Mei Terumī (照美メイ, Terumī Mei) is the Fifth Mizukage (五代目水影, Godaime Mizukage, Literally meaning: Fifth Water Shadow) of Kirigakure. After the dreadful reign of Yagura Karatachi ended, she became Mizukage and worked tirelessly to reform internal policies and recreate diplomatic relations with other villages.
Background
As a young girl around the age of nine, Mei had to endure Kirigakure's brutal academy graduation ritual.
In the anime, shortly after Yagura's passing and Mei's ascension as the Fifth Mizukage, the village received an invitation from Konohagakure and Sunagakure to join an impromptu Chūnin Exams they would be hosting together. As the village was still recovering from the Fourth's passing as noted by Ao, it was decided the Kiri-nin would not take part in this event.
Personality
Mei is generally a kind and cheerful person, speaking well of others and attempting to avoid conflict. Mei proved to be more open-minded than the other Kage, as she had shown respect and was willing to listen to Gaara, at one point even defending him from the Tsuchikage's disrespectful behaviour, and later showing admiration for Gaara after seeing how pure-hearted he was. Mei also can be very flirtatious, as she remarked to Sasuke Uchiha that he was good looking, and expressed regret that she must kill someone so handsome, but would give him a kiss before that. She is also shown to be quite respectful to others despite her status as a Kage. She often ends her sentences with "kudasai", which translates roughly to "please" and refers to all her fellow Kage with the suffic "-sama", which translates to "Lord" ("Lady" if the person is female). She also stated to Madara that though she liked when men complimented her, she would hold off in his case.
Mei seems to be somewhat sensitive when it comes to her love life, as shown when she misheard Ao say that she was "past marriageable age", and threatened to kill him for such an "insult". This seems to be a running gag, as she has made similar mistakes on multiple occasions. She also has low tolerance towards insults about her age and appearance, as she was instantly angered when Karin called her an "old hag", and beat up Ao while Fū Yamanaka possessed his body and insulted her. Despite this, she is also very sharp-witted as she pretended to be able to undo Ao's barrier technique protecting his Byakugan to fool Fū into exposing himself possessing Ao's body.
Befitting her role as the village's leader, Mei cares about the welfare and history of Kirigakure. Under the belief that Yagura, her predecessor, had been manipulated by Tobi using genjutsu, she was prepared to fight Danzō Shimura, who also possessed a Sharingan which could cast a similar genjutsu. Though Mei is courageous and calm in battle, she is not above realising her or any one else's limitations as seen from her open acknowledgement that it seems as though Madara could not be stopped. Despite usually being quite fearless and determined in battle, she possesses a pessimistic outlook against stronger opponents as witnessed during her battle with Madara; though she felt they were fighting a losing battle and voiced the fact that their efforts seemed futile, this did not ultimately prevent her from fighting alongside her comrades.
Mei does care a lot about her marital status as well as her fellow Kage. In her Infinite Tsukuyomi dream, she dreamt she was married with the other four Kage celebrating it with her. She is also a person of honour as when Sasuke broke a wall and risked leaking her acidic Boil Release to the other Kage, she changed the pH to avoid harming them.
Appearance
Mei is a tall, slender woman in her thirties. She has green eyes, and ankle-length, auburn hair styled into a herringbone pattern at the back, a top-knot tied with a dark blue band, and with four bangs at the front. Two bangs are short, with one covering her right eye, and two are long, crossing each other on her bust, just below her chin.
She wears a long-sleeved, dark blue dress that falls just below the knees. It seems to be closed at the front with a zipper, and is kept open on the front-right side from the waist down. The dress only covers up to the upper part of her arms and the underside of her breasts. Underneath, she wears a mesh armour that covers slightly more of her upper body than her dress. She also wears a skirt in the same colour as her dress and, underneath those, mesh leggings reaching down over her knees. Around her waist, she wears a belt with a pouch attached to the back on the left along with high-heeled sandals, shin-guards reaching up over her knees, dark blue nail polish on her fingers and toes, and is usually shown with purple lipstick (fuchsia in the anime). Years after the Fourth Great Shinobi War, Mei developed minor wrinkles near the corners of her lips. Her hair was also noticeably shorter, only reaching to her lower back.
Abilities
Mei is a powerful kunoichi whose abilities earned her the title of Fifth Mizukage. She is calm, observant and perceptive and can pick up on slight discrepancies in another person's personality, as seen when she detected the difference in Ao's behaviour when Fū Yamanaka inhabited his body. Her power was enough to force Sasuke Uchiha into a corner and injure him despite his usage of Susanoo. She has also shown some skill in taijutsu, being able to intercept Black Zetsu from attacking the daimyō with a single kick during the Fourth Shinobi World War.
Ninjutsu
Nature Transformation
Mei is proficient in the nature transformations of Water, Fire, Earth, and Lightning Release. With Water Release, she can create a large torrent that can extinguish a powerful Fire Release technique used by Madara Uchiha, and quickly use the same water to form a giant dragon. Mei can also use the Hiding in Mist Technique to obscure the movements of herself and her allies. Two years after the Fourth Shinobi World War, her mastery of Water Release enabled her to successfully protect her village from the massive meteorites that had broken off from the falling Moon.
Mei also possesses two elemental kekkei genkai, the first of which is Lava Release. By combining earth and fire natures, she can spit out acidic mud that can melt almost anything in its path. The great amount of steam generated after the fluid strikes can serve as an effective smokescreen, allowing her to attack again while the enemy is distracted. A significant amount of exposure was enough to partially melt Madara's Susanoo ribcage. The second kekkei genkai, Boil Release, allows her to simultaneously use water and fire natures to release a corrosive mist that can melt almost anything it touches. It even managed to burn through Sasuke's Susanoo ribcage. She also has the ability to alter the potency and acidity of the mist created by her Boil Release techniques, and is apparently not affected by the mist herself.
New Era
In the following years, Mei worked to continue modernising the village, both in his cultural design and of peaceful relationships between people. Eventually, Mei stepped down as Mizukage and passed on the title to Chōjūrō, who continued her work and succeeded in advancing the village. Twelve years after the war, she remained single, complaining about the scarcity of nice men in her life. On the day of the Five Kage Summit, she and the other retired Kage visit Ōnoki at the Tsuchikage's residence, where he remained living at.
Field Trip Arc
In the anime, to improve relationships with the two hidden villages, it was approved for Konohagakure's Acadamy class to visit Kirigakure. On the class' way to meet with Chōjūrō, Mei passed by, who was introduced to the class by Kagura Karatachi. While the Kiri representative praised Mei's reputation, the retired Kage humbly brushed it off, noting how her era of being in the spotlight was over.
Later, Mei met with Anko Mitarashi and Shino Aburame about the growing conflict between the Land of Water and neighbouring countries. As the Land of Water wishes to expand military power into the bordering seas, Mei feared that this could escalate into war again. Despite this, Mei assured them that Kirigakure was strongly against all this and that she with the Sixth Mizukage would work to prevent it all.
Trivia
Mei as the Mizukage can be seen as a sign of change for the village as ninja with kekkei genkai were once feared and persecuted in this village. Mei herself has stated that the dark days of the village were over.
- The kanji for "Terumī" means "shining beauty". However, they are usually pronounced with a lengthened "I" sound. This, together with the fact that the furigana are written in katakana, suggests that her name is meant to invoke a different meaning.
- In Naruto Shippūden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3, as seen in the mailing system in-game, Ao tells a tale of when he saw Mei without her make-up, making suggestions to how horrifying she looked, but breaking off mid-sentence. Also, as shown in several side quests, she enjoys being called "Miss" Mizukage by Naruto.
- In Tsunade's Infinite Tsukuyomi dream, Mei, along with A and Ōnoki, were killed and transformed into human puppets by Sasori.
Quotes
- (To Genji) "Sir… I swear on my name as Mizukage that I will fulfil my duty."
- (To Chōjūrō) "Have faith in yourself. You're strong."
- (To Ao while smiling) "Shut up or I'll kill you."
- (To Ao) "The Fourth Mizukage's nightmare is long over… quit talking about the old days."
- (When about to kill Sasuke) "It always hurts my heart to melt a good-looking guy… But you're going to have to die."
- (To Tobi about his Eye of the Moon Plan) "What does that hold for us!? There's no hopes or dreams! It's just an escape!"
- (To the Hokage Guard Platoon) "Roger that! Marrying is the only thing I intend to do late!"
- (To Madara) "As much as I like compliments from men… I will have to hold off in your case."
