In the southeastern part of the Land of Fire, there is a peninsula that extends out from the continent and then hooks back to the west, outlining an inland sea bordered by the Lands of Fire, Rivers, Wind, and Tea.
That peninsula is divided into three parts. The Land of Fire occupies the central majority like Canada in North America, while the eastern and western sides belong to the Land of Tea.
In addition to the two ends of that peninsula, the Land of Tea also has two islands of considerable size.
Like many small and medium-sized nations devoted to service and production industries in this world, the name "Land of Tea" indicates the industry the country prides itself on: tea production.
The Land of Tea and the Land of Alcohol are both among the guild's most important "cooperative partners" outside the five great nations. The former provides exclusive, specially made products, while the latter relies on distribution channels and marketing to sell them at higher prices.
The salamanders of the Land of Rain were similarly boosted. Since rebelling and seizing power, that old exhaust-pipe Hanzō has been utterly absorbed in his salamander farms, unable to extricate himself.
Although part of this is to hide traces of his past activities, one also cannot deny that he has genuinely developed an interest in this area.
Good for him. It's good for the elderly to have personal hobbies far better than clinging to power and rotting away alongside a nation with no future.
To the north of the eastern side of the peninsula the Land of Tea's territory lies the Land of Whirlpools, where the former Uzushiogakure once existed. Extending east from there is the Land of Waves, a small nation consisting of several islands.
Compared to the Land of Tea, which is a cooperative partner, the Land of Waves is essentially a "colony" of the guild. It's just a tiny country. Not to mention a hidden village of its own the entire country hardly has any ninjas at all. The daimyō is Completely useless. As long as you spend a little money to keep him supplied, he doesn't interfere at all.
If it were any other "occupied" small country, they'd just take it outright. And even then, the locals would open their doors to welcome the guild.
After all, work is work, and being ruled is being ruled. Working under the guild, life is more stable and you earn more money.
However, compared to those humorous little towns that build a castle and call themselves a nation, the Land of Waves is somewhat substantial, even having its own unique specialty.
Because its territory is so fragmented, to facilitate transportation, the country's bridge-building technology is very advanced.
In the future of the original story, the Land of Waves would produce a master bridge builder named "Tazuna," who would try to build a bridge to the Land of Tea to promote the country's development, only to be hunted down by a shipping company owner with underworld ties.
But now, the bridge builders of the Land of Waves have all been absorbed by the Red Hot Sand Guild.
If business negotiations with the Land of Water go smoothly, most of the Land of Waves' manpower will be invested to the Land of Water further east, to build various supporting facilities and bridges connecting the various small islands.
If negotiations don't go smoothly... that won't stop them from working in the Land of Water either.
As an island nation isolated overseas, the Land of Water is known for thinking its own business. The most famous incident in the world involving it is probably from the First Shinobi World War, when the Second Mizukage—that war-maniac Gengetsu Hōzuki—traveled thousands of miles to the main battlefield to pick a fight with the Second Tsuchikage, after which the two tragic lovers died together.
He just loved fighting that much.
As for the "Bloody Mist"? Who cares? If they want to turn their own home into a colosseum and tear each other apart, let them. It's not like the mad dogs of Kirigakure usually leave that archipelago anyway.
The "Kiri-nins" that Hii Kōri keeps at his branch in the Land of Frost are mostly "normal people" who didn't want to continue living in the current Kirigakure's hellhole.
Commonly known as: missing-nin.
But again, under normal circumstances, Kirigakure ninjas don't have the time or energy to go to continental countries, let alone the Land of Frost, which borders the Land of Lightning.
Even during the Third Shinobi World War, the battlefields between Kirigakure and Konoha were almost entirely confined to the Land of Whirlpools. The reason is simple: neither Konoha nor Kirigakure had the fleet capacity to land on each other's shores.
Thus, the Kiri missing-nin under Hii Kōri can still wear their Kirigakure forehead protectors.
And by the same token, this means that in this era, whatever happens in the Land of Water is very unlikely to get out.
Negotiations with the Land of Water's daimyō aren't going well? The Third Mizukage can't read the room?
If things don't go well, they don't. Just take action quickly and directly.
Although Hii Kōri's genjutsu is laughable, they have Uchiha Hikari now. He'll handle the barrier, and Hikari will handle the genjutsu — it's a strong combination, like a pincer attack.
Even the idiot Uchiha in the original story could hard-control the Fourth Mizukage, a perfect jinchūriki. Could Uchiha Hikari possibly be worse than that guy? Even if they need to consider endurance, they can always just kill the Third Mizukage.
Hmm... sounds a bit extreme?
But this is just one of many plans Hii Kōri habitually makes. Its priority isn't particularly high—until they pass the outer islands of the Land of Water and approach the main island itself.
"You can feel it too, can't you, Hikari? That irritating sensation."
Hii Kōri stood on the deck, leaning on the railing and gazing into the distance at the main island of the Land of Water. He amusingly reached up and scratched the chin of Uchiha Hikari, who was "sandwiched" in front of him.
As an island nation, the Land of Water's environment is naturally different from the Land of Fire. Even around the outer perimeter of the main island, the mist is already very thick.
Hii Kōri, who had lived in the Land of Rain for nearly two years, wasn't particularly surprised or bothered by this level of humidity. In fact, the more humid and misty the environment, the more at ease he was, possessing the Rainbow Release as he did.
He was referring to another kind of cold, stagnant atmosphere that almost merged with the thick mist enveloping the entire Land of Water.
That was "cursed energy."
In Hii Kōri's previous life, the cursed energy used by sorcerers was refined from negative emotions.
But even ordinary people have the unconscious ability to generate cursed energy. The difference between ordinary people and sorcerers is that the former cannot perceive or use this power.
A sorcerer's cursed energy circulates within their own body, while the cursed energy produced by ordinary people constantly leaks out, accumulating and settling to form "other things."
Namely, cursed spirits.
In the world of Naruto, Hii Kōri still retains the ability to refine and use cursed energy, which indicates that ordinary people in this world also possess the potential to externally release their negative emotions.
Although he cannot confirm whether beings similar to "cursed spirits" exist in this world, based on the formation principle of cursed spirits, the nature of cursed energy, and the far more "desperate" atmosphere of this world compared to his previous life, he has never taught anyone the method of refining and using cursed energy to this day.
And now, it seems, this was absolutely the correct decision.
"The Land of Water, Kirigakure... heh... what an enormously distorted mass of negative emotions..."
Time and space being too distant severs people's perception, trapping them within the limited range their five senses can reach.
This makes people aware of their own insignificance, but conversely, it also evokes a strong desire commensurate with that vastness. The only things that can sustain people in such circumstances are intense pleasure or individual value.
So-called obsessions are what allow people to cross boundaries. Precisely because they hold firm ideals can humans surpass the illusion called "reality" and gain abilities beyond that boundary.
Even though humans remain creatures that cannot survive apart from reality, the power of the "heart" becomes a permanent guide, engraved forever.
However, if one remains within overly narrow confines for too long, they will only spin their own cocoon, like an elephant bound tightly in place by slender ropes.
Stagnant water will eventually turn into a foul swamp. Closed environments have always been breeding grounds for paranoia and madness.
Long-term isolation from the outside world causes all emotions, ideas, and conflicts to circulate, ferment, and collide within a narrow circle, producing only increasingly extreme mental states.
Fear, hatred, suspicion, repressed desire—the negative emotions born from the human heart spread like madness to newborn lives, proliferating and mutating wildly in a closed environment. The passage of time does not dilute this toxicity; it only makes the sediment thicker, seeing into the bones of each generation, becoming a "tradition" and "common sense."
An obsession passed down for a hundred generations, a long-cherished wish spanning a thousand years—that obsession is the curse itself.
Countless cycles of repressed emotion what could possibly be born from such a thing besides distortion?
Of course, this condition has a specific name in pathology: "mass hysteria," considered a psychological or mental disorder caused by stress-related factors influencing many people.
A more specific example would be something like "Hwabyeong" in Korea—a group of mental illness at the societal and national level.
This is also why remote mountain villages and isolatesed islands, far from society, easily give birth to various cults, curse users, and even cursed spirits.
In Hii Kōri's view, the current Land of Water—this archipelago doubly isolated by thick mist and ocean—is precisely a natural, vast, and long-standing petri dish of malice. The xenophobia cultivated since the days of primitive tribes was the starting point of it all.
As long as a suitable carrier exists—whether an individual with a heart full of dark crevices, or a ritual or object capable of resonating with negative emotions—the immense spiritual toxins accumulated in this nation over a century will condense into form, becoming a great disaster no different from a natural calamity.
Thinking this way, it becomes clear that Kirigakure's increasingly extreme atmosphere is clearly a product of mutual intensification with this curse.
And Uchiha Hikari, who had reached the pinnacle of the Uchiha clan of her time centuries ago and possessed the Mangekyō Sharingan, needed no explanation regarding her talent and sensitivity in Yin Release.
Under Hii Kōri's almost explicit "hinting" reminder, she had naturally also noticed what that coldness mixed with the mist truly was.
"Mm..." The girl, gradually adjusting to the ship's rocking with Hii Kōri's help, frowned slightly. She didn't even acknowledge his finger still playing with her chin, her expression turning quite serious.
"It's negative spiritual energy, so dense it's 'murky.' If you stay in this kind of 'air' for too long, your mind will definitely be slowly distorted. It's almost like..."
"Like the Uchiha clan, right?"
Reaching his arm over the girl's shoulder and gently pulling her into an embrace, Hii Kōri raised his other hand and gently stroked the top of her head, completing the words she hesitated to say.
The girl didn't answer. She just leaned back a little, wrapped her arms around the arm he had placed in front of her shoulder, and silently rubbed the top of her head against Hii Kōri's palm.
"So I'm starting to feel like this business negotiation might not go smoothly..."
Responding to the girl's undisguised reliance with a tightening of his arm, Hii Kōri sighed quietly. His tone carried no discernible regret.
It was simply something he had long anticipated. He had plenty of authority when it came to mental illness—otherwise, he wouldn't have formulated a cleanup plan long ago.
Now, it was just a matter of adding the step of a cursed spirit manifesting and then being "exorcised" to "once and for all" solve the Land of Water's curse problem.
He put his arm around Hikari's shoulder, turned, and walked back to the cabin to inform Sakaki Tatsuma of this preliminary, somewhat "unfavorable" assessment.
"What the hell are you regretting?"
After listening to Hii Kōri's heavily delivered "pretend regret," Sakaki Tatsuma, who had been reviewing the ceremonial procedures and gift list with Sasori, rolled his eyes hard.
"That excitement of 'I'm going to single-handedly take down an entire country' is practically dripping on my face. Regardless, we still have to go through the motions. Even if this Land of Water is isolated from the world, don't cause too big a commotion, got it? Cleanup is a real pain."
"Do I do that? I'm very restrained."
Hii Kōri blinked innocently, shrugged, and retorted. "Besides, this is just a preliminary speculation based on perception. The specific situation will have to wait until we actually set foot on the Land of Water's soil and conduct some deeper tests before we can finally confirm."
"Heh. And here I thought you were all about 'in your own field of expertise, be decisive'?"
Sakaki Tatsuma waved his hand in disgust, no longer intending to continue arguing with Hii Kōri.
It simply meant they might have to flip the table later. Even though it had been a long time, many years since he'd done it, he was still a formally graduated genin from Sunagakure's Ninja Academy. What hadn't he seen in all these years?
Moreover, Sakaki Tatsuma had great confidence in his "junior." He just needed to do his own job well, and leave the subsequent trouble to Hii Kōri. Each played their part. Simple as that.
Although the main island of the Land of Water was already visible, it was already afternoon by the time the cargo ship docked.
The group officially set foot on the soil of the Land of Water. After the accompanying administrative staff submitted their applications to the port officials, the "delegation"—distinct from the cargo ship workers—was led to a more luxurious hotel to rest, preparing to depart the next day to meet the Land of Water's daimyō.
Hii Kōri, accompanying them as a "senior technical advisor," disguised as a miserable, divorced, middle-aged salaryman with two kids in town, took Sasori and Uchiha Hikari to check into another luxurious guest room in the same hotel.
Of course, the other advisors were at a similar level.
Technical workers get good treatment.
Hii Kōri closed the door, turned on the room's dehumidifier—another item the Land of Water had ordered from his guild—then curled up o
n the sofa, narrowed his eyes, and fell asleep.
But in reality, the authority he had obtained from the Dragon Veins—the ability to read information and memories from the natural environment—had been fully liberated. At this moment, he was using it to receive the vast information flow of the Land of Water, thus determining the state of the Land of Water and Kirigakure.
"Come, let Dr. Hii take a look... see if this patient still has any hope of being saved..."
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