Since my body mostly used the nature chakra to increase my vitality and therefore my yang chakra, my body heated up considerably and not just in temperature.
I was mature enough and had a firm enough mind that I wouldn't just force myself on someone because of such circumstances, but my recent frustration with those few women in my life still bugged me.
"Young master Yoshihiro," a coy maid of the Terumi clan called out with a well-hidden desire burning in her eyes. "Your bath is ready."
Opening my own eyes and giving her a nod, I walked out and tipped her with a cleansing pill for her efforts. And like usual, I was rewarded with someone who happily took care of my bodily needs without showing any reluctance at all. But getting milked by weak maids was not my desire. I wanted to conquer strong kunoichi.
The next day, I entered the sealed space housing the bloodline children to see if Kaede and Karen were doing okay, which seemed to be the case. I ignored both Ryuzetsu, the Kusa jōnin, and Pakura and tossed Haku and some of the other more sensible children some bags filled with strengthening pills and chakra realm expanding pills that I had mass-produced during the morning.
To these kids, I was a benevolent savior who helped them survive, become stronger against all odds. They thought me creating these pills was a lot of effort for me - especially in the vast quantities I provided. It was, of course, all a ploy to have the future of Kirigakure be absolutely loyal to me and the fact that they'd soon be released since Mei was getting ready to overthrow Yagura to become the Fifth Mizukage was nice, too.
I was tired of providing for these children even if a few Terumi attendants looked after them together with my mother and Pakura, who trained the older ones in the way of shinobi. This place was too cramped despite me stomping out a vast underground dorm beneath the compound for the many children.
Seeing as I hadn't managed to obtain any sealing knowledge from Tsunade, I pondered my options. I faintly remembered some dude who created a village-ending hiden - a secret technique - capable of creating a gigantic explosion. Through my recent trip, I learned about the Tsuchigumo clan with its legendary leader, 'En no Gyoja'. Since the technique did exactly what I remembered it did, I learned that Sarutobi Hiruzen, the Third Hokage, had sought out this En no Gyoja and signed a peace treaty with the man so he wouldn't wipe out Konoha one day.
En no Gyoja was said to have a very advanced grasp over fūinjutsu, and since he wasn't affiliated with any village outside of the peace treaty with Konoha, I could seek him out as a teacher.
Harusame-sama, the leader of the village's sealing squad, despised me for being the six-tail jinchūriki since his beloved adopted student was sacrificed at a very tender age to give me that power. Plus, he wasn't very far above my current level. At least I thought so. He just had a bigger catalog of seals to learn from because of his role in the village.
I needed a true grandmaster to bring my own mastery to a new height or the chance to study all those sealing scrolls the villages stole from Uzushiogakure. Yagura denied my request each time.
I could get part of those scrolls once Mei became our kage if Obito didn't simply swipe them all while puppeteering the current kage. Which was my fall-back in case nothing worked out in my favor. A living teacher was still preferable.
Sadly, the Land of Fire was vast... and the Tsuchigumo clan did not live anywhere close to my mission area last time around.
I also pondered over whether or not to find the high priestess of the Land of Demons who was said to be a decent fūinjutsu master. Not only could I possibly catch an entity literally out of this world there according to the rumors I paid good money for - I could also test out that purification seal I learned from my studies so far. If I could make that seal digest the demon the country was named after by supersizing it, I could go after the zero-tails sealed in the Land of Sky and allow the two malevolent chakra entities to feed my plant dimension and make it even stronger, as well as help my tailed beast copies mature at a realistic timescale.
It was too bad that I barely paid any attention to the movie arcs in my last life. I couldn't be too sure about my schemes for these two territories.
I used a lot of money to buy information at the black markets to even know about those two existences. Faint memories of me idly skipping over wiki entries and looking at the synopsis of the movies were the only thing that confirmed the vague rumors I paid so much for.
"Kage-sama," I greeted as I entered the office of Yagura an hour after leaving the orphans to their own devices.
"Yoshi-san," the short man with the stapled scar going down his left eye and over his cheek greeted with a sunny smile.
Karatachi Yagura, as always dressed in his algae-green scarves and robes with the grey pants and shirt underneath, sat at his desk filled with towering mountains of paperwork.
"You already gave your report," the young kage pointed out with a puzzled expression. "And I gave you a day off. Do you have anything else on your mind?"
"I was wondering. I've checked the border between the Land of Fire and the Lands of Lightning and Earth, but I did nothing to check between the Lands of Fire and Wind. Have you already sent someone reliable out for that?"
The Mizukage shook his head and offered, "I was more interested in the movements of those small countries north of Konoha now that the Third Ninja War is over. With the Fourth Hokage dead, I wanted to get an idea how those smaller villages are doing. Who knew that Kusagakure would get almost wiped out, though?"
Yagura sent me a calculating stare, and I could only offer my own entirely played incomprehension. I had explained that I wasn't anywhere close to Kusa when that happened.
"Did you want to offer yourself as the one to get the information of Konoha's western borders?" The kage suddenly asked with narrowed eyes. "Are you trying to get away from Kiri that desperately?"
With a nonchalant expression, I endured Yagura's staredown as I subtly readied my chakra. I knew Obito wasn't here. And I knew that Yagura, as a fellow jinchūriki and with me being his executioner of many clan ninjas, was actually quite fond of me without Obito's influence.
I didn't fear him suddenly attacking me… but I did want to punch him as he suddenly gained a sly smile and asked, "Is Mei-chan trying to push you away again? Your late clan-head really didn't do you any favors with that betrothal."
"Mei is not my concern for the moment. Finding rare herbs for my pills and to further my craft, however..." I lied with practiced ease. "There were quite a few plants that I managed to gather on this trip that show promise in my experiments."
Most of my longer outings were excused by me pretending to search for rare herbs outside. Creating those soldier ration pills had truly been the perfect reveal at the time.
"Take a break from the pills for the time being. There's more and more people defecting recently. The ninjas in the village seem to forget who their master is. I need you to show them their place before they manage to organize. The Marimoto clan is in dire need of culling," Yagura pointed out with a smile as if he was talking about the weather.
Ah, the Marimoto clan. The bloody mist was at the stage where any clan, not even bloodline clans, were getting targeted just for the hell of it. The Marimotos used to be a steadfast part of the kage-faction, but their enthusiasm waned in recent months. They were of no consequence, too. To my knowledge, they had less than a dozen tokubetsu or special jōnin and mostly fielded ninjas who were part of the guard corps manning the gates of Kiri. They were nobodies.
Maybe Yagura wanted to weaken security even more by decimating a clan that stood for internal stability, as forgettable and weak as they were.
"I'll look for Hozuki Mangetsu and see when your will can be done. The two of us should be able to deal with the Marimotos before any of them can flee," I proposed with an indifferent expression. I had carefully cultivated the persona of someone who was uncaring toward all the lives I took.
"Ahh, Mangetsu," Yagura said with a sudden frown. Oh, the strongest current member of the seven swordsmen did something to earn his ire? "Yes. Use him… but see if you can't find an opportunity to deal with him, too. I think he is after my position. He only got back a single blade after all these months. He is failing his mission and using that time to plot."
I wasn't surprised, and therefore remained indifferent as I accepted and said, "I see."
Yagura looked me up and down until he sighed and added, "You're one of my last true allies in Kiri, Yoshihiro. I know for sure that you don't want the position of kage. I've seen it when Lord Third put the six-tails in your body. You just want to be left alone, enjoy peace. I, too, strive for… peace."
I nodded with a sympathetic smile and left the office as he dismissed me after saying something outside of Obito's control.
The true Yagura probably truly yearned for peace. Sadly for him and Isobu, the three-tailed beast, Obito was on a path of revenge against those two in particular and Kiri as a whole.
Casually walking towards the Hozuki clan, I saw many villagers look at me with deep disgust for my actions of killing so many of our ninjas on the kage's order. But many more, especially the weak, didn't dare look at me at all.
Waltzing into the Hozuki territory, I ordered one of the first clansmen I found to search for their de facto leader.
Minutes later, I sat in front of the white-haired swordsman who looked like he ate a pile of shit the moment he laid eyes on me.
"Why are you here, traitor?"
I shot Mangetsu an unimpressed stare as his younger brother Suigetsu, a young child who didn't attend the ninja academy yet, looked at me angrily.
"The Mizukage wants us to annihilate the Marimotos and for me to find an opportunity to end you while we do it," I bluntly stated as I gently flicked a small pill in the air before catching it, only to flick it again.
Mangetsu's eyes turned into pinpricks. As much as he was bordering the kage-level or potentially already having achieved it, Mangetsu had seen a glimpse of my true power during the Third Ninja War when I was angry after surviving Shisui's near fatal attack and retaliated with my 'perfect jinchūriki form'. I was certain he knew that their Hozuki secret technique of hydrification was plain suicide to use against me. I'd vaporise his body before he could blink. And he knew for sure that my fire chakra was faster than any kenjutsu technique he could use against me.
Since he didn't say anything and merely had an attendant take away his little brother, I eventually spoke up, saying, "I don't care to do Yagura's bidding anymore. My fiancée is about to kill him and take his place as kage to end the bloody mist era. You're welcome to join her. Just don't think of making yourself kage, I want to live a lazy life as the kage's husband."
"Why would you deserve to remain in Kiri with your master gone?" Mangetsu asked with narrowed eyes.
"I seem to remember a certain swordsman who joined me as I cut down the Kaguya clan with a wide smile on his face. I also seem to remember not seeing that certain swordsman as I was ordered to cut down the Yuki clan that was allied to your family. Their clan head even cursed your name with his last breath for not coming to their aid when he called for you. Don't pretend you aren't a hypocrite in front of me, Mangetsu," I stated and stood up. "Offer your services to Mei or flee the village with your brother later this week, I don't care."
Just as I left the Hozuki clan, I flicked the pill I played with in Suigetsu's mouth. The young boy tried to spit it out but failed to overcome my chakra thread that was perfectly pushing it down inside of him.
"You big meanie! What the heck was that!?" The young white-haired boy angrily shouted once it was clear the pill was long gone inside of him.
"A way for you to reach your brother's level in the future," I explained before giving him a mischievous smile. "If I was you, I'd hurry to the restroom. You're about to stink worse than dog poop."
"You're the one who smells like dog poop!" The boy angrily shouted, quickly forgetting the elation he felt at potentially becoming as strong as his brother. "Your whole family smells like dog poo-"
He suddenly stopped as he clutched his stomach and ran away. Seeing Mangetsu look at me with narrowed eyes, ready to strike me down if it turned out I poisoned his brother, I turned away to get back to the Terumi clan.
I ignored getting stalked by two Anbu and eventually entered Mei's study again.
Ao was inside with his spoils of war perfectly healed and part of him thanks to a pill of mine. I was certain that his byakugan shouldn't have worked as well as it did now with my help originally. But I was still the villain to most of these people because of my involvement with Yagura and his bloody mist politics.
Even Ao, who knew from Mei that I wasn't actually on the kage's side, regarded me with a guarded and hostile expression.
"You should learn to knock," Mei angrily pointed out because I just sat down with my usual bored look.
"Yagura ordered me to take out the Marimoto clan. I got him to agree to have Mangetsu join me. Our esteemed kage wants me to try and deal with the Hozuki prodigy as well," I pointed out while looking at my fiancée and ignoring Ao. "Naturally, I told Mangetsu everything. Since I doubt he likes serving under Yagura, Mangetsu will probably join your fight. Just that you'll have to accelerate your plans because otherwise I'll be forced to end the Marimoto clan or you'll be Mizukage with another high-level missing nin since Mangetsu will defect."
Ao clenched his teeth but stayed silent while Mei openly frowned at me.
"You will have to pull your weight for our plan to succeed, then," Mei reluctantly ordered, and I could feel Ao's desire to object without the man having to move a muscle.
"You will have my help if you allow me to get the entire village's knowledge on fūinjutsu, including everything in the hidden scrolls that only the kage may look at and especially everything the village stole from Uzu," I proposed.
"… fine," Mei accepted, but she didn't seem too happy.
Wow, she seemed to truly dislike me.
"I'll lure him out of the village to the beast lake where Harusame lives tomorrow. Just tell me how many people you want in the audience and how much I should hold back so people don't ask for me to become kage," I asked with a gloating smile that didn't reach my eyes.
"Nobody shall want you to become kage, executioner," Ao suddenly spat with gritted teeth.
"You underestimate the power of propaganda. Ninjas of the bloody mist will want the strongest to lead them," I said while standing up. "You better take a page out of Sarutobi Hiruzen's book and establish yourself as the perfect, most powerful leader. Start with coming up with the 'Will of Water', and no matter how little truth there actually is to it, pretend you're the strongest kage this village has ever seen. Worked well for Hiruzen"
—————
The next morning, I led a wary Yagura outside of the village. Five of his loyal anbu died protecting him from the ambush I tried to set up, but while I didn't deal as much damage as I wanted, I did manage to interrupt the seal on Isobu for a short duration before hanging back.
Unless Yagura breaks the tailed beast's seal completely, which would result in his death in the end unless Isobu fully cooperated, our kage would have to fight Mei and her forces on his own for half an hour.
Personally, I just looked out for Obito and Black Zetsu. But neither of those two entered my range of chakra sensing until the very end. It seemed they weren't in Mizu no Kuni.
Just as a desperate Yagura entered tailed beast mode after breaking the seals, Mei swallowed the pill I had given her and burned down the kage with a completely overwhelming lava release attack at the level of a bijūdama shot by the kyūbi that corroded Isobu's chakra unceasingly. Kiri would have lost half a dozen jōnin or potential jōnin less if she had just swallowed the pill when I told her to do it - her pride cost her some capable allies, and I just knew she would hate it.
As Mangetsu used that time when tailed-beast mode Yagura was fighting Mei's lava to cut away at the tailed beast's chakra, I extended chakra threads and stored that 'Isobu chakra meat' into my plant dimension to feed the three-tailed bijū seed that Saiken and I extracted and formed from Rin's chakra pathways. The copy of Saiken was helping me feed that chakra to the seed - entirely uncaring that I was technically harming one of her 'kin'. Isobu would reform in the end anyway - with a copy in my dimension to boot.
Later that day, Kirigakure would enter a new era under the Fifth Mizukage, Terumi Mei. A good few years earlier than it originally should have happened, probably.
And despite her obvious aversion to me as a person, my pills already made her stronger than she was at the start of canon in the world I knew about.
According to Saiken and my own observations, Mei's chakra was about as big as the two-tailed beast of Kumogakure.