News that Kusagakure had changed hands spread faster than the northwesterly winds of late autumn.
Within half a day, every nation's intelligence network in the Land of Grass was buzzing like a kicked hornets' nest.
The Six-Tails had appeared in Kusagakure, and a Tailed Beast Ball had blasted a hundred-meter breach outside the village. That detail appeared in nearly every intelligence report.
No one could ignore the destructive power of a Jinchūriki in Complete Tailed Beast Transformation.
Nor could anyone ignore the figure standing beside the Six-Tails—or the Hidden Mist ANBU behind him.
Yet the first to react was not one of the Land of Grass's neighbors, but Kirigakure, far away in the Land of Water.
That afternoon, the Mizukage Building issued a formal statement to every major ninja village in the Shinobi World.
The statement read as though it had been prepared in advance. Its wording was polite, but left no room for ambiguity.
"The Hidden Mist ANBU entered the Land of Grass to carry out an S-Rank rogue ninja retrieval mission."
"Utakata, formerly Kirigakure's Six-Tails Jinchuriki, left the village without authorization several years ago. Long-term tracking confirmed his presence near Mount Katsuragi in the Land of Grass."
"The ANBU personnel entered the Land of Grass solely to retrieve the Jinchūriki. The mission has now been completed."
"As for the change of power within Kusagakure, that is an internal matter. Kirigakure neither participated in nor interfered with it."
"If the Six-Tails' rampage caused civilian casualties or property damage in Kusagakure, Kirigakure will provide humanitarian compensation under the framework of the Five-Nation Joint Treaty."
Less than half an hour after the statement went out, the Mizukage's Office began receiving replies from the other ninja villages.
Once again, the first response came not from one of the Land of Grass's four