"Hah. That finally comes to an end for now…"
Inside the Mizukage's office, Rei Kaguya ended his communication with Shisui and the others through the summoning beast and slowly exhaled.
While stretching his body hard, he yawned and asked Mei Terumi, who was helping him organize files,
"Have you thought about where we're eating after work, Mei?"
"No. Shouldn't that kind of thing be decided by you, the person who especially likes studying these matters, Rei?"
Mei Terumi organized several file scrolls and placed them in front of Rei Kaguya.
Then she looked at his relaxed face somewhat helplessly and said,
"And judging from what you said before ending just now, Shisui Uchiha and Kisame's side still hasn't fully wrapped up, right? Is it really fine for you to start optimistically considering what to eat for dinner already?"
"Because the main contradiction has already been resolved."
Rei Kaguya added a simple seal to the scrolls Mei placed before him and said with a completely indifferent expression,
"The rest are all minor problems. With Shisui Uchiha's level, I completely cannot see any reason or possibility for him to fail… Unless he deliberately chooses to expose his real situation. But that wouldn't be a bad thing for me either, so what is there to worry about?"
"So, even though there are so many young shinobi in the village eagerly waiting to work for you, you still specifically chose Shisui Uchiha to carry out this mission entirely because you predicted everything that might happen and planned to use this chance to thoroughly tie his body and mind to our side, right?"
"If someone else asked me that question, I might smile without answering and let them imagine things on their own."
Rei Kaguya stood up, hugged Mei Terumi's soft, slender waist from behind, rested his chin on her delicate shoulder, and said lazily,
"But since you're the one asking, I can tell the truth…"
"And the truth is?"
Mei Terumi asked curiously.
"The truth is that, at first, I really only planned to test the effects of the Cursed Seal of Heaven."
Rei Kaguya said honestly,
"At most, you could add that I wanted to use a relatively positive mission that had nothing to do with Konoha to draw Shisui closer. Everything afterward was entirely the product of accidents and coincidence."
"No one but me would believe that if you said it out loud, you know?"
"That's why I'm only telling you."
"Using mystery to make subordinates maintain reverence and admiration toward me is necessary. But if there isn't even one person beside me whom I can tell the truth to, wouldn't that be far too boring?"
"The Mizukage's seat really is very tiring to sit in, isn't it?"
"It's all right. Since I have the strength to suppress everyone in this era, the Mizukage's seat can still be considered fairly easy to sit in… If I had been born in Konoha, the Hokage's seat definitely wouldn't have fallen to me. Maybe I'd even become an S-rank missing-nin because of conflict with the higher-ups, like getting angry and killing Danzo Shimura or those two Hokage advisors."
Hearing Rei Kaguya's sharp critique of Konoha, Mei Terumi could not help letting out a soft laugh.
The girl turned around lightly, hugged Rei's waist in return, and listened to his strong, powerful heartbeat while narrowing her eyes and smiling.
"You really do care about Konoha's situation, Rei."
"Because Konoha is on the other side of the sea, Mei."
Rei Kaguya gently stroked Mei Terumi's waist-length brown hair and said unhurriedly,
"For the greatest enemy standing in front of my ideals and my road, I need to understand them more. That way, when some little monster bound by their ideals suddenly jumps out to hinder mine, I won't be caught off guard…"
"Is that all?" Mei Terumi raised her head and quietly gazed into Rei Kaguya's eyes.
"If I want to dig into Konoha's and the other villages' walls, I'll have to wait until we have developed quietly for a few years, properly displayed the results of Kirigakure's reforms to the entire shinobi world, and created the concept of a 'Kirigakure Dream' facing the entire shinobi world. Only then will there be hope…"
As Rei said that, his gaze turned northwest.
After the matter in the Land of Demons ended, the only thing that might still stir unrest in the shinobi world was Hanzō, who was about to break free from his seal.
He wondered whether that old senior would choose to overestimate himself and oppose Rei's will to bring peace to the shinobi world, or whether he would quietly lie dormant and wait for a chance to deliver a fatal blow.
…
The incident in the Land of Demons came to a stable end, as expected.
Regarding Shisui Uchiha's request to hide his true identity, Miroku agreed without thinking too much.
After all, she could also tell that for a genius like Shisui Uchiha, someone enough to support the Uchiha clan's future, to appear in Kirigakure's camp, there had to be many secrets and hardships involved.
Since Shisui had made such a request, she was happy to help him keep this small secret in order to maintain the friendship between both sides.
As for the remaining guards, Shisui Uchiha also very discreetly rewrote their perception, making them forget the fact that he had once displayed the Sharingan in front of them.
As for the fact that those few people were later fiercely warned by the four Konoha Anbu, that had nothing to do with Shisui Uchiha.
On the other side, Hanzō of the Salamander, whom Nagato and the others had feared and kept watch over, vanished together with that enormous ice coffin that pierced heaven and earth during the darkest predawn hours at the border of the Land of Rain.
From then on, there was no news of him.
He never appeared publicly on the land of the Land of Rain again.
The people of the Land of Rain had all kinds of guesses, some reliable and some unreliable, about Hanzō's disappearance.
But in the end, all of them were forgotten with time.
And after Hanzō disappeared, the three leaders of the Akatsuki—Yahiko, Nagato, and Konan—thoroughly took control of the Land of Rain and Amegakure.
They began reforming this country that had cried countless times under the trampling of war according to their own ideas and some suggestions provided by Rei Kaguya.
Jiraiya, who had taken the alias Kashin Koji, worked diligently and tirelessly in the Akatsuki for about half a year.
At last, covered in exhaustion and memories too unbearable to look back on, he gritted his teeth and said farewell to those three disciples who were reluctant to part with him.
Then, starting from Konoha, he began a retaliatory spending trip around the shinobi world.
During this period, Jiraiya not only left behind a reputation in taverns and nightclubs across every country as a fat sheep comparable to Tsunade, but also used his personal experiences to write the novel series that would later sell throughout the shinobi world and be pursued by countless youths, young adults, and even middle-aged and elderly readers alike—
The Icha Icha Paradise series.
In one leap, he became a well-known great author in the shinobi world.
Another Konoha missing-nin whose movements could attract the attention of every country in the shinobi world, Orochimaru, silently seized political power in the Land of Rice Fields through some methods that could not be openly discussed.
He began establishing his own forces behind the scenes.
During this period, Orochimaru accepted quite a few outsourced research topics from Kirigakure and also sold some of his own research to Kirigakure, his business partner.
In order to establish a shinobi village that could satisfy his ambitions and dreams, he entered an almost year-round, high-intensity research mode.
As his various research projects unfolded and the lack of qualified assistants continued, his mental state grew increasingly unstable.
The Five Great Shinobi Villages, which had just extricated themselves from the Third Shinobi World War, each entered a development period where the hawks went dormant and the doves rose.
The newly appointed Fourth Kage began implementing their own ideals and reforms inside their villages.
While working hard to soothe the wounds left by the war, they guided their villages toward the direction they desired.
The shinobi world, which had previously been filled with smoke and conflict breaking out at every moment, thus entered a short period of relative peace.
And in the blink of an eye, a year and a half passed.
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