Chapter 561: The Genius Hoshigaki Shizuma
The younger brother of Hoshigaki Nanami, whom Kakashi had always misunderstood before, was none other than Hoshigaki Shizuma from Boruto.
The villain who kicked off yet another ridiculously stupid story arc.
In Boruto, Hoshigaki Shizuma took a slash to protect Yagura's grandson, Karatachi Kagura. From then on, all he had to do was unzip the collar of his turtleneck sweater. The moment Kagura saw the scar on his body, he became unable to resist any of Hoshigaki Shizuma's orders...
...
Perhaps this was the world after Naruto's victory.
A ninja world overflowing with the power of bonds.
Way too much of it.
In short, during the Boruto era, Hoshigaki Shizuma was the leader of the group that wanted to overthrow Kirigakure's government and restore the Bloody Mist era.
The Kagura whom he could manipulate with nothing more than his own body was also the disciple of the Fifth Mizukage, Chōjūrō. He inherited Chōjūrō's Hiramekarei and was personally chosen to become the next Mizukage.
Then came the classic situation where Chōjūrō kept compromising for Kagura's sake. He compromised again and again, and in the end, Kagura died.
Of course, it was also possible that Chōjūrō was simply too weak.
Kirigakure in the Boruto era was practically a rookie delivery service. Every single one of them was weak.
So just how strong were the people led by Hoshigaki Shizuma who wanted to overthrow Kirigakure?
Chūnin.
Yes, that's right. Even the strongest one, Hoshigaki Shizuma, was only a Chūnin.
Then these "New Seven Ninja Swordsmen," armed with legendary blades, were defeated by Boruto and the others...
No, wait. Boruto had gone to Kirigakure on a graduation field trip. They were there to celebrate graduating from the Ninja Academy.
In other words, those Chūnin were effortlessly beaten by a bunch of kids who weren't even Genin yet.
Respecting the long-standing tradition of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen getting crushed by Genin, huh?
The problem was that when Might Dai opened the Eight Gates, he genuinely possessed Kage-level strength.
Boruto and the others didn't have that kind of power. At best, they were Genin-level.
And this was before Momoshiki started carrying Boruto.
On top of that, Boruto didn't even have Momoshiki at that point.
Yet those same Seven Ninja Swordsmen, who were beaten up by Konoha elementary school kids, had just beaten the Mizukage, Chōjūrō, half to death beforehand.
While covered in wounds and bleeding all over, Chōjūrō was still saying cool lines like, "Without the resolve to be injured, you can't defeat your opponent."
Seriously?
You're the Mizukage.
You got beaten into a bloody mess fighting a few Chūnin—Chūnin who were then crushed by Konoha elementary school students—and you're actually proud of yourself?
By your logic, Senju Hashirama would need the resolve to be injured just to catch a chicken.
The funniest part was that, after investigating, they discovered that Kirigakure's conservative higher-ups had secretly been funding Hoshigaki Shizuma and the other rebels all along.
Those higher-ups were certainly... something.
Orochimaru couldn't even succeed with the Konoha Crush after reanimating the First and Second Hokage.
Meanwhile, Kirigakure thought funding a few Chūnin was enough to overthrow the government.
Even more speechless was the fact that, judging from the ending—where Chōjūrō was gravely injured and Kagura died—they had actually come very close to succeeding.
So this was why Shiromo had remarked before that the Boruto era's ninja world was practically the "New Three Kingdoms" version of the shinobi world, one that had been heavily corrupted by fate itself.
If the manga's storyline was like the New Three Kingdoms, with Shu Han's plot armor running rampant while Wu played endless political games, then Kirigakure's anime-original storyline was nothing but "Milk Dragon" carrying the plot through sheer worldline convergence, combined with the State of Wei descending into a free-for-all of lunatics.
Right now, however, the father whom Hoshigaki Nanami had mentioned—the man spreading the ideology of the Bloody Mist—was still alive.
Along with Hoshigaki Shizuma, who had completely inherited his father's will and dedicated himself to restoring the Bloody Mist, the father and son were a pair of smiling tigers... two filthy nurse sharks.
—That description was actually pretty accurate.
On the surface, the father and son warmly welcomed Rokushō Aoi into their ranks. They even assigned him a house and asked the neighboring villagers to take good care of him.
In reality, they had ulterior motives.
"This is Konoha's wanted notice. It says he stole an important classified item from Konoha."
Hoshigaki Chinrei spoke to his son with a gloomy expression.
"Classified? He never mentioned that to us?"
Hoshigaki Shizuma frowned immediately.
"That's right. Since he doesn't consider us his own people, there's no need for us to treat him as one either. Sooner or later, he'll betray us. Better to strike first."
Hoshigaki Chinrei made a throat-slitting gesture toward his son.
"No, Father."
Hoshigaki Shizuma shook his head.
"I think I know what he stole. We can get rid of him, but first we need to obtain that item. Only then can our cause move to the next stage."
"Oh? What item?"
"Konoha's newest Sage Mode training method."
"That thing?"
"Yes. That thing."
Hoshigaki Shizuma nodded and began analyzing the situation seriously.
"Think about it, Father. Konoha clearly announced that an important classified item had been stolen, yet we haven't heard of them sending anyone to hunt down Rokushō Aoi."
"He's only a Chūnin. He didn't fight a single battle and made it all the way here with ease."
"What does that tell us?"
"The stolen item is important... but it's not that important."
"There's only one thing that fits those conditions. The Sage Mode training method that Konoha is currently preparing to spread throughout the entire ninja world."
"That actually makes sense."
Hoshigaki Chinrei stroked his chin as he thought it through, then nodded in agreement with his son's conclusion.
Only a secret that Konoha intended to make public eventually would be treated with such little urgency.
But to them, it was priceless.
Kirigakure's official government would receive the training directly from Konoha.
As rebels, however, they would never have that opportunity.
If they wanted to stand against Terumi Mei's faction or even seize the initiative before she did, they also had to master Sage Mode.
With that in mind, they put their plan into motion.
What they didn't know was that every move they made was being watched by Kisame.
For someone with Kage-level strength like Kisame, secretly observing a village whose strongest members were merely Chūnin and inexperienced Chūnin at that was ridiculously easy.
Kisame asked Itachi whether they should intervene. After all, Rokushō Aoi was a missing-nin from Konoha.
Itachi simply replied, "Let's watch a little longer."
And so they watched.
Soon, they saw several shadowy figures quietly sneak into Rokushō Aoi's room after he had drunk the sleeping black tea.
They came back out carrying something.
Following Hoshigaki Shizuma's suggestion, made from the perspective of someone who could already think like a Mizukage (meaning Chōjūrō) despite not even knowing how old he was, they didn't attack Rokushō Aoi directly.
That was to avoid any chance that the sleeping tea might fail, or that he might have some kind of seal on him. If he destroyed both himself and the treasure, all their efforts would be wasted.
"Chinrei-sama, this is it. Even while asleep, he kept hugging it tightly. This must be the treasure."
The villager who had stolen the item handed the Sword of the Thunder God to Hoshigaki Chinrei.
"What is this?"
Hoshigaki Chinrei looked at the Sword of the Thunder God from every angle, utterly confused.
His son had guessed it was the Sage Mode training method.
Shouldn't that have been a scroll?
What was this thing?
"Father, I understand now!"
Standing behind the crowd, Hoshigaki Shizuma excitedly raised his hand and pointed at the Sword of the Thunder God.
"This is a ninja tool created by Konoha to speed up Sage Mode training!"
"Father, do you remember Niuzihou Bottle-kun's shop?"
"So that's what it is?"
Looking at the hollow opening near the top of the Sword of the Thunder God, Hoshigaki Chinrei immediately realized what his son meant.
(End of this chapter)