Mist Village

Kirigakure.

It lay on an island in the Land of Water.

The sea, thousands of miles from the mainland, was rarely disturbed by the outside world.

The few wars it had fought were all started by Kirigakure.

The main reason was that, ever since the village was founded, tensions between its various shinobi clans had been extremely sharp, making them difficult to resolve through normal discussion.

The only solution was to declare war on others and divert those tensions elsewhere.

That eased the pressure at home, and peace lasted for a few years.

But as the years of peace stretched on, the internal conflicts grew more and more pronounced.

Then,

a handsome young man returned from his revenge against Konoha. He had simply assumed that his teacher had failed to protect his student, and so he sought revenge on him.

From this, it was clear that the young man's mental state was probably not very good.

With nothing else to do, he set his sights on the shinobi village that had killed the person he loved most.

That young man was Obito Uchiha.

Carrying Uchiha Madara's will, Obito once again took control of the Fourth Mizukage and the Three-Tails within him, setting in motion a plan to bring about Kirigakure's decline.

First,

Obito began his plan to weaken Kirigakure by using the arrangements Madara had made in the village long ago.

He continued Uchiha Madara's Bloody Mist Village trials.

Through underhanded schemes, he eliminated the vast majority of Kekkei Genkai shinobi, leaving alive only a few talented commoners.

The proportion of commoner shinobi increased.

After taking over, Obito quickly placed the commoner prodigies Uchiha Madara had left behind in key positions throughout the village.

When it came to holding power,

Obito did a far better job than Sarutobi Hiruzen.

At least, even with all his meddling, Kirigakure never descended into major chaos.

It wasn't until Obito turned his attention to the Akatsuki and neglected his arrangements in Amegakure that the Fourth Mizukage regained his senses. After realizing how many terrible things he had done, he suffered a mental breakdown and chose to take his own life.

That gave Mei Terumi an opening. She allied with the village's leadership and overthrew the Fourth Mizukage.

Otherwise, if Obito had remained in Kirigakure and kept the Fourth Mizukage under his firm control, Mei Terumi would never have had a chance to turn things around.

The moment she showed any sign of plotting, she would have been eliminated.

Obito's methods were simple, and highly effective.

Once he had unified power within the village,

he immediately took action.

First, he suppressed and selectively eliminated the smaller shinobi clans.

The spoils from destroying those clans were divided among other shinobi and clans without Kekkei Genkai.

This strengthened his authority and greatly elevated the Fourth Mizukage's standing.

At the same time, he promoted the theory that "Kekkei Genkai are a calamity," branding Kekkei Genkai shinobi as heretics and unifying the village's views.

Fear and hatred of Kekkei Genkai shinobi took hold.

They were openly discriminated against and stripped of their rights as villagers.

Their status as shinobi was revoked, among other measures.

These clans were branded as enemies.

He then used his absolute power and harsh repression to ensure that only his voice could be heard in the village.

And in this way, he gained the village's support.

After a series of early campaigns to suppress the clans,

Obito had gathered all of Kirigakure's power into the Mizukage's hands, and every member of the Anbu under his direct command was loyal to him.

The village's key institutions had been staffed with commoner shinobi, while all those with Kekkei Genkai had been driven out of the center of power.

This made those clans wary of the village.

That wariness deepened over time, eventually turning into betrayal.

This gave Obito an excuse to put down their rebellions.

Just like that,

more than a dozen shinobi clans vanished from Kirigakure's history over the course of a few years.

At that moment,

inside the Mizukage Building,

the Fourth Mizukage, Karatachi Yagura, leaned on a cane as he looked over a scroll in his hands.

Obito stood behind him, accompanied by Zetsu, who was dressed like a pitcher plant. The two stood on either side of the Fourth Mizukage like guardians.

"Let's pick the Yuki Clan as the next target."

"This clan holds an unusual position in Kirigakure. This time, let's have the Kaguya Clan make the first move. Those people have probably long been fed up with the Yuki Clan's aloof attitude."

Obito rubbed his hair. Impatience flashed across his face beneath the mask. He glanced at Karatachi Yagura with his single Sharingan, then lightly smacked him on the head.

This was the childlike Mizukage who had used a scheme to kill Rin.

He would make the Kirigakure that this Mizukage cared about most fall into ruin, and make him understand the pain of losing someone he loved.

After spending so long in Kirigakure, he felt sticky all over and thoroughly uncomfortable.

Having lived inland for so long, he still wasn't used to island life.

The damp air left him feeling clammy.

It seemed only blood could soothe the itch under his skin.

"The Kaguya Clan has already been given its orders. They're in position and can attack the Yuki Clan at any time."

"Meanwhile, Nagato has unified the Land of Rain. He'll begin his operation before long. Once things are settled, you'll need to go there."

Black Zetsu reminded him.

They had orchestrated Yahiko's death, and after more than three years, Nagato had finally gone completely dark. He had killed Hanzo the Salamander and taken control of all of Amegakure.

Obito was still caught up in this game of make-believe.

He had wasted a lot of time.

If he had devoted a little more effort to the Land of Rain, Nagato wouldn't have taken this long to unite Amegakure.

That had delayed the Akatsuki's expansion plans until now.

"He's that slow? I thought he could take care of that old man Hanzo before the Nine-Tails Incident. I didn't expect it to take nearly a year longer to get it done."

"The Akatsuki didn't have enough people to begin with, especially when it came to top-tier fighters. They were nowhere near the level of the great shinobi villages."

"Have Nagato bring in new blood as soon as possible."

Obito said in a drawn-out voice.

Nagato's slow progress had left him incredibly bored. All he could do was play around in Kirigakure and watch the bloody slaughter in each year's Bloody Mist Village trials to pass the time.

The trials were like gladiatorial contests, and they were pretty entertaining to watch.

Especially when he personally crushed the Kirigakure prodigies who performed well in the Bloody Mist Village trials.

That gave him an even greater thrill of destruction.

"Understood."

White Zetsu replied, relaying the suggestion to Nagato through one of his clones.

"Obito, shouldn't we place some people in the Akatsuki as well?"

Black Zetsu reminded him.

"Otherwise, it'll be difficult for us to keep the Akatsuki under our control."

Obito heard him and nodded thoughtfully.

"Do you have anyone in mind?"

"Not long ago, there was an upheaval in Konoha. Orochimaru, one of the Sannin, defected and became a wanted S-rank missing-nin. He might be someone we can recruit."

White Zetsu promptly replied.

"Orochimaru defected?"

Obito said in surprise.

"That's a major blow to Konoha! If I went there again now, do you think I could snatch the Nine-Tails?"

He looked at Black Zetsu and lightly pinched the edge of his robe, hesitating.

"Unlikely. Konoha has surely tightened its guard around the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. And even if you managed to get your hands on the Nine-Tails now, you'd only expose your whereabouts and make Nagato suspicious."

Black Zetsu pondered for a moment before answering. His dark face showed no emotion, but inside, he suddenly tensed.

He was worried that Obito's reckless behavior might interfere with his plans.

In fact,

Black Zetsu had noticed that Obito had been rather gloomy lately. If White Zetsu's carefree personality hadn't influenced him, he would probably have been planning to slaughter everyone in Kirigakure by now.

Instead of turning the Bloody Mist Village into some kind of game.

Even after personally killing the Fourth Hokage and his wife, he still refused to let it go!

"Is that so? Then forget it. Orochimaru is strong, and he does seem worth looking into."

"White Zetsu, if you notice Orochimaru's whereabouts, tell me right away."

Obito released the edge of his robe and relaxed again.

"Oh, right. Another Uchiha clan member, Uchiha Ao, defected along with Orochimaru. He's currently in the Land of Water, less than a hundred miles from Kirigakure."

Hearing this instruction, White Zetsu suddenly remembered something and added.

When Obito heard the name Uchiha Ao,

his otherwise calm body suddenly jolted.

A snot-nosed little brat's face surfaced in his mind.