Chapter 209: Seconds away upon showing one's head

Hidden Mist Village.

Terumi Mei looked at the extremely aged Elder and advised, "Elder, please recall the ninjas you sent out earlier."

"Doing this is far too easy to provoke those few families."

Unfortunately, the words of this mature woman, who was not yet the Mizukage, clearly carried little weight.

Facing Terumi Mei's persuasion, the Elder said in a cold voice, "Ao's Byakugan could be called a coincidence that he ran into the Akatsuki organization, but that Six-Tails jinchuriki certainly wasn't an accident, right?"

"Hmph, the jinchuriki is the foundation of the village. If we didn't have a jinchuriki, how would we be any different from those small ninja villages?"

The old man left one thing unsaid: some small ninja villages had Tailed Beasts, but their Hidden Mist currently had none at all.

The Three-Tails, that giant turtle, hid at the bottom of the lake all day, making it impossible for them to capture it.

The Six-Tails jinchuriki had also defected from the village because of the Fourth Mizukage.

Compared to that, the Hidden Mist Village, as one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, didn't even measure up to some small ones.

It was only because of their relatively unique geographical location that the other four great nations hadn't made a move against them.

But in the current situation...

The Elder felt that one family, or perhaps several, were already restless.

Hearing the old man's words, Terumi Mei couldn't help but fall into silence, yet she still felt that doing this was not the best choice.

"Let them continue to investigate. Even if they can't find the Six-Tails jinchuriki, they must find out which family made the move."

"Yes."

Terumi Mei agreed, then turned and left the Mizukage's office.

However, as she left, she cast an imperceptible glance at the Elder.

It could not be denied that the other party had indeed contributed to stabilizing the village's situation after the Fourth Mizukage's passing, but now, he was too old.

So old that he couldn't see clearly on certain major matters.