Chapter 160: Cooperation Was The Generous Offer
He knows. Not guessed. Not inferred. Knew.
"How—" she started, then stopped herself.
The question was meaningless now.
Nothing about this encounter operated on normal rules.
"You want to…" Her voice steadied with effort. "Participate?"
Kimimaro's tone remained flat. "Participate is inaccurate."
Ao felt cold spread through his chest.
He wasn't offering help.
He was inserting himself.
"Why," Ao asked slowly, Byakugan still screaming warnings he could barely process, "would someone like you care about our internal struggle?"
Kimimaro was silent for a beat.
Then, calmly, "Because you're going to fail without interference."
Mei flinched, not at the insult, but at how certain it sounded.
"And because," he continued, "even if you succeed, what you build afterward will be fragile. Temporary. Vulnerable to the next hand that decides Kirigakure is useful to break."
Her jaw tightened. "You don't know that."
"I do," Kimimaro replied. "You're planning a decapitation. I'm planning an acquisition."
Ao swallowed.
This wasn't an ally speaking.
This was a predator discussing logistics.
"And if we refuse?" Mei asked quietly.
The bone at her throat pressed just enough to remind her it existed.
"You won't," Kimimaro said. "Not only because of this."
A pause.
"But because you want Kirigakure to survive."
"Also," Kimimaro continued calmly, as if adding an afterthought, "I could just as easily warn the one controlling Yagura about your intentions. Every hideout. Every fallback point."
Mei's breath tightened.
"Over the last few days," he went on, "I've already mapped your locations. All of them. My sensory range covers multiple islands, after all."
Ao felt a cold line run down his spine.
"If you don't believe me," Kimimaro said, tone unchanged, "I can show you."
He lifted a hand.
A shadow clone formed beside him without a sound.
That alone made Mei's eyes flicker.
Konoha?
The clone took a scroll from Kimimaro's hand, unrolled it, and stepped forward, holding it out so they could see.
It was meticulous.
Hideouts marked. Supply routes. Safe houses. Meeting points.
Even places Ao himself had only learned about recently were there, inked with precise annotations.
Mei felt her throat go dry.
"This," Kimimaro said, "could be on Yagura's desk within the hour." His gaze sharpened slightly. "I doubt you could relocate in that time. Not even theoretically, when I can send this clone toward Kirigakure while pinning you here."
Ao swallowed. His Byakugan confirmed it with sickening clarity.
The map wasn't guesswork.
It was sensory data, layered, verified, real.
"…You've been watching us," Mei said quietly.
"Yes."
"And you didn't act."
"I didn't need to," Kimimaro replied. "Until now."
Mei's mind raced.
Ao glanced at her, grim.
This wasn't just a powerful shinobi inserting himself into their coup.
This was someone who already held their lives, and the lives of everyone they'd gathered, in his hands.
Kimimaro watched the realization settle without expression.
"I'm not threatening you," he said evenly. "I'm explaining the leverage."
The clone rolled the scroll back up and dispersed, leaving the night suddenly emptier.
"Now," Kimimaro finished, "do you want to keep pretending you have options?"
Silence fell again, heavier than before.
Mei's thoughts raced, fear and clarity colliding.
Every instinct told her this was dangerous.
Yet every calculation told her the same thing.
That they were already outmatched in every domain.
"…If we agree," she said slowly, "what do you want?"
For now, she was probing carefully, testing the waters while buying time, hoping their comrades would sense the abnormality and react.
Maybe it would be enough to carve out an opening, even a slim one, to escape that crushing, gravity-like inescapable control, whatever it truly was.
Kimimaro's eyes glowed faintly in the mist as he answered.
"Access," he said. "Timing. A seat at the table when Yagura falls."
Ao's breath hitched. "You're asking to reshape the village."
"No," Kimimaro corrected. "I'm telling you it will be reshaped. With or without your consent."
Another pause.
Then, softer, colder, "I'm simply offering to do it with you still alive."
Mei closed her eyes for a heartbeat.
When she opened them again, the fear was still there.
But so was resolve.
"…Release us," she said. "And we'll talk."
Kimimaro smiled faintly.
The bone spikes withdrew.
Just like that.
The pressure vanished.
Ao caught his balance a half-second later, heart hammering.
Mei, however, didn't hesitate.
She released a heavy pulse of chakra through her sensory mode, sharp and urgent, flaring outward toward the nearest sensors hidden throughout the hideout.
It wasn't subtle.
It wasn't meant to be.
A single, unmistakable signal.
Danger.
The pulse rippled outward, carried from node to node, spreading the warning like a shockwave.
Kimimaro watched it happen.
He didn't move.
Didn't interrupt it.
Didn't even tense.
Nor feel 'offended'.
He simply tilted his head slightly, then shook it once, slow and almost disappointed.
"…So that's your answer," he said flatly. "I thought you might be smarter than that."
Mei's jaw tightened.
"Calling in your people immediately," Kimimaro continued, tone dry, almost bored.
"Sacrificing subordinates to soothe your pride. Feeding me fodder even after you acknowledge the futility."
His eyes flicked to her. "That makes you a poor leader."
The words landed harder than any threat.
Before Mei could respond, movement stirred at the edges of the mist.
Chakra signatures approached fast, coordinated, but tense. Squads. The nearest ones.
Loyal, alert, and about to run headlong into something they couldn't possibly handle.
Ao grabbed Mei's arm and pulled her back a few steps, both of them putting distance between themselves and Kimimaro on instinct alone.
"Mei—" Ao started.
"I know," she said under her breath.
Her heart was pounding, but her resolve didn't waver.
She knew he was strong. Beyond strong.
His chakra reserves were monstrous, his presence and chakra signature oppressive in a way that bent instinct and reason alike.
Every part of her body recognized him as a lethal anomaly.
But how was this different?
How was this different from what was being done to Kirigakure right now?
A village ruled through fear.
Through overwhelming power from the outside.
Through control imposed from above by something that no longer cared about the people beneath it.
Kirigakure for the Kirigakure shinobi.
That had always been her line.
She hadn't risen against Yagura because she wanted the title of Mizukage.
That ambition came later, if at all.
She had moved because the village was rotting, because its people were being consumed to maintain someone else's, some outsider's, grip on power.
And she wouldn't back down now.
Not even for this.
But not because of any pride or ambition, as he said.
The first squad broke through the mist, weapons drawn, eyes locking onto Kimimaro.
More followed behind them, spreading out, forming an instinctive encirclement.
Kimimaro finally glanced their way.
He sighed. "…See?" he said quietly, almost to himself. "Exactly what I meant."