The Neutral Faction's Importance

"Mangetsu, may we speak?"

An old man appeared beside Hōzuki Mangetsu; it was Harusame, the master of the Six-Tails jinchuriki.

"Certainly!"

Hōzuki Mangetsu smiled.

He understood this old man quite well.

In the Blood Mist Village, where Mist Ninja were emotionally detached and fratricide or master-disciple betrayal were common occurrences, this Harusame before him was an exception. He was one of the few who possessed genuine emotion.

He remembered from the plot that he had been very kind to his disciple, the Six-Tails Utakata, even going so far as to risk using forbidden techniques to try and free Utakata from his suffering, only to end up dying at his disciple's hands.

"Mangetsu, which side are you on?"

Harusame asked suddenly.

As an elder of Kirigakure, he was very clear on the history of the Mist Ninja.

The current Kirigakure was divided into two factions: the commoner faction led by Suikazan Fuguki, and the noble clan faction led by Terumi Mei.

When Kirigakure was founded, almost all power was held by a few major clans. This reached its peak during the time of the Second Hokage, when they controlled the majority of resources and squeezed the living space of commoner ninja, sparking intense dissatisfaction from the lower ranks.

This dissatisfaction accumulated to a certain point and soon turned into a raging inferno.

The Second Hokage died together with the Tsuchikage without designating a successor. The major clans were all restless, fighting fiercely for the position of Mizukage, and the village fell into chaos.

At this time, the Third Mizukage rose to power, seizing the position of Mizukage while the major clans were both weakened and exhausted.

The Third was also the first commoner Mizukage in the village's history.

To consolidate his rule, the Third immediately implemented the Blood Mist policy upon taking office, ushering in the Bloody Mist Era of Kirigakure.

The core of the Blood Mist policy was the theory of strength above all else.

Previously, the resources of the Mist Ninja village were monopolized by the major clans, and talent selection prioritized those from within their own ranks, leaving very limited space for commoner ninja.

As a commoner ninja himself, the Third understood this drawback clearly, so he broke with convention, reducing the criteria for talent selection from family background, reputation, and strength down to a single metric—strength alone.

As long as you possessed strength, you could stand out from the selection process and even become part of the village's high command.

As long as you had the strength, you could completely defy the major clans and stand above them.

This was an opportunity for a grassroots rise.

The Seven Ninja Swordsmen were established based on this selection system. Only those who excelled in the village's trials could enter the ranks of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen.

Therefore, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were a symbol of strength.

Once the Third's Blood Mist policy was released, it immediately gained the support of commoner ninja, and the Third thus became the Mizukage with the highest approval rating in history.

During the Bloody Mist Era, the major clans suffered heavy losses, while commoner ninja rose in the wake of the trend, becoming an important force in the village.

After they took power, the first thing they did was move against the major clans in the village; they had been suppressed miserably for all those years, and now they could finally take their revenge.

Therefore, with the tacit approval of the Third, commoner ninja launched a frantic retaliation against the major clans, and a large number of noble families were destroyed during the Bloody Mist Era.

This phenomenon continued until the Fourth Mizukage took office.

In recent years, the blood mist had slowly dissipated, and the major clans had gradually regained their vitality.

However, the grievances between the two sides over the past few decades were not so easily resolved, and today they were only intensifying.

Suikazan Fuguki was the representative of the commoner faction, and his subordinates were almost exclusively commoner ninja. For example, Kisame and Zabuza were elites among the commoner ninja, and their hands were stained with the blood of the major clans.

Especially Zabuza, who had slaughtered all of his classmates alone upon graduation, and the vast majority of those people were children of major clans.

The grievances between the two sides were ready to explode at any moment.

Regarding this matter, Hōzuki Mangetsu was also very clear; the Hozuki Clan had also been a victim of the Bloody Mist Era, and the clan that once possessed the strongest Hydrification Technique had now fallen into decline.

Technically, Hōzuki Mangetsu should have stood on the side of the major clans, but their special relationship with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen gave them other options.

In fact, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were not the Third's original creation; they had appeared as early as the time of the Second, when they were called the Mizukage Guard, and were basically composed of elites from the Hozuki Clan. It was only later, as the Hozuki Clan gradually declined, that the Seven Ninja Swords fell into the hands of outsiders.

The current Seven Ninja Swordsmen were no longer the private property of the Hozuki Clan, but the Hozuki Clan still held an extremely special sentiment toward them.

That was why the Hozuki brothers were so obsessed with collecting the seven blades.

Looking at this alone, they also had reason to stand on the side of the commoner ninja.

"I only stand on the side of the village! To survive among the Five Great Nations, we must rely on everyone's strength."

Hōzuki Mangetsu said sincerely.

Hearing this, a flash of excitement suddenly crossed Harusame's eyes.

"Well said!"

He pushed up his glasses and sighed: "Kirigakure is the weakest among the Five Great Nations; if it weren't for the surrounding seas, it would have been engulfed by the flames of war long ago. To change this status quo, we must rely on everyone's strength. Mangetsu, that you can think this way makes us old neutralists truly relieved."

The neutral faction was steady and prudent; they were neither as bellicose and extreme as the commoner ninja, nor as conservative and rigid as the noble clan ninja. They were the group that truly considered the interests of the village.

The struggle between Suikazan Fuguki and Terumi Mei was, to put it plainly, a fight for control of the village between the commoner class and the noble clan class.

No matter who won, it would cause great damage to the village's strength, which was why these neutral elders in the village had always hoped for a powerful figure to step forward and suppress both factions.

That was why the Three-Tails jinchuriki Yagura ascended to the position of Mizukage with absolute strength; the neutral faction had played a part in that.

In the early days of his tenure as Mizukage, Yagura had made some efforts toward reconciliation between the two factions, which had greatly comforted the neutral party.

However, for reasons unknown, Mizukage Yagura had become increasingly eccentric over the years, ignoring the disputes between the two sides and even fueling the flames.

As the conflict between the two sides intensified, the neutral party began to worry once again.

Thus, they started seeking a new objective, and through today's meeting, Hōzuki Mangetsu entered their field of vision.

Through his conversation with Hōzuki Mangetsu, Harusame felt very satisfied with his stance and began to harbor initial thoughts of recruiting Hōzuki Mangetsu.

"Mangetsu, when you have time, come sit with this old man. Also, I would like to introduce a junior to you."

Harusame said with a beaming smile.

Hōzuki Mangetsu was momentarily left between laughter and tears.

He knew that the junior Harusame spoke of was naturally the Six-Tails jinchuriki, Utakata. In terms of strength, the Six-Tails within his disciple was even superior to Yagura's Three-Tails, but Utakata could not yet fully control it; Harusame would eventually die due to the Six-Tails' rampage.

"I will!"

Hōzuki Mangetsu turned to leave, then suddenly looked back and said, "Mr. Harusame, this junior offers you one piece of advice: some things must be allowed to take their natural course; you must never force them."