The Neutral Faction's Attention

"Hey, Mangetsu, can we talk?"

An old man appeared beside Hozuki Mangetsu. It was Harusame, the mentor of the Six-Tails' jinchuriki.

"Sure!"

Hozuki Mangetsu smiled.

He knew the old man well.

The Mist Ninja of the Blood Mist Village were cold-hearted. Brothers killing brothers and students turning on their masters were everyday occurrences. But Harusame was an exception. He was one of the few who still had feelings.

In the original story, he had treated his student, Utakata, very well. He had even been willing to use a forbidden technique to free Utakata from his suffering. Unfortunately, he ended up dying at his student's hands.

"Mangetsu, which side are you on?"

Harusame suddenly asked.

He was an old hand in Kirigakure and knew the Mist Ninja's history well.

Kirigakure had split into two factions: the commoner faction led by Suikazan Fuguki, and the clan faction led by Terumi Mei.

When Kirigakure was founded, most of its power was in the hands of a few major clans. They reached the height of their influence under the Second Hokage, controlling most of the resources and squeezing commoner ninja out of any chance to survive. This sparked intense resentment among the lower ranks.

Once that resentment had built up enough, it quickly became a raging inferno.

The Second Hokage had died alongside the Tsuchikage without naming a successor. The great clans all began making their moves, fighting one another for the position of Mizukage and plunging the village into chaos.

At that point, the Third rose to power. He seized the position of Mizukage while the major clans were weakened from fighting each other.

The Third was also the first commoner to become Mizukage.

To consolidate his rule, he instituted the Blood Mist Policy as soon as he took office, ushering in the Bloody Mist Era in Kirigakure.

The core principle of the Blood Mist Policy was that strength was all that mattered.

Previously, the great clans had monopolized Kirigakure's resources and been given priority when selecting talent. Commoner ninja had already been left with very little room to advance.

As a commoner ninja himself, the Third understood this problem well. So he broke with tradition and reduced the criteria for selecting talent from three—family background, reputation, and ability—to just one: strength.

As long as you were strong, you could stand out in the selection process and even rise to the village's upper ranks.

If you had the strength, you could make your way up and stand above the great clans.

This was a chance for someone from humble origins to rise.

The Seven Ninja Swordsmen had been established under this selection system. Only those who excelled in the village's selection process could join their ranks.

That was why the Seven Ninja Swordsmen symbolized strength.

Once the Third introduced the Blood Mist Policy, commoner ninja immediately embraced it, making him the most popular Mizukage in history.

During the Bloody Mist Era, the great clans suffered heavy losses, while commoner ninja rose in power and became a major force in the village.

Once they took control, their first move was to go after the great clans. They had been brutally oppressed for years, and now they finally had their chance for revenge.

So, with the Third's tacit approval, commoner ninja launched a frenzied campaign of retribution against the great clans. Many of those clans were destroyed during the Bloody Mist Era.

This continued until the Fourth Hokage took office.

Only in recent years had the Blood Mist gradually lifted, allowing the great clans to slowly regain their strength.

But decades of resentment between the two sides were not so easily resolved. Now, their feud was growing ever more bitter.

Suikazan Fuguki represented the commoner faction. Nearly all his subordinates were commoner ninja. Kisame and Zabuza, for example, were both elite commoner ninja, and their hands were stained with the blood of the great clans.

Zabuza was especially notorious. When he graduated, he single-handedly slaughtered all the other students in his class, most of whom were children of the great clans.

The conflict between the two sides was on the verge of erupting.

Hōzuki Mangetsu knew all about this. The Hozuki Clan had also been a victim of the Bloody Mist Era. The strongest clan among the Mist Ninja, whose members possessed the Hydrification Technique, had now fallen into decline.

By rights, Hōzuki Mangetsu should have sided with the great clans. But his clan's special relationship with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen gave him another option.

In truth, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were not the Third's creation. They had first appeared under the Second Hokage, back when they were called the Mizukage Guard and were made up almost entirely of Hozuki Clan elites. But as the Hozuki Clan gradually declined, the Seven Ninja Swords fell into the hands of outsiders.

The Seven Ninja Swordsmen no longer belonged to the Hozuki Clan, but the clan still felt a deep attachment to them.

That was why the Hozuki brothers were so determined to collect all seven swords.

From that alone, they had reason to side with the commoner ninja.

"I'm only on the village's side! If we want to survive among the Five Great Nations, we have to rely on everyone's strength."

Hōzuki Mangetsu said earnestly.

At this, a flicker of excitement flashed in Harusame's eyes.

"Well said!"

He pushed up his glasses and sighed. "Kirigakure is the weakest of the Five Great Nations. If it weren't surrounded by the sea, it would have been caught up in war long ago. If we want to change that, we have to rely on everyone's strength. Mangetsu, hearing you say that makes us old neutralists so happy."

The Neutral Faction was cautious and level-headed. They were neither as belligerent and extreme as the commoner ninja nor as rigid and conservative as the great-clan ninja. They were the ones who truly had the village's interests at heart.

The struggle between Suikazan Fuguki and Terumi Mei was, in essence, a fight between the commoner class and the great clans for control of the village.

Whichever side won, the village's strength would suffer greatly. That was why the neutral elders had long hoped for a powerful figure to step forward and keep both factions in check.

The Three-Tails' jinchuriki, Yagura, had ascended to the position of Mizukage through sheer strength, and the Neutral Faction had helped make it happen.

Early in his time as Mizukage, Yagura had made an effort to reconcile the two sides, which had greatly reassured the neutralists.

But for some reason, in recent years, Mizukage Yagura had grown increasingly strange. He ignored the conflict between the two factions and even seemed to fan the flames.

As the two sides' conflict continued to escalate, the Neutral Faction grew worried again.

So they began looking for a new candidate, and after today's meeting, Hozuki Mangetsu had caught their attention.

After speaking with Hōzuki Mangetsu, Harusame was very pleased with his stance and began to consider drawing him into their faction.

"Mangetsu, come visit this old man sometime. I'll also introduce you to one of my juniors."

Harusame said with a kindly smile.

Hōzuki Mangetsu couldn't help but feel a little amused.

He knew that the junior Harusame meant was Utakata, the Six-Tails' jinchuriki. In terms of power, the Six-Tails inside his student was even stronger than Yagura's Three-Tails. But Utakata couldn't fully control it yet, and Harusame would eventually die when the Six-Tails went on a rampage.

"I will."

Hōzuki Mangetsu turned to leave, then suddenly looked back. "Mr. Harusame, let me offer you a word of advice. Some things have to take their natural course. You must never force them."