"It really does have the strength of a Mangekyō Sharingan..."
Hiruzen commented even as his movements remained completely unhindered. He drove another heavy knee into the Third Mizukage's chest, causing his sternum to collapse completely.
The Third Mizukage coughed up mouthfuls of blood, while his astonishing vitality made Hiruzen slightly surprised.
No wonder he had once been able to compete with Gengetsu for the position of Mizukage...
Even setting aside the boost from the Hydrification Technique, that vitality and physical toughness were far beyond those of an ordinary shinobi.
He really could take a beating...
The Third Mizukage roared in shock and fury as he unleashed the Kinjutsu he had kept hidden as his final trump card!
Water Release: Thousand Streams Disassembly Technique!
This was an extremely high-level combination of Water Release and genjutsu, a secret technique almost like disassembling one's own body. In an instant, his body broke apart into countless fine streams of water that sprayed in every direction, scattering toward the surrounding sea.
Almost at the exact same moment that the Third Mizukage disassembled himself, the distant Three-Tails and Six-Tails both received his command.
The two enraged Tailed Beasts suddenly began gathering power. Two Tailed Beast Balls containing devastating force formed as Yin and Yang chakra particles compressed inside their mouths, about to be fired directly at Hiruzen!
Hiruzen's expression didn't change. Chakra erupted from his body as he blasted Spirit Release toward them from afar, extending it over a range comparable to that of a dōjutsu!
Tailed Beast Balls...
Hiruzen had already heard Mito and the Nine-Tails break down their structure before. It wasn't particularly complicated. Yin and Yang chakra were combined at a ratio of two to eight, then condensed through the Tailed Beasts' unique natural ability.
But this wasn't some profound form of Yin–Yang Release. It was simply Yin and Yang chakra, mutually repelling and complementing each other, being compressed together rather than truly fused. At its core, it was just another manifestation of the Tailed Beasts using overwhelming chakra to brute-force everything.
Having observed Tailed Beast Balls many times and already knowing their structure, Hiruzen instantly locked onto the "core points" of both attacks.
That sight made the Third Mizukage, who was still reforming his body in the distance, feel as though half the blood in his body had suddenly gone cold.
No...
What the hell was this supposed to be?!
Fine, he could be immune to Water Release and genjutsu...
But why could he even cancel Tailed Beast Balls from a distance?!
Did you fucking know the Sage of Six Paths personally and get private lessons from him?!
The Third Mizukage desperately squeezed out the last of his chakra. Even though the seawater was continuously helping repair his injuries, Hiruzen's earlier beating had left far too many wounds that simply couldn't be fixed...
Getting punched by the Hokage hurt like hell!
Under the Third Mizukage's control, the Three-Tails and Six-Tails charged violently toward Hiruzen.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes, showing no panic at all.
After his many interactions with the Nine-Tails, he had already come to understand the strengths and weaknesses of Tailed Beasts as a unique form of life.
They were born with powerful bodies and enormous chakra reserves.
But their weaknesses were equally obvious: their methods of attack were far too limited, while their combat skills were crude and immature.
That was why, if a Tailed Beast and its jinchūriki were truly in sync, the result became far greater than one plus one equaling two.
Conversely, Tailed Beasts that were already poor fighters by Hiruzen's standards became even worse once the sluggishness of being forcibly controlled was added on top.
They were like two paralyzed giants.
They looked frightening, but posed no real threat to him.
Hiruzen narrowed his eyes and released some of the chakra stored within his Strength of a Hundred Seal. A golden band appeared across his forehead.
At the same time, his entire body was quietly wrapped in curse markings packed with extremely dense chakra...
The Three-Tails and Six-Tails charged straight at him without any regard for themselves!
Hiruzen leapt into the air. At that moment, chakra surged outward from his body and transformed into two enormous hands!
One hand pressed down on Isobu's bone-spiked head, while the other clamped onto Saiken's slick skull. The muscles in both of Hiruzen's arms suddenly tensed, and an unmatched burst of raw strength erupted as he violently smashed the two massive Tailed Beasts' heads together!
Boom!!!
The impact from that terrifying force seemed to make the entire stretch of ocean churn!
The two Tailed Beasts' heads slammed together with tremendous force. Their raging chakra instantly fell into disorder, and both giant beasts let out agonized roars at the same time, their eyes rolling back!
At that moment, the Konoha and Kiri shinobi fighting nearby instinctively took two steps back and simultaneously turned toward the astonishing scene unfolding over the sea.
The sound of the two Tailed Beasts' heads colliding was simply too loud, as though heaven and earth themselves were echoing with it!
Hiruzen roared. Every muscle in his body bulged, and his chakra erupted to its absolute limit!
Boil Release Chakra Mode, Lightning Release Chakra Mode, Strength of a Hundred Seal...
At that moment, all three were stacked together!
Ordinarily, all three were techniques that projected chakra outward. Stacking them together would cause the power to become disorderly and difficult to control, greatly reducing his precision...
Even if the raw power increased, the overall performance would still be inferior to using a single state.
But against these two Tailed Beasts that had already lost their minds, Hiruzen didn't need balanced performance.
He only needed the most primitive form of overwhelming violence to disable them as quickly as possible!
Terrifying strength dragged the two Tailed Beasts' heads together again...
Once, twice, three times...
It was as if an enormous hammer were repeatedly crashing down between heaven and earth, each impact producing a deafening, heart-stopping boom!
The two Tailed Beasts were actually knocked unconscious outright!
Hiruzen's figure flashed. He canceled the excessively violent triple-stacked state and placed both hands on the foreheads of the Three-Tails and Six-Tails, which were now foaming at the mouth.
Four Symbols Seal!
Dense black markings spread out, sealing away the chakra of the two completely defenseless Tailed Beasts.
After dealing with them, Hiruzen slowly turned around and locked his gaze onto the Third Mizukage in the distance, who was still reforming and repairing his body within the seawater.
There was no longer even a trace of arrogance or unruliness in the Third Mizukage's eyes.
Only now did he finally understand that from the very beginning, he had never possessed any means of dealing with Hiruzen.
This was someone who countered him completely...
'This is shameless! It's just an information gap! Why the hell is he immune to Water Release and genjutsu?!'
The Third Mizukage screamed inwardly as countless unanswered questions exploded through his mind.
Back when he had faced Gengetsu's genjutsu system, he had experienced a somewhat similar feeling. But that had mostly been frustration—he knew the other man was playing tricks, yet simply couldn't see through them...
Hiruzen, however, felt more like sheer, undeniable "numbers" and "power," an oppressive kind of strength that needed no clever edge, leaving his opponent completely helpless.
Along the shore, the Kiri shinobi unconsciously stopped fighting.
Ninja tools clattered to the ground one after another.
Almost in perfect unison, they dropped flat, placed their hands over their heads, and pressed their faces against the ground.
Tenzō and Hizashi were both stunned speechless.
This was the first time either of them had ever seen what Hiruzen looked like when he was truly angry!
Hiruzen really had been furious over Kirigakure's betrayal.
He had gone to great lengths trying to make Kirigakure understand that they shouldn't keep handling geopolitics with the same old mindset. Wouldn't mutually beneficial cooperation and exchange between the two sides have been better?
And in the end, they still had to fight!
Although now that the fighting had started, the benefits for Konoha were already very real...
Two fresh, foaming-at-the-mouth Tailed Beasts...
"You have to die..."
Hiruzen stared at the Third Mizukage.
The Third Mizukage's heart suddenly clenched. His entire body seemed to once again remember the horrifying pain of being crushed apart by Hiruzen's monstrous strength.
What made it even harder for him to accept was that, as the man who had created Kirigakure's Bloody Mist, he had once held the power of life and death over anyone with a single word!
But in that state, he was no longer the all-powerful Mizukage.
He was no different from all those powerless people who had once been executed under the Bloody Mist, able only to humbly pray for some unknown chance of salvation...
Even though some Kiri shinobi were still fighting for him, the Third Mizukage no longer hesitated.
He plunged into the sea, turned around, and fled!
He couldn't win...
He couldn't win at all!
If he kept fighting, he would only die!
...
"No!"
"Why the fuck are you running?!"
Gengetsu had barely recovered from the shock of Hiruzen's astonishing battle display when the Third Mizukage managed to stun him all over again.
As Mizukage, even when facing an overwhelmingly powerful enemy, you were supposed to show some dignity, stand your ground, and die hard!
What the hell was this supposed to be, running away?!
Gengetsu felt as though his head were spinning just like the Three-Tails and Six-Tails.
Forget helping the Third Mizukage...
Right now, Gengetsu wanted nothing more than to jump down there, drag that bastard out of the sea himself, and shoot him dead!
"I should've killed him back then!"
Gengetsu's eyes bulged with fury.
Beside him, Mū silently watched the scene and sighed.
"He's slipped..."
"What slipped? Where's the slide?" Gengetsu frowned.
"His morality and will have slipped..."
Mū looked at Gengetsu with sympathy and explained in an unusually literary tone: "It refers to the collapse of a person's humanity when the principles and convictions they once upheld are eroded by irreversible circumstances, fear, and self-interest."
"The Bloody Mist period was already part of that decline. He forgot the original purpose behind Kirigakure's founding, kept finding justifications for slaughtering his own comrades, and constructed an entire logic that could deceive even himself—all supposedly for Kirigakure."
"But Sarutobi Hiruzen shattered every part of it. From the reason he became Mizukage, to the value of the Bloody Mist, to his ability to wage war as a Kage, Hiruzen broke him completely."
"Kiritori has already gone mad. I can't even imagine what else he might do..."
"His entire personality has collapsed."
Gengetsu listened with a thoroughly confused expression, but he could roughly grasp what Mū meant.
"So basically, he's become the kind of despicable little bastard that even his old self would've looked down on, right?!"
"Right..." Mū brought his hands together.
"But no matter what, Senju Tobirama did tell us to stop Sarutobi Hiruzen..."
"If we let him fight his way straight into the Land of Water and kill Kiritori on the spot, the Land of Water is going to collapse!"
"Having a madman as Mizukage is still better than having no Mizukage at all... right?"
Mū said uncertainly.
Gengetsu suppressed his anger. At this point, it felt as though his brain had somehow grown inside Mū's head.
The two joined forces and unleashed their techniques.
A violent maelstrom sent the sea boiling, while a towering wall of earth rose high enough to block Hiruzen's view.
The Hokage frowned and took two slight steps back.
Kirigakure still had experts of this caliber?
The Third Mizukage naturally noticed what had happened as well, but at this moment, all he wanted was to escape.
Escape with everything he had!
He would return to Kirigakure first. Return to that warm village where a single word from him decided everything.
Like a homeless dog fleeing with its tail between its legs, he discarded every last shred of the dignity expected of a Kage in the shinobi world...
"Who was that?"
Hiruzen looked up.
But Mū and Gengetsu only used that single combination.
Shrouded by Dustless Bewildering Cover, the two longtime rivals rapidly headed in Kirigakure's direction.
Hiruzen had no intention of chasing down the Third Mizukage right now.
He didn't know who those new enemies were, and once the Third Mizukage escaped into the ocean, he really was mobile enough to become like a needle lost in the sea...
Even for Hiruzen, catching him immediately would be difficult.
Besides, there were still two Tailed Beasts to deal with.
Hiruzen returned to the coastline.
Tenzō looked at him with immense reverence. He had just been about to say something when he saw Hiruzen remove his armor, feel around inside the lining, and shake his head irritably.
Tenzō immediately understood.
He pulled out a pack of cigarettes, hurriedly handed one to Hiruzen, and attentively lit it for him.
"Hokage-sama, I brought a spare pack for you!"
"Thanks..."
Hiruzen looked slightly surprised, then held the cigarette between his lips and began smoking.
Cigarettes had long since become incapable of affecting his body.
It was simply that, with the experiences of both his previous and current lives combined, smoking had already become a ritual gesture whenever he needed to think.
"No..."
"As a Kage, how can he possibly be that disgraceful?"
Hiruzen exhaled a thick cloud of smoke.
"What a... shameless man!"
Tenzō silently nodded.
If word of what the Third Mizukage had done spread, then in the shinobi world, he would undoubtedly be nailed to the pillar of shame forever. His reputation would be utterly ruined...
"These two Tailed Beasts need to be transported back to Konoha as quickly as possible."
Hiruzen pondered for a moment.
"They're unconscious and sealed right now. Tie them down later and bring them back to the village. Once Mito-sama handles them, there shouldn't be any problems."
Although he was still angry, Hiruzen did his best to return quickly to a working mindset.
"Right..."
"Go tell the Nine-Tails that if it can persuade these two Tailed Beasts to abandon the wrong side and join us, then since we've just secured a victory against Kirigakure and need to raise the morale of the entire village, I'll let it speak on my behalf."
Tenzō blinked.
Hokage-sama's train of thought really jumped around...
But if it was that fox, this was exactly the sort of thing it would be interested in!
Tenzō had seen it plenty of times—a certain little fox standing in front of the imitation bulletin board in the Uchiha district, discussing village policy with Ichiraku, the Ramen Sage who had recently become wildly popular in Konoha, both of them acting as though they understood everything perfectly...
The fox already spoke with the tone of a Konoha veteran.
The only thing missing was for it to start claiming that it was a Konoha Council Member!
"As for Kirigakure..."
"Take these prisoners back first. Work on their thinking and see whether we can reorganize them into a usable force."
Hiruzen thought for a moment.
"Hokage-sama, why don't I try contacting Nakamaro?"
Tenzō spoke slowly.
"Kirigakure must be in complete chaos right now. If we contact him, he should be safe..."
Hiruzen looked at him in surprise.
"You have some special way of doing that?"
"We do..."
"I'll be right back, Hokage-sama!"
Tenzō exchanged a glance with Hizashi. Father and son boarded the aerial squad's large aircraft, carrying an exquisitely crafted short flute in their hands.
A short while later, the two returned.
Hizashi looked utterly speechless.
Tenzō, on the other hand, was positively glowing.
"Hokage-sama, Nakamaro has already gained control of a strong Kirigakure force. He says they can switch sides at any time and are waiting for your orders!"
Seeing Hiruzen's confused expression, Tenzō explained: "This is an old method used between the Hyūga and Kaguya clans. I improved it later and arranged it with Nakamaro in advance."
"We can exchange coded signals through flute tones that imitate the calls of specific birds..."
"That really is an old-fashioned yet useful method..."
Hiruzen couldn't help giving Tenzō a thumbs-up. The most sophisticated clandestine contact methods were often the simplest and most unassuming.
"Activate the aerial fortress and transport the Three-Tails and Six-Tails back as quickly as possible..."
"Tenzō, communicate with Nakamaro. Tell him to remain hidden for now, but I want him to stir up chaos inside Kirigakure!"
"Everyone else, continue deeper into the Land of Water with me. We must take advantage of this momentum and kill the Third Mizukage!"
Hiruzen said solemnly: "We can't give them time to recover..."
"Yes, Hokage-sama!"
Tenzō and Hizashi answered firmly.
Taking only a thousand men deep into the territory of a great shinobi village and a major nation was admittedly rather absurd.
But with the Hokage here, not a single person thought there was anything wrong with it...
Such was Sarutobi Hiruzen's prestige now.
For shinobi without a defining specialty, once Hiruzen found an opening in battle, their margin for error approached zero.
Only someone with sufficiently high survivability and destructive power could slow down Hiruzen's tempo.
Powerful shinobi like the Third Mizukage and Danzō, who had made their names by mowing down weaker opponents, were no different from ordinary jōnin in Hiruzen's eyes once they actually fought him.
They possessed neither a top-tier trump card capable of deciding the battle in one stroke nor enough margin for error...
Catch them with a few punches and they would be beaten into complete incapacitation!
...
Several days later.
Having landed in the Land of Water, Hiruzen's expression was grim.
He had discovered something terrible.
Because of Nakamaro's actions and the tragedies of the past, opposition within Kirigakure against the Third Mizukage, who had just suffered a crushing defeat, had reached a fever pitch!
And under those circumstances, the Third Mizukage had actually destroyed Kirigakure himself!
Terrified that Hiruzen would never let him go, he had taken his trusted subordinates and diehard loyalists, seized Kirigakure's core resources, and scattered across the Land of Water.
Faced with the village's shinobi turning against him after his defeat, the Third Mizukage had already become someone even he himself would no longer recognize. His moral decline had reached an appalling degree.
At this moment, before Hiruzen stood countless civilians.
Fear filled their eyes. Like one fragile human shield after another, they had been deceived and driven to the front line under the threat of violence and execution by the Third Mizukage, all in an attempt to stop Hiruzen.
The Third Mizukage's thinking was very simple...
Weren't you, Sarutobi Hiruzen, supposed to be an honorable man?
Now these civilians were hungry, poorly clothed, and standing directly in your path. If you had the guts, then abandon every last scrap of reputation just as he had. Throw away your precious "peace," your "Will of Fire," and your reputation for decency...
And walk right over them!
This was precisely how an honorable man's principles could be used against him.
"Hokage-sama, what should we do?" Tenzō asked quietly.
He could feel the terrifying fury surging from Hiruzen.
"Mm..."
Hiruzen furiously smoked an entire cigarette down in one go.
"Good! Very good, Third Mizukage. Very good, Kiritori!"
A moment later, Hiruzen calmed down.
This was unquestionably a disaster.
But it was also a historic opportunity for him to assume control of the Land of Water with the strongest possible legitimacy.
"He's already gone mad. All he wants is to survive..."
"He's sacrificed the entire Land of Water because he wants to make it impossible for me to find him, forcing me to withdraw and reinforce the other battlefields."
"Well, I'm going to be stubborn about this piece of trash!"
"The Three-Tails and Six-Tails have already been sent back to the village. Have the returning aerial squad urgently tell the Nine-Tails that if it makes a meaningful contribution this time, I'll personally approve it as a Konoha Council Member—with permanent tenure!"
"Tenzō!"
"Hokage-sama, I'm here!" Tenzō responded solemnly.
"Split off half our forces in Kirigakure. Send them to reinforce the other battlefields or back to the village to rest and reorganize..."
"Have the aerial squad work a little harder. Send them back to the Land of Fire and urgently ask the daimyō whether he has a group of available bureaucrats capable of handling administration, as well as civilian supplies that don't meet Konoha's standards."
"Bring all of it here!"
Hiruzen gazed at the civilians of the Land of Water and the beautiful mist-shrouded scenery around them.
"He doesn't know how to be Mizukage? Then I'll show him how a Mizukage is supposed to govern!"
"I don't care if we have to turn over every stone in the entire country. I'll make sure the people of the Land of Water help me find him so I can kill him!"
"Yes, Hokage-sama!"
Tenzō stood ramrod straight.
He knew this was his time to shine!
Whether it was contacting Nakamaro, coordinating with the Land of Fire's daimyō and bureaucrats, redirecting second-tier nonmilitary supplies, or pacifying the people of the Land of Water, all of it fell squarely within Tenzō's specialties...
Tenzō glanced at Hizashi and smiled faintly to himself.
'Son, you really are good at fighting...'
'But the Will of Fire can never be embodied through fighting ability alone.'
And at that moment, Hiruzen wasn't the only one filled with fury and killing intent toward the Third Mizukage.
Gengetsu was already beside himself with rage. The Second Mizukage practically screamed at Uchiha Madara:
"SEN! JU! TO! BI! RA! MA!"
"Give me a unit of White Zetsu! I'm going to find Kiritori! I'm going to kill him with my own hands!"
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