On a small island at sea—west of the Land of Whirlpools and east of what would one day become the Land of Water.
The closer one drew to the Land of Water, the thicker the mist became.
This island wasn't exactly sun-drenched, but it was comparatively clear, which was enough to infer that it lay closer to the Land of Whirlpools and the Land of Fire than to the Land of Water.
And if the Land of Whirlpools could still barely be called a "country," then this island's area was, at best, only large enough to be called a "village."
The island was home to a single clan—the Kaguya clan, ancestors of the future Kimimaro.
They had roughly 800 combat ninja, a thoroughly average number for a ninja clan.
But the Kekkai Genkai they possessed—the method of fighting with bones—would have been enough to place them among the first-rate if it appeared in the Land of Fire.
Yet it was precisely because of that Kekkai Genkai that their clan suffered from short lifespans by birth; the more powerful the ninja, the more likely their life would be cut even shorter.
"Cough, cough!"
Inside the Kaguya Clan Head's room, Kaguya Wanlu—gray-haired like Kimimaro, and only just past 35 this year—coughed hard twice and spat out two mouthfuls of blood.
"Clan Head, are you alright?"
A younger Kaguya ninja asked anxiously from across the room.
This ninja looked to be around 28 to 30 years old. His name was Kaguya Wuqu, Wanlu's right-hand man.
He possessed Kage-level strength.
To be honest, a clan with two Kage-level experts could already be considered first-rate.
If only not for this cursed bloodline disease!
After coughing up blood, Wanlu waved a hand. His face was pale, his expression full of resentment. "If I die, so be it. But dying like this, without leaving anything behind... I can't accept it!"
His gaze sharpened, and he asked Wuqu with urgency, "Right—what about what I told you to investigate?"
"Yes!"
Wuqu's eyes turned solemn as he replied, "The Uzumaki joined forces with the Senju and fought the Uchiha. Although they ended in defeat not long ago and lost some strength, it wasn't enough to shake their foundation."
Wanlu frowned. "So you're saying we still can't attack them?"
All along, the Kaguya had coveted the Uzumaki clan—another clan seated upon the sea, yet blessed with abundant resources.
They'd always wanted to seize the vast Land of Whirlpools from the Uzumaki.
And the Uzumaki were also known as a 'long-lived clan.' Wanlu desperately wanted to dig into their secrets, to see whether he could find a way to solve the Kaguya clan's bloodline disease.
But crossing the sea to invade Uzushiogakure's territory was already difficult enough, not to mention the Uzumaki had Senju protection.
Now, with the Senju and Uzumaki having joined hands only to be defeated by the Uchiha, Wanlu felt as though heaven had handed him a gift.
Knowing his own end was near because of the bloodline disease, he wanted to do something for the clan in the last days of his life—and he wanted his name remembered by history.
But Wuqu's answer left him bitterly disappointed.
Wuqu added, "There's a rumor that the new Clan Head of the Senju will marry into the Uzumaki—the Grand Elder Uzumaki Hiro'umi's granddaughter. And the Senju are currently stationed to defend the Land of Whirlpools. It's a fortress—iron walls and all."
The Uzumaki alone were hard enough to deal with. Now there was a Senju on top of them.
Wanlu clenched his fist. Was he truly going to die with nothing but regret?
"Gentlemen, I have a plan. Care to hear it?"
A sudden voice rang out. Wuqu sprang up at once, yanking a bone spike nearly 0.5 m long from his shoulder and pointing it behind him.
At the doorway stood a man in black robes, wearing a spiral-faced mask—no one knew when he'd arrived.
"Dance of the Willow!"
Wuqu charged, swinging the bone spike.
Beneath the mask, Izuna's left eye—the Mangekyo Sharingan—spun rapidly, taking in Wuqu's Shikotsumyaku movements in full.
The next strike would come down diagonally from the right, then an upward cut to pierce the throat, then straight for the heart!
Once he'd read it through, Izuna shifted his steps. Each time, he dodged with the smallest possible movements, slipping past the attacks by a hair.
"What...?!"
Both the attacking Wuqu and Wanlu behind him widened their eyes in shock.
"What's going on? It's like mind reading—he's seen through every line of my attacks."
Wuqu was shaken to the core. He retreated half a step, lowered his neck, and reached behind it with his right hand—then violently tore out an entire spine bone over 1 m long.
"In that case, I'll widen the range!"
Wuqu said coldly.
Izuna raised both hands in a stopping gesture. "Calm down, you two of the Kaguya. I'm here to talk cooperation, not to fight you."
From behind, Wanlu pressed a hand down on Wuqu's shoulder, signaling him not to act rashly. His eyes stayed fixed on the masked man. "What do you mean?"
"The Kaguya clan covets the Land of Whirlpools—its fertile land, its abundant resources, and the secret behind that clan's long lives. That's a story many ninja clans of the Warring States already know."
With a voice distorted by Chakra, Izuna spoke with a strange hint of amusement. "But the Uzumaki were always a hard bone to chew. Now they have the Senju as their umbrella, too. Clan Head Kaguya, I imagine that's been keeping you up at night."
"Spit it out!"
Wanlu barked, his temper flaring when the man hit exactly where it hurt.
"Right now, to ensure the new Senju Clan Head—Senju Hashirama—marries Uzumaki Mito without incident, the Senju have set up a defensive line across the southeastern sea of the Land of Fire, covering the entire Land of Whirlpools. If the Kaguya choose to attack at a time like this, you'll have trouble even setting foot on their soil, let alone striking Uzushiogakure."
Izuna spread his hands. Just as Wanlu and Wuqu's faces grew darker and darker, his tone shifted, deliberately mysterious.
"But if the Kaguya army could descend from the sky—suddenly appearing on the land outside Uzushiogakure—then even with the Senju and Uzumaki working together, they'd struggle."
Wanlu and Wuqu exchanged a look, then both stared at the masked man as if he were an idiot.
Wuqu snorted. "Dropping in with an army from the sky? I guess wearing a mask isn't the only thing wrong with you—you've got something wrong in the head, too."
Izuna didn't get angry. Calmly, he said, "A Clan Head only in his early thirties, yet your hair is already turning white. That's the Shikotsumyaku bloodline disease, isn't it?"
Wanlu's brow jumped hard.
Izuna continued, "If you don't believe me, why not try? If I'm lying, you'll know soon enough. As a Clan Head-tier expert, you should have at least that much nerve."
"Clan Head, don't let him provoke you!"
Wuqu urged anxiously.
But the masked man only crouched down and drew several symbols on the floor with his finger—sigils the two of them couldn't make sense of.
He stood, moved aside, crouched and drew again, stood, drew again.
In total he drew four incomprehensible sigils, forming a square frame with an area of about 4 m².
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