The roar of the assembly line. The screech of machines. An invisible set of shackles.
Nara Kazuki's job was simple and repetitive—just the same motion, over and over. But it was mind-numbing, soul-sapping. The factory didn't even have many tasks to cycle through. Everything was a monotonous blur.
Boring work didn't just drain you mentally—it wore down your entire being. Kazuki felt it in his bones.
"This factory boss... fits my criteria way too perfectly." Kazuki grumbled inwardly. The man was a walking cliché of exploitation. He'd fine-tuned the production line to a speed just fast enough to exhaust workers but not fast enough to cause failure. There was no room to think, to breathe—only to move, endlessly.
Kazuki figured a person would either become a mindless drone or develop a reflex-based autopilot mode—pure muscle memory.
His lips twitched. It was the most boring kind of life, but that made this boss ideal. Kazuki needed someone heartless enough to justify a dramatic "quitting" later on.
After experiencing the hellish monotony, Kazuki left a shadow clone behind to keep up the act and slipped away from the port town into the Land of Water's interior.
Unlike the docks, the inland terrain looked surprisingly similar to the Land of Fire. Kazuki was intrigued by the scenery.
"If they developed this place as a tourist site, it'd definitely attract people," he mused, gazing at a massive heart-shaped lake bordered by lush trees. A natural marvel.
In his past life, this would've been a prime travel destination. But this was the shinobi world—no one had the luxury to think about tourism. Even the Valley of the End, symbolically rich and visually stunning, was void of visitors.
Daily survival, tiny wages, crushing pressure—these defined the shinobi world. No time to breathe, let alone explore.
Kazuki moved silently through the forest, unfazed. He'd seen all this before. To give people here a moment of respite, the entire feudal daimyō system had to be torn down.
"...Ahead should be Kirigakure. At least, that's where the spy marked." He looked at a particular tree and the weathered statue beneath it—shrine-like, exactly as described in the encoded intel.
According to the plan, the spy would arrive here a day later and flee with Kazuki.
But until then, he had other tasks.
Kazuki wasn't new to exfil missions. He'd done one for Kabuto before. So far, this one felt simple—too simple. The real test would come if the spy got caught.
"Now then..." Kazuki pressed his lips together. Time to gather intel—specifically on Ao, the Byakugan thief.
Konoha hated him. After all, he'd snatched a Hyūga's eye. It was because of him that the Hyūga main family rarely sent operatives to the front anymore. Only the Fourth Shinobi War was an exception—thanks to Obito and Kabuto uniting the five villages against them.
Even Hinata had only joined the war effort because she'd been written off. If not for marrying Naruto later, she probably would've ended up branded with the Caged Bird Seal.
In this world painted with the illusion of civility, only power could make the world pause and listen to a single person's voice.
Minato had warned that this mission wasn't about brute strength—it was about intelligence. So Kazuki had planned accordingly.
"Time for a little test..." He took a deep breath, formed seals, and poured a massive amount of chakra into the technique structure.
Every jutsu was like a coded program: first built with seals, then fueled by chakra to execute the final result.
Kazuki had a flash of insight. This realization might help him later when developing his own techniques.
But for now—that could wait.
He exhaled. Wind surged from his mouth, radiating outward. Eyes closed, he waited... and sensed nothing.
Which meant there were no ninja in range—or if there were, their stealth was top-tier.
Kazuki assumed the former.
"That spy is really cautious." He scratched his head and moved on. The general location of Kirigakure wasn't a secret. The village didn't exactly relocate every week. After all the wars and infiltration, any experienced shinobi could guess the rough coordinates.
After a while, Kazuki stopped again to cast his Tenfold Wind Pulse Sensory Technique.
Chakra flared in the distance. Several signatures stirred—and began rushing toward him.
Kazuki grinned.
Found it—Kirigakure.
But now was not the time to get caught. He bolted in the opposite direction, looping around in a half-circle, then approached the village from a new angle, closing in step by step.
When he finally stopped, he was close enough to see Kirigakure on the horizon.
It looked... peaceful. Quiet. Kazuki scratched his head. So the Blood Mist policy hadn't started yet?
That complicated things. Under Obito's control, the Mizukage's policies had weakened the village severely. Civil war, paranoia, desertion—all of it had made Kirigakure easy to sneak out of.
"This damn timeline is a pain." Kazuki clicked his tongue. But maybe this was a chance. He could observe the village's current state and collect useful intel. Bonus points when he returned.
He drew closer. His stealth had improved—thanks to years under the Third Hokage's tutelage.
But he couldn't get too close. Kirigakure's shinobi weren't idiots. He stayed at a cautious distance.
"Looks normal. Laughing, chatting... so the Mizukage hasn't been taken yet?" Kazuki narrowed his eyes.
He'd seen Obito recently and assumed the control had begun. After all, this world's timeline was already altered—Minato and Kushina were still alive, after all.
Maybe Obito was still scouting. Maybe he'd delay or change targets entirely. Who knew?
"Should I try another scan?" Kazuki itched to go again. If he could estimate the number of shinobi currently in the village, that'd be solid intel.
But not from this close. If the Mizukage wasn't controlled yet, doing that now would be like breakdancing on a grave—asking for death.
He backed off, circled the area, and found a vantage point that could encompass the village. Cast the jutsu—then ran like hell.
He felt a wall. Like slamming into a chakra barrier. He pierced it momentarily, glimpsing scattered chakra signatures—but couldn't fully penetrate.
No matter. Time to bail.
He slipped back to the meeting point and waited.
The next day, the spy arrived. And the extraction went absurdly smoothly.
Too smoothly. Kazuki was stunned. He'd expected at least a skirmish—but it felt more like a sightseeing trip.
Still, that meant his backup plans weren't wasted. He had used them.
"We're leaving?" the spy asked. A woman—average-looking, neither beautiful nor ugly. Middle-aged, civilian. But still, a Konoha operative.
"Yeah. Let's go." Kazuki smiled, pretending to be a victim—bitter, wronged, but too scared to fight back. He slouched in defeat and boarded the ship with her.
But the one who boarded... was a shadow clone.
Kazuki himself had one more matter to settle—with the factory boss.
"I think he'll appreciate it," Kazuki thought warmly.
…
"Did we confirm this man's identity? Who is he?" In the port town of Haibo, Kirigakure jōnin Hōzuki Kirisame stared at the corpse dangling from the lamppost. His face was twisted with disgust. This was a provocation.
"We did, Captain. That's Shijibonke—he ran one of the local factories here in Haibo. Hired muscle, not a ninja himself, but a known figure." A subordinate reported respectfully. Kirisame's expression darkened.
The underling continued.
As the report unfolded, Kirisame's fury boiled over. He kicked the corpse's skull—crushing it in a spray of blackened blood.
"Damn it! I don't care if this bastard lived or died—but this is an insult! And five days—FIVE—before we even got the full body?! What are you all, pigs?!" he roared.
It had started five days ago.
First, a disfigured severed arm appeared on a lamppost. Unrecognizable. The townspeople panicked.
Each day after that, another piece was added.
Left hand. Right hand. Left leg. Right leg.
On the fifth day—head and torso. The full corpse. That was when people realized: it was Shijibonke.
The town's most hated boss.
Everyone knew him. Ruthless. Exploitative. Cruel. He bribed shinobi, crushed commoners. No one could touch him.
Now? Hanging from a pole. The people were thrilled.
But Kirisame didn't see justice—only insubordination.
"This is an affront to the Land of Water. To Kirigakure. To the Hōzuki clan!"
"Captain, after searching the premises... all of Shijibonke's wealth is gone. The remaining goods were distributed to the slums. We..." The shinobi hesitated. But they had to ask what to do next.
"Forget the rabble." Kirisame scowled. He wouldn't kill innocents just to cover his own embarrassment. That was the act of a coward.