The autumn noon sun shone down warmly on the people below.
Two figures walked through the small woods, one ahead of the other, separated by roughly five or six meters.
The key was that the two of them looked almost exactly alike!
Only the one walking in front appeared slightly older.
At last, after who knew how long, the figure in front stopped.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh."
A gust of wind swept up the fallen leaves.
The figure in front turned around, and the figure behind him stopped as well.
Thus, the two brothers, Hozuki Mangetsu and Hozuki Suigetsu, faced each other.
Both brothers wore complicated expressions.
After an unknown amount of time, Hozuki Mangetsu spoke first.
"Suigetsu, I never expected you to come to Takigakure this time. That really surprised me. Is the Hozuki Clan doing all right these days?"
Hozuki Mangetsu spoke as though they were merely having an ordinary chat, with no emotion in his voice.
Yet the calmer Hozuki Mangetsu acted, the angrier Hozuki Suigetsu became!
"Tch, you bastard who tarnished the Hozuki Clan's honor, and you still have the nerve to mention the Hozuki Clan? If it weren't for you, how would the Hozuki Clan have ended up like this?"
At the mention of this, boundless rage rose in Hozuki Suigetsu's heart.
Over the years, whether the Hozuki Clan had deliberately kept a low profile or Soji had intentionally cooperated with Hozuki Mangetsu behind the scenes, one thing was certain.
There was no longer a single Hozuki Clan member among Kirigakure's upper ranks!
Quite a few people in Kirigakure now claimed that Mizuki Ember, the Fifth Mizukage, had deliberately suppressed the Hozuki Clan because of Hozuki Mangetsu's defection years ago.
After all, as the Clan Head of a major shinobi clan, and a member of the