Inside the Hidden Mist Village, the atmosphere was no longer merely a cold fog; it had become an oppressive, stagnant weight of shame and suppressed rage. The Third Mizukage had locked himself within the dim, salt-crusted sanctuary of his office, refusing to acknowledge the venomous whispers drifting through the hallways. The rumors of the crushing defeat on Nagi Island and the humiliating terms of the peace treaty gnawed at his mind like a persistent rot.
He could not accept that the "Bloody Mist" had fallen so low. He refused to be remembered by history as the mediocre leader who allowed a thirteen-year-old from the Sand to rewrite the rules of naval warfare. The accusatory stares of the Village Elders were like knives he could no longer ignore. He needed a victory, not a tactical skirmish, but a catastrophic strike that would shake the foundations of the Ninja World, silence his internal dissenters, and restore his fractured reputation.
"Sunagakure… Konoha…" the Mizukage muttered into the shadows, his eyes glinting with a venomous, red light.
Sunagakure had just flexed its new military might with the "Gundam" and could not be touched without a suicidal expenditure of men. That left only one target: Konoha. The Leaf was the enemy that had twice humiliated the Mist, first through Shisui of the Body Flicker, and then through the "Blue Beast," Might Duy.
An extremely vicious, downright insane scheme took shape in his mind. He didn't want a battlefield victory; he wanted to plant a seed of destruction in Konoha's heart and force them to experience total collapse from within.
"Come!" he rasped in a hoarse, guttural roar.
A Mist Anbu wearing a skeletal animal mask knelt like a ghost, materializing without a sound.
"Team 'Plow' is to begin a top-secret infiltration," the Mizukage said, his voice flat and emotionless. "Target: Land of Fire. Objective: Capture a suitable Konoha Ninja, preferably a younger unit with high chakra reserves and seal the Three-Tails, Isobu, into them."
The Anbu's form remained still, but a flicker of hesitation crossed his spirit. Even for a specialized operative, the command was madness. Sealing a Tailed Beast to create a Jinchuriki was a high-risk process that usually required years of preparation.
The Third Mizukage's mouth curled into a cruel, jagged grin. "Remember, the seal needn't be stable. In fact, the more flaws in the containment, the better. Find a way to let this 'vessel' escape back to Konoha. You know what kind of havoc an unstable Tailed Beast unleashed in the heart of the village will bring."
It was a direct strike at their core. Once the Three-Tails ran wild inside the Leaf's walls, the resulting casualties and panic would surpass those of a hundred border battles.
Suppressing a chill, the Anbu bowed. "Understood. Deploying 'Plow' squad."
Soon, the elite unit slipped across the sea like a phantom, searching for a vulnerability. They fixed their sights on a Konoha team operating near the front: the remnants of Team Minato. Obito Uchiha was already presumed dead, leaving only the "Copy Ninja" Kakashi Hatake and the medical specialist Rin Nohara.
The ambush was a display of overwhelming force. Though Kakashi and Rin were talented, they were outnumbered by Mist Anbu fighting with lethal intent. Kakashi suffered a series of grave wounds while shielding Rin, and in the ensuing chaos, Rin was abducted.
In a dank Mist outpost, Rin awoke. She was imprisoned in a room laced with sealing formulas that acted as a barrier, suppressing her chakra entirely. Just then, muffled voices drifted through the heavy iron door, the Mist Anbu conducting a post-operation report.
"…Crazy plan, sealing the Sanbi into this girl and sending her back to the Leaf…" "Shh! Do not speak of it. The Mizukage's orders are absolute, we just execute them." "The seal is a mess… it's leaking. She won't withstand the beast's power for long. She'll likely lose control before she even reaches the gates." "Even better. If she goes wild en route, she'll still wipe out their border patrols like a natural disaster…"
Rin's eyes snapped wide. The truth was clear. She wasn't a prisoner; she was a human bomb. She was being returned to the people she loved as a trap, designed to transform into a monster of destruction the moment she stepped inside the Leaf's defenses.
Fear flooded her, but her "Will of Fire" was resilient. A deeper, steelier resolve quickly overrode the panic. She would never allow herself to be the tool that destroyed her home.
Suddenly, the sounds of combat rang out outside the door, followed by the high-frequency chirp of a thousand birds, the signature sound of the Chidori.
Kakashi! He had found her.
Badly injured and bloodied from a dozen skirmishes, Kakashi stormed the outpost. He struck down the guards and tore the door from its hinges, his Sharingan spinning with a frantic, red light.
"Rin! Let's move! We have a chance to escape!" He grabbed her hand, desperate to leave.
"Kakashi… wait!" Rin yanked him back, her face deathly pale. "I… I heard their plan. They've sealed the Three-Tails inside me. The seal is corrupted, it's designed to fail. They're letting us escape so I can unleash it in the middle of Konoha!"
"What?!" Kakashi's Sharingan whirled, trying to see the chakra inside her. He saw it then, the vast, boiling abyss of the Tailed Beast's energy, currently held back by a few flickering lines of failing ink.
"No… that's not possible…" Kakashi's voice shook with dread. "There's a fix! We'll find Minato-sensei, he's a master of seals! He can repair the containment!"
"There's no time, Kakashi…" A bittersweet smile touched Rin's lips as tears fell. "I can feel Isobu waking up… I can't hold the pressure… I can't go back to the village."
She looked at him, her gaze pleading yet firm. "Kakashi… please… kill me. Before I lose control, before I kill everyone else. Protect the village! It's… the only way I have left!"
"NO! RIN! There has to be another path!" Kakashi's anguished roar rang out, his White Fang blade trembling in his hand. To slay a comrade? To kill the very person Obito had given his life to protect? It was a choice he couldn't make.
"KAKASHI, DO IT!" Rin's voice turned shrill.
A dark, oily Tailed Beast cloak began to wrap around her abdomen, her skin cracking under the heat as the beast began to claw its way out. Her face twisted in agony as she fought to maintain her will for just a few more seconds.
Behind them, the Mist pursuers were closing in, a threat that was quickly becoming secondary to the monster within her.
Kakashi stood in the center of the cruelest choice of his life. Obito's legacy, to protect Rin was in direct, irreconcilable conflict with the village's survival. Watching the malicious chakra cloak her, and feeling the cataclysmic force about to erupt, Kakashi's spirit let out an animal howl of pain. The agony finally crystallized into a cold, diamond-hard resolve. He was a shinobi. He was a tool of the village.
He raised his hand, the Lightning Release chakra screeching until it reached a piercing frequency.
"Rin… I'm sorry…"
Lightning pierced the girl's chest and in that instant, it felt as though Kakashi's own heart had been shattered.
With a smile of profound release, Rin collapsed into his arms. She had successfully thwarted the Mist's most vicious plot, saving her beloved village with the ultimate sacrifice.
Thus, the Hidden Mist's trap ended in a tragic bloodbath. The plot failed to destroy Konoha, but it succeeded in leaving an unhealable wound in the "Copy Ninja's" heart.
Far away in Sunagakure, Sayo sat in his workshop, his hand resting on the core of his machine. He hadn't seen the battle, but he could feel a shift in the world's energy, a tragic ripple in the air.
"The Mist is getting desperate," Sayo thought, his eyes reflecting the cold blue of his reactor. "They're lashing out because they can't handle their own defeat. I need to move faster. The Gundam needs to be ready before this madness reaches the Sand."
The debt of blood was now permanently engraved upon the Hidden Mist, and the Third Great Ninja War had just added another legendary tragedy to its history.
Plz Drop Some Power Stones.
For Advance/Early Chapters:
patreon.com/Shadownarch_
