Scattered remnants of Kumogakure shinobi still fought against the Kirigakure forces at the harbor.
With only a handful of them left, Yagura swiftly hunted them down one by one, eliminating them without mercy.
As he moved through the devastated port, taking in the destruction caused by the Kumogakure attack, his strikes grew even more ruthless.
He managed to rescue a sensor ninja from the Onime clan.
With the Onime ninja leading the way, scouting for any remaining enemies, not a single Kumogakure shinobi was left alive in the end.
Yagura brought his hands together before his chest, his water blade dissolving into a harmless stream as the blood it had spilled scattered away.
Lowering his hands, he turned to the Onime ninja trailing behind him. "Are we clear?"
The Onime kunoichi was still dazed from witnessing the Mizukage's merciless slaughter. The cold tone of his voice jolted her back to reality.
"Yes! There's no longer any enemy chakra present!"
Is this the true strength of the Mizukage?
She had never heard of him taking action before—not since he had officially succeeded the title.
He's still so young… yet so powerful.
Yagura's expression softened slightly. "Good work."
The Onime girl straightened her back immediately. "No! This is my duty! Mizukage-sama, you are the one who has worked the hardest!"
No need to be so tense. Yagura chuckled inwardly and asked, "Did I scare you?"
The Onime kunoichi stiffened. Damn! He noticed!
Yagura crooked his finger, motioning for her to lower her head.
"Do I look that frightening?"
If he had asked that while he was butchering Kumogakure shinobi, then yes—definitely.
But right now…
She didn't dare disobey the Mizukage's order. Obediently, she bent down, getting a closer look at him.
He's so small… about the same age as her younger brother.
Tap~
Yagura made a finger gun gesture and lightly tapped her forehead protector.
Nothing happened.
The Onime kunoichi clutched her forehead protector, feeling as if her soul had just been forcibly ejected from her body. The moment she realized what Yagura had done, her face turned beet red.
"See? Not that scary, right?"
Yagura withdrew his hand and slipped it into his pocket, grinning.
"I'd be troubled if my own villagers were afraid of me. The only ones who should fear me are those from other villages."
With such a youthful face, saying something so authoritative...
The Onime girl suddenly felt a surge of heat rush to her face. This is so unfair!
"Mizukage-sama… please refrain from harassing your own shinobi."
Terumi Mei arrived just in time to witness this scene.
Honestly, if she hadn't spent so much time around Yagura, she might have found it hard to endure as well.
It reminded her of the first time he had sought her out.
This insufferably cheeky Mizukage really knew how to use his small stature to his advantage.
"Come on, it's just a bit of relaxation after a battle."
Yagura shrugged and glanced at the group of newly graduated Genin standing behind Terumi Mei. With a smile, he said, "Hey. What I just said applies to you all too. You can speak to me like a normal person."
The Genin exchanged bewildered glances, clearly unsure how to respond.
They were all fresh graduates.
They deeply respected and admired this Mizukage—the one who had abolished the infamous Bloody Mist graduation exam.
But Yagura was far more proactive than they expected, leaving them at a loss for words.
Scanning the eight injured Genin, Yagura's gaze settled on one he had personally rescued earlier. He frowned slightly.
"Mei, wasn't there another one…?"
He had saved two Genin just now.
He didn't need to ask further.
The way Terumi Mei averted her eyes and how the remaining Genin lowered their heads told him everything.
Yagura's expression darkened. "...I see."
"It's my responsibility," Terumi Mei murmured, her voice heavy. "As the team leader, I failed to protect my squad members."
"A Genin dying in Kirigakure? What's so unusual about that?"
A nearby Jōnin approached his fellow squad leader, joining the group of five.
Boom!
Yagura raised his hand, and a water bullet blasted past the mocking Jōnin's side.
Only now did he remember that these Genin had Jōnin squad leaders. His voice turned frigid.
"You Jōnin over there! Is this how you lead a squad?!"
A five-man squad of Jōnin leading a team of Genin. Seven of the Genin had died—yet all the Jōnin remained alive.
From what Yagura had seen personally, these Jōnin had utterly failed in their duties.
The five Jōnin stepped forward in response.
They had witnessed this young Mizukage's prowess firsthand. They acknowledged his strength—but not necessarily his ideals.
Decades of ingrained beliefs weren't so easily changed.
To them, shinobi were meant to survive by licking blood off their blades. Now that the Bloody Mist era was over, the newer Genin were far weaker than those before them.
From this perspective, Yagura couldn't say definitively who was right or wrong.
But he was the Mizukage.
They had to adapt to him—not the other way around.
"You need to understand that the era of the Bloody Mist is over."
Arms crossed, Yagura addressed the five Jōnin in front of the Genin and Chūnin present.
"I don't expect you to immediately accept these new graduates. But at the very least, fulfill your duties as squad leaders. Strong or weak, they are your assigned Genin. They are shinobi of Kirigakure."
He paid special attention to the Jōnin who had treated their Genin as mere bait.
He hadn't seen how the others handled their teams, but he suspected their methods weren't much different.
"That said, to be brutally honest, to the village, your lives are more valuable than a Genin's."
That was the reality.
"But as a minimum, protect your Genin while prioritizing your own survival. If you can't even do that, I can replace you."
Jōnin squad leaders received extra compensation—but it wasn't much. The assignments were mandatory, arranged by the village.
If not for this requirement, most Jōnin would prefer completing A-rank missions over babysitting Genin through D- and C-rank missions. The pay was better.
The five Jōnin gave scattered responses.
Yagura wasn't optimistic about how much they had actually taken to heart.
This wasn't something that could change overnight.
Turning to a younger Chūnin present, Yagura asked, "When you were a Genin, how did your Jōnin leader treat you?"
"About the same, Mizukage-sama. But it's because of those experiences that I survived to this day."
The Chūnin seemed more mild-mannered. "However, if I ever become a Jōnin, I won't let my Genin go through what I did."
"Oi, are you done yet?"
Sasori lazily maneuvered Hiruko forward. "This is getting tiresome."
Yagura had almost forgotten about the impatient puppeteer. "Ah, sorry, sorry!"
Standing beside Yagura, Sasori's puppet tail lifted high, pointing at the Jōnin.
"Following orders is a shinobi's duty. If you refuse, I can turn you into a puppet."
"..."
Yagura blinked and tapped Hiruko's armor.
"Sasori, are you backing me up?"
The tail immediately shifted targets.
The sharp tip was intimidating. Yagura raised his hands in surrender, laughing as he took a step back.
But Sasori had a point.
These jōnin had been ordered to lead genin. They'd accepted the role. If they couldn't do it properly, that was failure.
Normally, they could lie—claim their genin died through no fault of their own.
Unfortunately for them, the Mizukage had arrived in person—and seen everything.
"First we'll deal with Kumogakure," Yagura said at last. "Once we return to the village, I'll handle this matter."
He had bigger priorities for now.
But he made a mental note. "From now on, anyone appointed as a team leader will have to pass an exam. I won't approve jōnin who aren't willing to do the job."
Punishing them wouldn't help—Yagura knew that. He wasn't going to make enemies over a few dead genin. Harsh, but true.
In the past, maybe he would've punished them severely.
But scolding them wasn't enough. He needed a proper system in place.
Seeing that the chūnin seemed more reliable, he temporarily assigned the genin to them. Their job was to help evacuate and tend to the surviving port workers.
As for the jōnin? Yagura sent them to scout Kumogakure's main force.
Orders came straight from the Mizukage.
They followed them. Better to be out scouting than babysitting genin, anyway.
Terumi Mei took over clerical duties.
Watching the chūnin and genin pull wounded workers from the rubble, she couldn't help but notice—they, too, were injured from battle. Their wounds had only been lightly treated.
Yagura glanced sideways. "Sasori…"
He remembered this guy could use medical ninjutsu. Sasori had treated him once before.
Since he was here…
"You're now our temporary medical ninja."
Sasori deadpanned.
"I want extra pay."
Yagura wasn't surprised. The man clearly hated this kind of work.
Slowly, Yagura lowered his scarf and revealed his delicate, slender collarbones.
"Payment in flesh?"
Sasori snapped.
His scorpion tail lashed out, stopping just one millimeter from skewering Yagura's chest.
"I'm hot, okay? That's all I meant."
Yagura grinned devilishly, proud of the chaos he'd caused.
"By the way—want the corpse of Pakura the Scorch Release user?"
The Intelligence Unit hadn't figured out anything from her DNA. They couldn't understand the genetic mechanism behind kekkei genkai, let alone replicate the unique chakra fusion of Scorch Release.
She wasn't like Hashirama, whose cells were a national treasure.
So Yagura just handed her body over.
This, Sasori liked.
Deal.
Yagura clapped his hands and called for Terumi Mei and the others to gather all the wounded in one location.
The port's dormitories were still intact. No need to build temporary shelters.
The Mist ninja helped move the injured there.
Sasori had no choice but to emerge from Hiruko. A young red-haired man stepped out, face taut with irritation, standing beside the now-open puppet.
Every head turned.
That guy… was the puppet?
Yagura quickly issued orders.
"Stop staring. Help the wounded over to him for treatment."
Sasori's medical ninjutsu, like his puppetry, came from Chiyo.
He wasn't a specialist like she was, but he was better than the average medic.
Everyone was stunned by how quickly he healed their injuries.
Then they looked at the menacing Hiruko standing beside him.
This guy… is our medic?
...
"Thank you."
"Stop talking. Get lost once you're healed."
His face didn't say "I'm helping." It said "I might kill you." As if healing people was somehow infuriating.
Yagura muttered a silent prayer and decided not to tease him again. Sasori might actually explode.
By the time night fell, the Mist forces had finished their sweep of the area.
The Cloud ambush had taken a heavy toll.
They'd searched the entire port. Even after saving every survivor they could find, less than half of the staff remained.
Infrastructure damage and financial losses would be calculated after the Cloud forces were handled.
If not for the chance presence of multiple genin squads, five jōnin, and chūnin reinforcements from the border, the damage could've been far worse.
Wounded workers were helped back to their quarters to rest and recover.
The lightly injured were mostly fine after Sasori's treatment.
But many were seriously hurt and bedridden. With only one medical ninja, Sasori had to work overtime.
The rest of the shinobi scattered to handle other tasks.
Yagura sat cross-legged beside Terumi Mei.
"What's wrong? You look unhappy."
She did, indeed, have worry written all over her face.
"Is it because of earlier?" he asked.
Mei shook her head and smiled faintly.
"Lord Mizukage, are you underestimating me?"
She was a jōnin. One genin's death wouldn't shake her.
Those jōnin hadn't been completely wrong. That genin had died because of her mistake—because she wasn't good enough.
"I might help with clerical work, but I'm still a Mist shinobi all the same."
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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