At the ninja tools shop, Mizuki came again. It felt like looting a supermarket after the apocalypse — grab whatever you want, no one to stop you.
He swept long swords, kunai, shuriken, senbon, weapon pouches, and every kind of scroll into his storage ring. Only when the ring was packed to the brim did he finally stop.
Before leaving, he counted out more than a hundred million in cash and stacked it on the counter — far more than enough to cover everything.
He was a village chief now, a person with status. Petty theft didn't suit him.
As for the ninjutsu scrolls from the Hokage Tower… that hadn't been stealing.
That had been robbery.
Robbery was honest. Open and aboveboard. If I rob you, you can't accuse me of bullying the weak — you can only blame yourself for being weaker.
"Bring all of this back." Mizuki ordered, "For a while, Fushigakure won't be short on tools."
With ninjutsu secured and supplies secured, the village's foundation was basically stable.
But he still wasn't done. Next came the herb shop, the barbecue stall, the dango stand, Ichiraku Ramen — anything he could take, he took.
With the system's grant-and-return function, nothing was worthless.
"What we're lacking most now… is people."
A ninja village with only six shinobi — what kind of village was that?
"Who can I take?"
The first name that came to mind was Neji.
Unlike in the anime, without Naruto's Talk-no-Jutsu, Neji was still a rebellious teenager — full of bitterness toward the Hyūga clan's main-branch vs. side-branch system, convinced effort meant nothing against talent.
He felt no real belonging — to the Hyūga, or to Konoha. Someone like that could be brought back to the Land of Birds.
"But that Caged Bird seal is a headache."
If it wasn't removed, then even if Mizuki took Neji away, the Hyūga main house could kill him at any time through the seal.
"What can I do about it?"
He'd thought about it for a long time. In the end, only one method came to him — and it was impossible.
Kill Neji.
The moment Neji died, the Caged Bird seal would activate and destroy the Byakugan. After it triggered, the curse mark would naturally become invalid and vanish.
Then Mizuki could use the Rinnegan's Outer Path — Samsara of Heavenly Life — to revive him.
That way, Neji would return without the seal's leash.
But there was a problem: the one who cast Samsara of Heavenly Life would die.
Mizuki wasn't stupid enough to trade his own life for anyone else. That method was dead on arrival.
"If I want to use it without dying, the only way is to become the Ten-Tails' jinchūriki."
There was, technically, another way to bring someone back: Mount Myōboku's Sage Talisman. The Sage of Six Paths once used it to pull his younger brother, Hamura Ōtsutsuki, back from the brink of death.
{T/N: Spoiler for those who don't know the story, but Hagoromo killed Hamura to free him from Kaguya's mind control, and used a talisman the Toad Sage gave him to bring his brother back so they could fight together again.}
But Mizuki didn't believe he could borrow a divine relic from the toads. Even Jiraiya hadn't been revived — so why would they do it for someone else?
"Forget it. Neji's off the table for now. When I find a way to remove curse marks — or master some kind of revival technique — then I'll take him."
It was hard to rely on himself.
But he had the system.
"Besides Neji, there aren't any good candidates in Konoha for the time being."
The rest of the Rookie Nine had strong ties to the village and deep bonds with one another. Taking them would be pointless.
"If Konoha won't work, I'll look elsewhere. Gaara of Sunagakure is a good choice. After I forcefully bring him back, I'll just have Naruto do a round of Talk-no-Jutsu. Otogakure's Kimimaro, Karin, and Suigetsu are all talents with serious potential."
Right now, the nearest target was Gaara.
And the opportunity was right in front of him.
❊❊❊❊❊
At the Chūnin Exam finals arena, the battle had already ended. Konoha had the numbers. The Sound and Sand fodder were mostly dead, and the remaining key figures had fled.
What happened on the rooftop — aside from a few ANBU and Mizuki — no one knew. The two villages didn't realize their leaders had been manipulated by Kotoamatsukami and had reconciled with Konoha.
Now that their leaders were dead, their first instinct was to run.
On Otogakure's side, only Kabuto remained. He moved fast; his spycraft let him slip out of Konoha with ease.
On Sunagakure's side, the jōnin Baki had long since vanished. Gaara, Temari, and Kankurō rushed out of Konoha together.
During Gaara's fight with Lee, he'd taken light injuries. Temari and Kankurō supported him as they ran.
His eyes brimmed with killing intent, and his siblings didn't dare breathe too loudly, terrified of provoking this killing star into turning on his own family.
The trio cut down the pursuers behind them and sprinted toward the Land of Wind.
Suddenly, they halted.
Temari and Kankurō stared ahead, bodies tense, as the figure blocking their path smiled.
"Could you hand Gaara over to me?" Mizuki asked mildly.
Because the rooftop battle had been sealed within the Four Violet Flames Formation, they knew almost nothing about it. Only after the barrier broke did they learn that the Fourth Kazekage was dead.
And throughout the chaos, Temari and Kankurō's attention had been entirely on Gaara. They didn't recognize Mizuki at all.
When Gaara saw him, the killing intent in his eyes surged.
"Kill! Kill! Kill you — kill all of you!"
Temari snapped her fan open, "Kankurō. Take Gaara and go. I'll hold them off."
She lifted the fan to swing — then met Mizuki's eyes.
In an instant, terror seized her. Her face drained of color, as if she'd looked straight into something unspeakable.
Kankurō fared no better. His body wouldn't move. No will to resist rose in his chest. He only knew, with cold certainty, that in the next moment he might die.
They understood they were trapped in genjutsu, but they couldn't break it — like sleep paralysis, a helpless, suffocating despair.
Gaara reacted differently.
He roared, pupils shifting, flesh and chakra twisting. In a blink, he became a smaller version of Shukaku — the One-Tail.
"I'll kill you! I'm going to kill you!"
Mizuki didn't give him the chance.
The Mangekyō in his left eye spun into being, and he invoked his dōjutsu — Takamitamanomikoto.
Gaara went limp. The tailed-beast transformation collapsed as if it had been forcibly shut off.
"What did you do to me?" Gaara demanded, stunned.
Mizuki smiled, "Agree to come with me to a place, and I'll tell you."
Gaara's voice sharpened, "What place?"
"A place completely different from Sunagakure." Mizuki said, "In your village, everyone fears you. Everyone hates you. Your own father even tried to kill you."
He stepped closer, voice calm and persuasive.
"But if you go there, no one will fear your power. No one will hate you. Here, among people your age, no one wants to play with you. There, you'll have many friends. Everyone will welcome you — happy to play with you."
Gaara's face filled with longing, "They won't fear me… they'll play with me…"
For a heartbeat, there was light in his eyes.
Then it went out.
"You're lying to me!" Gaara snarled, "There's a monster inside me. I'm a monster. No one dares play with me. No one dares be my friend. Kill… kill everyone!"
Mizuki sighed inwardly. This kid really was hard to handle.
So he played his trump card.
"There's someone there who's the same as you." He said, "There's a monster inside him too. Maybe others won't… but that person will accept you. Because you're the same."
"The same… as me?" Gaara's eyes brightened, bit by bit.
"Come with me." Mizuki said, "Your life will change completely."
Gaara walked toward him without hesitation.
Sunagakure? The Land of Wind?
To hell with it.
Only after the two had gone far did Temari and Kankurō break free. They were drenched in sweat, legs trembling, fear still clinging to their faces.
"What do we do?" Kankurō asked hoarsely.
Temari shook her head, "That person is too terrifying. In front of him, Gaara couldn't even use ninjutsu. We can't stop him. Let's go back to the village — this isn't something we can interfere with."
She looked toward the direction Gaara had been taken. There wasn't much anxiety in her eyes.
If anything, she hoped what Mizuki promised was true — that Gaara's life could finally change.
No matter how it changed, it had to be better than living as a murderous demon.
❊❊❊❊❊
Mizuki took Gaara and headed east.
To the east, in the Land of Waves, because of Mizuki's interference, Zabuza and Haku of the Yuki Clan hadn't died as they had in the original story.
Fushigakure… was desperately short on people.
Meanwhile, Konoha, after the chaos, quickly stabilized again.
With the Third Hokage dead, the major clans immediately stopped watching from the sidelines and stepped out to clean up.
The Sound and Sand shinobi who had invaded Konoha had no ability to resist. They were arrested or killed, and it was over within a few hours.
At the Chūnin Exam finals arena, on the ruined rooftop, Konoha's ANBU collected corpses. Jiraiya, Kakashi, and other elites arrived one after another.
They looked at the body crushed into a meat patty, faces unreadable.
Hiruzen's death had been tacitly accepted. Everyone had waited a long time for this opportunity.
Jiraiya walked to Orochimaru's corpse and kicked it, "Orochimaru. Stop pretending. I know you're not dead."
As he spoke, the corpse opened its mouth. A hand emerged — and a brand-new Orochimaru crawled out, slick with slime, nauseating to behold.
Jiraiya kept his face blank, but inside he was cursing.
Disgusting snake.
Orochimaru swayed, barely able to stand. He looked relieved nonetheless, smiling, "Mizuki-kun is still too young. He left without even checking the body."
"In my opinion." Jiraiya said coldly, "He never intended to kill you — just like how he spared me at the Hokage Tower."
Orochimaru's smile stiffened.
"I heard that before the Third died." Jiraiya continued, "He passed the position of Hokage to you."
Orochimaru nodded, "Correct."
"I won't agree."
A Rasengan slammed into Orochimaru's face, blasting his head apart.
The battle between two of the Sannin — Jiraiya and Orochimaru — began.
Orochimaru was already heavily injured and weakened, unable even to summon. How could he match Jiraiya?
In the end, Orochimaru revealed his true form — the White Great Serpent — and was killed by Jiraiya.
He couldn't even escape.
Konoha shinobi were everywhere.
❊❊❊❊❊
The Third Hokage of Konohagakure died.
The Fourth Kazekage of Sunagakure died.
And Orochimaru of Otogakure died as well.
This small-scale war among three villages ended with the deaths of three leaders.
The only winner was Konoha's missing-nin — Mizuki.
In just a few days, his name spread throughout the ninja world. Using his own power to engineer the deaths of three village leaders was an unprecedented feat.
Mizuki brought Gaara to the Land of Waves and looked at the bridge that still wasn't finished.
"Even if I'm part of the reason…" He muttered, "The main problem is that Konoha didn't see it through to the end."
His gaze sharpened.
"I hope Haku and Zabuza are still here."
❊❊❊❊❊
T/N: Comment, give me Power Stones, like and favorite, it all supports me and makes me go foward with this. Appreciate my other stories as well, I guarantee the good work!
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