For the current Hagoromo, the Three-Tails was honestly not that difficult to deal with.
A twenty-year-old White Yaksha was even more of a White Yaksha than before.
Moreover, among the nine tailed beasts, differences in chakra nature and total chakra volume meant that they were not equal in strength.
Some tailed beasts were easier to deal with.
Some were harder.
Likewise, certain combat styles were well suited to counter specific tailed beasts, while performing poorly against others.
Perhaps when the Sage of Six Paths split the Ten-Tails, his blade slipped.
Or perhaps the imbalance was intentional—a deliberate design choice.
Or maybe… it was just favoritism.
Only Ōtsutsuki Hagoromo would know the truth.
In any case, a creature like the Three-Tails—with its clumsy movements, hardened shell, short limbs, and retractable head—was little more than a gigantic live target to Hagoromo.
He hadn't even made a detailed plan for the fight.
Everything had been handled on the fly.
By Hagoromo's estimation, beating the Three-Tails into a half-dead state merely consumed some stamina. It didn't meaningfully affect his sustained combat capability—otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to let Mirai watch him unleash large-scale attacks inside enemy territory.
Although the final "finishing blow" experiment failed, the battle itself had unfolded exactly as expected.
After all, the Three-Tails could be taken down by Deidara's clay bombs alone. Compared to that, the single-target destructive power of Hagoromo's Lightning Release technique made the outcome entirely reasonable.
That said, any technique capable of severely injuring a tailed beast shared common traits—
Big noise. Big spectacle.
Expecting Hagoromo to silently suppress or control a tailed beast was unrealistic.
And since this lake had long been under Kirigakure's close surveillance, the village would have to be collectively blind and deaf to miss what had just happened.
Naturally, that wasn't the case.
Kirigakure was one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Not only were they not blind—they reacted with impressive efficiency.
Monitoring a tailed beast was an extremely high-priority task. The two Kirigakure squads stationed here had a special response protocol with the village. When contact was suddenly lost, suspicion immediately arose.
Then came the explosions, tremors, the Three-Tails' roars, and massive chakra fluctuations.
Instantly, Kirigakure's alert level jumped to maximum.
"Hagoromo, the enemy is very close," Mirai reminded him repeatedly.
Hagoromo was deep in thought.
Even knowing enemies were approaching, he showed no urgency at all. Not only did he make no attempt to flee—he and the others were leisurely strolling around the lake, as if sightseeing.
No passport.
No visa.
No permission.
This operation was a textbook case of illegal entry, smuggling, poaching, and child abduction.
Yet even with the rightful owner in pursuit, Hagoromo remained absurdly calm.
In truth, even if he had applied properly, it wouldn't have mattered. Ever since the Kumogakure incident, no country welcomed Hagoromo—even if he claimed to be a tourist.
And he was never just a tourist.
Kirigakure was in a panic. Hagoromo was relaxed.
Given that contrast, being caught was inevitable.
"So it really is you acting personally, Fourth Mizukage."
If Terumī Mei had changed at all over the years, it was—
cough—her figure.
For the sake of maintaining a certain sense of decency, further description was unnecessary.
It had to be said—Hagoromo seemed to have a strange karmic connection with every Fourth Kage.
Fire, Wind, Lightning, Water—he'd crossed paths with them all.
Seeing her confirmed that Mirai's sensing had been accurate. When tailed beasts were involved, the Fourth Mizukage personally intervening was entirely reasonable.
"Still… is it really wise for you to leave Kirigakure at a time like this?"
It truly wasn't.
There was a nonzero chance that an enemy had seized control of the Three-Tails and intended to invade the village directly.
As Mizukage, staying in the village would have been the safest choice.
But Mei was young—decisive, proactive. Those were her strengths… and her weaknesses.
In retrospect, appearing personally before Hagoromo was not the optimal move.
Mei's threat level and combat power exceeded the Three-Tails', but even so, there was no guarantee she could capture Hagoromo.
"Why are you in the Land of Water?" Mei demanded.
Whether leaving the village was wise was her concern alone.
And there was no way she could forget the face before her.
After all, they'd once worked together quite amicably—
Hagoromo had even performed song-and-dance routines for the locals.
"Mizukage-sama, our men—" someone began.
Mei's standard escort squad stood behind her:
Ao, wielder of the Byakugan
Hōzuki Mangetsu, bearer of Samehada
Kisame Hoshigaki, the shark-faced man
When she heard Ao's report, Mei's gaze sharpened dangerously.
"Relax," Hagoromo said calmly.
"I only knocked your shinobi unconscious. No need to be so tense. Do I look like a serial killer?"
He didn't.
But strictly speaking, he'd killed more ninja than most serial killers could dream of.
"There's no special reason," Hagoromo continued.
"If I had to say… I'm in the middle of traveling the world. The Land of Water just happens to be one stop along the way."
Anyone who believed that would need their head examined.
"You—" Mei paused, then continued coldly.
"No matter the reason, once you've entered the Land of Water, leaving won't be so easy."
As she spoke, each member of her guard focused on different concerns.
Mei herself was wondering whether Hagoromo's intrusion had been sanctioned by Konoha. If this was another large-scale provocation like the Kumogakure incident, the implications were enormous.
But for Mangetsu, one thing mattered more than anything else—
The last two ninja swords had been found.
Attacking prematurely without the Mizukage's command was impossible.
But nothing stopped him from taking other actions.
Mangetsu pulled out a scroll and unrolled it.
Written from right to left were seven circled characters:
Sever — Great — Long — Blunt — Explode — Thunder — Twin
The Seven Ninja Swords' summoning scroll.
It had been inactive for a long time. The previously lost swords had all been recovered manually—except for Nuibari and Hiramekarei.
Mangetsu had attempted summoning before, without success.
But now the swords were right in front of him.
Even without fighting for them, there was no reason the summoning shouldn't work.
After all, they were only in the hands of two children—not Hagoromo himself.
This obvious action didn't escape Hagoromo's notice.
Not only did he fail to stop it—he smiled at Mangetsu with open amusement.
"Go ahead," Hagoromo said lightly.
"If you can summon them away, I'll admit defeat."
Experience was the best teacher.
Whether spoken aloud or not, that was exactly what he meant.
Mangetsu completed the summoning seals.
But the swords—
They didn't come.
Not only that—
The characters "Long" and "Twin", representing Nuibari and Hiramekarei, vanished from the scroll entirely.
Blue chakra flames suddenly erupted across the parchment.
The summoning scroll burned away.
It was proof of one thing:
When it came to sealing, summoning, and contract-based techniques, never compete with a specialist.
Otherwise, being thoroughly outplayed was the only outcome.
But that wasn't the focus.
Not even Mei paid attention to Mangetsu's failure.
Because Ao had finished his reconnaissance.
"Mizukage-sama," he said gravely.
"The Three-Tails… is gone."
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