Chapter 498: Mugetsu's Plan
"Everyone, summarize what you found," Mugetsu said once the whole team had gathered.
"Our group checked the security around the building that houses the Hidden Grass leader's office," Nara Suzaku reported first. "I do not know whether it is because the leader is overly confident in his own strength, or for some other reason, but there are not many shinobi stationed there."
In truth, their group had gathered most of its information through Shibi's secret techniques. Since Shibi was not the type who enjoyed speaking, Nara naturally became his mouthpiece.
As he finished, Nara handed Mugetsu a carefully drawn blueprint of the Hidden Grass office building.
Mugetsu took it and skimmed it. The structure was mapped clearly, and many of the rooms were even labeled with their likely functions.
It was obvious Hiruzen intended to get serious with Hidden Grass. The people assigned to Mugetsu were not ordinary jonin at all. Each of them had a specialty.
And it was only the first day. Yet the office building had already been almost fully scouted.
"Although there are not many shinobi there, we do not know their strength," Nara continued. "My suggestion is to locate the ANBU base. If Hidden Grass is involved in something this major, confidential information would likely be stored there."
If the mission were simply to assault Hidden Grass, there would be no need for so many steps. They could scout the office building, infiltrate, and fight. But first, they needed certainty. They had to confirm whether Hidden Grass truly cooperated with Iwagakure.
"Good work," Mugetsu said, nodding.
Nara's thinking matched his own. ANBU was the most confidential branch of any village. If Hidden Grass had been acting in secret, ANBU would almost certainly be involved.
Obito scratched his head, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed.
The other groups sounded too professional, and their results were solid.
Obito immediately found a silver lining in not being leader. At least he did not have to report anything and make himself look foolish.
"Our team investigated the main urban area," Kakashi said with a serious tone. "Hidden Grass Village seems extremely busy lately. Mission intensity is high. Later, when we went toward the outskirts, we noticed we might have found the reason. Hidden Grass appears short on manpower. They were managing thousands of refugees with only a handful of shinobi."
"Based on that," Nara said, picking up the thread immediately, "the suspicion on Hidden Grass is very high. It is likely that many of their better shinobi were sent to the battlefield to support Iwagakure. That would explain the manpower shortage in the village and the pressure of nonstop missions."
By itself, the office building having fewer guards was not enough. It could simply mean those guards were elites.
But combined with Kakashi's observation, the pattern became hard to ignore. It could not all be coincidence.
Kakashi continued. "We also discovered a refugee who is very likely an Uzumaki survivor. The Grass shinobi nearly expelled her, but for an unknown reason, the Hidden Grass leader personally ordered that she be kept. To avoid exposure, we did not make contact."
"An Uzumaki refugee…" Kosuke Maruboshi repeated in surprise.
He was the oldest on the mission, and he understood better than most what the Uzumaki meant to Konoha.
Konoha's sealing arts had deep roots in Uzumaki techniques. Back then, the Uzumaki clan head had personally visited Konoha to teach fuinjutsu to Konoha's sealing shinobi.
To commemorate that friendship, Konoha uniforms had long carried the Uzumaki crest.
"They might want Uzumaki sealing techniques," Nara said grimly. "If the Hidden Grass leader personally intervened to keep her, his intentions cannot be good."
Powerful fuinjutsu was coveted everywhere. Not only smaller villages, even the Five Great Shinobi Villages desired it. Only Konoha could treat the Uzumaki normally, because they had once been allies. The Uzumaki suffered a devastating calamity largely because of the value of their sealing arts.
"Your caution is correct," Mugetsu said after a brief pause. "If the Hidden Grass leader personally ordered her kept, there is definitely a motive."
Mugetsu's first thought was that she was most likely Karin's mother from the original story. Given the time and place, in the Land of Grass, she was the only one who fit.
And with what Mugetsu already knew, he could basically confirm the Hidden Grass leader's purpose.
He likely intended to feed her to the Paradise Box.
That box devoured chakra. The Uzumaki, with their abnormally strong chakra, were the best possible resource. A leader desperate to open the box would not let such a gift walk away.
Which meant she was almost certainly being watched now, making casual contact risky.
Obito stared at Kakashi, who had just laid everything out clearly, then at Mugetsu, who nodded in approval, and felt his head spin.
So their team actually gathered that much information?
How did he not know?
For a terrifying moment, Obito wondered if the Kakashi who had been with them all day was a shadow clone, and the real Kakashi had been collecting intel alone.
But Obito understood one thing.
This was not the time to ask.
If he asked now, he would look stupid and lazy, like he had no idea what his own team had been doing.
"The Uzumaki were allies of Konoha," Mugetsu said at last. "Even if the clan has fallen, we cannot ignore that history. If it does not affect the mission, we will do our best to help that survivor."
Kosuke nodded silently, his impression of Mugetsu improving again.
Mugetsu's choice was humane, but it also followed Konoha's rules.
No matter how deep that old friendship had been, if Mugetsu abandoned the mission for someone he had never met, it would make him an unqualified shinobi. Worse, it would make him an unqualified comrade, irresponsible to the team.
The others agreed as well. If the mission proceeded smoothly, helping the Uzumaki survivor would be appropriate.
"I found the ANBU base," Mugetsu said, shifting the topic. "And I also uncovered some internal information about Hidden Grass."
Strictly speaking, Mugetsu had already finished the investigation portion on the first day. Now he could move to the next phase.
Crushing Hidden Grass completely.
He had obtained far too much through Shu's mind. When Hidden Grass and Iwagakure held their cooperation meeting, Shu had been present.
But Mugetsu could not reveal everything directly.
He could not explain the secret method he used to view memories. He could not simply claim he was such a genius that he learned Yamanaka techniques by watching Inoichi once, without a teacher.
Still, that was not the real reason Mugetsu withheld the full truth.
Even without exposing those memories, Mugetsu could easily obtain concrete evidence of Hidden Grass cooperating with Iwagakure.
The real reason was simple.
Mugetsu had a better plan.
If he disclosed everything now, the path forward was straightforward. The team would move together, capture high ranking Hidden Grass officials, and kill enough of them to establish dominance. During the clashes, they would likely be forced to eliminate even more shinobi.
The end result would still be the same. Hidden Grass would sign a treaty with Konoha, compensate losses, and send forces to help Konoha.
But if Mugetsu did not reveal everything, he could guide Kakashi and the others to gradually uncover the truth, while at the same time contacting Grass Flower, the political rival of Grass Core.
If Mugetsu presented evidence to Grass Flower, the conservative faction would do everything possible to minimize Hidden Grass Village's losses.
But the Hidden Grass leader had already gone too far. He would never give up quietly. He would fight to reverse the situation, gambling everything on the Paradise Box to make him stronger.
And in a twisted way, that wish would come true.
The box would open.
He would become stronger.
But the cost would be turning into a monster, one that killed without restraint.
Then, when the transformed leader rampaged through the village, Mugetsu and the others could appear as agents of justice.
They would eliminate the monster and "save" Hidden Grass Village.
At the same time, Grass Flower could seize the moment, use Grass Core's collapse, and take leadership. Hidden Grass would abandon its current aggressive course.
Yes, the culprit would be dead.
But the village would still have to pay for what it had done to Konoha.
And at that point, no one in Hidden Grass could reasonably claim the compensation was unfair. They had wronged Konoha, and then Konoha saved them. Paying and assisting against Iwagakure would become atonement in the cleanest, most acceptable form.
Compared to revealing everything immediately, this second approach was smoother and far more aligned with Konoha's interests.
And for Mugetsu personally, there was another benefit.
He could use the incident to train his disciples.
He could also study the Paradise Box and the entity sealed within it.
Hidden Grass Village was far safer than the battlefield. Here, Mugetsu had absolute confidence nothing could go wrong.
Even the Uzumaki survivor he had not met yet, Mugetsu could guarantee her safety.
Because the shinobi guarding the Paradise Box had already been replaced by Mugetsu's shadow clone, while the real Shu was hidden by Mugetsu.
"In that case, I can start attempting to infiltrate ANBU tonight," Nara said, his expression brightening.
He thought to himself that Mugetsu truly lived up to his reputation. To collect such decisive information alone on the first day was beyond impressive.
Kakashi's group stayed composed. If Mugetsu did not complete the entire mission on day one, it was hard for them to be shocked anymore. Mugetsu had surprised them too many times already.
After the exchange, everyone ate first. Then, with Mugetsu's approval, the teams who still had plans moved out again.
Once Kakashi and the others left, Mugetsu continued laying the tracks for his own plan.
…
That evening, Drag took a stroll through the main district after dinner.
"It would be wonderful if we could always develop like this," he sighed, looking at the bustling commercial street.
He still remembered Hidden Grass Village from his childhood, when it was newly built and painfully poor. Back then, even the main district had few decent houses. Everything was designed for survival, nothing more.
As years passed, the village grew. More residents, more shinobi, more trade. Prosperity finally began to take shape.
"If we simply avoid the great villages' conflicts, we can keep maneuvering and developing," Drag thought bitterly. "If we survive long enough, we will become strong one day. So why do so many keep supporting Grass Core?"
His mood sank as he remembered the current situation.
He was not troubled by his faction's decline.
He was worried about Hidden Grass's future.
Because Drag was a shinobi of Hidden Grass first, and the leader of Grass Flower second.
He genuinely believed that in a chaotic era like this, they should be conservative. Use diplomacy to balance neighboring great powers, preserve strength, accumulate quietly, and wait for a true opportunity.
But his thoughts only made his frustration heavier.
With no desire to continue strolling, he sighed again and headed home.
The moment he stepped inside, Drag's hand snapped to his tool pouch.
A blond stranger was sitting calmly on his living room sofa.
"Who are you?" Dragon Gate demanded, kunai raised. "What do you want?"
"Who I am is not important," Mugetsu said, turning his head slightly with an easy smile. "What matters is this. Do you know what your Hidden Grass shinobi have done?"
"Raging Sun Mugetsu?" Drag froze as he recognized the face, then his pupils contracted sharply. His heart hammered.
For Hidden Grass, even the Seven Ninja Swordsmen were not beings to provoke.
And Mugetsu's first famous achievement on the eastern bank battlefield was killing four of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, along with a well known Ice Release expert, in a single battle.
The kunai in Drag's hand trembled. Cold sweat formed on his forehead as his mind raced through the meaning behind Mugetsu's words.
"It seems I am not completely unknown in the Land of Grass," Mugetsu said gently, half joking. "At least you did not call me the Yellow Flash."
In the past, because Minato became famous early, Mugetsu had often been mistaken for him. Pakura had even made that mistake before.
"You are too modest, Lord Mugetsu," Drag said, forcing himself to breathe. "Not just Hidden Grass Village, not just the Land of Grass. How many shinobi in the entire world do not know your name?"
He did not dare act arrogant simply because he was older. Showing seniority in front of a powerful shinobi from a great village who had no ties to him was a perfect way to die early.
"Could it be that some ignorant Hidden Grass shinobi offended you?" Drag pressed quickly. "Name them. I will have them arrested and investigated immediately."
A guess had already formed in his mind. Yokogawa Tsutomu must have done something that crossed Konoha's interests.
Drag had sensed the village's abnormal behavior recently, but Yokogawa hid it too well. Drag could not uncover the reason.
"I should have fought you to the end back then," Drag cursed inwardly.
For Mugetsu to come personally, Yokogawa's actions could not be small.
"You actually joined Iwagakure and attacked the Konoha force," Mugetsu said, his smile still warm. "And you are worried about whether someone offended me?"
Those words sent a chill through Drag's bones.
He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and cursed Yokogawa a thousand times in his heart.
This was the worst outcome.
If Konoha's forces were not tied down elsewhere, Mugetsu might not have needed to come at all. The Konoha army in the Land of Grass would have simply flattened Hidden Grass Village.
"Lord Mugetsu," Drag said fast, voice tight, "this is Yokogawa and Grass Core acting on their own. Many shinobi in the village are innocent. Grass Flower did not know he was doing something so despicable in secret."
Anger burned in him, but his mind did not shut down.
If Mugetsu had truly come to slaughter, there would be no conversation. The time they had spent speaking was enough for Mugetsu to kill him several times over.
Drag never dared underestimate a shinobi like Mugetsu. Great villages produced monsters that small villages could almost never train.
"As long as you give the order, I will gather Grass Flower immediately and confront Yokogawa," Drag continued, speaking as if he were already Mugetsu's subordinate. "I will not allow such a malicious person to remain the leader of Hidden Grass."
His meaning was clear.
Grass Flower would eliminate Yokogawa in exchange for mercy. Hidden Grass would bend to Konoha and work for Konoha.
"You do not need to go that far," Mugetsu said, refusing calmly. "Konoha does not lack shinobi capable of completing missions."
Through his Byakugan, Mugetsu had already judged the Paradise Box's condition. The chakra within had accumulated to a certain point. With only a little more effort from Yokogawa, the box could open.
With such a useful laborer, why would Mugetsu kill him now?
If Yokogawa had to die, it would be after he was used.
Mugetsu admitted it. Yokogawa's obsession had bought him a little extra time.
If the box were not so close to opening, Mugetsu would not bother waiting. He would follow standard procedure, finish the mission cleanly, and leave.
Training opportunities would appear again in the future. And even if the box opened, it might reveal nothing valuable.
But since Mugetsu was already here, the cost was low.
The potential gain made it worth trying.
"What you need to do," Mugetsu said, "is find concrete evidence of Hidden Grass cooperating with Iwagakure. Then be ready to become the leader of Hidden Grass Village at any time."
In truth, the evidence part was not even necessary. Mugetsu could obtain it whenever he wanted. What he really wanted was to test Drag's character.
If Drag still chose to help find evidence and overthrow Yokogawa, even while believing Konoha did not yet have proof, it meant his mind was clear and he might be useful.
If Drag chose to secretly warn Yokogawa and reveal Mugetsu's presence, then Mugetsu would simply choose someone smarter to take power.
Whether or not Mugetsu needed Drag to find evidence, during wartime Konoha did not truly require it. A reason was enough.
"I will complete it as soon as possible, Lord Mugetsu," Drag promised.
Hearing that, Drag finally breathed out, relief flooding him.
Since Konoha was willing to support Grass Flower taking leadership, Hidden Grass Village would not suffer a catastrophic blow.
Weakening was inevitable, and most of Grass Core's high level members would likely die.
But in Drag eyes, this was already a good ending.
It was far better than Mugetsu simply storming the Hidden Grass office building, wiping out every high ranking shinobi, and then launching an indiscriminate purge of the entire village.
.....
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