Chapter 257: You Have a Death Wish
Kitahara Kaede raised a hand and touched the side of his face.
A trace of warmth and softness still lingered on his fingertips.
He stood frozen in place, his mind momentarily blank.
For the past month, Pakura had maintained such perfect boundaries that he had almost completely lowered his guard around her.
Why would she suddenly do something like this right before he left?
"Pakura, you..."
Before he could finish, a woman’s icy voice rang out behind him.
"What are you two doing?!"
The fury churning in that voice seemed to lower the temperature of the surrounding air.
That voice...
Kaede spun around.
Terumi Mei stood on the dirt road not far away, staring fixedly at them.
A dark coat was draped over her shoulders, and the ends of her hair were still damp. She had clearly traveled through the night.
There wasn’t a trace of color in her beautiful face. From beginning to end, her gaze remained locked on Pakura.
This was bad.
Kaede could already feel disaster approaching.
"Mei? What are you doing here?"
Mei didn’t answer.
Her chest rose and fell violently as the scene she had just witnessed replayed over and over in her mind.
Pakura!
That woman had grabbed him by the collar, stood on her tiptoes, and kissed him!
Even if it had only been on the cheek, Mei couldn’t accept it!
Pakura was also looking at Mei.
Rather than avoiding her gaze, she smiled.
There was no attempt to hide the provocation in that smile.
"Exactly what it looks like."
Mei’s lips twitched.
"Good."
"Pakura, you really are... something else."
One look at the situation was enough for Kaede to know things were about to spiral out of control. He had just taken a step forward to explain when Pakura turned and glanced at him.
It was only a brief look, but Kaede understood instantly.
She had noticed Mei before kissing him.
That kiss hadn’t been some parting gift at all. It had been an open declaration of war.
She had done it specifically for Mei to see!
Kaede felt his temples begin to throb.
Pakura had been so gentle and considerate these past few days that he had nearly forgotten she had never been a woman who allowed others to push her around.
She could be understanding toward him. She could take care of him. But when facing a romantic rival, she was nowhere near as accommodating.
In the blink of an eye, Mei had already drawn a kunai from her ninja tool pouch.
Kaede’s expression changed.
"Mei, put the kunai down!"
Mei finally looked at him. Her eyes were red, yet there was a smile on her face.
"Kaede, stay out of this."
"She and I have some old scores to settle."
Pakura stood beside Kaede, her expression as composed as ever.
"Fine by me."
"I happen to have a few things I want to ask you too."
Before the last word had even left her mouth, Mei flicked her wrist and sent the kunai flying at Pakura.
Pakura didn’t retaliate while standing beside Kaede.
She pushed off the ground and shot toward an open field in the distance.
"If you want to fight, come over here. Don’t do it beside Kaede. It would be troublesome if you hurt him."
"You have a death wish!"
That remark about Kaede getting hurt completely ignited Mei. Her face turned cold, and her figure vanished from where she stood as she chased after Pakura.
Kaede remained frozen for two full seconds.
What kind of absurd mess was this?!
The muffled boom of Water Style exploding came from the distance.
Kaede snapped back to his senses, his expression turning completely dark.
He immediately raced after them.
***
"Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!"
Mei’s hands blurred through a series of seals, and a raging water dragon roared toward Pakura.
Pakura twisted aside. The water dragon slammed into the earthen slope behind her, blasting mud and water high into the air.
She raised one hand. Several orange-red spheres of Scorch Release began revolving in front of her, their searing heat instantly evaporating every trace of moisture nearby.
"How dare you kiss him just now?!" Mei shouted, changing her hand seals again.
Pakura hovered in midair and looked down at her, her tone calm.
"He hugged me first. I kissed him in return. Is there a problem?"
"He hugged you?!"
Mei froze for half a second. Pakura’s matter-of-fact expression nearly drove her insane.
"Stop pretending to be innocent!"
She opened her mouth, releasing a corrosive acidic mist that spread rapidly along the ground.
Pakura leapt backward. The Scorch Release spheres in front of her whistled into the mist.
Sssss—!
The collision of extreme heat and acid produced a piercing blast.
"I didn’t make him stay," Pakura said as she landed atop a broken boulder, her clothes snapping in the heat waves.
"He chose to remain here willingly."
Mei’s expression had become hideous.
"Willingly?"
She practically forced the word through clenched teeth.
"What makes you think he stayed here with you willingly?!"
At that accusation, the calmness on Pakura’s face vanished as well.
Her anger surged.
What right did Terumi Mei have to travel all this way and act as though Kitahara Kaede belonged to her alone?!
Pakura’s gaze turned razor-sharp.
"Because when you kept him in Kirigakure, you barely gave him room to breathe!"
The words struck Mei in the most painful place.
Her face visibly paled.
Pakura gave her no time to recover.
"Tsunade forced him to choose. You forced him to stay in Kirigakure."
"Whenever he’s around the two of you, he has to calculate every step he takes because he’s terrified one wrong move will hurt someone."
"All I gave him was a quiet room where he could watch the rain, a cup of hot tea, and some time when he didn’t have to think about anything at all."
Mei stood motionless, her lips trembling uncontrollably.
"You’re lying!"
"Everything I did for Kaede... he never blamed me for any of it!"
Pakura looked at her without the slightest sympathy, only cold mockery.
"He stayed silent because he’s kind. That doesn’t mean you were right."
"Do you honestly think he remained in Amegakure for a month because he fell in love with the rain?"
"He stayed because, at the very least, he didn’t have to worry about someone secretly opening his letters here!"
"Shut up!"
That final sentence shattered Mei’s defenses. Her reason snapped completely.
"Lava Style: Melting Apparition Technique!"
A torrent of scorching acid erupted from her mouth, several times larger than before, as if she intended to melt everything in front of her.
Pakura’s expression turned completely cold.
The Scorch Release spheres around her abruptly swelled, pouring out waves of heat so intense that the air itself began to distort.
"You don’t dare hear the truth, so no one else is allowed to say it?"
"Scorch Release: Extremely Steaming Murder!"
The two techniques, each representing the pinnacle of a Bloodline Limit, were about to collide in the center of the clearing.
This was the scene Kaede saw the instant he arrived.
They had both lost their minds!
If those attacks struck head-on, neither woman would escape unharmed.
Kaede’s face turned ashen. Without hesitation, he forced himself directly between the two techniques.
He brought his hands together.
Countless thick wooden pillars burst from the earth, weaving together in an instant to form a dense, sturdy wall between the two women. It forcibly blocked both the Lava Style capable of melting steel and the Scorch Release capable of evaporating everything in its path.
A terrifying wave of heat and force spread outward, hurling stones and dirt through the air.
Kaede stood in front of the wooden wall, his clothes whipping violently in the wind.
He first looked at Mei, who was already beginning another set of hand seals, then at Pakura on the opposite side, whose face was equally cold.
"Enough!"
"Both of you, stop right now!"