Mist Village. Mizukage's Office.
Mei Terumi's face was a mask of fury. She smashed her teacup on the floor, gritting her teeth. "That Hokage brat has finally shown his ambitions. He actually wants to occupy the Land of Water! The nerve of him!"
"That seems impossible..." The young Chojuro looked cautiously at the fuming, brown-haired beauty and tried to reason with her in a low voice. "Lady Mizukage, surely something like that can't be achieved, right?"
"Chojuro, it is possible," Mei said, running her hands through her hair in distress. "Last month, I received at least three hundred complaints about our ninjas from the nobles alone. The ninjas in the village have already started plundering from civilians, acting like common rogue ninja."
If the nobles were complaining that much, one could only imagine how bad it was for the commoners who had no way to file a complaint. The Mist ninjas were practically being condemned by everyone in the Land of Water.
Chojuro frowned, his own expression turning grim. "I've heard about it too, and I've advised them to stop these brutal acts..."
But it was no use.
Due to the brutality of the war and the depletion of supplies, the entire Mist Village was gradually losing control. The supplies Konoha provided were intermittent, and at one point, even daily necessities were cut off, forcing the village's ninjas to resort to plunder.
In the face of war, who could stay out of it? Everyone was doing what they had to do just to win. If they were punished severely, it would only force more Mist ninjas to defect. Even Mei Terumi couldn't punish them casually. The respected Elder Genshi wouldn't risk saying anything that might cause a loss of morale.
The entire Mist high command believed these were temporary measures. As long as they completely defeated Zabuza Momochi's rogue ninja army, they could then appease the people.
Who could have thought that the new Daimyo of the Land of Water would suddenly issue a decree: abolish the Mist Village, expel and arrest all Mist ninjas and rogue ninjas, and have Konoha completely take over the defense of the Land of Water.
That seven- or eight-year-old brat of a Daimyo would never dare do this on his own. He must have the support of Konoha ninjas, because the defense of the Daimyo's mansion had already been taken over by them.
Mei had originally thought that the young Hokage just wanted to force the Daimyo to stop funding the Mist Village, just as he did with the Land of Wind and the Sand Village. Who would have thought the boy would try to destroy the Mist Village in a moral sense!
Chojuro asked with a worried expression, "Lady Mizukage, what do we do now? Declare war on Konoha? But our war with Mr. Zabuza..."
"That ugly demon..." Mei gritted her teeth, her hatred for Zabuza Momochi flaring up again. But now was not the time to focus on him. The threat from Konoha was far greater.
"Chojuro!" The brown-haired beauty slammed her fist on the table and coldly announced her orders. "First, immediately send out scout teams to investigate the movements of the Konoha army at sea. There's no way they can occupy the Land of Water with just that brat and his guard team!
Second, immediately prepare twenty teams of ANBU. I will lead them to the Daimyo's mansion to hunt down Konoha's Fifth Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki, and his guards. We will regain control of the Daimyo and set things right!
Third, you will immediately go to the Cloud Village and tell the Fourth Raikage that we agree to his previous conditions. No matter what he wants, no matter which country he wants to go to war with in the future, the Mist Village will unconditionally support him!"
After the first round of mediation talks, Mei had suspected that Naruto Uzumaki might support Zabuza, so she had sent people to the Cloud Village in advance to negotiate an alliance. Who could have known that the Cloud Village's appetite was no smaller than Konoha's.
Since the Cloud Village's losses in the Third Great Ninja War weren't too severe, they had preserved most of their strength, and the Fourth Raikage had always been ambitious.
Besides a basic trade and defensive alliance, the Fourth Raikage proposed that he wanted the Mist Village's ninjutsu and forbidden jutsu scrolls, and also to borrow the Mist ANBU. If the Cloud Village were to go to war with another country in the future, the Mist Village would have to simultaneously declare war and join them.
Now, Konoha had basically declared war directly. The Mist Village was still mired in a civil war. To stop the invasion of a major ninja village, they had no choice but to borrow the power of another.
"Understood!" Chojuro nodded heavily.
However, before he could leave for the Cloud Village, a Mist ANBU ninja appeared in the office. "Lady Mizukage," he reported in a deep voice, "Konoha's Fifth Hokage has already appeared outside the village and is attacking us!"
"What?" Mei and Chojuro turned their heads in astonishment. They couldn't believe it.
"Has Konoha's main army already arrived?" Mei asked, her expression tense.
Unless Konoha had sent several thousand ninjas to the Land of Water, how could that brat and his guards dare to directly attack the Mist Village? There were thousands of ninjas in their village! Even if they had suffered heavy losses from the civil war, it wasn't a place some mere brat could break into, even if he was the Nine-Tails jinchuriki!
Actually, it wasn't Mei's fault for thinking this way. After all, the ninja world had never seen the full power of a Nine-Tails jinchuriki. At most, they had seen the Eight-Tails jinchuriki wreak havoc on the battlefield, only to be stopped by the Fourth Hokage, who defeated the Fourth Raikage at the same time.
According to the common perception in the ninja world, the power difference between the Tailed Beasts wasn't actually that large, just a difference in chakra levels.
Mei had seen the power of the Three-Tails jinchuriki, Yagura, and had also seen the Six-Tails jinchuriki, Utakata, run rampant. With her dual kekkei genkai, it wasn't a huge problem for her to suppress Utakata. Therefore, in the minds of most ninja, while Tailed Beasts and jinchuriki were powerful, that was only when compared to ordinary ninja. Most Kage-level figures could defeat a Tailed Beast.
Mei couldn't help but think of another matter and muttered to herself, "The Nine-Tails... is it really that much stronger than the other Tailed Beasts?"
Konoha's successive Hokages must have been out of their minds. Why were they so unwilling to put the Nine-Tails jinchuriki on the battlefield? They always protected them in the village, which also prevented other villages from gathering intelligence on them. To this day, there was far too little information about the Nine-Tails.
Then Mei thought of something else: the Yellow Flash, who had stopped both the Eight-Tails and the Fourth Raikage, was himself defeated by the Nine-Tails. Konoha had hidden the Nine-Tails for so many years, only for it to turn on them, wiping out almost an entire generation of their talent. It seemed this also indirectly proved the power of the Nine-Tails.
If that young Hokage were to release the complete Nine-Tails in the Mist Village, he might actually be able to destroy the entire village. After all, the current Mist Village was so weak compared to Konoha before the Nine-Tails' rampage that there was almost no comparison.
Mei's face became more solemn. "Chojuro," she said coldly, "you go arrange the defense and evacuation. The ANBU will come with me to meet the enemy. Immediately send the Sealing Team to the village entrance!"
BOOM!
A massive golden chakra fist slammed into the streets of the Mist Village. Debris flew everywhere, and the Mizukage's office shook violently.
Chojuro turned with a pale face, his eyes fixed on a golden light that had appeared outside the window.
A thirteen-year-old boy, cloaked in golden chakra, stood there. He politely knocked on the glass.
"Um," he said, "is this the Mizukage's office?"
Mei Terumi: "..."
Chojuro: "..."
How much time had passed? How had the enemy already breached the village's defenses and appeared right at their office?
-----
Bonus:
Mei Terumi: A few minutes, and he's already inside?
Chojuro: What were you guards doing? You just let the enemy break in?
Mist Ninja: If you're so tough, you go fight him! Otherwise, shut it!
Chojuro: ???
Naruto Uzumaki: It's not their fault. I'm just too strong.
Chojuro: ???
Naruto Uzumaki: Fighting all the way from the Mist Village entrance to the Mizukage's office... my eyes are actually a little dry.
Chojuro: ???