Chapter 246: The Price of a Blade
The outcome was never truly in doubt. As a seasoned member of the Hawk squad, Suigetsu had weathered battles that would break lesser shinobi. Chojuro, for all his promise as the Fifth Mizukage's guard, was still a novice in the brutal theater of true combat. His movements, while precise, were predictable. Suigetsu's Water Body technique was a simple, almost mocking feint. While Chojuro focused on the decoy, the real Suigetsu emerged from a puddle at his feet like a phantom, one arm solidifying from water to grip Chojuro's wrist in an unbreakable hold, while the other pressed the cold, unforgiving edge of a kunai to his throat.
"You lost," Suigetsu's voice was a flat, emotionless drone, devoid of triumph or malice. It was the tone of a man stating a simple, irrefutable fact. Chojuro could feel the minute shift in pressure against his skin, a silent promise that the slightest resistance would result in a swift, final cut. "I've no particular desire to spill your blood. But your stubbornness leaves me no choice. If you lack the strength to keep it, then you will hand over the Hiramekarei."
A cold dread, colder than the kunai at his neck, seeped into Chojuro's bones. The strength drained from his limbs, replaced by the heavy weight of failure. He saw Lady Mizukage's encouraging smile in his mind's eye, the trust she had placed in him. "I'm sorry... Lady Mizukage," he whispered, the words tasting like ash. "I... I wasn't strong enough."
Suigetsu paid no heed to the younger man's despair. "You have two paths before you," he stated, his voice still chillingly casual. "One: you live. You surrender the blade and return to Kirigakure with your life. Two: I kill you now and take it from your corpse. If you possess even a shred of intelligence, the choice is clear."
For a shinobi of Kirigakure, a village once infamous as the "Village of the Bloody Mist," the choice between life and death was a calculus learned in childhood. Chojuro had grown up hearing whispers of the old days, when genin were forced to slaughter their own classmates in graduation exams. That era of carnage had bred a unique resilience, and while the Fifth Mizukage had ushered in an age of reform, the iron will of the past still beat in the hearts of her guards. His loyalty to Mei and the new Kiri was absolute; to beg for mercy from an enemy was a profound dishonor.
Yet, under the cold kiss of the steel, a tempest of emotions warred within him—hot, shameful anger at his own weakness, a bitter hatred for the man holding him, and a crushing remorse for his fallen comrades. He was only eighteen, and the sight of his team being cut down, his own powerlessness, and now his life hanging by a thread—it was a psychological torment that would have broken many. The fact he remained coherent was a testament to his will.
But no one truly wishes to die. And his reason, a flickering candle in the storm of his feelings, whispered a crucial truth: *To die here is to abandon Lady Mizukage. She is still in danger. My death would be meaningless.*
He took a sharp, shuddering breath, forcing the chaos down, locking it away. His eyes, which had been wide with panic, narrowed with a hard-won clarity. *I must live. I have to ensure Lady Mizukage's safety. That is my duty. That is everything.*
"I understand," Chojuro said, his voice strained but firm. He fought to keep the bitterness from his tone, but a sliver of it leaked through, a raw nerve of pain. "The Hiramekarei... take it."
To him, the twin-bladed weapon was not merely a tool; it was a symbol of his oath, a part of his very identity. Handing it over felt like tearing out a piece of his soul. But weighed against the life and safety of the Mizukage, the blade was a price he was forced to pay. This single, agonizing decision marked the end of his boyhood; the shy, hesitant youth was gone, forged in the fires of failure into something harder.
"A wise choice," Suigetsu remarked, a smirk finally touching his lips as he withdrew the kunai. He had absolute confidence in his ability to react to any last-ditch retaliation, but he sensed none coming. Chojuro's spirit had been broken, not by fear of death, but by the heavier burden of duty.
Feeling the lethal pressure vanish, Chojuro allowed himself a single, internal sigh of relief. He knew his limits. With a pained, almost ceremonial slowness, he raised the unique, bandage-wrapped hilt of the Hiramekarei. His knuckles were white as he stared at it, his expression a complex tapestry of love, loss, and resolve. Gritting his teeth, he closed his eyes and hurled it into the air between them.
Suigetsu snatched it effortlessly from its arc. "Heh… The twin-sword Hiramekarei," he mused, his voice now tinged with a genuine, almost nostalgic pleasure. "Finally, it returns to the hands of a Hoshigaki." He remembered the legends, the former wielders, the legacy he was now reclaiming.
It was then that Chojuro opened his eyes, turning to face his victor. His gaze was no longer one of defeat, but of ironclad determination, fixed squarely on the blade in Suigetsu's grasp.
"Mark my words," Chojuro declared, his voice low but resonant with a newfound strength. "One day, I will take back all of the Seven Ninja Swords. I swear it."
Suigetsu answered with a derisive snort. "Hmph. The Fourth Mizukage, under Uchiha Madara's control, ordered the purge of all Kekkei Genkai clans. The Hoshigaki were scattered and slaughtered because of a Kiri edict. I owe no loyalty to the Village Hidden in the Mist." His eyes narrowed, any hint of nostalgia vanishing, replaced by cold finality. "I let you live today out of sentiment for a home that no longer exists for me. That is the only mercy you will receive. Cross my path again, and you will not find me so… accommodating."
With that, Suigetsu sealed both the Kubikiribōchō and the newly acquired Hiramekarei into a scroll, slung it over his shoulder, and turned his back on Chojuro without another glance, walking away to rejoin his team. He left behind not just a defeated opponent, but a newly forged enemy, steeled by loss and bound by an oath of reclamation.
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