Chapter 182 - Negotiations With Mei

Seeing that Yuna was still slightly depressed from Zabuza's comment, Mei decided to quickly push the conversation forward.

"Well, handshake aside, why did you come here, Yuna?"

Yuna tilted her head in confusion when she heard Mei's question.

"Didn't I already answer that? I want to fight the Sanbi."

Mei was, naturally taken aback by that answer. She heard, how Yuna told Zabuza the same thing, but she just assumed that Yuna was messing with him. Wanting to fight one of the Bijuu seemed to be too absurd to be actually true. Before she could ask more questions, however, Zabuza threw in yet another comment.

"No need to think too deeply about this, Mei-sama. I already mentioned it when I introduced her, but if you try to judge Yuna's actions with common sense you will only get a headache. Going out of your way to fight someone strong might not be something a normal person would do, but something Yuna certainly would."

A frown appeared on Mei's face when she heard Zabuza's words and she was just about to reprimand Zabuza for insulting Yuna again when she saw Yuna nodding her head in acknowledgment.

"Indeed, fighting strong and interesting enemies is my passion. Especially if it is something as interesting as another Jinchuukiri or even better, a Bijuu. During the chunin exam, Gaara wasn't strong enough to satiate my appetite for a fight with a Jinchuuriki and I had to leave the Ichibi to Naruto since better prey popped up, so this is the perfect chance for me to have some fun."

The surrounding people couldn't help but look at Yuna weirdly when she finished her explanation, while Zabuza only shrugged his shoulders with a wry smile on his face. A short moment later, Mei regathered her wits and continued speaking.

"A-Anyway, I am surprised that Konoha even allowed you to come here. Zabuza is one thing, but when one of Konoha's Jinchuuriki suddenly fights side by side with an army from Kiri, it could lead to a lot of complications for Konoha, so I am happy th…"

While Mei was talking, she noticed that the atmosphere around Zabuza turned somewhat weird, while Yuna had a somewhat weird smile on her face as well.

"…the people of Konoha DO know that you are here…don't they?"

"Haha, I am pretty sure they know. Well, at least Tsunade should."

"S-should? How come you are not sure about that?"

"Well, I left a letter behind at Tsunade's home before leaving and I am not sure whether she read it already or not."

"""""DOESN'T THAT MEAN YOU SNUCK OUT!?"""""

With a surprising amount of synchronization, everyone in the room said the same thing at the same time. Even those that haven't said anything yet, chimed in.

"Hehe."

"""""DON'T LAUGH!""""""

"Haha…*Cough*, you people really are great friends. It can't be easy to be in sync with such a huge group, especially if it is done spontaneously."

Feeling the people around her glaring at her hard enough to almost set her aflame, another chuckle escaped Yuna before she decided to pacify the situation.

"Oh well, no need to act like this. For now, the only people from Kiri that know that I am here are the people in this room and I won't interfere in your fight either. This is your rebellion and I don't want to have anything to do with it. I will only appear when their Jinchuuriki enters the battlefield. As soon as he does, I will fight him and after I have won against him, I will leave again. That should be quite an excellent deal for you, right?"

Although a few people nodded their heads with uncertainty, at the end of the day, Mei was still the one who had the last word, so instead of paying attention to the people around her, Yuna focused her eyes on Mei, who was still pondering about what Yuna just said.

After contemplating for a while, Mei's eye sharpened as she looked at Yuna.

"Why are you so sure that you can actually defeat him? You are strong, I have no doubts about that, but Yagura is still a Kage with a Bijuu sealed inside of him."

As Mei finished speaking, she flared her chakra and powerful pressure started radiating out of her and crashed into Yuna. While the other people in the room started sweating a little from the pressure, a light chuckle escaped Yuna.

"Have you forgotten who I am?"

Pressure, which was similar to Mei's, exploded out of Yuna and contested against Mei's, resulting in the other people in the room feeling even more uncomfortable. Mei, however, was unmoving and was still staring at Yuna. Although she found it unbelievable that Yuna could contest with her like this, this still wasn't enough to be confident in defeating Yagura. She knew that her fight against Yagura would happen for a long time now and she prepared all kinds of trump cards for it. She didn't believe that someone at Yuna's level could just come over and defeat him without any preparations.

Yuna, however, only smiled when she saw the look on Mei's face.

"Hehe, you are not bad, little girl, but you are a million years too early to start a contest like that against me."

Mei was just about to ask where that nonsensical number came from when the pressure on her started increasing at a steady pace. She couldn't help but widen her eyes in disbelief. At first, she thought Yuna was already going all out, but now she realized that Yuna was only matching her chakra output. Now, however, the pressure was endlessly increasing.

Seeing Mei struggle more and more, a slight smirk appeared on Yuna's face. The greatest limiter to her strength in her new life has always been the age of her body. No matter how much chakra she had, there was a limit to how much her body could handle and as she grew older and older that limit was increasing at an exponential rate. If it was chakra pressure alone, she could easily match a Kage, by now.

Noticing that the other people in the room were struggling more and more, Yuna started reducing the pressure, while Mei instinctively did the same.

"Well, what do you think? Can I defeat Yagura?"

Mei could only smile wryly when she heard Yuna's questions. If Yuna couldn't defeat him, then she wouldn't have a good time either.

"I will entrust this fight to you and wish you good luck in your battle."

"Haha, no problem."

[Oh? Is it just me or did she just become more obedient?]

'Naturally. After all, I showed her my "cultivator's prestige".'

[Your what?]

'I won the pissing contest.'

[Ah, that makes sense.]