Chapter 3

The purple-masked Mist Anbu said slowly, watching Mizunuki Ryosuke's expression.

To this, Mizunuki Ryosuke remained silent, his expression filled with grief.

"This..."

"Is the fate of a ninja."

After a long silence, Mizunuki Ryosuke said slowly, a statement that made the atmosphere in the room somewhat heavy.

Seeing this, the purple-masked Mist Anbu stopped questioning.

"Alright, that is all. Sorry to have disturbed you, farewell."

Having said this, the three Mist Anbu members rose and left.

After the three had gone, the grief on Mizunuki Ryosuke's expression vanished, returning to his initial calmness.

In fact, Mizunuki Ryosuke had long ago concluded that for a mission with such a major disclosure, the Mist Anbu would definitely intervene to investigate.

And the background of this mission was likely not as simple as it appeared.

The "trump cards" exposed just now were a last resort, and these cards were merely the most insignificant ones in Mizunuki Ryosuke's repertoire.

The impact of exposing Ice Release was also within Mizunuki Ryosuke's acceptable range.

It merely changed his status from "average" to "above average." There were at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, ninjas with similar talent to Mizunuki Ryosuke, so this didn't count for much.

Plus, with the display of Ice Release talent, even if the village intended to investigate deeply, the clan would do everything in its power to protect Mizunuki Ryosuke.

It was obvious that the dog-faced Mist Anbu from just now was clearly a ninja from the Mizunuki clan.

Mizunuki Ryosuke was not worried about the Mist Anbu's investigation or the "exposure of talent."

On the contrary, he was worried about something else.

A ninja squad had managed to lurk so close to the Mist Village; what exactly was this squad's intention?

What Mizunuki Ryosuke needed to do was to extract himself from this storm as quickly as possible.

Soon, Mizunuki Ryosuke fell into deep thought, contemplating his own situation.

Mizunuki Ryosuke, or rather "Zhang Wei," was a reincarnator from the Great Celestial Dynasty.

That's right!

Mizunuki Ryosuke was indeed one of the vast army of transmigrators.

He had been reborn into the world of ninjas! And he was born into the Mizunuki clan of the Mist Village, which possessed the Ice Release bloodline.

When Mizunuki Ryosuke was born, the Mist Village was under the administration of the Second Mizukage; this period was exactly at the end of the First Shinobi World War, on the eve of the fall of the Second Mizukage, Hozuki Gengetsu.

Since he was here, he would make the best of it. Mizunuki Ryosuke, who had arrived in the Naruto world in a daze, had no thoughts of returning to his original world.

He had already made up his mind to survive well under the name "Mizunuki."

His death in his previous life had taught Mizunuki Ryosuke a lesson.

If you want to live safely, you must first learn to "stay away from danger."

Not to mention, he was currently in the crisis-ridden Naruto world!

Thinking of the combat power of the Senju and Uchiha clans that could "nuke" the ninja world at any moment, Mizunuki Ryosuke felt a faint chill in his heart.

In the eyes of the strong, killing the weak is as simple as crushing a bug.

Fortunately, although Mizunuki Ryosuke himself had not awakened any so-called "golden finger," he was a genuine "genius."

Any ninjutsu, he could learn as soon as it was taught, and he could draw inferences from a single instance after just a little study.

Even for some secret techniques, without anyone to teach him, Mizunuki Ryosuke only needed to look at them a few times to grasp the basics.

However, Mizunuki Ryosuke had never revealed such talent within the Mist.

There were many reasons, but they could actually be summarized in one point.

It was too dangerous and not stable enough.

Once Mizunuki Ryosuke revealed his talent, he would absolutely and quickly be treated as a high-potential asset by the clan and even the ninja village, and they would pour all their resources into cultivating him.

What would be the result of this?

The title of "peerless genius" would bring endless danger to Mizunuki Ryosuke.

For example: infighting within the ninja village, assassinations by enemy villages, the prying eyes of some perverts (Orochimaru), and countless other troubles.

At the same time, the "benefits" that could be brought after revealing his talent also looked exceptionally deadly at this moment.

After accepting the vigorous cultivation of the ninja village, he might become the head of the Mizunuki clan, or even the Mizukage of the Mist Village...

At the mere thought of becoming "Mizukage," Mizunuki Ryosuke's head buzzed, and he was immediately terrified, breaking out in a cold sweat.

One must know that being a ninja is already a "high-risk profession."

And the Kage is the highest risk among the high-risk.

Famous unlucky ones include the Third Kazekage (killed by a traitor in his own village), the Fourth Kazekage (killed by Orochimaru), and the Fourth Hokage (killed by Danzo and his own disciple)...

In other words, once you become a Kage, you not only have to face external enemies.

You also have to constantly guard against traitors in your own village, your own disciples, and some ambitious people who are always looking to cause trouble.

Unless Mizunuki Ryosuke had the strength to suppress his generation like Senju Hashirama, letting him become the Kage of a village? That was absolutely impossible.

Not to mention the distant, let's talk about the near.

Where is this? You must know this is the Mist!

Looking at the original work, all the successive Mizukages were almost the most miserable existences, second only to the Kazekages.

Starting from the Third Mizukage period, the entire Mist Village had actually long since sunk into the shadow of Uchiha Madara.

The Fourth Mizukage was even directly manipulated by Uchiha Obito, becoming a puppet to push for war.

Ever since the battle at the Valley of the End, Uchiha Madara had been hiding in the shadows of the ninja world, plotting for his own rebirth.

From the original work, where Uchiha Madara single-handedly manipulated Obito's corruption, it can be seen that the Mist Village at that time was already under Uchiha Madara's control, having become a tool to attract Obito's hatred.

In the incident of Obito's corruption, Uchiha Madara could not only mobilize the Mist Anbu directly under the Mizukage's jurisdiction, but even the Three-Tails Isobu could be distributed at will.

One must know that for a ninja village, the importance of a Tailed Beast is no less than that of a nuclear bomb.

And Uchiha Madara easily mobilized the Three-Tails Isobu, sealing it into the body of Nohara Rin through the hands of the Mist Mist Anbu; one can imagine how great Madara's authority was within the Mist at that time.

Just for this point, Mizunuki Ryosuke had to temporarily bide his time and hide his light, avoiding being brought into Uchiha Madara's field of vision due to his own talent, and becoming a pawn or even a discarded piece.

And from the beginning of the Third Mizukage's rule over the Mist Village, the Mist began the process of the "Bloody Mist Village," heading downhill.

Coupled with the current situation of the Mist Village, it really couldn't be said to be very good.

And all of this had to start from the succession of the Third Mizukage.

The Third Mizukage, Mizunuki Taki.

That's right, the contemporary Mizukage also served as the head of the Mizunuki clan. If one were to count the seniority, he was actually of the uncle generation to Mizunuki Ryosuke, and the blood relationship was not too distant.

The Third Mizukage had served as a bodyguard for the First Mizukage and had also served as the Mist Anbu Minister during the Second Mizukage's period, having a good personal relationship with the previous two Mizukages.

Whether in terms of seniority or status, Mizunuki Taki's succession as the Third Mizukage could be said to be a matter of course.

But even with such a "matter of course" succession, Mizunuki Taki still spent a full two years after the death of the Second Mizukage.

On one hand, Mizunuki Taki himself was in poor health, a total invalid who often needed to rest and recuperate.

On the other hand, the Second Mizukage, Hozuki Gengetsu, had an exceptionally high reputation within the Mist Village, even exceeding that of the First Mizukage, Byakuren, to a certain extent.

It was precisely because of the Second Mizukage's high prestige that many of his loyalists resisted the Third Mizukage's rise to power.

After Hozuki Gengetsu died, a portion of his loyalists still refused to submit to Mizunuki Taki's command, maintaining an exclusionary attitude toward Mizunuki Taki's rise.

They were even in a state of "listening to orders but not acknowledging the authority," which included the famous Kaguya clan and Hozuki Gengetsu's own clan—the Hozuki clan.

Among them, the Kaguya clan, who possessed the Shikotsumyaku, and the Mizunuki clan were originally mortal enemies.

Seeing that someone from the Mizunuki clan was about to rise to power, the people of the Kaguya clan were naturally unconvinced.

Due to various reasons, Mizunuki Taki dragged it out for two years before becoming the Third Mizukage.

And after his succession, Mizunuki Taki's voice and influence within the Mist remained limited.

Perhaps it was precisely because Uchiha Madara saw this point in the Mist Village that he took the opportunity to intervene and control the lifeblood of the Mist Village.

The fatigue shown by the Third Mizukage and the lack of authority and majesty also caused many Mist elite ninjas to have insufficient awe for the Third Mizukage.

The entire Mist Village was permeated with a chaotic atmosphere.

Over the past ten years, the Mist had been in constant internal strife.

From the fall of the Second Mizukage to the present, the Mist's vitality had not only failed to recover, but had even slipped compared to its strength at that time.

Analyzing the current situation of the Mist from an objective perspective, it was simply a mess.

From the outside, the other four major ninja villages had all recovered their vitality from the losses of the First Shinobi World War and were in a stage of being restless and expanding outward.

And from the inside, there were many contradictions between the major ninja clans in the Mist Village, and the Mizukage was unable to control the overall situation, having to let things take their course.

The Mist Village had already reached a quite dangerous situation.