Once the exams officially began, Jie sat on the viewing platform alongside the other four Kage, watching the matches between the Genin of the major villages with great interest.
Although Jie felt the Genin's overall strength was fairly average, their combat skills were still impressive for their age, so the matches weren't completely boring.
Moreover, every hidden village possessed its own unique secret techniques and Taijutsu styles.
Even if those techniques held little value to him and offered almost no useful insight, they were still far more entertaining than Konoha's straightforward Taijutsu.
Meanwhile, as the Kage calmly watched the Genin fight in the arena like inexperienced chicks pecking at one another, a conspiracy that had been brewing for a long time was finally beginning to reveal itself.
At the gates of Kumogakure, the guards remained focused on their duties, completely unaware that a strange pitcher-plant-like figure had emerged from the wall behind them.
By the time one of the Kumogakure ninja noticed something was wrong, a kunai had already pierced through his throat.
In his final moments, he barely managed to catch sight of his killer.
Unfortunately, with his windpipe severed, no matter how desperately he struggled, his vision still slowly faded into darkness.
"All the guards at Kumogakure's gate have been eliminated," the figure said leisurely. "You can notify the Kirigakure ninja to enter the village."
Zetsu slowly sank back into the ground. Aside from a few hastily hidden corpses, it was as if nothing had happened at all.
Under Darui's guidance, a former Kumogakure executive who had now become a missing-nin, the village's simple sensory barrier was completely useless.
A massive force of Kirigakure ninja quietly advanced straight toward the center of Kumogakure.
"Huh? Why is it suddenly getting foggy?"
Some of the Kumogakure ninja still inside the village gradually noticed the thickening mist, and suspicion began to rise in their hearts.
At first, nobody paid much attention to it.
Kumogakure was built high in the mountains and was naturally surrounded by clouds and mist throughout the year, so fog was nothing unusual.
However, this fog had appeared far too suddenly, and it was growing denser at an alarming speed.
This strange weather finally put the Kumogakure ninja on alert, but by then, the outcome had already been decided. Their reaction had come far too late.
"Silent Killing Technique!"
A blade flashed through the dense mist, and a Kumogakure ninja's blood instantly dyed the white fog crimson.
"So this is the strength of Kumogakure ninja?"
Raiga Kurosuki casually flicked the blood off his twin Lightning Blades, his voice filled with disdain. "Looks like they're nothing special."
Raiga was one of the first-generation Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist and also a former Kirigakure missing-nin.
During the Third Great Ninja War, the Seven Ninja Swordsmen suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of Might Duy after he opened the Eight Inner Gates. That battle not only shattered the pride of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen, but also made Raiga grow increasingly disillusioned with Kirigakure's brutal Bloody Mist system.
As the village's bloodshed became more and more extreme, Raiga eventually abandoned Kirigakure and became a missing-nin.
Even after hearing that Mei Terumi had overthrown the Fourth Mizukage, Yagura Karatachi, and reformed the village, he still never considered returning.
But not long ago, while wandering through the ninja world, Raiga unexpectedly received a message from Kirigakure's Assassination Tactical Squad.
Mei had personally revoked his wanted status and formally invited him back to the village. She had even revealed part of her grand plan to him.
Raiga thought about it for a long time before ultimately agreeing. After all, the Kirigakure that had once driven him away no longer existed.
Of course, Raiga had no intention of returning just to blindly obey the new Mizukage.
He simply wanted to see with his own eyes whether the current Kirigakure had truly changed from the bloody nightmare he once despised.
And after returning, he realized he wasn't the only former missing-nin who had received the same treatment.
Whoosh!
A massive broadsword suddenly flew out from the mist and stabbed heavily into the ground right in front of Raiga.
Fresh blood still smeared across the blade, standing out vividly against the pale white fog.
"Hey, junior."
Raiga frowned as he glared at the weapon. "Are you trying to provoke your senior?"
"Hmph. Do a bunch of Seven Ninja Swordsmen who got routed by a single Hidden Leaf Genin really deserve to call themselves my seniors?"
As if he had appeared out of nowhere, a figure silently landed atop the hilt of the massive sword. The lower half of his face was tightly wrapped in bandages, revealing only a pair of cold, sharp eyes. It was Zabuza Momochi.
"Though thanks to your incompetence, I ended up inheriting the Executioner's Blade," Zabuza said calmly.
Hearing those mocking words, veins bulged on Raiga's forehead.
That crushing defeat during the Third Great Ninja War was the greatest humiliation of his life. The proud Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist had been utterly defeated by a single Hidden Leaf Genin.
Four of them had died in that battle, while only three including Raiga himself, had barely escaped alive.
Even if that man had paid for such power with his own life, it still remained an unbearable stain on Raiga's pride.
And now, Zabuza had directly torn open that old wound.
For a moment, Raiga almost failed to suppress the urge to kill the arrogant brat on the spot. But in the end, he forcibly restrained his killing intent.
"Just wait, junior," Raiga said coldly. "Once the Mizukage's mission is complete, I'll personally cut off your head."
"You're just a loser." Zabuza snorted dismissively. "If you want to try, then come."
Seeing that the two swordsmen hadn't actually started fighting, Ranmaru and Haku, who had been nervously watching from the side, both quietly let out sighs of relief.
Ranmaru was a frail child Raiga had picked up during his travels. Back then, Raiga had jokingly said that he wanted Ranmaru to one day arrange a grand funeral for him.
Unfortunately, up until now, Raiga had only been busy arranging funerals for other people.
As for Haku, despite being unbelievably cute, he was supposedly nothing more than a tool Zabuza had picked up along the way.
However, after enduring so many hardships together, the relationship between the two had clearly long surpassed that of master and tool.
When the killing intent between Raiga and Zabuza erupted earlier, both Haku and Ranmaru had broken into cold sweats.
Thankfully, the two swordsmen still remembered who their true enemies were.
Under the cover of the thick white mist, the slaughter inside Kumogakure continued silently. The seemingly ordinary fog was heavily infused with chakra.
Not only could it interfere with the Byakugan, but it also disrupted most sensory ninjutsu.
Because of this, even though many Kumogakure guards had already been killed, the village alarm still hadn't been raised.
However, such interference meant nothing to Jie.
Even with the Hidden Mist Jutsu concealing the violent chakra fluctuations spreading throughout the village, everything still appeared crystal clear beneath his Thousand-Pupil Byakugan.
'So it's finally begun?' A faint smile appeared on Jie's lips. 'As expected, they chose today.'
He casually glanced toward Mei from the corner of his eye.
'Things are finally starting to get interesting.'
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