Reborn in the Mist

“Why didn’t we know about this two weeks ago?” I demanded, scroll clenched in my fists.

Owl mask bowed deeper her voice steady and unflinching as she reported her failure, “Reports of attacks on the five clans took priority and afterwards, with the Daimyo and the succession, our operatives prioritized calls from the Central District. We’re investigating and widening our patrol to execute the hidden Kaguya to the last man.”

I wanted to scream but instead I held back the boiling knot of anger in my throat. Beneath it I found the compassion to give the order to capture them instead but that would only make me look weak and Yagura wasn’t comfortable with that— there was no redeeming them for what they’ve done.

Not these ones but we can still stop a genocide.

“Bring me one.” I ordered as I stood from my desk, my haori flowed behind me as I marched past her kneeling form. I tapped her shoulder as I sped out and she fell to my side. “How many breeches did you say?”

“Twenty-nine as current count, we may discover more but based on what’s been coming in from the Caste District, that’s the working number.” She said, matching my pace as we strutted out of the Tower, working shinobi bowing or flinching to greet as I approach.

“Twenty-nine and we’re estimating teams of six like the ones that attacked the clan compounds.” My knuckles whitened as I did the math, “That means a hundred and seventy Kaguya are roaming about my village. That may well be the entire Kaguya clan, are you sure the reports on their village is accurate?”

She hesitated and it infuriated me. Sensing the killing intent radiating off me she snapped to answer, “They are outdated, keeping up with the trends and numbers of changing nomadic tribe and clans of shinobi isn’t easy.”

“I didn’t ask for excuses, Owl.”

The lower floor of the Tower got busy with Chuunin and others taking care of things so she fell silent without another word. I didn’t say a word to the numerous faces that did double takes and stammered in search of the right greeting or those who bowed, smiled and did everything perfect. As long as they got out of the way it was fine.

Down the stairs and onto the ground floor where four feet statues of the past Mizukage greeted any and every one on entry. Between them are two tall desks filled with scrolls and manned by friendly faced but exhausted Chuunin who handed out trivial missions. There were another two desks on the floor above but for B-rank missions and for filing mission requests of that rank and above.

The large, conference sized space of the reception was filled with Genin and their Jounin who looked on in awe and surprise respectively. Surprising because I usually don’t bother coming down here, I didn’t see myself bothering with Genin anytime soon and I could leap off building to get where I wanted.

But in my anger my legs carried me out this way. It was fine though, Owl mask had little to say and the aura of rage I tried to suppress said it all. Besides, my destination was across the street.

We marched out at brisk pace to the Sensor Division HQ. A large teardrop shaped blue building that only had two storeys despite its impressive size. But as the guards at the front saluted and hurriedly opened its long doors, the reason is immediately apparent.

A massive sphere of water floated in the middle of the room. The entrance opened to a chakra-glass protected walkway and stairs on either side that led down to a large hall occupied by skittish Sensor-nin and their assistants. All of whom were working double time to analyse and process readings sluggishly printing out from machines.

My presence was felt before I was seen. The scattered chatter and back talk ended abruptly as the room full of Sensor-nin sniffed out my imposing chakra and mood with ease.

I took the floor with Owl mask trailing behind me. The room was silent as I took their faces in, they gulped and cursed under their breaths as they shied away from my gaze.

“Who is responsible?” Yagura sneered out through me.

A man in simple flak gear step out into view, his fingers twitching beside him. He crossed over the small stream of water feeding the water sphere and began approaching as he stuttered, “Yondaime-sama…I...the issue with the sphere it’s not so simple there were too many figures moving around at one a-and and I, I mean we couldn’t- even Osamu couldn’t-ack!”

Before he had a chance to flinch or even more to protect himself, my palm was buried in his gut, causing him to fold over my arm and lean. I threw him off and he fell to the ground coughing and puking out whatever he had for lunch.

“Kneel and don’t get up until every one of them is accounted for.” I turned to face the rest of the Sensor Division, the grim acceptance of punishment evident on their faces. “What are you waiting for? Someone give me a report and get back to searching for every last damned Kaguya killing and raping in my village!”

I turned my attention to Owl hanging like a shadow behind me, “Go, announce an emergency. Shut down every gate, no one goes in or out. Alert the Jounin stations and get me Eiko.”

“Sir!”

She vanished in a haze and I was faced with a chubby man that hadn’t bothered wearing shinobi gear and donned a simple white labcoat over his stretched black attire.

“Osamu reporting, sir! I was- uh, yes, the situation is…difficult to describe.” Osamu’s eyes darted everywhere but mine as he quickly introduced himself. “Our current capabilities with the Water Sensing Sphere are quite limited, we can only sense around an area for specific targets whose chakra signatures we’ve confirmed via field operators or we can search a specified area for irregularities and flagged chakra usage. But as far as the Kaguya are concerned we haven’t enough data to accurately seek out chakra natures and movements similar to those that attacked the clans.

He gulped, squirming under my gaze, “So, basically we need to find more Kaguya to, um, you know, calibrate the Sphere and, uh, make it better at sensing them accurately. But, even then, the Sphere can’t search all of Kiri at once, so, uh, it’s gonna take, um, at least two... or, uh, maybe even four days to do it properly. For now, all we can really do is, like, search out in the field and report back to the Sensor Division whenever there are encounters so we can study their, uh, chakra patterns.”

Four days to scan the entire village? Too slow, much too slow. It’s no wonder the Third fell victim to Madara. I bit my lip and glared at the Water Sensing Sphere, adding it to the list of things I ought to improve about the village.

“Go back to work.” I said, tired from being angry. I glanced at the unfortunate man that lost his lunch to Yagura’s palm strike, he was kneeling as I ordered, his mouth dripping with unwiped vomit.

I cringed and turned away. My third week as Mizukage was starting out with hell.

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​See ya next tomorrow! (Might be a double chap day the way we're going, second milestone almost reached!)