Chapter 26: Make Kumogakure great again!

"You-"

Terumi Mei, who was close to releasing a lava release ninjutsu, stopped her movements at the last second.

Seeing how hostile Kimimaro and Haku were towards her she felt an unspeakable bitterness in her heart.

They were originally from Kirigakure and should be in the same camp as her.

"He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world"

Hachiro raised his head slightly, and uttered a quote from who knows where.

Although, he hates Hiruzen's will of fire rubbish

But he has to admit, that the old fox is unrivalled when it comes to winning peoples hearts.

He managed to win over the citizens of Konoha, Minato, Kakashi and Naruto.

Seeing that Terumi Mei, no longer had any intention of attacking, Haku and Kimimaro lowered their weapons.

They still kept their vigilance though.

"How about you come with us?"

All of a sudden, Hachiro for some reason stretched out his hand and invited her.

"Eh!?"

Terumi Mei, who was immersing in her sorrow, was reawakened to the land of the living by Hachiro's question.

She looked at him incredulously.

She raised her finger and pointed at herself as if to confirm, he was talking about her.

"Kirigakure is completely under the Mizukage's control, are you going to stay here and face endless pursuit from your own village?"

He asked her.

In the original work, there was not much description on what happened during the bloody mist period other than the clans dying out.

However, there was plenty of speculations on what happened.

What was certain was that the Akatsuki killed him once, they needed to get Isobu, the three tailed beast.

Terumi Mei would then become the Mizukage of Kirigakure and free the mist from their dark period of history.

Although, the only reason she got the opportunity to free them was that Akatsuki had already developed enough, that they didn't need Kirigakure at that time.

They didn't want to bother fighting with the mist and incur pointless losses.

"I will never give up on the village! Just wait, I will find a way to convince Lord Fourth."

She clenched her hands into fists.

Woah, how fierce and scary!(sarcasm)

"Well then, faced with Yagura, who has the majority of the mist's combat power at his disposal and the power of a tailed beast, what chance do you think you have?"

He raised a vital question.

She stomped on the ground, still feeling angry and stubborn.

She was acting like a cat with her tail stepped on.

"How about you cooperate, when we try to take Konoha down. I'll try to get Kumogakure to help you get rid of Yagura since it would benefit us both."

He smiled.

She opened her mouth slightly shocked and speechless,

Take down Konoha? As in the village, hidden in the leaves?

That's a major village!

Is this man crazy?!

Although, the land of Water was isolated from the rest of the world currently, making it difficult to obtain information from the outside world.

The rumours that the Fourth Hokage and the defection of Orochimaru, one of the sannin had spread like wild fire months ago.

She had took them for a grain of salt, she had no means of verifying the information but could it be true?

Had Konoha fallen into a state of decline?

"Then, when will it happen?"

She asked feeling a myriad of emotions.

"Well... It will probably take place in ten years. Have to make sure Konoha is in its weakest state."

Hachiro pretended to think,

In ten years time, Obito will have squeezed most of Kirigakure's value out, and give the mist the freedom they want.

Terumi Mei didn't need to know that the Akatsuki would just abandon their control over the mist, and he could use that to his advantage.

"Ten years..."

She lowered her head and muttered those two words quietly.

After a moment of consideration, determination appeared on her face, and she resolutely exclaimed,

"Okay! But you must promise to abide by the agreement!"

"I haven't hit the age where I forget what I say."

He stretched out his arm a gave a fist to her.

She tilted her head to convey her puzzlement.

"It's a cloud custom. It's kind of like a action to show you, promise to fulfil a deal."

He gave a happy smile.

"Oh, okay, got it."

She felt slightly awkward before hitting his fist.

…

…

It had almost been 52 years since Konoha's establishment.

The three strongest clans in Kirigakure had been wiped out.

The Yuki, Hozuki and Kaguya clans had been slaughtered one after the other.

This caused Kirigakure to earn a title with some notoriety, the bloody mist.

Now, not just the people from Kirigakure but everyone else in the world though the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura was crazy.

Kirigakure was becoming chaotic due to the death of so many ninja's and the fear of who was next to be killed.

Many Shinobi villages discussed on whether they should attack Kirigakure while it was in chaos.

The five major villages dropped the idea.

However many of the smaller villages that wanted to take kirigakure's position as a major village stirred up even more trouble.

The five major villages continued to spectate from the side as they didn't feel like going to war again, so soon.

Additionally, Kirigakure was an island half way across the sea making an attack time-consuming and resource expensive.

Sunagakure didn't even bother considering an attack as they were too poor to fight an extended battle and had other plans they wanted to realise.

Not one village had noticed that Kumogakure had smuggled the two last survivors of the three clans of the mist.

And on that note, Hachiro officially launched his 'Make Kumogakure great again' project.