When they saw Mitarashi Anko fall forward into the sea, the Konoha shinobi chasing after her actually breathed a sigh of relief.
Because she was Orochimaru's disciple, after Orochimaru was declared a defector, Mitarashi Anko immediately became a key search target for Konoha's Anbu.
Although they did not expect to find many weaknesses in Orochimaru through her, even a few clues that could be used to trace where Orochimaru had gone after defecting would still be good.
When they found Mitarashi Anko, she had been sprawled outside Orochimaru's laboratory with lifeless eyes, her body twitching from time to time.
Seeing that scene, Konoha's Anbu basically concluded that she had already been abandoned by Orochimaru.
After taking the delirious girl to the hospital for basic treatment, they began searching in other directions.
But no one had expected that after a brief coma, Mitarashi Anko would awaken and erupt with strength far beyond chunin level.
Not only did she knock down the two chunin watching over her in one move, she even took advantage of the moment when no one was paying attention to escape Konoha directly and head straight toward the Land of Waves.
Due to manpower shortages, Konoha had only sent a lineup consisting of one special jonin, three Anbu, and five chunin to pursue Mitarashi Anko.
But under the power of the half-activated Cursed Seal of Heaven, not only did the pursuit squad fail to stop Mitarashi Anko, she even found the opportunity to counterattack and injure several people in the team.
Although Anko was injured because of that, this battle record was already enough to leave every member of the pursuit squad humiliated.
Mitarashi Anko was only twelve years old!
And unlike Kakashi Hatake, she had not gained the title of genius early on.
For ten of them to fail to take her down while surrounding and attacking her—where were they supposed to put their faces?
Fortunately, after running for so long, Mitarashi Anko's stamina had finally been exhausted.
As long as they fished her out of the sea and treated the wounds on her body, they could complete the mission and return to the village in a somewhat less shameful state.
Just as they were thinking this, the originally bright moonlight was somehow blocked by a thin fog rising over the sea.
"Fog? Is this the kind of time fog rises over the ocean?"
A chunin who was not very familiar with changes in maritime weather asked his companions beside him.
"No, something is wrong! This looks like Kirigakure's Hiding in Mist Technique!"
The more experienced special jonin immediately warned his companions.
"Damn it, why would we run into Kirigakure people here? Did Orochimaru collude with Kirigakure!? How is that possible!?"
"Shh. Be quiet."
The young demon swung his blade silently within the fog.
Almost without a trace of killing intent, he cut toward the special jonin's waist.
Although the other party reacted at the last moment and used the Body Flicker Technique to avoid being cut in half at the waist, looking at the large amount of blood slowly dripping down his blade, Zabuza still nodded in satisfaction.
"One… Forget it. Half of one. He ran so far in one move, so he should become that shark's prey, right?"
"Still, I can give you the biggest prey. But as for the other small fish, I will take every single one."
The fog grew thicker.
Zabuza Momochi's figure also blended into it, silently attacking the Konoha shinobi whose formation had been scattered due to the pursuit.
On the other side, Kisame Hoshigaki, who came sweeping over while controlling a towering wave, looked at the special jonin who appeared in front of the wave with a Body Flicker and was then struck directly by it.
He frowned slightly and said in some displeasure,
"Tch. Someone got ahead of me… Now I cannot take the credit for defeating you alone. What a headache."
"You Kirigakure… are already this impatient to break the agreement…?"
Enduring the burning pain from the wound at his waist and abdomen, the special jonin gripped the kunai in his hand and questioned him sharply.
"Hey, hey, hey. The ceasefire agreement with Konoha is a strategy personally decided by Lord Fourth. Small figures like us do not have the qualifications or courage to break it."
While saying this, Kisame also revealed an extremely bloodthirsty smile.
He leaped down from the wave and slashed his blade against the special jonin's kunai.
As he forced the other man down to his knees with immense strength, he opened his shark-like mouth and laughed strangely.
"That said, to prevent all of you from Konoha from interfering with our next mission to seize the Land of Waves, letting you float on the sea as corpses for a while should not count as a violation, right?"
Feeling the enormous force transmitted from Kisame's blade, the special jonin's heart began to sink rapidly.
The Kirigakure people had come prepared.
Even if they had not secretly colluded with Orochimaru and guided him into defection, they had definitely extended an olive branch to Orochimaru after he chose to defect.
Someone had to live and bring this intelligence back.
Someone had to…
"You dare get distracted while facing me directly. It seems I am being underestimated too."
Kisame's voice, which sounded as old as his appearance, entered the special jonin's ears.
Along with it came a weakness that was difficult to resist.
The special jonin was startled.
Only then did he realize that through the point where kunai and blade met, Kisame Hoshigaki had already stolen a small half of his chakra.
"Your chakra tastes quite good. In that case, I will make my next movements a little gentler."
Kisame kicked the weakened special jonin flying.
Then the ninja blade in his hand flashed several times in rapid succession, instantly bursting several flowers of blood from the other man's shoulders, elbows, knees, and other areas, completely taking away his ability to move.
…
"Mm. I was originally a little worried that Zabuza and Kisame would not be able to handle that special jonin… Looks like I was worrying too much."
Not far away, on the coast of the Land of Waves, Rei Kaguya checked the body of Mitarashi Anko, who had been saved by Mangetsu Hozuki, while commenting on the special jonin's extremely stifled defeat.
"Lord Fourth… Were you following behind us this whole time?"
Mangetsu Hozuki looked at Rei Kaguya, who had suddenly appeared and stopped him just as he had been about to charge forward and fight, then asked awkwardly.
"Only a clone. After all, I left Orochimaru a reply saying we could cooperate in the future. I had to guard against the possibility that his brain might suddenly stop working and he would personally come over to meet me… I finally managed to secure some favorable terms from Konoha that they temporarily do not understand yet. I cannot spit them back out because of an accident like this."
After a slight pause, Rei looked at Mitarashi Anko, whose wounds had basically stopped bleeding and who only needed quiet rest for a period of time to recover.
Then he looked at Mangetsu Hozuki with some surprise.
"I have to say, I did not expect you to have mastered the Hozuki clan's Hydrification Healing Technique… Have you considered joining Kirigakure's soon-to-be-created medical department, Mangetsu? With your talent, you should be able to become head of the medical department in only a few years."
"No."
Mangetsu Hozuki raised his head and said proudly,
"I only learned the Hydrification Healing Technique to show others my talent. What I want is to become the core of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen and become the sharpest blade in your hand, Fourth Mizukage."
"The core of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen…"
Rei looked Mangetsu up and down.
The boy was probably about the same age as Shisui Uchiha.
Then Rei nodded in approval.
"That is not impossible. Someone like you, who can fight on your own and also provide healing for your teammates, is indeed very suitable to become the offensive and defensive core of a combination like the Seven Ninja Swordsmen."
"Lord Fourth, are you actually acknowledging my dream because of this healing ability?"
Mangetsu Hozuki's expression immediately turned unhappy.
"Use your brain. Without a team core that can provide endurance for all members, what qualifications do you have to challenge opponents on the level of Tailed Beasts or Jinchuriki?"
Rei casually knocked Mangetsu on the head, then said irritably,
"If all of you have to fight yourselves half to death just to defeat one Tailed Beast, then what qualifications will you have to step onto future battlefields of national destruction with me?"
"The only praiseworthy innovation Konoha made during the Third Hokage's administration was emphasizing the training of medical-nin. This directly reduced Konoha's non-combat casualty rate to less than a quarter of ours in Kirigakure. Did the elders in your family who participated in the last war never tell you how much Kirigakure suffered in this regard?"
Mangetsu Hozuki stopped speaking.
He began to realize that the Hydrification Healing Technique he had learned to flaunt his talent seemed to have truly given him a tactical position completely different from others.
Offensive and defensive core.
There was no need to say how intense the competition for the offensive core was. No matter which ninja blade's wielder it was, they would all claim that they should become the offensive core of the Seven Swordsmen's formation.
But defense?
Most of the time, everyone simply relied on their own ability.
If he followed Lord Fourth's teachings and improved his mastery of the Hydrification Healing Technique while learning how to use a ninja blade, then no matter who the offensive core was, they would have to lower their head to him, the defensive core who could guarantee the team's endurance.
When that time came, he would be able to legitimately make every member of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen organize their offensive around his tactics.
"I understand, Lord Fourth."
"Mm. Good that you understand."
Seeing that Mangetsu Hozuki quickly understood his meaning, Rei nodded in satisfaction, then pointed at the fog-covered area on the sea and said to him,
"Then you will also be responsible for handling the injuries of the remaining Konoha shinobi… It does not matter if they bleed a little and suffer a little. Just do not let them die or become crippled. Otherwise, we will not be able to keep using the excuse we prepared earlier to deal with Konoha."
Mangetsu Hozuki's face instantly darkened.
With Zabuza and Kisame's personalities, after seeing blood, it was already good enough if they remembered not to kill and instead capture them alive.
As long as the other side resisted even slightly more fiercely, the wounds left on their bodies definitely would not be small.
Under those circumstances, asking him to go save people and ensure they neither died nor became disabled…
"Hurry up. If you can do it, I will give you a Curse Mark even more useful than this little girl's after we return."
As Rei drove the somewhat reluctant Mangetsu Hozuki away to save people, he tore open Mitarashi Anko's upper clothing.
Looking at the black Curse Mark that had already spread across her entire upper body, he shook his head and pressed his hand against Mitarashi Anko's neck, beginning to help her seal the Cursed Seal of Heaven, which had already begun burning away her life.
"Honestly, Orochimaru is still the same as always. He only knows how to desperately build things toward the high end. He really does not consider popularizing his products for the masses at all… With your success rate of less than one-tenth, how could you possibly earn enough money to ensure your research forms a healthy cycle?"
"But it is fine if you take this high-end route. When the time comes, I can just spend a little money to support your research and rightfully obtain the opportunity to popularize your high-end products for the masses. Then I can earn ten or a hundred times the money back to develop Kirigakure…"
"I wonder if, in the future, you will become so poor due to a lack of research funds that you have to compete with that old bastard Kakuzu for business?"