Among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, the Hidden Mist Village of the Land of Water was famous for its mastery of Water Release. The reason it could support a "Kage" was not merely because the Mizukage himself possessed overwhelming strength, but because the village was backed by a large number of powerful shinobi.
In terms of fame, Kirigakure's most iconic symbol was undoubtedly the Seven Ninja Swordsmen—an elite group of jōnin who wielded the Seven Legendary Blades of the Mist… though at present, they had already been reduced to five.
If one were to rank Kirigakure's combat forces after the Seven Swordsmen, the next in line would be the Kaguya Clan, a bloodline-limited clan whose overall combat ability was formidable. Once their kekkei genkai awakened, the Dead Bone Manipulation could become truly unique on the battlefield. Unfortunately, the awakening rate was extremely low.
After that came the Hōzuki Clan.
The Second Mizukage, Hōzuki Gengetsu, was himself a member of the Hōzuki Clan. As for the current Third Mizukage, although he remained extremely mysterious, certain intelligence suggested that he, too, had ties to the Hōzuki Clan. There were even rumors that his name was Hōzuki Reitetsu.
Regardless, the Hōzuki Clan had always been deeply connected to the Seven Ninja Swords. The origins of the swords themselves were likely tied to them. Although the wielders of the swords were not necessarily Hōzuki clan members, for generations the Hōzuki Clan had held a special summoning scroll symbolizing ultimate ownership of the Seven Swords.
If a Ninja Sword was lost, or if it fell into the hands of shinobi from another village, the Hōzuki Clan could retrieve it through summoning.
This was exactly how Zabuza's Executioner's Blade had been recovered earlier. It was not that a group of people had traveled to the Land of Whirlpools to reclaim it—it had simply been summoned back.
Now, Samehada had met the same fate.
So Hagoromo's excitement didn't even last three minutes before the sword vanished.
This was truly unavoidable. It couldn't even be said to be Hagoromo's fault—most people would never expect something like this to happen. After all, Hagoromo himself hadn't known that the Ninja Swords could be summoned away like that.
Perhaps if he had been given enough time to study Samehada, he could have discovered the trick hidden within it using his sealing techniques. Unfortunately, a battlefield was not a research laboratory, and there simply hadn't been enough time.
Thus, he was left feeling rather tragic.
His feelings had been deceived.
Though it felt a bit disrespectful to the already-dead Kisame's predecessor, Hagoromo honestly felt that all his effort had been for nothing.
As for why Samehada had been summoned away the moment it changed hands—it wasn't because information traveled unusually fast. It was because a certain Hōzuki clan ninja, the one holding the summoning scroll, was present on this very battlefield.
He had personally witnessed Samehada being taken by a Konoha shinobi.
Which meant that Samehada was still nearby. If Hagoromo had possessed the Byakugan, he could probably have scanned the area and located the sword. Unfortunately, he didn't—so he had no idea who had "borrowed" his blade.
In any case, he wasn't used to that weapon. It didn't suit his combat style at all. Losing it was no big deal.
After all, it could only absorb chakra. Nothing particularly special.
Yes—this was Hagoromo's genuine thought.
He truly didn't feel regret.
Just a Salted fish (Sentient weapon), that was all.
He definitely wasn't forcing himself to sound tough.
And he absolutely wasn't comforting himself.
While Hagoromo was standing atop Katsuyu's head, pondering where Samehada had gone and preparing to give up on the matter, Orochimaru suddenly appeared beside him.
"Lady Tsunade's Katsuyu, hm?"
"Orochimaru-sama?"
Could it be that Manda's survival rate had just transitioned from fifty percent to one hundred percent death, and Orochimaru had come looking for trouble?
In truth, Orochimaru cared very little about the life or death of others. Call it rationality, call it coldness—he himself was like a cold-blooded snake.
After all, he once told Tsunade, 'You're the only person I don't want to kill,' and then immediately stabbed her through the chest. Not wanting to kill someone and still attempting to kill them were not mutually exclusive concepts.
Manda had never been particularly obedient anyway. Letting it suffer a bit was fine. And even if Hagoromo truly killed it—so what? Orochimaru had replacements.
Still, Hagoromo suspected that Orochimaru had been watching from the shadows the entire time. Otherwise, why would he appear the moment Manda vanished?
The motive… perhaps since Manda had nearly been killed, Hagoromo would now be "compensated" by being offered up to scientific research.
"So Manda disappeared because of Katsuyu's acid?" Orochimaru said thoughtfully. "Using summoning from inside the body and releasing corrosive acid… a very lethal method. Quite imaginative."
Hagoromo blinked.
So he really had been watching.
"Orochimaru-sama, shouldn't you be more concerned about whether your summon is actually dead?"
"Manda won't die," Orochimaru replied calmly. "That level of damage will weaken it for a while, but it should recover eventually."
Recover… after its body was melted through?
I haven't learned many techniques, so don't lie to me, Hagoromo thought, glancing sideways at Orochimaru before asking,
"Then the eye I stabbed out—will that recover too?"
Orochimaru: "..."
At that moment, he felt the urge to gouge out one of Hagoromo's eyes and test it himself.
But as the discussion returned to summoning techniques, Hagoromo finally put it all together.
Samehada had indeed been summoned away by someone else.
Impossible to guard against.
Still, now that he knew this was possible, the next time he encountered such a ninja tool, he'd know better—don't rush to show it off. First slap a sealing tag on it and register ownership properly.
On the battlefield, Katsuyu was an enormous, conspicuous presence—yet no one attacked her. At this point, the Kirigakure forces were already overwhelmed. A summon that large not joining the attack was already a blessing; provoking it would have been suicide.
While Hagoromo was drifting into scattered thoughts again, a sharp, deliberate sound echoed from the interior of the Land of Water, snapping him back to attention.
He immediately understood.
This was Konoha's retreat signal.
Sure enough, Orochimaru said beside him, "It's the withdrawal signal. The scouts I sent earlier have confirmed that Kirigakure reinforcements have arrived."
"It's time to leave."
With that, Orochimaru vanished.
As Konoha's commander here, he couldn't linger chatting with Hagoromo. A retreat required coordination.
"…A retreat, huh."
Hagoromo crouched down, patted Katsuyu's head, and dismissed the summoning.
There was a particular sorrow reserved for elite combat units: they charged first during breakthroughs, and they stayed behind during retreats.
Hagoromo was clearly one of them.
Still, he had no real issue. Although he had been stabbed in the side, the injury wasn't severe enough to hinder his movement. His chakra reserves were still ample—holding the rear line wouldn't be a problem.
However, during a retreat, solo actions were forbidden. Everyone had to regroup.
The rearmost shinobi would release large-scale techniques simultaneously to hinder any pursuit. Fortunately, most of the enemy forces had already been wiped out by Konoha's assault. The remaining wounded shinobi were in no condition to give chase—they could only watch helplessly as Konoha struck, gained its advantage, and withdrew.
After this attack, Kirigakure would undoubtedly realize that Konoha had shifted its strategy.
Konoha was no longer purely defensive—it had gone on the offensive. If Kirigakure attempted further attacks, they would not be nearly as successful as this time.
Had they anticipated this earlier, Kirigakure's troop deployment would never have been so thin. Previously, Konoha had been overwhelmed on multiple fronts, allowing Kirigakure to maintain constant pressure.
Konoha struck quickly and withdrew just as fast. Once its strategic objectives were achieved, it disengaged cleanly—refusing prolonged entanglement and denying the enemy any chance to regain momentum.
The withdrawal proceeded without incident.
Although the battle itself had taken only two hours, it consumed an entire day. Still, the results were more than sufficient: the enemy's forward base and vast quantities of supplies had been destroyed.
If Kirigakure wished to launch another offensive against Konoha, just replenishing those supplies would take a very long time.
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