Lately, the Mist Village had been uneasy. Even ordinary civilians often caught glimpses of ninja darting across rooftops, something rarely seen before.
At the same time, rumors spread quietly among the villagers—though most didn't believe them.
Some claimed that the venerable Elder Genji had stepped down, and that the new elder was a surprisingly young man.
Others whispered that a young man had moved into the Mizukage's residence.
For the civilians, these stories were little more than idle gossip. But for the shinobi, the shock was far greater.
Every jōnin already understood, at least vaguely, what kind of being the youth sitting in the elder's seat truly was.
And while they were stirred to their core, they also kept this information hidden.
The truth about Yuto's identity was the highest-level secret in the Mist. Only jōnin had the right to know; chūnin and genin remained completely ignorant.
At the same time, another secret order had spread from the Mizukage's office: all high-ranking officials and jōnin were to quietly prepare for war.
But this came as no surprise. The moment they learned Yuto's identity, they were already ready.
After all, the reason he had once been sealed away was something known across the entire shinobi world.
The dream of unifying the world of shinobi was shared by all the great villages, but none had achieved it.
The word "war" might unsettle most people, but there were two villages that would never flinch.
The Sand Village—too poor, too barren. For them, expansion was survival itself.
And the Mist Village—ever targeted since the First War, and still shamed by the memory of their Fourth Mizukage being manipulated. Every shinobi carried that fire in their heart.
As for the other three:
The Cloud's Raikage A was hot-blooded and hawkish by nature.
The Stone's Onoki was an ancient relic. Not quite a hawk, but no dove either.
The Leaf's Hiruzen Sarutobi was the staunchest dove of them all, his politics too soft. He had even allowed Danzo to build his own power base, letting two voices grow inside one faction.
Danzo's power had come from Hiruzen's hand, and perhaps that was why he looked down on Hiruzen the most.
As for his nonsense about "roots in the earth and leaves basking in the sun," Yuto thought it nothing more than a bad joke.
Every force had both light and shadow. A true leader should shoulder both. But Hiruzen had hidden in the light, leaving all shadow to Danzo.
Neither of them was fit to lead—Hiruzen too soft, Danzo not ruthless enough.
In Yuto's eyes, only two leaders in Leaf history had truly qualified: Tobirama Senju and Minato Namikaze. Different personalities, but equally decisive.
The shinobi world seemed calm now, but the villages' relations were already fragile. Decades since the Third War, their strength had fully recovered.
What was missing was a fuse. In the original timeline, Akatsuki had served as that spark—but later, enemies grew so powerful the five villages had been forced to unite.
Otherwise, once Akatsuki fell, the next stage would have been a five-way war.
———
On a tall outcrop of rock—
"Akatsuki's too uncontrollable. And too difficult to approach right now. A fuse, huh?"
Yuto sat on the edge, legs dangling, lost in thought.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up as an idea struck.
Whoosh. Whoosh.
The faint sound of wings reached him as a palm-sized blue butterfly fluttered into view. It circled him once, then dissolved into mist.
"So, there's news," Yuto said with a smile.
The next instant, he was gone.
———
Mizukage's office.
Mei sat at her desk, brows furrowed as she reviewed stacks of reports.
"Well now, what's troubling our Mizukage so much?"
A teasing voice drifted into her ear.
Her eyes brightened, and she looked up to see Yuto already seated casually on the sofa.
"Yuto-sama, you're here!"
He nodded, plucked up an apple from the desk, and bit into it. "Did word come back?"
Mei picked up a scroll and tossed it to him.
"Based on the intelligence you provided, our people located a village on the Water–Fire border with an unusually high number of funerals," she explained.
"Our ANBU used genjutsu on a villager to extract information. According to it, the rogue Kurosuki Raiga is in that village."
A smile tugged at her lips. Of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, only Chojuro remained in the Mist. The rest were either dead or missing as rogues.
Finding Raiga's trail was good news.
Yuto unrolled the scroll and skimmed it. As expected, Raiga hadn't changed—still obsessed with funerals.
But not funerals for the dead. He killed people with his own hands, then held services for them, weeping as if heartbroken.
In that way, he was nothing short of deranged.
"Tell me, Yuto-sama," Mei asked curiously, "how did you know he'd be hiding in a village with so many funerals?"
They had searched for these rogues countless times, but always in vain. Yet with one word from Yuto, Raiga had been found.
"Nothing special. A while back, I read that he often attended funerals. So I made the connection," Yuto replied smoothly, without the slightest change in tone.
//Check out my Patreon for 20 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[[email protected]/Razeil0810](http://[email protected]/Razeil0810)
20 Power Stones = +1 Extra Chapter