Shinobi World Has Quite a Few Lunatics

"Heh heh, how interesting. I never thought that just wandering around here would let me witness such a fine show!"

In the corridor.

As Mu's somewhat mocking and disdainful words fell, Hozuki Gengetsu roared furiously at him, "You bastard, this is an internal matter of Kirigakure. It has nothing to do with you.

"And I'm very angry right now. You'd better get lost, or I'll kill you!"

"Hahaha, hahaha! You really are amusing, Hozuki Gengetsu. As the Mizukage's assistant in Kirigakure, you were actually frightened stiff by a mere brat.

"Yet you turned around and took your anger out on me, an audience member. Well played.

"But you don't have what it takes to kill me yet.

"At the very least, if I were you, I definitely wouldn't have been scared so badly by a brat's glance that I couldn't move."

Having said that, Mu wore a thoroughly mocking expression. He smiled at Hozuki Gengetsu and prepared to leave.

"You're courting death!"

Hozuki Gengetsu had already been in a foul mood. He had just been frightened by Takenaka Kaguya and felt that he had lost face.

And now, that bastard Mu actually dared to mock him to his face. This was utterly intolerable.

Whoosh!

At that moment, Hozuki Gengetsu directly unleashed the Water Gun Technique. Droplets of water from his fingers shot toward Mu like bullets.

However, Mu seemed to have anticipated it long ago. With a simple sidestep, he avoided the attack.

Then, he glanced at the wooden board pierced through by the Water Gun Technique and sneered without looking back. "Sneak attacks from behind aren't a good habit.

"This is Konoha territory. I don't want to fight here. If you truly want to kill me, choose another time and place. I'll oblige you.

"Of course, that's assuming you can do it."

As his words fell, Mu's figure vanished directly before Hozuki Gengetsu's astonished eyes, as though he had never appeared at all.

Even after Hozuki Gengetsu used a detection ninjutsu, he still failed to find the slightest trace of Mu.

However, in the room next door, Takenaka Kaguya had kept his Observation Haki active. Thus, Mu's hiding ninjutsu, which Hozuki Gengetsu could not track, was no more than child's play before his Advanced Observation Haki.

"Heh heh, it seems my arrival caused this pair of mortal enemies, Hozuki Gengetsu and Mu, to meet earlier than they should have," Takenaka Kaguya thought to himself.

He remembered that in the original story, among the Five Great Shinobi Villages, two Kage had died at the same time: the Second Raikage A and the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju.

The next pair had been the Second Tsuchikage Mu and the Second Mizukage Hozuki Gengetsu.

Although the original story had not explained why those two had perished together, the Naruto World usually loved plots where power levels were kept balanced.

Many things simply made no sense.

For example, Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha had become enemies because their views differed. In the end, the closest of friends turned against each other; one faked his death, while the other fell.

Then there was the battle between Orochimaru and the Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi.

And so on. The reasons many people opposed one another were beyond the understanding of normal people. The things many people clung to were thoughts no normal person would ever possess.

For instance, the reason behind the Fourth Shinobi World War: Infinite Tsukuyomi, which would make everyone live in an illusory world. Honestly, anyone with a functioning brain would never use such a method.

Yet there was no way to stop it. This was evident in Uchiha Itachi and Uchiha Obito joining forces to slaughter the Uchiha clan, as well as Uchiha Itachi agreeing to Danzo's demand to destroy the Uchiha clan in exchange for Second Pillar's life.

All that could be said was that aside from the Uchiha clan having an unusually high number of lunatics, there were plenty of other lunatics too.

At that thought, Takenaka Kaguya withdrew his Observation Haki, then sat cross-legged and inspected his status panel.

Host: Takenaka Kaguya.

Age: 12 years, 253 days.

Observation Haki: Advanced.

Armament Haki: Intermediate.

Conqueror's Haki: Beginner.

Taijutsu: Intermediate Six Powers, Advanced Nintaijutsu.

Swordsmanship: Advanced.

Kekkei Genkai: Shikotsumyaku.

Ninjutsu: Intermediate Sage Mode, proficient Water Release Ninjutsu, proficient Earth Release Ninjutsu...

Overall Evaluation: Peak Kage-level.

Phew!

Looking at his status panel, Takenaka Kaguya furrowed his brows. His overall evaluation had already reached high Kage-level two years ago, when he first entered the battlefield.

Now, two years had passed, yet his shili had only improved by a single minor level.

"My shili is still improving too slowly. At this rate, it will take at least another five years to reach the Half-Step Six Paths level.

"Come to think of it, this body's age is limiting the growth of my shili." Takenaka Kaguya could not help sighing inwardly.

That was right. If he had not been restricted by this body's age, then with his efforts, he would have at least reached the Half-Step Six Paths level.

But now, he was still at least one or two levels behind Madara Uchiha and Hashirama Senju.

"Forget it. I should keep training. There's no use thinking about it." Takenaka Kaguya sighed, then focused on cultivating Chakra.

However, in the room beside him, Byakuren did not need Hozuki Gengetsu to report anything to know Takenaka Kaguya's attitude.

Therefore, Byakuren's expression was extremely ugly at that moment. If he had not feared that the killing intent erupting from him would be noticed by Takenaka Kaguya next door, he probably would have been unable to suppress the fury in his heart.

"Takenaka Kaguya, have you truly betrayed the village?" Byakuren muttered to himself.

Before this, although he had not held much goodwill toward Takenaka Kaguya, he had mostly been wary of the other man's strength.

But now, even that final trace of goodwill had vanished, replaced by the desire to personally execute him.

However, he knew very well that Takenaka Kaguya was powerful—perhaps even stronger than he had estimated. If they fought, the best outcome would be that Kirigakure suffered grievous losses but managed to kill Takenaka Kaguya.

The worst outcome, however, would be that Kirigakure suffered grievous losses and still failed to kill him. That would be a true disaster for Kirigakure.

Making an enemy of a young, extraordinarily powerful man with limitless potential required extreme caution. A single misstep could cause the newly established Kirigakure to fall apart.

Unwillingly glancing in the direction of Takenaka Kaguya's room, Byakuren's brows were furrowed so tightly they could have crushed a mosquito.

Time passed. The next day, Takenaka Kaguya woke up and looked at the sky outside, which was already bright. Recalling the thoughts of the Konoha Ninja he had monitored with Observation Haki the previous night, he muttered, "Tobirama Senju really is insidious. It seems Hozuki Gengetsu and Byakuren wanted to kill me yesterday because he deliberately revealed that I had gone to Hashirama Senju's house as a guest.

"But that was understandable. After all, if I were Byakuren or Hozuki Gengetsu, faced with someone blocking my path who might also have defected to Konoha, I would develop killing intent as well."