Hiruzen persuaded me to die

Kirigakure – The Village Hidden in the Mist

The returning war party was over two thousand strong. As the battle-worn Mist shinobi poured back through the gates, the village came alive with whispers.

The rumors spread like wildfire.

"The Fourth Mizukage… was being controlled?!"

To the ordinary villagers, it felt like a bad joke. But to the shinobi of Kirigakure, it explained everything.

Yagura had once been kind. Stoic, maybe—but not cruel.

The Blood Mist Policy, that brutal tradition, didn't begin with him. It was the Third Mizukage's doing. And in the early years of Yagura's rule, the policy was even showing signs of loosening.

But then, something changed.

He withdrew from public view. Meetings were handled only by Anbu. His personality warped, cold and rigid. The streets of Kirigakure grew empty, even in broad daylight. Fear replaced order.

And under his watch, the Snow Clan disappeared.

The Ghost Lantern clan, once led by the Second Mizukage Gengetsu, had all but vanished—only a few scattered descendants remained.

Defections surged. Rebellions sparked like dying embers. The Seven Ninja Swordsmen—once the pride of Mist—splintered. Even the wielder of the Executioner's Blade, Jūzō Biwa, had fled.

And now, they learned the truth.

Yagura had been under Genjutsu. Controlled. Used.

In the village square, shock turned to outrage.

"Who the hell could've done something like that?!"

"I heard… the man claimed to be Uchiha Madara."

"That can't be right. Madara? The Uchiha Madara from the Warring States era? He should've died decades ago!"

Everyone in the ninja world had heard the name. The battle between Senju Hashirama and Uchiha Madara had carved itself into legend. They were gods among shinobi.

"Didn't they say Elder Genji lived in the same era as the First Mizukage? Longevity isn't impossible…"

"Even Yagura didn't seem certain it was Madara…"

"But the masked man used the Sharingan. That makes him Uchiha."

"Then again, didn't he also take in Konoha's Third Hokage after he defected?"

The thought still sounded absurd. That Sarutobi Hiruzen—Konoha's Sandaime—would ally himself with an enemy of the world?

And yet…

"He forced us into war against Konoha… all while controlling Yagura!"

"The bastard played us!"

"The Fourth Hokage of Konoha died because the Third conspired with that masked man!"

And as they said it aloud, the cruel irony became clear.

Konoha's Fourth Hokage died due to the masked man and Hiruzen. Mist's Fourth Mizukage was manipulated for years by that same masked man. Two great villages, torn apart from within.

Someone finally asked the question that had been building.

"But if that masked man was so powerful… how did he lose?"

Silence.

Then one shinobi—his armor still scorched, his eyes still wide from memory—spoke quietly.

"You should be grateful you weren't there."

He looked up, face pale.

"Konoha's Fifth Hokage summoned a Buddha statue a thousand meters tall. I watched it catch the Three-Tails in its palm… and throw it like a rock."

"...What?!"

A collective silence fell over the crowd.

Everyone knew what the Three-Tails was. A living natural disaster. Larger than a house. Born of the Ten-Tails' flesh.

And it had been tossed like a child's toy.

Elder Genji's Residence

The ancient room smelled of parchment and incense. Inside, the aged Mist elder known as Genji, who had lived since the time of the First Mizukage, sat in silence, digesting the full report from Terumi Mei.

"…You saw the First Hokage?" Genji's old eyes narrowed.

Terumi Mei nodded.

"Yes. And the Second Hokage. Both appeared on the battlefield."

Even saying it aloud felt surreal.

Genji closed his eyes.

"Then it must've been Impure World Reincarnation," he murmured.

"The forbidden jutsu of Tobirama Senju…"

He remembered it well. During the First Great Ninja War, the Second Hokage had used it to summon the dead. It had been feared across all the great nations—labeled a forbidden jutsu because it twisted the very nature of life and death.

"The masked man controlled the Third Hokage of Konoha," Genji said slowly. "If he was taught Impure World Reincarnation, that explains the return of the Hokage."

But then his expression darkened.

"What was that white creature that merged with the First Hokage?"

Even his long years of wisdom failed him there.

Terumi Mei's smile was hollow.

"I don't know. I don't even think it was human. All it kept saying was… 'What does it feel like to be poop?'"

Genji blinked.

"...I see."

He decided not to ask further.

"So. That white being… was able to manipulate Hashirama Senju, unleash a Wood Golem over 100 meters high, and even a Buddha statue hundreds of meters larger?"

"Yes," Mei said grimly. "But Konoha's Fifth Hokage…"

She took a breath.

"He created a Buddha statue a thousand meters tall. It pierced the clouds."

"He caught the Three-Tails in his hand. Tossed it like it weighed nothing."

Even now, the memory felt more dream than real.

"A thousand meters…"

Genji whispered it like a prayer.

Back in his youth, Hashirama had once crushed the battlefield with the Wood Golem Technique, and even then, he stood above all but Uchiha Madara.

But this… this was something else.

Even the First Mizukage would have been humbled by such a display.

Only Madara, in his prime, might have seen that thousand-meter Buddha with his own eyes.

"Konoha…" Genji muttered, voice filled with awe, "has birthed another First Hokage."

And all Kirigakure could do… was pray that this new god of the shinobi world was as merciful as the last.