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The Mizukage office was quiet.
The Third Mizukage handled paperwork while Elder Master Yuan sat with his eyes closed, resting.
The returning Anbu made enough noise that the Third Mizukage noticed immediately.
He glanced at the trio.
Three had left.
Four should have returned.
There were still only three.
His frown deepened.
“Where is he?”
Beneath the cat mask, the Anbu’s expression was strained.
“Yagura Karatachi… he’s following behind us.”
His tone lacked the cool composure expected of Anbu.
The moment the words left his mouth, the cat-masked ninja recognized his mistake.
He shut his mouth and lowered his head.
The Third Mizukage’s displeasure intensified.
He opened his mouth to deliver a reprimand when a chakra signature appeared outside the door.
Not particularly strong, but present.
“Huff… hah…”
A child’s voice?
The Third Mizukage raised an eyebrow.
His gaze swept toward the shadow on the door.
Yagura withdrew his Lightning Release chakra and caught his breath, staring at the half-open door.
The nameplate on the wall outside wasn’t large.
The color wasn’t eye-catching either.
But those five simple characters made his heart pound with excitement and nerves.
He stepped through.
Yagura had planned to put on airs first, maybe observe the office decor with calculated interest.
The instant he entered, his gaze locked onto the old man seated at the desk directly opposite the door.
The man was already looking at him.
This wasn’t the young, squinty-eyed face Yagura remembered from the anime, the face from the first Five Kage Summit in his previous life.
Forty years had passed since then.
The face beneath the Mizukage hat looked ancient.
The robes hung loose on a frame that seemed barely able to support them.
But his eyes were sharper than anyone Yagura had ever seen.
Those eyes were sizing him up right now, locked onto him with unnerving focus.
This is him.
The Third Mizukage.
Yagura met that stare head-on.
Nervousness, excitement, confusion, curiosity—all of it tangled together in his gaze.
The Third Mizukage looked mildly surprised by the reaction.
This brat… he’s no ordinary brat.
Several seconds of silence.
No one moved.
The Third Mizukage spoke first.
He crossed his hands on the desk.
“You are Yagura Karatachi?”
Yagura’s face went stiff and serious in a way that felt deeply unnatural even to him.
“Yes, Third-sama.”
The Third Mizukage grunted acknowledgment.
Not brought by the three Anbu.
Following behind them.
Hard to believe, but the Third Mizukage wanted confirmation from Yagura’s mouth and from the Anbu themselves.
His gaze swept toward the three who had moved to stand aside.
They gave slight nods.
“…”
Those deep, unfathomable eyes pinned Yagura in place.
He couldn’t read the old man at all.
An unprecedented sense of the unknown settled over him.
Even the day he’d discovered he’d come to this world, the uncertainty about the future hadn’t felt this intense.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Yagura’s body tensed involuntarily.
Cold sweat slid down from his scalp.
Seeing that reaction, the three Anbu felt the same thought simultaneously: So this kid isn’t actually a monster.
They’d been shocked when they realized Yagura had kept up with their speed.
Again and again.
The kid was seven years old.
His speed matched a jonin.
An Anbu jonin.
Who would believe that?
The standoff lasted a few more seconds.
“Hah…”
Yagura exhaled slowly.
He swallowed the words that had nearly reached his lips.
Yes, I followed behind them to get here.
What am I panicking for?
If he gave such a boring answer and Mangetsu found out, he’d lose all face as the boss.
Operating on the principle that as long as he wasn’t embarrassed, the embarrassment belonged to someone else, Yagura steeled himself and stepped forward.
Five steps.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
He stopped directly in front of the Third Mizukage’s desk, raised his head, and met those deep-set eyes beneath the hat.
What Yagura did next made everyone present nearly pop their eyes out of their sockets.
“Yare yare yare. Third-sama, as expected of our village’s Anbu, way stronger than ordinary ninja. Took real effort to keep up.”
“Ne, ne, Third-sama. That Mizukage seat looks pretty nice. You’ve been sitting in it for decades now.”
Yagura grinned with shameless audacity.
“I want to sit in it too. Think you could let me have it in the future? Third-sama.”
?!
The three Anbu and Elder Master Yuan felt like 600 billion explosive tags had detonated in their heads simultaneously.
Has this brat lost his mind?!
Does he know who he’s talking to?!
This wasn’t Konoha, where the Third Hokage would pat a child’s head and encourage their dream of becoming Hokage.
This was the Hidden Mist Village.
“I see.”
If a normal adult ninja had said those words, the Third Mizukage would have already ordered the Anbu to drag him out and execute him.
But this was a seven-year-old child. Enjoying the story? Read on at g.com.
What adult gets genuinely angry at a child?
The Third Mizukage treated it as humoring a kid.
Though mildly displeased, he let it pass with a faint smile.
“So that’s why you call me Third-sama, is it, Karatachi brat.”
Having escaped consequences, Yagura’s confidence swelled.
“Teal hair, purple eyes. My name’s Yagura. Remember it.”
…What a mess.
Are all the kids in the Hidden Mist like this nowadays?
The Third Mizukage sensed an unbridgeable generational gap between himself and Yagura.
Trying to keep up felt exhausting.
He had no time or energy to engage with a small child anyway.
He cut straight to the point.
“Do you know why I called you here?”
“The Three-Tails jinchuriki.”
Yagura’s certainty surprised him slightly.
“Do you know what being a tailed beast jinchuriki means?”
“To the village, a tailed beast is a weapon of war. Only with a jinchuriki can the weapon be controlled and used by the village.”
Yagura clenched his fist.
His voice rang with determination.
“For me personally, the tailed beast is power. If I can master the tailed beast’s power, I can become even stronger!”
He didn’t just know the significance of tailed beasts.
He knew far too much.
Like being given a test with a perfect score of 100 and handing in an answer worth 150.
The score was capped at 100 only because that was the paper’s limit.
The Third Mizukage’s interest sharpened.
“You want to master the tailed beast’s power. Small stature, big talk. In history, only Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha accomplished that.”
The Third Mizukage admitted to himself that this little one had won him over.
It had been a long time since he’d felt this spark from someone.
An itch.
His heart itched like 10,000 ants crawling across it.
At this moment, another thought stirred in the Third Mizukage’s mind.
A greedy thought.
Why hadn’t Yagura been born a few years earlier?
He had a premonition.
He could smell the restless scent in the air lately.
The Third Shinobi World War would break out within the next few years.
If Yagura were just a few years older, he would be a major combat asset for the Hidden Mist.
“One week from now, I’ll arrange for the sealing squad to prepare for sealing the tailed beast.”
No time to lose.
Whether this brat could ultimately master the tailed beast’s power as he claimed or not, a tailed beast jinchuriki would still serve as a weapon of war.
The Third Mizukage made his decision with lightning efficiency.
He cast a chuckle-laden glance at the teal-haired brat who was small in body but large in presence.
“Don’t die, Fourth-sama.”
So hasty?
Yagura hadn’t quite processed it yet.
The Third Mizukage’s agreement had come far too quickly.
It left him slightly at a loss.
Still, it was a good thing.
Yagura mustered a brash, confident grin to meet the squinty-eyed old man’s gaze.
He enunciated every word with heavy emphasis, going head-to-head with the old codger.
“You’re the one who’d better not, Third-sama old-timer.”
➤ Next: Sealing the Three-Tails (1) — First Meeting with the Seven Ninja Swordsmen