Kiritori was the name of the Third Mizukage.
However, as the shinobi of his generation gradually passed away and the Bloody Mist era took hold, no one in Kirigakure dared to speak his name aloud anymore. Everyone referred to him respectfully as "Third Mizukage-sama" or simply "that man"...
His name had become taboo.
But Hōzuki Gengetsu obviously didn't care about someone he'd defeated before.
"How did things end up going backward instead of forward?"
"Ever since that old geezer Byakuren's time, the village kept swinging between isolation and openness. It jerked everyone around like it had a split personality..."
Gengetsu's face darkened.
"When I was Mizukage, I'd already opened Kirigakure to the outside world. I'm not saying we had to forge alliances with every village, but we at least needed to see how everyone else was developing."
"If you lock yourselves away on this lousy island entertaining yourselves, you won't even realize other villages have developed brand-new jutsu by constantly fighting each other. Once that information gap forms, the next time a Shinobi World War breaks out, you'll just be sitting there waiting to get beaten."
Gengetsu was genuinely furious.
The Kirigakure under his rule hadn't exactly enjoyed a sterling reputation either.
His battle with Mu had broken out because they were fighting over the spoils of war.
But unless your reputation reached someone like Hashirama's level—where it fundamentally changed how the world saw you—what was it really worth?
What truly mattered was using war to strengthen the village through war itself. Only by engaging other villages in close combat could they learn how their rivals were evolving, understand Kirigakure's place in the shinobi world, and adjust accordingly when necessary.
"Kiritori really was a fool."
Mū spoke quietly.
"He attended the First Five Kage Summit alongside the First Mizukage, yet you still managed to take the position of Mizukage from him."
"With someone that incompetent as Mizukage, it's no wonder Kirigakure ended up like this."
"If Kirigakure had been this isolated back then, I would've killed you long ago. How could you possibly have caught me off guard?"
Gengetsu nodded instinctively.
If there hadn't been other Kirigakure shinobi holding the front lines, Mu could have kept his newly developed Dust Release hidden the entire time. Fighting under those circumstances would've been incredibly dangerous.
Then Gengetsu suddenly realized what Mu had just implied. He grabbed him by the collar.
"You bastard! What do you mean by that? Weren't you the one who ambushed me?"
"And if losing the Mizukage position to me makes Kiritori a fool, then what does that make you after I killed you?"
Mu chuckled and spread his hands.
"No idea. But Iwagakure isn't like your Kirigakure. The succession of the Tsuchikage has always been orderly. We've never made brute strength the sole criterion for becoming Kage."
"The fact that Kirigakure turned out like this... you know better than anyone how much responsibility you bear for it, Mustache."
Arguing over who was stronger had long since grown tiresome.
After fighting each other for so many years, both Mu and Gengetsu had already exhausted that topic.
The truth was, they had always been evenly matched. Otherwise, they never would have ended up killing each other.
But now that thirty years had passed and they'd both returned to the shinobi world, there were plenty of new things to compare.
They had both been Kage.
They had both died at roughly the same time.
Naturally, the next thing to compare was how well their villages had developed.
"You..."
Gengetsu glared at him, his mustache twitching. He hated it when people brought up his facial hair.
Still...
Since it was Mu saying it, he didn't mind all that much.
The bastard had tangled with him for far too many years. By now, verbal attacks barely registered anymore.
"Sigh..."
Gengetsu released Mu's collar and shook his head gloomily.
"I knew Kirigakure had this flaw. Logically speaking, I should've dealt with it right after the First Shinobi World War."
"It's all your fault!"
"You picked a fight with me over a handful of spoils. Were you out of your mind?"
"Couldn't you have just let me have them?"
Mu raised an eyebrow.
As a reasonable researcher, even he couldn't say something that shameless with a straight face.
"I'd sooner give them to a stray dog than to you."
"If it weren't for you, I could've personally guided Ōnoki into the Tsuchikage position and helped him establish himself more firmly!"
Although Mu had never returned to Iwagakure, he wasn't worried about Ōnoki.
After all, just like Hiruzen, Ōnoki had been personally chosen by the First Tsuchikage, Ishikawa, as his successor from the next generation.
He had been raised from childhood under the Will of Stone, and both his talent and abilities were first-rate.
Even so, Mu still worried about his village.
Iwagakure had problems of its own that wouldn't be easy to solve.
"Back then, with Konoha as our hypothetical enemy, we forced everyone to train in all kinds of coordinated group jutsu so we could raise our combat strength as quickly as possible. But in doing so, we also suppressed our shinobi's creativity. Aside from Ōnoki, I couldn't even find another suitable candidate for Tsuchikage."
"That was already the case when I died. If that inertia isn't corrected in time, the village could end up seriously lacking top-tier talent."
Iwagakure's shinobi were exceptionally disciplined, but true prodigies were comparatively rare—much like the barren soil of the Land of Earth itself.
For one reason, the number of shinobi clans was small.
For another, the village placed far too much emphasis on absolute obedience.
In the shinobi world, at least, absolute obedience and genius were fundamentally at odds with one another.
The amusement faded from Mu's expression as well as he began thinking about the problems facing his own village.
Gengetsu's face darkened. Through the White Zetsu attached to his body, he asked Madara: 'Tobirama, I want to take a look inside Kirigakure!'
The reply was noncommittal. They were free to do as they pleased.
Madara had no reason to believe the Rinnegan genjutsu controlling them would fail.
A short while later, Gengetsu and Mu infiltrated Kirigakure using the invisibility technique, Dustless Bewildering Cover.
"The Bloody Mist..."
"So after I died, that bastard Kiritori really did become Mizukage and started all this just to purge his political enemies..."
"But why wait thirty years before doing it?" Gengetsu rapidly gathered information, and the more he learned, the worse he felt.
To be honest, he could understand the Third Mizukage launching a major purge after taking power.
The two of them had always been political enemies.
But what the hell had he been doing all those years before that?
He waited until Gengetsu's old faction had become deeply entrenched and strong enough to rival him before making his move.
In Gengetsu's eyes, the Third Mizukage looked more like a spy from an enemy nation, determined to plunge Kirigakure into the greatest possible turmoil.
If he'd carried out the purge immediately after the First Shinobi World War, at most a handful of leaders would've died, and the whole affair would've quickly blown over.
Gengetsu didn't care if the Third Mizukage had killed a few members of the Hōzuki Clan for Kirigakure's sake.
But this approach—raising them like livestock before slaughtering them—left him genuinely furious.
Whether viewed from the perspective of a Mizukage or the head of the Hōzuki Clan, the Third Mizukage's handling of the situation had been utterly incompetent.
"I'm telling you... Kirigakure is heading for a catastrophe."
Mu spoke calmly.
"The Bloody Mist? I have to hand it to Kiritori for coming up with something like that. All that hostility built up by shutting yourselves away and fighting among yourselves won't amount to anything against shinobi who've been through real military training."
A shinobi village was, at its core, a military organization.
Being individually fierce was nothing more than brute courage.
What truly mattered was discipline, following orders, and fighting as one.
"Yeah..."
Gengetsu nodded heavily.
"And they actually want to start another war? They've completely lost their minds..."
As they passed a tavern, Gengetsu overheard several Kirigakure shinobi talking inside.
They claimed Konoha had become so weak it was hardly worth worrying about anymore, incapable of even keeping its own lower-ranking shinobi under control.
When the opportunity came, they could simply tear up the alliance. All the resources Kirigakure had lost because of the Bloody Mist would be recovered in one sweep through war.
"When internal conflicts grow too intense, they're often redirected outward. That's how many wars begin."
Mu shrugged.
"I'm more curious whether Konoha is really as weak as these Kirigakure shinobi claim."
"It probably is."
Gengetsu fell into thought.
"I originally assumed Tobirama's order for us to lead the Sky Village in attacking Konoha was just a lie..."
"But if Konoha really has grown this weak, perhaps he intends to use a controlled external attack to wake the village up and force some fundamental changes."
Mu nodded.
Back in the Warring States Era, that had been a fairly common approach.
Using external pressure to drive internal reform.
"But then why didn't he simply send us to help Konoha wage war instead?"
Gengetsu frowned in confusion once more.
The strength he could currently display was almost identical to what he'd possessed while alive.
Even if Konoha had weakened, with him, Mu, those mysterious Hashirama clones, and "Tobirama"...
Kirigakure would probably be beaten into complete collapse.
"That's a good question..."
Mu narrowed his eyes and pondered for a long time.
Although he considered Tobirama a thoroughly despicable man, as a fellow researcher devoted to developing jutsu, he didn't believe Tobirama had lost his mind and intended to destroy the village he'd helped build.
"Perhaps he believes..."
After a long silence, Mu finally spoke hesitantly.
"If a village keeps relying on the strength of its predecessors to overcome every crisis, yet never truly establishes its own foundation... then sooner or later, it's bound to decline."
"After all, he spent his life alongside Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara. Much as I hate to admit it, those two rarely cared about the gains from one war or another. They were always chasing fantasies like permanent peace."
"They were the ones who came up with the one-country, one-village system. The people of Konoha have always been a little insane. Back then, every hidden village expected Uchiha Madara and Senju Hashirama to join forces and conquer them... only for those two to end up fighting each other instead."
Mu had met Hashirama.
He had met Madara.
And he had known Tobirama personally.
In terms of talent alone, Mu believed he was no less gifted than Tobirama.
But when it came to vision, Tobirama undeniably surpassed him.
Still, having greater vision wasn't necessarily a good thing.
Only benefits that could actually be realized were true benefits.
Anything that couldn't be achieved was nothing more than reaching beyond one's grasp.
Gengetsu nodded in complete agreement.
"Exactly. Konoha shinobi have been fundamentally abnormal from the very beginning. They're all lunatics."
"They're far too extreme."
Shaking his head, Gengetsu sighed.
"Let's go. I think I finally understand Tobirama a little better now."
"Honestly, I'd rather Kirigakure had been the one attacked by the Sky Village. Letting it keep rotting away behind closed doors is worse than taking one hard blow and getting it over with."
After making a complete circuit of Kirigakure, Gengetsu was dismayed to discover that not a single person had detected either him or Mu.
It wasn't as though he expected the younger generation to spot them the instant they entered the village.
Mu's talent and strength had always ranked among the very best in the shinobi world.
But surely it shouldn't have taken this long without anyone noticing anything at all.
Even if they couldn't pinpoint their exact location, there should at least have been some kind of alarm.
Thirty years ago, Kirigakure had already suffered from a shortage of sensory-type shinobi.
Thirty years later, that gap still hadn't been filled.
If everything remained stagnant—or had even regressed—then what was the point of the village existing at all?
That wasn't even mentioning the Bloody Mist, which even these two veterans of the Warring States Era considered excessively extreme.
Mu glanced sideways at Gengetsu and curled his lip.
He still remembered Gengetsu saying that as long as no one attacked Kirigakure, everything would be fine.
And now, in the blink of an eye, he was wishing the village would get beaten awake.
"That's just the kind of person you are."
"If the weak keep losing themselves in comforting illusions, sooner or later they'll face a pain they can't bear."
"They're better off waking up sooner, while there's still a chance to save themselves."
If Iwagakure truly ended up with a broken line of succession, Mu could accept the price of correcting it being a military defeat—as long as it wasn't a fatal one.
It wasn't that he didn't love Iwagakure.
Rather, as the Tsuchikage, Mu had to think from the broader perspective and prioritize the village as a whole.
He couldn't help glancing at Gengetsu.
His old rival was still as decisive as ever, capable of making difficult decisions without hesitation.
What Mu hadn't expected, however, was that Gengetsu was looking back at him. Grinning, he said, "As expected of the 'Non-Person,' the one everyone says is just as underhanded as Senju Tobirama. You figured out what he was thinking almost immediately."
Mu's face darkened.
"Likewise. Weren't you the one people compared to Uchiha Izuna—a battle maniac through and through?"
The two stared at each other for a moment before simultaneously looking away.
It was practically another Senju and Uchiha.
Or rather, the bond between the Senju and the Uchiha was simply an archetype—one that existed throughout the entire shinobi world.
"Just how far has Konoha fallen?"
Following Mu's line of reasoning, the two of them lapsed into thought.
...
Meanwhile, inside Kirigakure—
The Internal Affairs Department.
After sacrificing the Kaguya clansmen who had become too extreme to be saved to the Third Mizukage, Nakamaro...
...had become the Third Mizukage's most trusted subordinate.
His loyalty needed no further proof.
Nakamaro had truly done everything he could to save them.
Unfortunately, some members of the Kaguya Clan—perhaps because of their bloodline—gave people the impression that they weren't as intelligent as a fully grown banana.
With the Third Mizukage's complete trust behind him, Nakamaro's rise through the ranks was nothing short of meteoric.
He was now the Minister of Internal Affairs. Although he still hadn't officially entered the village's highest leadership, he was already attending high-level meetings.
During this period...
Using Nakamaro as the central pillar, with Kisame and Snow extending his reach, they had secretly rescued some of the innocent shinobi who had been caught up in the purges and recruited them into their own ranks.
They had quietly formed a hidden faction within Kirigakure itself.
"Mangetsu, your Hōzuki bloodline makes you a little more sensitive to scrutiny..."
"But don't worry. This is the Internal Affairs Department. Whether you're a problem or not is for me to decide. I'll make sure nothing happens to you."
Nakamaro patted the shoulder of a shark-toothed boy, enjoying the admiration shining in his eyes.
This was another child Nakamaro had chosen.
Hōzuki Mangetsu, the prodigy of the Hōzuki Clan—the one said to be "favored by all Seven Ninja Swords."
His talent with the sword was exceptional, but because he belonged to the same clan as the Second Mizukage, he had come under suspicion despite his young age.
With a few deft political maneuvers, however, Nakamaro had resolved the issue.
"I understand, Nakamaro-sama!"
Mangetsu looked at him with undisguised admiration.
"I'll follow all of your orders!"
Nakamaro smiled and nodded.
'I'm finally one step closer to becoming one of Konoha's councilors...'
'Third Mizukage...'
'No... Kiritori, you brainless fool.'
'I'll be waiting for the day you start a war against Konoha.'
'I'll use your blood to honor my clansmen... even if they were every bit as brainless as you were.'
Ambition and fury churned inside Nakamaro.
The closer he grew to the Third Mizukage, the more he found himself missing Konoha and Hyūga Tenzō.
That, in turn, only deepened his reverence and admiration for Hiruzen, making him long to study at the Hokage's side.
...
Two months later.
On the other side of the shinobi world—
Madara ordered Gengetsu and Mu to set out and lead the Sky Village in an assault on Konoha.
...
Konoha.
Jiraiya found Hiruzen in a daze.
"Sensei, Shinobi Battle Through the Heavens has become a massive bestseller! I'm officially a bestselling author!"
"How should I hand over the royalties to the village?"
Hiruzen looked up in surprise.
The brat actually has some talent?
Although he'd been the one to provide the outline, turning it into a story people genuinely enjoyed still required real writing ability.
"Jiraiya... have you ever considered becoming Konoha's pen?"
"A literary master who writes for the village?"
Hiruzen took out his tobacco pipe and spoke unhurriedly.
At the same time, he began recalling the great literary classics he'd read—works that could be adapted for propaganda in the shinobi world.
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