Chapter 38: Killing with a Borrowed Blade
"Mangetsu, are you interrogating me?"
Suikazan Fuguki sat on a low stool. With the slightest movement of his body, the stool creaked and groaned under his unbearable weight, but he paid it no mind. He simply stared at the youth who'd arrived so suddenly.
"Right now I'm merely here on behalf of Mizukage-sama to inquire. But if you can't provide a reasonable explanation, Fuguki, then it will become an interrogation."
"So you're using the Mizukage to pressure me?"
"How you interpret it is your freedom. What I want is an answer."
Hozuki Mangetsu's lips curved in a smile as he sat perched on the earthen fort's wall, one leg dangling and swinging lazily. His posture was relaxed and unrestrained, completely unconcerned with the sharp killing intent Suikazan Fuguki was releasing.
The other Mist shinobi around them remained silent, like rocks on a seashore—no matter how fierce the waves, they stood firm and unmoved.
Their direct superior Suikazan Fuguki, and Hozuki Mangetsu who'd come representing the Mizukage—this conversation between these two wasn't something they could interject in.
"What an annoying brat."
Suikazan Fuguki made no effort to hide his disgust for Hozuki Mangetsu. "You want to know what I'm waiting for? See for yourself."
With that, he pulled a folded white paper from his pocket, rolled it into a tube, inserted it into the hollow center of a shuriken, and with a flick of his wrist, threw it toward Hozuki Mangetsu.
Mangetsu caught it easily, casually tossing the shuriken aside where it embedded itself in the earth. He opened the white paper and glanced at it. The carefree, lazy smile on his face instantly vanished. He examined the paper carefully, turning it over and reading it two or three times.
Then he suddenly looked up at Suikazan Fuguki and asked, "Is the content on this real or fake?"
Suikazan Fuguki didn't answer. He waved his hand, and the Mist shinobi who'd been standing motionless like stones instantly came to life, scattering in the blink of an eye to create a space where they couldn't be overheard.
"Not certain!" Suikazan Fuguki answered. "But the probability it's real is quite high."
"How so?"
"Because I've been attacking this mountain for five days, and not even a single Konoha shinobi has come to reinforce it. It's as if someone is deliberately creating a tense situation to have an excuse to send a certain person here."
"..."
Hozuki Mangetsu said nothing, lowering his head to look at the white paper in his hand again.
There was quite a bit of writing on the paper, filling nearly half a page. The general content claimed the letter writer had deep enmity with the new Hyuga clan head, Hyuga Ritsu, and hoped to use the Mist shinobi's hands to help eliminate him.
It detailed extensive intelligence on Hyuga Ritsu, claiming he suspected Ritsu of using some kind of forbidden technique that gave him both the Byakugan and Shikotsumyaku bloodline limits. For the sake of caution, they would send both Hyuga Ritsu and Uchiha Shisui together to the Stone Drum Mountain defense line, allowing the Mist to test the waters and discover Ritsu's trump cards.
Afterward, they would create a more suitable opportunity to deliver Hyuga Ritsu into the Mist shinobi's encirclement, hoping they could eliminate Ritsu with the same care a lion uses when hunting a rabbit.
That was the entirety of what the white paper recorded.
"Why didn't you report this to Mizukage-sama earlier?"
"Because I was concerned this was a Konoha trap, deliberately using this method to manipulate our military movements to achieve some objective of theirs."
"But didn't you say the probability it's real is quite high?"
"So I took a gamble, waiting for Konoha's reinforcements to arrive to see if it would be Uchiha Shisui and Hyuga Ritsu. If it really is those two, it means the internal struggles within Konoha are quite intense—they've reached the point where they'll use our hands to eliminate dissidents. That's undoubtedly good news for us!"
"Of course, if it's not them—"
The corner of Suikazan Fuguki's mouth lifted slightly as he said casually, "We'd merely lose the opportunity to break through Stone Drum Mountain. At worst, all of us here would leave our lives behind. But the life and death of us few won't have much impact on the village."
"So I can gamble."
Suikazan Fuguki stared at Hozuki Mangetsu, enunciating each word clearly.
After finishing, he paused for a few seconds, then looked at the silent genius youth and suddenly raised his voice. "But Mizukage-sama cannot gamble! Because he's the leader of our Hidden Mist Village. His every action brings enormous influence to the village. Behavior with this level of risk isn't suitable for him to get involved in at all. So I planned to report it after verifying part of the intelligence's authenticity."
Finally, he asked, "Mangetsu, do you find any problems with my judgment?"
Hozuki Mangetsu narrowed his eyes slightly.
He felt that fat bastard Suikazan Fuguki was spouting nonsense, making excuses. The truth was probably that this fat pig had been doing as he pleased since the Third Mizukage's time and still didn't take the Fourth Mizukage seriously, thinking he could handle everything himself without needing to report upward.
If Mizukage-sama hadn't sent him here, this matter probably wouldn't be reported to the Mizukage until after everything was settled.
"What I think doesn't matter. This is Mizukage-sama's prerogative."
Hozuki Mangetsu didn't take the bait.
Suikazan Fuguki wasn't an ordinary jonin. He was one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, and arguably the leading figure among them. Beyond that, he was also the deputy commander of the Border Guard Unit, commanding a group of elite Mist shinobi specifically responsible for gathering intelligence on other shinobi villages abroad.
It could be said that Suikazan Fuguki was undoubtedly a powerful figure of high position and authority!
To deal with Suikazan Fuguki would require Mizukage-sama personally issuing orders.
"How did you get this thing?"
Hozuki Mangetsu skipped the topic he was powerless to address, waving the paper in his hand and continuing to dig into the details of this matter. He definitely needed to report everything here to Mizukage-sama, and he couldn't write that report without clarifying the details.
"It was passed back by a spy I planted. In the past, a certain person or certain people in Konoha have used me—this chess piece that's almost openly on the board—to transmit intelligence more than once."
"Who do you think sent this? Or rather, who wants to eliminate Hyuga Ritsu, this new Hyuga clan head?"
"Konoha's higher-ups, I'd say. The Third Hokage and his cronies. According to intelligence I've gathered from other channels, this Hyuga Ritsu most likely became the Hyuga clan head using fairly extreme and direct methods without getting the Third Hokage and his faction's approval. Given the Third Hokage's increasingly strong desire for control in recent years, it's not surprising at all that he can't tolerate this kind of thing happening."
Suikazan Fuguki truly lived up to being the person in charge of gathering intelligence on other villages. He had quite a deep understanding of Konoha Village, and his analysis was thoroughly reasoned.
At the very least, Hozuki Mangetsu couldn't detect any problems with it.
Just then—
"Fuguki-sama, we have a situation!"
A sensory ninja stood outside, loudly reporting.
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