"Impossible."
Mei rejected Mitsuki's condition without hesitation.
She had genuine loyalty to her own village. Selling out Kirigakure's interests for the sake of her personal future… she disdained doing something like that.
Mitsuki had expected her to refuse, but he didn't expect such an intense reaction.
"You might've misunderstood me. I don't need you to leak Kirigakure's classified intel. All I need is—"
Mitsuki stopped mid-sentence, because he sensed that Sarutobi Hiruzen had already arrived.
Looks like he would have to talk to Mei privately later.
The empty street was littered with fragments of broken buildings. Though the fight hadn't lasted long, its intensity was considerable—especially Root, who started the moment they appeared by carpet-bombing the street with Fire Release.
Hiruzen approached with several elite ANBU members. Even in his advanced age, his eyesight hadn't worsened; from far away he could already see Mitsuki and the others.
And of course, he also saw the massive chakra giant.
"Susanoo, huh…"
So the Uchiha Clan had another prodigy capable of awakening the Mangekyō Sharingan. That could be investigated later—right now, the priority was handling Danzō's mess.
Within seconds, Hiruzen shunshined to Mitsuki and Mei's side.
"Are you all unharmed? A group of unidentified enemies infiltrated Konoha just now. I apologize for the fright."
As expected of the Hokage—the king of pushing blame with a straight face.
Zabuza and the others, still shaken after nearly dying, showed clear indignation at Hiruzen's blatant lie. But they didn't act rashly.
Zabuza threw his arm out and marched forward aggressively.
"Hokage-sama, is this how your village treats foreign envoys? We almost died just now!"
He then shot Mei a meaningful look.
Mei immediately understood, continuing smoothly:
"Zabuza, Hokage-sama did say these were unidentified enemies. It's our own fault for letting our guard down after coming to the so-called strongest of the Five Great Villages. We thought we didn't need to worry about safety inside Konoha…"
Her sweet-poisoned words made Mitsuki feel as if he had momentarily returned to his past life.This woman definitely had skills.
Hiruzen smiled warmly, as if completely deaf to the insinuations hidden in her words.
"Please rest assured. I will ensure these troublemakers who attempted to sabotage the peace talks are severely punished."
After making that righteous declaration, Hiruzen turned to an ANBU standing to his left.
"Sanka, escort the Kirigakure delegation to the guest residence near the Hokage Building. Assign additional protection—there must not be a repeat of today's incident."
The ANBU captain nodded and stepped forward.
"Everyone, please follow me."
Zabuza wanted to argue further, but Mei politely cut in before he could escalate things.
"Thank you."
Everyone knew the rule: push too far, and it backfires. Thankfully, Mei wasn't the type to overplay her hand.
This wasn't the weakened Hiruzen who years later would be bitten back by Kumogakure's envoy and wouldn't dare retaliate.
The title "The Professor" wasn't just for show. Konoha still had the Sannin, and rising stars like Minato and Mitsuki.
Kirigakure couldn't afford to provoke such a strong Konoha right now. Their only hope was that today's incident would reduce whatever concessions they would be forced to make at the negotiating table.
After the Kirigakure delegation left, Hiruzen finally addressed Mitsuki.
"Mitsuki, how is the situation at the conference room? And how did you get here so quickly? Also, do you know who summoned that chakra giant just now?"
He fired question after question. When he'd left the office earlier, his crystal ball still showed the peace talks underway, so he had no idea Kisame and the others had also rushed here.
Mitsuki answered the first question:
"As for the meeting room, Kisame and the others left midway to check on the remaining members of their envoy. Judging from the time, they should be arriving here soon."
Hiruzen nodded. This wasn't the place to discuss matters deeply.Leaving a few ANBU behind to wait for Kisame's group, he led Mitsuki back to the Hokage's office.
Hands behind his back, Mitsuki walked after him. Passing the ANBU stationed nearby, he couldn't help but sigh:
"ANBU work really is exhausting."
These ANBU had to escort Kisame's group to meet up with the earlier envoys, then assess the damages to the street, negotiate compensation with the property owners, and finally deliver the finalized payout list to Root.
Hiruzen chuckled.
"How about it? Want to join the ANBU for some training?"
"Please, absolutely don't do that to me."
Mitsuki quickly waved his hands. He had no desire to let work consume his entire life.
…
Elsewhere, on a small stone-paved path covered in green shade—
Ruri walked with a dark expression. She was very, very annoyed.
The source of her irritation wasn't others—but herself. Or rather… her future self.
Ruri had always hated people telling her what to do.And that included her future self.
When her Mangekyō Sharingan ability had suddenly activated, she had deliberately ignored it at first.
She arrived near the inn and hid, wanting to wait until the Kirigakure girl was killed by that Aburame shinobi before stepping in.
But unexpectedly, because of her inaction, Mitsuki assumed the warning came from the future again and teleported in to save the girl.
"Damn it… was that part of your plan too, future me?"
…
Back in the Hokage's office—
The moment Mitsuki and Hiruzen stepped inside, they were greeted by Danzō's snide voice:
"Heh… don't worry, you will all understand how right my actions were today."
Hiruzen and Mitsuki exchanged a glance and wisely ignored the old man who still thought his plan had succeeded.
Seeing their reactions, Danzō had a very bad feeling.
"Did… the plan fail?"
Hiruzen waved his hand, dismissing the two ANBU guarding Danzō.