra love rival… then go save these Kiri ninjas.
Ever since she had obtained the Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan, the voice of her future self had become much clearer in her mind. Although it still cut in and out at times, at least it didn't give her headaches anymore.
It was like the difference between a 2G and a 3G network.
Though Ryouma was extremely curious, there was nothing he could do if she didn't want to tell him. After all, the dōjutsu was hers, and as an old teammate, she certainly wouldn't harm him.
Shiori awkwardly changed the subject, asking, "Should we kill these people?"
Ryouma looked at her speechlessly. "You're being a bit extreme."
The words sounded very familiar to Shiori, she seemed to recall Ryouma scolding her the same way before.
"Then what do you suggest?" she snorted.
Before he could answer, Mei jumped in. "As long as we keep up this defensive jutsu, we're fine. The Hokage should've already heard the commotion and is likely on the move. The best course of action now is to wait."
No wonder she would eventually become the Fifth Mizukage and take back Kiri from Obito, her analysis of the situation was spot-on.
Konoha was still fairly large. Ryouma sensed Hiruzen's location and roughly calculated the distance and speed. He figured they wouldn't have to wait more than two minutes. Logically, that was more than enough time for Root to assassinate the Kiri delegations multiple times. But unfortunately for them, against Shiori's Susanoo, these ordinary ninjas had no means to counterattack.
They could only watch helplessly as time ticked by.
At that moment, Tatsuma also arrived. Naturally, he recognized what the chakra giant before him was.
"Susanoo? Shiori actually awakened the Mangekyō Sharingan!"
He was shocked. If that was the case, then wouldn't the Uchiha clan be practically invincible? He had to report this information to Lord Danzō immediately. Since the mission to assassinate the Kiri delegation was no longer feasible, it would be best to retreat before the Hokage arrived.
Otherwise, if they were caught red-handed, it would be a total loss.
Under his orders, the Root members began retreating.
Shiori stepped forward, wanting to stop them, but Ryouma held her back.
"There's no need to chase. We're not allowed to kill them anyway."
After this incident, Hiruzen would likely retract a significant portion of Root's power. However, dismantling Root entirely was unrealistic, during wartime, that intelligence organization was still very useful.
To be fair, though Danzō was short-sighted, he was indeed quite talented when it came to discovering and cultivating espionage personnel.
Seeing those masked ninjas leave, Mei gently pressed her chest in relief and let out a big sigh, then bowed slightly and politely toward Ryouma and Shiori.
"Thank you both for your assistance. You must be the famous Shiori of Thousand Birds, right? My name is Mei."
But Shiori didn't even glance at her. She simply left a line for Ryouma. "Now that it's over, I'll head out first," then turned and walked away on her own.
The polite smile on Mei's face froze awkwardly. Did she somehow get on her bad side? Or… were all Uchiha like this?
"Pfft—" Seeing her getting the cold shoulder, Ryouma couldn't help but chuckle.
She pressed her lips tightly together and asked the smirking Ryouma, "That guy using the insect techniques just now said you were in negotiations with the Kiri delegation, right?"
"Yeah, why?"
"…"
He's really asking why? Mei suddenly felt a pain in her chest.
"You just appeared next to me in an instant… which means you've placed a space-time mark on me."
"Ohh? You may be right."
Having received confirmation, Mei lifted her wrist and examined it carefully. If she'd had contact with this guy before today, it was probably only at that spot. But no matter how she looked at it, it was just a normal wrist. And to think her village had conducted a carpet search and still couldn't find the space-time marks.
Could it be that the marks could be hidden?
Realizing this, she smiled sweetly at Ryouma and said, "Since our villages are about to begin peace talks, shouldn't the space-time mark you left on me… be removed?"
Ryouma gave her a bright, sunny smile and spoke, "What mark?"
Mei had already guessed that a few words wouldn't be enough to get him to obediently remove the mark.
She had a strong sense of planning for her future. She wasn't content with just being an ordinary kunoichi. Losing an arm would've basically destroyed the future she envisioned for herself.
Don't be fooled by how smoothly Ryouma did one-handed hand seals, very few ninjas in the shinobi world could pull that off.
Taking a deep breath, she walked directly in front of him, her eyes burning into him as she spoke softly but firmly, "What do I have to do for you to remove the mark?"
Ryouma looked genuinely surprised, what she just said was a little dangerous. Good thing he was a decent guy, and not into little girls.
"Hmm…"
After thinking for a moment, and to avoid being overheard by the Kiri ninjas nearby, he leaned close to her ear and whispered, "If you agree to be my informant inside Kiri for five years, I'll remove the mark."
Even though he had already driven Madara out of his hiding place, there was still the possibility that he might double back and hide in the Land of Water again.