Chapter Text
Chapter 1 - Volume 1: Prequel
# Volume 1: Prequel
"During the Warring States period, the God of Shinobi Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha founded the Hidden Leaf Village on the most fertile land at the center of the ninja continent. Hashirama Senju became the First Hokage of the Land of Fire."
In a forest outside Kirigakure.
Yagura Karatachi lounged on a thick tree branch, a book propped against his bent knees as he flipped through the pages.
He'd swiped this history of the ninja world from the Karatachi household.
As he read, he translated the dense academic prose into something actually readable.
"Hashirama. Madara."
Yagura grinned to himself. "The other nations saw Hashirama's village system and thought, hey, that's pretty good. So they copied it. The Land of Lightning, where 80 percent of the country is mountains, built the Hidden Cloud Village. The Land of Earth, basically the same deal, built the Hidden Stone Village. The Land of Wind, which has nothing but sand and more sand, built the Hidden Sand Village."
"And the Land of Water, isolated on its islands away from the mainland, established Kirigakure under the First Mizukage, Byakuren."
This was Konoha Year 42.
One to two years before the Third Great Ninja War.
The history book covered major events from Kirigakure's founding to the present day.
In his previous life, Yagura had watched Naruto. He'd loved that shonen series throughout his childhood, though he'd only seen the anime once through.
Ask him about the basic worldbuilding, the plot, Konoha's main cast, even some important side characters? He could talk your ear off.
Throw in a couple beers and some snacks and it'd be even better.
But information about villages other than Konoha? The original anime barely touched them.
Especially Kirigakure. Kirigakure with its completely scrambled timeline and mountain of plot holes!
Yagura scratched his head.
He really needed to read up and figure out where the hell he'd landed.
"Kirigakure has long maintained a closed-border policy and the Village of the Bloody Mist policy."
The closed-border policy was self-explanatory. No outsiders in, no villagers out.
The Bloody Mist policy was Kirigakure's overarching directive, covering every aspect of village operations.
The Mizukage's will made concrete. Take the Ninja Academy, for example. To graduate from Kirigakure's Academy, you had to kill the teammate you'd trained alongside day after day.
This Bloody Mist policy had caused irreparable damage to Kirigakure!
At first, Yagura had assumed like everyone else that the Bloody Mist policy was something Obito Uchiha implemented after using genjutsu to control the Fourth Mizukage Yagura.
So why would Obito do that? Did he have some massive grudge against Kirigakure?
Actually, yes.
During the Third Great Ninja War in canon, Kirigakure ninja sealed the Three-Tails into Rin Nohara's body.
The sealing jutsu was designed like this: the moment Rin returned to Konoha, the Three-Tails would explode out of her and destroy the village in one devastating blow. Instant victory in the Third War!
Beautiful plan. Brutal reality.
To prevent the Three-Tails from destroying Konoha, Rin chose suicide. She threw herself onto Kakashi Hatake's Lightning Blade.
When a jinchuriki dies, the tailed beast vanishes. Kirigakure's Three-Tails gambit failed completely.
And it got worse.
Under the machinations of Madara Uchiha and Zetsu, Obito witnessed Rin's suicide firsthand. He fell into darkness completely.
After that, this former Konoha chunin demonstrated exactly what "a hundred times stronger after corruption" meant. He corrupted Nagato Uzumaki, used genjutsu to control the Mizukage and devastate Kirigakure, unleashed the Nine-Tails to ravage Konoha, launched the Fourth Great Ninja War, and on and on.
"Ugh."
Thinking about this trainwreck of a plot, Yagura sighed heavily. The future looked pitch black.
Because the body he'd transmigrated into wasn't some random background character. It was that exact miserable bastard Obito would later control with genjutsu!
Yagura Karatachi: Ahem. Allow me to introduce myself properly. Before you stands the future Three-Tails jinchuriki, the Fourth Mizukage Yagura! One of the rarest jinchuriki in ninja history capable of perfectly controlling a tailed beast!
Well. Future.
Right now, Yagura wasn't a jinchuriki or the Mizukage. He wasn't even a ninja yet. Just a prospective student at Kirigakure's Ninja Academy.
As far as Yagura knew, that giant turtle Isobu was still swimming around in some lake in the Land of Water.
Kirigakure's current Mizukage was the Third Mizukage. A Kage who only got a face reveal in canon and the databooks.
No name. No birth or death dates. No clear record of his policies.
But one thing was written crystal clear in Kirigakure's history books: the Bloody Mist policy was implemented by the Third Mizukage!
"Several years after Kirigakure's founding, the ninja world was at peace. The First Mizukage Byakuren attended the Five Kage Summit hosted by the First Hokage Hashirama Senju. During the summit, the Third Mizukage served as his bodyguard."
"After the First Mizukage's death, he'd designated the current Third Mizukage as his successor. But a genius emerged from nowhere: Gengetsu Hozuki, head of the Hozuki clan. Gengetsu defeated the Third Mizukage and became the Second Mizukage instead."
Every village had different systems for selecting their Kage.
Take Konoha. The First Hokage Hashirama Senju's younger brother Tobirama became Second Hokage. The Second Hokage's student Hiruzen Sarutobi became Third Hokage. Strength mattered, but connections mattered more.
In Kirigakure, Kage selection was brutally simple. If you were the strongest, you became Mizukage. Connections and background meant nothing.
The Third Mizukage was third instead of second because someone beat him down.
The Second and Third Mizukage were polar opposites in background.
Behind the Second Mizukage stood the Hozuki clan, Kirigakure's largest and oldest family.
The Third Mizukage was common-born. He'd risen through exceptional talent and strength, catching the First Mizukage Byakuren's eye and becoming his bodyguard.
He'd been a lock for Second Mizukage. Then Gengetsu Hozuki appeared out of nowhere.
Just reading the text, Yagura could feel how bitter the Third Mizukage must have been.
"Like the First Mizukage, Gengetsu Hozuki followed the advanced Leaf Village's example. The Second Hokage built a Ninja Academy, so he built one too. The Second Hokage established the Leaf ANBU and Cryptanalysis Team, so he established a Mist ANBU and Cryptanalysis Team."
Gengetsu hadn't done anything wrong there.
The Second Hokage was smart.
Can't innovate? Copy the top student's homework!
"Gengetsu Hozuki established the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. During his term, he sealed off Kirigakure to protect vital village intelligence from leaking."
"When the First Great Ninja War broke out, Gengetsu led an elite Mist strike force to raid the Land of Earth. He died in mutual destruction with the Second Tsuchikage Mu of Iwagakure. The Third Mizukage succeeded him, negotiated peace with the Third Tsuchikage Onoki, and withdrew from the war."
Except for that final bizarre move attacking the Land of Earth, Yagura couldn't understand what Gengetsu had been thinking.
Maybe it was carefully calculated. Maybe that battle maniac just got a hot-blooded urge to fight the Second Tsuchikage.
Either way, during Gengetsu Hozuki's brief tenure as Mizukage, his achievements outweighed his mistakes. The only tragedy was dying too young.
Next came the Third Mizukage.
Yagura turned to the next section. His expression darkened.
The first line read: "The Third Mizukage implemented the Bloody Mist."