As people across the various timelines of the Shinobi World reflected on Nagato's death and Naruto's Talk-no-Jutsu, the scene slowly shifted.
The ruins, the paper tree, the gaunt figure in the wheelchair—all faded away. In their place appeared a face impossible to forget.
A man with a shark-like face, jagged teeth, fierce features, and pale skin appeared on the screen.
His eyes were small, yet his pupils were exceptionally sharp. His dark blue hair hung messily around his ears, making his face appear even paler. But what drew the most attention was the massive blade he held in his hand: Samehada, its body covered in spikes, like a sleeping shark, still radiating a fierce aura.
---
[Akatsuki Hideout]
Kisame sat in his chair, resting Samehada horizontally across his knees. The blade was heavy, pressing slightly into his thighs. He leaned back in the chair, and the chair's legs creaked as if protesting his weight.
He then tilted his head, watching his own face appear on the screen with great interest, and he didn't seem concerned about his future death at all. In his mind, as long as he didn't go out like Nagato, talked into suicide by Naruto, he would be fine.
The other Akatsuki members—Sasori, Deidara, Hidan, Kakuzu, Itachi—each died with some dignity. Either in battle, or by self-destruction. Not one had been talked to death.
Only their leader, Nagato, had dragged down the organization's image.
[Hoshigaki Kisame, Akatsuki's Nanto (South Star). Because he and Itachi had similar experiences, he took the initiative to become his partner; in fact, the two could even be considered close friends to some extent.]
Kisame turned his head to look at the empty seat beside him, feeling a faint sense of loss in his heart. It was a pity that Itachi had just left; otherwise, it would have been quite interesting to watch his own death together.
They had been partners for many years, carrying out missions side by side. That was a feeling he had never experienced back in the Bloody Mist.
---
Meanwhile, in a forest on the border of Amegakure, Itachi, who didn't even care about Nagato's invasion of Konoha, quietly stopped his stride.
He looked up at the screen, a rare flicker of emotion crossing his usually expressionless face.
'Kisame, huh?'
He leaned against a large tree, one hand resting on his knee, and watched the screen quietly.
Although Itachi would never admit it, he did regard Kisame as something of a friend.
[Kisame was originally one of the second generation of the "Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist" in Kirigakure. And due to his immense chakra reserves, he was known as the "Tailed Beast Without a Tail." He also specialized in Water Release and fighting with his massive blade, Samehada.]
[To be honest, defecting from other Shinobi Villages may be blameworthy—after all, the village raised you—but defecting from Kirigakure isn't surprising at all. Given the Bloody Mist's policies, not taking revenge on the village before leaving could already be considered quite merciful.]
---
[Land of Water, Kirigakure]
Hearing the Sky Screen's assessment of her village, Mei smiled bitterly.
The reputation of the Bloody Mist was indeed the worst among the Five Great Nations. When shinobis defected from other villages, they were branded as ungrateful traitors. But when someone defected from Kirigakure, everyone just said, "Oh, that's normal—it's the Bloody Mist after all."
Ao stood to the side and cautiously offered comfort: "Mizukage-sama, all that was done by Uchiha Obito controlling the Fourth Mizukage with Genjutsu... It's all in the past now."
He conveniently glossed over the fact that the Bloody Mist's era had actually begun during the Third Mizukage's rule, but regardless, its severity was undeniably amplified under Obito's control.
Mei pondered for a moment before suddenly speaking, her train of thought jumping so quickly that everyone present was caught off guard: "What do you think, could we contact Kisame... like we did with Zabuza and bring him back to the village?"
Chōjūrō, clutching his blade, widened his eyes in astonishment. He hadn't expected Mei's mind to jump so quickly—one second she was lamenting the darkness of the Bloody Mist, and the next she was planning to recruit a rogue-nin?
However, an Elder seated in the corner rubbed his cane with aged fingers and spoke slowly: "It's worth a try. The village is indeed in need of manpower right now. And if he's willing to return, there's no reason not to accept him; after all, he's a rare Kage-level asset."
[Compared to Konoha, Kirigakure was far more brutal. Some shinobis were raised from the start to accept the idea of killing their comrades. And advancement in Kirigakure was based solely on survival; only those who killed their opponents could move up.]
[Kisame grew up in this very environment. Here, shinobis were truly nothing more than tools; expendable pawns who could die at any moment. So Kisame's starting point was never a normal worldview, and he had no choice in the matter. After all, everyone around him had been molded by the same system.]
[Also, Kisame's frequent missions involved protecting the village's Cipher Division. But he also had a secondary, covert task: if he could not protect them, he was to kill them immediately to prevent them from being captured and having their intelligence extracted.]
[In short, while it was ideal to keep them alive, if something went wrong, those people were expendable, silencing them and protecting secrets became the priority. And this was the standard practice under the Bloody Mist's rule; a constant source for internal strife.]
[But what truly broke his mentality was likely the death of the female Kirigakure shinobi, Miru, even though he was the one who killed her.]
[Miru was in the same Cipher Division which Kisame was assigned to protect and had shown him kindness.]
[Kisame felt something inside him move, but his first instinct was avoidance and rejection. He knew all too well that whether it was Miru, who had shown him goodwill, or the shinobis who mocked him from the sidelines, they were both targets to be protected and potential subjects to be slaughtered.]
[This instinct to sever connections was also somewhat similar to Sasuke in the mid-stages. So after learning of the fate he bore, only by closing his heart and cutting his ties could Kisame swing his blade without hesitation.]
[And as expected, things unfolded just as anticipated. One moment, the Kirigakure shinobis were lounging around, playing cards and chatting, and the next, they were surrounded by Konoha shinobis led by Morino Ibiki.]
[Kisame then fully embraced Kirigakure's fine traditions and sent all his teammates to their graves. Even Miru, who had shown him kindness moments before, could only leave behind a stunned final remark—"What a terrible life you have had..."—before meeting her end, at just nineteen years old.]
[It's easy to imagine how deeply those words must have affected Kisame, especially since he had been carrying out such missions of slaughtering his comrades for so long.]
In reality, Kisame was stunned.
Miru… that face and name had long been buried deep in his memory, deliberately forgotten.
Hearing it now felt like a life far removed.
[Later, when Kisame discovered that his own immediate superior, Suikazan Fuguki, was actually the mastermind behind colluding with the enemy and selling information; he didn't hesitate at all and killed his superior directly.]
[Of course, killing Fuguki didn't carry the same pain as killing Miru. But the realization that the very man who had ordered him to eliminate his companions to prevent intelligence from leaking, was himself the biggest leak added another layer to Kisame's worldview; beyond coldness and cruelty, there was now the bitter taste of utter falsehood and unreality to his perception.]
[Therefore, Kisame bore no hostility toward the manipulated Fourth Mizukage or the mastermind behind the scenes, Obito. On the contrary, he was deeply intrigued by the "world without lies" that Obito described.]
[After all, he was sick of a reality where someone you shared warmth with one moment could become a mortal enemy the next.]
[And the one who was giving him hope was the legendary, all-powerful "Uchiha Madara." So, in his view, the Eye of the Moon Plan was a plausible solution, though he couldn't be absolutely certain it would truly be realized.]
[But he no longer had any attachments left to this old world. So the old world could be broken for all he cared, and that's why he was willing to join the Akatsuki and give it a try.]
[Moreover, Kisame was arguably the most loyal and honest worker in the Akatsuki. Rather than betray the organization, he chose to take his own life. And compared to his two leaders, who wavered in the end, Kisame remained loyal to the very end, which only made his character stand out all the more.]
---
[Akatsuki Hideout]
Obito's heart skipped a beat.
What did "compared to his two leaders" mean? Did that refer to him as Kisame's other leader?
Was the future him also swayed by Naruto's Talk-no-Jutsu... just like Nagato?
…No way, right?!
Absolutely impossible!!
The thought made his expression twist in fury, his composure cracking behind his mask.
*****
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