---Third POV---
Mei sat in a chair in her room, waiting for someone to arrive. She wasn't quite sure how she truly felt about Ryouma. When she first heard his name, all she felt inside was unwillingness to accept it. Because as ninjas of the same generation, he was often used as a comparison, and always in a way that made others seem inferior to him, this exceptional prodigy.
Later, she met him in Kiri. After a brief exchange of blows, she instantly understood, there was no room for denial, their strength simply wasn't on the same level.
Then came the moment when she emerged from the shelter, only to see her village, once cold in atmosphere yet dearly loved, devastated by him.
At that time, all she wanted was to kill him.
But... The image from earlier today flashed through her mind, a scene that might stay with her for the rest of her life: dazzling lightning cut through a swarm of dark insects, and the silver-haired boy's eyes were a deep sky-blue like the ocean.
The "hero saves the beauty" trope might be old and cliché, but for a girl her age, it was just right. Unconsciously, she muttered his name, "Ryouma..."
"Hmm? Thinking about me?"
"!"
The sudden voice startled Mei, making her flinch. She looked up.
The person she had just been thinking about was now sitting on her windowsill, backlit by the full moon, his black robe fluttering in the evening breeze.
Caught in her thoughts, she became uncharacteristically flustered. It looked like if she didn't get rid of this mark, she wouldn't sleep well again.
Ryouma, unaware of her inner turmoil, spoke directly, "You probably already know why I'm here. This isn't the place to talk. Give me your hand, we'll talk somewhere else."
She had no choice. She knew she needed something from him. Judging from how he'd saved them from those masked men earlier today, he probably didn't mean her any harm. She might as well go with him, maybe they could come to an agreement.
With that in mind, she regained her usual composure and calmly placed her hand into Ryouma's.
In the next second, he transported her to Tsunade's house.
---
"Yo, you actually brought the little girl over," Tsunade said in amused surprise.
"What, you want me to talk business outside in the cold wind?"
Mei hadn't expected that the "somewhere else" Ryouma mentioned would be a place like this. Shouldn't these kinds of conversations be held secretly?
"This place is...?" Mei hesitated but asked anyway.
"It's my home," Ryouma said, pointing at the sofa. "Make yourself comfortable."
"Your home?"
Mei looked around. The interior was quite spacious, and since she had been teleported directly inside, she didn't know how many floors the house had. And there were quite a few people here. Judging by their hair color, they probably weren't family in the traditional sense.
She politely said, "Sorry for the intrusion," and followed his gesture to sit on the sofa.
Seeing that she seemed curious, Ryouma kindly introduced the others. "Let me introduce you. This is Tsunade. That's Shizune and Rin, and the one sleeping in the basket is Shukaku, all good friends of mine."
Tsunade's name was quite well-known in the shinobi world, in fact, she was someone admired by a large portion of kunoichi.
As someone from a rival hidden village, Mei was always conscious of her manners. When she heard Tsunade's name, she immediately stood and gave a small bow.
"Nice to meet you, Lady Tsunade."
Tsunade casually waved her hand. "Like Ryouma said, we're in a private setting now, no need for all the formalities."
Mei gave a slight nod and sat back down, though her mind was full of questions. Tsunade was from the Senju clan... Judging by their relationship, it seemed quite close.
"Hey, Mei? Mei!"
Ryouma called her a few times, but the girl who usually seemed like she had everything under control now looked like she had frozen, no response at all.
"I heard you."
Mei rubbed her temples with both hands. She was pretty good at adjusting her mindset. After all, her dream was to become the Mizukage, the first female among the Five Kage.
"Let's talk about your terms. Just so you know, I won't agree to anything that harms the interests of my village."
"Don't worry," Ryouma said. "If I wanted to do something to Kiri, I wouldn't need to play games with you to make it happen, would I?"
Though his words were unpleasant, it was true, he had the power to back them up.
"The truth is, there's an enemy I must deal with. He's currently hiding somewhere in a corner of the shinobi world. Considering the geography of the Land of Water, it's the most ideal place for someone like him to stay hidden."
"So, you want to use me to help gather intel on this enemy's possible whereabouts?"
"Exactly," Ryouma clapped his hands. "And to be honest, your village doesn't stand a chance against him. Agreeing to help me might actually be the better option for Kiri."
"Oh? An enemy even you take seriously?"
Though she didn't want to admit it, this guy's strength really was out of the ordinary. She lowered her head, thinking things through for a moment.
If that was all he wanted, just to keep an eye on a potential threat, then it was something she could accept. For an enemy of that level, monitoring his movements could be a benefit to Kiri anyway.
"Then, what exactly do you need me to do?"
"Pay special attention to whether anyone in Kiri shows signs of being under a genjutsu. If anything suspicious happens, inform me immediately."
After listening to Ryouma's instructions, Mei was a bit surprised and said, "That's it? So simple?"
"What did you expect? Oh, right, your Fourth Mizukage is Yagura, right?"
"Yes. What are you planning? The Fourth Mizukage, like the Hokage, values peace very much."
Mei looked a little tense. She still remembered that the man before her had clashed with Yagura, back when he wasn't the Mizukage yet, for quite a long time.
Ryouma gave a helpless smile. "I'm someone who likes peace too, okay? Just a heads-up, if you notice him suddenly undergo a drastic personality change, there's a good chance he's under genjutsu."
In the original timeline, it was Obito who controlled the Fourth Mizukage, but for Madara, replicating the same strategy wouldn't be difficult. After all, Obito learned most of his techniques from him.
Controlling a major hidden village would bring significant advantages.
"Even he might fall for it? Got it, I'll be careful."
Given that the enemy was someone even Ryouma took seriously, she didn't need to cling to any misplaced pride. Acknowledging the weakness of her own village was a form of growth too.
"Well then, looking forward to our cooperation." Ryouma extended his left hand. "Let me take you back to your inn."
Mei's eyes shifted slightly as a thought struck her. "How am I supposed to contact you?"
The space-time jutsu from earlier only worked one way; she had no way to immediately send information back.
"Oh right, almost forgot."
Ryouma scratched his forehead awkwardly, got up, walked to a bookshelf, and took down a scroll, which he handed to Mei.
"This scroll has a sensory formula I wrote. If you discover anything, just scratch out the symbol on it and I'll get the message. Then I'll teleport to your location using the Flying Thunder God Technique."
This scroll was still experimental, Ryouma and Minato had been developing it together. The idea was that by damaging a preset, you could trigger a kind of alert or distress signal.
The basic functionality had been achieved. The next step was figuring out how to shrink the scroll's size and simplify the activation method.
Mei accepted the arm-sized scroll from him and said with some surprise, "Aren't you afraid I'll set a trap in Kiri and send you a fake message to lure you in?"
"It's just for sending intel. What I send over will only be a shadow clone."
"Ah… right."
She reached out and shook Ryouma's left hand. "Got it. Send me back already…"
Ryouma shrugged and began circulating his chakra.
---
The next day, the second round of peace talks between Konoha and Kiri officially began. Ryouma once again participated as a guest, there to lighten the mood. This time, with no interference from Danzō, the talks proceeded smoothly.
Kiri straightforwardly agreed to cover all one-time reparations on behalf of the Water Daimyō's office. The only thing they negotiated on was Konoha's demand for a cut of future missions, where they played the sympathy card.
They managed to shave another 3% off the percentage that had been agreed upon just the day before.
In truth, Konoha didn't really need that bit of money. Plus, considering how the Kiri envoy group had all taken a serious beating from Danzō, they just swallowed the pain and kept quiet about Konoha's internal problems afterward.
With such a minor request, Shikaku didn't bother pressing the Kiri representatives too hard.
Another peaceful day passed.
After Kisame used a summoning technique to confirm the intelligence with Fourth Mizukage, he brought the formal documents to the Third Hokage, officially concluding the peace talks.
Finally, in the early summer of Year 46, Kiri officially announced its withdrawal from the Third Great Ninja War.
With that, the war front on the Land of Fire's coastline that had been occupied by the Kiri forces was mostly cleared. Aside from a few necessary garrison units, most clans, like the Uchiha and the Hyūga, could finally return home and get some much-needed rest.
A cause for celebration indeed.
---
Inside the Senju clan compound, after sending off the Kiri envoy, Ryouma wasn't in any hurry to head to the battlefield in the Land of Hot Water. Because being in a rush was pointless, especially when the village leader himself wasn't rushing.
Lying in a rocking chair that had basically become his designated "respawn point," he laid a thickly titled book over his face.
The title on the cover read: "The Absolute Components of the Soul and the Forbidden Methods of Chakra Transformation"
"I don't get it. I really don't get it!"
He had to admit, he just didn't have a natural talent when it came to soul research.
Completely unfazed by Ryouma's despairing cry, Shukaku rolled over on his stomach and peacefully continued sleeping in a new position. By now, he was used to it. There was no need to worry, sooner or later, his partner would stubbornly dive back into soul research again.
Knock knock knock~
A clear knocking sound came from the door.
Ryouma lazily got up, set the book aside, and went to open it.
"The Hokage wishes to see you."
"Got it."
With that answer, the ANBU messenger disappeared in a flash using the Body Flicker Technique.
Ryouma instantly teleported near the Hokage Building using the Flying Thunder God Technique. At this time of day, if Hiruzen was summoning him, it was most likely about the front lines.
A ninja of his strength was wasted just sitting around the village.
Before, he had to stay in Konoha to oversee the peace talks with Kiri. Now that the talks were concluded, there was no longer any reason to keep him here.
He opened the door to the Hokage's office.
Hiruzen, as usual, was seated behind his desk working, surrounded by piles of documents and scrolls.
"Being Hokage sure looks tough," Ryouma said.
Hiruzen looked up and smiled warmly. "What's this? Are you interested in becoming the Fifth Hokage?"
Ryouma quickly waved his hands. "Please no. You know me, I hate paperwork more than anything."
"Hahaha!" Hiruzen laughed heartily. Just because Ryouma wasn't interested now didn't mean he wouldn't be in the future.
He knew full well how responsible Ryouma was. When the time came and Konoha truly needed him, Hiruzen believed Ryouma would definitely rise to the occasion.
That was the confidence instilled in him by the Will of Fire.
---
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