Chapter 144: Heading to the Mist Ninja Village

"Whoa!"

Fresh blood seeped out from beneath the mask; Kushimaru Kuriarare's thin, tall body was almost broken in two by a single punch from Tsunade, his entire frame bent into an acute angle before he crashed into the city wall with a boom.

Three members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were already sprawled against the city wall, and after being struck by Kushimaru Kuriarare like this, the ill-fated wall finally collapsed with a crash.

As for the remaining four Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, looking at the imposing Tsunade before them, they only felt their hands and feet go cold and their heads about to explode.

Suikazan Fuguki drew a sharp breath and looked toward Biwa Juzo, only to see Biwa Juzo's gaze shifting toward him as well; the two exchanged a glance, both having developed the intention to retreat.

In reality, it wasn't just Suikazan Fuguki; Kurosuki Raiga, who held the Thunder Blade, and Hozuki Mangetsu, who held the Twin Swords Hiramekarei, although they were the type of standard Blood Mist ninja whose brains were filled with slaughter, they were not truly mindless!

Given Tsunade's strength right before them, whether or not she could use Wood Release didn't even matter anymore—in any case, they certainly couldn't beat her! The opponent could easily defeat them with Monster Strength Technique and physical prowess alone.

However, while the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist had the heart to retreat, they first had to get past Tsunade; the requirement Tsunade had received from Uchiha Feiyu was to capture them all in one fell swoop!

Being ninjas who had fought through a hundred battles and rolled through the battlefield many times, Tsunade saw the retreat intention of the remaining four Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist at a glance, a faint smile appearing on the corner of her mouth:

"Want to run... don't dream! Leave them all behind for me!"

"Wood Release—Tree Bind Flourishing Burial!"

Unfortunately... a red light flashed in the eyes of the Anbu before them, causing Gari's heart to be greatly alarmed:

"Not good... it's the Uchiha Clan..."

Amidst a rumbling sound, countless massive trees grew from the earth; in the desperate eyes of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, the endless trees, like a towering green giant wave, lunged down directly upon them!

Tsunade let go of the tree vines and clapped her hands, asking a question; Uchiha Feiyu glanced at the unlucky seven, and several members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist who had taken Tsunade's punches were already breathing their last.

Uchiha Feiyu muttered a few words; he didn't care about the infighting between ninja villages, and hadn't even thought about that aspect—anyway, in his eyes, the entire Ninja World would soon become his vegetable garden, so he naturally wouldn't care about the current conflicts of these leeks.

"Let's go! We must retreat immediately!"

At this moment, Tsunade also walked over with her captives; the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were currently bound by a large net woven from tree vines, and at the front of the net, a long tree vine was held by Tsunade, dragging them along the ground as she moved forward.

"Alright, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist have all been captured alive by me; what should be done next?"

Regardless of what the Wood Release level of this Fifth Hokage actually was, it was clearly effortless to defeat ordinary Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and the Explosion Corps; being able to obtain such information was not considered returning empty-handed for these Rock Ninja.

"I wonder if she has Shadow-level strength now? If not, it doesn't matter; at worst, I'll engage in Dual Cultivation with her and feed her some Pills, and her strength will naturally soar by then."

"Leaf Anbu? What are you trying to do by blocking us? Does Konoha want to start a war with the Rock Ninja?"

Following a series of thumping sounds, the Rock Ninja's Explosion Corps was wiped out in an instant, all of them having their five senses stripped away by Uchiha Feiyu and collapsing to the ground.

Gari spoke while turning around, but just as he turned, he saw a Leaf ninja wearing an Anbu mask standing behind him.

"The Fifth Hokage has indeed awakened Wood Release... although I don't know if her Wood Release level can compare to the First Hokage, this is no longer something we can test."

"Let's give those few some emergency treatment first! When the time comes, I will use the God-Controlling Technique to turn them into my people; Mist Ninja... that Terumi Mei should be seventeen or eighteen years old now, right?"

"So long-winded; could this guy be taking me for a fool? Even an idiot can see you all have ill intentions!"

"Lord Gari! The chakra of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist has become extremely weak; I fear they are either heavily injured or sealed!"

Looking at the forest that had suddenly appeared in the distance and listening to the report from his sensory ninja, the Explosion Release ninja Gari did not hesitate to prepare to flee the scene with his Explosion Corps.

"We have to thank those fools of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist for scouting the path for us; otherwise, I reckon this Deep Forest Bloom would have fallen upon our heads."

"It only took five minutes from the start of the battle to the capture of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist! Fortunately, we didn't meddle; otherwise, even if we had joined forces with them, the end result would likely have been total annihilation."

Gari's expression sank slightly as he spoke in a low voice; if this were an ordinary Leaf Anbu, they might truly not have dared to start a war with them after being spoken to like that.

Because the Mist Ninja were far from the continent, no one knew what their current situation was; there were only vague rumors during the Ninja World War that the Third Mizukage had actually been controlled by Genjutsu for a long time, and that the awakened Third Mizukage wanted to end the Blood Mist Policy.

Uchiha Feiyu estimated that it was because he had killed Madara Uchiha that the Third Mizukage had awakened from the Genjutsu; because of this change, he couldn't use the original work as a reference for what the Mist Ninja Village was like now.

But whether the Third Mizukage or the Fourth Mizukage was in charge, it made no difference to Uchiha Feiyu; however, compared to the Third Mizukage, the Fourth Mizukage might be easier to handle.

After all, the Third Mizukage must have been terrified by the Genjutsu and would definitely have precautions in this regard, making it not very easy to have him die in a reasonable way; the Fourth Mizukage was a jinchuriki, and as long as there was an excuse of a Tailed Beast going berserk, he could be easily killed.

Controlling the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist beforehand was also a backup plan for Uchiha Feiyu; if the Third Mizukage was not yet dead and remained stubborn, he would let the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist rebel, and he would add a little something extra for them; he wouldn't worry about him not dying.

As for the Rock Ninja's Explosion Corps... Uchiha Feiyu glanced at them and said to Tsunade:

"Tsunade, leave these people to you! How do you plan to deal with them?"

"Leave them to me? If it were me, I would probably use these people to make some interest exchanges with the Rock Ninja Village!"

Tsunade pondered for a moment and gave an answer that best fit her current status; Uchiha Feiyu nodded slightly, not caring what these guys could be exchanged for, and said directly:

"Then I'll leave it to you, Tsunade... By the way, these guys should possess the Explosion Release Bloodline Limit, right?"

Uchiha Feiyu suddenly remembered this question, and Tsunade answered it very carefully:

"The Rock Ninja's Explosion Corps... their Explosion Release Bloodline Limits mostly have some defects; it seems that except for Gari, others must use some external objects to use the Explosion Release Bloodline Limit."

"Using external objects, huh..."

Hearing Tsunade's words, Uchiha Feiyu immediately thought of a certain artist, Deidara; Deidara's Explosion Release used pure clay as an external object, but this guy played with Explosive Clay in such a fancy way that it certainly couldn't be compared to ordinary members of the Explosion Corps.

Even the leader of this Explosion Corps, Gari, whose Explosion Release Bloodline Limit was flawless, was far behind Deidara; even an ordinary Shadow-level ninja, if they weren't proficient in Lightning Release, a restraining ninja art, would definitely not be Deidara's opponent.

Deidara's performance perfectly illustrated what it meant to have no perfect ninja art, only perfect people; however, it was clear that the other ninjas of the Explosion Corps certainly didn't have such talent and aptitude, so Uchiha Feiyu still turned his gaze toward Gari.

In the past, if Uchiha Feiyu wanted to awaken a release-type Bloodline Limit, he had to use the souls of those Bloodline Limit ninjas; but now, he was also a Six Paths Level ninja, so for ordinary synthetic Bloodline Limits, as long as he knew the cultivation method, he could cultivate them after tinkering a bit.

With his level of Genjutsu, wanting to dig the cultivation method out of Gari's head was also an effortless matter.

Three days later, Uchiha Feiyu and the others finally returned to Konoha; as for the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and the Explosion Corps, they had long since been sent to prison by Uchiha Feiyu using the Flying Thunder God Technique.

After returning to Konoha, Tsunade held a ceremony for succeeding as Hokage; although she was originally the Acting Hokage, her name was not justified and her position was not proper, so she hadn't held a ceremony, and this time it just happened to be made up.

The ceremony was held during the day, and at night, her gambling addiction flared up again, and she played a round with Uchiha Feiyu; eventually, after going through life and death several times and breaking ten "zheng" characters on her body, she finally quieted down completely.

Staying in Konoha for seven or eight days, Uchiha Feiyu played with his Konoha Cauldron a few times, and after arranging tasks for Tsunade, he took the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and headed to the Mist Ninja Village, preparing to continue implementing his plan.

The Mist Ninja Village was isolated overseas, having more than enough for defense but insufficient for offense; it was the only one among the Five Great Shinobi Villages that had never been invaded by other villages.

It was truly not an easy task for ordinary ninjas to pass through the vast, boundless ocean and sneak into the Land of Water; after all, without land connections, as long as the Land of Water did a good job of inspecting ships, the vast majority of ordinary ninjas would be helpless.

However, Uchiha Feiyu was naturally not among the ranks of ordinary ninjas, and those ninjas inspecting at the docks of the Land of Water could not possibly discover Uchiha Feiyu's tracks.

Not to mention that the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were famous and renowned; as soon as these seven people got off the ship, the inspecting ninjas respectfully stepped aside.

Unlike the atmosphere of Konoha, the Konoha of the past, even if there was too much darkness at its roots, would absolutely never bring it out into the open.

Even for Danzō, he was clear that the darkness of Root could not be exposed to the sunlight; after becoming the 5.5th Hokage, he still yearned for the light, rather than adhering to the simple and brutal methods of Root.

However, here in the Mist Ninja Village, it is basically an enlarged version of Root; the mere fact that one must kill their closest companion to graduate is filled with the cold-blooded style of Root.

What is even more miserable is that Root at least has Shimura Danzo as the boss, and the other Root ninja only need to obey his orders alone, but the Mist Ninja Village is full of factions and is incomparably chaotic.

Therefore, here in the Mist Ninja Village, it is entirely survival of the fittest; there are simply no rules, or rather, whoever has the biggest fist is the true rule!

In the past, if the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist were unhappy with the inspecting ninja, they would just chop him down, and that would at most be a minor matter receiving some punishment; if the reason found was good enough, they wouldn't even receive any punishment at all.

After the Third Mizukage woke up from the Genjutsu, he was determined to innovate and strove to reform, but after all, the deep-rooted problems of decades were hard to reverse; in such a short time, these ordinary ninja had not changed their concepts at all, so how would they dare to inspect the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist?

Soon, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist returned to the gate of the Mist Ninja Village. Under the Genjutsu control of Uchiha Feiyu, the seven performed as usual. The gate-guarding ninja did not dare to stop these seven masters to begin with, and without finding any problems, they directly let the seven enter the Mist Ninja Village.

"The current Mist Ninja is still the Third Mizukage... come to think of it, after this guy's Genjutsu was broken, he actually didn't abdicate?"

"The policies of Lord Third Mizukage have actually indeed increased some of the strength of the Mist Ninja Village, and he was only subjected to a little suggestion, so he leaned toward the Blood Mist Policy; in reality, most of his decisions had no problems."

"If the Third Mizukage were truly completely brainless, then Elder Yuanshi and the many Bloodline Families in the village would have probably long since found ways to force him to step down!"

The one respectfully answering Uchiha Feiyu's question was none other than Suikazan Fuguki, the wielder of the Samehada, who vaguely occupied the center position among the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. Besides his strength being a notch stronger than the other Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, the most important thing was his delicate mind, which was completely different from his fat appearance.

Since the atmosphere of the Mist Ninja Village is similar to that of Root, the problems faced are naturally similar; ninja who can hack people are a dime a dozen, but you cannot find one with a brain in a hundred, and someone like Suikazan Fuguki who can both fight and has a brain is even rarer.

For example, the other members of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist, while Uchiha Feiyu and Suikazan Fuguki were talking, all revealed clear and stupid gazes; only Biwa Juzo and that ninja from the Hozuki Clan were slightly better.

"So that's how it is..."

Uchiha Feiyu nodded. Clearly, compared to the future, the brainless approach of Uchiha Obito for the sake of venting personal anger, Madara Uchiha was much more rational; although he created the atmosphere of the Blood Mist to control the Mist Ninja Village, he did not intend to weaken the strength of the Mist Ninja Village.

"It seems that although the policies implemented by the Third Mizukage have some problems, he still has a certain amount of prestige in your village..."

"That is indeed the case, and the Third Mizukage is also the strongest ninja in our village; being able to push through the Blood Mist Policy is in itself because of his powerful strength!"

Powerful strength, prestige, or at least a fierce reputation that can suppress the entire Ninja Village... so this guy should die even more; if this guy doesn't die, how can the person he favors take the position?

(End of this chapter)