Stirring Up Trouble, Various Factions React

Konoha.

Two intelligence scrolls with identical contents were delivered almost simultaneously to the Hokage's Office and the "Pot Kage's" office deep within Root.

Yet the minds of the two men reading them could not have been more different.

Hiruzen Sarutobi set down the scroll, took a deep drag from his pipe, and furrowed his brow into a deep crease.

This urgent intelligence from a covert line sank his heart straight to the bottom.

"What? Wasn't everything going smoothly? How did they suddenly get exposed?" he muttered to himself, a rare lapse in composure.

As a Hokage of many years, he knew all too well how difficult it was to plant an effective spy in one of the Five Great Nations.

Most sleepers, to avoid blowing their cover, could only play their roles with extreme caution.

A fisherman, a merchant—their range of movement restricted, unable to touch core secrets, the intelligence they sent back mostly mundane observations.

Someone like Namikaze Yoru, who as a traveling merchant had successfully entered the Land of Water and could move with relative freedom, was a rare gem in all of Konoha's intelligence division.

"Sigh... that kid could have gone far." Hiruzen shook his head with a sigh.

He regretted not only the loss of this valuable intelligence channel but also the village losing a young ninja of immense potential.

The atmosphere in the Root base, by contrast, was entirely different.

"Dead?" Danzo looked at the intelligence in his hand, a flicker of smugness in his single eye. "A clean end, at least."

He walked slowly outside, watching the Root members busy at work.

Namikaze Yoru, that disobedient pawn, had finally exited the stage in a way Danzo approved of, giving his desire for control a great sense of satisfaction.

Though he regretted not being able to tame that unruly young man, at least the threat who had dared to refuse him was now eliminated.

"Destroy all files related to Namikaze Yoru." Danzo ordered his subordinate without turning his head.

"Yes." The Root operative replied without emotion.

Meanwhile, the Namikaze Yoru who had been declared "dead" was leisurely hiding in an abandoned warehouse within the Kaguya Clan Compound.

With the Flying Thunder God Jutsu, he could come and go as he pleased at any time; this was just a temporary base for observing the situation.

Over the past few days, he had witnessed the internal turmoil of the Kaguya Clan.

Kaguya Naoto had indeed done as he said, finding two clansmen to be scapegoats, handed over to the Mizukage as an "accounting."

Now, a solemn funeral was being held in the open space at the center of the compound.

"Kaguya Ritsuki, Kaguya Toumei. They gave their lives for the survival of the Kaguya Clan. Their sacrifice will be remembered forever." Kaguya Naoto stood before their coffins, his voice heavy with grief.

Namikaze Yoru watched this hypocritical ceremony coldly. Those two sacrificed clansmen had clearly been executed in secret just yesterday.

One of their residences happened to be not far from his hiding spot. He had heard the brief sounds of struggle and the confused pleas for mercy clearly last night.

After the funeral, the Kaguya clansmen dispersed in silence. Namikaze Yoru noticed that several young clansmen wore expressions of resentment and anger. The rift between the Kaguya Clan and the Mist Village's high command was quietly widening.

While Namikaze Yoru was lying low, back in Konoha, Tsunade had just finished a surgery when she received the shocking news.

"What... did you say?" The surgical record in her hand fell to the floor with a slap.

"Chunin Namikaze Yoru was unfortunately exposed during a mission in Kirigakure... he has been confirmed dead." The ninja who came to deliver the news lowered his head, not daring to meet her eyes.

Namikaze Yoru was an orphan with no direct relatives in the village, and most of his friends his age were still young. By a twist of fate, the news eventually reached the Senju Clan, with whom he had the closest ties.

Tsunade stood frozen, the image of that always mischievously smiling boy flashing through her mind. She remembered the bracelet he had given her before he left, remembered his firm assurance that he would return safely.

That night, for the first time in a long while, she didn't go on duty at the hospital. Instead, she went alone to her usual izakaya.

"Bring the sake."

As if trying to vent all her emotions, she drank cup after cup, trying to numb herself with alcohol, but his figure only grew clearer in her mind.

When the bracelet he had given her glinted under the light, she finally buried her face in her hands.

"Liar..." she whispered, her voice choked with sobs.

Back in Kirigakure, Namikaze Yoru's operations continued.

After several days of observation, he locked onto a new target.

Kaguya Kengenin, a young elite with considerable prestige within the Kaguya Clan.

This man was upright in character and deeply dissatisfied with Kaguya Naoto's policy of compromise, making him a representative of the clan's radical faction.

Late at night, Namikaze Yoru secretly infiltrated Kaguya Kengenin's residence and placed a letter on his desk.

The letter "revealed" in detail the Mizukage's plot to gradually weaken the Kaguya Clan, and hinted that the clan head had secretly defected to the Mizukage, even sacrificing clansmen to protect his own position.

At the same time, taking on the guise of a discerning member of the Kaguya Clan, he quietly spread rumors in the village, saying that Kaguya Ritsuki and Kaguya Toumei were merely scapegoats.

The real culprits were high-ranking Kaguya elders, but Kaguya Naoto had used his power to protect them. The true purpose was to cover up the truth of secretly colluding with another village.

These carefully laid schemes quickly took effect. Within just a few days, the Mizukage's surveillance of the Kaguya Clan had noticeably intensified, while discontent within the Kaguya Clan was also rising day by day.

At this point, the relationship between the village and the Kaguya Clan was like fire and water, needing only a single spark to set it off completely.

He called up his system interface, his gaze sweeping over the long exchange list in the shop, finally settling on an option he had already confirmed long ago.

[Mizuki Bloodline - Exchange Points: 600]

[Kaguya Clan Rich Bloodline - Exchange Points: 500]

"Exchange."

[Current Pawn Points: 2870]

The system interface deducted 1100 points, and a chill instantly swept through his entire body.

Fortunately, he had anticipated potential mishaps when exchanging bloodlines and had already relocated to a desolate area in the Land of Water.

The place where he now stood was sparsely populated, and the cold aura emitted by the awakening bloodline directly lowered the local temperature by several degrees.

He could feel his Chakra's nature undergoing a strange transformation. Raising his hand, a rhomboid ice crystal slowly condensed in his palm.

It might still require some time of refinement before he could unleash the myriad secret techniques of the Yuki Clan.

But Namikaze Yoru understood that this level of power was already sufficient. From this point on, the two great bloodlines of the Mist Village had miraculously converged into a single person.

Yet just as he was immersed in the joy of acquiring new power, the Mind's Eye of the Kagura suddenly sensed an unfamiliar Chakra rapidly approaching.

Though it seemed to be merely passing by, this Chakra was distinctly different from that of Mist Village ninjas.

Because of the great distance, even with full concentration, his perception remained quite vague.

Namikaze Yoru quickly concealed his presence, his sharp gaze fixed on the direction from which it came.

An unexpected figure was advancing toward the heart of the Land of Water.