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In the midst of a winter, heavy snow fell relentlessly.
In front of a small wooden house, a young boy crouched on the ground, playing with water in a small puddle. After a while, an astonishing sight unfolded: the boy manipulated a blob of water, making it float above his hands, freely changing its shape.
The boy stood up excitedly, showing off to his mother nearby.
"Look, Mother, isn't this amazing?"
He didn't notice that the cloth in his mother's hands had slipped to the ground. She stared, dumbfounded, at the water floating above his hands.
Whoosh!
His mother grabbed his hands, causing the water to fall to the ground.
"Why? Why?! How could even you, my child…?"
Her voice was filled with despair.
"It hurts, Mother!"
The boy cried out in pain as his mother gripped his hands tightly.
Slap!
But his mother, overwhelmed by despair and fear, slapped him hard. The terror of what this meant consumed her, driving her to act instinctively.
That ability was undoubtedly a kekkei genkai, and in this village, having a kekkei genkai meant one thing:
Death!!
The mother was terrified, but she quickly came to her senses and pulled the boy into a tight embrace.
"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, Haku…"
It wasn't the child's fault—it was hers. She broke down in tears. Having a kekkei genkai meant the constant threat of death loomed over them. She felt she had failed her child.
She could do nothing but hold him tightly, sobbing in pain. She only hoped she could keep his kekkei genkai a secret—forever.
But they didn't notice the boy's father watching from a distance.
The boy's father was an ordinary man. The kekkei genkai came from the mother's side, and she had hidden it to marry him.
Now, everything was clear.
The father knew the truth, and he didn't want to die.
Typically, having a kekkei genkai didn't just mean death for the individual—it meant the entire family would be slaughtered. Kekkei genkai were inherited through bloodlines, so if one person had it, their family likely did too.
If his son was discovered to have a kekkei genkai, the father would almost certainly be killed as well. He didn't want to die.
A few days later, he led a group of people into their home and mercilessly killed his wife.
The mother didn't resist, despite her kekkei genkai. She couldn't bring herself to kill her husband.
After killing his wife, the father turned his blade on his own child.
His shadow loomed over the boy, death imminent.
Tears streamed down the father's face. He was in agony, but he wouldn't hesitate. He raised his weapon high, even though the boy before him was his son. He didn't want to die.
The weapon swung down heavily!
At that moment, the boy lost consciousness.
When he came to, the house was pierced by massive ice pillars. Everyone had been killed by him.
He was alone, having lost everyone he loved.
There was no one left in the world who needed him. He wandered like a living corpse, becoming a homeless orphan, drifting aimlessly through the country.
With his Ice Release kekkei genkai, the heavy snow couldn't kill him, but his heart was already dead.
Collapsing in the snow, he wondered where he belonged. No—he no longer had a place to belong.
Kagaya had been lingering around the Mist Village for half a month, deliberately exposing his whereabouts several times. Yet, in the end, no one came to confront him.
This made Kagaya realize something.
"It seems Obito has no intention of coming after me anymore."
Perhaps, for Obito, there were currently more important matters than dealing with him.
After another half month of wandering around the Mist Village, confirming that Obito truly had no plans to act against him, Kagaya infiltrated the village.
The reason for infiltrating the Mist Village was that Kagaya had lost his partner, and Pain rarely assigned him tasks. Kagaya saw this as an opportunity to recruit persecuted kekkei genkai ninja from the Mist Village to prepare for the future invasion of the Leaf Village.
After all, he couldn't personally act against the Leaf. He would only target Danzo, but that alone wasn't enough. Danzo needed to feel the same pain Kagaya had endured.
Upon infiltrating the Mist Village, Kagaya found a desolate scene.
The village's brutal rule kept people indoors, and fear permeated the air.
It was now October of the 56th year of the Leaf.
Snow had begun to fall in the Mist Village.
"Huff..."
Kagaya looked up, exhaling a puff of white breath. He glanced at the empty streets and muttered with a wry smile.
'How am I supposed to infiltrate like this? I'm the only one walking around outside—I stick out like a sore thumb. But as long as Obito doesn't send the Three-Tails after me, I'm not afraid of anyone else. Worst case, if I focus on escaping, no one can stop me.'
Kagaya's current strength meant he only feared something with the extreme defensive power of a tailed beast. Otherwise, in the entire Mist Village, no one could confidently claim they could kill him in a direct confrontation.
The Blood Mist regime had drained the Mist Village's strength, making it the weakest of the five great ninja villages. If not for its favorable geography, it would have been destroyed by another nation long ago.
Kagaya slightly tilted his conical hat and walked alone down the wide street.
Such behavior naturally wouldn't go unnoticed.
Obito, controlling the Fourth Mizukage, chose to ignore Kagaya. He knew that if Kagaya was alone and focused on escaping, even the entire Mist Village couldn't stop him. So, he simply ignored him.
But another faction had a different perspective.
In a gray stone room, brightly lit, a curved stone table and chair sat opposite the entrance.
A woman sat there, appearing to be in her early twenties. She had striking blue-green eyes and long, auburn hair tied in a crisscross pattern, so long it nearly touched the floor when she sat. Her right eye was partially covered by her hair, adding a touch of mystery.
She sat with an air of dignity, maturity, and a hint of enigma.
After a while, a man in dark teal clothing entered. A black eyepatch covered his right eye.
He stopped a short distance from the woman, bowed slightly, and spoke respectfully.
"Lady Terumi Mei, I just noticed a peculiar outsider brazenly wandering through the Mist Village."
Terumi Mei looked up at Ao.
"Who is it? Could you identify them?"
Ao thought for a moment before responding.
"If I'm not mistaken, it's likely Uchiha Kagaya, who defected from the Leaf not long ago."
Terumi Mei frowned.
"Uchiha Kagaya? Not Uchiha Itachi? I've only heard of Uchiha Itachi."
Ao shook his head.
"No, Uchiha Kagaya is younger than Uchiha Itachi. Also, Kagaya defected earlier. The Leaf publicly claimed that Uchiha Kagaya attempted a rebellion, failed, and fled."
Terumi Mei smiled with interest.
"A rebellion? Heh, isn't that exactly what I'm doing?"
Ao hurriedly clarified.
"Lady Terumi Mei, we're not rebelling. We're only acting because the Fourth Mizukage's rule is too oppressive."
Terumi Mei raised a hand to stop him.
"Enough, let's not talk about that. Tell me, how strong is this Uchiha Kagaya?"
Ao didn't answer immediately. He thought carefully before responding cautiously.
"He's probably slightly weaker than Uchiha Itachi, perhaps at the level of a jonin. After all, he doesn't seem to have any notable achievements."
The fact that the Fourth Mizukage was nearly killed wasn't something that would be widely publicized. To many, Kagaya was just an ordinary rogue ninja, at best a jonin, with no significant feats to prove his strength.
Meanwhile, Itachi, known for wiping out the Uchiha clan single-handedly, was someone no one dared underestimate.