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From the end of the First Great Ninja War to now, the Third Mizukage has held power for decades.
Like Onoki next door in Iwagakure, who became the Third Tsuchikage after the Second’s death — his tenure ranks among the longest in the entire shinobi world.
But there’s one key difference between the Third Mizukage and Onoki: age.
The Third Mizukage is a full generation older than Onoki.
Yagura remembered that during the Warring States period, Onoki and the Second Tsuchikage Mu were intercepted by Madara Uchiha on their way to Konoha and thoroughly beaten.
The future Third Tsuchikage Onoki, seventy-something years old during the Fourth Great Ninja War — was just a teenager back then.
Madara Uchiha had said bluntly: “What adult would get angry at a child?”
But in that same era, the Third Mizukage was already an adult, looking about the same age as the Second Hokage and the other escorts.
Yagura did the math.
Assuming the Third Mizukage is only 10 years older than Onoki, and Onoki is roughly 60 now, that puts the Third Mizukage at 70 or 80 years old.
“Holy shit… holy shit…”
Yagura had seen the Third Mizukage before.
One look at his face told you the old bastard was no spring chicken, but this was the first time he’d actually calculated the man’s age.
It caught him off guard.
But when his gaze fell back on the four characters “Village of the Bloody Mist” in the book’s first line, Yagura curled his lip in disgust.
“An old monster who lived that long and didn’t do a single good thing. Same type as those two advisors in Konoha and their 5.5th Hokage.”
If only Gengetsu Hozuki hadn’t been so eager to court death.
If he’d just stayed in the village and lived a bit longer.
The isolation policy started with him, true, but that policy had both downsides and benefits.
The biggest benefit: it protected Kirigakure ninja intelligence, making leaks extremely difficult.
Before the late-stage era of giant Rasengan and Gundam battles, intelligence was the single most critical element in shinobi combat.
No exaggeration.
That’s why every village established cryptanalysis units, to protect their own intelligence from leaking and crack other villages’ codes.
Just how important is intelligence to a ninja?
Generally speaking, ninja combat relies on catching opponents off guard.
Pull out a trump card they don’t know about and deliver a one-hit kill.
A few battles from the original series illustrate the point perfectly.
Deidara and Sasori of the Red Sand captured Gaara.
Kankuro pursued and encountered Sasori.
Every puppet Kankuro brought was made by Sasori, who knew their techniques inside and out.
Showing off in front of a master.
Kankuro was dealt with effortlessly.
Kisame Hoshigaki, the most ninja-like of ninjas.
During his Mist days, his wetwork involved killing comrades who might leak intelligence.
On the eve of the Fourth War, after Might Guy defeated him, he committed suicide to prevent his memories from being read.
Jiraiya, one of the Sannin, risked his life infiltrating Amegakure but was defeated and killed by the Six Paths of Pain, mechanisms completely unknown to him.
Before dying, he inscribed what intelligence he’d gathered about Pain onto a toad’s back in code and sent it away.
If Jiraiya had known in advance there were six Pains and what techniques each possessed, even if he couldn’t win, he could have at least escaped.
When all of a ninja’s techniques are fully known by the enemy, and countermeasures have been designed for every single one, that ninja’s death is near.
Unless there’s an absolute power gap between combatants.
Anyway.
Back to the Third Mizukage and his Village of the Bloody Mist.
The history book provided a brief introduction to the Bloody Mist policies.
Core tenet: cultivate elite ninjas.
The weak are unworthy of becoming Mist ninja.
Reduce the ninja force to cut expenses.
This tenet ran through a Mist ninja’s entire life.
Starting from the Academy.
After 6 years of study, if a Kirigakure Academy student wanted to graduate, they first had to kill the two teammates they’d spent those 6 years with during the graduation exam.
Those 6 years of “study” weren’t like the Konoha Twelve reading books and skipping class.
It was genuine training in every ninja skill: hand seals, ninja tools, taijutsu, ninjutsu, genjutsu.
Each year required completing a set number of missions.
Before the graduation exam, your hands needed to be stained with blood.
Graduating from the Academy was just the beginning.
After officially becoming a Mist ninja, whether Genin, Chunin, or Jonin, you had a quota of missions to complete each year.
Fail to meet it by year’s end?
Best case: double the missions next year or demotion.
Worst case: stripped of ninja status or killed.
Then there were the promotion exams.
Kirigakure had always been isolationist.
To prevent leaking their own intelligence, they never jointly held Chunin or Jonin Exams with other villages.
That was the Second Mizukage’s fault.
But the mortality rate of the internally held exams was horrifyingly high.
That was the Third Mizukage’s fault.
Every Jonin in Kirigakure inevitably had hands stained with former comrades’ blood.
“During the Second Great Ninja War, Hanzo of the Salamander, the ‘Demigod’ leader of Amegakure, launched attacks on Sunagakure, Iwagakure, and Konoha on grounds of unequal resource distribution and balancing the ninja world’s powers.”
Yagura clicked his tongue in amazement.
Damn.
One small village declared war on three of the Five Great Nations.
And the key point: this Hanzo of the Salamander didn’t even lose.
“In battle with Konoha, Hanzo of the Salamander defeated them and bestowed upon Jiraiya, Tsunade, and Orochimaru the title ‘Sannin.’ This guy beat them, then gave them a title saying how awesome they were. What a troll.”
“Kirigakure, isolated on its islands, remained untouched by war. The Third Mizukage continued smoothly implementing Bloody Mist policies, cultivating powerful ninjas for the village. The new generation of Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist earned a ferocious reputation throughout the shinobi world.”
New generation of Seven Ninja Swordsmen?
Yagura figured it probably had nothing to do with Zabuza Momochi.
Zabuza’s the same age as Kakashi, probably around 10 now.
Just a kid.
“Oh, right.”
A Conan-style laser effect flashed through his mind.
Yagura smacked his palm.
“Those seven who only appeared for a few frames. The ones Might Guy’s dad kicked apart after opening the Eight Gates.”
Yagura forgot exactly how many died.
He only remembered a few were later resurrected by Kabuto Yakushi during the Fourth War.
But after that, the so-called Seven Ninja Swordsmen were never fully assembled again.
From the Second Great Ninja War’s end to now, there’s basically nothing to say about the history.
Mostly world events.
Kirigakure’s records amount to a few sparse lines.
They might as well have written “Third Mizukage slept well tonight.”
Kirigakure was like a disconnected offline gamer, head buried in its own village, solo grinding development.
And the development didn’t even go well.
The Seven Ninja Swordsmen, hyped to be so terrifyingly awesome, later got crippled by a single Might Duy.
You can’t say those seven were weak.
Might Duy was cheating, after all.
But look at what happened after.
Yagura got angry just thinking about it and slammed the book shut.
The Bloody Mist cultivated powerhouses, undeniable.
But…
The Tailless Tailed Beast, Kisame Hoshigaki?
Fled.
The Six-Tails Jinchuriki, Utakata?
Fled.
The Demon of the Hidden Mist, Zabuza Momochi?
Fled.
And him, the Three-Tails Jinchuriki and Fourth Mizukage?
Controlled by the enemy the Third Mizukage’s Three-Tails plan created, Obito Uchiha, using genjutsu, wrecking Kirigakure even further.
The Hozuki clan, the Ice Release Yuki clan, the Shikotsumyaku Kaguya clan — all vanished.
The only saving grace is Mei Terumi.
She has the strength and ability to serve as Fifth Mizukage and pulled Kirigakure back from the brink.
But the generation after Mei?
Total wipeout.
The strongest in the entire village was Chojuro.
➤ Next: The Karatachi Clan