Chapter 249: A Kage's Bargain
The battle was over. The silence that descended upon the forest clearing was more absolute than any noise, broken only by the ragged, pained breaths of the defeated. Kirigakure's forces had been annihilated. Ao was dead. The Fifth Mizukage herself, Terumi Mei, lay broken and paralyzed, her life hanging on the whims of the victor who stood over her.
"Uchiha Ren," she rasped, her voice strained but defiant. "You've won. Now finish it." Even in ruin, a Kage's pride would not allow her to beg. She met his gaze, her eyes burning with a final, unyielding ember of spirit.
A faint, condescending smile touched Ren's lips. He slowly knelt, his movement deliberate and unhurried. His hand snaked out, not with a killing blow, but to close around her throat. He lifted her from the ground as if she weighed nothing, forcing her to look at him from this undignified, helpless angle.
"Still so stubborn," he mused, his voice a soft, mocking whisper. The distance between them was intimate, violent. "Is death truly what you crave so much?" As if to emphasize his point, his grip tightened incrementally. Mei's eyes widened as her airway constricted. She choked, a desperate, guttural sound fighting past the pressure on her windpipe. She did not struggle; she refused to give him that satisfaction. Her vision began to speckle with black dots, the edges blurring into nothingness.
"Damn you! Let go of Lady Mizukage!"
The voice, sharp with youthful panic, cut through the clearing. Mei's fading consciousness snapped back with a jolt. No... Her eyes, locked on Ren's, now held a frantic plea, a silent scream she could not voice.
Ren didn't even flinch. He simply turned his head, his expression one of amused discovery. "Oh? I remember you. Chojuro, isn't it? The new swordsman. I'm surprised Suigetsu let you live. How... fortunate for you."
Chojuro stood at the edge of the clearing, his chest heaving. He had ignored Suigetsu's "mercy" and rushed here, driven by a desperate need to protect his Kage, only to find his worst fear realized. He barely registered Ren's words; his entire world had narrowed to the sight of Mei's life being slowly squeezed away.
"Let her go!" he screamed again, his voice cracking. His hand flew to his back by instinct, grasping for the familiar hilt of the Hiramekarei, but his fingers closed on empty air. The stark reminder of his own powerlessness, of the blade already lost, sent a fresh wave of shame and fury through him.
"You want me to let her go?" Ren repeated, his tone light, almost conversational. He glanced down at Mei, whose face was now turning a sickly shade of purple. "Alright."
He opened his hand.
Mei dropped to the ground in a heap, a dull thud of flesh and broken bone against hard earth. She gasped, a raw, sucking sound, her body convulsing as she dragged precious air back into her lungs, her coughs wracking her broken frame.
Chojuro stared, stunned. He had expected a fight, a futile charge, a martyr's death. He had not expected his demand to be so casually, so effortlessly, granted. His mind reeled, unable to process the sheer, unpredictable power on display.
"Fool! What are you doing here?!" Mei's voice was a ragged scrape, laced with a terror he had never heard from her before. She had recovered enough to feel a horror greater than her own impending death: his. "Run! Get out of here, now!"
"But, Lady Mizukage! I'm here to save you! Are you—?"
"Idiot!" she shrieked, cutting him off, her composure shattering completely. "I am ordering you to RUN! Don't you understand?!" Her eyes were wild, streaked with bloody veins, pleading with him to see the hopelessness she saw.
Chojuro finally heard it—the raw, unvarnished fear in her voice. The truth crashed down upon him. This wasn't a battle; it was a predestination. They weren't warriors; they were prey. He looked from his broken, desperate Kage to the utterly relaxed Uchiha Ren, who watched their exchange with the detached interest of a scientist observing insects.
"Escape?" Ren chuckled softly, the sound devoid of any warmth. "A noble thought."
The chilling finality in that laugh drained the last of Mei's defiance. The memory of the Flying Thunder God's impossible speed was a cold stone in her gut. Escape was not an option. It had never been. A profound, weary powerlessness settled over her. She had one card left to play, the only thing of value she still possessed.
"Uchiha Ren," she said, her voice suddenly calm, though it cost her immense effort. "Let's make a deal."
Ren's eyebrows arched in genuine, amused curiosity. "Oh?"
Mei ignored Chojuro's confused stare, pouring all her remaining will into her gaze. "Your target is me. The Mizukage. The others... Chojuro... they are irrelevant to you." She took a shuddering breath. "Let him go. Swear to let him leave here unharmed, and I... I will submit to your will. Do with me as you please."
She slumped after the words were out, the offer hanging in the air like a confession of ultimate defeat. She had bargained away her pride, her body, her very soul, for the life of one loyal, foolish boy. She could only pray it was a price he was willing to accept, forgetting that a prisoner in chains has nothing to bargain with.
"Lady Mizukage, you can't—!" Chojuro's voice was a strangled whisper, the full, horrifying weight of her sacrifice finally crushing him. He was not a hero. He was the reason his Kage was offering herself up to the devil.
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